Wake Up

The Truth About Marijuana: Benefits, Risks, and Social Impact

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 1 • Episode 66

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Marijuana exists in nature, so it must have value—but where do we draw the line between beneficial use and harmful excess? Dr. Douglas James Cottrell tackles this increasingly relevant question as more regions move toward legalization, offering a balanced perspective that acknowledges both therapeutic benefits and potential pitfalls.

The science is clear: cannabis compounds can help heal brain damage and offer medical relief for conditions like multiple sclerosis. However, Dr. Douglas emphasizes that marijuana follows the same principle as alcohol, chocolate, and many other substances—moderation is key. The plant itself isn't the problem; human behavior is. When consumption becomes craving and craving becomes dependency, that's when the real issues begin.

What happens when communities legalize marijuana? Despite fears of increased crime, vagrancy, and widespread social problems, these outcomes largely haven't materialized. Dr. Douglas shares observations from Canada's legalization experience, where the initial rush quickly stabilized into a regulated system more resembling liquor stores than chaos. Meanwhile, criminalization continues creating lifelong consequences for young people caught with small amounts—limitations on travel, employment, and opportunities that far outweigh the offense.

Throughout this thoughtful exploration, Dr. Douglas addresses sensitive scenarios, including children exposed to marijuana in public spaces, and examines emerging concerns about how 5G networks might interact with cannabis consumption among sensitive individuals. His perspective cuts through polarized debates with practical wisdom: "Put limits on desires" and approach complex social issues with compassion rather than judgment.

Ready to explore more mind-expanding perspectives? Subscribe to Wake Up with Dr. Douglas James Cottrell and visit douglasjamescottrell.com for self-development resources designed to enhance your intuition and consciousness in our increasingly chaotic world.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrellcom, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

This is the Wake Up. I'm your host, Douglas James Cottrell, and I'm joined with my good friend and co-host, Les Hubert. We're here today to help wake you up with more answers from those hard-to-ask questions that my good friend Les is going to pose to us tonight. Les, what's on the menu tonight? What are we up for, Hi?

Les Hubert:

Dr Douglas, good to be with you again. Tonight's subject is marijuana. It seems to be all over the news here in Rhode Island. We're soon to legalize it. And marijuana it seems to be all over the news here in Rhode Island. We're soon to legalize it. And there are, according to what you hear, there are pros and cons. Should it be legalized? Is it good for you? Is it bad for you? What's your take on that?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, let's look at it. First of all, marijuana is found in nature. Therefore, anything that's found in nature is good for us. As we know, god created the heavens and the earth and all the plants in the plant kingdom have their purpose, and, you know, plants are food, they're sustenance, and so therefore, marijuana, being a natural substance, a plant, must have some value for us, the same as alcohol is found in nature, us, the same as alcohol is found in nature, you know, you, uh, you have silos with corn in and it ferments in in, the uh, in the silo, and and the little cows get a little benefit when they're, when they're, eating that uh, chopped corn, and they get a little buzz with the alcohol, you know, and, and the happy cows make happy milk production.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Okay, it is, uh, like all things, something that affects the body, no matter what chocolate, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and all its various forms. You know, we have to understand that it is a plant and therefore various parts of the plant have benefits different than the other various parts of the plant. You know, the sum of the whole kind of thing, some of the whole plant is different, but it has the same effect, it's beneficial. So if we look at this and we say it's found in nature. It has a purpose or benefit to humans, like other things found in nature, that there are components that are helpful, that there are components that are helpful, including those that affect brain damage. That actually is one of the only substances that actually causes the brain to heal itself when it has been damaged or whether there has been internal difficulties or hemorrhage lesions, etc. It's proven that it does physically help the brain to heal. Okay, it also has an effect on people to relax them. It has medical benefits and we're not going to go into the extent of that, but there's proven medical benefits to this plant the oil that's produced from it, the substances that come out of the plant, etc. Etc. Substances that come out of the plant, etc. Etc. We know it's available where you can smoke it, where you can eat it, you can make it into things that are edible and, of course, the edible things, in my opinion, is much safer than the inhaling of smoke or soot. But the effects on the body are the same. There is a relaxation, there is an intoxication and there is an absorption of the chemicals that are found in a marijuana plant.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So what is the problem? The problem is excess. Like all things, alcohol is not bad for you. You have a drink, you have a beer, you have a glass of wine. That's not bad, that's found in nature, that's beneficial. However, taking it to the excess, where you become the drunkard or you become a little belligerent and emotional and you lose your cool, you become an angry drunk, so to speak. Those are all, let's say, the emotions that are inside, that are being released by the alcohol effects are triggering you through the alcohol effects. We all know this. We've all seen our friends be very mild-mannered and then when they have a few drinks, they become the clown. They're happy, they're jovialvial or they turn into, you know, a jekyll and hyde, those and they're mean and nasty. So we can see the effects, uh, of intoxication. The intoxicant itself doesn't cause the outcome of the same. That's already inside the person. It's the process of being intoxicated or high.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So marijuana having, like all things found in nature, including hallucinogenics and other barbiturates and other, let's say, chemicals we're talking opium and and and uh, snake venom and things like that they all have benefits to us and there's more and more research now going into psychedelic drugs. This is a coming science that these drugs have benefits for people who are suffering mental diseases, phobias, schizophrenia, etc. Etc. This is right now. My intuition is right now in the process of developing. Going back to the marijuana which is the old standby which has been used throughout antiquity, the idea that it is of some benefit to us. It certainly has the simple benefit of relaxing us, sort of like a glass of wine or a drink after work or a beer.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It is human nature going to excess. That is the problem. And the wisdom here in the wake up is to put limits on desire. So if you partake, then know your limit. One or two beers, maybe a drink or a glass of wine, if that's your limit, well, you use it, you stay within it, you're okay.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Anything excess of that. And then you're doing something silly or something even worse. You're driving intoxicated or you get into a fight or you do something really really silly or stupid Unwise might be a better word. The same with marijuana If you are driving high, you've committed what I would think is a risk that you can hurt people. And if you're driving a car and you get into an accident and, like alcohol or other things, you took something over and above a legal limit or what would be reasonable? Well, unfortunately. Or what would be reasonable? Well, unfortunately, my friend, you have to pay. There's always consequences.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So if you're taking marijuana and you're using it in the same way that you're using alcohol or wine, I don't see personally any fault in that. I don't believe it's going to take us meaning us humans. It's going to take us down a slippery slope into harder drugs, into places where we become junkies or that we depend on marijuana, sorry, well, okay, let's say we depend on marijuana when we start to crave it. Crave it. That is the slippery slope, because that can lead to experimenting with other drugs, getting involved with serious drugs that are addictive and cause you all kinds of, let's just say, horrors down the road. And when that evil snake in the ground, you know that serpent of temptation leads you into that hedonism or that to be in existence for pleasure. You're lost, you are in trouble.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If you get to that point, or you feel yourself getting to that point, you can still save yourself by cutting down or eliminating whatever the antioxidant is, including marijuana. However, limits on desires A little isn't going to hurt. But to the weak-minded people, the people that are codependent and have psychological disorders or have codependency disorders or have depression or some other mental, emotional disease disease, it could be a problem. But again, so can all the other things in life, including chocolate. If you love chocolate, you can't leave it alone. You have to have it.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You're going to get fat and then you're going to wander around saying, okay, I can't lose weight, what's the me? Well, those 10 chocolate bars you were eating there, bill or Mabel. Maybe you ought to cut down. So have one chocolate bar a week and you'll do it. I mean, it's basically as simple as being in self-control, putting limits on desires and saying to yourself I don't need this. If you find yourself craving marijuana, don't need this. If you find yourself craving marijuana and you're looking forward to it all day and you can't wait to get home to get high, you're already in trouble. So pay attention in the wake up that marijuana is not the problem you are. You're the problem because you're taking excess. You're going too far away from being responsible and enjoying what otherwise should be a natural, relaxing situation.

Les Hubert:

Yeah, a friend of mine. She has MS and she uses the marijuana and it does help her with her pain and the swelling. I just had a quick question, doug. Not long ago we were in a situation I was shopping with my girlfriend and we saw this young lady come into the store and we could smell the marijuana on her. The trouble was she had two young kids with her probably about eight or 10, who are also reeking of marijuana. And these poor kids I couldn't blame them, but they were out of control in the store. I mean, how do you address something like that? We were perplexed. I mean, we couldn't approach them, and neither did the store manager, but these kids were out of control in the store and the mother just was doing her own thing. Is that a possible issue that we're going to have down the road?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, that's a social issue, not necessarily one caused by marijuana. I would suspect my intuition thinking here is that there's already problems at home. And where's the daddy? You know what's going on here. And is this a household where mommy and daddy are going to excess, where their entire social time is dependent on marijuana? You know, when people are poor, unemployed perhaps, but let's just say not enough money to go around, they are in such great pain that they take these toxins to to stop the pain. And that's why poor people who can't afford to drink spend their whole paycheck on drink or alcohol. Because they're in such pain, they take a few drinks, which is okay. That's my reward for working all week. Now the money has to go to groceries and rent. But then they slip past that edge and they say I don't give a damn, one more, one more.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And so looking at that situation with a mummy with two little kids and the smell of marijuana what if you were to smell booze on them? You could say, oh my God, something's going on here. There's a drunk in the family. So what do you do in that going on here? There, there's a drunk in the family, so what do you do in that? Uh, it's not to be. I don't don't be judgmental, but realize that there's something behind what's going on here. And this is the case for just about everybody who has an addiction, whether it's an addiction to food, to tobacco we're talking about regular tobacco or to other things like alcohol or gambling or anything else. When you have an addiction, it's got you, the devil's got you, so to speak. Wake up and start to put limits on desires and start to pull yourself back. You can do it.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But for outside, looking in, when you see situations like that, you say, oh my gosh, what's really going on here? Well, from a position of a judge, so the kids are kicking up a fuss in the store. So what? This is America, you can do what you want. We in the store don't like it. It looks like there's a problem, okay. So what? The kids are fed, they're in the store, they're looking. Okay, mom is letting them run around. What's the problem?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Again, from an outside looking at the law, but from a Christian sort of spiritual perspective, oh my God, those kids are in jeopardy. Look at that. They're not getting any love. Look at that. They're not getting any love. Look at that. They're going around looking for attention because they're not getting any attention at home. These are all things that could be true.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So what do you do in that? Well, with compassion, it might be to find out who that family is and maybe drive by their house and see if their house is a wreck or if it's not, then you say okay. Well, maybe I feel strongly enough about this that I could call up the people who protect children and say I'm not, I don't mean right or wrong, you know whatever's going on here, but the kids were unruly and I happened to see that their house was a dilapidated wreck An old car on the front lawn rusted out. Maybe they need some assistance. Could you send somebody over there to check it out, as opposed to saying that mother is a this and a that and those kids are unruly and I know that there's criminal activity there and you don't know that it takes two people to observe something and to see it identicallyically to say that is a fact. So when you're making stuff up in your mind or you're jumping to conclusions, yes, your heart's going out to them because you think something's wrong here and you should pay attention. You shouldn't look the other way, but not to go too far.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So what do you do in that situation? Well, as I said, find out about them, be cautious about how you do it and just look at it and say, okay, kids smell of marijuana because mommy's been smoking it in the car, right, and that's why they smell. Okay, what can we do about that? What should we do about that? Well then, if you feel strongly about it not because you want to punish mommy, but you want to maybe look out for the kids would be to call up somebody and say I could be right, it could be wrong. I saw this, you know, maybe it could be checked out or not. You know enough people call in about that sooner or later. Or if only one person calls about it, then the social services people will check it out and maybe, just maybe, they're going to get some help. You don't want to cause them any more problems.

Les Hubert:

You don't want to be taken care of.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So you've got to be careful how you say this. Always say what you see, not what you think, and not what you know, because you don't know. So in that situation, yeah, you're concerned. Now, if you were brave, you'd go over and say to the mother how are you, are you okay? I see that kids are giving you a little bit of a hard time here. This is the minister part of you coming out. That's what good spiritual people do. They go over and say can we help you? What's going on? If the woman barks at you and tells you to mind your own business, you don't take offense. You step back and say, okay, obviously there is a problem because the woman reacted. So, and if she does say, well, thank you, I'm managing, it's okay, it's not really sincere. Down at the church we go to, or here's 20 bucks, can you use it? This is what being a good Samaritan is all about. So those are a couple options of what to do.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Usually, people, though, are ready to jump the gun. They smell marijuana, they think the worst, and they're ready to send the cops over with guns blazing to take the kids away, when it could be the exact opposite, and furthest from there. So, as a spiritual person. In the wake up, it's very hard to approach somebody and say that, are you okay? Because the person she might jump down your neck. But if you feel strongly enough about it, you can approach in such a way, say, excuse me, I've had kids like this too. They drove me crazy. Uh, how's everything going at home? You're right, you know like, uh, if, uh, if I can give you a couple bucks here or whatever, or in any way that you seem appropriate, because sometimes it might just be better to look the other way. Right, this family goes through what they're going through, which is their way of living their life. However, if you saw it going on perpetually, you saw a second time the kids were bruised, the kids' clothes were torn and there was something obviously wrong. That's when you make the call for sure.

Les Hubert:

Okay, and just wrapping it up, doug, I remember you mentioned on your show, the Global Village, how people who were having some sort of mental compromise were going to be affected by the 5G network, which is now becoming quite prominent in our society. Is this also going to affect people who are suffering, who are smoking marijuana? Are they going to become more susceptible to the 5G?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, the 5G is a physical thing. There are right now the National Aviation Safety Board has forbid or has around airports, put a perimeter in which the 5g cannot broadcast into the aerodrome, aerospace, the landing strip, if you will, because the 5g is upsetting the instruments and as the plane comes in for landing it might misjudge its altitude, it might go up or down, it might y'all go turn left, right or it might catch up and down uncontrollably because the instruments are being affected. So 5G is influencing small aircraft, maybe small to medium-sized aircraft, around airports, and so that's physical evidence that this 5G is affecting sensitive instruments. Now, people who are already with imbalances, shall we say, in their thinking, I think the 5G could certainly aggravate them to the point where they might have a perpetual headache or feel the vibrations, the frequency of 5G and they turn to marijuana. So it deadens the pain. Of course, the more they feel the pain, the more they smoke or the more they ingest marijuana or other substances to kill the pain. So, in summary, marijuana in itself is not bad. It has extremely good benefits. People have lesions in their brain, physical injuries in their brain. It has other benefits to take away arthritic problems or other issues in your body. It has the simple benefit of relaxing you. You are the problem if you take too much, laxing you. You are the problem if you take too much. And whether it's legalized or not depends on the local opinions of the local people, local community.

Douglas James Cottrell:

In my country, marijuana is legal. When it first was announced that marijuana was going to be sold over the counter legally, there was a huge euphoric oh my god, here it is, free at last. Free at last. There's going to be lineups around the corner. We're going to have people uh, high, you know roaming the streets. We'll have more people who are vagrants. Didn't happen. Didn't happen, as a matter of fact, of all the companies that got involved, thinking they were going to make a buck real fast, get rich quick scheme. It didn't happen. There were people that closed down. There were marijuana operations that invested a lot of money, and some of them are still in existence. What happened was the bubble burst.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It was the perception that everybody was going to be running down and grabbing marijuana reception, that everybody was going to be running down and and grabbing marijuana. Well, whether it's because, uh, you know, it's our country, canada, or whatever, but didn't happen. There are people who go regularly get a nice little basket. You know you can go in there and I've not been in one place myself, but I have friends who are there and I've seen pictures in the newspaper so you get a nice little basket to take your groceries home, your marijuana, just like you get when you take a bottle of liquor or wine home. You put it in a nice brown little envelope or bag for you. Same tradition, okay, you go into the marijuana store and you come out with a little bag. Where have you been? I wonder what you're doing. The same as you go into the liquor store or the beer store, you come up with a little bag or a box. You know, oh my gosh, so uh.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The idea though, that that there was no, there was no, uh, there was no mountain of activity. It wasn't this huge swell of people wanting to buy marijuana. The people, people who bought marijuana, bought marijuana. There was a big fear that people were selling marijuana illegally. That was happening. The basement marijuana growers, well, they've kind of petered out as well, and so now we have equilibrium and we do not have a rise in crime. We do not have a rise in violent crime. We do not have vagrants on the street, you know, as predicted, that everybody's just going to want to get high.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You know, people have done experiments where they've used lab rats and they kept, you know, giving them. They would go and put their nose on a little paddle and a little pill would drop out and the rat would eat it and give them this euphoric arousal of feeling of pleasure. And so, eventually, a rat came. All he did all day was just kept poking this little thing, this little paddle, and eating this pill, to the point that it sacrificed everything else and it died. Well, humans are not that silly, or we have this ability to adjust.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But for those people who are wondering what's going to happen in your community, the people who take marijuana, whether it's a teenager who's trying to pretend they're a big shot, like we all used to do when we smoked cigarettes at school, or whether it's something their people are doing to impress others, or whether they need to do this because they need to do it, it's none of our business really, but they're making these choices. However, if you get caught in some places where it's illegal, you're going to go to jail and for the rest of your life you will have a criminal record in places where it's criminal misdemeanors accepted, but you won't be able to travel. Other countries won't let you in because you have a criminal record, and that's a huge price to play. Pay for somebody who's 15, 18, 25, who happens to be smoking a little marijuana, have something in their pocket that the community has deemed illegal and the rest of their life is ruined For stupid silly stuff. Granted, it's their fault for doing it, but my opinion is, for stupid silly stuff, something better would be needed to be done, and that is education.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Look at what's really going on in some of the other places that have been selling marijuana for a long time now. Is there a crime rate increase? No. Is there a violent attack increase? Nope. Is there a transition from marijuana to harder drugs? Nope. Matter of fact, people stop smoking marijuana, so much you know they're forbidden. Fruit right.

Les Hubert:

Oh, sure, yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Yeah, I can't have it. I want it. Okay, here it is all you want, I don't want it anymore.

Les Hubert:

Yeah, when my sister went to amsterdam she said I asked her what was it like? She said, well, it's legalized and they're taxing it and there's not a problem. She said occasionally you would see somebody you know really stoned. But she said there are clinics there that help them out and she said it actually works for them, so why not do it here?

Douglas James Cottrell:

exactly and think about it. Tax benefit right now to chase down people and arrest them? Uh, police force, uh courts, jails for people smoking marijuana in the community where it's considered unlawful. What a drain drain on the community. That is. Why not turn it around and let all those people who are participating to pay, just like hunters. They buy a hunting license, they pay fees, and that goes right back to help the wildlife. Here's something that could be done, simple in our humble opinion, but marijuana is here to stay. It's been worldwide, it's been used in antiquity, and look at all the countries that are using it and if you have fears and worries about it, statistically look at those countries and you'll find that those fears are unwanted, unnecessary. There's a word I'm looking for, les they're unwarranted. That's the word I'm looking for.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So long and short of it is I'm not an Les. They're unwarranted. That's the word I'm looking for so long. And short of it is I'm not an advocate. I don't take marijuana myself. I don't encourage my children to have done so, and my kids are in their middle 50s now or late 30s 40s, I should say and they've grown up healthy, wealthy and wise and they made their choices, just like you and I did. You're in the wake up, my friends. Next time, les and I will be here for another exciting chapter in the wake up. My website is DouglasJamesCottrellcom. The radio show is called Global Village on Friday nights on Blog Talk Network and you're listening to the podcast Wake Up.

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