How California's legal cannabis dream became a public health nightmare

It's a class B drug in the UK - but in the US state it's led to spiralling addiction, psychotic illnesses and hospitals facing a deluge of poisonings

A row of luxury 'healing' creams is guarded by a locked glass cabinet, gilded in gold trim.

The packaging is stylishly minimal – clean and white with small black typeface – and beside the tubs sit decorative, artificial fruit and images of sprawling fields, with a small flyer to remind customers of the high-quality, organic nature of the products.

I spot one pot – a snip at $43, or roughly £35 – that is specifically designed for 'replenishing and rejuvenating' tissues in the, er, vagina. Alongside me, expensively dressed customers peruse the goods, clutching colourful iced smoothies and juices.

I'm in upmarket Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California, in one of the area's many so-called 'wellness' shops, just a stone's throw from designer boutiques such as Gucci and Saint Laurent. It's a far cry from Holland & Barrett, not least because all the products here at the Serra boutique contain high-grade, genetically engineered cannabis.

There are balms and lotions, things to eat and, of course, to smoke. One display cabinet showcases dozens of dried cannabis flowers, each bud sitting in its own pretty porcelain dish, labelled according to its supposed benefit: happiness, creativity, relaxation.

Mail on Sunday deputy health editor Eve Simmons in the marijuana-growing section of a cannabis shop 'dispensary' called Traditional in trendy downtown LA, which London Mayor Sadiq Khan recently visited on a 'fact finding mission' +6 View gallery Mail on Sunday deputy health editor Eve Simmons in the marijuana-growing section of a cannabis shop 'dispensary' called Traditional in trendy downtown LA, which London Mayor Sadiq Khan recently visited on a 'fact finding mission'

MORE>>>>>> In another cabinet is a perfect grid of individual chocolate truffles, priced up to £5 a pop, a bit like something you’d find in the food hall in a department store. Only these sweet treats are laced with 10mg of THC, the psychoactive component in the marijuana plant.

Recreational use of cannabis, which is classified as a class B drug in the UK, possession of which could land you with up to five years in prison, has been legal in California since 2016. Two decades earlier it was made available to buy, via a doctor’s prescription, to treat a variety of minor ailments from back pain to anxiety.

Today, about one in five people in California use cannabis regularly, and it has become something of a health trend – not simply legal and above board but, judging by the stylish throng at Serra when I visited, practically de rigueur.

The sales assistants – who all look like Hollywood star turned health guru Gwyneth Paltrow – tell me of the variety of uses: aching muscles, headaches, anxiety, insomnia, arthritic pain and many more.

‘I take a very small dose every day, just to calm any nerves I might be feeling,’ one willowy, tanned brunette tells me. ‘It’s definitely changed my life for the better.’

Out on the streets, billboards advertising cannabis shops, or dispensaries as they are officially known, which makes them sound very medical, are on every corner, inviting customers to try ‘alternative healing’.

Some shops are also art galleries, while others sell hipster favourites such as artisan coffee.

Part of my journey followed in the footsteps of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who recently visited a number of LA’s dispensaries on a ‘fact finding mission’. He announced that a new group would be set up to look at the benefits of legalising cannabis in the UK, although Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed the suggestion, saying he had ‘no powers’ to make any such changes.

Perhaps Khan would benefit from a chat with Dr Roneet Lev, an emergency doctor at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, who tells me: ‘We’ve been seeing the problems for a while now: depressive breakdowns, psychosis, suicidal thoughts, all related to cannabis. The patients are regular people, not down-and-outs.

‘I want people to know the truth about this drug. We’ve been sold a lie, that cannabis use is harmless and even has a multitude of health benefits. It is exactly the same as what happened with tobacco. The industry told the public it was good for their health at first, before it was proven to be deadly.’

In California, hospital admissions for cannabis-related complications have shot up – from 1,400 in 2005 to 16,000 by 2019. In California, and the other 18 states that have legalised cannabis, rates of addiction are nearly 40 per cent higher than states without legal cannabis, according to research by Columbia University.

A study published on Thursday suggested recreational marijuana users were 25 per cent more likely to end up needing emergency hospital treatment. And, according to data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the risk of being involved in a cannabis-related accident is significantly higher in states where the drug is legal.

Michelle Leopold, 57, from San Francisco, has fallen victim to the worst possible consequences of the normalisation of cannabis use. In 2019, her 18-year-old son Trevor (together, above) died after dabbling with prescription painkillers ¿ and unwittingly taking a tablet of powerful opioid Fentanyl ¿ following four years of addiction to cannabis

There are other concerns too, not least about the black market that has grown by nearly 100 per cent since cannabis laws were relaxed, as bootleggers sell products at a lower price, undercutting the registered shops.

Experts say these problems are mostly down to record levels of cannabis use – with roughly 40 per cent of Californians now saying they’ve dabbled at least once, according to a California Department of Public Health survey.

UK laws around the medical use of cannabis were relaxed four years ago, allowing specialist doctors to prescribe medicine made from the drug to some patients with epilepsy, or to treat vomiting related to cancer treatment and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Just last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that 9,000 Britons are regularly prescribed the drug by private doctors, in some cases outside of official rules.

Pro-drug legalisation campaigners have long seen medical use as a way to gain a foothold in public acceptance. And perhaps it’s working. Polls show that between 30 and 40 per cent of Britons are in favour of full legalisation – with research suggesting six million would smoke cannabis if it was legalised.

As it is, about a third of Britons say that they’ve used cannabis, according to data by research firm Statista.

California became the first US state to authorise the sale of cannabis for medical reasons in 1996 after a handful of studies showed small doses of the drug were beneficial for patients suffering cancer pain.

Anyone with a functioning brain knew it would.

All the pro-marijuana propaganda reminded me of the pro-alcohol propaganda when prohibition was repealed and the pro-tobacco propaganda between World Wars I and II. Anybody with a functioning brain saw the propaganda for what it was.

Millions of people follow zeitgeist groupthink like brainless sheep. They're doing it today.

In the past, the American education system taught students to think for themselves. Today US schools are indoctrination centers; the last thing they want is for students to think for themselves. The teachers cannot think for themselves. All this merely encourages the brainless morons who accept the zeitgeist groupthink as ultimate truth and are too stupid, lazy, and afraid of phony bogeymen to think for themselves.

For examples, look at movies made in the 1930s and early '40s. The most absurd alcohol and tobacco consumption is celebrated.

There was one flick in which the girls of the chorus were puffing away on cigarettes.

In another, the man and woman awaken in the night trying to solve a murder case, and they fix themselves a drink or two.

In another, a man and woman go to a bar, sit at a table, and order--and drink--shots of whiskey.

Today's sheep denounce cigarettes and to some extent alcohol, but celebrate cannabis and other drugs, in blind obedience to the zeitgeist groupthink.

With millions of people that unable--or unwilling--to think for themselves, it's no wonder that the USA is in the mess it's in.

Discouraging school children from thinking for themselves--taught by teachers who can't think for themselves--is making matters even worse.

There was one old movie in which an aspiring school teacher said that he wanted to teach children a minimum of facts but how to think for themselves. What a shame that today's educators didn't learn from that instead of enslaving themselves to groupthink.

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