By Matt Poling
Copyright dailycaller
If Republicans want to honor Charlie Kirk, they will stand up for a generation of young Americans being preyed on by the marijuana industry.
Last year, Charlie exposed the marijuana industry’s lies on his podcast. He concluded that contrary to the industry’s promises, legalization has made our communities more dangerous, increased youth use, strengthened the cartels, and has been a gateway to a larger drug culture. Charlie also demolished the rationale for rescheduling marijuana — a policy proposed by the Biden-Harris administration that is now apparently tempting some in the Trump administration — and asked “is this making America healthier?”
The answer is no. The facts show THC is addictive and causes serious psychotic injuries like schizophrenia, particularly in young men. It promotes suicidality, even in young adult users who are not depressed before they start using. It causes lung disease and multiple cancers, plus heart disease and strokes by damaging major blood vessels, regardless of the method of ingestion. Just this month, a study of four million adults showed that cannabis users had quadruple the risk of developing diabetes even after controlling for other major risk factors.
Marijuana will not MAHA, much less MAGA.
Yet some Republicans want to add their fingerprints to this cultural suicide weapon by siding with the “hemp” THC industry or even loading it with federal tax breaks by rescheduling marijuana as a less dangerous substance. (RELATED: DANIEL MCCARTHY: Just Say No To More Marijuana)
As Charlie knew, while facts are stubborn things, opinions can be changed. The public, long smoke-screened by industry propaganda, is now seeing the issue more clearly. A recent Gallup poll shows pro-marijuana sentiment peaking three years ago. A majority now recognize that marijuana use is having a negative effect on individual users and society. Republican strategists should note that young men moved right last November while the Biden-Harris administration was still enticing them with marijuana.
Conservative thought leaders are taking note. Charlie was eulogized by Tucker Carlson who was strongly aligned with him on this issue and has blown the whistle on foreign actors from countries which don’t allow a marijuana industry but want to promote one here. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson similarly spoke out against marijuana rescheduling and recognized the drug’s contribution to homelessness and “recurrent episodes of violence that no one can really explain other than the fact that these people are using this substance.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Chinese Pot Grows Are Taking Over Rural Blue State And Law Enforcement Isn’t Stopping Them)
The alleged anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Dallas shooter was once apolitical and “all about the weed” his former boss reported to the New York Post. Jahn’s reported marijuana obsession adds to a long list of “random” acts with this substance in common. In Texas alone, we found a THC connection across Sutherland Springs church and “American Sniper” murders. The Uvalde shooter may have also been using marijuana, according to a statement from someone who knew the shooter that was published in the New York Times (the reference was later removed).
Sometimes the shooters outright tell us about their marijuana-induced problems. Annunciation Catholic School shooter Robin Westman, a former Minneapolis “medical” cannabis employee, allegedly wrote this in his journal: “Gender and weed f*cked up my head. I wish I never tried experimenting with either.”
The final question Charlie was asked on this earth was about the rising tide of mass shootings in our country. We never got to hear his answer. But we owe it to him to continue his work on combating this clear driver of violence in America.
Matt Poling is a physician and the medical director for Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas
mpoling@sw.org
