MTSU sponsored a “Campus Conversation about Cannabis” in the Keathley University Center Theater on Monday, where guest speaker Kristina Clark, a prevention expert and MTSU alum, answered anonymous questions and taught students about different forms of marijuana.
The panel, which included Clark and the Student Government Association’s president, Michai Mosby, covered everything from government regulations to the recreational use of products with THC, the psychoactive component in weed that is responsible for the “high” individuals experience.
Most students today have a basic knowledge of the substance, Tyler Morder, an MTSU student who attended the talk, said.
“It’s used for medical purposes,” Morder said. “It’s used for social purposes. There are definitely a decent amount of people in the world [who] use it.”
However, Clark focused more on the recreational use of marijuana, which has led to controversy over the high amount of THC in cannabis products.
In 2017, weed averaged 20-30% THC by volume, but in 1970, the average was only 1-3%, a 2020 U.S. study found.
As more states legalized the drug, the health effects became more apparent, like mental health issues such as schizophrenia in those who were genetically predisposed, an NIH study from 2023 found.
With the regulations, the differences between the state and federal government stances are becoming noticeable, leading to tension surrounding cannabis’s legality.
“I hate being one of those guys that plays in the middle of the fence,” MTSU student Sam Lisenba said. “Yes [cannabis should be legalized], but it has to be regulated. There’s always gotta be more to it.”
Clark echoed Lisenba’s call for regulation and spoke on its importance.
“One of the reasons federal legislation is so important here is so that we can have strict regulations on exactly what’s in it so that we can tell people what they’re ingesting,” Clark said.
The THC products people consume now are nothing like the “pot” of the 1960s, a change Clark attributed to more THC products entering the market.
Aside from different products, weed has become much more potent due to new methods of cannabis cultivation, like “increasingly sophisticated breeding techniques,” New Scientist journalist Alexis Wnuk said in a 2023 article.
“The purpose of these products is to produce a high, and the increased potency makes them potentially more dangerous and more likely to result in addiction,” according to an article by Elizabeth Stuyt, a board-certified Addiction Psychiatrist professor at the University of Colorado’s Health Science Program.
Clark discussed how students can approach addiction concerns.
“I think the best thing you can do is show up for people, right?” Clark said. “So what you do need to do is show up and say, ‘I’m concerned. I’ve seen some of these things, and I want you to know that I’m here.’”
If students are drawn to consume cannabis products, they should ask themselves why, Clark said. She pointed out it’s no different than researching a medicine before taking it.
“We hear this long diatribe at the end of the commercial, right?” Clark said. “And you’re like, why would anyone take that? But we’re talking about something you’re putting into your body. It’s going to have some type of impact regardless.”
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