The Evolution of Marijuana: Not Your Grandads' Weed

Some of the information in this episode was taken from my good friend Ben Cort, author of "Weed, Inc."  If you want to learn more from him, please reference his Ted Talks:

https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_cort_what_commercialization_is_doing_to_cannabis

The modern marijuana landscape has undergone a radical transformation that few people fully understand. What was once a relatively mild substance with THC concentrations of 0.5-1% has evolved into a highly potent drug containing 15-30% THC in plant form and up to a staggering 90% in concentrates. This isn't your grandparents' weed - it's a completely different substance with serious health implications.

As competition drives dispensaries to create increasingly potent products, we're witnessing a marketplace-driven acceleration of THC delivery with minimal regulation. Unlike alcohol, which faces strict concentration limits and ingredient oversight, marijuana cultivation practices often include concerning chemicals and pesticides that would never be permitted in other consumable products. The result? A substance that's potentially more dangerous than many realize.

The health consequences are troubling. Recovery from marijuana addiction now takes longer than recovery from substances like methamphetamine or fentanyl, with normal cognitive and memory function potentially impaired for 60-90 days after cessation. Young chronic users face significantly higher risks of psychiatric issues including THC-induced psychosis. Perhaps most alarming is Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS), a painful condition causing violent vomiting that affects up to 30% of chronic users and can only be treated through complete abstinence.

What makes marijuana addiction particularly challenging is its gradual progression, allowing users to easily deny the connection between their use and life problems. If you're concerned about a loved one who uses marijuana heavily, especially if they began at a young age, understanding these modern realities is crucial. Reach out to me at matt@partywreckers.com or interventiononcall.com if you need guidance navigating this complex issue.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing the Party Wreckers Podcast
• 1:38 The Evolution of Marijuana Potency
• 5:52 Unregulated THC Marketplace Dangers
• 10:22 Health Consequences and Recovery Timeline
• 13:39 Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome Explained
• 20:12 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Party Wreckers podcast, hosted by seasoned addiction interventionist, Matt Brown. This is a podcast for families or individuals with loved ones who are struggling with addiction or alcoholism. Perhaps they are reluctant to get the help that they need. We are here to educate and entertain you while removing the fear from the conversation. Stick with us and we will get you through it. Welcome the original party wrecker, Matt Brown.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Party Wreckers podcast. My name is Matt Brown. I'm your host. I'm so glad you've decided to tune in today. I think that I'm probably going to step on some toes by talking about what I'm going to talk about Certainly not from those that listen on a regular basis, but if you've kind of come across this as you've been searching for a specific topic, I want to talk today about marijuana addiction.

Speaker 2: 1:20

I think that in the landscape of addiction recovery, this is often something that gets really overlooked. It becomes less significant in the face of methamphetamines and fentanyl and even alcohol, which are kind of the big three in the landscape of intervention right now. In the landscape of intervention right now, but as I've done this for quite some time, there's definitely been an evolution of marijuana over the course of the last 20 years and going back even further. I want to start out by saying that the marijuana that's available to people today is not the marijuana that your grandpa grew up with or that we grew up with. Our kids are smoking and ingesting marijuana that's much more potent and much more powerful than anything that we could have imagined. Just to put a little bit of history behind this. If you go back prior to 1970-ish, the days of reefer madness and I don't know how many of you guys I'm dating myself, certainly by mentioning that film, but that was the first exposure that those that weren't users of marijuana got a glimpse, at least from a propaganda standpoint, of the dangers of marijuana Back then.

Speaker 2: 2:50

The concentration of THC, and that's really what we're talking about. When we're talking about marijuana today, there's really I mean, there's a number of different chemicals involved, but the two main ones are CBD, which is really where a lot of the good medicinal, valuable things are coming from. There's so much research to suggest that CBD actually really has a lot of benefits health-wise. Also, it has no psychoactive properties. You cannot get high from CBD, of course, the more popular chemical that most people want to focus on and if you're using this as a way to get high, you're focused on THC.

Speaker 2: 3:34

And as many states and I live in Oregon, one of the early states to legalize recreational use of marijuana as many states are starting to legalize recreational use of marijuana, excuse me as many states are starting to legalize recreational use. What we're seeing, you know, since 1970, getting back to that point, I got distracted there for a second, but getting back to that point, prior to 1970, the concentrations of THC were really probably in the neighborhood of 0.5 to 1% of coming straight off the plant. As time went on, we started to see those concentrations go up a little bit. By the time I was in full-blown addiction in my 20s, and this is 22 years ago. We're probably talking about 5%, 4% THC straight off the plant. Now here's where things start to get interesting Right around 2009, 2010 through 2014, where we first started seeing dispensaries open for medicinal use and then, of course, as Colorado and then Washington State and then Oregon shortly followed suit, started to legalize recreational use.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Now what we have is a competition marketplace for THC delivery, because if I own a dispensary and you own a dispensary, we're in the same town and we are competing with one another for customers. In the capitalist system that we live in, the only thing for me to do to attract more customers than you primarily is to increase the THC content of my product product. You know, most of the time they're not coming because I'm a nice guy. They're not coming because I have a nice store. They're coming because my product is going to get them more high than your product will. And so what we've come to is this idea that we it's not legalization of marijuana, it's not legalization of marijuana. What we're seeing is a marketplace-driven acceleration of THC delivery. And so what's happening now, as recreational marijuana use has been legalized in many states, what used to be half a percent or 1%, and then 4% to 5%, is now anywhere from 15% to 30%, depending on the strain, depending on cultivation methods, depending on what kind of chemicals were used to accelerate growth.

Speaker 2: 6:19

There's all kinds of different things and there's nothing regulated about it. You know, when you look at where we've come from prohibition with alcohol from the 1920s there are certain limitations on concentration of alcohol and there's certain limitations on other things that are allowed or not allowed in alcohol. Same thing with nicotine You've got nicotine being added to cigarettes, to vapes, those kinds of things to make it more addictive. But there are some regulations around that. In the marijuana industry, there aren't any regulations. Nobody can say, hey, you can't use these kinds of pesticides, you can't use these growth accelerators, you can't cultivate this way, you can't grow it this way. It's kind of a cowboy industry, and while on paper there may be checks and balances, when it comes to the actual enforcement of it. It's very, very limited.

Speaker 2: 7:18

I was listening to a talk by a friend of mine named Ben Court, who is out of Colorado, and some of the data that he had gathered. You have the marijuana enforcement and alcohol enforcement in Colorado, and, even though marijuana enforcement has a higher level of staff and higher level of funding than alcohol enforcement in Colorado, the number of inquiries into quality control, those kinds of things it was about an 80 to one ratio in alcohol versus marijuana inquiries, and so you have this entire department that's there to enforce certain things on paper, but the actual enforcement is happening on about an 80 to 1 ratio when compared to alcohol as opposed to marijuana, and so that's happening here in Oregon as well. Up in Washington, many of the other states where recreational use has been legalized is that you've got no limit on the amount or concentration of THC, and so you're getting 15 to 30% right off the plant. Now, when you start talking about distillates and waxes and dabbing and edibles and all of the concentrates and things like that, we're seeing upwards of 80 to 90% concentrations of THC. Preston Pyshko PhD.

Speaker 2: 8:46

Now that number is staggering compared to where we were 50 years ago at half a percent, and so the unintended consequence of all of this is that the rates of addiction have gone up for marijuana. There's actually we're seeing an increase in overdose from THC poisoning and I'll get into that here in just a little bit but all of these things where grandpa's weed was considered to be non-addictive, non-problematic, we're starting to see a shift in a very significant way away from that, and as concentrations climb, rates of addiction go up. As concentrations climb, rates of addiction go up. Bipolar borderline personality disorder. We're seeing a real problem with THC-induced psychosis. Sometimes that's temporary, sometimes it's not, and what we're finding is that the rates of recovery from marijuana addiction actually take a lot longer than some of these other substances, things that we look at as being very dangerous, like fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Speaker 2: 10:22

It's taking so much longer for the body and the brain to come back into homeostasis with marijuana addiction than with some of these other substances, and I think that's what makes this so dangerous is that the perception is well, this is very benign. It's a natural plant, it comes from the ground. Many of the people that I intervene on, where marijuana is the primary drug of choice, these are the things they're saying to their family. To kind of deescalate the problem. This isn't really that bad, mom and dad. It's just weed, it's natural, you know, it's completely organic, you know. And marijuana is the most genetically modified plant on the face of the earth today. When you look at how many geneticists get involved, how many different cultivation practices have evolved to accelerate the cultivation and harvest times, the THC concentrations, how they've moved most of the grow operations indoors to more closely control a lot of the variables to produce a higher concentration of THC, it's just become much more scientific and, frankly, much more dangerous.

Speaker 2: 11:42

And as these other psychiatric issues are beginning to happen, we're seeing the recovery time really get extended. We're not seeing people able to even put their feet on terra firma, mentally speaking, for sometimes 60 days, sometimes 90 days, before they can actually have a return of somewhat normal cognitive functions, normal memory function. Oftentimes short-term memory can be impacted for months and months after somebody has stopped using Because of the high concentrations. The numbers are staggering and I really wanted to get this out today to those families that are struggling with loved ones who have, especially a young man. We're seeing it with young women too, not in the same kind of concentrations as we are with young men, but if you have a son who started smoking pot at an early age and who's using let's say, chronically, you know, four or more times a week, the rate of potential psychiatric impact goes up exponentially and most of the time, with the population that I work with, we're talking daily use and oftentimes more than once a day for them to be using marijuana. This also goes for vaping, it goes for edibles, it goes for dabbing the higher the concentration, the more dangerous this becomes.

Speaker 2: 13:21

Now here's the other thing that I think we're really starting to see a shift in, and that is I'm going to try to pronounce this correctly cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and basically what that is is an overdose of THC. Now, sometimes it accumulates over time, and we usually see it in people who smoke multiple times per week over a longer period of time. So the effect kind of is cumulative in the body. But ultimately what you have with we'll just kind of abbreviate it as CHS, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is that you'll see very intense bouts of vomiting where, sometimes multiple times per hour, people are vomiting violently, dry, heaving, when their gut is empty and they can't seem to stop. And it's not just vomiting but it's excruciatingly painful. One person's account that I read it said that she felt like she had swallowed the sun. That's how painful this was for her, and the only thing that tends to bring them relief is taking very, very hot showers or baths, and somehow getting underneath that hot water helps the body to at least temporarily abate some of the symptoms. That so the upside and the downside is that if somebody has crossed that line and they're starting to experience CHS, the only long-term fix is abstinence. They have to stop smoking pot. If they don't, it will continue or get worse, and so the prescription that most doctors are requiring is abstinence from marijuana use. That includes marijuana use in all forms.

Speaker 2: 15:24

We're seeing most of the CHS cases coming from people who are inhaling marijuana smoke. They're smoking marijuana, and that's just because people who use more frequently tend to use it that way rather than with edibles. Use it that way rather than with with edibles. Um, but when I say inhaling it, I'm talking about the plant itself, but also the waxes, uh, oils, those kinds of things where it's inhaled and immediately becomes active in the system and and so it gets to the point where obviously there's dehydration, there's electrolyte imbalances. It's not something that's I don't want to compare it to like a fentanyl overdose where death is eminent.

Speaker 2: 16:08

I think that's probably a little bit of an overreach, but it's becoming so common that they're saying about 10% in some studies they're saying even up to 30% of people who chronically smoke marijuana are experiencing some symptoms of CHS. And so, as you have loved ones that are chronically smoking marijuana, those are the kinds of things that you want to look out for, and I'll post in the show notes a link to some of the symptoms of CHS. The ones that you're going to see most readily are just really intense vomiting and abdominal pain. The other thing that they're saying is that the normal medications that they would give somebody to help somebody stop vomiting are rendered ineffective, that this acts on the body in a different way and the normal anti-nausea medications, things like Zofran or other medications that would help somebody to stop vomiting, are not effective, with somebody's vomiting because of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. And so it seems a little bit paradoxical because in many cases, especially with chronic cancer patients who are going through chemotherapy, where sometimes the doctors will encourage marijuana use to avoid feelings of nausea, it gets to this point where it becomes paradoxical and it actually becomes the reason that people become violently nauseous and violently ill and in a lot of pain. They're not exactly sure why this is.

Speaker 2: 17:49

As I was doing some research for this episode, I came across a number of different theories. Some of them conflicted with one another, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of voices trying to pinpoint why this is happening. But because of the way that the cannabinoid system in the body works, uh, they're they're not really able to say other than the fact that it's an overdose, uh, from the, from the THC molecule, and that the only thing to really that can be done about it is to stop smoking or stop ingesting marijuana altogether, not just smoking. So I wanted to bring that to light today. I don't want to belabor it, but it's something that's come up on the intervention on call, family calls. It's something that comes up in some of the practice that I've had privately as an. It's something that comes up's cultivated in a very scientific way with a ton of chemicals that aren't even fit for topical use on animals, and these pesticides are being used on plants that are being lit on fire and inhaled, and these chemicals ride along with them.

Speaker 2: 19:16

There's so many different things that are happening that are just going completely unchecked, and I'm not against adults who are informed, who are not of the ilk that I am, when it comes to some of that addictive personality, that addictive mindset, that addictive makeup. By and large, most people who use marijuana are not going to become addicted to it in the way that I was addicted to substances, but for those that are, I think it's one of the most dangerous substances out there, because we can lie to ourselves so much more and believe the lie, whereas with methamphetamines I knew exactly what the cause of my problems were. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I knew that they were contributory to the problems that I was having With somebody chronically smoking marijuana for 10 or more years. It's very easy for us to say, oh well, I didn't lose my job because I smoked pot, I've been smoking pot for 10 years. I didn't lose my relationship because I've been smoking pot. That happened over a much longer period of time. But if we can look at it with honest eyes, we can generally start to see that there are consequences from marijuana use, that we can draw a straight line between marijuana use and those consequences, and so I hope that if you have opinions on this, you'll reach out.

Speaker 2: 20:35

I would love to hear. I hope that at one point here in the near future I can get Ben Cort on here and actually interview him and provide you guys with much more data on exactly what's going on. He works with a number of different nonprofits and a number of different institutes where they're actively trying to pass legislation that will somehow implement limits on THC concentrations. That was the word I was looking for, and he's just done much more research than I have on this, but I wanted to at least get the conversation started today. I would love to hear your feedback.

Speaker 2: 21:13

If you have questions, if you have comments, please reach out to me. The email is matt at partyrecordscom. If you have comments, please reach out to me. The email is matt at partyrecordscom. If you have a loved one who's struggling, I would be more than happy to talk to you about that. You can always book a session with me at interventiononcallcom or you can reach out to me. Like I said, the email is matt at partyrecordscom. Love to hear from you. Until then, I hope your loved one will get sober and stay sober. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Until then, I hope your loved one will get sober and stay sober. Thanks for your time To learn more or to ask us a question we can answer in a future episode. Please visit us at PartyWreckerscom and remember don't enable addiction ever.