Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: In this episode, we take a look at some recent research that suggests that marijuana use may be connected to some serious health problems, including life threatening cardiovascular issues.
Hello, welcome to the Call Like I See it podcast.
I'm James Keys and joining me today is a man who brings an exotic take or two to every show. Tunde. Ogon Lana Tunde. Are you ready to hit us with some, some maybe, you know, blueberry yum yum today?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Amen.
The word exotic and then the term yum yum, you just messed me up. So let's just keep going.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: All right, all right, well, just, just hit us, hit us with some strands that we don't know about yet.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: All right. Yeah.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: All right.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Now before we get started, more appropriate.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Before we get started, if you enjoy the show, I ask that you subscribe and like the show on YouTube or your podcast app, doing so really helps the show out. We're recording on July 16, 2025, in tune day. As marijuana has become legalized or at least decriminalized in more and more states around the United States, we've seen it get studied more also, you know, which is probably a good thing, you know, to kind of learn more about how, what it does to people and so forth and how it affects our bodies. So a couple of recent studies that caught our eye was there was one that dealt with how marijuana may affect how genes are expressed in our body. Like, you know, we have our genes and then. But also there's the issue of gene expression in terms of what genes are turned on and off at a given moment based on lifestyle and another that talked about, or that they talked about how THC and marijuana and so forth were connected to very serious cardiovascular problems, like all the way up to heart disease. And so Tunde, you know, what's your reaction to seeing this?
Ultimately, I want to get in this conversation to like, should we start considering whether it was a mistake to legalize this, if it has these connected to these kind of harmful things. But right now, just kind of what stood out to you in the studies that we're seeing and just your reaction to seeing those, including the stuff about how they're looking at smoking it, but also just ingesting it through edibles and so forth?
[00:02:26] Speaker B: I'd say the things that stood out to me are the fact that, number one, there's this speculation about the harmful side effects of marijuana.
After studying, obviously some of the speculation, some of it has been proven out through scientific study, but that's similar to other things that we consume that maybe, I mean, Marijuana is a newer legal substance, let's put it that way. It's not a new substance. But the fact that it is legal and that scientists can study it maybe in a way they weren't able to before because it was really considered an illegal drug and being able to test a large group of people who will admit that they use it, so on and so forth. So I think that it's natural, the fact that it's become legal in I think over 45 states, I mean, almost the entire country, it's at least medically, if not recreational, legal. So I think the ability to test it and study it is here. So now we're getting this new information. So I think to me, it's not as much of a surprise to think that number one, something that most people smoke, anything regarding smoking, you're already going to know just the carcinogen. The fact you're inhaling smoke as a substance is not good for you. And then I know we'll discuss some of the studies which I found more curious to me is that similar side effects, negative side effects to the cardiovascular system can also be found when just eating marijuana, not smoking it. So that's why I'd say I'm not surprised. I'll also say I'm not happy because I'm a consumer of the product and I have cardiovascular issues. I've shared on the show. I've had got advanced heart disease and had a mild heart attack in 2024.
So for me, the topic is interesting because it's another serious topic. Just like drinking alcohol, just like eating certain foods, you know, that at the end of the day, I'm at the point in my life in middle age that I just have to make choices now.
And so I got to choose whether I continue to consume marijuana or not based on this information. And so far the answer is I'm continuing.
Let's see how the show goes and how freaked out I get once you open your mouth.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Well, you know, that was actually when you told me, like, man, you know, I started reading this stuff, I'm getting a little freaked out. I was like, yeah, this is crazy.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: I'm going to go smoke a joint. I'm so freaked out.
But I got to go.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: But the thing that stood out to me actually was, I know, like when, when marijuana was illegal. And, you know, that's been the case through, I guess, most of my life. And it's still illegal federally, but state wise is where it was primarily being enforced and the states, you know, are kind of making it like the local police isn't trying to arrest people for. For marijuana use now in most many places.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: So that changes such an American issue. Yeah, yeah, figure it out.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: But, but the thing that, like, I know that it was always marijuana, a lot of times was looked at in conjunction, like you said, the. With the other thing that people smoke, that's like a leaf burning or whatever was tobacco. And there was. Tobacco had been studied. And so there were always like all of these different, like, oh, tobacco does this, tobacco does that, and all this other. And then I would always hear when I was younger, like, oh, well, you know, the marijuana, that's natural, you know, you don't have to worry about all that. That tobacco stuff. That's tar, that's this and all this stuff, it'll kill you. The marijuana, though, is pure, you know, you don't have to worry about it in that sense. And in hindsight, after looking at this, it's just like, oh, okay. Like, it's not just all. Like, that's not just the free smoke, you know, like, it's like, oh, okay, the reason why you had these. These myths or whatever, as far as how that wouldn't have been bad for you in the way. Same way that tobacco might have been. And, you know, and again, not saying scale, but just the same, the same kinds of issues you might have with tobacco you could end up having if you're smoking a lot of marijuana and the way that people smoke a lot of tobacco, like that, that mythology was more about that this wasn't getting tested in the same way that tobacco was, you know, and so it's kind of like, you know, don't ask, don't tell, you know, to the scientific community, like, oh, well, you know, nobody, nobody. We're not looking at this. So it was allowed to proliferate that, oh, well, this might be healthier than, you know, than tobacco in that sense. And maybe it's not as bad. You know, I think that when you're getting to these degrees, you know, a lot of things matter. Volume matters, you know, And I don't know, I think tobacco, I think, is something that. From the people who smoke that there's a higher volume of that a lot of times than the people who smoke marijuana.
And so the idea, though, that it might have been thought as less harmful or not as harmful or maybe not that harmful at all.
And that's running up against now the idea that, oh, well, actually, maybe there are some pretty serious things that it does to you which to get to, you know, you got to the next step on this already, which was kind of like, all right, so if I. If I can't walk around feeling like me doing this is kind of the free lunch, then I got to start deciding, okay, well, is it worth paying for? You know, do I want. Do I want to pay for whatever these types of things that it might make me more a higher propensity for, you know, whether it be heart issues or, you know, you know, issues with your blood vessels or, you know, anything, you know, again, the aging, you know, premature aging and so forth, you have to start. That calculation is going to have to come along with that. Which, you know, if that's the calculation that people should. That is there, then it's probably a good thing that people get to make that out loud, you know, or kind of consciously, as opposed to thinking that, oh, well, no, this one, you know, if I'd be killing myself if I was smoking tobacco, but I do weed instead and I'm straight, you know, it's like, well, nah, that affects you as well, you know, So, I mean, I think it's good to clear that misconception up to the extent that it existed.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well. And I think this.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: This.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: We start on. This is obviously a topic that can get us, you know, a little bit jovial and joking around, but it's because it's marijuana.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: But substance, that could get you.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: It's. It's.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: But on a serious note, that's what I'm saying is that. Is that. That's what I'm saying. Like, I smoke weed and I got cardiovascular issues. I don't eat it. I smoke it. So I'm, you know, I'm probably doing it the worst way you can do it, even though the other way we learn is bad.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: But.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: And I. And I'm like, I'm saying I've had to choose and decide which vices in my life as I get older, am I going to start kind of getting rid of and which ones are the ones that maybe I just like and I accept that if willing to pay the car, I end up getting cancer or something, I'm gonna have to look back and say, I made a conscious decision to continue doing this. And I. And I've. And I've made my peace with that.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Well, and like, you said the analogy, like, that's the same calculation that people got to make with alcohol. You know, like, it's like, all right, this could. Yeah, now, I may just be lucky or. But this could. This is the kind of thing that messes you up. Or even, as we know, more now, sugar, you know, like, hey, this is the kind of calculation, sugar. And, you know, this is. Or, you know, certain type of, you know, processed food or whatever. Like you're making a decision like, hey, this could mess you up over the long haul, but. But it's convenient and it feels good or whatever. So, you know, this is what you're going to do.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think, here's the thing that I always say. Education is important on these topics, because once you're armed with the knowledge and the information, that's exactly how I feel. Now I can make a decision on how I proceed. So to your point, after I had a heart attack, the cardiologist is looking at me like, dude, you got to change some things. One of the things that, you know, you notice the audience might not, but I'm like, addicted to brown liquor.
You know, bourbons and whiskeys are just my thing. I could have a bottle of Tito's or some tequila brand sitting in my cupboard for two years and not touch it. But if there's a bottle of brown liquor in my house, it's gonna be done in two or three days. That's just me because I like the taste. I don't even. I don't care to get feel messed up. I just really enjoy the taste of bourbon. And so that was a choice I had to make. I no longer. I changed my lifestyle. I no longer buy bottles of bourbon for the house, period.
That was the choice after the heart attack. Okay, you got to slow down on something.
So it was okay. The brown liquor got to go. Maybe I'll have an old Fashioned once a month or something if I go to a restaurant out. But I just don't have it in the house.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Keeping it at the house, so.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: And yeah, but that took me learning about my body, the heart disease, how alcohol affects it, and then other things to your point too, James, like eating healthy. So I've changed my diet. I eat less red meat. So I've done a lot of the other things that are good, good, and try. And hopefully that'll balance out a bit, the marijuana use. But at the end of the day, I've had to make this decision of just, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm. I'll be 50 in a few years, you know, 47, going on 48 my next birthday. So I'm middle age. This. I'm not gonna be 25 again. My body is slowly deteriorating. I want to slow the rate of deterioration, but I Got to be realistic. Like we talked about, you know, we've had shows about people that want to live to 500 years old and stuff. Reality is I'm okay living till 80, so I'm more than halfway through the journey and I want to take care of myself, but I'm also deteriorating. And so I made a decision. I'm gonna have a little fun and smoke some joints while I deteriorate. And that's, that's, that's how it is.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: I mean, you know, trade off that you're talking about is like, all right, well, I'm gonna, there's certain places where I'm gonna walk more of a narrow, straight, narrow path. And there's other places where I still.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Want to have my allowance, to your point, like sugar. I try and watch sugar. Yeah, I know that that is not going to complement the marijuana use. Right.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: So try to be better at that. Well, I mean, I think it's, it's, it's one of those things that in terms, you can feel powerless. You know, you feel powerless when you look at the enormity of your inability to control your level of exposure in certain areas. And then in other areas you're like, oh, I can control it, but you know, like in terms of drinking or smoking or this or that or whatever. And, but it's like, oh, well, but that's the stuff actually, that's fun. Like, like putting on a shirt and breathing in microplastics isn't fun. Like, I just have to do that. And so I think sometimes it gets to a situation where it's like people don't know what to do because it's like, all right, so the, the things I have to do are going to make me sick. Like, but at least I want to do some things that I want to do as well. And so it ends up, you end up putting people in this tough situation, which, you know, I, I sympathize with. And you know, for me it becomes so, there's, so it's hitting you from so many different angles that it could lead people to be like, well, just throw your hands up, like, who cares? You know, again. And I think that is, that's not necessarily the right answer, you know, but it can feel like that. Like it for me personally, I'm looking at, okay, well, understanding that my body is a self cleaning, self regenerating thing. Just like I'm not going to do everything, right, but at least let me try to do things that'll help it self clean and self regenerate. You Know, like, as much as possible. Like, I'm going to be exposed to stuff. I can try to not be exposed, expose myself to too much, or at least not expose myself to stuff too often, and then try to support the ways that my body's trying to fix itself, which slows down as I get older anyway, you know, so it's like, all right, that's a losing battle ultimately, but I can stay in the game as long as I want, you know, so. So at least let me kind of.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Let me tell you.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: But I want to keep us moving though, because at least to these kind of dilemmas that there are no kind of satisfactory answers where you're just like, good, I'm just straight, you know, like, we got this covered. I'm good. Like, so you have to. Each person has to decide, okay, well, what, what, what battles do I want to win? What battles am I willing to fall back a little bit on? And then like you said at the beginning, kind of just live with it. And so before we close this, though, I want to ask you. So do you think that seeing this type of research come out calls into question whether whether marijuana should have been legalized in the first place? Like, if it's, if we're, are we adding something else to the, to the pile now that all this stuff is, you know, all these plastics and all this food and all drinks already and smokes to tobacco and all that stuff's trying to kill us anyway, and now we're adding more to the pile, you know, like, do you think that, you know, we should second guess that or, or is it, you know, is that not something that you, that you look at?
[00:14:02] Speaker B: No, because. Because of all the first stuff you said, then we need to get high.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: To forget about it.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: You see what I'm saying? Like, like you said, it's not fun breathing in my shirt.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: This isn't fun breathing this in, but it's fun to go smoke a joint and go play some PlayStation or Go, you know, come over, hang out with you and laugh or take, do whatever. Right? And so that's, that's what I'm saying is I don't think, I don't think that would be a reason to, to make marijuana illegal again, let's say, because then you got to make everything illegal. I mean, meaning by that lock cigarettes.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Everything that can deteriorate a body faster than it maybe naturally would under. You know, if we were hunter gatherers. That means you got a ban thing.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: That'S fun that you, that we made to curation because they're not going to. They're not, not going to make it illegal to put plastics in shirts.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say. Like, we'd have to ban fossil fuels because we really are breathing in smog, right? Not, not because I'm saying it because I like electric or anything. But yeah, we'd be breathing in less smog if it was only the nuclear plant, you know, in one city feeding my electricity to go fill up my car, then if it's, you know, 1 million cars driving up and down the highway every day past my house. So that's, that's just, that's just the reality. And I was going to mention, because you said something about cleaning out the body and the skin and making sure you do that. And I remember we had a really good leader once that suggested we put disinfectant under our skin to deal with things when they're dirty inside. So I might try that, James, and I'm gonna let you know how it goes. And it might cause me to have to smoke another joint, which may compound the negative effect. So I might have to use more disinfectant. But when I get done with that experiment, if I'm still alive, I'll let you know.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: All right? Be careful with that bleach, man.
And for me, I'll tell you this, I, as far, like, I, I come in the same place as you because I'm like, I just don't think the law is for that. You know, like, making things illegal or illegal is not. We haven't said that. That's just about, okay, can this thing hurt you in five years or in 10 years or in 20 years? Or make it more likely that, you know, you, you, you end up with a negative consequence? Like, that's just not the standard for us making things illegal. So I find it actually disingenuous, you know, if you're saying, oh, see, it was a mistake to make this legal. Like, people in a free society are allowed to do things like drinking being an example, smoking cigarettes being another example. Eating, you know, sugary, you know, fatty snacks, you know, is another thing. Things that ultimately aren't great for the body, you know, like, so, you know, life is more than just, you know, to, to those people that are like, oh, I want to live 500 years. Life is actually more than just trying to, to, to. To keep your, Preserve your body long, as long as possible, you know, Otherwise you'd just be in some chamber somewhere like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna Lay here frozen, but I'll be alive for 200 years. And it's like, well, what's the point of that? You know? So I think that it's really just, really what it is, is about is again trying to get rid of the misconceptions that may exist because this wasn't studied before. And then also just understanding, okay, well, you know, like, like for you, you know, you say, hey, I want to continue to do this, so maybe I'm going to pull back on that, you know, and not especially as I get older, you know, maybe when you're 25, you can handle that all and your body can still keep up with its detox load. But if you're 45, it's like, ah, my body's starting to fall behind, so I got to take away one of these things that I enjoy, but that is contributing to my detox load so my body can keep up, you know, so, and I think that's kind of the give and take, you know, that over time that you have to do and just understanding that some things you do, you know, can be health promoting, you know, exercise or whatever and other things you do may not be health promoting, but it may be something that you enjoy and then it gives you comfort, gives you whatever and, and that's part of life too, you know. So I mean, I think that it, it would be wrong footed completely to be like, oh, you know, we should make this illegal again, you know, but at the same time, you know, this is kind of, this is, this is the cost. Everything has a cost. And this is the cost of being in a free society is sometimes you have to, you yourself not having somebody, young government do it for you, whatever, have to balance these kind of decisions.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yep. So you just killed my desire to go live in a monastery.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: So.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: I'll be, I'll just stay out in this real world and just consume.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Hey man, keep living, man, keep living. So, but I think we can wrap this topic from there. Check it out. We'll have a call out this week as well. Subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it, tell us what you think. Send it to a friend. Till next time. I'm James Keys.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: I'm Tunde.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: All right, we'll talk soon.
