Stranger Danger has just taken on a whole new meaning.
Kids are taught to stay away from people they don’t know. They call this “Stranger Danger.”
As the world continues to struggle with the grip of a worldwide pandemic, the real pandemic is on its way.
With hundreds of millions of people in some sort of imposed isolation, how will society deal with the waves of people who will struggle with the psychological conditions that may be inflicted upon them from all of this time in isolation?
Furthermore, how will people react in the future with not being able to trust anyone, including their own family members?
Can we ever trust anyone again?
It’s as though climate change, world wars, poverty, employment security and other afflictions that plague us weren’t enough. Now we —as a race — will have to deal with countless people who will suffer from psychological conditions of isolation and endless news cycles warning us of impending doom from an invisible enemy: a virus that by some estimates will affect more than half of the global population.
Prior to this latest outbreak, people have been increasingly suffering from higher rates of anxiety and depression than ever before. For example, approximately 1/3 of Canadians have been professionally diagnosed as having some sort of anxiety condition
More than 1 in 6 Americans take some sort of psychiatric drug, with 12% taking a medication for depression.
Big Pharma Benefits
Of course, the major pharmaceutical companies are benefiting from this condition through the sales of their Western medications: Ativan, Xanax, and so on.
Most importantly, these anti-anxiety medications have proven long-term risks such as addiction, memory loss, increased depression, and so on.
And then there are the untold populations of people who already use legally and easily acquired substances such as alcohol and tobacco, and the hidden addictions of food and recreational drugs.
What were to happen if an effective medication already known to humankind were to be made available on a global scale?
Of course, I’m talking about the legalization of cannabis.
While smoking or inhaling cannabis vapour has its risks, there are many other ways to consume cannabis without the same sort of health risks. This includes consumption of cannabis as an oil, or using cannabis in edible form. While the research on the ingestion of cannabis is limited as to its long-term side effects, anecdotal and historical evidence indicates that the risks of consumption of cannabis through these means are negligible if present at all.
How much is big pharma spending on cannabis research?
What is especially lacking on a global scale and with large budgets is cannabis research in the medical field. While many countries have legalized the medical use of cannabis, the most powerful country in the world has not (of course I’m speaking of the United States).
As many different groups have fired warning shots about a variety of issues — such as climate change, the wealth gap, and so on — here is a warning shot for the oncoming onslaught of people who will be suffering the psychological after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: paranoia, anxiety, and depression.
Cannabis can be a Tool
Cannabis is not a cure-all, or panacea, for this oncoming psychological pandemic. But access to cannabis and the long-term research of psychological and physiological treatments of cannabis products is only in its infancy. As a society, we need to prepare ourselves for the wave of people suffering from such conditions that they never expected to experience. We have the means to help people; moreover, we have a responsibility to.
Cannabis can be another tool in the toolbox of medical professionals to help people deal with the aftermath of this pandemic. Now is a good time for us to reconsider our legal positions on the use of cannabis to treat what will surely be a real problem in the coming weeks, months and years.
In the meantime, we have to now deal with the feeling that everyone around us could infect us with some sort of virus. I suspect for many this feeling will last much longer than the COVID-19 pandemic will. The aftermath will probably lead many people to have feelings of “Stranger Danger” for a long time to come.
