 We've talked about the science and the ways that it works and a lot about the benefits. I think it would be really good just to have a fuller picture on cannabis as a medication thing or as a recreational thing for people in general and also for autistic people because I have seen some particular things I think related to there's one thing that was related to like brain development like taken before like the age of 25. I don't know if you can shed much light on like the potential sort of negatives that we know. I'll say what I'll say what we do know and then I'm gonna put it a little bit into context that has a lot of personal bias right because as I said I started smoking when I was 15 and it wasn't a little it was like it was like the first day that I smoked I was like my brain needs this every day and I think I was right about that so that is my opinion but that being said there have been some studies that have been done about so in in general talking about all the all the like big picture medicinal therapeutic benefits it is true and you cannot deny and I just even said it earlier today before we started that it does have a slowing effect or it can have a slowing or a reducing type effect in general on the brain and that over the course of like over the course of like repeated use that there are changes like we discussed earlier for positive benefits that there are changes in the receptor levels there are changes that there are long-term changes that occur so there are good parts of that and there are bad parts of that as well and there's absolutely there's absolutely truth to that for and that it's not for everyone in general and for autistic people specifically in general seem to be sensitive to anxiety like in in general seem to be like be prone to anxiety and that is a side effect THC so THC is what we would call biphasic by meaning two phases two phases there's like a lower phase and a higher phase there is a phase of THC where it reduces anxiety and then there's like a second threshold where it will cause paranoia and anxiety it will precipitate out yeah that's that's another thing that I was you know thinking about because you know obviously growing up socially different to a lot of people around us we can somewhat develop like feelings of mistrust towards a lot like feeling that we have to protect ourselves and also like a lot of you know because we're trying to think ahead and protect ourselves and trying understand people's intentions a lot of like paranoia sometimes as well social paranoia I used to go through every one of my social interactions sometimes I still reread my text messages honestly I do sometimes I'll be like was that rude and sometimes I'll ask if I am uncomfortable I'll be like no I do that as well sometimes I'm just in that state of mind and I'm like well I know I'm being stupid but like did that conversation go the way that I thought I did you know so there's definitely been studies that have shown that if you use younger than the age of 25 there are significant changes to your brain and decreases in certain areas and that this can correlate to different that it does correlate to different functionalities right now I don't love that data because I think that there's multiple ways to interpret it but from my perspective from my own brain I do think that it decreased certain things in my brain somewhat permanently I am slower like in general but I'm still plenty quick like I I don't think that my brain needed to be faster and I don't think that it should necessarily function faster and in general when my brain is functioning faster it's not a great result it's usually spinning into some form of like burnout like yes yeah running you know into a certain thing so it's complicated because starting at a younger age can have semi-permanent to permanent alterations and we do know that we know that with other drugs too though so I'm throwing that out there as well because we also the white matter deterioration yeah and also the pharmaceuticals the prescription pharmaceuticals that we give to children and that they stay on for longer than we know there to be on right so it's it's complicated because we are comparing cannabis that we're saying cannabis to nothing but usually it's not cannabis or nothing it's usually cannabis or alcohol cannabis or nicotine cannabis or vivants or Adderall or you know an SSRI like Prozac or Luxembourg I you know what they have different names in the UK huh they're all different but you know it's not it's not one or the other so I those those studies definitely exist and I am of the opinion that if you have a child who is functioning well and happy and doesn't have chronic issues and doesn't have you know behaviors or anything to be modified like and there's no like not that there's no issue because I don't think that any child or teenager has no issue but let's just say that like in general there's there's like life is pretty clinically no clinically significant issues yeah like life is going pretty good in that case yeah absolutely abstain until you're 25 in that case don't do any drugs ever just keep being happy and healthy and keep doing you like that's my perspective like at the same time that's a very small percentage of the population that will sustain a high quality of life with that without those tools right you know we've been using substances as tools we've been using natural medicines as tools for I mean probably for millions of years but for at least hundreds of thousands of years and I mean animals do it you could there's particular animals that come to mind that go about eating rotten fruit because they want to get the alcohol like totally and and specific plant specific plants it's it's so it's you know it's natural it's part of our relationship with this earth that we you know modify our brain chemistry to be in in some form of therapeutic fashion and actually it's very spiritually linked to humanity in our like historic like the history of our relationship with natural medicines and our spirituality and so from from that perspective to me it's that there are populations that benefit from it from a young age it's not everyone and there are populations of people that should wait until they're older and that that's also not everyone and that what about the components finding out who you are what about the the component of stuff I don't know if you know because a lot of this stuff I looked up when I was at university and I haven't really sort of kept up to date with it but I did see some stuff around like like the potentiation of schizophrenia in in some individuals is that something that is because I know some people have the idea that you have it and then you develop schizophrenia but a lot of the nuance find that is that it potentiates it so it brings it on quicker yeah it's like a triggering the the way that it's been interpreted in the scientific literature is that it's a triggering effect and I disagree with that as well but let me first say what it is there's a strong correlation there is an absolutely undeniably strong correlation that if you use cannabis at a younger age you are more likely to develop mental health disorders you're more likely to struggle with substance use just in general and you're more likely to develop schizophrenia and that's the one that is like the ding ding ding like at the percentage is like something like you're like probably like four percent or something but the normal the typical percentage in the general population is very very low so I mean four percent is actually quite high but it's whether that is a result of the condition the conditions that you might have however it's a causing factor or it's the same same with like mental health and like drug use and so there's a strong correlation but is there a causation and I don't think so yet I think that I have not seen anything to me that has proven anything besides the fact that maybe people who are predisposed to schizophrenia are attracted to cannabis use young they're attracted to drug use young usually trauma and that maybe cannabis has a bigger therapeutic benefit because it's known to have it is known and the experience of using it has therapeutic benefit for people who struggle you know with those things so it's complicated I can't say either way either I this is just my opinion but I've been diagnosed with almost everything so I feel like that's part of where that opinion comes from sure sure well um I have just one last thing before we I guess move on to the last question I have I've come across lots of people who do have that mentality and I'm actually one of those people and you know I'm you know I'm asking these questions in order for us to get like sort of like the full picture um but uh I have I do know people in my life who know people who would describe them as being like having an unfunctional level of addiction or dependency on on cannabis and I understand like the nuance behind it was like it could be anything that that person is is dependent on and you know of all the things that could be possibly depended on it's probably like not not too much of a bad one but I mean is the potential for like abuse in that way that that could sort of mess with people's sub day-to-day functioning yeah I mean it exists it exists with anything and it increases the risk with accessibility right like that that's true what decreases that risk is actually education and like knowledge that the medical users specifically medical users who need high concentrations are at the highest risks for developing like more negative relationships but one thing I do want to point out is that cannabis is not as physically addicting as almost any other drug yeah so when you do have a comparison between you know people it is psychologically addicting that's true but every single drug that has a physical addiction will also be psychologically addicting like the psychological addiction comes with a physical addiction as well and so just in general cannabis is not addicting when you are comparing it to other drugs that have way more addiction potential and you know alcohol and the coutine are the easy ones to point to because they're legal and in comparison that cannabis is not as detrimental to your health and is also not as addictive to either of those things but does it exist that people end up in a bad spot in a bad place and using cannabis as escape and not not being intentional with their use not using it medically not not moderating themselves right like yes of course that definitely exists and I think that that issue and the way to tackle that issue has to do with community education it has to do with community support it has to do with openness and I think that that like that issue existing is also a minority issue compared to that issue with with all the other drugs out there that yeah having the same issue and I like the fact that you brought up the education aspect of it because you know I was I was around a few people who used to put up partaking an array of different like recreational substances that I would not touch because I tended to like do a lot of research into things but and yeah there's like particular like interactions that that drugs can have and I think like one of the ones that I always used to tell people who did it at like parties like particularly like the interaction between ethanol and cocaine use like creating that that very potent neurotoxin with the combination of the two but also experiences of you know obviously like students at parties who were were drinking you know perhaps and and then also decided to partake in you know recreational marijuana use and getting into very bad spots as well because of the synergistic effect of them so I definitely think like you know with with a lot of things like this and especially with cannabis like an education can be like really like a small piece of information like that could you know be very beneficial to people to know you know yeah it's it's also like our cultural approach to drugs really like in in general as well leaves a lot to be desired I guess that's how I would put it it leads to that binge behavior that we make it illegal