On this edition of The Crawford Stand, Don Crawford examines America’s rapidly changing relationship with marijuana and asks whether the normalization of cannabis has caused the country to underestimate its risks.
New federal survey data show that marijuana has reached a significant milestone in American substance use. Roughly 21.4 million Americans now use marijuana daily or almost daily, compared with about 19.9 million daily cigarette smokers and 17.2 million people who drink alcohol daily or almost daily.
For Don, those numbers should serve as a public-health wake-up call.
He argues that marijuana is still frequently discussed as though it were a relatively
The Crawford Stand with the president of Crawford Broadcasting Company, Don Crawford.
SPEAKER 02 :
More Americans are using marijuana daily. Daily. They are doing so even more than those who are smoking cigarettes. More Americans are using marijuana daily than are drinking alcohol of any kind. A very interesting statistic, don’t you think? Approximately 22 million Americans use marijuana on a daily basis. So says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA. That’s a long acronym, isn’t it? 22 million Americans every single day use marijuana. By comparison, 20 million Americans smoke cigarettes, that horrendous habit, and at least 17 million Americans consume alcohol on a daily basis. However, the larger and more disastrous figure is that some 44 million Americans use cannabis on a regular basis, while 36 million Americans smoke cigarettes on a regular basis, which means, I guess, not necessarily daily. There has been a 21% increase in the daily use of pot, weed, from 2022 to 2025, a 21% increase. And it is driven by young adults aged 18 to 25 who make up 8.4 million of the regular cannabis users.
SPEAKER 01 :
8.4 million.
SPEAKER 02 :
What a horrible, frightening, potentially lifelong, disastrous use of a very potent drug, which so many think is really, for the most part, pretty harmless. No, no it’s not. The reality is, today’s marijuana is potent. It’s brain-changing, which, when it is overused, can have disastrous and lifelong, horrendous effects on the body and brain of the user. old or young. Amazingly, the Department of Justice recently reclassified medical cannabis, marijuana use for medical purposes, into the very same category as Tylenol. Tylenol. Currently there are 24 states in which the recreational use of marijuana is legalized. Smoke it as much as you want, no problem. And more states are considering the very same permissive behavior, while a total of 41 American states, 41 American states, approve the use of medical cannabis for medicinal purposes. The drug, I guess, is here to stay. The newly grown marijuana now has a considerably more potent effect, a greater high, and a more addictive effect on the user. As a result, medical emergencies related to marijuana use have skyrocketed, and rates of addiction have increased by 30% in recent years. 30%. Teenagers who use cannabis, and there are far too many of them, more than double their chances, get this now, double their chances of suffering from serious psychotic disorders. including bipolar conditions and schizophrenia. It is much easier for a young person, a teenager, or one in their early twenties to become hooked, hooked, truly addicted to the use of this extremely dangerous drug. This addiction, where the use of marijuana becomes an integral part of the user’s life, can, indeed, last a lifetime. Even if not addicted, the user can have a daily and constant need for weed, need for weed, or surely a very strong desire to smoke the marijuana joint. Want and need are simply lesser forms of addiction, and marijuana use then becomes part of the lifestyle of the user in a permanent way. What a tragedy for America and America’s youth. The current data on cannabis use should be a public health wake-up call. a wake-up call to government regulators, lawmakers, and certainly parents and adults, and all those who do not use marijuana in any form, to re-examine, re-examine the drug, this potentially lethal drug, and reconsider regulation and rules for its usage, even to the point of banning once again the use of cannabis where it may become necessary to do so. especially in a highly recreational sense. One cannabis expert said the following, marijuana is on track to become America’s number one addiction. Hear that again, my fellow Americans. Marijuana is on track to become America’s number one addiction. And Washington and the states is looking the other way. looking the other way. It’s unbelievable how we can allow these kinds of things to happen. Yet another expert stated the following. The addiction industry has engineered a product that out-addicts the cigarette. And boy, that is a powerful drug, that cigarette. The deadliest consumer product in American history. Again. The addiction industry has engineered a product, marijuana, that out addicts the cigarette, the deadliest consumer product in American history. Unbelievable. Watch out for marijuana, my friends. More people now use marijuana every single day than smoke cigarettes every day. Almost 40% of all cannabis users are hooked. addicted, and our younger generation especially is being enrolled in this daily habit and use of marijuana before, before their brains are even fully developed. The drug can retard maturation of the human brain, the young brain, or otherwise permanently damage this incredible organ of the human body for a lifetime. Marijuana is not the harmless plant the addiction industry has told us it is, not by any means. Marijuana can be every bit as harmful as tobacco and the cigarette, the deadliest consumer product in American history. Marijuana users argue it is not as harmful or addictive as cocaine. I don’t get that argument, do you? Well, that may be so, but it’s no justification for allowing the unregulated and unfettered use of a drug dangerous in and of itself. Nor is it, these users say, nearly as addictive as crack cocaine. Well, that’s another bogus argument. Certainly, they say, it is not as addictive as heroin in terms of daily use, and the use of pot and weed cannot be compared to the disastrous lethal effects of the new drug fentanyl, a killer drug in its own right. That may be true. All of that may be true. But again, it cannot begin to justify the use of a drug which is potentially and inherently dangerous in and of itself. Marijuana users scrambling for justification for the use of this drug claim that most Americans, virtually all of us, use drugs of some kind or another every single day, such as with the use of caffeine in coffee or tea or other products. Well, that may be so. Americans need that other kind of drug, pot justifiers say. Americans also need over-the-counter drugs, the OTC drugs such as aspirin, Advil, or perhaps even some kinds of vitamins, just like the need to smoke pot. Really? I don’t buy that, do you? I think that’s a bogus argument. And Americans use tobacco in some form, or drink alcohol in some form. Do you? Do you? Are you a wine-for-the-heart drinker? And they claim the recommendation that these two glasses of wine each day may be good for cardiovascular health and issues and can create a low form of addiction, even as they proclaim the so-called benefits of the use of medical marijuana. Well, what do you think? What do you think about marijuana generally and about the use of this drug, either legally for medicinal purposes or legally for recreational purposes? Do you think it should be further regulated, do you? Pot users are determined to keep the use of this potent drug legal so as to allow the usage of cannabis without criminal effects for recreational or medicinal use. The new reality is neither recreational nor medical use may be necessary or beneficial or in any way justified, but many think it’s here to stay. The bottom line, my fellow Americans, is that, in my opinion, marijuana should not be used in any form, even to alleviate pain. For the side effects, the after effects, the addictive effects, like oxycodone, can last a lifetime. and with really negative effects. So I say no to pot. My fellow Americans and my fellow Christians, what do you say about marijuana, about cannabis, about pot, about weed? What do you think we, the people, should do about this potentially lethal and potent drug?
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, in my opinion, odds suggest that just as many Christians drink wine, many may use marijuana. Are you one? Mr. Crawford would love to know. You know, we’re not here to judge, but to grow in knowledge as we seek his kingdom and righteousness. Mr. Crawford would love to hear from you this week. His email address is stand at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. When you write, be sure to tell him on what station you hear The Stand. Write to Mr. Crawford this week at stand at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And when you want to review what you hear, go to our website, CrawfordMediaGroup.net. The Crawford Stand is a public affairs presentation of Crawford Broadcasting Company and this station, serving God and country. I’m Bill McCormick.
