About a month after Fox News’ Laura Ingraham suggested that cannabis, not guns, accelerated violent actions on “The Ingraham Angle,” she once again broached the subject.
This time her guest was Dr. Kenneth Finn, editor of the an anti-medical cannabis legalization book, Cannabis in Medicine, and director of board of the newly formed International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis (IASIC). Finn, a traditional pain doctor who espouses the theory of cannabis as a gateway drug with no role in pain management, has said his patients who supplement with “medical marijuana” find it more difficult to get off opioid medications. He is a member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
Previously, Ingraham initiated the conversation around an alleged link between the legalization of cannabis and recent mass shootings, with her guest, Dr. Russell Kamer, the medical director of Partners in Safety, a group that works with businesses offering drug tests for its employees, among other things. This time, the discussion continued with Dr. Finn warning of the impacts of marijuana in communities, saying that the youth is much more vulnerable and at risk for developing addiction issues with cannabis or psychosis.
“I believe that it's important that the public really understand that the definition of high potency THC really boils down to any products that are more than 10% THC. Currently [low potency THC] doesn't exist in the state of Colorado, where the average smoke bud flowers is about 17 to 20% THC,” Finn said. “And then you get into these concentrates and then the dabs, waxes and shatters that are pushing 85 to 99, sometimes claiming 100% THC product. So the science is still trying to catch up to the industry because these products are being generated and allowed access to our youth without any real guardrails.”
Finn warned that marijuana is the most prevalent substance found in completed teen suicide in Colorado.
But, what about Ingraham's theory that cannabis is connected to mass shootings? Wouldn’t a toxicology report be evidence enough?
Finn explained that the psychosis caused by high potency THC can persist many weeks after consumption.
“We don’t know the toxicology on the Uvalde shooter, or this most recent shooter in Illinois, but sometimes they may be negative because psychosis is sometimes a bridge you cannot cross. And even though the toxicology may be negative at that point in time, sometimes the psychosis persists for weeks or even doesn’t come back to the base line. That’s the big concern we have as a medical community.”
Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Laura Ingraham via Wikimedia Commons
