James Chapman, How Cannabis Can Trigger Schizophrenia. UK Daily Mail.

Angus Chen, Pot Can Trigger Psychotic Symptoms For Some, But Do The Effects Last? NPR, Mar 6, 2015.

Sushrut Jangi, Can We Please Stop Pretending Smoking Marijuana Is Harmless? Boston Globe, Oct 8, 2015.

The Young Turks, Study Reveals the True Damage of Marijuana Use The Young Turks, Feb 3, 2016.  Poorer verbal memory in middle age.

The Young Turks, How Pot Edibles Can Mess You Up. The Young Turks, Nov 12, 2016.

Fateh Malik, Scientist Reveals What Cannabis Does to Your Bones. USA Health Times, Oct 4, 2017.

Judith Griesel, Pot Holes: Legalizing Marijuana is Fine, But Don't Ignore the Science on Its Dangers. Washington Post, May 25, 2018.

Alex Berenson, Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence: A Conversation with Alex Berenson. Hudson Institute, Feb 28, 2019.

Hasan Minhaj, The Marijuana Industry is Rigged. Patriot Act, May 25, 2020.

James Mumford, Cannabis as a Cultural Question. The Hedgehog Review | Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, Summer 2020. “How are we ethically to evaluate the practice of getting stoned?”

Jane E. Brody, Do You Have the Heart for Marijuana? New York Times, Oct 26, 2020.  “Research suggests that smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco.”

Matthew Cunningham-Cook, Democrats Waited Until After the Election But Finally Voted to Legalize Marijuana. The Intercept, Dec 4, 2020.

Francina Agosti, How the Brain Protects Itself from the Negative Effects of CBD. Advanced Science News, May 30, 2023.

PBS Vitals, How Smoking Weed Affects Your Health.  PBS Vitals, Aug 29, 2023.  Cannabis has side effects:  heart muscle dysfunction, chest pains, heart attacks, strokes.  Daily cannabis users were 34% more likely to have coronary artery disease.  Also, marijuana can cause abuse disorder.  16 million people had the disorder.  Cannabis use before age 18 can affect learning, attention, and memory.  We do not yet know the permanence of these conditions.  Marijuana might not be a simple sleep aid:  it can cause hangover symptoms.  Finally, THC in high doses might increase anxiety and depression.  

Matt Richtel, Cannabis Use Disorder Is ‘Common’ Among Marijuana Users, Study Finds. New York Times, Aug 30, 2023.

More Perfect Union, Legal Weed Is Being Ruined By Corporate Greed. More Perfect Union, Jan 29, 2024. Trulieve Corporation. Marijuana markets are already becoming monopolized.

Charles Fain Lehman, The Real Problem With Legal Weed. New York Times, Jul 3, 2024. “New York is trying to treat an addictive substance just like any other product.” An excellent article, with scientific, economic, business, and law enforcement perspectives.

“There are around 140 recreational dispensaries operating statewide — about one for every 148,000 New Yorkers. Instead of shopping legally, New Yorkers tend to get their weed from the illegal shops that now blanket the state. Estimates suggest that there are anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 in New York City alone, with uncounted more from Ithaca to Oneonta. Recent crackdowns have temporarily sealed more than 400 stores — only a small fraction of the total in the city.”

Megan Twohey, Danielle Ivory, and Carson Kessler, As America’s Marijuana Use Grows, So Do the Harms. New York Times, Oct 4, 2024.

“About 18 million people — nearly a third of all users ages 18 and up — have reported symptoms of cannabis use disorder, according to estimates from a unique data analysis conducted for The Times by a Columbia University epidemiologist. That would mean they continue to use the drug despite significant negative effects on their lives. Of those, about three million people are considered addicted.

The estimates are based on responses to the 2022 U.S. national drug use survey from people who reported any cannabis consumption within the previous year. The results are especially stark among 18- to 25-year-olds: More than 4.5 million use the drug daily or near daily, according to the estimates, and 81 percent of those users meet the criteria for the disorder.

“That means almost everybody that uses it every day is reporting problems with it,” said Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who was not involved in the analysis. “That is a very clear warning sign.”

Marijuana is known for soothing nausea. But for some users, it has the opposite effect…

After searching online in 2022, Ms. Macaluso suspected she had cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition caused by heavy cannabis use and marked by nausea, vomiting and pain. It can lead to extreme dehydration, seizures, kidney failure and cardiac arrest. In rare cases, it has caused deaths — at least eight in the United States, including some newly identified by The Times.

Since the syndrome was first documented in 2004, doctors say they have observed a sharp rise in cases. Because it is not recorded consistently in medical records, the condition is nearly impossible to track precisely. But researchers have estimated that as many as one-third of near-daily cannabis users in the United States could have symptoms of the syndrome, ranging from mild to severe. That works out to roughly six million people.

Eventually a new physician confirmed Ms. Macaluso’s diagnosis, noting that new cases were coming in every week. “I was angry that doctors hadn’t caught it and that I suffered so much,” Ms. Macaluso said. She had continued to use the drug, she added, “because I thought it was helping.”

…The marijuana smoked in the 1990s, typically containing about 5 percent THC, was transformed. Companies turned out inconspicuous vape pens, fast-acting edibles, pre-rolled joints infused with potency enhancers and concentrates with as much as 99 percent THC. (These are different from concentrates of CBD, a nonintoxicating component of the cannabis plant that is also widely seen as therapeutic and has gained in popularity.)”