00:00:02
Cannabis has been vilified to a
ridiculous degree for the last century,
00:00:06
but it's now finally being decriminalised in more
00:00:09
and more places around the world – it’s
just recently been legalized in Germany.
00:00:13
And for very good reasons! Compared to
legal drugs like alcohol – which will
00:00:18
cause one in twenty deaths just this
year, cannabis is pretty mild. So to
00:00:23
justify harsh prosecution and punishment, its
negative effects have been wildly overstated.
00:00:29
Naturally there was a lot of pushback and
here something went wrong. If you’ve followed
00:00:34
the discourse over the last few years, you might
have got the impression that weed has almost only
00:00:39
upsides and few, if any, negative side effects.
We ourselves contributed to that narrative.
00:00:46
What made this worse is that criminalization made
it very hard for scientists to study cannabis,
00:00:51
especially its long term effects.
They faced bureaucratic and legal
00:00:55
hurdles and studies often had
to rely on small sample sizes.
00:00:59
In the last few years this
finally started to change,
00:01:02
so it is time to bring new evidence to the
discussion. And well, it's not pretty. While
00:01:08
weed is still much less harmful than alcohol,
it does have a dark side. It is more addictive
00:01:15
than we thought and can have significant
negative effects if you use it long term.
00:01:21
It seems that…ehm, what are you doing?
00:01:25
Before you tell us how dumb we are, please
watch the video. To be crystal clear,
00:01:29
we think prohibition doesn’t work and
Cannabis should be legal. But this also
00:01:34
means that we need to treat it as what it is:
A drug. With unique upsides and downsides.
00:01:40
So let’s take an honest look at some
of the latest research together.
00:01:46
Weed is getting stronger and stronger
00:01:49
Cannabis’s magic juice is Tetrahydrocannabinol,
00:01:53
THC. It docks on your cannabinoid receptors,
which affects various brain functions. THC
00:02:00
activates some regions and calms down others,
creating a fun cocktail of sensations.
00:02:06
The more THC, the more intense the high.
And people seem to be into higher highs,
00:02:12
or at least this is what the market is providing.
In the US, Canada and in Europe the concentration
00:02:17
of THC in legal and illegal Cannabis products has
more than doubled in the last few decades. While
00:02:24
ever more potent strains are bred, products like
edibles or concentrates with more than 60% THC
00:02:29
have become increasingly common. While the share
of products with less than 15% THC has declined.
00:02:37
Unfortunately just about every problem weed
creates gets worse at higher THC doses.
00:02:43
At the same time more and more people use weed.
In the US more people consumed cannabis daily
00:02:49
than alcohol for the first time in 2022. In
Canada 26% of people 16 and older use it,
00:02:56
up from 22% in 2018. It is not possible to say
if legalization is the reason for this though,
00:03:02
since studies are pretty inconsistent and vary
massively between different users. In some,
00:03:09
consumption went up, in others it stayed
stable – and the trend to use more weed
00:03:14
began in the early 90s and sped up in
the 2000s, way earlier than legalization.
00:03:20
So today more people consume more weed
than ever before in the last century
00:03:25
and it is the strongest it’s ever been.
What are we seeing as a result of this?
00:03:30
Let’s start with something that used to
get you laughed out of the room: Addiction.
00:03:35
Weed Addiction And Withdrawal Symptoms
00:03:39
A big narrative about weed
is that it is not addictive,
00:03:41
or at least not that big of a deal.
And for most people this is true.
00:03:46
Studies clearly show that the majority
handle it well – For 8 out of 10 using weed,
00:03:50
it is just a casual high
and not problematic at all.
00:03:54
About 2 in 10 users develop a cannabis use
disorder, or CUD. CUD has 11 different symptoms,
00:04:01
from the inability to stop when you’ve
had enough, to using it when you know it
00:04:04
will have negative consequences, to tolerance and
withdrawal. They can all basically be reduced to:
00:04:10
You are doing it too often, even if it's bad
for you and it is less fun than it could be.
00:04:16
There are three major risk factors here: The
amount of THC, how often you consume and your age
00:04:22
when you start using cannabis. The more THC, the
more often and the younger you are when you start,
00:04:29
the higher your risk. If you smoke too much
weed, too often, it will have negative impacts
00:04:35
on your life. So if this is you, toning
it down a bit will make a big difference.
00:04:41
1 in 10 users develops a serious addiction.
They usually consume daily and their life
00:04:47
is significantly impaired or held
back – because they spend a lot of
00:04:50
their time either using or recovering
from cannabis use. Since their brain is
00:04:55
building a tolerance they need increasingly
high doses or stronger weed, often both.
00:05:01
Studies found a variety of negative effects: Heavy
users can experience bad moods, feel irritable,
00:05:07
restless, paranoid, anxious and even
depressive. In a sad twist of irony,
00:05:13
for many addicts it feels like they need weed
to fight these symptoms – maybe it did actually
00:05:18
help at first – while in reality, it makes
those symptoms stronger and more persistent.
00:05:24
Studies also found that loneliness and frequent
cannabis use go hand in hand. If you feel lonely
00:05:30
you are more likely to use weed and if you use
weed you may experience more loneliness. It is
00:05:35
not always easy to say which came first,
but they seem to reinforce each other.
00:05:40
So, on the one hand, cannabis makes loneliness
feel much less bad. On the other hand,
00:05:45
it can also make you feel more socially awkward
than you actually are and withdraw from friends.
00:05:51
This can lead to a downward spiral that ends
in self isolation and chronic loneliness.
00:05:57
Another thing many people who consume a lot
experience is a mental numbness that makes
00:06:01
boredom feel ok because it impacts the
reward system of your brain. Not great,
00:06:07
but good enough. You can spend your days
killing time, bingeing mildly interesting
00:06:12
stuff. Being numb rather than having fun. Boredom
is a signal to your mind to get creative or learn
00:06:19
something new, but this is suppressed. This
also makes quitting so much harder, because
00:06:24
your daily routines suddenly seem boring and
unexciting, making it very tempting to go back.
00:06:30
If you find yourself using constantly, this
can also stunt your development as a person.
00:06:36
The numbness dulls bad feelings, making it easy
not to deal with them. But in life you can only
00:06:41
get over bad feelings if you actually feel
them and you have to process them to grow.
00:06:46
Lastly, let us talk about physical withdrawal
symptoms – the more you consume the worse they
00:06:52
will be for you, especially if you use
daily. Withdrawal can cause headaches,
00:06:56
sweating or chills, decreased appetite, in severe
cases even fever, nausea and abdominal pain. You
00:07:03
might have trouble falling asleep and if you do,
you might have disturbing and vivid dreams. The
00:07:09
withdrawal can put you in a depressive mood
where life feels daft and pointless. You can
00:07:14
feel restless, angry, anxious or nervous.
You may feel unable to do anything at all.
00:07:21
After a few days these symptoms will begin to
subside and after a few weeks they will be gone
00:07:26
entirely – the exact time depends on how much
and how long you have been consuming cannabis.
00:07:32
Now let’s get to the worst part.
00:07:36
Weed May Damage Your Brain
00:07:39
This section was not fun to research because
there is fierce debate among researchers how
00:07:44
bad weed is for your brain, and whether
it has irreversible long term consequences
00:07:48
or not. There is no consensus yet and
it's hard to say anything definitive.
00:07:54
Having said that, THC directly interferes
with critical brain chemistry. There is some
00:07:59
evidence that it may alter
its structure. If it does,
00:08:03
this may go away again if you quit after
a few years. Or not. We don’t know yet.
00:08:09
The consequences vary a lot between individuals
but especially for heavy users they have a
00:08:14
variety of potentially unfunny downsides:
The most common one is that your memory gets
00:08:20
significantly worse. Sustained heavy use may
reduce your ability to learn, your reasoning,
00:08:27
perception, attention span, decision making,
language abilities and impulse control. Most
00:08:33
negative effects seem to go away or at
least weaken over time after you quit,
00:08:38
but again we simply don’t know
enough and need more research.
00:08:42
Where the evidence is much clearer
is that consuming a lot of weed is
00:08:46
really bad for teenagers on multiple
levels. If you start using heavily,
00:08:51
early, you have many more years to
build up potentially negative side
00:08:55
effects. Teens who use a lot are much
more likely to become addicted to weed.
00:09:01
This may just be correlation and
weed may not be the underlying cause,
00:09:05
but heavy weed users are more likely to
perform poorly in school and less likely
00:09:09
to finish their education. They are on average
less satisfied with their life and what they
00:09:15
achieved. This may simply be because if
your memory and motivation are stunted,
00:09:19
you have fewer interesting experiences
and forget the ones you do have.
00:09:24
And there is strong evidence that teens users
are way more likely to develop mental health
00:09:28
issues like psychosis, schizophrenia, depression
or anxiety later in life. Once again, the younger
00:09:35
you start, the higher the risk – and it also
seems to rise massively with high THC doses,
00:09:41
making highly potent cannabis products even more
dangerous for teens. Ok let’s wrap this up. We’ve
00:09:48
only focused on the negative sides in this video,
that was the whole point. As we said before,
00:09:54
for most people weed in moderation is totally
fine and definitely way less harmful than alcohol.
00:10:00
You do you, we are not your parents. The upside
of moderation is also that when you do it,
00:10:06
your experience will be more intense and special.
00:10:09
But for teens, weed, especially using it
regularly or a lot of it, is a bad idea,
00:10:15
with potentially life changing consequences.
We know that criminalization did nothing to
00:10:20
make this better. We now have a new chance under
legalization. It begins with being open and honest
00:10:27
about the state of science and acknowledging that
weed is one drug among many others. Certainly not
00:10:33
the worst one by a long shot. But also problematic
for at least 1 to 3 out of ten people using it.
00:10:40
If you really have to try cannabis,
there is a time and place – and that
00:10:44
is in your twenties. If you are
younger, the science is clear:
00:10:48
Don’t do it. At least not yet. You’ll
have plenty of time to experiment later.
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