Dangerous ancient herb--do not use

[emattson]

Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C., regarded as the father of Chinese medicine, was the first one who documented cannabis as a pharmacopoeia. "Marijuana” is defined as a substance from the plant Cannabis sativa that contain substantial amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Whatever health benefits cannabis Shen Nung listed should be replaced by the modern and safer medicine.

My feelings doesn't play any role on this controversial topic. Just the facts. Below are scholarly research by very smart people on just how poisonous marijuana is to health.

Ancient Indian Hindus, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans documented marijuana as useful for depression. They should've instead use the more modern approach of simply making our dang lives healthier--better quality sleep, nourishing food, companionship, a sense of purpose, regulate out of existence exploitive employees, and such. Phototherapy can treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Clinical depression not fixable from lifestyle changes can be treated by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They may be only moderately effective but at least they typically cause fewer side effects. Marijuana use has been linked to depression; social anxiety; and thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts, and suicide.
Source:
(National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids: the current state of evidence and recommendations for research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2017.)

Marijuana affects brain development. Developing brains, such as those in babies, children, and teenagers, are especially susceptible to the harmful effects of marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-ef ... ealth.html

“Prior research shows links between marijuana use and cardiovascular disease like coronary artery disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation, which is known to cause heart failure,” said lead study author Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, M.D., M.P.H., a resident physician at Medstar Health in Baltimore. “Marijuana use isn’t without its health concerns, and our study provides more data linking its use to cardiovascular conditions.”

Below is an paraphrased overview from the May 11-12, 2024 Wall Street Journal - The weekend interview with Bertha Madras by Allysia Finley

Ms. Madras is a psychobiology professor at Harvard Medical School and one of the top experts on marijuana. She has spent over 60 years studying recreation drugs.

One of the biggest differences between alcohol and marijuana is how quickly the body can metabolize them. A man may binge drink at a dive bar all night and the next day wakes up with a hangover. He may feel like a living dead, but the alcohol is broken down by the liver and eventually eliminated from the body through sweat, breath, and urine. Marijuana gets absorbed into white matter and pollutes the tissue. It sits there and sits there—causing brain changes. White matter, the fat which the brain uses to insulate its electrical activity, is an important part of the brain.

She said that the link between marijuana and schizophrenia fits all six criteria that scientists use to prove causality—which include the strength of the association and its consistency. Schizophrenia is a nasty disability with no cure. They lose touch with reality, hallucinate, experience disorganized speech or behavior, and isolation. They don’t live long, with men’s average life expectancy of 59.9 years and women’s average life expectancy of 67.6 years.