In November 2020 two out of every three New Jersey voters said yes to legalizing cannabis. The vote was the same in Cape May County where 66% of the ballots cast said yes to marijuana legalization. We find ourselves four years later with medical cannabis dispensaries, adult-use retail stores, and even with underage use that is shielded from police action by state juvenile reform efforts. As of now 38 of the 50 states permit medical cannabis use and 24 have legalized recreational use.
Those of us who are old enough to remember the days when school assemblies were used to show short films like Reefer Madness, should be somewhat amazed that we can now buy cannabis products almost as easily as we can a Big Mac. This situation is a product of state not federal action. It is a product of majority rule. Yet we should approach its spread into our county and our communities with some trepidation.
It is worth asking what have we gotten ourselves into.
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Many of our views on marijuana are driven more by memories and opinion than by the most recent science… California pioneered tobacco control policies but turned a blind eye to the public health threat posed by high potency THC.
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First, we need to realize that what we have available today is not your grandfather’s marijuana. When marijuana joints were smoked by newly minted hippies in the Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco, the THC content was much less than it is today. THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive ingredient in the cannabis plant. It is what gives a high when smoking or digesting marijuana.
Research in peer reviewed journals shows that the average THC in cannabis products has increased tenfold since 1970. The Yale School of Medicine researchers argue that science is not keeping up with THC potency increases. Those researchers say there is growing evidence that points to potentially severe side effects of the new THC levels.
The problem is augmented because the increase in potency parallels ease of access due to new cannabis laws. In New Jersey, we have even gone so far as to make marijuana use by juveniles much more difficult for police to contain. We allow the dangers of high-potency THC products to be used with virtual impunity by underage users all in the name of juvenile justice reform.
Let’s clear the air.
There is ample evidence that cannabis has medical benefits. The Food and Drug Administration has approved several commercially available products for easing the experience of chemotherapy-induced nausea for example. The drugs are available by prescription only.
It is also true that many people use cannabis recreationally without experiencing severe adverse effects. But the risks are growing, and the evidence shows an increasing number of individuals with genuine and often debilitating problems linked to cannabis use.
The Journal of Missouri Medicine points to the products available in Colorado cannabis dispensaries as having a THC content that is 17-28% compared to 4% in the 1990s. Edibles can have even higher concentrations. The Missouri researchers say plainly, “There is absolutely no research that indicates this level of THC is beneficial for any medical condition. The purpose of these products is to produce a high, and the increased potency makes them potentially more dangerous and more likely to result in addiction.”
The first legal marijuana dispensaries for adult use opened in California in 2018. The emerging cannabis industry immediately adopted a number of tactics used productively by the tobacco industry for years. They increased the potency and thus the potential for addiction. They manufactured products that would appeal to a young crowd. They marketed their products aggressively. Big tobacco taught them well.
California pioneered tobacco control policies but turned a blind eye to the public health threat posed by high-potency THC cannabis products. This is not liberal California against the rest of the United States. If we are going to deal with this issue properly, we must not let it become just another aspect of our partisan political environment. Given that Cape May County voted two-thirds in favor of cannabis legalization, that means there were a lot of registered Republican voters in that mix.
The problem is that many of our views on marijuana are driven more by memories and opinion than by the most recent science.
Potencies are growing but our elected leaders are looking for votes and tax dollars. They are often anxious to tap a new source of tax revenue and are more than willing to accept the old, more benign image of marijuana.
As the evidence points to links between regular use of high-potency THC products and dependency, withdrawal syndromes and psychotic episodes, we are cutting the ribbons on new retail stores, barring police from effective intervention when confronted with obvious underage marijuana use, and hoping that some test will be developed that will reliably identify impaired individuals who are involved in the operation of motor vehicles or dangerous machinery, or even law enforcement itself.
The federal government is moving to change marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance. This would move the feds closer to what a majority of the states have already done. This includes states that regularly vote red rather than blue.
At all levels we have hooked on to an image, a memory or an opinion that making today’s cannabis products routinely available presents no public health danger.
According to the National Council of State Legislatures at least two states, New York and Illinois, have taken a new position on THC concentrations in legal cannabis products, they increased the tax on them. They tax products based on THC potency and call it good public policy.
Acreage Holdings, a producer of marijuana products, bills one of its products as the “ultimate in potency.” The National Institute on Drug Abuse says, “The risks of physical dependency and addiction increase with exposure to high concentrations of THC, and higher doses of THC are more likely to produce anxiety, paranoia, and psychosis.”
Yet the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission proudly announces that the NJ cannabis sales topped $2 billion since inception of legal sales. You will find no discussion of the dangers of high potency cannabis products on that same website.
It is time that we educate ourselves to the new public health issues involved in legal cannabis. It is also time to have public, open and direct conversations with elected officials. We must break the hypnosis that comes with visions of the dollars the new industry can produce.
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From the Bible: Always be sober-minded. — From 2 Timothy
