Marijuana, Addiction, and the Body: What We've Been Getting Wrong

➡️ Get the full episode breakdown at Biology of Trauma® Podcast - Episode Marijuana, Addiction, and the Body: What We've Been Getting Wrong

If you've watched a family member struggle with addiction, you know how helpless it can feel. Treatment programs that don't work. Policies that seem disconnected from reality. Debates about legalization versus criminalization that never address what actually helps someone recover.

Dr. Kevin Sabet has spent decades advising three presidential administrations on drug policy—watching decriminalization debates, marijuana legalization, and the opioid crisis unfold. He started asking a different question: What if we looked at what actually works? His book One Nation Under the Influence examines why current addiction policies are failing—and what Iceland, Portugal, and Hawaii figured out that we're missing.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• [01:00] Why marijuana is the most misunderstood drug in America
• [04:00] How today's marijuana is genetically bred to be far more potent
• [08:00] The critical difference between decriminalization, legalization, and commercialization
• [12:00] Why the promises of marijuana legalization haven't materialized
• [17:00] How addiction responds to incentives unlike any other brain condition
• [20:00] What "harm reduction" actually means—and why there's so much confusion
• [24:00] Why some addiction physicians recommend marijuana for opioid recovery—and what the research shows
• [30:00] What Iceland's prevention model actually did differently
• [33:00] How Portugal's system works—and why it's not legalization
• [35:00] Hawaii's HOPE program: why 2 days in jail changed behavior when years of probation didn't