Mental illness is a massive problem in the modern West, and it is only going to get worse. Those who have been reading my blog recently will see how I have been challenging the legitimacy of the psychological profession, and especially whether it has any synergy with Christianity (spoiler alert it has almost none).
But this does not mean that I deny that mental illness is a serious problem in our society and that ill people need help, I simply question whether the various branches of the psychological industry are capable of providing that help.
But the fact remains people do need help because people are severely struggling all over the place, and this is only going to get worse because of the prevalence of medical marijuana, among already a host of other overprescribed mind-altering drugs.
The early damaging effects of medical marijuana are already being observed by health professionals:
“Doctors warn of significant increase in people hospitalised with psychosis after being prescribed medicinal cannabis.
Medicinal cannabis is causing harm to some patients, with doctors warning of a significant increase of people ending up in hospital with psychosis after being prescribed the drug.
Their concerns come amid a proliferation of ‘single-issue’ cannabis clinics setting up in Australia, some of them willing to prescribe via telehealth consultations with few checks.
Brett Emmerson, Queensland chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand’s College of Psychiatrists, says the college wants stronger regulations of medicinal cannabis products and prescribing practices.
‘We’re seeing a lot of people getting medicinal cannabis who end up with their first psychotic episode, or we’re seeing it dispensed to people who have psychotic conditions, and these people are relapsing,’ Professor Emmerson says.
‘Part of the issue … are these single-issue clinics which, if you ring up, it doesn’t matter what you say you want.
‘They’ll provide it for you even though there is probably no indication that it will work, and the prescribers never contact the person’s treating doctor.
‘You find out two or three months down the track that one of your patients has been on medicinal cannabis — not prescribed by you but by some other prescriber — usually a doctor who hasn’t had the professional courtesy of contacting you and letting you know…
…’Medicinal cannabis is causing harm. The medication is unregulated, and it’s being used widely for a whole range of conditions for which there is no evidence.’…
‘The use of unregistered medicinal cannabis products has spiralled in recent years, from around 18,000 Australian patients using products in 2019 to more than one million patients using medicinal cannabis up to January 2024,’ a communique from the forum says…”
I am all for seeking to find alternative medicines for different conditions that people have. Medicalized marijuana has been found to help with certain forms of epilepsy and a range of other illnesses, but the wholesale use of medical marijuana in our society is going to cause incredible damage.
The article notes that it is mainly being prescribed for people who are anxious or who cannot sleep, neither of which are things for which medication should be the solution. Internal mental health issues like anxiety or lack of sleep are generally caused by underlying health reasons or environmental and behavioural reasons that should be addressed first. Our society is too quick to use drugs as a quick fix for many issues. This is irresponsible, especially with the side effects that marijuana can produce.
Marijuana, despite what many people assume, is not a safe drug, especially when it is used consistently for long periods, or when it is used at high doses. It addles the mind, it demotivates, and it comes with a host of other issues.
Yes, this plant has been smoked for centuries across civilisations, they even find it in the tombs of Mongol warriors, and in other cultures as well, but often what is smoked or used today is far different than the wild herb found in nature. Still, even the natural variety alters the mind.
Yes, I know that not everyone is being given this to smoke, it is being taken in a variety of forms, but still, you saw the results, doctors are observing more and more people presenting with psychosis. This is because Marijuana, particularly THC, messes with people’s heads.
One of the things you can observe throughout history is that when Christianity increases, drug use is proscribed and often largely suppressed by society, whereas where Christianity decreases, or does not exist, drug use increases or is simply already prevalent.
Christian societies are aware of the damaging effects of mind-altering drugs, how they enslave the mind and the body, how they mask issues rather than solve them, and how they also open up people’s minds to dark spiritual influences. A society given to increasing drug use will reap a whirlwind of destruction in its wake.
I know the war on drugs has been a failure. Fighting the drug war with guns and prison sentences could only fail, because many of those who become addicted, or bonded, to drugs, do so because of issues in their life that are usually relational or emotional.
Solving these issues for people is necessary if you want to give them a way out of drug use, and criminalizing them simply exacerbates those issues.
Of course drug dealers should be hit with the whole book of the law as they are depraved wretches who exploit the broken and spiritually needy for profit, but drug users more often than not, are simply people who need to be plugged into a healthy community to help solve their issues.
So, I am not saying we should not fight the war on drugs, we should, but we should use the right kinds of strategies, mass prescribing these things under the guise of medicine is not a solution, it is and will be an increasing disaster.
Mark my words.
