Elton John’s views on cannabis
When Sir Elton John makes a personal statement in such a publication as Time magazine about his feelings on the legalisation of Cannabis, we at The Haynes Clinic take note with interest. Sir Elton John has discussed at length his past use of alcohol and drugs, specifically cannabis or marijuana. He got clean and sober back in 1990 and therefore his comments are fully backed up by his personal experiences of the drug. In his own words “ I maintain that cannabis is addictive. It leads to other drugs and when you are stoned, and I have been stoned, you don’t think normally.”
Sir Elton John went on to state within the recent published article, “that legalising marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time.” More than 20 US states and the District of Colombia have legalised recreational marijuana for adults with more states permitting its medical use. In Canada, Cannabis was fully legalised for both recreational and medical use from October 2018 and the Justice Department in America is considering reclassifying it as a less dangerous drug due to its medical benefits.
Cannabis has a much higher potency than in the past
The perception and idea of Cannabis as being a “soft drug” has been around since the 1960s – the time of flower power, hippies and free love. This concept of the drug has to some extent remained but, back then, it generally had a low potency with less THC. Recent strains are considerably more potent.
THC stands for Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found in Cannabis and which is its principal psychoactive constituent. This produces the narcotic and psychoactive effect. The history of cannabis potency can be traced back to the 1960s and 70s when strains called “Acapulco Gold” and “Panama Red” had THC levels of around 4%. By the 1990s potency had increased to around 5 to 6 %; by 2010 it had made a huge leap to over 20%.
Cannabis is the most widely used drug in the world. Basically, people are using cannabis with no idea of the strength of what they are buying. There is a strong argument that the increase in cannabis strength highlights the need for grading the potency of strains of cannabis for harm reduction. This would give the public guidelines on safer consumption limits which in turn would help them limit their consumption and use it more safely.
Health risks from cannabis use
Individuals who use high potency cannabis on a daily basis are five times more likely to experience a cannabis induced psychotic disorder than non-users or users of lower strains with less THC.
Another danger of cannabis use comes from Synthetic Marijuana which has increased in popularity since the late nineteen hundreds. Individuals who use synthetic cannabis are 30 times more likely to visit an A and E unit with a cannabis induced psychotic episode than people using traditional cannabis. Cannabis is known to be a “gateway drug” by which people will go on to experiment with other drugs. People who use synthetic cannabis are at an even higher risk than regular cannabis users of using other drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.
Both higher potency cannabis and synthetic cannabis have proven negative effects on cognitive functioning and general mental health, including increased cannabis induced paranoia and anxiety.