Kinda akin to the “hockey stick graph” which connects CO2 and air temp... it is possible to have the correlation be true, but the causation be reverse of what the “experts” predict.
Most of the heavy pot users I’ve met started very early with tobacco and alcohol. Before that, you can almost predict who’s gonna be a user. It is my contention... and the contention of any number of substance abuse professionals... that people with psychological issues self-medicate with these substances.
In other words (Clift notes alert!) it is possible that early onset of psychological difficulties is connected to pot smoking due to people self medicating, as opposed to pot smoking causing the difficulties.
Duck and cover! You went and stepped in it.
“It is my contention... and the contention of any number of substance abuse professionals... that people with psychological issues self-medicate with these substances.”
That’s a very interesting hypothesis, and quite possibly true; and exactly what I told my son when he asked me if pot was really dangerous. I told him that no one really knows if pot causes madness, or madness causes pot use. So even aside from the importance of obeying the law, it is best to play it safe and avoid this quite possibly hazardous substance.
I also remember the lie detector question I was asked many years ago while interviewing for a famous Wall Street bank: “Have you used any illegal drug other than marijuana?”. I inferred that the bank owners were themselves recreational smokers. It’s an utter disgrace that government continues to put people in jail for doing what Clinton, Bush, Palin, and Wall Street bigwigs have also done.