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My family and I live in a "crisp" city, which means that people are interested in everything about health. It also means that we are witnessing a rise in what are essentially snake oil hawking shops that are born to sell marijuana products.
While stores sell CBD (non-psychoactive component) without THC (which contains the psychoactive properties that make you go up), the CBD with THC finds itself in the hands of people in our neighborhood. The exact way this is going on is not certain, but there are rumors that people would bring Colorado products and sell them on the black market.
These stores make big claims about their products, sometimes claiming that they cure almost all sun ailments, especially anxiety. As for safety, the argument is this: God created the marijuana plant, so it is natural and therefore safe.
It seems to me a bit like the same claims of the essential oil sellers who landed people in the hospital after ingesting essential oils. Or the claims of many other multi-level marketing companies that sell products related to health. (After all, cyanide is natural too, but you do not see people smoking or drinking it!)
Unfortunately for these salespeople, no matter how many times you recite something, the statements do not make things true. This does not magically conjure up security studies magically and does not say exactly what you want. The peddling of THC and CBD products as a panacea for everyone is dangerous and irresponsible on a medical level.
Tracking THC and CBD products
Marijuana products have a cult, and that is understandable. As a result, any opposition to the use of marijuana products is automatically categorized as critical by a third party. This often results in a controversial debate about support for "Big Pharma" and the opposition to healing, making it difficult to hold truly measured conversations about potential risks and studies.
No sick person wants to see something that breaks all hope of a new therapy. People with health problems want something to repair them, and many people are more than happy to make a profit-making hope, without making sure their buyers have the necessary elements to take an informed decision.
When I was in college, my classmates had no idea how marijuana actually works, let alone its long-term effects. Most of what they knew was their experience of smoking seals in the basement toilet. One of my classmates actually murmured during a discussion on the subject: "It does not matter for your brain, it just makes you high!" It does not matter if THC is transported from the lungs to the blood through the brain!
Of course, not everyone knows how marijuana works. People who are interested in it for health reasons surely have an interest in ensuring their safety and knowing their positive effects. This includes the potential relief that it can bring to people suffering from chronic pain and epilepsy. And many recreational users are also informed of what they put in their bodies.
Unfortunately, there is no drug with totally positive side effects for every individual. We can not ignore the harmful effects that some people experience from CBD and THC products. There is also a certain degree to which we can say that the dose is poisonous.
Potential negative side effects of marijuana include decreased IQ following long-term significant exposure over many years, testicular cancer, smoking-related breathing problems, decreased levels of dopamine (unrelated to schizophrenia), and sometimes change in the number of sperm resulting from intensive use.
This is far from being an exhaustive list. Maybe the last side effect is the most noticeable and the least understood. One study puts forward a decrease in the number of sperm as a result of the drug, while another states that it increases sperm count.
My concern, however, is not with the number of sperms. It's rather with the other effects that marijuana can have on sperm. These are permanent genetic changes in sperm DNA, structural changes and negative consequences for DNA methylation. This has astonishing consequences for the children conceived by the parents who use this drug, especially since many of the products are now more concentrated than those of previous generations.
The link between schizophrenia and marijuana use is perhaps the most enlightening reason why this drug is not intended for and should not be recommended to all individuals. As Medical News Today says: "Recent research suggests that not only people prone to schizophrenia are more likely to try cannabis, but that cannabis can also increase the risk of developing symptoms."
Why would it be? The answer lies in the field of genetics, and in particular of epigenetics.
Epigenetics is important to fully assess the risk
Epigenetics is a booming field of research. If we have known genetics and some genes for a while, we have not fully understood how they work. You have certain genes, but epigenetics determines whether they are actively expressed in your body. The field of genetics deals with the basis of what can happen, while epigenetics deals with the possibilities of gene expression in this predetermined set.
Schizophrenia and marijuana use have been linked to at least two genes: AKT1 and COMT. The genes of schizophrenia are not the only ones on which marijuana compounds work (not just THC, which is one of many cannabinoids), some of them even having the effect of causing chromosomal breaks and deletions.
Although other genes do not expose you to a risk of schizophrenia associated with marijuana use, they do affect the way you treat the drug. For example, a gene known as rs2609997 may expose you to a risk of drug dependence. Changes in rs806380 may have a wide range of effects on marijuana metabolism, including a lower or higher risk of dependence or dependence depending on the genetic allele present. It is also known to influence the risk of schizophrenia in marijuana users.
Other genotypes that affect marijuana use include rs806377, rs806368, rs12720071 and rs324420. Who knows how many other examples can be in the dark genome.
Science has led us to a place where we are far beyond the excuse of trying to make general and generalized recommendations on supplements and medications without any foresight for individual genetics and family predispositions. Although marijuana in all its forms may be useful to some people, this does not seem to be the case for everyone. Individual risks must be taken into account and must not be used recklessly.
Despite what many people may claim, the use of this medication does not only affect the individual. It affects them and their families, who may be confronted with the side effects, and the society that may be institutionalized if, for example, marijuana brings out schizophrenic qualities. More than that, it could affect the next generation. There are many unknowns that deserve to be considered before we all hurry to nibble.
And if Pottenger's cats are an indication of this, perhaps we should ask ourselves how many generations of families can use it if we continue to ignore the consequences.
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