This is Part III, “Second Thoughts on Pot,” of three parts from Dr. Steward Reese’s report to The American Conservative.

Certainly physicians in both Colorado and in Australia are seeing just this pattern of subtle brain abnormalities in the patients who present to our clinics. This is therefore the most concerning aspect of the cannabis free for all which is being falsely foisted on the west by a relentless media mantra. If India has its holy cows, then the theistic-ally allergic media are no less as enamored with their own devoutly protected “deep green god” – regardless of the painfully obvious fallout.

Most worryingly of all – consider these few final major issues. Of the two perspective described above – the conservative one espoused by well recognized international authorities – and the more worrying picture of 21 defects reported from the massive epidemiological Hawaiian study – which one is the more correct – especially in an era when as is widely known cannabis, cannabis oils and hashish butane oils are rapidly becoming so much more concentrated than in past eras?

It is said that the most stringent test of any theory is its ability to make predictions about future events. By this criterion only the 2007 Hawaiian report by Forrester predicted the links in Ain in France with the armless defect, and the patterns of chromosomal abnormalities, atrial septal defect and anotia / microtia across USA.  In this important respect then the Forrester - Menz report is more accurate – and of course much more concerning – than the “standard received wisdom”.  It appears to be acting as a kind of a roadmap – as the tide both of cannabis use and of cannabis concentration – rises all around us.

And most concerning of all is that many papers in the cannabinoid genotoxicity literature show an exponential relationship between cannabis dose exposure and the genotoxic damage which is directly responsible for cancers in patients, their children and foetal abnormalities including mental retardation and brain damage.  That is to say that beyond a certain threshold dose doubling the exposure produces not twice as much genetic damage- but 10-20 times as much. Cannabis use during pregnancy has been linked with the following four cancers which are all believed to be due to genotoxic damage uncurred during in utero exposure: acute lymphatic leukaemia, acute myelomonocytic leukemia, neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

It is very important to appreciate that these concerns relate not just to

?9 -tetrahydrocannabinol itself, but, since cannabis contains at least 108 cannabinoids, all of them have been implicated in genotoxic damage through the above mentioned epidemiological studies. Studies in animals and cells have found that cannabidiol, cannabinol, cannabidivarin and cannabichromene - at least - all have direct genotoxic and / or epigenetic effects which are of great concern. In many cases this effect is worse than that observed with ?9 -tetrahydrocannabinol.  They all also damage mitochondrial function which exerts severe indirect genotoxicity partly by limiting energy supply to growing, dividing and metabolically active tissues, and partly by close and multichannel signaling from the mitochondria directly to the nucleus and its architecture and genetic management machinery.

And… despite what one might think from the deafening silence from the popular press, the genotoxicity of cannabinoids is not even controversial! Serious warnings relating to reproductive health are prominently featured in the formally registered patient information inserts for both cannabidiol “Epidiolex” and the cannabidiol / THC mixture “Sativex”.

All of which paints a horrific and ghoulish picture of the drug-wrecked future.  In the USA it is obvious that the guardians of the culture are radically missing in action.  CDC, which is charged with protecting the public health; FDA, which are charged with protecting the food and pharmaceutical supply, and the USA president all seem to be absent from the foray.  One can only wonder why…  Intimidated? Cultural groupthink? Personal money at stake? Careers on the line?

My father always taught me:  “If everybody else was jumping over a cliff, would you jump to?” Paradoxically indeed in 1958 it was the FDA which protected the USA from the holocaust that became the completely avoidable international thalidomide teratogenesis epidemic, whilst societies in Australia, England and in Europe were duped and succumbed to the commercial marketing campaign and the deliberate subversion of the then known truth. Cannabis was recently been found to be recommended to 78 percent of pregnant women in Colorado. Just as in that era, thalidomide was also used for anxiety, sleeplessness, nausea, unwellness and “dis-ease.” Today America has obviously succumbed to the siren voice of the modern media darling - the “green holy cow” of the west.

One can only wonder if anyone in this country has the courage to see the bleeding obvious and call “Enough Already” and insist that our public agencies do their duty and discharge their office with honor.

Submitted by Terry Wiley, DC, IHS