Addictive Substances

Corporations will fight dirty if necessary to protect their investment. That includes in the political arena.

Even if it turns out to be ineffective for patients, buying cannabis products certainly gives a boost to the sales figures.

There is research that links more potent cannabis, including skunk, to THC-related changes in the brain, among daily users at least.

It’s Business 101, for illegal as well as legal enterprises.

That we have such a large and growing community of frequent users is a tribute not to evidence, but to hype.

The first trials did not demonstrate effectiveness beyond placebo. So the FDA allowed a third trial which apparently did, at least a little.

The list of deaths from the practice is long and oddly prestigious, featuring celebs such as John Belushi and Chris Farley, among many others.

If the dose is in fact subtherapeutic, then what causes the effects so enthusiastically reported by the user?

The best answer is the one we came up with to explain the selectivity of alcoholism: Differences in individual susceptibility.

Will society benefit from greater access to this drug? Are there potential problems we haven’t anticipated?