[A Zoom screen with the three panelists and Leah Berkenwald, Director of Health Promotion and Wellness Initiatives.]
Leah Berkenwald: All right. I think we've reached the end of our questions. So I wanna thank everybody who submitted questions. Hopefully we were able to answer them all to your satisfaction. Is there any sort of closing remarks that any of our panelists would like to make before we wrap up?
[Leah Berkenwald leaves the Zoom screen.]
Will Jones III: I did find this and just, I think, we can't repeat mistakes of the past. This is the actual, the slide that I was looking for. There's many headlines that are saying this. And so again, I think a lot of good intentions are behind what's happening with legalization. A lot of people looking to see some of the harms of the needless criminalization that we've had of users, but we also have to be aware again that this is a multi-billion dollar industry. And whether we're talking about pharma, oil, tobacco, alcohol, there are people that are looking to exploit communities. And we know which communities have historically born the brunt of predatory tactics by these industries. And still today again, in my neighborhood, there's eight times as many liquor stores in Maryland as in community, in black communities, as other communities. Still in 2021 like that hasn't been dealt with. And so we need to be very careful and wary as we look to see more just laws and get removed and needless criminalization, not to open the door to another exploitive industry that can harm vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Tom Fontana: I just say, thanks for having me again. It's great to be with these panelists and thank you Leah for putting this together. I think from people using cannabis, we know right we absolutely wanna- that there is misuse, that does exist. Generally, we know that a percentage of people of any substance will be addicted to it. And it's interesting just as a brief reference to look at Reddit. Reddit has a community of R/Trees. The sub Reddit R Trees. Which is 1.7 million people who love talking about weed and how much they love weed. And there's one called R/Leaves which is 170,000 people who are in a community around abstinence, around cannabis. Around recovery of cannabis. That's 10%. And so, how do you know? That's not the best resource to show but that's, you know, that's interesting. And importantly, those communities get along together. They respect each other. They're not saying weed's bad for everybody or weed's good for everybody they are saying, " Look people gonna make their own choices around this. And I think we can come to that somewhat as people." Thinking about this if you choose to use cannabis, that's fine. And you go, look, if it's legal, it's fine. I mean, there's ways that it's fine and maybe fine for you. And there's ways when medicinally it might be helpful. We wanna understand what those are. We still need to think about balance no matter what the reason is. That's just the word I'll use a lot right now that I did balance. And probably tolerance breaks are an important part of responsible use. You need to take a month off a year or a weekend a month. If you smoke weed, you need to not smoke weed at some point. I shall say smoking is really not the best way for you. It's not great for your lungs. So vaping or eating. So I'll say, I'll just put out a quick plug doing a research, hoping, launching in a few weeks from now to look at resources that support people around a tolerance break, and we'll be investigating that. So if anyone's interested in participating in some research you're looking to take a tea break a little compensation for filling out two surveys be happy to have you part of it. Feel free to email me I'll fill my name in here. Thanks again for having me here.
Dr. Staci Gruber: And I would just say really quickly just to follow up on what Tom said, you know, whether you're using recreationally or for adult use or medical use, or you're not sure or you're on the fence, remember there's the good, there's the bad and there's the truth. Educate yourself as best you can. Don't believe the hype and the BS, because most of it is exactly that. That is unfortunately perpetuated by folks and institutions and corporations with other agendas as well. So eloquently pointed out. Everybody has a stake in this. It's a multi gazillion dollar industry. That is a technical term, multi gazillion. Be mindful it is a constantly shifting landscape I promise you that. Those of us in clinical research are working as fast as we can within the very, very restricted confined environments that we live and work and breathe in. We take a lot of, It's hard to do some of this work. But it's important to do it because everybody who is interested in using or even those who don't want to use need to know the truth. It isn't about what I personally think and feel or Tom, or even Will. It's about what the science and the data show us and what really should be allowing us to make better sound decisions for all of us. So thank you for your time and your patience. And honestly, it's been an honor to be on this panel with such an esteemed group. So thank you.
[Leah Berkenwald appears on the Zoom screen.]
Leah Berkenwald: Thank you so much to all of our panelists. We were so grateful to have you today and to our attendees as well. To our BTW students who are moderating today, please feel free to check out the Health and Wellness office website and get in touch if you have any follow-up questions. Thanks so much, everybody.
Will Jones III: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Dr. Staci Gruber: Thanks.