Episode 19 of The Living Life Well Show: Marijuana and Legalization Effects
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth. All right. Welcome back to this episode of the living life. Well show. So you may have looked at the title of the show and thought, man, that's kind of crazy. Why are we talking about a weed and legalization and all that? This is a wellness podcast. Well, what I can tell you is right now in Lubbock, Texas, we're undergoing a vote to legalize marijuana use within our city.
Essentially the decriminalization aspect of it specifically. Of marijuana use. And so there's a lot of confusion around this. There's a lot of [00:01:00] people that think, Hey, it's a plant, it's a natural substance. This is a fine to use. And so I wanted to get a little bit into exactly what we're talking about when we are using marijuana and its products and some of the unintended consequences That can occur consequences that I've seen for the last 22 years practicing as an emergency medicine. Physician. So the first thing to know about marijuana is this isn't Cheech and Chong's marijuana, the marijuana today is much more potent, much more potent than anything we saw in the sixties or seventies. And with each increasing decade, it's become more and more potent.
Now, what we're seeing is even marijuana extracts being things that are typically less harmful, less issues with like CBD or the THC being put into other components sold at smoke shops and head shops and these [00:02:00] things.
In addition, of course, just the increased prevalence of marijuana use since legalization occurred, you know, one of our neighboring states, Colorado has. Had marijuana that's been legal for the last 10 years. New Mexico recently. Voted to legalize marijuana. And what I can tell you is that over the last six to seven years here in Lubbock, Texas, The increasing frequency that I see patients in the emergency department come in with either a history of having used marijuana and, or the negative consequences because of use of marijuana have increased dramatically.
Whether it be a college age kid, whether it be a high school aged kid or a 50, 60, 70 year old adult the number of people that are. Are using marijuana and suffering the unintended consequences and side effects of this increased potency and increased frequency [00:03:00] of use. In my opinion, because of the legalization that has now occurred across many states. That has led to this dramatic increase that I'm seeing in the. Emergency department. So, what are those negative consequences that we see with marijuana use?
Well, well, one, we see increased psychosis, increased psychosis. Occurs with marijuana use. Now the proponents will tell you, oh no, that's not the case, but quite honestly, the literature is back and forth on this issue. One study will say no increased psychosis and other study will say yes, absolutely increased psychosis.
I would really ask you to research, not only the authors, but who is paying for the research as well. A study that would be beneficial would be one that is prospective. Meaning that you've developed [00:04:00] criteria and you could compare it to a state without. Without legalist. and a state with legalization because as Colorado has shown us, the rates of use among adolescents has increased dramatically.
And the rate of overall use has increased dramatically with that negative side effects and hospitalizations for pediatric patients. As well as adolescents or young adults has increased because of these negative effects, be it psychosis, which is one of the main issues that we see. And then. Also with something called hyperemesis, you know, a lot of times. Marijuana, especially medical marijuana has been used for like chemo patients and things like this for helping with nausea and pain and those things.
And it can, and it can have its place. However, legalization has not helped [00:05:00] with eliminating the side effects and it's actually increased. And so. With increased potency, increased frequency of use. You are going to get both of these situations with psychosis and the hyperemesis. The hyperemesis syndrome that I'm seeing quite frequently really is debilitating.
It is continue to have people have loss of work loss of school days loss of function, overall increased medical bills, inability to provide for families and loved ones. And so the hyperemesis that that starts with a little bit of increased use over time. Then starts to really rear its head every time someone indulges in some marijuana use.
The reason is because marijuana is so much more potent now. With the increased. The potency of marijuana, you're starting to see. See these negative effects with even just minimal [00:06:00] use. So these effects can be very severe. We can see increased rates of hospitalization, increased rates of emergency department use increased rates of absenteeism from work, as you would imagine, and overall loss of income. And so we have Colorado to look at. And so Colorado has had. Marijuana legalized for roughly about the past 10 years or so.
So when we look at marijuana use in Colorado, what we see is that there is increased use from Pre legalization to post legalization among all groups of adolescents. .
And so the reason that we're seeing that is Colorado has had an explosion of these legal dispensaries. In 2020, I believe they had about 1700 licenses or available dispensaries, if you will for marijuana use. And [00:07:00] so. The availability is there and is everywhere. And the general perception of this age group, this adolescent age group, is that it's not necessarily to be looked down upon, that there's nothing wrong with it, that it's quote natural and it can be good.
What's interesting is when we look at calls to poison control facilities, we see that From 2017 to 2021, the rates of calls for kids having ingested marijuana, and this was typically edibles or some type of THC containing drink something like that, not smoking pot, not anything like that.
increased almost threefold over that period of time. Now, Colorado legalized marijuana in 2014. And then I just told you that in 2020 there was almost 1, 700 different dispensaries throughout the [00:08:00] state. And so this study in 2021 just goes to show as there is increasing availability of this, there will be increasing harm to Children, our most vulnerable Children.
And this was specifically looking at Children under five years of age. That's not counting Children between, you know, six and 18 or even just early adolescent years, pre teenage years. So That harm is still increasing, this was just the group which it increased the most in. So, when we're looking at this, when we're looking at this from a legalization standpoint, regardless of harm to the individual resulting in increased emergency department visits, or lost work, or hospitalizations, or just even the negative effects, affects itself that occur because of the increased potency and because of the many varied forms and the [00:09:00] varying potency within those forms regardless of all those negative effects, we see that this directly impacts our most vulnerable in our society, our children which we want to protect.
Protect. And so whether that is from a brother or sister bringing it into the home, even if the parents aren't, because we do see that there is now, even from Colorado, showing that there is decreased perception of anything wrong with marijuana, regardless of the stance of the parents. And we know that it is increasingly available as well.
Which would be the same thing that would potentially happen if something like Prop A were to pass here in Lubbock. So, With that being said, being a sanctuary city as Lubbock has voted to and become for the rights of our unborn, we also see that as you might imagine women that [00:10:00] are pregnant and have previously been smoking marijuana, continue to do that.
That results in issues with intellect at a minimum for the child. And so in an effort to continue on to be a sanctuary city that values life, that values intellect and God given ability. We don't want to limit that by increasing availability to a substance that we know is extremely detrimental to the youngest and most vulnerable in, in our city and in our state and in our world for that fact.
In addition, the lesson of Oregon and the legalization of essentially most drugs and the result that it has had of lawlessness and homelessness by young, able bodied, otherwise healthy individuals is staggering. And so now they are walking back that, that. stance and so they are [00:11:00] changing.
Now, how far it will or won't go, I don't know. But what I can tell you is, is when there is increased availability with less penalty, there is more danger to the youngest among us. And that results in loss of potential potentially even loss of life. But. Really, it's just overall harmful for our youngest.
And so if you would, I would ask that you share this especially with anybody that, you know that may be potentially voting on this Prop A in Lubbock and would love your comments too. If you want to comment to us via email. You can at [email protected] or if you want to send a comment to us on Instagram or Facebook please feel free to do so.
Thanks and God bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you [00:12:00] like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
