THE TRILLION-DOLLAR SNOW JOB: How the Cannabis Industry and Lawmakers are Hiding an Existential Health and Aging Crisis

THE TRILLION-DOLLAR SNOW JOB: How the Cannabis Industry and Lawmakers are Hiding an Existential Health and Aging Crisis

Guest post by Stuart Reece 

I have worked with drug-affected people for fifty years.  In the last 30 years, I have conducted 300,000 – 400,000 consultations in addiction medicine.  I have over 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including more than 80 on cannabis, and two papers in Nature family journals. Our 2,500-page book on the epidemiology and epigenetics of cannabis was recently published by Elsevier Press.  I am a Professor of Medicine at two Australian universities. 

Because of new results from Harvard research and NIH affiliate data, I lie awake at night worrying about the USA.  In a universe saturated by cannabis insanity, we have all heard the industry spin. Is it possible to bring the power of Science to bear on the unholy trinity of addiction, namely deception (lies), seduction (the high, the cash), and manipulation (the cash), all shrouded in fear (and death)???

Cannabis Use Curves

US National 2024-2025 cannabis industry data shows the industry surging strongly forward, driven by an army of 440,000 employees pumping almost 6 million pounds of cannabis from 128 million square feet of canopy into 40,000 dispensaries for a wholesale value of $6Billion and a retail value of $31Billion (note the 500% markup); yielding a mere $5Billion tax revenue. This industry publicly boasts that it is the fastest-growing industry in history. Or as Charlie Kirk famously quipped “Everything smells like weed now.”

The National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is an annual nationally representative survey of the non-institutionalized US population. Three key indices of cannabis use are monitored longitudinally, which are last year’s use, last month’s use, and cannabis use on most days.  The most days index is key and is widely regarded as a direct measure of cannabis addiction in the general community.  All three indices are rising exponentially.

The index for habitual use doubled from 2007 through 2017, and then doubled again to 2023 — representing a terrifying shortening of doubling times from ten years down to five.  Importantly, all three curves show upticks about 2007 and 2017, presumably due to either changes in policy and / or perception. Importantly the most recent data is for 2024 which shows last year cannabis use of 22.2%, last month cannabis use of 15.4% and most days cannabis use of 7.5% nationally.  This indicates that two-thirds of all cannabis users actually use at least monthly, and half of all monthly users are actually habitual users.  Such data proves and documents the addictive nature of modern cannabis on the national stage.

Using the same kind of exponential modelling we used to accurately predict the current rate of US autism 14 years in advance it is possible to show that the exponential growth curves for last year, last month and almost daily cannabis use will cross the 50% market penetration level nationally in 2049, 2052 and 2054 at current rates of growth; except that due to the curve inflection rates growth rates are already supra-exponential and currently proposed re-scheduling will further accelerate these levels so that these arithmetically calculated estimates are already too little and too late.

Once the 50% line of market penetration is crossed, rescuing America from inundation by the cannabis tsunami will become exceedingly difficult in a democratic society…  Meaning the window for intervention is fast slamming shut.

Aging

Just as a computer has both hardware and software, cells have both hardware, which is the genes on DNA, and software, which is the machinery that controls which genes get used and when.  Scientists call this complex machinery the “epigenome,” meaning upon or after the genes. This is why some cells are heart cells, and some cells are brain cells, etc., because different genes are used.  It is also why cells that were once young become old.

In a series of brilliant pathfinding studies the Harvard Medical School aging laboratory and many other leading groups have shown that the biological age of cells can be made older by inducing just a handful of breaks in the gene hardware or re-arranging the epigenetic software.

On the contrary, cells and mice can be made biologically younger and the aging process actually reversed by cellular reprogramming using stem cell factors and new chemicals. In mice, such techniques can reverse optic nerve crush injuries, cataracts, glaucoma, muscle wasting, hair greying, and osteoporosis, showing that these techniques can change major and important age-related health outcomes.  These elegant and highly sophisticated studies demonstrate that genetic and epigenetic damage directly regulates the aging process and formally proves this pathway.

And just like the genes, epigenetic changes can be long-lasting and can be inherited for three to four generations.

Importantly, the epigenome is highly sensitive to environmental stimuli such as diet, obesity, exercise, and drug use, including cannabis use.  Virtually all epigenetic studies of cannabis use document epigenetic changes.  Cannabis has been well known to cause chromosomal breaks since at least 1967.  Cannabis was shown to advance cellular age by at least 30% in humans at age 30 years, a level of increase which likely rises with age.  Cannabis has been linked with many disorders of older age including falls, heart attack, stroke, hypertension and accidents. 

Cannabis is known to damage the mitochondria and cellular energy flows, which are age-defining conditions and directly cause disruption of both the genetic hardware and the epigenomic software.  Cannabis has been shown to accelerate hardening of the arteries, induce immune changes and hormonal disruptions which are also age defining changes.

These changes have been found in both eggs and human sperm and inheritance of cannabis induced epigenetic changes has been documented by multiple workers to subsequent mouse generations.  Structural and epigenetic changes demonstrate that cannabis exposed eggs and sperm are chromosomally and epigenetically prematurely aged; which means of course that the fertilized eggs (zygotes) are aged from (prior to) conception.

In general genotoxic drugs are known to cause birth defects, mental health disorders including mental retardation in offspring, cancers including transgenerationally inheritable cancers and aging.  Cannabis is implicated in all five of these domains of pathology which further confirms its genotoxic nature.  These and other areas will be addressed in subsequent pieces.

It should be underscored that the industry formally does not recommend the use of cannabis in pregnancy as they acknowledge its genotoxic activities.  FDA warnings about the use of cannabis products in those likely to become pregnant also confirm this at Government level…  None of which stops many Coloradan budtenders in numerous dispensaries recommending cannabis to pregnant women. 

Genotoxicity is so serious that most drugs which display this action are dropped immediately.  Most drugs have to prove stringent safety and efficacy tests before marketing is permitted.  With cannabis however the usual safeguard process has been reversed with marketing preceding efficacy studies so that now a drug with widely acknowledged genotoxic effects is undergoing trials to try to find a valid indication to justify its use and dissemination.

All cannabinoids are known to be genotoxic as the toxic portion resides in the inner nucleus of its chemical structure known as olivetol which is common to all cannabinoids.

The painful lessons learned with thalidomide – when US was narrowly saved from the fate of many other western nations – are about to be re-learned with cannabis.  Thalidomide is after all the reasons these the modern genotoxic safety tests – which all cannabinoids are known to fail – were implemented worldwide in the 1950’s.

Economic Impact

Applied to the whole adult age range from 18 to 85+ years a figure of 50% age acceleration is a fair estimate of the acceleration of the aging process cannabis is likely to induce.  The USA spends around 5Trillion of its 31Trillion GDP annually on health care.  AI estimates suggest that this would approximately double if the population became 50% biologically older to up to 11Trillion annually.

People older than 55 years constitute 30% of the USA population, but contribute 60% of the health care costs.  If that section of the population older than 60 grew 60% older biologically, which is what the data points towards, then their health costs are projected to rise three- to four-fold, consuming an extra $5-8Trillion per year.  Further detailed refinements of these models are being prepared.

To these already intimidating budgetary items should be added numerous other costs not included in aging per se, relating to:

• ·       mental health,
• ·       childhood autism,
• ·       crime,
• ·       violence,
• ·       mass shootings,
• ·       birth defects,
• ·       homelessness and unemployment,
• ·       cancer treatments and deaths,
• ·       the costs of follow-on secondary (cocaine, opioid, amphetamine) addictions, including their associated deaths, and
• ·       childhood misery, including fetal deaths
• ·       contamination of the water table 
• ·       environmental contamination
• ·       wildlife death and deformity
• ·       food chain contamination for the general population
• ·       for the next three to four generations.

These concerns are discussed elsewhere.

Call to Action

It goes without saying that compared to these intimidating numbers the derived tax revenues are insultingly negligible/invisible/trivial/ridiculous. 

Why are lawmakers ignoring the known Science just to chase tax dollars? We call on the public and independent media to break through the “media snow job” and demand a real public debate.  Let Science have its voice!!

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