Are You a Cannabis Stan?

This past week the wordsmiths of the world added the word “stan” to its hallowed dictionary pages. The word is a tribute to the rapper Eminem’s song “Stan”, about an obsessive fan. Stan has been added to the Merriam Webster dictionary to define 'an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan' as a noun. The word can also be used as a verb to "exhibit fandom to an extreme excessive degree".

eminem stan

What is a Cannabis Stan?

A cannabis stan is an ultra-devoted cannabis fan, an extreme cannabis fan if you will, that will not only support and endorse the cannabis plant to the highest degree, but also refuse to talk or discuss any perceived negative aspect of the plant or legalization. The mantra of a “cannabis stan” includes the following phrases written over and over, and then, if you disagree, written over and over in all capital letters.

Cannabis is plant!
God created cannabis, and all the plants, so it must be good
Cannabis will heal the world
Cannabis can cure cancer, as well as every other disease
Free the weed!
Big Pharma and the government are evil

Are Cannabis Stans Bad People?

No, cannabis stans are good people and their hearts are in the right place, they are just so caught up in the greatness of the plant, and what it has done for them in their lives, that they refuse to discuss any aspects of “not greatness” surrounding the plant or legalization (see below). Are they dangerous or are they doing harm? No, not really. Within the cannabis community they are just viewed as really, really, enthusiastic fans. The problem starts when they represent the cannabis community to the non-cannabis world, they come off as so one-sided and biased that it hurts the “let’s discuss the pros and cons of this issue” debate. They are the lunatic fringe of the cannabis space, not evil or hurtful, just so adamant about shouting their message, they are tone deaf to debate and rational discussion.

The Internet and social media have helped the growth of cannabis stans. Since algorithms in Google and Facebook are designed to show you stories that you will like, and that align with your own philosophy or views on such subjects as politics, religion, and sports, cannabis stans are seeing more and more extreme articles about cannabis on a daily basis and “seeing is believing”. Cannabis stans believe cannabis can cure any cancer, and they see articles everyday claiming it does, so it strengthens their belief system. We wrote an article about how the algorithms at Facebook and Google are helping to keep weed illegal because anti-pot people are only seeing anti-pot stories and pro-legalization supports are only seeing pro-legalization stories. We are no longer seeing opposing views and debates in our personalized feeds, since Facebook and Google want you to “like” what you are seeing on their platforms, so you spend more time on them. You can read the story about how algorithms are hurting cannabis legalization here.

The 4 Biggest Facts That Cannabis Stans Can’t Handle

Are you a cannabis stan? This will be a good test to see if you qualify as a weed stan, depending on how you feel about these 3 subjects.

-Cannabis is a drug – If you want to see heads explode and face the threat of physical violence, tell a cannabis stan that cannabis is a drug. They literally can’t go there, they can’t handle that sentence, and will just scream “cannabis is a plant” over and over with their fingers in their ears. One, cannabis is a drug, and cannabis is a plant. Cannabis creates physiological changes in the body, cannabis can pass through the blood-brain barrier and create psychoactive effects in the brain, cannabis has an age restriction on it as children should not have free access to it, etc. You can read our article “Cannabis is a Drug, Get Over it” here, and then check out out Facebook feed for the unabashed hatred and anger.

Most stans will type over and over that “cannabis is a plant, not a drug!”. Plants are drugs, drugs are plants. 80% of medicinal drugs today come from plants or have plant origins. The fields of Afghanistan are littered with beautiful plants and flowers called poppies, these plants also create most of the world’s opium. The residue, or tar, of the opium poppies can be rubbed on your gums to create a strong and intoxicating high. Poppies are a plant and also a drug. Just screaming “cannabis is a plant” does not mean cannabis can’t be and isn’t a drug.

The cocoa and coca bean are both from plants and they both contain drugs, one used in your coffee and the other used in chocolate and cocaine. The tobacco plant is an all-natural plant that contains nicotine, a very popular drug around the world. All plants, all drugs, and it’s okay. If you are a cannabis stan reading this, take a deep breath, don’t throw your phone or laptop against the wall.

One way to put a cannabis stan on the spot here is to ask them if they think cannabis should be age restricted to 18 or 21-year-olds. If they say no, cannabis is a plant, then ask them if they are okay with an 8-year-old buying a pre-rolled blunt or edibles? If they say yes, there should be an age restriction, then you can’t say “cannabis is just a plant”. My 10-year-old can go into a store and buy a tomato plant, a kale plant, a blueberry bush, and a pound of coffee without an ID check, but why not cannabis? Because it is a drug with physiological and psychoactive effects. In game theory boxes, the cannabis stan is kind of stuck here and must choose between two bad answers.

-Driving While High or Using Cannabis is Fine - Cannabis stans tend to think that driving under the influence of cannabis is fine and poses no safety threat to themselves or others on the road. Many cannabis stans will say things like they have been smoking weed and driving for over 30 years and never had a problem, cannabis makes you a better drive some studies show, and stuff like that. First off, it is insane if you think a drug that creates a psychoactive effect in the brain doesn’t impair your judgement or reaction time. A heavy dose of edibles will alter the “time” element in your brain so you don’t know if 2 minutes or 20 minutes has gone by at a given time, so yes, that may be important when driving a 2,000 lbs. automobile. Be sure to watch the episode of Weediquette on Vice when they do the driving tests on the closed course after consuming different amounts of cannabis. Driving under the influence of any drug that alters your reaction time and awareness is a danger, this includes alcohol, cannabis, cough syrup, sleeping pills, etc.

-CHS, or Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, Isn’t Real – Denial about driving and CHS are two biggies for Cannabis stans. CHS is a condition that effects a small percentage of cannabis users, where after heavy usage usually taken through the liver or stomach, some cannabis users get flu like symptoms. We did an article on it here and Leafly has an excellent article on it as well. Symptoms include chills and sweats, gagging or vomiting, and a general achy feeling. All symptoms go away when the person stops using cannabis for a few weeks. Most cannabis stans will tell you it was something in the cannabis, maybe the oil had something mixed in or the buds were contaminated with pesticides, or something along those lines. There have now been hundreds of documented cases in emergency rooms around the world and doctors in over 10 countries have written notes on it and are discussing it. Cannabis stans will actually leave comments saying it is a Big Pharma ploy and they are paying off the emergency room doctors to write up flu sicknesses as cannabis related. How this is done on the spot as the doctors are making their emergency room admission notes and how this large secret payment system is kept clandestine is beyond me, but stans believe it.

No one is saying CHS is a reason not to legalize cannabis and use it, we are just saying it should be looking into and studied. Why do 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000 heavy cannabis users run into this problem? What is going in with the hypothalamus, or the thermostat control in the brain, and cannabinoids when the body gets hot and cold on its own? Many users report only a hot, hot shower makes them reset or feel normal again. Why is that? Are people pre-disposed to CHS? It appears to be a gradual build up over time, the symptoms come on slowly and gradually, not like getting a flu bug.

Orange juice is a great way to get vitamin C, but some people can’t drink it in the morning because it is so acidic it causes heartburn. It’s okay, orange juice is healthy and legal, just some people have an adverse acidic reaction. Some people can’t drink beer due to the yeast or barley and hops in the beer, it messes up their digestive tract and causes all sorts of gastrointestinal problems. It’s okay too, beer shouldn’t be made illegal because of it. It’s okay that a small percentage of people have a mixed reaction to something, let’s just study it and find out why and how it is happening to some cannabis users.

-Cannabis use Increases Your Resistance to Anesthesia – We put an article out (see here) that Newsweek also covered claiming that heavy cannabis users where seeing their MAC score go up and required heavier doses of anesthesia and sedatives before medical procedures. This makes perfect sense if you believe that your cannabis tolerance goes up the more you use cannabis. Most long-term cannabis users know this is true and don’t deny it, but when you say that same effect happens with anesthesia, they lose their bananas. They will scream at you in all capital letters that it is fake news and not true. First, I have no idea why cannabis stans are so upset at the premise of the story to begin with as I don’t see it as a huge negative that if you are a regular cannabis user your tolerance to other relaxing drugs goes up. It makes sense and isn’t a knock-on cannabis, so I am not sure where all the venom comes from on this one. Scientifically it makes sense too, tolerance is tolerance, whether you are using cannabis, alcohol, or any other drug that passes through the blood-brain barrier. Your body adjust to it and builds up a resistance and you will need incrementally higher doses to get the same effects. I personally know this is true after a recent colonoscopy, and if you read the Facebook comments, between the cannabis stans screaming at us, about 20% of the comments or people saying “Yes, happened to me, I am a heavy dabber and had to go in for an XYZ”.

How Does a Cannabis Stan Change?

Keep your undying and enthusiastic love of cannabis alive, but realize it is okay to have civil discussions about the pros and cons of legalizing the cannabis plant. Cannabis is a miracle plant that will help change society and medicine for the better over the next 20 years. If you are getting carried away with your cannabis obsession, say the following sentence each morning and start coming back to a middle area of cannabis discussion.

“Cannabis is a drug, and this is okay. It is not okay to drive while stoned or high on cannabis. CHS is a real effect some people feel after long, extended cannabis use, and it is okay, we should study it.”