I hated taking those crazy drug awareness classes in elementary school.
It was the 1990s and the Reagan-era drug policies were still in full effect in numerous states nationwide, regardless of the brief change in guard in Washington D.C.
at the time. No matter what, a recurring theme that came up repeatedly was how dangerous marijuana was as a “gateway drug” to much more dangerous drugs like meth, cocaine, or heroin. One of the things that upset me the most was their desire to put alcohol in a separate category from “drugs” when it is in fact a drug itself, just like Tim Hortons Coffee or cigarettes. But the alcoholic school administrators were more than thrilled to keep feeding the narrative that alcohol is adequate at a cultural level when the other “drugs” are not. I guess that these anti-drug classes are still taught, but they’re not under the same curriculum that the two of us were subjected to back in the day, however thankfully it’s a lot easier these mornings than ever before to find clear facts about the benefits of medical cannabis and its several forms. Aside from pain and stress reduction, there is research that suggests several constitutive ingredients in the cannabis plant might contribute to tumor reduction in patients with cancer. Cannabis products are sometimes prescribed to patients with drastic epilepsy to great effects. Whenever researchers learn about modern benefits of the cannabis plant, they’re published so that the public can consume them for their own purposes. I personally use cannabis as an antidepressant and find that sativa strains in particular are more effective than SSRIs for treating my chronic depression.