By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
March 15, 2025
Although “4/20” is still more than a month away, North Carolina legislators may already be thinking about whether the Tar Heel state should approve so-called “medical marijuana.”
Many will have heard Sen. Bill Rabon’s (R-Brunswick) personal testimony of using pot to help him survive the negative side effects of chemotherapy as he battled colon cancer more than 20 years ago. But the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, says it is crucial for lawmakers to consider the broader spectrum of outcomes associated with marijuana consumption.
“For every story like Sen. Rabon’s, there is a story from those who were negatively impacted by turning to smoked marijuana as medicine,” Creech said.
Laura Stack, mother of the late Johnny Stack, who developed psychosis and committed suicide at age 19, has such a story. A resident of Colorado, where marijuana was legalized in 2012, Laura Stack said her son began using the drug at age 14 via a friend’s medical marijuana card and got his own card four years later. In short order, he began “dabbing,” using highly concentrated extracts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
“Dab is to marijuana what crack is to cocaine. Depending on potency, one dab is like smoking three to five joints at once,” Stack explained in a National Library of Medicine article.
Johnny Stack realized too late that the drug had damaged his developing brain and had a hold on him that he could not escape. Just days after he told his Mom that it had ruined his mind and his life, he killed himself during an acute psychotic episode. He was 19.
Kevin Sabet, Ph.D., tells an equally disturbing story in his book, Smokescreen. Plagued by migraines, a New York City ninth-grader named Caroline began smoking pot as a coping mechanism. Her mother, Helen, sought a better remedy but eventually relented after her daughter’s therapist said everyone was using the drug, and a doctor wrote a recommendation. (Pot cannot be prescribed since it is not FDA-approved.)
Believing the drug was completely harmless, Caroline soon began vaping increasing quantities, which resulted in erratic and sometimes violent behavior. Eventually she became such a danger to herself and others that she had to be committed. Even after undergoing an addiction treatment program and after her family has spent thousands of dollars on intervention efforts, she remains mentally unstable.
“The marijuana certainly put Caroline on a direct path to mental illness,” Helen told Sabet. “I don’t have much hope.”
The Rev. Creech said stories like those of Caroline and Johnny should serve as “poignant reminders of the complex and often unpredictable effects of marijuana use, particularly in the context of medicinal purposes.”
“In these cases, what initially appeared as a remedy soon escalated into a harrowing ordeal,” he said. “While individual success stories may advocate for marijuana’s medicinal value, accounts like these serve as a cautionary tale. The lack of standardized dosages, regulatory oversight, and comprehensive understanding of marijuana’s long-term effects contribute to uncertainty and vulnerability among users, particularly adolescents.”
Research shows that roughly 30 percent of people who use marijuana develop an addiction, and the likelihood of doing so increases by seven if the person begins using it as an adolescent. Outcomes associated with marijuana addiction include the risk of lung cancer, decreased energy, increased heart rate, anxiety and depression and increased risk of heart attack to name just a few. A growing illness linked to ongoing cannabis use is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Marked by extreme and uncontrollable vomiting, inability to eat, and physical wasting, cases of CHS are being seen more and more often in emergency rooms across the nation. In Colorado, CHS rates have doubled since 2009, when cannabis became legal there.
Dr. Joseph Habboushe, an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, has conducted multiple studies about CHS, one of which showed that about a third of those smoking marijuana for 20 or more days a month experienced CHS symptoms. Based on his research, Habboushe estimates the illness is affecting upwards of 2.75 million Americans, many of whom are undergoing repeated endoscopies and colonoscopies as doctors try to determine the cause of their suffering.
Creech said that as discussions surrounding the legalization of medical marijuana possibly revive during the General Assembly’s spring session, it’s imperative to prioritize evidence-based research and not rely on anecdotal evidence to substantiate the argument that lawmakers should make an end-run around the medical community and make cannabis use legal for medical purposes.
“Can we imagine if the prescription drugs that are provided today for hypertension or cholesterol were never approved by the medical community at large or the FDA, but were availed to us largely based on what lawmakers and testimonials were saying was effective and safe?” he asked. “Can’t we see the absurdity of this?”