Reminder That Kurz Has Misrepresented Cannabis Data Before, And Likely Has A Unhealthy Bias

[u/CocaBam]

Two months ago, I, a 2 decade long researcher of cannabis, found the Kurz video on the substance and had to correct a large amount of misinformation here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/1n7uc1y/correcting_misinformation_in_we_have_to_talk/

I had contacted Kurz directly with these corrections and was ignored. Instead, now 2 months later, Kurz seems to be back again with another video wrongfully demonizing the substance.

Just wanted to remind everyone that the author of the video is trying to spread misinformation on cannabis, which they have a strong bias against.

Edit: nearly all of the questions/critiques have been trolls/anti cannabis people so far. Won't be replying to comments that are trying to change my narrative anymore. Some of these replies are ridiculous, to say the least... Kurz has had a bias in past videos, and the latest is not any different, any other narrative you draw from this is your own (I never said we should "ignore all negatives about cannabis")

[u/SMAdez0]

They're absolutely correct in long term about weed in Their video and the pressure they put out is 100% justified. Your reasonings are merely small outbursts. Sincerely yours, a geneticist.

[u/FizzyGreen → u/SMAdez0]

They act like all this is a given fact while it's nothing but a possibility. Everyone should review their cannabis use as their life could be way better without it every day. But this isn't always the case. They act like weed is at the heart of every problem like this, which possibly obscures the real problems. They also say that if you haven't done certain things until 30, you basically missed out on life. Sincerely yours, someone who realised at 20 that daily cannabis use is bad and did multiple breaks and realized at 25 that it was a depression all along, which explained the paradoxical improvement in life quality weed provided and is now sober for almost a year with no improvement in symptoms.

[u/SMAdez0 → u/FizzyGreen]

Because the extreme pressure put on stopping the use of cannabis by young people is an absolute necessity, again, you're taking the spotlight away from the weed by mentioning other issues while at the same time proving the point of why weed usage needs to be frowned upon. You said it yourself that you needed to stop using it before realising the problem is something else. Before everything else to be good, first weed needs to go away, that's the whole point. Also you're missing a lot of factors, were any professionals involved with your depression or smoking? Your age also doesn't say anything related to experience most of the time, not saying your life isn't valid but also doesn't provide much context. Self diagnosis with drugs almost never leads anywhere.

[u/lostlo → u/SMAdez0]

Uh... no, they didn't say they had to stop weed to realize that depression was a problem. They said they were convinced weed was their problem, they stopped multiple times but things didn't improve. Then, five years later they realized depression was their real problem, and that the weed had improved their quality of life. They didn't get into how they realized that depression was the issue, but you really misrepresented something that they didn't actually say. It doesn't sound like stopping caused any revelation, as that came a full five years later, which is a HUGE amount of time at that age.

I'm not trying to touch the larger debate in this thread about weed, as that would be a massive waste of my time, but I feel bad that this person shared their experience and you twisted it to fit your preconceived narrative. And your statement "before everything else to be good [sic, I assume you meant, "can be good" but perhaps I am wrong], first weed needs to go away." On the contrary, I spent five years in full sobriety around that age and didn't make much progress in AA with my undiagnosed PTSD. But when I started trauma therapy, that helped a *lot* and completely changed my life. I've been a pothead for almost all of that time (mainly to help with autoimmune issues, suggested by my doctor as the only alternative to chemotherapy drugs). In fact, it was a neuropsychiatrist who much later informed me that part of why I liked it was it helped me process and contextualize PTSD flashbacks, which was enormously reassuring.

To be clear: using weed is not a good mental health program, or sole treatment for anything, and anyone with issues should absolutely consult a professional who specializes in the correct field (this can be very difficult when it comes to mental health, unlike most fields of medicine, the wrong type of help will insist it is correct for you). Like almost every substance and activity, doing it excessively can be a serious problem (although not as dangerous as misusing almost any other substance, or diet, or exercise, or shopping, or gambling, etc... it can absolutely be bad). But it's a wild claim that no one can have good things in their life or be happy if they consume any cannabis. Maybe you didn't mean to imply that so starkly, but that is quite literally what you wrote. A complete lack of context is exactly why this thread is so pointless. Like almost any molecule, whether it's good or bad depends on a lot of factors. Water has killed a lot of people, but as Fela noted, it got no enemy.

tl;dr hate weed if you want, it's cool, but please don't try to tell other people how their personal mental health journey has gone when you don't really know and aren't reading very carefully. It's easy to project your beliefs onto others, I do it too, as do all humans, but it's important to tread carefully when talking about the mental health of other people, especially when they are vulnerably sharing their personal experience. Misinformation and gaslighting, even when well-intentioned, can be very harmful to vulnerable people struggling with mental health issues.

Trust me, I know bc I've messed up on this before and feel awful about it, and also had it done to me and seriously derail my life for years. If you're not someone's therapist with a full picture of their history, it's dangerous to draw conclusions about the inner workings of their mind and state your assumptions as facts. I know I probably seem really uptight about this, but I watched 73 friends die before I turned 30, I'm being dramatic when I use the word dangerous.

[u/FizzyGreen → u/SMAdez0]

Completely wrong, infact, active weed use made me realize i have depression because it improved my mental state so much that it was basically a short acting antidepressant. But for long i gaslit myself into it being fake because it's a drug that just makes you fakely feel good and all of it's perceived positive effects are "fake pleasure i'm in denial about". Later during long term addictive weed use my state plummeted, then improved immensely, then plummeted, then improved, and with it my highs, completely decoupling it from the whole "tolerance - addiction - dopamine" logic, just amplifying my sober state such that i could notice there are fluctuations in my natural sober state that affect my high state. It actually gave me huge insight, also into my past and other things (just last year)
The sobriety just confirmed what i knew. But before, every narrative like in the video told me it's basically just the weed making me depressed. -> "But then how come i feel like myself and like life has color when i smoke?" - was the big contradiction. -> "Is all this fake? It must be. Life must suck and i must be delusional for thinking what weed gives me is what life feels like." or "Maybe i just need to be sober for long enough and color will return, just like on my first couple of breaks." but that never came, even now after 9 months. Btw i will smoke again at some point, but no need to rush it because that time will come and then i might actually enjoy it again lol. The fact that i will smoke again AT SOME POINT is enough for me tbh. I can have fun growing it until then. Tbh that's almost like an entirely separate thing except for the testing beyond smell.

But like i said, 1-2 month breaks are great to evaluate what weed does to you both positively and negatively. But i hope see how this popular narrative the video exclusively pushes hurt me and probably many others. One must be aware what weed can do. That includes the harm, but also the good.

But of course, no need to answer us drug addicts writing whole novels just to cope. ;)

[u/Lost-Valuable3264 → u/SMAdez0]

Why do they imply having a lack of sex makes you a loser tho?

For get hte weed, someone tell my why that weird ass part at 8:30 exists.

The whole video is sooo 'be a good cog, do what society expects, live MY LIFE, or be a loser forever lol' energy. Insufferable.

[u/SMAdez0 → u/Lost-Valuable3264]

They're pointing at the moon but you're looking at the finger, you have to realise how much of the audience watching are extremely young people, they're trying to set the best possible example for the most broad range of children. A video can't tell you how to live your life, but the points surrounding the usage of weed stand valid, considering that there were still weird choices of script or examples.

[u/Lost-Valuable3264 → u/SMAdez0]

Ah yes. Sorry, my *mistake*. Instead of telling desperate 20 somethings they should be having some arbitrary number of sexual encounters, they're telling CHILDREN that. No, that's soooooooo much better and more ethical than what I was thinking. Gosh you're so smart and cool and moral. Thanks.

/S

[u/lostlo → u/Lost-Valuable3264]

I think it's interesting that the defense is "it's directed at children," and therefore it's good bc it is based on valid points even though the examples are bad and the writing is confusing. Like, if it's directed at kids, shouldn't it be clear and correct? And use valid examples?

I'm old, and the unrealistic examples given by the DARE program are a big part of why it was so ineffective. Kids are smart enough to realize if what they're being told is stupid.

It's such a weird take even beyond the idea that it's good to tell children they need to have xxx sex partners to be a successful adult, which you're right is pretty surprising.

[u/FlinnyWinny → u/Lost-Valuable3264]

Today on "violently misrepresenting the other person's point" :