How many Anecdotes make an Anti-Dope Antidote? Another former cannabis user writes

Peter Hitchens writes : "Cannabis Comment Warriors, gird up your loins once more. Another former cannabis user has written to me to share his experience of this dangerous drug, misleadingly promoted as 'soft' and harmless.

"Perhaps after a while they will begin to see that these so-called 'anecdotes' have a common theme that might be worth investigating. Then again, perhaps the Comment Warriors will just get angry at having their complacency punctured by facts."

Here it is. Another 'anecdote'

A former cannabis user writes :' Since in your blog you have expressed gratitude to former cannabis users, or the kin of cannabis users who have reached out to share their experiences, I am moved to share my story with you.

'I smoked cannabis - the strong variety - intensely in my early teens. I started very early, even relative to my friends who were early users of drugs, and I consumed heavily. I remember being encouraged into smoking for a variety of factors: relaxed parents naive about the strength of new strains of the drug, a cool older sibling, hanging out with an alternative group of people, etc. I also clearly remember watching TV as a 13-year-old and seeing the downgrading of cannabis in the drug classifications on the news, and taking this as carte blanche.

'Almost every aspect of my life suffered. In terms of my emotional and social life, a lot changed - I went from popular, social, outgoing and highly confident, to isolated, introverted, emotionally fragile, self-doubting and paranoid. My intellectual faculties had also certainly been dulled - my wits, imagination and conversation had had the edge taken off them. With the scenery collapsing around me, I had the good sense to realise that it was cannabis that was a major cause of my difficulties and I rapidly curbed my consumption and within a few months kicked it completely.

'The final straw was the seriously unpleasant experience of getting arrested for possession - the first piece of negative conditioning from society I had received, and remain extremely grateful for, notwithstanding the lasting stain on my record.  It only happened because I deliberately smoked cannabis in a very public place.

'Almost a decade later, I strongly suspect that my emotional and intellectual life is still hampered to some degree, though, thankfully, tolerably so. Scarcely a day passes where I do not feel some regret/anger about this aspect of my young life.

'The 'comment warriors' you refer to would presumably allege that my story, and others like them, are anecdotal and at best show correlation not causation between cannabis consumption and mental issues. I personally have almost no doubt that cannabis was a major cause of my difficulties. Why do the comment warriors consider this irrelevant? Introspection would clearly be of no value if I was concerned with, say, the chemical composition of my stomach acids, or the structure of my DNA. But the subject of concern here is *my mental life*: why aren't *my*insights, thoughts and feelings highly relevant when the subject is *me*?

'Of course such feelings don't fully verify that cannabis was the cause of my troubles - my thoughts and feelings would need to be anchored by something external to me - but they are surely at least part of the story... The second reason, again presumably to be dismissed as 'unscientific', is what might be called the phenomenology of cannabis consumption, the what-it-is-like to be high: it is extremely powerful to the point of hallucinogenic when consumed in high enough doses. It would be very surprising if altering your mind to this degree and extent didn't have some serious consequences...

'Thank you for speaking out on this issue. It would be great if more people understood the risks involved, especially young people who are possibly too green to make a serious decision for themselves and are being exposed to wrong advice.'

**As before, I have spoken to the author of this account, and verified his bona fides.