Michael Regilio
Appearances
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, that propaganda worked. And not surprisingly, the following year, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act. which was written in part by Anslinger himself. The other force behind the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was the petrochemical industry, the DuPont Chemical Corporation in particular.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yes, that DuPont. In the 1930s, DuPont invented cellophane made from petroleum, as well as nylon made from petroleum. Cellophane was set to become the standard packaging for most American goods and nylon standard for most American fabrics. Around the same time, Henry Ford was promoting chemergy, which fuses industrialization with raw materials, the best being cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Oh, no. Tons of things are made out of cannabis. Hemp is what they refer to as the fibers the cannabis plant produces. And the outer fibers of the cannabis plant can be used to make clothes, fabrics, ropes and packaging. All better than nylon, by the way. The inner fibers of the cannabis plant can be used to make wood for construction.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Cannabis was suddenly a huge threat to the DuPonts and other business moguls like William Randolph Hearst. The printer? Yeah, the guy that owns the Hearst Castle, which is... Don't get me started. I hate the Hearst Castle. Really? Who hates the Hearst Castle? Me! Because... You go on the tour and they're just talking about how like he took these ancient pylons out of Egypt.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
He basically robbed ancient treasures and shoved them into a castle that he just hoarded to show off to his rich and famous friends. And then when they couldn't pay the bill on this, they dumped it on the California taxpayers. Now we own Egypt.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
It is really tacky. And because of whatever agreement they have with the state, the film about him that they play you there calls him like this great man. And then you look into him and you're like, I think you're using that word subjectively. Okay.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Gotcha. And so Willie Randolph Hearst owned most of the newspapers and paper mills at that time, and he viewed cannabis as competition. The U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon, that name sounds very familiar to me as well. Yeah. Carnegie Mellon. So Mellon was heavily invested in the DuPont company and feared cannabis costing him money.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But they were in luck because Mellon's son-in-law was none other than Anslinger. So Mellon was able to get Anslinger easily appointed to the new Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which developed the Marijuana Tax Act.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Pretty much. So Hearst, Mellon, Anslinger and the DuPonts had a lot of reasons to hate cannabis. And a lot of those reasons were, like you said, financial.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Right. Reefer madness. Business as usual is what we should call that kind of reefer madness. Except Henry Ford. But he was in the minority. DuPont was the number one shareholder in Ford's major competitor, General Motors. Even the Rockefeller family of Standard Oil viewed cannabis-sourced ethanol as competition.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Henry Ford's first Model T used cannabis to make the acrylic skin, upholstery, and ran on cannabis-based ethanol. Were it not for the Marijuana Tax Act, we would today at the very least be seeing a line of Ford cars run on biofuel.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Instead of tapping into oil wells, we would have been growing plants which breathe in CO2 and breathe out oxygen.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
The other opposition to the legislation was from William Woodward from the American Medical Association.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
What he said actually reads rather logical by today because he said no evidence existed that cannabis was dangerous and that outlawing it, quote, loses sight of the fact that future investigations may show that there are substantial medical uses for cannabis, end quote. So he was, of course, defeated. And
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Well, there are actually nowadays there are some that will tell you that it's a shame that you're not high. As you said, cannabis today is purported to have many attributes that are good for you. This, of course, is in stark contrast to just 15 short years ago when we were told that our brains on drugs were not unlike fried eggs in a frying pan.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
On October 2nd, 1937, a man named Samuel Caldwell became the first person in American history to be arrested for selling cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Twenty three million people have followed and continue to follow. Here's the thing. Our government knew all along that cannabis wasn't nearly as bad as the hype. Take the findings of the LaGuardia report. In 1939, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia commissioned a report on the effects of cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
The New York Academy of Medicine issued an extensive research report declaring that contrary to earlier research and popular belief, The use of cannabis did not induce violence, insanity, sex crimes, or lead to addiction or other drug use.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Sadly, that part remains inconclusive. But Anslinger trashed the report, calling it unscientific. And don't forget... Anslinger had a powerful ally, William Randolph Hearst, who put his media empire to work demonizing cannabis, demonizing cannabis and plundering historical artifacts.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
American history. Yeah, man. We got some skeletons in the closet. In 1951, Congress passed the Boggs Act, which created a mandatory minimum for all drug crimes. In 1956, the Narcotics Control Act passed, which gave stricter mandatory sentences for cannabis-related crimes. And just like prohibition did for alcohol, these laws were making cannabis more popular. Is that true?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Look, there's no way to say for sure, but there's certainly some correlation. When the U.S. government prohibited alcohol, drinking went up. When they did the same with cannabis, came out of the jazz clubs and into the counterculture. Enter the 60s. In the 60s, both the counterculture of the hippies and the American soldiers in Vietnam became big fans of cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Congress then passed the Controlled Substance Act, which made cannabis a Schedule I drug, incurring all the same harsh penalties as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, etc., as we talked about at the top of the show.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Oh, absolutely. And doing scary, serious time, as we'll see in a bit. At this point in our history, we're just getting to the next bad guy in this story of cannabis, Richard Nixon. Nixon, a bad guy. You don't say this guy.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, he was good at being bad. In 1972, the Schaefer Commission, founded by Richard Nixon, found that cannabis was in fact not as dangerous as other drugs and recommended it be decriminalized. This, of course, did not play to Nixon's hand. because arresting hippies was his way of controlling the protests against the Vietnam War and quashing opposition to his administration.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
So instead of decriminalizing cannabis, he did the exact opposite. He declared a war on drugs and established the Drug Enforcement Administration, or what we call the DEA.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yes, it absolutely is. And there's this rather damning quote from former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman that. pretty much puts everything into perfect focus. He said, quote, you want to know what this, the war on drugs, was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968 and the Nixon White House after that had two enemies, the anti-war left and black people.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Aha. Yes. But the problem being that for the last 53 years, we have classified cannabis as a schedule one narcotic. That's the same as heroin, meth, coke, all the bigs of the drug world. Now, the Biden administration did finally reclassify cannabis as Schedule 3, which means it incurs much lower penalties for possession and use. For example, Tylenol with codeine is Schedule 3.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
It really happened. And actually, it gets worse because in 1975, the Supreme Court ruled it permissible to give out sentences for cannabis offenses. for up to 20 years in prison.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
That is part of what Biden did to reclassify cannabis as Schedule 3, doing with the reclassification, relooking at a lot of people's sentence for cannabis over the years. So there might be some amelioration of that, but we'll see. But let me add this in as we're talking about these harsh sentences that existed.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
African-Americans are arrested for violating cannabis possession laws at nearly four times the rates of whites. Yet both groups consume cannabis at roughly the same rates. And while I'm on it, even though cannabis is legal in many states, cannabis today is half of all drug arrests. Someone gets arrested for cannabis every 58 seconds in America.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
This is despite the fact that the majority of Americans live in a state where cannabis is legal.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, look, it is rage inducing. In 1980, Reagan was elected and conservative values came back into vogue. And not like in a lovable Alex P. Keaton kind of way, but Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign, the DARE movement and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America became completely mainstream.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Law enforcement cracked down even harder on cannabis with the previously mentioned racist disproportionality. It's morning in America.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But it really was a new morning in America at that point because attitudes changed at that point. And they changed fast. I don't know if it was just the bad hairstyles of the 80s that people were running away from. But beginning in the 90s, a real pushback against these draconian cannabis laws began to... Flower and bloom? Exactly. And in 1996, California passed Proposition 215.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
The first state to outlaw the cultivation of cannabis became the first state to re-legalize it, medically in this case.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
So I don't know anyone doing hard time over possession of Tylenol with codeine, so clearly this is an improvement. But it's actually a long road before cannabis is officially reclassified.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Look, and we all know what happened next, because since then, 38 states allow medical cannabis, and of those, 23 allow recreational use.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
OK, so actually, the more appropriate question is, what are we?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Why does cannabis interact with us the way it does?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I can dig it. Let's do it. OK, so the answer is the endocannabinoid system.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Right, exactly. It's a biological system in the body that helps regulate and balance key bodily functions like mood, energy, balance, and appetite. It runs completely through our brains and our bodies. So it's like the nervous system, receptors and all that stuff? Yeah. Yes, the endocannabinoid system regulates functions through naturally occurring cannabinoids produced inside the human body.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
These natural cannabinoids interact with cannabinoid receptors, of which there are many. So I'm with you so far. So cannabinoids also exist in other places in nature, such as cacao, which is why dark chocolate makes us feel a certain way. It's interacting with our cannabinoid receptors. So is being a chocoholic kind of a real thing? Yes, it actually is.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
In fact, I have my six month chip from Chocoholics Anonymous. Sadly, they made it out of chocolate and I ate it. So I'm back to my week one chip. Look, cacao isn't the only plant that produces cannabinoids. Yeah. Is it cannabis? Correct. Cannabis has over 100 different cannabinoids. But for our purposes today, we're just going to be talking about the big two, THC and CBD.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
So I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of those.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
That's interesting. And look, that's CBD, but I'm pretty sure that everyone knows what THC is. It's tetrahydrocannabinol. And everyone knows that THC or tetrahydrocannabinol is the one that gets you high. And CBD or cannabidiol is the one with purported health benefits.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, no, it's CBD is absolutely ubiquitous in California. You probably can get a happy meal with CBD in it, but it's probably actually those products you're talking about. They're probably not doing anything because you need 100 grams of CBD for your body to absorb any of it.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
And products like lattes and teas and whatever you're giving your dog that you buy at the store, those tend to have around 20 grams or so. So are the effects mostly psychosomatic, like placebo kind of thing? Essentially, that's what my research showed. But I've had a few and it feels like it's more than psychosomatic.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But the point is our bodies and our brains already have the receptors in place to interact with cannabinoids. The thing is, cannabinoids like THC are way more powerful than the ones our bodies make. Thousandfold more powerful. When consumed, psychoactive components are absorbed into the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
These effects are quick, way quicker than, say, drinking a scotch and soda. Cannabis, when smoked, enters the brain within 30 seconds.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Actually, that's interesting you say that because what kind of high you experience depends on the strain of cannabis you've taken.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
You're referring to indica and sativa? Yes, of course I am. And you are right. The two main strands of cannabis are sativa and indica. There's actually also a strain called ruderalis, but it's so seldomly used that we're just going to skip it. Sativa and indica give different highs because they interact with our brains differently. Let's start with sativa.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Sativa plants are taller than indica and have longer leaves. Sativa is considered more of a stimulant. Users feel more alert and focused when on it compared to indica. Sativa is a mood elevator and makes people talkative, and some call it a head high. Sativa does this because it's activating receptors in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Sativa can reduce stress.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
It is believed to have some pain management properties and gives users a heightened sense of importance towards their activities.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I don't get it. There's head high and then there's body high. Indica is considered a body high. It relaxes you physically. That's why it's colloquially called Indicouch. Indica is more of a sedative. This is because Indica suppresses the amygdala part of the brain and also shuts down the hippocampus. The indica variety of cannabis can lead to defects in memory.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Indica is often used for sleep disorders and anxiety relief.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Not anymore, in fact. because it's actually pretty rare to find pure sativa or indica these days. We live in the age of hybrids. Through plant genetics, growers have souped up that boring old cannabis and crossed sativa and indica into many hybrids that have qualities of both plants.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, and the different strains do have different effects, but it's possible that marijuana in general is just not for you. But while we're talking about the genetic manipulation of cannabis, it's worth mentioning that they've also souped up the amount of THC, and that might be what's freaking you out.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Whereas the THC and the cannabis we discussed at the top of the show might have been around the low single digits. Modern cannabis is over 20 and 30 percent THC.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
No, look, my father's pot was kept in a coffee can above the fridge and was loaded with seeds and stems. He was getting hosed by his dealer for sure. But as far as modern pot goes, growers have gotten so good at manipulating the plants that there are all new categories of hybrids, type 1, type 2, and type 3. Okay, so what do those types mean? I've never heard of this.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Those refer to the THC to CBD ratio. Type 1 has the most THC and a little CBD. Type 2 has less THC and more CBD. And type 3 has very little THC, mostly CBD.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
OK, so CBD, just like THC, is a cannabinoid. Only CBD doesn't get you high, but has other distinct effects. Many believe CBD has many great medical uses.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
OK, let me start by saying that there is a very effective seizure medicine on the market today that is derived from CBD. So, yes, CBD has medical merit. But according to Margaret Haney, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at Columbia University Medical Center and leading cannabis researcher, the claims are quickly outpaced by the research because cannabis is still a schedule one drug, though.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
This stuff is actually really hard to study.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Well, I mean, most medicinal claims aren't always backed up with hard data. Plus, most of this stuff is just subjective. As we talked about, the placebo effect. If you think it's helping you sleep, it helps you sleep. If you think it's calming you down, it calms you down. If you think it's helping you write good poetry...
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Placebo can't help you there. Okay, fine. That part is true, but nothing can help you there. True. But the fact remains that we're in the realm of the brain-body connection, and it's the intersection of things we still have a lot to understand. It's still a murky area for medical science. Let's list a few proven positives of cannabis and CBD.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
There's firm evidence suggesting cannabis treats the side effects of chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, chronic pain, sleep disorders, neuropathy, appetite loss, and inflammation.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
They gave me morphine when I broke my rib and they only gave me three pills. To this day, I still have one left because I was so freaked out about having something that addictive.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
What do you got to lose? That's all true. OK, so now let's talk about the bad things that are associated with weed. Most of the issues we're going to discuss are from chronic use and chronic use is considered to be more than twice a week.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah. No, I know the dudes you're talking about. Actually, OK, a little sidebar, because I bet these guys all fell into this. Before we get on to the really bad things, you won't be surprised to learn this somewhat benign effect of chronic use. Stoner voice and stoner laugh. They're real and documented.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
No, no, no. Chronic users experience disruptions in motor circuitry, which leads to stoner voice. It's not just Hollywood. It's actually real.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
True. But there are real negatives. So let me emphasize this. The most negative effects from cannabis come from when you smoke. At what point in the brain's development you use cannabis. That does make more sense. Right. Let's start with the most crucial. In your mother's womb, it is... Just a bad idea to smoke pot when you're in your mother's womb. Okay, so don't be a stoner, baby.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Okay, little joke aside, that's obviously the mother who's using cannabis. Experts say it's really bad. THC crosses the placenta. Fetuses, like adults, have cannabinoid receptors and cannot handle THC or CBD. Experts are very clear on this. Don't use cannabis or CBD when you're pregnant. Like, none. Zip. Zero. Yet, shockingly, women do it.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
And like I said, the problem is the hype on medical cannabis and CBD is way ahead of the data. So there are literally people telling pregnant women to take a little CBD. It's just not good. And if you're fortunate enough to have had a mother who didn't use cannabis, you can still screw up your brain, especially for young men, by using cannabis at the other crucial time in brain development, youth.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Male brains and female brains develop differently. Young men's brains, it's the prefrontal cortex that develops more slowly, which actually is where one of the things is that we can run the movie forward and look at consequences of our actions. That's in the prefrontal cortex, which explains why young men not having a fully developed prefrontal cortex... Do stupid things.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I certainly can speak for myself. And it is in youth that most people try cannabis. And I mean, it's fun when you're young to go out and experiment. And in fact, I did it. Full disclosure, that's exactly when I was trying cannabis. These effects we're talking about are far worse for chronic use. It can lead to depression and anxiety.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
In fact, chronic cannabis use makes people four times more likely to experience depression, especially amongst younger people. Studies show that early use of cannabis on a developing mind can lead to psychosis at later ages.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, and for those who use cannabis as young as 12 to 14, the probability of schizophrenic episodes more than doubles.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Studies show that adolescent cannabis use accelerates the thinning of the prefrontal cortex and gray matter in particular. The more cannabis used, the more impaired those neural circuits are. And we talked about the prefrontal cortex and how important that is.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, I mean, I feel hypocritical saying it, but that's a good idea. But here's the good news. If you're over 25, it's all good. Of course, smoking or vaping anything comes with dangers, and chronic use is never a good idea. But these dangers, the ones we just talked about, they cease to be as serious. But I should mention...
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
that for people who are predisposed to mental health issues or violence tendencies, using cannabis can actually trigger these things. If you have these predisposed tendencies, you should never use cannabis. But this is a low percentage of people. If you're over 25, it's generally safe to smoke a little pot.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I'm going to just say no to that notion, actually, because cannabis historically always had an excellent reputation. And it's been around for like a really long time. The first recorded use of cannabis was in 2737 BCE, or as historians say, a long ass time ago.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
No, probably never. Because the reason the breatharizer works with alcohol is because alcohol is water soluble. Therefore, the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream or in our breath, it's a very good indicator of just how impaired you are. But cannabis is lipophilic, meaning it lives in the fat cells and there is just no good sobriety test. So it will be hard to enforce as states legalize cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But That one minor problem is insignificant compared to all the good those tax revenues will do for those states, which that's really the good news about cannabis.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah. No, it's very high, as it should be. Right. I'm all for that. And some of those cannabis tax revenue goes to education related initiatives like school construction, school food programs, before and after school enrichment programs and public libraries, environmental cleanup, law enforcement and drug prevention programs, among actually a lot of others.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah. And there's also the unseen revenue as well. All the money we're not spending on enforcement court dates and in court and incarceration. Look, I know I've come off like a bit of a Nancy Reagan in this episode, but I believe the government actually has limited rights when it comes to adults doing what they want to do in the sanctuary of their own homes.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Ultimately, I think the war on drugs has been a complete failure.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I absolutely agree. I think adults should be free to do drugs or free to not do drugs. But education, that is the key. Thanks, Michael. Appreciate that. Thank you, Jordan. This has been a real joint effort.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, and legend has it that Emperor Shang Nang of China, believed to have ruled around 5,000 years ago, so you nailed it, prescribed cannabis tea. The earliest Hindu sects in India used cannabis for religious purposes and stress relief, Ancient physicians prescribed cannabis for everything from pain relief to earaches.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
In fact, Hindus believed that the god Shiva brought cannabis to Earth and not just for humans to use. Turns out the god Shiva was also a big fan of this plant.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But look, different cultures consumed cannabis in different ways. Some cultures mixed it into food. In India, they made a drink called Bang.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I would be willing to bet that in our lifetime, we will see a sketchy energy drink called Bang.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
But in 1440 BCE, Herodotus wrote about cannabis steam baths. In the second century, Greek Dr. Galen prescribed cannabis as medicine and Chinese doctors used cannabis for surgery.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
I assume so. Although, interestingly enough, that was one of the PSAs of the 1980s that today it plays more like a Saturday Night Live sketch. A surgeon stands over a patient smoking a joint while the narrator opines, if your surgeon was smoking pot, would you still consider it harmless?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
No, exactly. Interestingly enough, the Chinese made cannabis into a kind of wine. It's versatile. During the Middle Ages, Muslims in the Middle East used cannabis, which is very interesting because the Koran strictly prohibited alcohol, but there was no mention of cannabis. So is it true?
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, me neither. And I did some research, but let's just be clear. In the olden days, we're referring to it was actually hashish that they were smoking, which is basically a potent extract of cannabis. The first known mention of hash is in a pamphlet published in Cairo in 1123, accusing
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
nazari muslims of being hashish eaters so does that work you can eat it all right i don't know maybe but it maybe just was an ancient insult being like your mother eats hashish i'm not sure i see either way hash was big business with morocco and afghanistan being the biggest exporters of this potent concoction but as far as the modern muslims go it's still debated
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Most people agree that using cannabis for recreation goes against Islamic law, but using it for medicinal reasons is a different matter. In 2014, the Grand Ayatollah Saeed Mohammed Saadeq Haissani Rouhani of Iran... Close.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Really close. He issued a fatwa or a legal religious ruling in it. He stated spiritual plant medicines and psychedelics are halal for Shia Muslims with supervision.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Look, if you're going to trip, I guess you got to do it with your mom. Both the French and the British, by the way, had their colonists growing cannabis in the New World. So our country was founded in some parts on weed. Yeah. And other parts on slavery and misogyny.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
No, I don't think the anti-cannabis people probably would, but I would say they are. I think smoking a little pot would make you less racist and misogynist myself. I feel like our research bears that out, but we'll get there. Yeah. In the 1700s, doctors widely prescribed cannabis as medicine in the Western world. The Irish doctor William O'Shaughnessy popularized its use as pain medicine.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
And it probably works about as well as Irish whiskey, maybe lasts a little longer. Yeah, which probably worked better than what I tried smoking in high school because back then cannabis was illegal, which gets me to the first person to outlaw cannabis. It was actually Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
When the little French general learned his soldiers had brought cannabis back from Egypt and were getting high, he outlawed it. So no cannabis for the French. That's correct. Napoleon was on to something, though. He may have been a little harsh on hashish, so to speak, but people in his time realized that drugs and alcohol use was problematic.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
In 1868, the British passed the first drug laws banning some drugs. Around this time, people thought that cannabis use caused mental illness. This actually, as we'll see later, that's still debatable. So are we still debating reefer madness? You remember that whole thing? Yeah, well, not so much debating it as looking at the data. That's a better framing of it right now.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
In 1894, the British were concerned about cannabis use in India. In lieu of keeping those they colonized in line, the British established the Indian Hemp Drug Commission. The thing is, They found that moderate cannabis consumption was not detrimental and found no link to mental illness. So no reeve for madness.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, excellent point. But it does indicate that the tide was turning. In fact, the smoke was starting to blow in the other direction as far as cannabis's reputation went. So much so that in 1906, the U.S. government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which said cannabis was dangerous and must be labeled before being sold.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
And because history loves irony, in 1913, California became the first state to ban growing cannabis. Wow. Well, I guess California was super conservative back then. Maybe that has to be it. Maybe. But look, the whole country was going that way because in 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act passed and Congress tightened restrictions on drugs in America.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
During that period, there was also the Mexican Revolution, which brought many Mexicans north to the United States. And just like any group entering America, they were met with racism and xenophobia.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah, I guess that fine print is on the back of the statue.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Yeah. Well, speaks to the tribalism that is inherent in human beings, I think. And how arbitrary it all is as well. Yeah, for sure. People aimed their ire at Mexicans. One of the things that people attacked was that many Mexicans smoked their cannabis and they didn't call it cannabis. They had their own word for it. A scary, foreign-sounding word. They called it marijuana.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
The racists seized on this and demonized both the Mexicans and their marijuana. And by 1925, 26 states had outlawed the evil marijuana.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Branding is everything. And that might well have worked. Certainly worked with Freedom Fries. The next blow for cannabis came with Harry Anslinger. OK, he was the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and a racist piece of garbage. And he had cannabis directly in his crosshairs.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Oh no, Anslinger was an equal opportunity racist. But don't take my word for it. Take his. Now this is a little rough, but here is a quote I found from him. Quote, There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz, and swing result from marijuana use.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
Oh, by the way, Anslinger was not finished. There's also this little gem. Quote, Wow. Maybe we stop quoting this guy. This guy is terrible. Holy smokes. Yeah, no more Anslinger quotes. Okay, mind you, cannabis was still legal in some places. But it was on its way out. Anslinger famously collected wild and exaggerated stories about cannabis use and then placed them in the press.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1142: Cannabis Redux | Skeptical Sunday
And in 1936, the film you've already referenced came out, Reefer Madness. Now it's time for sponsor madness, madness, madness. We'll be right back.