Radical Rant: America, More People Smoking Pot is a Good Thing

Photo by Dan Skye

Prohibitionists across the country are apoplectic about the latest news coming from the Gallup Poll. According to their latest survey, 13 percent of U.S. adults say they smoke marijuana, up from 7 percent just three years ago.

Run for the hills, the rate of marijuana smoking has almost doubled since legalization!

They say that like it’s a bad thing.

First off, let’s be accurate about what that poll has found: the number of adults who admit to being current tokers. There could very well have been one-in-eight marijuana smokers all along, but now, there are more who aren’t afraid to admit to doing something they can access legally.

This is backed up by survey data, which has found that 14 percent of people in the West (where it’s legal in four states) admit to being tokers, compared to just nine percent in the East and Midwest and only six percent in the South.

The “I can admit it now that it’s legal” phenomenon works its way into other statistics that prohibitionists like to regurgitate, like increases in emergency room admissions for accidental cannabis ingestion and increases in police catching suspected stoned drivers.

Back in the day, when you got yourself too high from eating an edible, you might be convinced to “ride it out” because admitting how you got sick would get you a ride in a cop car. Likewise, you might have been less likely to admit the source of an illness to the doctors when taking your sick kid to the ER, because telling them your kid ate pot would get you charged with child endangerment and your child taken away by the state.

Also back in the day, when you were a cannabis consumer out driving your car, you were more likely to keep your stash hidden and disguise your stoned state with eye drops, mouthwash and air freshener. Under legalization, cops are more diligent about catching us, and we’re less on our guard to deny any connection to cannabis.

But even if marijuana consumption has increased, this is no cause for alarm. Rather, we should be celebrating more adults consuming marijuana as a public health benefit.

We find out more and more every day about not just the therapeutic value of cannabis, but also its ability to be a preventative medicine. It’s not just a medicine you take when you’re sick and disabled, it’s a supplement you take to prevent sickness and disability and to enhance your pursuit of happiness.

Cannabis consumers are found to have lower body mass index and less incidence of diabetes. (I attribute my own health to this factor; diabetes runs strongly in my family, and I’m no dietary saint). We experience less incidence of head, neck and lung cancers than not just tobacco smokers, but non-smokers as well. We endure the aggregation of life’s aches and pains without the liver-harming acetaminophen pain relievers or the addiction and constipation of opioid pain killers.

It’s not just good for the body, it’s excellent for the brain, too. Our use of cannabis may be staving off the mental effects of aging like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We’re beating back depression and stress. Cannabis is proving to be highly effective for treatment of post-traumatic stress.

The harm-reduction aspects are undeniable. With the increase in cannabis consumption in medical marijuana states, we have seen a precipitous drop in the amount of prescription drugs it has replaced, especially opioid pain killers. We see fewer pain killer overdose deaths in those states. We see fewer suicides, especially among younger men, in those states. And even though we don’t condone teenage marijuana use, the fact more teenagers are now partying with pot instead of binge drinking means fewer dead teenagers from alcohol overdoses and drunk driving accidents.

If the drug companies presented to the government a compound that treated all the physical and mental conditions that cannabis does, replacing toxic, addictive prescriptions with such low side-effects and non-toxicity, and it improved mood and daily functioning, they wouldn’t be concerned that the use of this drug had doubled, they’d be trying to figure out promotions to increase its use even more.

Well, I mean, if they could patent it and sell it at a 569,958 percent markup. It’s not the health of the public that motivates prohibitionists; it’s the health of the pharmaceutical companies. They don’t hate that cannabis makes you high, happy and healthy; they hate that it doesn’t require their factories to produce it.

Last week’s Radical Rant: Save the Seattle Hempfest!

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6 comments
  1. I am 51 and started smoking again 6 years ago for chronic pain due to leg amputation and severe neuropathy. It cut my Percocet use by two-thirds and I am able to perform most household tasks again.

    I live in PA where medical marijuana is legal in name only. It’s going to take at least two years to get running and the state is going to destroy the plant by processing it into paste or tincture or oil.

    My primary doctor, therapists and everyone else on my health care teams know I use pot for pain. But I don’t know anything about the pot I get.

    I’m certain there are much better strains I could be using because I don’t feel body effects. I require higher CBD strains, but how am I supposed to get them?

    California has destroyed the concept of a responsible medical marijuana system, unless the massive epidemic of 20somethings with chronic illnesses has been cured.

    Republican legislatures on the East Coast have had their medical marijuana laws written by district attorneys and police, both of whom do not want to throw away easy arrests and convictions that pad their numbers and justify their employment and budgets. So they prohibit actual plant material for use by patients. LE wants to see plant material and immediately grab their handcuffs.

    These state legislatures write these laws and then allow medical input after the law has been passed. But ingestion of processed product is much less accurate in proper dosing of medication than smoking as the immediate onset of effect provides much more reliable feedback. These bureaucratic laws are likely created to allow special friends to acquire licenses for growing, transporting, processing and dispensing.

  2. I bet the ratio is more like 1 out 5. Not everyone is going to admit they smoke to some stranger over the phone

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    fast ,same day delivery and over night deliveryAlcohol vs Cannabis

  4. Yes go fry your brains so you have zero critical thinking skills and are more easily managed by your Masters.

  5. My Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and she was at the point of death, with cancer of the Breast in it final stage is now back alive and she is so healthy now. Thanks to Rick Simpson cannabis oil that we bought at: ricksimpsonworldwide@gmail.com, the Hemp oil was successfully used in curing my mother breast cancer within 3 months as stated in phoenix tear.Once again i want to thank Mr Rick Simpson for his wonderful Hemp Oil we are now happy family with my mother back alive, strong and healthy.

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