Cannabis makes you lazy. Forgetful. Inarticulate. Stupid.
We’ve all heard the stereotypes over the years, tropes about the intrepid stoner who doesn’t give a second thought to the neighbors huffing that secondhand terp cloud.
Catching flak about a cannabis lifestyle is so overplayed, most of us in the industry laugh it off with the flick of a cherried ash. Especially as cannabis crusaders continue to prove it all wrong. Top-tier athletes use cannabis to get their head in the game and recover better afterward. High-level executives are making crucial decisions daily, taking a puff of a doinker on their lunch break, or microdosing with a cannabis energy drink instead of coffee.
Then there are the brilliant artists, musicians, and creators who credit sweet Mary Jane as their model muse, igniting sparks of curiosity.
All of these pros are backed by science too—studies, brain scans, research giving us a pat on the back: hey, you’re a stoner and you’re doing okay, bud.
And then National Geographic comes out with a mic drop of a piece and a huge headline: Marijuana doubles your risk of cardiovascular disease.
The Holes in Their Research (And There Are Many)
The findings of this article are “based on health data from 200 million people worldwide—including in the United States—showed that cannabis users had a 20 percent higher risk of stroke and twice the risk of death from cardiovascular disease compared to non-users.” That’s a serious stat, and as the article also points out, cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the US.
I think we would be remiss if we didn’t discuss the compounding health factors and lifestyle considerations that may be at play here.
So what exactly are we missing from this supposed slam-dunk study?
What …
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Author: holly@postgold.co / High Times
