From the Horse’s Mouth - The terrible truth about marijuana from a former diehard

by Wyoming Liberty Group

If you really want to know the truth about marijuana, especially as forces continue to try to legalize it in Wyoming, even as the federal government moves to reclassify pot as a less dangerous drug, who better to hear from than a diehard?

That was Anne, a college-educated physical therapist who believed in the power of pot and regularly consumed marijuana as if it was as harmless as popcorn. After Massachusetts legalized marijuana as "medicine," she flocked to get a job as a so-called "budtender." That's a fancy way of saying she secured a gig working behind the counter at a marijuana dispensary—and she barely survived the experience.

What follows is a disturbing, if frightening, glimpse inside the marijuana industry—so, be forewarned—and what would befall Wyoming if we follow other states like Massachusetts that have legalized the mind-altering substance.

At first, Anne marveled at her new place of work; it sought to evoke the hip look of an Apple store, with sleek wooden counters and expansive screens displaying marijuana in all of its illusion of green glory. The job, she thought, was her "dream."

But an early sign that there was something wrong hit Anne when one of her supervisors said that state regulator didn't know much about marijuana and actually turned to pot dispensaries for information. Meanwhile, Anne and other staffers were urged to consume a lot of weed to get to know the product better, so they could impart that knowledge to customers. They called it "homework."

But when staffers talked about the effects of marijuana, it left Anne with an unsettled feeling. One staffer said he experienced seizures. Other coworkers said marijuana left them with headaches, numbness, joint pain, dizziness and even respiratory infections.

Anne tried to dismiss the troubling symptoms.

Meanwhile, the budtenders pitched pot to customers with notions with no foundation in medical fact, telling people, for instance, that one strain of marijuana helped with depression, stress, insomnia, muscle relaxation and gastrointestinal issues. Another strain was marketed as a cure for arthritis, eating disorders, muscle spasms and even post-traumatic stress disorder.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration—the FDA—has concluded, by the way, that marijuana has no approved medical use for treatment in the United States. Not that that mattered to Anne and her colleagues.

That is, until Anne began to notice some other worrisome signs. For instance, mold covered some of the marijuana buds being sold. She also noticed that some marijuana stalks were being dipped in hydrogen peroxide to cover up that mold. She told her supervisors about this. Nothing happened.

As for Anne and her fellow staffers, they continued to get so high on marijuana that they made all kinds of mistakes on the job. For instance, they would mark labels with the wrong level of THC—tetrahydrocannabinol—the psychoactive substance that makes a person high.

It got worse for Anne. She was using pot so frequently that she often found herself in a numbing haze, fantasizing about breaking into cars and then imagining attacking a person with a bat, or knifing, shooting and killing someone. She even starting hearing a voice—her own—saying she should commit suicide. Anne spent days thinking about ways to end her life.

The despair eventually led to physical pain for Anne, what she described as abdominal bloating, cramps and insomnia, among other things. Eventually, she went to a doctor, who diagnosed her with lead poisoning. What Anne experienced isn't isolated; in fact, states as far flung as Alaska and Colorado that have legalized marijuana have reported finding pot with alarming levels of various contaminants—not just heavy metals but fungus and pesticides.

Anne, recovering her health, finally had had enough. She resigned from the pot shop and stopped using marijuana altogether.

She isn't alone. Other people, former true believers, have emerged in recent years, talking about the dangers of marijuana.

Anne, though, was one of the lucky ones. She got out before it was too late. Others haven't been so fortunate, as reports have mounted across the country about those who have suffered from the damaging effects of marijuana, whether it is serious physical ailments, or even a psychotic break.

Let the story of Anne—a former true believer—be a cautionary tale for us in Wyoming.