Put * in Your Pipe & Smoke It: Drugs Can Kill

Letter to Romans: Tragic murder of Rob Reiner by addicted son reminds us of the power drugs can have over sanity. Not to renew the alcohol-pot-hard stuff debate, but then I read about 2 new studies reporting a surge in young pot users showing up at the ER. Coincidence?

Of course. Yet, you may have also seen and are still thinking about the WSJ article titled, “Potheads Head for the Emergency Room,” which cites recent research noting how the “ill effects of THC are increasing.” So, what exactly are those “ill effects” of the “psychoactive ingredient” (that I saw over 40 years ago while attending University of Illinois and watching Students for a Democratic Society jump fencing as they “peacefully” marched for a Marxist takeover and as pot smoke wafted overhead)? Well, we’re told by a JAMA story of a four-fold increase in ER interventions due to a variety of symptoms but especially as “clinical vomiting”. Not pretty, huh? As author Cheryl Yunn Shee Foo warned: “Young people with mental health challenges are more vulnerable to the negative effects of cannabis use, which can catalyze or worsen psychiatric symptoms.”

No sh*t. But how “nicely” stated. My point is not about pot vs booze vs narcotics. It’s about the potential for tragic responses to any mind-bending chemical introduced into our bodies and assailing our brains. It’s about common sense, not medical studies that will forever be manipulated by the political or social biases of the researchers or special interest groups or their political allies … and forever be used by users as an excuse to use.

Davd Soul