Dr. Patricia Halligan and Dr. Laurence Westreich discuss the fact that legality is irrelevant in the face of marijuana addiction.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Patricia Halligan:
What can I say if my child argues that cannabis is natural and it's mostly legal?
Dr. Laurence Westreich:
I have a whole pattern for when I get that line. The first thing out of my mouth is usually, "Yes, cyanide is natural, too." That doesn't prove that it's safe. But I also say that that's not really relevant. I think it's fair for a student to understand that all molecules are just molecules. So sugars are white powder. Cyanide's a white powder. Whether THC is legal or illegal is irrelevant to the effects on you. And the fact that it's on schedule 1 for the feds doesn't make any sense to me either. But it's irrelevant to the young person who, as you said, has quit his or her sports team, has not going to school and has lost his or her friends. So the fact that it's legal makes no difference. It's a political artifact. It got nothing to do with clinical work. Um, The fact that it's natural similarly is interesting, but totally irrelevant.
Dr. Laurence Westreich Bio:
Laurence M. Westreich, M.D. is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of patients diagnosed with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs).
Dr. Westreich completed a residency in Psychiatry at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center and a two-year fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital. He is board–certified in general psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry.
Dr. Westreich is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, and the author of Helping the Addict you Love (Simon and Schuster, 2007), and A Parent’s Guide to Teen Addiction (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017). Dr. Westreich is Past President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and serves as Consultant on Behavioral Health and Addiction to the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
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