Happy 4/20!  For those of you not in the know, “420” has become code of sorts for smoking pot–named after a group of students who used to gather to smoke pot at 4:20 p.m. (For more about the origins of the “code” 420, see this Snopes link, which will also disavow you of the popular belief that 420 is the California penal code for marijuana use.) 

As a scientist, I have a lot of opinions about drugs and alcohol. Namely, they are bad for brain development and their use should, in my opinion, be delayed as long as possible so that the developing brain is not adversely affected. In addition, the developing judgment that is normal for a young brain is generally speaking not equipped to be making decisions about the use of drugs and alcohol, making it exponentially complicated to contemplate a young brain partaking in the consumption of drugs and alcohol.

As a scientist, I also have a lot of opinions about the use of certain drugs in the treatment of a variety of maladies and symptoms and diseases. For a long time, certain aspects of our government had a large investment in demonizing drugs in general, and some of the “anti-marijuana propaganda” of yesteryear are, to our modern eyes, laughable.

What I have decided to do on 4/20 is to provide links to what I think are the most reliable recent scientific articles about the use of certain drugs, starting with, but not limited to, marijuana.

Marijuana

Marijuana acts on very powerful and important receptors throughout your brain and body and can relieve myriad painful and troublesome symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis, arthritis, glaucoma, terminal-illness-related lack of appetite and nausea, and depression.

Here is a link to a wonderful set of articles detailing the impact of marijuana on a variety of diseases.

The marijuana available for recreational use is many many times more potent than the marijuana that was available for recreational use in decades past. I think when a lot of people who like marijuana hear this, they think, “oh, they just don’t want me to have a good time. This weed is awesome!” What the difference is, however, is that more potent and more concentrated marijuana has much stronger effects, more impairment of judgment, and more ability to make you smoke a whole lot more than is healthy especially for a developing brain and body.

Marijuana is notorious for making you feel like hanging out, eating delicious food, watching TV, and hanging out and smoking some more. It’s not for me to say there’s anything wrong with that, but if you are a person who is trying to get a lot of things done in life, you may want to watch how much marijuana you smoke.  In addition, in the past decade or so, we have seen a very prominent search in the normalization of marijuana use from a lot of celebrities and musicians, and even some athletes. While celebrities and musicians and athletes are allowed to do whatever they want, they do have a strong influence, especially on young people. The notion of a pot-smoking lifestyle as something to aspire to is nothing I ever would’ve imagined when I was a kid.

All of that aside, when I was in junior high and high school,  I knew a handful of people who had smoked pot. I’m pretty sure that if you are over the age of 14 or so, you probably know a few handfuls of people who have smoked pot.  There is nothing wrong with not smoking pot, so if it’s not your thing, or you are concerned about your brain and body to the point that you don’t want to put marijuana into it, good for you. And if you do smoke pot, I hope that you believe us old fogeys when we say to please be careful, and don’t drive when you’re stoned, and that you know that there are a lot of ways to have a good time and to relax without relying on pot.

LSD

LSD is a hallucinogenic drug with very powerful effects. The ability to “see sounds” is sometimes experienced with LSD, and it’s actually known in science as synesthesia. The sensation of a deeper understanding of one’s existence and the world is nothing mystical to me; it is scientific, a feature of the mechanisms of LSD and the way they act on regions of the brain responsible for concepts of self and consciousness. LSD is a very complicated drug, and many people can have very complicated reactions to it. I know many people who have experienced psychosis, paranoia, panic attacks and trips to the ER because of LSD. I don’t say this to be a fearmonger, but LSD has gained a tremendous amount of popularity again in the past decade, and because of this popularity, I caution that it should not be confused with things like alcohol or marijuana, which we have seen normalized as social drugs.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are another hallucinogenic drug derived from mushrooms that grow in the ground and can be harvested to be ingested.  Like LSD, many people report powerful experiences and insight under the influence of mushrooms.  And, like LSD, use of mushrooms can lead to complicated reactions for a lot of people.

In very controlled and limited doses, LSD and mushrooms are being used to treat cases of very severe depression, including psychotic and suicidal depression and the depression associated with terminal illness. In these cases, it’s not like you just get some in a bag and go into the woods to have an experience – it’s done in a medical setting with an experienced doctor and therapist on hand to help you talk about what you’re experiencing and how it affects your life once the drug wears off.

Here is an article about one such recent study from what I consider to be a very reputable source.

I hope these links I’ve provided broaden your understanding of the power of certain drugs. We shouldn’t demonize all drugs, and we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. The “anti-drug” campaigns of decades past are not the whole story, and medical science has a lot to offer for the relief from a lot of kinds of pain thanks to a variety of synthetic and organic drugs.

Have a wonderful 4/20 however you spend it! I’ll be spending it cooking for Passover…very, very sober!