The stories reported in this Colorado News cast, are about people who died and part of the reason attributed was Marijuana overdose. I want to address two things about these stories and others like them.
The first thing I want to say is that in each of these stories, the person who died had huge amounts of THC in their system. I don't know of anyone who wants to see Marijuana legalized advocating this sort of abuse. Getting so shit faced you do stupid things is not a good idea. It isn't a good idea with pot, it isn't a good idea with any substance.
Abuse is just that, abuse.
It's not good with Marijuana, it's not good with alcohol, it's not good with aspirin, it's not good with cheeseburgers. You get the picture.
It isn't using the substance responsibly, it's not using good common sense. I believe that Marijuana has some wonderful attributes, but they come with using it in the right way. Getting so blazed that you can't carry on a conversation or get out of your chair is stupid.
One of the biggest concerns with edible Marijuana is that people can easily get too much. They take a bite of brownie or a piece of chocolate and nothing happens. They wait a half hour or forty-five minutes and they feel nothing. What do they do? They eat the whole damned brownie or candy bar. Just about the time the finish it, they realize that they are getting buzz. The problem is, unless you want to stick your finger down your throat and puke up what you just ingested, you are in for a very strange time.
Smoking can certainly be abused, I used to do it all the time, but I think it is much less the case for most people. The effects of smoking are pretty much immediate. You can tell that you are getting too high and stop.
The second thing I want to say might piss some people, especially the relatives of those that died, off.
I think there was a problem there before they smoked or ingested Marijuana. I worked for several years in the mental health system. Most people who abuse substances do so because of some other reason. A couple of the people who died were teenagers. Being a teenager is enough of a problem all by itself, but I bet there was something else going on. I doubt seriously if their lives were as perfect as their relatives are saying.
I'm not trying to say that they were bad people. What I am saying is that they abused pot for a reason. The reason might have been as simple as peer pressure and they were not strong enough to resist it. Had they thought of suicide before? Suicide rates among teens is high already. Adding substance abuse to that fire is not a good thing.
The guy that fell is another story.
It may well be that the extremely high levels of THC in his system made him do something he might not have normally done. However, most substance abuse does not lead people to do things they normally would not do or have never thought of. It may block their inhibitions so that they do something stupid, but it is often something they have thought about or might even have done before. Was this guy a risk taker? Might he have done this while straight and his being high exacerbated the fall?
The point to this is not to say that Marijuana is a perfect substance with no risks involved. The point is that these unfortunate people may not have done what they did if not high, but maybe they would have.
Abuse is abuse. People are people. We need to not over react when we hear stories like the one above, but keep a clear head and regulate the use of Marijuana so everyone can be as safe as possible.
I did like that the reporters mentioned that many more people die due to alcohol than to Cannabis.
Stoney
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