Ben Cort - Weed, Inc.: The Truth about the Pot Lobby, Thc, and the Commercial Marijuana Industry

WEED, INC.

The Truth About THC, the Pot Lobby,
and the Commercial Marijuana Industry

Ben Cort

Health Communications, Inc.

Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available through the Library of Congress

2017 Ben Cort

ISBN-13: 978-07573-1988-4 (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 07573-1988-2 (Paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-07573-1989-1 (ePub)

ISBN-10: 07573-1989-0 (ePub)

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos, and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 334428190

Cover design by Jim Pollard
Interior design and formatting by Lawna Patterson Oldfield
ePub created by Dawn Von Strolley Grove

Christy, you inspire all that I do. I would have accomplished nothing without you by my side, all that I am proud of in life we have done together. The journey that we are on has been miraculous, even in the mundane, and I owe you everything. Thank you for always being there and for giving me the push I needed to write this. I know it wasnt easy on you for me to invest all of this time writing, but you gave it with grace and understanding that is typical of you.

We did this together, thank you. I love you.

Contents

Kevin Sabet, Monte Stiles, Patrick Kennedy, Chris Thurstone, MD, Laura Martin, MD, David Smith, MD, Jag Khalsa, MS, PhD, Deni Carise, PhD, Evelin Lim Esq, Steve Millette, Mike Cox, Jay Voigt, Adam Pisoni, Sara Urfer, Stacey Harris, Josh Mahan, Jeremy Holburn, John Elliott, Ben Battaglia, Jeff Rasor, Courtney Strong, The Steel Group, Tom Gorman, Kevin Wong, LaTisha Bader, PhD, Chief John Jackson, Chief Marco Vasquez, Josh McClellan, Will Jones, Elyse M, Keith Bradley, Howard Samuels, PhD, Bob DuPont, MD, Tyler Richardson, Rourke Weaver, Bob Ferguson, Gary Forrest, Doug Edwards, Duke, Andy, and NMI.

My mom and dad. I was a pain and you were good to me. I love you both and am doing my best today to help people in the situations I put you in years ago. Thanks for all of your help with this, Dad. I couldnt have done it without you.

Crumb Cake, Rooster, Jelly Boo, you are why I do what I do.

In 2016, Ben Cort delivered a powerful presentation at the fourth annual David E. Smith Symposium, the theme of which was marijuana. Ben raised important, frequently overlooked concerns about the risks of making marijuana and cannabis products more available to the public.

In the election that fall, more states legalized marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes. With momentum increasing for decriminalization and legalization, commercialization and industrialization of cannabis are not far behind. Weed, Inc. examines the many implications of that phenomenon.

Ben informs us, What the generations before us smoked isnt what kids today are using. The 2 percent THC weed of the Woodstock era is gone; it has been replaced by something with a potency unimaginable a few years ago and consumable in forms that we never thought possible. Those consumable forms include concentrated extracts packaged as candy.

Limited research data suggests that these stronger products may cause more adverse reactions to cannabis use in the short term. As Ben notes, For the first time ever, cannabis withdrawal was included in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). No one knows what the long-term effects might be.

When I founded the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic during the Summer of Love in 1967, I witnessed the tragic consequences of the popular idea that drugs were harmless. Voices like Bens can help us avoid repeating that history.

David E. Smith, MD

Who I Am and What I Do and
Do Not Care About

Lets get one thing straight right off the bat, before we even begin this thing: I am not concerned with casual adult marijuana use. So long as kids dont see you (and if they do, realize that it reduces their perception of risk, making them more likely to use before their brains are developed and causing them much more harm), and you are not driving (I dont think I need to make much of a case against driving under the influence), I seriously dont care if an adult chooses to consume weed. As a recovering drug addict, not only do I not get to throw stones, I have no interest in the conversation. We will get into all of this later, but by the age of twenty-five to twenty-six a persons brain is pretty well developed. The likelihood of doing harm to yourself or others because of your use is significantly reduced, unless youre doing something dumb or irresponsible while intoxicatedso just dont do dumb things!

With that said there is potential for harm with any mood-altering substance that intoxicates. Im not advocating for the adults reading this book to put it down, settle into a comfy sofa, press play on The Wizard of Oz and The Dark Side of the Moon at the same time while blazing one. If you choose to, however, dont drive and dont let kids see you and I wont say a word against it.

Were only a few sentences in, but Ill bet Ive managed to piss off some of you already. The old school of drug abuse prevention is likely unable to reconcile how someone who is so publicly opposed to marijuana commercialization could say something as heretical as what I just did. I can hear it now, Can you believe this? Now the author is advocating that people get high! He even suggests they do it while watching Judy Garland, God rest her soul!

At the same time the pro-legalization crowd is likely yelling at the page, There arent chemicals in a plant! Driving high isnt nearly as bad as other things we could be doing, not to mention that kids shouldnt be lied to about adult use, or, Its the same old reefer madness crap. The war on drugs is a failure so back off and stop crusading!

Warning: If the first few sentences did, indeed, frustrate you, it may be time to put this book down, walk away, hold onto the position that you had when you picked the book up, and keep on keeping on, no hard feelings.

Still with me? Good, because I wasnt writing this for the hardliners anyway. Im not putting this together for those so entrenched in the dogma of their own side that they will reject anything that confronts the construct through which they view this issue. Im writing for those of you who are genuinely interested in learning about this complex topic. People who are scratching their heads trying to sift through the news reports to decide what is best for themselves, their families, their states, and their countries. It is for people wrestling with this issue, and for those willing to consider that they may have more to learn. That the experiences on which you have formed your opinion of what is going on with weed and the changing legal landscape today might not be all encompassing. Its tough not to rely solely on our experiences to form our opinions. As Nelson Mandela said, Where you stand depends on where you sit .

With that last thought in mind its pretty important that you understand where I sit and how that has influenced where I stand. I have opinions about this that have been formed over many years, and more will come out about what has influenced me, but to start off here are a few highlights. Im a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, sober since June 15, 1996. I am a resident of Colorado living in Boulder County and working in Denver. I am married and my wife and I are raising three school-aged kids. When I wrote this, I was working for a nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment program at the University of Colorado Hospital and have been in this field since 2007. I am also pretty involved in this issue of marijuana policy both locally and nationally. Ill expand on all of this shortly but I think the bottom line is that I am right smack in the middle of the action and Im keeping my eyes open. Much has changed in my home state the last few years and, among other things, I hope to give you a street-level view of those changes.