NEWBERRY — Perspectives on the realities of Colorado’s legalization of cannabis were shared at a marijuana summit held at Westview Behavioral Health Services.
Ben Cort, a business development manager at the Center for Addiction Recovery and Rehabilitation in Aurora, Colo., works right in the heart of what is now the marijuana capital of the world.
“The stopping of the ‘big tobacco’ industry is the number-one priority,” Cort said during the summit held Tuesday. “It’s important to me to point out the discrepancies between what people think this is about and what’s actually happening in Colorado. It’s all about business and it’s all about money.”
The issue is, as with the tobacco industry, corporations tend to maximize profits at the expense of societal health, seeking to attract new users — i.e. youth — while encouraging current users to consume greater amounts.
Cort said he passes giant grow-warehouses and multiple dispensaries each day on his commute to work.
“It’s kind of intense. Everywhere I go, I smell it,” said Cort.
The father of three said he would rather them not grow up in that kind of environment but his position on the consumption of marijuana is neutral. His message focuses on the negative effects of the heavy commercialization of legalized cannabis in Colorado and not on simple consumption.
“I’ve yet to meet a cop who loves kicking doors in to bust 50-year-olds who are smoking joints,” Cort said. “The crux of this whole thing for me is youth use … and how what they’re consuming is changing so rapidly.”
One of the most addictive substances known to man, Cort said, is nicotine which causes 54 percent of people to become addicted from one-time use.
“That’s higher than heroin,” he said.
Marijuana, on the other hand,sits at about a nine percent addiction rate for adult one-time users.
“Now for young people that goes to about one in six,” Cort said. “If we design the scenario marijuana’s addiction rate can be about 50 percent if you start young enough, you use enough and use hard enough.”
Furthermore, the chemical makeup of cannabis has been drastically altered over the last couple of centuries so as to increase the percentage of tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the component that causes a “high.”
“It’s not about a flowering plant anymore. It’s not about something that grows naturally,” Cort said. “This is about a highly synthesized product that is created by an industry fueled by a massive commercial market.”
Experts estimate naturally occurring cannabis contains somewhere between 0.2 and 0.5 percent THC and holds equal parts of THC and cannabidiol, the chemical wherein medicinal benefits are contained.
“What’s super cool about that is something that has potential medicinal benefits counteracts the psychoactive components,” Cort.
Over the years the process of selective breeding has yielded marijuana crops with greater THC levels. Since Colorado’s legalization that rise has been exponential and faster than studies can keep up with.
“We know nothing about what’s happening above 16 percent,” Cort said. “We’ve never had something that’s gotten this big this quickly. We basically have a deregulated industry.”
In the last five years, average potency has roughly tripled to over 35 percent which Cort credits for the dramatic rise in psychotic episodes and breaks he’s observed at his treatment center.
“I’ve seen two psychotic breaks on campus in the last year where we’re, in all likelihood, never going to get that person back,” he said.
Cort admits that because of his children and his own history with substance abuse that he is not unbiased regarding the matter of legalized cannabis. He does, however, look to objective, empirical data as he forms opinions on legislation.
“The way that we messed up in Colorado was we didn’t build any centralized data collection repository prior to passing,” he said. “Everyone says Colorado is this grand experiment. As someone with a real appreciation for science, medicine and the scientific process, that makes me want to break windows.”
Cort explained that a true experiment is conducted on a completely willing population and data is tracked so that outcomes are discernible, which he said no one bothered to do.
“If I convey nothing else to you through this, I want you to know that you’re being lied to by a giant lobby,” he said.