Parents, remembering their days of experimentation, are making the grave mistake of not recognizing that pot is different today–10-times stronger, addictive, and damaging to the developing brain.
File under child poisonings, diversion to youth; interstate black market:
A young girl in Wisconsin found a marijuana chocolate bar in her dad’s bedroom which came from Colorado. After eating it, she was found intoxicated at school and barely had a pulse. Her father is charged with child neglect. Just another example of Colorado pot being exported to other states.
Pertaining to the Boston Globe’s recent publishing of an opinion piece advocating to “End Prohibition of Heroin”…
The Manipulation of the American Public
In 1912 the United States signed an international convention restricting the use of opium, heroin and cocaine and as a direct result of prohibitive drug policies, the use of these illicit drugs has remained below .5% for the American population.
Is the fact that 91% of Americans over the age of 12 don’t use drugs , and that only .01% or 200,000 people use heroin really a failure of prohibitive drug policies?
Our children are the canary in the coal mine of marijuana legalization.
Coal mines were/are dangerous places. Fumes can leak in undetected. Mining tragedies were not uncommon. Many miners were killed in explosions, asphyxiations or poisonings before they were aware that a hazardous substance had leaked into their midst.
But a tiny bird became their warning signal. A canary in a cage in the mine shaft, with its delicate constitution, would succumb to the hazard long before the men would sense it was there. When the canary showed signs of illnes, the miners new it was time to get out.
Continue reading Our Kids are the Canary in the Legal Marijuana Coal Mine
Fascinating perspective from the chief of science at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (who was speaking recently at a national conference in Washington DC). It is worth repeating.
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From www.addictionpro.com:
May 8, 2014 by Shannon Brys, Associate Editor
When you opened this blog post, what were you expecting to see as ‘the most dangerous drug out there’? Methamphetamine, opiates, oxycodone or crack cocaine? Continue reading Marijuana, the Most Dangerous Drug Out There. Why?
This video from a self-described “nerd” with no dog in the fight of legalization, takes a careful look at peer reviewed literature to address the many myths that are being perpetrated by the pot-lobby and marijuana proponents. Here are the YouTube notes and the bibliography:
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This video deals exclusively with the documented negative health consequences of recreational cannabis use.
I used data from over 140 papers in the process of preparing this video. I’ve done my best to document sources. Below are some key papers for reference. Continue reading Video: Peer-Reviewed Publications on Negative Marijuana Health Effects
Medical marijuana states have the highest rates of youth use in the nation. As marijuana availability increases, and perception of harm decreases, more kids use.
The reality is that 95% of users who frequent “medical” marijuana stores are simply drug-seeking individuals with vague unverifiable symptoms of “pain”, or “intractable pain”, or “chronic pain”. The amount allowed per patient is more than can possible be personally consumed. The rest is diverted — often to youth.
We end up with a large illicit supply and rising youth use rates.
Continue reading Teen Marijuana use highest in “medical” marijuana states.
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Update: Since we first published this piece in May of 2014, the following article, “Pot Perception Worries Some Colorado Resort Towns” appeared recently.
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When you’ve taken the policy decision to trade wholesome outdoor recreation for clouds of pot smoke as your state’s tourism image, you are bound to have some blowback.
This letter came to us from a family whose ties to Colorado are deep but who have decided to take their ski-vacations elsewhere.
They asked to remain anonymous as the nastiness of the pot lobby and its army of online Trolls is abusive. They asked to be spared exposure to this bullying.
“Dear Colorado Ski USA,
I read about your opposition to the ski resort symbols on marijuana edibles.
Thank you for remaining steadfast in your policies and practices that disassociate the ski industry from marijuana and drug use.
America is watching Colorado (and Washington) lead its people into drug normalization that is yielding a new plague of substance abuse. Continue reading Families BOYCOTT COLORADO Ski Tourism–Your State on Marijuana
From Bluepic Studios and wait21.org, this video is a great primer on addiction.
Why does the body crave a drug over more healthy options?
Why does exposure to alcohol, marijuana , tobacco, and other drugs before age 21 dramatically increase the odds of addiction?
There is a lot of new evidence about the health impacts of high potency 21st Century marijuana. But the rise in its use among young people is perhaps the most problematic.
Student debt had risen dramatically in the past decade, so making the most of that very expensive education is more critical than ever. That makes the following news even more compelling.
Pot has a serious negative impact on the return on investment of those education dollars.
Here’s the scoop at Health Day:
Continue reading Even a little pot use ups college dropout risk
Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:
Myth No. 1: “Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive”
No, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but calling it harmless or non-addictive denies very clear science embraced by every major medical association that has studied the issue. Scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some 5–6 times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, and some strains are upwards of 10–20 times stronger than in the past—especially if one extracts THC through a butane process. This increased potency has translated to more than 400,000 emergency room visits every year due to things like acute psychotic episodes and panic attacks.
Continue reading Time for Reefer Sanity — Marijuana is Harmful
“Today’s marijuana is 300 to 800 percent more potent than the pot of yesteryear” claimed SAM New England’s Heidi Heilman in her commentary in Rhode Island’s Providence Journal on March 13, 2014.
It turns out she is right.
PolitiFact, the fact checking website, vetted this statement and rules it “TRUE” while providing the research to back up this judgment.
A 300 to 800 percent increase in potency reflects a 4 to 9 times increase over your Woodstock weed or baby boomer bong hit. Parents and voters would do well to ask what other facts SAM has got right. For example: Marijuana is addictive. Continue reading FactCheck: Marijuana Is 300-800% More Potent
Dr. Adi Jaffe is just the latest to expose the underlying lie in the pro-pot playbook of Big Marijuana. Yes, marijuana is addictive. And Big Marijuana is counting on it.
Just like Big Tobacco before them today’s Pied Piper’s of Pot are selling a carefully crafted lie on which their industry is based. The reality is that they need to hook our youth in order to reap their profits. Continue reading Is Marijuana Addictive? Bet Your Heroin on it.
“I think parents are fooling themselves,” said Dave Melton, managing director of global road safety for Liberty Mutual. “In some cases, parents are thinking of their own teen years and not realizing that things have changed drastically since then.”
Those that have succumbed to the decades long indoctrination of the Cannabis Cult love to spout the notion that drugged driving on marijuana has not led many car accidents at all, let alone life-threatening ones. They go so far as to say that marijuana mellows you out and, if anything, makes you drive slower and therefore more carefully. Here’s a very typical comment that might show up on any story on drugged driving:
“pot heads have been driving our roads since it became widely used in the 60’s. this is nothing new. you don’t hear of many wrecks from pot.”
Well tell that to the friend of a stoned driver in Halifax, MA who is still on life support…here’s the story from CBS:
Continue reading Three friends hurt, one still on life support in marijuana impaired car crash