Marijuana is highly addicting, harmful, and as dangerous as other drugs of addiction. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, 5th Edition
THC stimulates neurons in the reward system and causes the release of dopamine at levels higher than natural rewarding stimuli. The boost of dopamine trains the brain to want to repeat the rewarding behavior with more cannabis, setting up the path to addiction. 2020 NIDA, NIH
Three out of 10 cannabis users developed DSM IV criteria of cannabis use disorder (CUD). IASIC
Our son was happy and healthy before he started using marijuana at age 14. A friend introduced him to marijuana during a time when our family was supporting my wife in her fight against breast cancer. We noticed David changing rapidly, but attributed the change to puberty. After being kicked out of the private school…
Tyler was a sweet, friendly, super smart, and super talented young man. He loved animals, gaming, skateboarding, drawing & painting, and was a talented musician. He was a straight A student, with a 100% on his ACT math scores, until his marijuana use started affecting his grades, and his will to care. After high school,…
Cannabis, a supposedly harmless plant, led to our daughter Catherine Mayberry’s death at the age of 24 on October 8th, 2022. Catherine was a perfect kid up until age 18 – social, smart, athletic, creative, and hardworking. In 2016 at the age of 18, Catherine went off to college at the University of Minnesota and…
Be Extraordinary, Be You. July 17, 2021, 1:26 AM: “My attitude with the music and everything has been way too self-righteous. I am done with the music. I’m quitting weed for good and want to surround myself with healthy and happy people. This has been too much for me and for you guys. I have…
Johnny Stack was born on February 7, 2000, and died by suicide on November 20, 2019, at the age of 19. He was an incredibly intelligent, funny, charming, handsome young man, which you can see in his tribute video at https://johnnysambassadors.org/tribute. We are a regular suburban family that did regular family things. He had a happy…
Within seconds I stopped being a parent and mother. I lost my only child, Stephen Mager, on February 14, 1996. All of this happened during noon break on a school day. Stephen was a passenger in a car that was driven by his best friend. He was sitting in the back seat without his seat…
My first son, Chase, was a good kid. He was quiet, easygoing, funny, and an Eagle Scout. Chase was small but excelled at sports, pursuing football because of his great hand-eye coordination, speed, agility, endurance, and most of all, his desire to win. Chase was an above-average student until 10th grade. Chase’s grades started slipping,…
I am a physical therapist who so strongly believed in medical marijuana that I went to work in a Massachusetts marijuana dispensary for 1.5 years as a budtender. My dispensary sold high-potency products. There were rashes, mildew, and mold on the marijuana; the labeled weight was incorrect; batches were mixed with different testing results; marijuana…
My daughter is 24 years old and suffers from cannabis use disorder and cannabis-induced psychosis. We had her back for a short time, but the addictiveness of this drug has pulled her away from us once again. Roxanne was a beautiful baby, and as she got older, she was very bubbly and her imagination was…
My son Adam suffers from cannabis use disorder and cannabis-induced psychosis. My husband and I worked hard to provide our kids with a loving and stable home. Our son was born in 1995. He did well in school. He skied in the winter, swam in the summer, and always had friends. In the spring of 2017,…