Preborn has helped save 38,000 babies this year
>> Walker Wildmon: I want you to picture this. Her name is Kayla. She is 17, alone, terrified and pregnant, sitting in a clinic, tears blurring, thinking abortion is her only option until she was offered a free ultrasound, paid for by a hero just like you. The moment Kayla heard her baby's heartbeat, the decision was made. And today, her little baby boy, Gabriel is thriving because preborn walked with Kayla every step of the way. Now multiply that by 38,000. That's how many babies preborn has helped save just this year. And along with saving the babies, mothers are being counseled with practical and spiritual advice to make motherhood possible. But here's the most important thing you will hear today. The goal is to save 70,000 by the end of the year. And they can't do it without us. Every $28 provides that ultrasound that changes everything. Will you be the reason the next Kayla chooses life? The reason Gabriel fulfills his destiny. To donate. Dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250, baby. Or donate [email protected] afr that's preborn.com afr we inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because.
>> Paul Larkin: We know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is At the Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio launches Bibles for Babies campaign
Welcome to the Corps here on American Family Radio. I'm Walker Wildmon. Glad to be with you on this brand new edition of, of the show. And we've got several guests on the program and you're, not going to want to miss the next two segments. the second and the third segment of this hour. You're listening to afrafr.net is our URL. As a reminder, we've got the AFR app app, which is very popular. And, we've got hundreds of thousands of people who've used the AFR app and it's free. So just go to your app store, type in afr, download the AFR app on your Apple, Android, Roku, Amazon, et cetera, all the various app stores. Just download the AFR app. It's free and you can get, content, live, live AFR content. And you can get past episodes as well by downloading the AFR app. This week, we're going to be. Later in the week we're going to be talking with, host of Hannah's heart. about what we're calling our Bibles for Babies campaign, which is going on this week, where for $10, you can provide a Bible for a mother and a child. partnering with our local pregnancy resource center here in North Mississippi, Parkgate Pregnancy center, we're partnering with them to provide Bibles for moms and babies that come into their clinic for $10 a piece. That is, for a donation of $10 a piece, we'll ensure that Park Gate has enough Bibles, to give them away to mothers and babies that come in to their clinic. And so that's going on this week. If you want to find out more, you can just go over to afr.net afr.net right there on the homepage, you will see Bibles for Babies. You can click on the Learn more. And all the information and information to donate is right there on afr.net homepage all right, we're in Proverbs chapter 23 this week.
Proverbs chapter 23, verses 4 and 5. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth
Proverbs chapter 23, verses 4 and 5. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. That's Proverbs 23, verses 4 and 5. The lesson here is, the word weary is. I, want to emphasize that word here because what the author is not saying, which it could easily be misconstrued, what the author here is not saying is, hey, don't work. Don't worry about work. Don't worry about money. Although we are not to worry or become anxious. But, the author's not. Not encouraging laziness or a lack of work ethic or, you know, a lack of needing income. The word weary here is, is what happens when you become consumed with something.
Don't become consumed with the pursuit of wealth and income, because just quickly
All right, so the author here in verse 4 and 5, Proverbs 23 is where we are when the author says, do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. what the writer is talking about is don't become consumed with wealth. Don't become consumed with the pursuit of wealth and income, because just as quickly as you gain it, you lose it. And the, you know, the comparison here is it's like the money gets wings and just flies off and vanishes. Boom, it's gone. You don't even know where it went. And there's a lot of truth to that. So we're to be diligent workers. We're to be prepared. We're to plan for the Future we're to provide for our families and our loved ones and our local church. but we don't need to become to grow weary in our pursuit of income, in our pursuit of what is needed, to sustain ourselves in this life. That's Proverbs 23 versus 4 and 5.
Over a thousand arrests have been made in Washington D.C. half of which are illegal immigrants
Well, President Trump is, has effectively secured Washington D.C. in many regards. Over a thousand arrests over the last week in Washington D.C. half of which, and we'll get to the clips here shortly, half of which are illegal immigrants. Absolutely amazing. And they're going on day 11 of zero homicides, 11 days without a homicide. Prior to President Trump sending in surging in law enforcement into Washington D.C. there was an average homicide every other day or every 48 hours in Washington D.C. and so the results are showing. And when you listen to the local media reports with local residents in Washington D.C. of which by the way, 90 plus percent vote Democrat, they're giving rave reviews to President Trump. Everyone I've watched this is great. I feel safe. This is a, ah, no brainer. I don't know why this is controversial. I mean there's all kinds of positive reviews for President Trump surging in law enforcement to bring law and order. And the question arises, why hasn't the local mayor, who's a Democrat by the way, why hasn't the local mayor done this? This just shows that these are, these are solvable issues, these are solvable problems. But the Democrats are notorious for not having solutions. And the solutions that they say they have don't work. They either need more money, they need to raise taxes, they need more control. And they go through all these different laundry list of excuses and reasons why the cities aren't safe, but they fail to take proper action on their own. And America's inner cities have been falling apart for decades and it's very sad. As Vice President J.D. vance said, it doesn't have to be this way. America's inner cities don't have to be garbage. They can be nice, they can be safe, they can be clean with proper leadership. But all of these Democrat run cities, virtually all of them have gone to the wayside. Very, very sad situation. Well, let's listen to this clip. This is gonna be. Clip ah2 but this is the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem talking about the sheer number of number one arrest. But how many of these people arrested these criminals are illegal immigrants? Clip 2 Mr. President, I think one.
>> Kristi Noem: Of the most impactful statistics that you used today was of the 1000 arrests that have happened already so far. 439 them were illegal criminals, which means they never should have been in this country to begin with, that they were in this country, invaded over our southern border or our northern border or maritime seas, and then they committed crimes against the American people. So by getting those individuals incarcerated, we've stopped those violent crimes from happening here in the city. And, sir, they do exactly like Stephen was talking. They have ties to cartels. They have networks across this country and other cities. So by what you're doing here is going to have a ripple effect in Miami, in Chicago, in other cities, because you're grabbing those networks and giving us information and targeting information to go and get more criminals across this country. So thank you for the work that you're doing. We have ICE and cbp, Federal Protective Services, Secret Service, hsi. All of our officers are working with all the other agencies every day here in D.C. and they're so proud to have this kind of partnership. Sir, they're so glad that you're letting them do their jobs again. And I don't know if you've heard, sir, but the recruitment campaign for ICE when we were going to hire 10,000 new officers, we've got over 130,000 people that have applied and raised their hands and said they want to work with ice. So no matter what the fake news says or what the media says about ICE not having support, they've got incredible support from the American people. People want to join them and help them do what they're doing to make America safe again.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's true. I can attest to that. I know people that are signing up to work for ice, former retired law enforcement, going back to work for ice. It's a fact. And so a hundred thousand applicants, that's not surprising at all. Think about how many military vets, law enforcement retired, that want to clean up our cities, want to clean up our streets, and they're glad to do it and get a paycheck. That's what ICE is offering. So that. Listen to these numbers. Four, over 400 of the 1,000 arrests in the last 10 days in Washington, D.C. are illegal immigrants. That's 40%. So at least in Washington, D.C. now, we'll see how this replicates around the country. I would, I would venture to say it's probably going to be similar numbers. But you've got illegal immigrants that feel comfortable and safe in our nation's capital. Think about that. You've got 439 illegal immigrants that are also repeat offenders, meaning they've broken not Only our immigration laws, but they've broken local municipality, ordinances and state law and now federal criminal law. And so, but, but you've got this many in Washington, D.C. knowing how Trump views this and how serious he is about this, and they're just walking and driving the Streets of Washington, D.C. give me a break. And I'll guarantee you if you go to Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, you're going to get the same numbers. You may even get more as far as the percent, percentage breakdown of the criminals that are apprehended, the number that are non citizens. And so this completely debunks this narrative that all the illegal immigrants are, number one, here for a better life. Number two, they're not a problem. They're not, they're not criminals. They're just, you know, they're just good people from another, another land and they want to, you know, participate in American life. No problem here. I mean, can you remember, do you remember all the times that President Trump was demonized and, and criticized for him talking about how the illegal immigrants come into our country? They're not send best and their brightest, and they're becoming criminals. They're becoming, becoming problems. They're, they're lynching off of the system. They are drawing resources off the system. And so this, this percentage breakdown is shocking. 40% of the criminals arrested in Washington, D.C. are non citizens. And by the way, while we're talking about non citizens, I am also bringing, raising serious questions about this, this Republican narrative that is repeated on Fox News. It's repeated by some members of the Trump administration that, well, we're just targeting, we're just targeting the repeat offenders. We're just targeting the violent illegal immigrants. Okay, let's think about this. Let's think about this. All right, so when you say that, which is, which is a head nod to the amnesty crowd, it's a hat tip to the big business crowd that relies on cheap illegal labor. You are, you are, you're confessing and you're verbalizing that, that we're okay with, with, with at least one victim, with at least one American being victimized before we take action. Because that's what's happening here is we're, we're, we're giving illegal immigrants the space needed, the leniency needed to commit at least one violent crime before they're, quote, eligible for deportation according to whatever MO the Trump administration's operating under. I don't know why that has to be the case. Who created this narrative and belief and standard that you have to be violent and rape or murder somebody before you can be on ISIS list to be deported. And so by having this unspoken standard that's actually spoken frequently, by having this standard that's not really rooted in immigration law and federal law, because the federal immigration laws don't matter, that doesn't care whether you are a violent illegal immigrant or a non violent illegal immigrant. Are you a legal citizen? Are you not? But what we're, what's happening is, is we're giving enough leniency to illegal immigrants to where they can at least victimize one American before they're eligible for deportation. And I just don't think that's a good standard. That's not a good standard. And it doesn't set a good precedent that, that we're okay with, with creating some victims, just not too many victims. And when you, when you, when you position it in that manner, it makes the soft amnesty shielding illegal immigrants look very, very bad, even, even on behalf of the Trump administration. So we'll talk more about this in a few.
Tim Wildmon is president of American Family association and American Family Radio
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello, everyone, I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. Hey, we're going to the Holy Land on a tour in March of 2026. We can't wait to go back. My wife Allyson and I have been leading these tours for over two days, decades, nearly three decades. And we are going in March of 2026 to Israel. See all the places that you've read about since you were a child in the Bible. Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan river, all of it will be going there. And also my sons Walker and Wesley Wildmon will be going to Greece on a Footsteps of Paul tour. You can do either the Holy Land trip or the Footsteps of Paul, Paul Grease tour, or both. For all the information on these tours, go to wildmangroup.com w I L-M-O-N group.com to get all the information on the 2026 march. Israel and Greece tours.
>> Walker Wildmon: At the Core podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Pastor Todd Lamphere helps minister to Border Patrol agents on southern border
Welcome, back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Well, continuing our discussion of illegal immigration and the tragedy that has happened at the southern border and most prominently over the past four years. But this has been a problem for decades, going back multiple administrations. Pastor, Todd Lamphere is with us and he's seen this, firsthand and the impacts of illegal immigration, in Texas and other parts of the country. Pastor, Lamphere, welcome to the Program.
>> Todd Lamphere: Thanks for having me, Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, we wanted to have you on Pastor because you've helped out and participated with and led in many regards, what's been called Operation Border Blessing, amongst other projects and outreaches at the southern border. but give us a little background on the history here with ministering to Border Patrol agents and others on the southern border. Give us a little background here. Sure.
>> Todd Lamphere: Well, back in 2000, end of 2018, 19, when what I call the Soros backed ah, wave of illegals that came in under the first Trump administration, catch and release was obviously, going on during that time until the president was able to get his hands completely around the situation, situation and put in title 42 and the remaining Mexico policies that. That took this flood and brought it down to a trickle. We knew that we had to do something for those illegals that were being just released on the street. So we we gathered the churches together on those border, towns and we made those safe stations. And quite frankly, Walker, what we did was we had Boy Patrol just drop them off to churches, evangelical churches, they loved on them. They gave them food, a shower. But the greatest thing they gave them was the gospel and let them know how much God loved them. We called it the inverted Great Commission. instead of going all the world, all the world was coming to us. and then with the remaining Mexico policy where everything just sort of stopped. I mean it literally went from a flood to a trickle, overnight. And that's when we turned our attention to the Border Patrol agents. These agents who had signed up to. To be, to protect our bor. To be out in the field, to do what, what they love to do, man. Just get dirty, catch bad guys, make sure that we sleep safe at night. they were holding children and changing diapers. And this is what they're doing in the processing centers. And and then, in 2020 especially, the the. The treatment that the Biden administration had given, towards our Border Patrol agent, our men and women in green, was just inhumane. So we. We started what was called the Appre Tour and where we go into the nine sectors, on the southern border and we just put a day. We bring in inflatable water parks for the children, all you can eat, cookouts. And then literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of giveaways we give to the families of these Border Patrol agents. It's our way of saying the Silent majority loves, values and appreciates everything that you do and that you're not forgotten. No matter from the, from the White House, if they don't give you props. America is going to, and we've done that over since 20, 19 we've been doing that and been blessed to be able to give over $3 million worth of, of of just gratitude, gifts, to our, our men and women, in, in green and their families.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah, that, no, that's, that's very good perspective there.
Pastor Todd Lamphere talks about demoralizing atmosphere under Biden administration
Once again, we're talking to Pastor Todd Lamphere on his personal experience ministering to people at the southern border. I wanted to ask you one follow up question on just the demoralizing, atmosphere under Biden because the, the you know, well known horseback, story where they, they totally threw the agents under the bus and mischaracterized what they were doing, riding the horseback on the southern border, which President Trump has restored, that unit by the way, patrolling the border. But that had to have been very difficult to work under an administration like the Biden administration. Where you go from, to your point, being a hero, being a ah, federal agent, protecting American lives, protecting the homeland, a very honorable position, to being told catch and release. we need you to change diapers or we need you to drive the bus so we can take them further into the homeland. I mean it totally flipped the role that these agents signed up for. So talk a little bit more about that.
>> Todd Lamphere: Yeah, 100%. It changed the role. But not only did it change the role, it changed our ability to protect our borders. Because there's only 20,000 Border Patrol agents throughout the whole United States, not just on the southern border. And when they're in the processing center, guess where they're not. They're not protecting, they're not surveying the land. And it was, it was open season. But you know, I think there was a bigger issue here. These men and women, in green, our border patrol agents, man, they love their country. I mean, they love their country. they don't get paid the highest. They, it's, it's, it's, it's not a ton of accolade. But once you put that pressure on from the top, from the White House that says you're less than or you're doing it wrong when all's there, they're just trying to live up to the law. The law says that if you, Walker, or if I, enter the United States, in between ports of entries, you're going to be arrested. That's the law. They're just upholding the law. You want to change it, that's what Congress, is there to do. They're just upholding the law. So, I mean, just the emotional, beat down that they were given and, it's also why you just saw a record number of agents taking early retirement.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. That's so true. And hopefully some of them are coming back. I know, I know Immigration, and Customs Enforcement has had a surge in applications. But, but to your point, think about the. Just the time and energy that it's taking to restore confidence. I mean, the damage that was done, I've said, is going to take more than four years to recover from. we need really multiple terms of good leadership, in order to really begin to reap the blessings, of having righteous leadership in the White House and around the country. once again, we're talking to Pastor Todd Lamphero about his experience, ministering to Border patrol agents over the past, going back to 2018.
By allowing mass migration, we are subjecting illegal immigrants to inhumane treatment
And, one thing that I don't think gets enough attention is how inhumane it is, for these illegal immigrants. And I'm not, I'm not, you know, not all of them are women and children. Some of them are, A lot of them are actually males, associated with gangs. I mean, these are some rough people. But, but even with that being said, by allowing this mass migration, we are subjecting these, these non citizens to very dangerous and inhumane treatment on the way to the border. And then once they cross the border, it's still not hunky dory. talk about that because it's a very sad situation when you have, women and young children, being subjected to this, this, these conditions.
>> Todd Lamphere: If you were to talk to, any border patrol agent that's, that's serving on the border, they'll tell you and they'll talk to you about the rape. they'll talk to you about, how these, these young women and mothers, just are subjected to abuse. depending on what statute, you read, everyone is pretty much, in agreement that it is anywhere from 60 to 80% of females are sexually assaulted. Now you take the males once they get here, you know, they have to. You've got, you've got the coyotes that bring them, and then you have the cartel on the, on the border. Well, the cartels, you have to pay a peso. So it's always, always more money and if you don't, if you don't, if you don't, give them more money, callback, zelum, cash app and more money, then, then the males are beaten mercilessly. I mean it is, it is, it is very, very, very aggressive. Now I will tell you this. You talk about the children. The children were the, the fast pass during the Biden administration because remember, you didn't, you didn't quote, unquote, separate families. Well, you had you head, in Mexico and in the other countries where they're actually renting out their children because they know they're going to be brought back. They know that. And I will tell you that, it is a massive money making machine that has zero conscience attached to it. And so when you, when you say walker, is it, is it being uncompassionate to have a strong border policy? It's just the opposite. The most compassionate thing that we can do is we can have a strong border policy because there's a thing in immigration terms called the push pull factor. All right, what are those elements and things that are pushing them out of their country? Could be poverty, could be drugs, could be gas, gangs. We have no control over the push factor, but the pull factor is the one thing that really we have complete m. Control over. And when you have an open border policy that just brings everybody in, that pull factor is what just move. It's like a tsunami that just, just drives them to the border. And it's those people that and it's those women and those children that are the most vulnerable, that get used and abused by the coyotes and the cartel.
>> Walker Wildmon: So what you're saying is when President Trump and others, including Tom Holman are talking about these thousands, tens of thousands in some estimates, children that were trafficked into our country and now are missing, meaning the government doesn't really know where they are. They got passed off at some point. That's not an exaggeration is what you're saying.
>> Todd Lamphere: Oh, it's not an exaggeration. About 300,000, actually. And it's God, bless Tom Holman, God bless, the ICE agents, those that are, that are trying to find these missing children. But you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when kids are giving the same address, ah, to a, to a home in ah, in somewhere in Massachusetts, you know, that these kids are getting trafficked. And it's, and it happened at unprecedented proportions under the Biden administration.
>> Walker Wildmon: Wow. This is a human tragedy that we've not recovered from. There's just no way. I mean, the Trump administration is doing all that it can. but these sheer numbers of kids that are missing is going to take years to recover, and reconnect them with their families to the extent we can. Some of that it's very difficult to do.
Todd Lamphere is a board member with the National Faith Advisory Board
Pastor, Ah, once again, we're talking to Pastor Todd Lamphere. tell us about your role on the. I know you're a board member with the National Faith Advisory Board, a, newly established nonprofit that partners and has partnered with the White House on various initiatives. So tell us a little bit about your role there and how long you've been associated in working with the Trump administration.
>> Todd Lamphere: So National Faith Advisory Board was started after the 2020, situation. It was born. In fact, it's the only coalition that was born out of the White House faith, office, office of Faith and Opportunity Initiative under the first Trump administration. Pastor Paula White Kane, who ran the White House Office of Faith and Opportunity Initiative, is, the founder of the National Faith Advisory Board. We knew in that first Trump administration and I served as her chief of staff, we had over 10,000 pastors and ministry leaders go through the White House faith office. our goal for these four years is 50,000, but we kn knew we needed to keep that going. And so that is, that is when the National Faith Advisory Board was. Was, born. It has now become the largest faith coalition in America, representing over 60 million people of faith. And and we know that the faith vote is really what got, President Trump elected, in particularly the the evangelical faith vote is what got him elected. And so now, since then, Pastor Paul has gone back into the White House, and is now called the White House F. And it is a West Wing office, first ever, West Wing, faith office in the West Wing with a direct report to President Trump. And so I'm privileged to serve with Pastor Paul on that and and to, to keep, moving. The objective to, to keep pastors and ministry leaders, informed and engaged.
>> Walker Wildmon: M. Yeah, I've had Jenny Corn on the program and of course Dr. Tim Clinton and my, My. My father go back, to the Dobson years, and before that. So I know a lot of your colleagues and we appreciate your work over at the National Faith Advisory Board and just the fact that yourself and other, Christian leaders are speaking truth into the government and into these very critical issues of the day, we've got to have you Guys, and so I appreciate all of your work. Pastor Todd Lamphere, thanks so much for coming on the program. Program.
>> Todd Lamphere: It's an honor. Thank you.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, thank you so much.
Pastor Todd Lamphere says President Trump has dramatically improved border enforcement
That's Pastor Todd Lamphere talking about his personal experience, ministering to border patrol agents, seeing firsthand the travesty that is illegal immigration. And as he said, look, the most humane thing to do is to have sane controlled borders and have fair border enforcement. and that way these women and children are not being subjected to these very, very inhumane, conditions at the southern border. And President Trump. Look, I'll never forget one of the quotes that just stood out to me over the past two years, more than anything in recent memory, is when President Biden tried to claim that he had no control over the southern border, meaning he couldn't affect one way or the other the mass flow of illegal immigrants. He said, it's out of my control. You know, we're, we're still dealing with, with the Trump administration, border problems, whatever that meant. And he just said, I can't do anything about it. Basically, I'm paraphrasing. And we all knew that wasn't true. President Trump comes in and he's been able to achieve over the past three months, zero releases, meaning there have been zero, effectively zero illegal immigrants that have been released into the homeland. Catch and release is effectively done. It's gone. And the sheer number of border crossings has dropped 90 plus percent month over month, year over year. the numbers are staggering. And what changed? The president changed, the administration changed. And the priorities changed, changed. And so we were lied to. President Biden could have done something about it, but chose not to, opened the floodgates. And a lot of people suffered. American citizens suffered, these foreign nationals suffered, our Border patrol agents suffered. And all around, it was a very evil scheme. This is at the core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
Walker Wildmon asks Paul Larkin to give us the facts on marijuana
Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. I'm Walker Wildmon and, this is a brand new edition of the program. Entering segment number three. Only about 15 minutes left in the show and it's been a pretty jam packed program. We had Pastor Todd Lamphere, who's a board member on the National Faith Advisory Board, which is serving President Trump, bringing Christian, voices into the administration and doing, a lot of good work there. So we appreciate him coming on, giving, shedding some light on his firsthand experience on the southern border. Introducing our next guest. Paul Larkin's with us. He's a senior Legal research fellow over at the Heritage foundation and we're pleased to have him on now. Hey Paul, welcome to the program.
>> Paul Larkin: Oh, thank you. I'm honored to be asked.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Paul, the every so often I will broach the topic of marijuana. and I'm kind of at a high level familiar with the pros and the con debate about, you know, folks who want to legalize it, they want full recreational, but once, once I get about five minutes into a debate, I kind of, I'm out of stats, I'm out of things to cite. And it becomes this opinion, ah, discussion without hard facts. And so that's why we have you on to give us the facts about marijuana use. So give us the high level case about why, broad recreational use of marijuana is not good for society. Give us your points.
>> Paul Larkin: Sure. Glad to do it. most of the debate around the legality or rescheduling of cannabis, tends to focus on what cannabis was like back in the days of Woodstock. That's a mistake factually. Why? the simple reason is the cannabis that's being sold today is far, far more powerful than anything people token on back, ah, at Nassar's ranch, in farm rather in Woodstock then the content of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol was only 3 to 6%. Today the content is far, far greater. It's up in the category, for the raw agricultural version, 30 plus percent. And for processed versions of cannabis it's up in the 90 plus percent. What does that mean? That means all of the old studies about the benefits and costs of cannabis that were done in the 60s and 70s and the like are no longer valid because the drug today is so far more potent than it was back then that we have to conduct new studies. And that's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of Dr. Hoover Adger, who is the head of pediatric medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and Hospital. He told me that face to face. And he is a physician and a brilliant man, far more so than probably any of the people who are engaged in the common debates about cannabis. And so we have to look at what cannabis actually can do in this regard. And what it can do is create all sorts of problems. For example, a simple one, if you smoke early on, particularly when you're a juvenile and you have a rather labile plastic, if you will, brain, it is going to cause tremendous damage to the development of, your ability to rationalize, and to develop the sort of brain you otherwise would have. When you become an adult, it can be terrible for a woman who is pregnant because of the effects it can have on, the child she carries. and it can cause all sorts of other problems. It can cause cardiac problems, it can lead to head, neck and throat cancers. There are a variety of things that could happen that are quite bad, if you smoke cannabis on a long term basis. Now, I'm not saying that somebody who does it, you know, occasionally or even just experimentally is necessarily going to be a lot worse off. But the problem is the effect that it has on people. The pleasant effect in most people can become addictive and then you can develop what's called cannabis use disorder, where you're spending your entire day trying to continue to have the same pleasurable effect. In that regard, you can become just as physically dependent on cannabis as you can on a lot of other drugs. All the facts I've just mentioned are, ah, facts that are generally not discussed in connection with the legalization or rescheduling debate. And that's because everybody has this recollection of what it was like in the 60s and 70s. That needs to change. We need to focus on the facts as we know them.
>> Walker Wildmon: Now, Paul, based on what you just said there, this is like nailing jello to the wall. I mean, as far as tracking this with hard data, it seems very difficult to do. And the reason we're having this discussion is because various states either have or are planning to, kind of normalize the use of marijuana, recreationalize, if you will, the use of marijuana, decriminalize it in many regards. There's been some reports about the Trump administration entertaining this in some regard, but this potency you talked about seems like something that isn't a hard and fast rule, meaning the marijuana or the cannabis technically can become more and more potent depending on who's making it. But there's no singular, like, regulatory body on this, correct?
>> Paul Larkin: Well, yes and no. Yes, it does vary tremendously, but no, there is a regulatory body and it's been left out of this entire debate we're having today. For 80 plus years, we have trusted the Federal Food and Drug Administration with the responsibility to decide what is a drug and whether a drug is safe and effective. The FDA has never, never approved cannabis, in any of its forms, but particularly not in its raw, agricultural form as a safe, effective, and uniformly made drug. In fact, the FDA could not make those findings. It's not safe because of the sorts of problems I mentioned. It's not effective because the Term effective doesn't mean that it gives you a pleasant feeling. It means it's to treat a disease. And there is no satisfactory proof that it resolves, any disease or even all of its symptoms. And it's not uniformly made because, as you pointed out, different people can grow different batches of cannabis, and it varies greatly. when the federal government is about to decide what to do with respect to cannabis, it should listen to the views of the fda. And the FDA has been silent on this issue. the Assistant Secretary of HHS for Health made this decision, and the FDA was mute. the president, before he does anything, ought to ask the FDA commissioner what he thinks of raw agricultural cannabis being rescheduled. And not doing that would be a terrible medical and policy mistake.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely.
There's a term that's thrown around about cannabis being a gateway drug
And this is, one thing I wanted to ask you about is this term that's thrown around as far as cannabis being, or marijuana being a gateway drug. And you talked about the different potency levels compared to the 60s and 70s versus now, and how much different it is. Drastically different. but is there any data that shows that people who use marijuana are not satisfied with it as being as far as they want more, and they want it more aggressive, and then maybe they even open, Maybe it even opens the door to harder drugs? Is there any data on that?
>> Paul Larkin: Well, the argument, cannabis is a gateway drug has usually been lampooned by people who are trying to advocate for greater use of cannabis. The people who are in favor of liberalizing cannabis say that it's a silly argument to make, that if you use cannabis, you're going to wind up becoming a heroin addict. And if that were the argument that people like me make, yeah, they'd be right. It's silly. But that's not the argument that people like me make. The argument is that if you take a look at the people who do wind up becoming involved in far more serious drugs like heroin, like methamphetamine, et cetera, is that they start with cannabis. They start with cannabis, they like the effect, and over time, from using it, they won't get the same effect. So they have to use more and more of it. And therefore they're also willing to consider moving to other types of drugs to see how they all work. The gateway phenomenon is not, a logical, or mathematical matter. It's just a practical matter. The data shows that if you don't smoke cannabis, you're not going to wind up using heroin. It's just that simple. Because people don't start out with heroin. And so that's the concern that people have and that they're trying to protect others from.
Walker Wildmon: Mississippi has gone the medical marijuana route
>> Walker Wildmon: just from personal perspective, living in Mississippi, Mississippi, unfortunately has, has gone the quote, in air quotes, medical marijuana route, which is, which is a loose term, to your point, as far as how medical is it really? Well, not medical enough for the, you know, for the FDA to sign off on it. I'm talking about combustible marijuana, not CBD pills or whatever. but, but Paul, just in Mississippi once again, and we're talking to Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow over at the Heritage foundation on the potential Trump administration reclassifying marijuana just in Mississippi alone. Paul, with this, this quote, legalizing of medical marijuana has become the Wild West. I mean, I can't go anywhere in public, hardly without people smoking it. I mean, it's all over the place. They're, they're, they're pulling up at the school smoking. It's, we're at the grocery store smoking it. And it's created this environment where it's hard to determine is this legal use, is this illegal use, what's going on here. And there's very little you can do about it, because law enforcement has kind of become frustrated and taken a hands off approach. So speak to that a little bit.
>> Paul Larkin: Certainly. Let me start out by saying the term medical marijuana is an oxymoron. Okay? it's not just vague. It is downright internally inconsistent. there are compounds in cannabis that if distilled properly and manufactured properly, can be valuable. And there may be others that we should try to find out, whether they too can be valuable. But just smoking a doobie is not a legitimate therapeutical way to address any disease. There is no medicine that the American Medical association or any legitimate doctor would say should be smoked for three very simple reasons. There is no minimum length of any one inhalation, There is no uniform number of inhalations, and there is no uniform length of any inhalation. No doctor is going to say, yeah, just smoke this until you feel good. Okay? Just so you know, no doctor is going to say, take this antiviral medication, antibacterial medication, till you feel good. No, it has to be prescribed with a fixed number of milligrams that are taken at a certain, period of time and thereafter at later intervals, because only then is a doctor going to know exactly what effect this is going to have on someone. So it is being treated as if we were Budweiser. In fact, if you want that is a good comparison, or if you want a stronger one, you know, Wild Turkey, that's essentially what people are using cannabis for, to get that pleasant feeling. That is not how we regulate medicines in this country.
>> Walker Wildmon: You, couldn't have said it any better. Bobby and I are just kicking ourselves in the studio because it's so true. But when you put it so true, so plainly and so true, it's just unbelievable that people are talking about this with a straight face and using the word medical.
>> Paul Larkin: Well, let me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, two minutes.
>> Paul Larkin: Let m. Me tell you in part why I think that's happened. Okay. We have lost in this country a notion that we had in the 30s, 40s and 50s that people should be willing to make sacrifices for the betterment of the nation. Instead, since the 1960s, we've been told that the naeplus ultra in life is self gratification, self advancement, self satisfaction. We are going to have 10% of the people, at a minimum, who use cannabis become addicted to it. You think of any other consumer product that is going to have a 10% rate of damage, and everybody in the country would be saying outlawed. But we're not willing to do that because we. Everybody wants to have the sort of buzz that you get from smoking cannabis, and they don't think about the harms that can result, and they're unwilling to make a sacrifice for the benefit of others. And this is not the only area where this happens. But, until we learn that there is a value in making sacrifices for others, we are going to continue to see problems like this arise, not just with respect to cannabis, but with respect to other drugs too.
>> Walker Wildmon: So true. So true. Paul Larkin with the Heritage foundation has been with us. Hey, Paul, tell our folks about your website where they can read more about your work.
>> Paul Larkin: Yes, if they go to the Heritage foundation, which is, www.heritage.org, and they, put in my name, Paul J. Larkin, they will be able to find the body of work I've done. I have a long series of papers, one of which is on why there is and always will be a black market. One is why cannabis is dangerous because of its potency, as well as a bunch of other things.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent.
>> Paul Larkin: So they can find all of that there.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Hey, Paul, thanks so much for coming on the program. Appreciate it again.
>> Paul Larkin: It was my pleasure.
Paul Larkin is senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's, Paul Larkin with the Heritage foundation, senior legal research fellow there and, wealth of knowledge on the cannabis debate in America. So go to heritage.org check out his work. Paul J. Larkin with the Heritage Foundation. Thanks so much for joining us. Today. We'll see you next time.
>> Paul Larkin: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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