There are extremely startling dangers with THC/Marijuana

Yes, it is now legal in New Jersey, but there are still plenty of inherent dangers and risks associated with recreational Marijuana and THC.

There is an ongoing, soul-taking drug epidemic wreaking havoc in New Jersey with dangerous drugs spilling into our communities from heroin (many times laced with fentanyl) to crack cocaine to meth to LSD and now legal recreational marijuana.

As these drugs continue to make their way into New Jersey communities, there is concern over what will happen in the days, weeks, and months to come.

Phil O'Hara, a Peer Recovery Specialist, spoke in detail on Sunday morning on 'Shore Time with Vin and Dave' on 94.3ThePoint/105.7TheHawk about his years-long battle with addiction until he was able to find recovery.

In the years since his recovery, he's been working as a peer recovery specialist and interventionalist trying to help others, and O'Hara explains that this marijuana legalization is concerning.

"We're legalizing Marijuana and everyone is so happy about this, right, but the Marijuana that we're legalizing right now is not the Marijuana that I was smoking in high school back in 2005 that was 10-12 percent pure THC," O'Hara tells Townsquare Media. "We have commercialized Marijuana, we've given it to scientists/big pharma/big commercial Marijuana companies and they have genetically modified this Marijuana and they have taken it from 12-percent THC in the plant up to 45-percent in the plant."

Now that there are recreational marijuana stores/facilities selling the drug, it's more accessible.

"You can go into a shop now and go buy super potent Marijuana -- the plant, 35-45 percent -- but we've (those producing it) taken a step further, we've shot butane and propane through this Marijuana coming up with a concentrated THC oil," O'Hara said. "There's a lot of Marijuana advocates that refuse to acknowledge what I'm about to say -- we are seeing psychosis from young people and people of all different ages from smoking concentrated THC dab pens."

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O'Hara couldn't believe this eye-popping information when he first heard it, but then saw proof first-hand at a drug intervention he was on.

"The guy was talking about hearing voices and seeing demons," O'Hara said. "When I walked in to assess the situation, he told me what he was experiencing and I said, 'how much meth have you smoked and how many days have you been awake?', and he was like, 'no, no, no, I just smoked my weed pen', and I was like, 'alright, LSD, mushrooms?', (and he said) 'no, no, no, just my weed pen'. We took him to Carrier Clinic, we got the drug test results -- it was only THC."

That was intervention one, and O'Hara has been on five additional interventions with similar situations.

"I've done five interventions on people that were in psychosis, in manic states from concentrated THC oils," O'Hara said. "The one kid thought the buttons on his shirt were cameras that his parents had placed on there and that there were microphones in his room. When you're dealing with mental health, it's a different type of intervention, and I had said, 'if I can take you somewhere that made the cameras go away, would you go?', and he said, 'yea, right now', and we got him into a mental health facility -- but it was just THC, and the problem is a lot of treatment centers and insurance companies will not authorize treatment for Marijuana."

You can hear more from Phil O'Hara's interview on 'Shore Time with Vin and Dave ' that aired Sunday on 94.3ThePoint/105.7TheHawk, right here.