What I Want You to Know About Cannabis

Sometime, someone will pass you a joint, or a vape pen, or a gummy, and you’ll have to decide. Maybe that day has come and gone. I want you to hear about this plant from me. I helped build a company around it, so weigh what I say with that in mind. I’d still rather you heard it straight from your father than from an ad, even one of mine.

I stayed away from it for a long time, mostly out of fear. When I finally tried it as a grown man, I was with people who were nothing like the stoner on TV. It didn’t turn me into someone else, and I didn’t expect that.

This is rule one. You’re not sealed off. What you take in turns into part of you for a while, and this plant fits something that’s already there. In letter two, I told you about the part of you named after it. THC, the part of the plant that gets you high, fits the same locks as your body’s own keys. That’s why it can calm you down, make you hungry, or make time feel strange. It can also make you scared for no reason. The stronger the dose, the more likely that gets.

Here is the big difference. Your body’s own keys are made right where they’re used, in the moment. They’re gone almost right away. The plant’s key goes everywhere at once and stays for hours. One is a whisper in one room. The other is a shout in every room of the house. Same lock, very different key. That’s the whole reason to treat it with care.

It is real medicine for some people. In 2018 the FDA said yes to a medicine made from CBD, a part of the plant that doesn’t get you high. It treats two rare and very hard kinds of seizures that start in childhood.

Now the risks. I checked each one, and I won’t water them down.

It’s rougher on a brain that’s still being built. A brain keeps building until about twenty-five. Use before eighteen may change how the brain wires attention, memory and learning. Start young, and the odds of getting hooked go up. If you can wait, wait.

Some people get hooked. Rule three says what you feed grows, and daily use feeds it. About three in ten people who use it have what’s called a use disorder. Two of the signs: you need more for the same high, or you try to cut back and can’t.

Don’t drive on it. It slows your hands and your mind. Give it at least six hours, and don’t ride with someone who’s high.

The last risk is the big one. Psychosis means you lose touch with what’s real. In 1995, seized weed was about 4 percent THC. By 2022 it was about 16, and oils often run 60 to 90. In one large study, people who used strong weed every day had about five times the odds of a first bout of psychosis. If you, a parent, a brother or a sister has ever had it, or a bad problem with drugs or drink, don’t use cannabis at all. The same goes for anyone who is pregnant. Those are the hard lines in this letter.

Here is what care looks like. Wait until your brain is done building. Use it now and then, not every day. Pick the milder stuff. Skip the smoke if you can. With anything you eat, give it two full hours before you think about more. It can take that long to start, and it can last up to twelve.