The UN has just issued a report about cannabis that will no doubt in the near future look as alarmist as it is dated. Namely, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has issued its annual world drug report.
Here are the high level takeaways—which are hard to read with a straight face.
The most recent study to examine such issues, emanating from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last year had to concede that they could not “establish that cannabis use caused the increased suicidality we observed in this study,” and that “these associations warrant further research.” The same study also noted that cannabis use by adults more than doubled in the United States between 2008 and 2019—precisely the years that normalization became a multi-state campaign politically.
It is also worth noting that one of the most recent studies about cannabis and PTSD, which includes episodes of depression leading to suicide, found that cannabis use dramatically decreased PTSD symptoms to the point that many patients no longer met the diagnostic criteria for the condition.
Veterans are perhaps the population most at risk for suicide, even in the best of times. According to most national estimates, there are 22 veteran suicides day in the U.S. Deployed veterans serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan had a suicide risk 41% higher than the average population. Even more intriguingly, non-deployed veterans had a 61% greater risk of committing suicide than the average person.
It is also worth noting that economic and other conditions since 2008 have actually worsened for many people—from the overhang of the global recession to a flat recovery.
COVID-19 was just a piece of icing on an already overburdened cake.
Using cannabis to help relieve some of these symptoms seems like a very sane, logical, and increasingly legal option.
While it is unsurprising that UNODC would produce this kind of report, even after the UN moved cannabis to list of less dangerous drugs, including an apparent parroting of highly suspect U.S. government data, it is a telling development. This is the same kind of distortion and misapplied association that dragged prohibition out as long as it has.
Using a drug’s legalization combined with a disastrously disconnecting event like a global Pandemic to make unfounded associations about cannabis use is disingenuous to say the least.
To appear to parrot a U.S. national study which reached similar conclusions while being equally light on the data and association front is just another sign that the UN is still overwhelmingly influenced by U.S. policymakers—and anti-reform ones at that—who will stop at nothing to try and halt the green tide of change.
The post UN Report Dramatizes Uptick in Global Cannabis Use appeared first on High Times.
As of December 2024, it has become official: the current Congress will not provide any…
In a significant development for the burgeoning cannabis industry, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported…
We looked into our crystal bong and this is what we saw. The post Cannabis…
The ongoing debate over cannabis legalization in Florida reflects broader national trends regarding marijuana policy.…
Shop the winners near you. The post 2024’s cannabis award-winners and where to buy them…
Mushroom drops, often referred to as mushroom tinctures or extracts, have gained significant popularity in…