Activists agitating for removal of all barriers to pot smoking have been over-hyping the benefits and underselling the adverse effects.
‘Scromiting’ is a nasty one we’ll come back to, but there are other more mundane negative consequences as well.
A famous quote by Simone Weil comes to mind: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”
Canada has legalized us nationally. They already have studies showing that youth are not only among the highest per-capita pot users in the world, but that such use is landing them in the emergency room, per a study titled:Original quantitative research – The impact of recreational cannabis legalization on pediatric emergency department visits in British Columbia, Canada
Canadian youth report some of the highest rates of cannabis use globally, raising concerns about child and youth poisonings from unintentional exposures and recreational use following legalization. This study examines and compares trends in cannabis poisonings among children and youth aged 16 years or younger treated in the emergency department (ED) of a Canadian pediatric hospital before and after the legalization of non-medical cannabis.
But maybe the person you know who uses it medically does so to help with anxiety or depression. They might want to rethink that strategy:
A sweeping new analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry challenges one of the fastest-growing trends in modern medicine: the use of cannabis-based treatments for mental health. After reviewing a vast body of clinical evidence, researchers found no reliable support for using medicinal cannabis to treat anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).[…] Dr. Wilson said, “But the overall quality of evidence for these other conditions, such as autism and insomnia, was low. In the absence of robust medical or counseling support, the use of medicinal cannabis in these cases is rarely justified. —University of Sydney study
It gets worse. The study in Canada shows a strong link in the other direction, worsening anxiety and depression… and suicidal tendencies.
The study, led by McMaster University and published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry on Feb. 26, 2026, analyzed data from two large, nationally representative Statistics Canada surveys of Canadians aged 15 and older living in the provinces, to examine cannabis use and mental‑health outcomes between 2012 and 2022.
With the legalization of cannabis in Canada landing at the midpoint of the study period, the authors suggest that stronger products, wider availability and increased use for stress relief – may be contributing to the patterns they observed. The study doesn’t prove causation, but it underscores a widening public‑health issue as cannabis use and mental‑health challenges rise in parallel.
Source: Clash Daily
