The problems with long term cannabis use

Stuff has a Sydney Morning Herald story:

A man so muddled by years of marijuana dependency believed he was married to his former flatmate for nearly a decade – a mistake that threatened to derail his wedding to a new partner.

This reminds me of my Otago University days. Otago had a chapter of NORML – the National Organisation to Reform Marijuana Laws. And every few months the branch chair would get up at SRCs and move a motion that OUSA pledge support to legalise cannabis or some such.

The NORML chair would normall start his speech by saying something alone the lines of “I’ve been smoking cannabis for years and years and it has never done me any harm”.

Unfortunately for him, his speaking pace was at around one third the normal pace, so would be more like “I’ve ….. been smoking …… cannabis …. for years …. and years …. and …. it has …… never …… done me ……. any harm”.

Many of us would be in fits of laughter at this and I suggested the anti-cannabis groups should send him on a speaking tour of secondary schools. He would scare more kids off cannabis than any amount of medical literature.

The sad thing is that he never had any perception of how cannabis use had dulled his brain over the years. His dimmed state just became the reality.