Is Cannabis too Dangerous to Have at Home? (Better Check Your Cupboard)

Is Cannabis too Dangerous to Have at Home? (Better Check Your Cupboard)

more dangerous cannabis or cherries

This is a little diddy for all those who think that cannabis should be legalized, but only for medical purposes and that when it is, it should be strictly regulated. (Obviously.) We can’t be having a dangerous substance just floating around the house, in full reach of tiny little hands that might unquestioningly ingest, now can we?

If your answer to that question is no, then I’m right there with ya. Let’s get rid of all the dangerous shit in our homes, the inconspicuous little killers that no one would suspect of being able to harm the ones you love.

But what are those things?

Well, I’d be willing to wager that there are more common items in your kitchen, that if sprinkled a top a meal and fed to your children, are capable of presenting more potential for harm than this little leaf so many citizens are so up in arms against.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg, also known as Myristica Fragrans, is a common spice known for its warm flavor and sweet taste, however, this spice is not just a dreamy addition to your gamgam’s specialty nog.

It’s the chemical compound myristicin that is responsible for the effects one may feel after ingesting too large an amount of nutmeg. The breakdown of myristicin in the human body affects the central nervous system similarly to that of peyote, whose active compound is mescaline. Both mescaline and myristicin affect the Central Nervous System by enhancing the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. It is this interaction that leads to the hallucinations and dizziness that in part, define a nutmeg trip.

Nutmeg gained popularity during the post-World II era and was widely used as a recreational drug amongst youngsters, prisoners and bohemians. A ‘66 New York Times article, (for which you will need a subscription to read), compared it with the use of morning glory seeds, cough medicine and other substances that were/are frequently used as alternative highs on college campuses.

While I was only able to find two reported cases of Nutmeg deaths, one of an eight year old that died at the beginning of the 20th century and one of a 55 year old that died of a nutmeg overdose at the beginning of the 21st century, this is by no means any reason to spout the safety of Nutmeg. The authors of the Emergency Medical Journal, guess that the occurrence of deaths caused by this Indonesian spice have been widely underreported.

It is also important to note that sometime in the 19th century Nutmeg became widely known as an effective abortifacent, (abortion causing drug). With this understanding of the spice’s history I think it is safe to say that its use has claimed far more lives than that of cannabis.

In the words of the experts, “Nutmeg unites to the medicinal properties of the ordinary aromatics considerable narcotic power. In the quantity of two or three drams, (7.7 or 11.6 g), it has been known to produce stupor and delirium and dangerous if not fatal consequences are said to have followed its free use.” ... “Poisoning should be considered in recreational substance users with acute psychotic symptoms as well as central nervous system neuromodulatory signs that may mimic in part an anticholinergic hyperstimulation.”

Hey gamgam, care to use a nutmeg substitute this holiday season?

2. Sugar

What the? I mean, we all know that sugar is unhealthy for you, but a fatality causing narcotic? Am I grasping at straws here?

Hold on a sec and hear me out. The FDA and the DEA are the government agencies responsible for classifying drugs. Drugs with no medicinal value and those having a high potential for harm as well as abuse being classified as the harshest schedule, that of I or II. (I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been prescribed sugar to treat any of my ailments…)

“But wait!! Sugar isn’t a drug!” You say. Well, maybe it should be classified as such. Maybe it’s just our perspective that needs to shift a little.

As well as being able to destroy your body, introduce you to diabetes and rot your teeth, sugar has a high rate for addiction and abuse. Currently, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association, addiction is, “a complex condition, a brain disease manifested by compulsive substance use despite harmful consequence.” Some doctors say that sugar affects the brain much in the same way as heroin and cocaine. Sugary drinks alone cause over 184,000 deaths annually. The World Health Organization estimates that one of sugar’s side effects, obesity, claims over 2.8 million lives across the globe each year. One recent study has even linked the use of sugar to breast cancer.

Some studies have even linked the consumption of sugar as being the gateway drug to alcohol and other drugs. (Funny, I was always told growing up it was cannabis that would lead me down the path of hard and scary drugs.)

But hey, I’m not here to tirade against sugar. Personally, I love the stuff and enjoy its responsible use as I do a variety of other drugs. Like everything, the risks associated with its use needs to be understood and self-control needs to be implemented properly. You may not walk into the kitchen and find your child dead on the floor from a sugar overdose, but sugar is a killer, make no mistake.

3. Cherries

Who doesn’t love cherries? Plop one on top of your triple-scooped ice-cream Sunday and it’s a game changer. Add the thought of one to an extra special request even. Favors with cherries on top are hard pleas to turn down, that’s a tried and tested fact of life. However, If you don’t want to walk into the kitchen to find a similar, above-mentioned scene, it may behoove you to listen to the following words: Another fact of life, perhaps a little less-known, is that cherries also contain dangerous levels of cyanide and if consumed the wrong way, may very well be the last thing you ever consume. Don’t believe me? Here is what you need to know to keep yourself and any others you care about safe from death by cherry.

Like many dangerous things, all the beautiful layers need to first be peeled back in order to reveal the potential for harm within. It’s all in the pits. Really.

A single cherry pit yields roughly, (depending on the size of the kernel), 0.17 grams of lethal cyanide. Stone fruit like the famed cherry contain a chemical called amygdalin. Poisoning occurs when the seed is broken open, (chewed accidentally), and the amygdalin in converted into cyanide by the body. Cyanide has been used as a chemical warfare agent, a weapon of terror, and a method of mass suicide, (the Jonestown Massacre.)

But how worried should you be?

Quite, I’d say. Cyanide death occurs within seconds of ingesting a lethal dose. Some people have almost died from munching on as few as three cherry seeds and while this type of poisoning may be a rare thing, when it comes to prevention, caution is always the best method of approach. Strangely, most if not all packages of un-pitted cherry do not come with warning labels so it’d be best to make sure that all cherries have been properly de-seeded.

So there they are, nutmeg, sugar and cherries. A trio of common kitchen food items, each one with the potential to wreak havoc within your body. Some of them are addictive, some psychoactive, some just plain dangerous. It never fails to amuse, the things us humans are taught to vilify and those we are taught to accept as okay; harmless even. I know one thing for sure, this writer will never again look at cherry pie the same again.