There are three competing narratives regarding cannabis. The first is religious, denoted in the Hindu Atharva Veda (2000 BCE), which described cannabis as a sacred plant the gods provided for people’s happiness when eaten or smoked as Ganga, identified today with Jamaican Rastafarians. The second is political; the British demonized it as promoting violence, i.e., resistance to British colonial rule in India. The third was the enthusiasm of French intellectuals engendering the narrative that cannabis opened new dimensions of perception and enlightenment beyond ordinary consciousness. Since the legalization of recreational cannabis in 2012, punitive measures have yielded to commercialization. The consequences are unregulated cross-pollination of various cannabis species with increasing concentrations of ?-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, responsible for the high, producing greater potency in pursuit of expanding conscious experience. The potential, however, is greater addictive potential and higher risk for disease than the species that formed the foundation for the medical opinion to legalize the drug. This webinar will examine the impact on individual health and the community.