It's not my father's what?
Many Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers may remember the slogan ‘It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile’ from the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass TV commercials. While the ad was meant to attract a younger generation of buyers, it slapped its loyal base in the face. There’s a new twist on this old slogan nowadays and it’s meant as a warning – ‘It’s not your father’s weed anymore!’
While watching “The Truth About the Marijuana Industry and Terrifying Effects of High-Potency THC” on Epoch TV recently, I had a déjà vu moment. The interview with Ben Cort, CEO of Foundry Treatment Center in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, revealed disturbing laboratory statistics pointing to the intentional spiking of the addiction level of marijuana which is producing psychosis. Alarms went off in my head. We’ve already been down this path but with schools more focused on social engineering than history, I’m afraid new generations of victims-for-profit are being created.
This column appears on what would have been my 54th wedding anniversary had my husband not died 10 years ago this month from emphysema. He and millions of other smokers who suffered and died because of their nicotine addiction were vehicles for profit by design. From 1990s congressional hearings and lawsuits, we know that Big Tobacco genetically engineered their crops to double the amount of nicotine by adding chemical compounds. Bronchodilators delivered tobacco smoke more easily to the lungs. Sugar, menthol and flavorings made it easier to inhale and ammonia made it travel to the brain faster. The cigarette design was adjusted to increase the addictive quality by 14.5%.
According to Cort, 10, 15 or 20 years ago the idea that someone could become physically addicted to cannabis was “absolutely laughable” and psychotic episodes and psychotic breaks from THC were “unfathomable.”
Cort said, “In its most extreme form, it looks like schizophrenia and the anxiety can be intense.”
Just as Big Tobacco enhanced their product to ensure themselves a client base, what I’ll call Big Weed, is doing the same thing. While my sources varied, all agree that potency has increased to double digits. For instance, a 2022 Oracle article based on a 2019 National Library of Medicine study stated, “THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical responsible for the drug’s psychoactive effects. In the 1970s, most marijuana contained less than 2% THC. Today, marijuana routinely contains 20–25% THC.”
Cort, who had problems with addiction in his younger years, was a supporter of legalization. For him, it was about freedom but he took on the issue because of Colorado’s passage of Amendment 64 in 2012 which he described as “3,666 words of protection for the establishment of an industry. It turned out to be about the creation of another vice-industry and another opportunity to tax.”
While Colorado is considered sort of the national role-model, Cort described a massive corporate takeover of the marijuana industry there which doesn’t tolerate small players. It angered me to hear that there are no controls or limits on potency despite the presence of chemicals, growth accelerators, butane, propane, isopropanol and pesticides which are not even safe for topical animal use.
This year, Colorado’s bipartisan House Bill 1317 attempted to place potency caps which would help lower addiction rates but industry lobbyists fought back, not only on the caps but on concentrate package warnings! To decrease suicides and issues for law enforcement, Cort supports at least an 8% cap, and it hit home for this addiction-widow when he said, “Kick the industry lobbyists out of the rule-making committees and let’s stop letting Phillip-Morris sit at the table trying to determine how to regulate tobacco.”
This intentional manipulation of a product to profit from someone else’s misery is very personal for me. With Texas polling data showing that 79% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans favor legalization, should this come to pass, I hope Texas legislators remember who they’re supposed to be working for and avoid putting the fox in charge of the hen house!
The column represents the thoughts and opinions of Connie Clements. Opinion columns are NOT the opinion of the Navasota Examiner.
Clements is a freelance reporter for the Navasota Examiner and an award-winning columnist.