A (0:00)

5:00Am I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius. No slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius Live Fit. Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now@celsius.com.

B (0:26)

Nope. Psych. Because I'm not an idiot, people. And it's time we start being honest that America, America has a severe marijuana problem. I'm tired of pretending like we don't. And it should not be politically sexy and being paid six figures to say we should legalize weed when in reality it is destroying the health of our generation, it's destroying our public policy in states all across the country, and it is creating a psychosis epidemic that is leading to schizophrenia and suicide like the world has never seen. The New York Times is walking back its support of marijuana legalization and we're unpacking all of it today on the Isabel Brown Show. It's a spicy day here in Washington, D.C. and in the world of politics because the New York Times has decided to walk back everything it's previously said from the editorial board supporting legalization of marijuana and together put something out yesterday with a very, very, very controversial headline. It's time for America to admit that it has a marijuana problem. The entire Internet has erupted on this in the last 12 hours or so, and it's been fascinating to see people first firmly plant their flag on one side or the other of the marijuana legalization debate. But I'm over here thinking, having grown up in Colorado, the first state in our country to have legalized marijuana at the state level in 2012 when I was in high school. Where the hell have you people been? Okay, this has not been a secret how disastrous it is for society and how truly terrible marijuana actually is from a public health perspective. We why it gained popularity flash and some traction here, especially on the political right in the last few years. I have no idea and I've not made a lot of friends for being honest about just how much I hate the continued push to legalize marijuana at the state level or at the national level for recreational use. I understand there are amazing benefits that it can have from a medicinal property perspective in clinical settings for, for medicine. But recreational marijuana has been one of the worst decisions that we have ever made from a public policy perspective anywhere in America. I saw it destroy the state that I grew up in. You're now watching people advocate for this to be legalized nationally. And I hate saying it. It like tastes bad coming out of my mouth. But I do have to say good on you to the New York Times editorial board. I want to read through this piece together because I do think it is really interesting the really big 180 that they have taken an editorial board and why people are so upset about this piece. But then just give you the facts that you need to know about just how dangerous marijuana actually is. Despite the fact that I'm sure you hear 8 million times a day from your friends who hotbox their car and apartment on their college campuses all the time, it's impossible to get addicted. I'm not addicted. I can stop whenever I want. It's really just like drinking a glass of wine or a beer. It's not. And it is time for us to actually be honest about it in 2026 and beyond. The New York Times editorial board starts their piece by pointing out 13 years ago, no state allowed marijuana for recreational purposes. Today, most Americans live in a state that allows them to buy and smoke a joint. The President continued the trend towards legalization in December by loosening federal restrictions. This editorial board has long supported marijuana legalization. In 2014, we published a six part series that compared the federal marijuana ban to alcohol prohibition and argued for repeal. Much of what we wrote then holds up, but not all of it does. It is now clear I'll jump ahead a little bit that many of our predictions were wrong. Legalization of marijuana has only led to more use. Surveys are suggesting that about 80, 18 million people in the United States have used marijuana almost daily or about five times a week in recent years. That was up from around 6 million people in 2012, the year Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use, and less than 1 million in 1992. More Americans now use marijuana daily than alcohol. This wider use has caused a rise in addiction and other problems. Glad we can be honest about that. Can't tell you how many times I've heard from even so called public health experts over the past few years. Well, it's impossible to get addicted to marijuana the way that it works. You can have an addiction to literally anything, including your phone. Most of us do have addictions to our phones. The feedback loop in your brain is possible to exist for pretty much anything and everything under the sun. So I'm glad we're being honest about it. The New York Times says this. Each year, nearly 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from cannabinoid hyperemesis, hyperemesis syndrome Excuse me. Which causes severe vomiting and stomach pain. More people have ended up in hospitals with marijuana linked paranoia and chronic psychotic disorders. Bystanders have also been hurt, including people driving under the influence of pot. Huge problem that we've seen in Colorado over the past decade. America should not go back to prohibition to fix these problems. The war on marijuana brought its own costs. Every year, authorities arrested hundreds of thousands of Americans for marijuana possession. The people who suffered the legal and financial consequences were disproportionately black, Latino and poor. A society that allows adults to use alcohol and tobacco cannot sensibly arrest people for marijuana use. We oppose the nascent efforts to recriminalize the drug, such as a potential ballot initiative in Massachusetts this year that would ban recreational sales and home growing. That's interesting. We'll come back to that. Yet there is a lot of space between heavy handed criminal prohibition and hands off commercial legalization. Much as the United States went previously too far in banning pot, it has recently gone too far in accepting and even promoting its use. Given the growing harms from marijuana use, American lawmakers should do more to regulate it. I'll skip ahead a little bit here. The larger point is that a society should be willing to examine the real world impact of any major policy change and consider additional changes in response to to new facts. In the case of marijuana, the recent evidence offers reason for Americans to become more grudging about accepting its use. Wow, what an amazing pendulum swing that I never saw coming, particularly from the New York Times. And yet here we are. They do go a little off the rails. At the very end of the piece. Ryan Saavedra tweeted this, and this is quoting the actual article itself. I was going to give the New York Times editorial board credit for this piece in which they admit America's marijuana use has gone way too far after the newspaper advocated for its legalization. However, then I got to this paragraph where they claim falsely that, quote, occasional marijuana use is no more a problem than drinking a glass of wine with dinner or smoking a celebratory cigar. That might have been true with the weed that people were smoking decades ago when which then only had 1% to 3% THC concentration. But it's definitely not true today. Now vapes and joints routinely push 30% THC, not 3%, while dispensary shelves are stocked with concentrates, some boasting 95% THC. These products are dangerous and using them even one time can dramatically increase a person's risk of having a manic or psychotic episode. The New York Times should be embarrassed to get science wrong here. So maybe we'll see a correction on that one particular paragraph where they're insisting it is the exact same thing in terms of potential assumed risk as drinking a beer or a glass of wine with dinner, or smoking a celebratory cigar. I'm sure I would be Interested to pick Mr. Michael Knowles braid on the difference between a celebratory cigar, as we often do around here at the Daily Wire, and smoking the ridiculously over concentrated weed that is on the market today in America. And not easy 1 to 3% concentration THC that most people making the laws might assume marijuana actually is what they were smoking in the 90s. But 30 to 95% concentration THC, which is what most young people are engaging with today. On the note of making actually healthy decisions for yourself and society and not just listening to what the loudest voices have to say, I have gone through such an important journey since becoming a mom when it comes to making proactive decisions about my health. I've realized that my decision is not just about me anymore. When I'm talking about what to eat or what supplements to take or any of the workout choices that I'm making, they're actually about showing up for my daughter Isla, being present for all of her milestones, and having the energy to keep up with her for decades to come. And that is a totally different kind of motivation. But here's the problem. Our healthcare system is built to be reactive. You wait until something's wrong and then you try to fix it. So when you want to take a proactive approach, it can be really hard to know where to even start. That's exactly why I have been partnering with our friends at Jevy. They make proactive health easier than ever. Jevoty offers you different membership tiers so that you can choose what fits your needs. You get comprehensive at home blood draws that test over 100 different health markers, way beyond what your standard checkup will ever cover at the doctor's office. And then they give you a personalized health plan with custom supplement protocols, access to specialists for functional longevity, plus any discounts that you might need on supplements moving forward and other specialty testing. This process was so, so easy for me and my family. They sent a phlebotomist to my house, they came and drew my blood and within like 48 hours I had a huge blueprint of everything going on in my body. What was working really well, what really wasn't working well and needed a little bit of extra help and what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to go for a picture perfect health plan for my body. Jevony was so, so easy and I could not recommend it more for anybody looking to prioritize their proactive health in 2026 and it's now available in 47 states across the country. So chances are it's ready for you too. If you're ready to be there for the people that you love, not just today, but for decades to come, you can use code Isabelle at the link in today's show notes for 20% off because investing in your health now means so much more time with the people who matter the most. The manic and psychosis side of things, I think is the real dark horse of this story. And you're going to be hearing a lot about this today because there are several content creators and people with big platforms that have come forward to say this has been a massive problem for me and my family and people that I know and love in particular. Brett Cooper tweeted yesterday, Last night my mom and I have been told that my brother's psychosis, which has now been diagnosed as full blown schizophrenia, is most likely drug induced from his years of smoking weed. This drug isn't harmless no matter what our culture and screaming people in comment sections tried to tell us. Of course there are a whole lot of screaming people in her comments section on X in response to this statement, which is insane. Like if somebody is actually telling you a personal anecdote of something that's actually happening to their family, to have the audacity because you are so defensive about your own use of marijuana and you don't want to change your personal behavior to then try to discredit that or claim that someone is lying is insane to me. People are saying, I think your mom is wrong or your brother already had schizophrenia prior to ever using weed. Ha ha ha ha. All of these comments are like, you're making this up, this insane. This is reversible as far as I'm aware. But there are equally just as many comments in this comment section under Brett's tweet saying, I've watched this happen to a good friend when I was a young adult. It's tragic. My brother is dealing with exactly the same thing. One person says, I have major hallucinations from smoking very small amounts of weed. I stopped years ago. I have a brother with the same thing. My dad absolutely fried his brain on pot. It escalated to harder drugs when he got hooked on pain medication. All of that damage led to his decision to take his life. And the real tragedy associated with all of this is, as you're watching, like the podcast bros start pushing marijuana legalization and normalizing this on both the political left and the political right over the past several years in America, we have completely erased that entire conversation from the American zeitgeist, where all of us probably, I would venture to guess, every single one of you watching this episode today probably has some sort of personal experience watching a friend, a family member, someone you sat next to in class on your college campus, someone that you work with, someone that you go to church with, struggle so severely with the presence of drugs in their life, usually primarily dominated by marijuana, that they ended up taking their life, that they became transgender and are dealing with the horrifying side effects of gender dysphoria now, and even, you know, changing their body and mutilating their body in the process. I personally know many people who have lost their jobs, who have dropped out of school, who have lost all of their personal relationships, people that I have known and loved throughout my young adult and adolescent years, who I do not recognize today because the completely harmless experience of getting high with your friends in your dorm room or hotboxing your car was never gonna become something that controlled you. You can stop at any time. I can stop at any time. And it's actually impossible, Isabel, to get addicted to marijuana. The number of times I heard that on my college campus, even from fellow biomedical sciences students, was astounding, because we have created this narrative in society that marijuana is not only harmless, it is a net good for society. It's not even neutral. It is good for society. And you are an evil, fascist, authoritarian. If you are pointing out that we have a serious marijuana problem, and we have for decades. I'm not just saying that for the sake of saying it and purely on personal anecdotes, by the way people are pointing out, as the New York Times did in their piece, countless evidentiary examples of just how dangerous exposure to marijuana over long periods of time at very high frequency actually is for the human person. So I'm saying this as a scientist, by education. I'm saying this as someone who cares about restoring human dignity to the average person in our country and our world. And I say this as someone who has anecdotally watched a whole lot of my friends destroy their lives throughout their journey of becoming addicted to marijuana and typically escalating into harder drug use. There is nothing morally or scientifically neutral about repeated exposure to this drug. It is frying the brains and the health of entire generations, all at exactly the same time, While your favorite politicians are championing its legalization and trying to figure out how to personally profit from them. Dr. Brandon Liu tweeted yesterday some very shocking data with graphs of associated here and I'll put this up on the screen for you guys. This is terrifying. Smoking just one joint per day is linked to a long term decline in lung function compared to smoking 20 cigarettes per day. How many of you raise your hands if you've been fallen victim to the propaganda, have been told by everybody in your life that marijuana joints are so much safer than cigarettes? So much safer. Cigarettes have tar and all kinds of horrible things rolled up in them. At least marijuana is natural. It's just a plant. It's fine. It doesn't have any impact on your lungs. Smoking one joint per day is linked to a long term decline in lung function that is comparable to smoking 20 cigarettes per day. And as we know from the New York Times piece, there are 18 million Americans who are smoking weed 21 days or more every month. What are we doing to our bodies and pretending that it's not happening? Another physician, Nicholas Fabiano, tweeted this out. 41.3% of young males with cannabis induced psychosis develop schizophrenia within three years. Schizophrenia from psychosis that originated with exposure to marijuana in the first place. Very similar to what Brett Cooper tweeted about her brother experiencing yesterday. And to my understanding, she's doing her episode of her show about this today and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about her personal experience and her family's experience with all of this. And why is this happening? I mean, genuinely, I think most people who are older than ourselves, people who are maybe late, late boomers and Gen X, people who might be older millennials, the people who smoked weed in high school and they smoked weed in college and then they were able to quit and they went to medical school and became doctors or ran for office and are successful politicians or are lawyers or business owners or whatever. And they think to themselves, that wasn't my experience smoking marijuana in college. That wasn't my experience doing any of these things when I was a young adult in my 20s. I think people are shocked to read that 41.3 of young percent of young males with cannabis induced psychosis are developing schizophrenia and that cannabis induced psychosis is so normal because weed itself is different, okay? It just is. It is not the same thing that our politicians and, and our doctors and our business owners and CEOs were smoking for fun with Their friends on their college campus. In the 80s and 90s, Dr. Joseph tweeted, this weed is driving an epidemic of psychosis and mania in young people. Most weed prior to the 2000s was less than 5% potency. Now everything on the market is 25 plus percent potency potency with some concentrates over 90% THC. Most people still delude themselves into thinking that they are smoking the sub 5% weed from the 70s. But the current stuff is literally causing brain damage that looks like and eventually does manifest in schizophrenia. This is terrifying. And I guarantee you all of you are intimately connected to someone whether you realize it or not. I mean, for goodness sakes, we're all connected to every person in the world within seven degrees of separation. Close to home, I would venture to guess within one or two degrees of separation. You know, someone who is struggling with cannabis induced psychosis that is going to manifest into full blown schizophrenia if we are not dramatically honest with ourselves as a society right now. And that legalizing marijuana was one of the worst decisions we ever could have made as a society. And honestly, I'm not popular for saying that. I'm not popular for saying that. There's going to be a lot of you with screaming comments in my comment section about how I have no idea what I'm talking about because I'm one of the rare people out there that has never ever, ever, ever, ever allowed a cannabis product to touch my lips, edibles, joints, any of it. No thank you. Second hand exposure on the streets of Denver and here in Washington D.C. is plenty for me and I. No, no thank you. The popular thing to do is to put out op EDS in the Washington Post like this one. I smoked weed with my son. We're closer now. The experience jolted us out of our familiar role as antagonists. The cool thing to do now is to literally put op EDS out there and make yourself the cool mom because you're smoking weed with your kids. And to make yourself the cool podcast host as everybody sits around the table and smokes weed together, or even to take a big fat paycheck to advocate for legalization of marijuana in the first place. A few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal ran a really interesting expose that of course was completely one sided and not at all indicative of really how this industry works. They were trying desperately to paint conservative right wing MAGA influencers to be bought and paid for by all of these secret packs and like secret nonprofit ways of funneling money to you so that you'll lobby on their behalf. The headline of this piece I laughed was called Washington's New Lobbyists. Paid online influencers with few rules. Corporate and foreign interests are pouring money into getting pro Trump social media stars to push their causes. Have I worked with many non profits and advocacy groups and everything on content as a content creator? Yes. I have not featured in this piece of. But it is funny the people that they are going after here, especially when they're refusing to acknowledge there's a whole lot of left wing lobbyists who are content creators on social media getting paid way more like infinitely more than any conservative could possibly be paid for posting anything on social media. But you know, welcome to 2026. This is just the way that we've always known and loved how these things work in the mainstream media. But part of what they were covering I found really, really interesting is that organizations and groups that are trying to push a particular political cause at one time or another took out big, big, big gigantic advertising budgets to ask social media influencers, especially people on the right where this hasn't been very popular over the past few years, to push marijuana legalization as hard as they possibly could on places like Instagram and TikTok. Full transparency. I witnessed a massive paid social media campaign last election cycle when I was living in Florida at the time. Um, I was watching all of this happen and was seeing a lot of the people who I know and love posting about this on social media. And I wondered how much money was being funneled into a campaign in Florida to try to get a ballot initiative over the hump that would have legalized the marijuana for recreational use in Florida. I went the opposite direction and decided to go very, very hard in telling people, do not make this mistake. I grew up in Colorado. You think it's a good idea? It's not. It is going to destroy the state of Florida. Please do not fall for what you're seeing on the mainstream media or social media alike. The ballot initiative was very, very, very narrowly defeated in Florida. So it was not legalized, but it was very close. I mean like razor thin margins. And yet in the fall, summer and fall of 2024, I was watching stuff like this that the Wall Street Journal just wrote about a few weeks ago. Happen to make it cool to be promoting marijuana on the political right. We are mere days out, people, from Valentine's Day, in case you haven't noticed. And the perfect gift for the super based girls in your life, whether you are a boyfriend, husband or dad listening to this is of course flowers, that's important. But more importantly, clothing with Meaning and purpose from our friends at XXXY Athletics, especially their beautiful new red hoodie that I literally cannot take off. I've worn like seven times since I've gotten it for myself. XXXY Athletics and its founder, Jennifer say, are doing amazing things for women and girls sports. I recently was on the steps of the Supreme Court with Jen at a rally defending women's sports just a few days ago. And the energy in the crowd was amazing. Not to mention everyone was wearing XXXY Athletics on their hoodies and T shirts and signs and everything else. We also had Jen on my podcast a few days later to talk about why she started this incredible empowering company and to share a window into just how much more work we have to do to change culture to keep men out of women's spaces in our sports and beyond. Jen started XXXY because there is no other athletic brand taking a stand for women and girls and fair competition. There are so many big brands that are pretending to stand up for women, but they don't. And they are silent on the issue of men competing in women's sports. Not Jen and not xxxy. The name stands for the truth. There is xx. Women and girls and XY chromosomes. Men and boys. That's it. Sex is binary. That's the truth. We have fought too hard and too long to go backwards now. Women deserve safety, privacy and fairness. So this Valentine's Day to don't buy stupid, frivolous things from brands that sell women out. Buy from XXXY Athletics, the only brand taking a stand to save women's sports. And we're so excited to share their new ad featuring our beautiful friend Riley Gaines, the incredible athlete and mom who has been leading this movement for fair competition. Check it out. She's such a grifter. She's a hero. She loves being the center of attention. She's a 12 time all American. Come on. She tied for fifth place. She's brave. She's famous for complaining. Famous for her hate. She stands up for what's right. Stands up for violence, for exclusion. Only one opinion matters to me. Hers. You guys can visit the truthfits.com and use code ISABELLE for 20% off your first purchase. Listen to this. In July of 2024, a political committee that was backing a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida paid one influencer in particular who I really love. Actually, I think he's great ex entertainment lawyer and commentator Rogan O', Hanley, who you guys might know as DC Drano. $59,000 according to its findings. Ohanley, who most who posts to more than 10 million followers across platforms under the name DC Drano post posted on August 8, 2024 in favor of Trump reclassifying the drug. A legalization policy was one of several that would win him young voters in record numbers, o' Hanley wrote on X on Aug. 26. The Pro Marijuana Initiative paid him an additional $105,000. O' Hanley said in a statement that the money was from multiple posts on my Instagram, not X, and I openly disclosed on each post that it was paid for. He added, I have been a proponent of decriminalizing marijuana for years. It's a lot easier and there's a lot more incentive to be openly pro weed to say decriminalize. Let's get it legalized. Let's all sit around the campfire and pass around a joint and sing Kumbaya while we open our spirits to the grass that the Lord has given us. Okay, it is hard to be the hard ass to say marijuana is a dramatic, disastrous, evil mistake when we legalize it for American society. We know this from the scientific perspective, as I just shared with you, about how it's destroying our lungs, it's destroying our brains. It is truly driving psychosis at the individual level in millions of young people all over the world, but particularly here in America where we just like the cool thing to do when you're young and you certainly are exposed to it a lot in high school and in college. But let's also just zoom out from a public policy perspective for a minute because even if you don't really care about the individual health level, which you should, especially in the Make America Healthy Again era, what you should also care about is what this is doing to public policy across the country. I keep bringing this back to Colorado because Colorado was the first state to legalize marijuana at the same time as Washington. And in 2012, funny enough, I was a sophomore in high school I think when this was all happening and I was taking AP US Government, which I think was my favorite class that I took in high school. Hilarious that I was still pre med after all of that and I got knew where I was supposed to go and I was supposed to be working in politics. But I loved my AP gov class. My teacher Ms. Fig was the best woman on the planet. Like truly, it was the coolest class I ever took and as part of our AP US government class we had to write a 20 page policy position paper on something that was going on in current events and public policy. So I picked legalization of marijuana because this was like the new thing that everybody was talking about. And I did so much research into all of this. I could have predicted every single one of these things that people are now publishing as exit research a decade later. Over a decade later, Almost two decades later, in fact, for what happened in Colorado, and this is really, really interesting, the medical journal Missouri medicine, the journal of the Missouri State medical Association, published in 2021, five years ago. I mean, people have been screaming this for a long time. I say five years ago, not because it's no longer relevant. I'm telling you this because the policy experts and the medical experts alike have been very, very loud that this is a big mistake. Maybe we should be listening to them and not just our favorite influencers and politicians. But I digress. They published in 2021 a paper about the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and the impact that it's had on public policy. They tracked annual reports published by the Rocky Mountain high intensity Drug trafficking area program. It's a really long acronym, R M H I D T. A program, Basically all of the public policy reports tracking what's happened since marijuana had been legalized in Colorado to provide data and information so that policymakers and average citizens can make informed decisions about what we do now. Right? Listen to this. From 2012, 2013, when, when it really was implemented, to 2021 alone, traffic deaths in Colorado where drivers tested positive for marijuana increased by 138% where the driver was under the influence by marijuana. And all Colorado traffic Deaths increased by 29% from 2013 to 2021. Since recreational marijuana was legalized, traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 people in 2013 to 131 people killed in 2020. In that same period of time, the percentage of all Colorado traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana increased from 11% in 2013 to 20% in 2020. We care a lot about drunk driving. There are infinite campaigns out there about drunk driving from a legal perspective. We take drunk driving very, very seriously. Why is no one running social awareness campaigns about driving under the influence of marijuana? Because it's not cool, it's not trendy, it's not what anyone wants to talk about. They then move on to a public health section in this published medical journal. Marijuana only exposures in this period of time increased by 185%. Remember when everyone, including, like five minutes ago, has been screaming at you about how legalizing marijuana will actually make it less common for people to be doing in their spare time. It's like the allure of the fact that it's illegal. That's why people want to do it. If it's just available, no one will want to do it. In Colorado, exposure to marijuana increased 185% from 2013 to 2020. And the percent of suicide incidents in which toxicology reports were positive for marijuana has increased from 14% in 2013 to 29% in 2020 doubled, basically, give or take a few percentage points. One more quick pause in today's episode before we get back to it, and it's a really important one. If you are thinking about how you want to approach Lent this year, which is a week from today, people not to sound the alarm. This is for you. Starting on Ash Wednesday next week, you can join Jonathan Roumie, Mark Wahlberg, Father Mike Schmitz, Chris Pratt and so many others for daily prayer leading up to Easter on the Hallow app. Lent is meant to stretch us. It's a season when we can really ask, who is God calling me to be? That means deeper prayer, fasting, of course, and generosity so that our hearts can be actually filled with God's love. That's why Hallow's annual Lent challenge Pray 40, which is always one of my favorites. This year it's called the Return is so powerful. It's a 40 day journey to slow down, reflect and come home to what matters most. At the heart of this challenge is one of the most powerful stories ever told, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It's about leaving home, losing your way, and then realizing that no matter how far you've gone, you are always welcome back throughout Lent. Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the Chosen, and Sister Miriam James will guide you through beautiful daily prayers and meditations. Then every Friday, you'll be challenged to fast alongside others in the Hallow community. On Saturdays, you'll watch powerful faith conversation stories, and every Sunday you'll hear transformational homilies from the goat himself, Father Mike Schmitz. Because during Lent, we are not asked to do everything perfectly. Instead, we're just asked to take one small step at a time. And in doing that, we'll discover that God's grace meets us exactly where we are and gives us the strength to keep going. The challenge begins Ash Wednesday next week, February 18, and continues through Easter. So if you are ready to lay down those heavy things in your life and start coming home to God, our loving, forgiving Father Hallows Lent Challenge, pray for it. The Return is for you. You can Check it out. And thousands of other prayers, meditations, podcasts and more to get three months free on the platform by visiting hallow.com Isabel cannabis induced psychosis, schizophrenia and suicidality is real and it's time for us to stop pretending like it's not. Marijuana use skyrocketed in Colorado the minute after marijuana was legalized, obviously, and certainly has been a huge proponent of tourism to the state now, which has essentially destroyed our state parks, our national parks, all of the ski resorts. I mean, it's disgusting. Like, truly, the number of ski fatalities could be its own episode of the Isabel Brown show in and of itself. How many people are skiing, skiing under the influence of marijuana and like mowing over children on the ski run? If you've ever skied in Colorado, you know, it is really, really scary and really bad. But just overall use has skyrocketed in Colorado. Again, these numbers are from 2013 to 2021. So it was a five, five years ago piece that we're reading right now. But really analyze the first few years after marijuana was legalized in Colorado. In the time that this was published the past month, marijuana use for Coloradans and older 12 increased by 21% or, sorry, 26% and is 61% higher than the national average for children past month. Adult marijuana use is 62% higher than the national average, 20% increase past month. College age marijuana use is 53% higher than the national average. And specifically youth marijuana use, if you take out all of the other age groups age 12 to 17, is 39% higher than the national average in Colorado. Kids, where it's not legal anyway, it's supposed to be 21 plus in Colorado. And on the note of legality, the other major argument people were making when it came time to should we, should we not, I don't know, legalize marijuana in the state was that they thought that this would eliminate the black market and provide a safer, cleaner product to people who did want to smoke weed or take edibles or do whatever. And the real concern about all of this was this was right around the time that fentanyl was becoming a huge concern and everyone was worried about overdoses and marijuana getting laced with other drugs. So they thought legalizing the drug and making it go through more stringent oversight and regulatory processes would eliminate the black market entirely. Interestingly, Colorado Drug task forces from 2013 to 2021 conducted 294 investigations of Black market marijuana in Colorado that resulted in 168 felony arrests. Almost 6 tons of marijuana seized almost 90,000 individual marijuana plants seized on the black market and 21 different states that the marijuana was destined to go. So the black market was alive and well. Years after this new process of regulation and decriminalization for recreational use happened in Colorado. Get this. Seizures of marijuana reported to the El Paso Intelligence center in Colorado increased 48% from the time that marijuana was commercialized and when it became legalized. 48% increase on the black market. So no, it didn't curb the black market. In fact, it only fueled it further and destroyed our opportunity to have any sort of regulatory oversight over any of that to begin with. Which is why fentanyl overdoses, because it's laced with marijuana products, are so common across the country now, which is why you're seeing people ingesting marijuana with 90 plus percent THC concentration, concentration. And you can even buy that when it is regulatory, put through regulatory oversight processes to begin with. Like that, that's just legal to smoke now, which is insane. So killing the black market. Yeah, I don't think so. Curbing extra use because you're taking away the allure that it's illegal and that's why people want to do it in the first place. Yeah, I don't think so. You won't have people driving under the influence anymore because they'll just do it at home before they get in their car. Yeah, I don't think so, actually. And suicide and hospitalizations and psychosis and all of it have only continued to skyrocket since then. Get this though. The big argument from a policy perspective that really pushed this over the threshold for legalization in Colorado back in 2012 and now is being used in states all over the country in the aftermath, is that we were going to be able to raise a lot of money from legalizing marijuana. And specifically we were going to put this into the education system because our kids deserve a better education. And if we can tax the wazoo out of this thing, that's how we're going to be able to fund stronger public education in our state. This, of course, from the state that just last week literally just canceled school outright for entire school districts so that the teachers can go protest ice. So I don't know how much they really care about the public education of students in Colorado, but this was the political argument made to get people to legalize marijuana use. In the fiscal year 2020, marijuana tax revenue represented 0.98% of the entire state budget. Nice. Eight years into this, less than 1% of the entire state budget is accounted for by taxes brought in from marijuana sales. So worth the destruction to the state, worth the destruction to the culture, worth the unbelievable sums of money spent on traffic fatalities and ski accidents and hospitalizations and public health crises? No, definitely not. But that didn't stop states from all over the country following in Colorado's footsteps to legalize it themselves. Massachusetts, as pointed out by the New York Times in there, we went too far. We lied to you. Sorry. Maybe, maybe we shouldn't be advocating for this piece that came out yesterday. They alluded to Massachusetts being one of the first states to go back on all of this, which I think is really interesting that some of these blue states are starting to wake up and realize we went way too far and we have a huge public health crisis on our hands that we have desperately got to change immediately. In 2026, voters in Massachusetts could have the chance to completely repeal adult use recreational marijuana. Basically the exact same proposal that Colorado legalized. All of these other states did the exact same thing. So very similar legal framework. Just a few weeks ago, the State Elections Division in Massachusetts certified 78,000 plus signatures that were backing a petition called an act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy. This would roll back recreational cannabis use, but preserve medicinal cannabis use, which I think is a really great path forward. This is maybe one of those hard conversations that the New York Times is now admitting. Yeah, we have to start having if we're serious about really fixing the problems that we have had in our country in the last decade so. In 2016, this is when that was legalized. In Massachusetts, about 54% of voters cast their ballots in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana. So it already wasn't wildly popular, but a majority did support it. But In April of 2024, a poll found that 65% of respondents thought legalizing it was the right decision still. So I think there's a long way to go here. But it is telling to me that at least something is on the state ballot saying, we really messed up, we went too far, maybe we should reexamine this in the first place. Obviously, the Trump administration has been very vocal about their efforts to examine this further in a pro legalization direction. Many states around the country, including red states, this is not a red state or blue state issue. This is just what's politically sexy at the time issue, have echoed those same sentiments. If I can share with you just a singular message of please, for the love of all that is good, don't fall for this. I don't know what else to say beyond we are destroying the health of our generation and our children's generation. We are destroying our public policy when it comes to a public health perspective. Forget about the connotation public health has with COVID but actually promoting proactive public health for our citizens. We are bankrupting entire industries because we are spending more on the crisis of marijuana legalization than we are bringing any sort of meaningful tax revenue in. And we are leading the world's race to the bottom in normalizing degenerate behavior when we should be setting the gold standard in the golden Age of America for what is possible. When we no longer make excuses for our addictions but instead overcome them to accomplish something meaningful. It is a harsh truth and a really hard one to say as a content creator, because I know there are going to be thousands of you screaming at me in my comment section today about how Isabelle Tightass Goody Two Shoes just doesn't understand that it's impossible to get addicted to marijuana. I can stop at any time. I have total control over all of this. I have seen too many of my friends and too many people that I love and care about make that exact same excuse for the last 15 plus years of my life to not say enough is enough now. And thank God that some of our media outlets that aren't usually interested in reporting what's actually going on are using their platform to start telling the truth as well. To quote this powerful headline from the New York Times, it is time for America to admit that it has a marijuana problem. It has been time for a really long time to be honest with you, but if we can get there in 2026, I will be incredibly proud. I'm very grateful for people who have personal experiences with this and their families and themselves being so forthcoming and honest about it. I personally am very eager to tune in to Brett Cooper's episode about this today. I know that she's going to talk about it at length, but I think it's time that all of us find the courage to say the thing that we won't collect a hundred thousand dollar check for that. We won't gain a bunch of brownie points on social media for that. We won't be the coolest, edgiest, most fun person to say this for, but we all need to be honest for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of our loved ones, and for the sake of our children with just how bad America's marijuana problem has gotten. So may we all find the courage to do just that. Before I leave, you today on the show, wanted to share with you A story one of you sent in to me because we are one week out from Ash Wednesday next week. One of my favorite days in the liturgical calendar. A lot of people hate Ash Wednesday because it is kind of like somber and dark and reminds us of our death. The whole memento mori concept. I really love Ash Wednesday. I don't know why. Maybe that makes me really bizarre. But I've always really appreciated the beautiful connection that we have to the fact that this life is temporary and this is not ultimately our home. We're supposed to be going somewhere else, but someone sent me this from Protestia on X. Great account, by the way. They cover some really crazy stuff going on in the American church these days. I love following them, but I hadn't seen this yet. For Ash Wednesday, one progressive church is offering glitter ashes, which is ash mixed with purple glitter, so that straight Christians can don these ashes as a sign of remorse to our LGBTQ siblings. For the record, Ash Wednesday is supposed to be about us reconciling with our own sin and humbling ourselves. To remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. To make sure that we are constantly checking in with the noise and distractions and temptations in our lives so that we can strip them out over the period of lent for 40 days and return to the cross clean and humble and. And ready to receive the grace of God. Promoting sin through this process is not exactly the idea I had in mind for Ash Wednesday, but church. What is this church called? Church at Ponce and Highland. The church at Ponce and Highland is promoting this with a big sign out in front of their church. Ash Wednesday, February 18th. Trad and Pro LGBTQ glitter ashes service 7pm you can drop in from 10am to 2pm and they posted on their Instagram, why Glitter ashes? Glitter ashes show remorse at straight Christian cruelty to our LGBTQ siblings. For LGBTQ people, they are a reminder that we have but one life and we should shine, not hide. Literally the opposite message of Ash Wednesday, that it's not about you, that you should humble yourself actually, rather than shine. Guys, I can't, as we are a week out from Ash Wednesday. We did our first daily Wire plus all access livestream yesterday with you guys, which was so fun. We're gonna be doing those weekly moving forward, but your girl is looking for some ideas of what I should do for Lent. I usually do something for Lent rather than give something up that is more of a challenge, but I'm really struggling this year, honestly, and I'm curious if you guys have any thoughts of what you're giving up or you're doing as a sacrifice for Lent. And if you are going to Ash Wednesday next week, I would just really like to encourage you to invite somebody who maybe has never been and bring them along with you to Mass. Because the more of these, like, glitter ashes things that I see, the more I realize that our world is in desperate need of a real, authentic, beautiful connection to God. And to be reminded. Bless you, producer Dean. To be reminded of our humility, to be reminded that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. And I think there's so much beauty and a somber opportunity for reflection in the Ash Wednesday service. So I challenge every single one of you to invite somebody that you know and love, who maybe has never been, to come to church with you next Wednesday to see what Ash Wednesday is all about. And I can't wait to be walking through the beautiful season of Lent with you guys in just a week's time. Time is a construct. We blinked, and all of a sudden it's here. What a wild time. I can't believe it. I love you guys so much. I gotta go because I'm headed to go see what the new dietary guidelines for the federal government are all about. We'll bring that to you in an episode later this week. So see ya tomorrow.