Don't let the government's marijuana lies miss the vaccine

July 30, 2021

Don’t let the government’s marijuana lies miss the vaccine

A recently published study by researchers at the University of Memphis looked at “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Its Determinants” and found that “cigarette, e-cigarette, marijuana and heavy alcohol use are not related to COVID-19 hesitation.” . “

That may be true when, broadly speaking, the tens of millions of Americans who have used cannabis at some point in the past. But if you go a little deeper, to those who use cannabis regularly and consider this an important part of their life – attending cannabis events, having favorite strains, and posting online about new studies confirming the medicinal benefits of the plant – then my personal Experience tells me, at least anecdotally, that hesitation is high when it comes to vaccines.

A certain variety of weedheads just doesn’t trust the government or the health industry complex. And for a good reason.

This meme, for example, is making the rounds.

Yes, the government has earned this skepticism

Hey, I understand. As a reporter covering cannabis for the past 20 years, I’ve heard so many “big lies” that it’s literally mind-boggling. I also interviewed cancer patients whose doors were kicked in by armed state agents in the middle of the night just because they had a little weed to help them through chemotherapy.

I also exposed an endless stream of government reports and academic research studies so slanted you couldn’t rest your elbow on it.

Does cannabis interact with a COVID shot?

I even debated Tucker Carlson live on Fox News after giving a platform to Alex Berenson, author of Tell Your Children, a book full of cool-madness. In my review of this book for Leafly, I accused Berenson of being a fundamentally dishonest writer willing to deliberately and consistently skew data and provide false testimony as long as it supports his central claim that cannabis is incredibly dangerous. I have written:

From lid to lid [Berenson] offers a master class in selective quoting, logic errors, straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, “expert shopping” and cherry-picking statistics.

We’re talking about a guy who claimed in the pamphlet that Harry Anslinger was “right about marijuana.” Berenson used a barrage of disinformation and scare tactics to argue that cannabis is responsible for causing epidemic violence and schizophrenia. Everything to sell books. And to get on TV – because for a guy like Berenson nothing is more important than going on TV.

‘Tell your kids’ to disapprove of Alex Berenson’s exposed nonsense

Pivoting to Become a Pandemic Guy

Alex Berenson remains a mainstay at Fox News, but he’s no longer peddling reefer madness. That is snow from yesterday. Instead, he’s renamed himself a leading vaccine skeptic. Berenson doesn’t have any formal medical certificates or expertise, but that’s really not the problem.

After all, in the last century, when a grassroots movement of patients and advocates successfully pushed for access to medicinal cannabis, almost all of the world’s leading experts and institutions were either wrong about the plant’s therapeutic benefits or too intimidated to tell the truth .

When the general surgeon Dr. Joycelyn Elders advocated more research into the “medicinal properties of marijuana”, this was immediately reprimanded by her boss, President Bill Clinton. A year later – amid other controversy – Clinton forced the elders to resign.

Twenty years later, CNN’s senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an on-air mea-culpa, told millions of viewers around the world that “we have been terribly and systematically misled”. [about cannabis] in the United States for nearly 70 years and I apologize for my role in it. “

Trust the evidence, not the government

So no, I don’t blindly (or even double blind) trust the government, the media, or the medical establishment when it comes to making decisions about my personal health. You shouldn’t either.

But just as there is only one rational conclusion about cannabis – that it is a remarkably safe and effective drug for a wide variety of diseases – the evidence is similarly strong when it comes to evaluating the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in preventing the spread goes and severity of COVID-19 and other virus-borne diseases.

But of course you shouldn’t just trust me at my word.

Don’t believe the Hucksters

For now, let’s forego Alex Berenson. The fact that he’s completely wrong about cannabis, and even the fact that he lies so openly and consistently about cannabis, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s wrong about vaccines.

But the idea that someone with no medical credentials and a demonstrated willingness to deceive people is being offered by Fox News as a supposed vaccine expert should seriously pause whatever they’re selling, be it a bunch of lies about weed or the antivax Nonsense of the day.

Also think of Derek Thompson’s epic takedown by Berenson in The Atlantic, which was released under the headline “The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man.”

Thompson exposed Berenson as “the secretariat of error” by simply scrutinizing his previous predictions and having the lead authors of the research cited by Berenson confirm that he deliberately misrepresented their findings.

Joints for jabs: Find free weed here

What about the government lie story?

With Berenson out of the way, let’s return to that meme – which, as I said, makes a valid point.

Humans have been using cannabis safely for 10,000 years, and yet the U.S. government continues to classify cannabis as a List I drug, the most restrictive category reserved for drugs with no proven medical benefit or high potential for abuse.

In pushing for this blatant misclassification, those who still cling to the “big lie” now tend to say, “We need more research.” In fact, the research already exists. It overwhelmingly shows that cannabis is far safer and more effective than many medicines.

Back to the vaccine, the question is not if we have enough research on cannabis, but if we have enough research on vaccines in general, and the COVID-19 vaccines in particular. And once again I would say there is more than enough evidence.

That doesn’t mean the vaccines are completely safe or 100% effective. That is an impossible standard. Nothing in life is completely certain. But are these COVID-19 vaccines safe enough and effective enough? Necessarily. Remarkably.

Take into account the source of your information

Now that the internet is what it is, you can definitely shop expertly yourself and find tons of people claiming just the opposite. This is called confirmation bias, and it cuts both ways on any problem. Crooks like Alex Berenson know that there is always a market to tell a certain segment of the population exactly what they want to hear, whether it is true or not.

In this case, unlike weeds, bad information could prove fatal. For you or your loved ones or both.

So if you were asking me where to go for the hard data, I’d say start here.

Or you can let this guy break you down in less than three minutes.

There could be free weed in there for you …

Either way, if you choose to get vaccinated, you may be eligible for free weed. And if that’s not your case, give your closest smoker a call who’s already been tormented and I’m sure he’ll be happy to smoke you out once you’re free and free.

And if they don’t, I’ll do it.

(Offer only valid wherever I am, many restrictions apply).

David beehive

Seasoned cannabis journalist David Bienenstock is the author of “How to Smoke Pot (Properly): A Highbrow Guide to Getting High” (2016 – Penguin / Random House) and co-host and co-creator of the podcast “Great Moments in Weed History.” Abdullah and Bean. ”Follow him on Twitter @pot_handbook.

View David Beehive’s articles

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