THE BIG 4-2-0

    For those not keeping up with Pop Culture, the term '420' has become a slang term for marijuana use. Today is 4/20 and, in my State where pot use is just about the only thing that's still actually legal, all of the stores catering to that product had sales. Here in the smallish village where I live---in a 'Red County'---our local dispensary was no different, with a 35% discount. 

    This afternoon, after visiting a local bar & grill, I sat on the bench outside under the awning because a rainstorm came up. This place is right next to the dispensary. I would wager that in the 1/2 hour I sat there, I could have clocked three to five people entering or exiting the dispensary every single minute. It was so crowded that they had an employee working as a doorkeeper managing a line outside. Bear in mind that this is a town of less than 10,000 people in a Republican county and this was going on during a thunderstorm in 40 degree weather. 

  And people wonder why we talk so much here about America as a nation of Addicts. If this is a sample of Mainstream America, it is no mystery why the Nation is in the condition that it's in. Combined with the levels of prescription psych-dope and illegal street-drugs Americans consume, it's not unreasonable to assume that at least half of the people one encounters in an average day are under the influence of some narcotic. In fact, in most large cities, it's fairly obvious. 

     Those who grew up in the mid-to-late 20th Century probably experimented with marijuana; but if they haven't been following the culture in awhile, it should be understood that there is a considerable difference between what was covertly available then and what is widely available today. The marijuana plant has varying degrees of effect depending upon what part of the plant is utilized. What we saw then was typically harvested from the leaves, which have a mild narcotic effect. The flowers and the resins contain the potent oils: in those days that was usually processed by traffickers into Hashish. The analogous difference is roughly the same between Opium and Heroin. Overdoses and side-effects from raw Opium are fairly rare: playing with Heroin or Fentanyl can lead to severe addiction and are often lethal.

   Almost all commercially-available marijuana products today are made from the flowers and resins, meaning they have about the same potency as Hashish. THC, the chemical which is the active component in marijuana was typically found in levels of around 2% during the mid-to-late 20th Century. Studies conducted during the Trump Administration showed THC concentrations of as high as 28% in today's commercially available products. That sustained use of these highly-concentrated substances have an adverse impact on cognition is well-documented.

   "A number of studies have determined an association between Cannabis use and brain changes involving structures governing memory and emotional processing, including reduced volume of the hippocampus, temporal cortex, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. Although many of these changes appear to be dose-related, some morphologic changes have been reported among young recreational users without Cannabis dependence. This has resulted in an understandable concern about the effects of Cannabis on the brains of young people with limited exposure; however, it is not yet clear to what extent detected brain changes are pathological and reflect functional deficits. Recent research using newer neuroimaging modalities provides preliminary support of Cannabis use associated with white matter changes that, in turn, are correlated with cognitive impairment. One study comparing low-potency Cannabis and high-potency cannabis users with and without first episode psychosis found a significant effect of Cannabis potency on disturbances in white matter microstructural organization in the corpus callosum. These findings provide sufficient cause for concern that structural brain changes associated with cognitive impairment are more likely to occur with high-potency cannabis use."

     About 35 million American teens and legal adults use these products regularly, and another 20 million use them infrequently on a yearly basis, according to the Corporate Media's own admissions. As if cognitive impairment wasn't enough, the potential for increased rates of outright mental illness have likewise been documented. The study notes: 

   "Based on longitudinal studies published over the past 30 years, it is clear that using Cannabis at a young age (age <15 to 18) increases the risk of developing a psychotic disorder. This association appears to be dose-dependent, with studies consistently demonstrating that psychosis risk increases with greater frequency of Cannabis use. The accumulated evidence to date is strong enough to view the psychotic potential of Cannabis as a significant public health concern. If risk of psychosis is proportional to the amount of Cannabis used as measured by frequency, it follows that this risk might be affected similarly by Cannabis potency...The findings from these 4 studies suggest that the increased risk of psychosis with Cannabis is proportional to overall exposure, determined by both frequency of use and Cannabis potency."

    Another set of studies produced during the Obama Administration concluded that these higher-potency drugs have a significant link between consistent use during pregnancy and lowering of IQ levels---and not only prenatally, but pre-existing IQ levels decline in biological adults over years of continuous use. Is it any wonder we see today increasing dissociation from reality, lack of even simple reasoning skills, and what many have termed, mass psychosis?

     Not only are these high-potency cannabis products crippling the American mind, there are other adverse social factors which are being examined. There are potential links to higher suicide rates and declining fertility in both men and women. Naturally, though, the average Ameroboob will deny that prolific narcotics abuse has any effect on our social decline. If Americans wanted to face reality, they wouldn't be drug addicts in the first place. 

    The Elites benefit from the social effects of drug abuse, however. Not only does high-potency drugs like commercial marijuana produce a dumbed-down and docile populace, the potential for addiction makes a population less willing to resist lest their supplies be cut off. Wall Street freebooters, by their own admission, dominate the commercial marijuana industry; and it is certainly no accident that they prudently exempted marijuana dispensaries from most lockdown mandates. According to Investopedia, there is big money in Marijuana Stocks these days. The best performing stock is a company called Innovative Industrial Properties, which WEF leader Blackrock owns 14% of shares. Together with financial oligarchs Vanguard and State Street, 35% of the company is under the control of these three trusts. Blackrock also holds dominant interests in industry leaders GrowGeneration and Hydrofarm. A major share of the industry comes from corporations in Trudeau's Canada, but given the lobbying Big Pot puts into both political parties, it's doubtful we'll be hearing media horror-stories about the drug influx across our Northern border anytime soon. Canopy Growth Corp. spent the most last year on lobbying at nearly $1 million alone, with 13 lobbyists, 4 of whom are revolving-door former federal bureaucrats. It's somewhat sad to reflect that marijuana was actually safer product and a less corrupt industry when the Mob was still running it. 

    The reality that Americans refuse to face is that changing this Party or that one; or passing this or that law will change nothing. We need to change as a people. We need to realize that the same interests who pushed the Scamdemic and unsafe Mask and Loyalty Vaxx Mandates are the same ones pushing dangerously enhanced recreational drugs and telling us that the safety of such toxins is settled science.