[njoubert]

Lots of denial and sarcasm in the comments here. A person close to me had many of the experiences described in this, including the psychotic episodes that I had to help them through. Try to imagine how frightening and difficult it is to see someone you care about experience that, from a substance that's portrayed as safe and harmless and fun. they are still working to get back to a healthy place after years of cannibis abuse.

[jfengel]

And cannabis was the only substance they were using? Were they using cannabis as a substitute for some other medicine, that they're now currently on?

It hardly seems fair to say "I know a guy..." to justify comparing a drug that is widely considered safe to one where people have been convicted of widespread fraud for claiming safety when they knew that it was not.

I am sorry for your friend, but based on the very limited data you have given it, it sounds like there could easily be other circumstances that make even that one data point uninformative.

[bko]

The burden of safety falls on those who want to sell a product, not the other way around. From the article, all the beneficial effects and safety studies for the drug have been done on a much lower THC dosage than you see today.

Everything that we know as dangerous today was thought of as benign at some point in time. Cigarette smoke was safe until the harmful effects were so obvious that they were impossible to ignore. Pain-killers were safe and non-habit forming. And on and on.

With legalization, there are billions of dollars to be made, and a lot of businesses are being snapped up by big Tobacco. How dangerous it is will only be known well out into the future, and there's no real incentive to discover the dangers. People are making money and enjoying consuming the product.

I personally think it should be legalized but I do worry about moneyied interests in the field and the strength. I think its definitely harmful to young people (teenagers). Long term use is almost certainly not good for you as well as very high concentrates (dabs, edibles, etc). And driving while under the influence is dangerous as well but widely disregarded.