A RECIPE FOR CERTAIN DISASTER

If Israel legalizes recreational marijuana use, our enemies, like Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas will no longer need missiles to defeat us, because this drug will do their dirty work for them

 

By Dr. Emi Shufman  

 

Israel Hayom

November 21, 2020

 

I support the use of medical marijuana for all of its Health Ministry-approved physical indications, for example in cancer patients and those suffering from neurological disorders. Yet the greatest sages in human history determined that one of the central causes of human suffering is ignorance.

On the issue of cannabis, there is a great deal of public ignorance on the matter. People have no idea what kind of damage cannabis can do to an individual's spiritual and emotional state.

For the last 30 years, I have dealt with hundreds of marijuana victims, both privately and through the public healthcare system. To this day, parents come to me with children who suffer from serious psychological disorders as a result of their marijuana use.

Some of them suffer from psychosis or extreme anxiety, others from depression, while still others have simply become addicted to the drug. And there have also been those who have had their ability to function completely impaired. Their helpless parents and caregivers ask me, "Why did this happen?" After all, everyone, including in the media, says marijuana is relatively harmless. Most of the time, my response is that one should always take into account exactly who they are getting their medical information from.

A research article that recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that marijuana use during adolescence, regardless of genetic predisposition, led to a significant increase in depression and suicidal thoughts once the user was 18 or older. The research, which was conducted among 23,317 adolescents, proves that adolescents and young people under 26 are those who suffer the most from marijuana use.

Over the years, however, the medical literature has shown the various ways in which marijuana can be incredibly detrimental to our health, by leading to various kinds of psychosis - including schizophrenia, panic attacks, and serious cognitive damage that sees users lose their jobs or drop out of school, a decrease in IQ among young people, dissociative disorders, depression, and marijuana addiction.

It can serve as a gateway drug to heroin and cocaine, trigger outbreaks of mental illness – including bipolar disorders - that had previously been in remission. There is no doubt that legalization of the drug will lead to a massive increase in marijuana use among adolescents and young people, and we, as a result, will see the negative outcome of this increased use in young people.

If the US state of Colorado reported a huge increase in the number of adolescents and young people who were hospitalized due to marijuana use, as well as an increase in deaths from traffic accidents the result of marijuana use, how will the State of Israel avoid repeating the very same mistakes?

And no, we cannot compare ourselves to other countries like Canada or the Netherlands because of the sensitive security situation we are in: If this drug is legalized, it will lead to a sharp increase in soldiers' marijuana use. Imagine a scenario where soldiers are embarking on an operation or waiting in ambush, or pilots are on an important mission while under the influence – this is a recipe for certain disaster.

I am convinced the legalization of recreational marijuana use in Israel will lead to a situation in which our enemies like Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas will no longer need missiles to defeat us; this drug will do their dirty work for them.

Dr. Emi Shufman is the former director of the Jerusalem Mental Health Institute, a subdivision of the Health Ministry for the treatment of drug addiction and addiction-related morbidity.