The text from her son Randy that Heather Bacchus received at at 1:26 AM on July 17, 2021, seemed like good news.
“I’m quitting weed for good and want to surround myself with healthy and happy people,” he wrote. “This has been too much for me and for you guys.”
Less than an hour later, at 2:09 AM, a second text arrived.
“I love you and am sorry for everything. I love dad and the same to him. I wish I would have been a better person.”
It was his suicide note. That night, Randy killed himself.
His death followed a months-long struggle with psychotic episodes and paranoid delusions — something his parents, Heather and Randy Sr., say was triggered by years of heavy cannabis use.
Now research suggests they were right: a study published by the National Institutes of Health warns that cannabis use is implicated in 30% of cases of schizophrenia among men aged 18 to 30.
The study links schizophrenia to cannabis use disorder: the inability to stop using cannabis despite the negative impacts it is having on the user’s life. And separately, the Centers for Disease Control say a third of pot-smokers are plagued by the disorder.
At the same time an NIH-supported study last year found young adult cannabis use is at a historic high, with 43% of 19- to 30-year-olds using within the previous year.
The findings add to a growing body of research about the link between schizophrenic symptoms and cannabis — but many parents are woefully unaware of the danger. Those numbers included Heather.
“We didn’t know that marijuana could cause that,” the St. Paul, Minnesota resident told The Post.
Randy’s parents tried desperately to get him help and checked into treatment, but things only continued to devolve until his final days.
Now, his parents — Heather and husband Randy Sr.— want to stop history from repeating itself.
“It’s just heartbreaking, Heather said. “People who are going through it don’t even know it. People need to wake up. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Randy’s parents are far from alone.
For complete article go to New York Post May 2023
#cannabisindustry #StonerFam #cannabisculture
Also see ADVERTISING DRIVES HIGHER YOUTH USE OF MARIJUANA IN LEGALIZATION STATES https://blog.dontlegalizedrugs.com/advertising-drives-higher-youth-use-of-marijuana-in-legalization-states/