Category: Big Pot

Understanding the money. Big Pot is driving marijuana legalization in the same cynical way as big tobacco did cigarette smoking.

Who is at Greatest Risk from Marijuana Legalization & Commercialization?

People with college educations don't use the most marijuana
People with college educations don’t use the most marijuana. So why are they the ones arguing for commercialization? See: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/13/8207577/marijuana-use-education

Who is at Greatest Risk from Marijuana Legalization & Commercialization?

Surprise?
It’s the less educated and lower income.
We’ve already been persuaded that a criminal record is a very damaging prospect for this demographic.  But chronic pot use with its devastating impact on IQ, motivation, memory and mental health is a losing prospect for these communities and individuals as well.
Pot addiction carries devastating long term consequences.
This is the target market for addiction for profit enterprises.  Adding commercialized marijuana to alcohol and tobacco would mean we’re actually tripling down on unleashing addiction marketing forces to exploit the easiest targets for cash, and then collecting the most regressive of taxes on those least able to pay.
Public leaders and drug policy makers need to focus on winning and on measurable goals:  Less pot supply and less pot use.  Less marijuana exposure means less damage done to human potential.
Commercialization drives use and addiction and lowers the age of initiation — key to forming life long habits and addictions.

Continue reading Who is at Greatest Risk from Marijuana Legalization & Commercialization?

The Truth to Marijuana Legalization & Commercialization & Minority Communities. Will Jones.

What does a young, black DC urbanite think of marijuana legalization?

“Let’s not legalize a third drug, isn’t two enough?”
“It’s my people that will pay the cost.”

Will Jones, spoken word. The truth to marijuana legalization and commercialization. In DC, more whites voted for weed for blacks than blacks voted for marijuana in their communities. Here’s what the chattering intellectual class is missing…

Excerpts:
The amount of stores selling liquor to blacks is disproportionately high and it’s the same for cigarettes.
If we want to change statistics of people of color locked away let’s be realistic and act in a more rational way.
Let’s address racial profiling and unjust discrimination and clean up the defiling of our criminal justice system,
Let’s work to create better jobs and school opportunities, instead of changing the rules, lets try and change our communities.
Let’s make our voices heard above the media and all their stuff, let’s not legalize a third drug, isn’t two enough?
They say it’s about civil rights and equal opportunity but we’re in a fight targeting black communities. Not a war with guns and knives but with smooth, strategic words. Still the cost will be our lives if the voice of truth is not heard.
They say it’s about discrimination so their plan is untouchable, but I say it’s an indication that some people are gullible. They’re deceived to believe what the media breathe…

Have they helped to create responsible men or just boys trying to have fun?

Latest report on the impact of marijuana legalization/commercialization in Colorado

Effect of marijuana legalization and commercialization in Colorado
Colorado’s failed marijuana commercialization policy is negatively impacting schools, our healthcare system, youth and adults, and community safety. This is the third report from Rocky Mountain HIDTA.

2015-04-09

The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) has published its latest report on the impact of marijuana legalization/commercialization in Colorado.

As you will see, Colorado’s failed marijuana commercialization policy is negatively impacting schools, our healthcare system, youth and adults, and community safety.

This is the third report from Rocky Mountain HIDTA–Read it here. The new report and copies of the previous two can be found here.

While the state continues to only put out revenue figures, the costs continue to grow. What this new report and growing data continue to show is voters in Colorado were deceived and marijuana commercialization is a failed policy approach.

The latest report highlights include:

  • Impaired driving related to marijuana is increasing
  • Colorado marijuana use rates exceed the national average in every age category, including almost a third of 18-25 year olds using
  • School drug related expulsions/suspensions are up dramatically since commercialization began under the guise of medicine in 2009-10
  • Marijuana related ER visits are continuing to go up
  • Marijuana related hospital discharges (at least an overnight stay) are up
  • More marijuana calls to poison control and youth poisonings
  • Illegal diversion of marijuana continues to grow

View the report for yourself.

Colorado Police Foundation: Legalized Marijuana may have increased illegal drug trade

Marijuana guidebook colorado police foundation
Although the Colorado Police Association report tries not to take a position on marijuana legalization itself, the facts argue strongly against it. [Click Image to Download the Report]
In a publication just issued, the Colorado Police Foundation and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police have summarized law enforcement issues related to the legalization of marijuana in that state. This 84-page document covers topics such as the growth and history of legalization in Colorado as well as particular law enforcement issues dealing with establishing probable cause for arrest, search warrants, drug dogs, the continued existence of the black market, threats of explosions and fires, medibles, tourism and public safety, home marijuana grows, changes to hiring practices, the homeless, the presence of large amounts of cash, drugged driving offenses and the impact on youth and education.

One of the statements struck us as being particularly telling — “legalized marijuana may have increased the illegal drug trade.” Page 17.

You simply can’t make something legal without simultaneously making it illegal. And, when you make a commodity legal and tax it you make it expensive and unaffordable to many. Throw in commercialization–advertising, titillation, deception, promises of false rewards, and social norming and you create more would be buyers.

Layer this all with addiction to high-potency engineered and distilled cannabis derivatives and you have the perfect conditions for a burgeoning black market.

Continue reading Colorado Police Foundation: Legalized Marijuana may have increased illegal drug trade

Marijuana Legalization is a money-grubbing, addictions-marketing sham

Pour on millions of dollars of ideological advertising twisting the realities of this drug and ignoring the implications of its broad commercialization. Then get to work opening the markets to another addiction-for-profit business juggernaut that takes a half-century of public health and safety damage before the industry can be brought to its knees — just like Big Tobacco.

“There is ample evidence to support the government’s conclusion that “this psychoactive, addictive drug is not accepted as safe for medical use at this time, even with medical supervision,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Broderick wrote.

Pot proponents stuck the Rohrbacher amendment into a thousand page appropriations bill in 2014, after relentless lobbying by drug advocacy groups, cutting funds for pot enforcement in medi-pot states. And so a budget was passed and the government was not shut down. This hardly means the administration supports legalizing pot, even if, for the budget year, medi-pot states are lawless when it comes to marijuana law enforcement.

This latest, consistent, decision speaks for itself. Research has been done– hundreds of studies. Pot’s harms outweigh its utility. FDA approved and safely dosed formulations are the best option for cannabaoid derived drugs. They are already available.  Legalization and its subsequent commercialization is a money grubbing addictions-marketing sham.

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Feds-stick-to-court-argument-that-marijuana-is-5990798.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop

 

Why “Colorado regulators can’t answer basic pot questions”…

Colorado can't answer marijuana questions.
Why Can’t Colorado Officials Answer Basic Pot Questions?

…because pot is an unregulateable habit-forming and addictive substance which quickly slips out of control.

Already a black market is under-selling “taxed and regulated” pot in Colordao.  There is still no reliable way of knowing exactly what is in the pot being sold.  Reliable testing would be so expensive it would send many more users to cheaper unregulated sellers. The notion of seed to sale tracking is a pipe dream.  You can’t put a gps chip in every seed, bud or leaf.  It’s easy to dump excess inventory onto the black market. And it’s easy for criminals to grow and sell the drug — but difficult for anyone to determine the source of the product.

Where there is more pot, there is more pot use — including among young people with developing brains, one in six of whom will develop addiction.

Continue reading Why “Colorado regulators can’t answer basic pot questions”…

Marley-branded Marijuana: Ironies and the Ultimate Sell-Out

In the ultimate sellout, Marely's is soul to be exploited for profit by pot profiteers driving the next addiction-based mega industry.
In the ultimate sellout, Marley’s soul to be exploited for profit by pot moguls pushing for the next commercialized, addiction-based mega industry.

With all due respect to his family, Bob Marley did not appear to die a particularly unworried or happy death when he passed at age 36 from cancer back in 1981. And, in the perhaps the ultimate of ironies, the next great addiction-driven industry will exploit his soul for silver and gold.

Given what we now know know about ever more potent forms of 21st Century marijuana and the harms associated with it, capitalizing on Marley’s drug of choice seems worlds away from any sense of public good for the People.

When drugs are the only comfort a people have to turn to, they simply have too few options for a better life. The ironies are endless here.

The People deserve so much better than open drug markets. The marijuana moguls are the height of predatory market practices — exploiting anyone in order to release their drug on the masses.

This is most certainly not power to the people. It’s power to the Pied Pipers of Pot. And the marijuana moguls hope to be laughing all the way to the bank.

The wolves are indeed at the door. Are we going to let them in? Continue reading Marley-branded Marijuana: Ironies and the Ultimate Sell-Out

Me, Me, Me. Greed, Deception Fuels Marijuana Legalization

Weed Greed--Marijuana and Legalization
Meanwhile, the marijuana moguls can be laughing all the way to the bank. And taxpayers can pay for the cleanup costs.

“I, I, I, I.” “Me, me, me, me.” “Money, money, money, money.” “I can buy whatever I want. Even ballot questions which defy the rule of the law of the land. Anytime I want to. In fact, I’m only getting better at it.”

That’s what comes to mind when John Morgan opens his mouth about marijuana ballot questions.

But in many ways, this guy is the only one speaking the truth when it comes to marijuana politics.

Now the marijuana advocates in Florida are saying they should have done what worked in other states: trot out sick people and exploit them for public sympathy; find the rogue former law enforcement official who will publicly say marijuana legalization is a really great ideal; write vague and complicated ballot questions that the people won’t actually understand;
work the young and impressionable college crowd hard — with late adolescent brains still under development they are easy targets for marijuana friendly votes.

Pour on millions of dollars of ideological advertising twisting the realities of this drug and ignoring the implications of its broad commercialization. Then get to work opening the markets to another addiction-for-profit business juggernaut that takes a half-century of public health and safety damage before the industry can be brought to its knees — just like Big Tobacco. Meanwhile, the marijuana moguls can be laughing all the way to the bank. And taxpayers can pay for the cleanup costs. Continue reading Me, Me, Me. Greed, Deception Fuels Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana Legalization Gone Wild?

marijuana legalization tug of war between states
This could all result in an advertising war over who has the best prices and the strongest dope–the scenario for marijuana commercialization gone wild. An aggressive competition to see which marijuana merchants can gain exposure of its drug to the most human brains and bodies.

The growing commercialization of pot continues to create absurd results – including a possible conflict between two states where marijuana is widely distributed through legalization.

Hopefully, Oregon will not succumb to full legalization, but if so, Washington officials are concerned that Oregon’s market will impact Washington’s ability to collect drug proceeds in the form of taxes.

Full legalization in Oregon will allow Oregonians to possess a half pound of weed, 8 times the amount allowed in Washington or Colorado. Furthermore, Oregon pot will be taxed at a much lower rate, driving Washington users, and others, to Oregon and the black market.

This could all result in an advertising war over who has the best prices and the strongest dope–the scenario for marijuana commercialization gone wild. An aggressive competition to see which marijuana merchants can gain exposure of its drug to the most human brains and bodies.

Pair this scenario with the latest information on:

You have all the makings of a new wave of drug abuse — a new plague of drug addiction. With the marijuana moguls laughing all the way to the bank. We saw it with tobacco, an addictive drug that damages the lungs and the heart. Now we open the markets to marijuana, an addictive drug that damages lungs, heart, brain and immune system, and impairs memory, motivation, judgment and psychomotor skills.

Again, absurd. But what isn’t absurd about normalizing drug use? Continue reading Marijuana Legalization Gone Wild?

Marketing of increasingly potent marijuana drives up rates of harm and addiction

Consider all the brightly colored attractive marijuana ads we see in Colorado newspapers. You will actually experience increases in dopamine when you see a stimuli that predicts that you will get a reward
Consider all the brightly colored attractive marijuana ads we see in Colorado newspapers.
You will actually experience increases in dopamine when you see a stimuli that predicts that you will get a reward. If we legalize drugs, we are not only going to be making that drug more available, but we are going to be surrounding ourselves with all of these stimuli and we are going to get conditioned [to seek that drug induced dopamine reward]. It’s an automatic process.
Predictable consequences: open marketing of increasingly potent marijuana drives up rates of harm and addiction

As reported in the New York Times “This is your brain on drugs” this month: High-THC marijuana is associated with paranoia and psychosis, according to a June article in The New England Journal of Medicine. “We have seen very, very significant increases in emergency room admissions associated with marijuana use that can’t be accounted for solely on basis of changes in prevalence rates,” said Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a co-author of the THC study. “It can only be explained by the fact that current marijuana has higher potency associated with much greater risk for adverse effects.” Emergency room visits related to marijuana have nearly doubled, from 66,000 in 2004 to 129,000 in 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Higher potency may also accelerate addiction. “You don’t have to work so hard to get high,” said Alan J. Budney, a researcher and professor at Dartmouth’s medical school. “As you make it easier to get high, it makes a person more vulnerable to addiction.” Among adults, the rate is one of 11; for teenagers, one of six. Continue reading Marketing of increasingly potent marijuana drives up rates of harm and addiction

Marijuana Legalization Narrative Evolving

A 2012 crash in West Hempstead, N.Y., in which the teen driver had smoked marijuana. (Photo: Frank Eltman, AP)
A 2012 crash in West Hempstead, N.Y., in which the teen driver had smoked marijuana.
(Photo: Frank Eltman, AP)

The car crash graphic was an interesting choice for USA Today.

The comments are getting smarter:

  • harmful
  • incarceration not a real issue
  • big problems in Colorado
  • we already have medical mj [should be cannabis based medicines only, however]

But the pro-legalizers are still very much in the rhetoric. “most people think its ok”; “people shouldn’t go to jail”

We have to resist being part of the dialogue on how much pot is good for you or OK for you. The answer is, with everything science is telling us about the harms, generalized pot exposures should be eliminated as much as possible.

Simple public health message:

  • if it means more pot, pot promotion and more pot use, its a bad policy for Americans.
  • Commercialization is a bad answer and harms more people.
  • More pot means more harms.
  • It’s a lousy choice.
  • It’s not OK to collude with pot profiteers.
  • It’s not about one person. It’s about increasing harmful exposures across 315 million people.

Epidemiology should be easy for people to understand these days. Pot use can be contagious. And the harms follow for too many.

This new “freedom” message is bunk. Should marijuana users/sellers be free to hold the rest of us hostage to their promoting pot use to the most vulnerable for profit?

There is no freedom to inflict harm on innocents.

But the tide does seem to be turning. Evitable.

___________________________

Check out the referenced article from USA TODAY:

Marijuana legalization lights up midterms: Opinionline

Holder’s position on Marijuana – Does he think we are all stupid?

Eric Holder-Marijuana.jpgThe idea that the US Attorney General has merely forgone the prosecution of users is ridiculous. The policies of this administration have allowed for the widespread commercialization of pot and unleashed a new big tobacco that is growing in power and influence as the federal government refuses to enforce clear and unambiguous federal law relating to DRUG TRAFFICKING (not use).

Sophistry is defined as the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving. Leaving pot users alone at the federal level is one thing, but claiming that this is the intent of your actions is sophistry taken to a new level.

The American public needs to understand that low level marijuana possession offenders were never put into the American prison system.

Drug traffickers were prosecuted — because profiting from addiction put money into the pockets of drug dealers at the expense of their customers who too often become dependent on the drugs and are vulnerable to a host of health ills and harms that accompany drug abuse.

Commercializing and industrializing an increasingly potent hallucinogenic drug, and releasing the forces of addictions marketing onto the people, is not something we should be “cautiously optimistic” about.

Continue reading Holder’s position on Marijuana – Does he think we are all stupid?

A Wasted Legacy — Obama, Holder & Marijuana

A wasted legacy--Obama, Holder and Marijuana
When legalization of marijuana yields national use rates of 40+% using the same deceptions that tobacco did, who foots the bill for rehabilitation, productivity loss and health effects?

By looking the other way as drugs are legalized by industry-funded state ballot questions in violation of federal and international law, President Obama and Attorney General Holder are legitimzing and normalizing the use of a mind-altering drug based on recollections of experiences from their youth. But make no mistake: they are setting an exmple for generations to come — demonstrating that in their view, drug abuse is not a serious social problem. When the smoke clears from the increasingly potent and addictive products from ever more agressively advertised new open drug markets, it is unfortunate but inevitable: Obama and Holder will have a “wasted” legacy on drug policy.

It’s a real shame.  Big Tobacco got its wish: Big Marijuana is next.

Michelle Obama addressed one public health epidemic (childhood obesity) while Barack ushered in the next: rising youth marijuana use of a potently disruptive chemical which primes the adolescent brain for progressive addiction.

I am a job creator, manufacturer, award-and patent-winning innovator, payroll meeter, benefit provider, 401k matcher, complier with government regulation and tax payer whose business employs 112 people—two dozen of whom were added in the last five years.

But before all that, I am a husband, father and coach.  I am also a local elected official, and give back in time and dollars through numerous charities.

I am an Independent in registration, but my sensibilities and votes tend toward democratic party policy. Until now.

On marijuana, we have become so open minded our brains have fallen out.

Continue reading A Wasted Legacy — Obama, Holder & Marijuana

Erasing the Inevitability of Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana legalization is not inevitable
ev·i·ta·ble adjective \ˈe-və-tə-bəl\
Definition of EVITABLE: capable of being avoided

Among other recent developments beginning to erase the mantra of “inevitability” for marijuana legalization, “medical” marijuana questions failed to make state ballots in Ohio and Arkansas in the 2014 election cycle.

Pot proponents now say they need paid signature gatherers. “You need paid help for an effort like this and what’s disappointing is that we can’t convince enough donors to contribute to get the necessary resources to put us over the top,” said John Pardee, president of the Ohio Rights Group.

If you have to pay people to get signatures to legalize pot, how is that “the will of the people?”

Continue reading Erasing the Inevitability of Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana Legalization: Not Looking So Good In Reality

Support for Marijuana Legalizaitn Drops. Good news for Teen Health, Public Health
Support for Marijuana Legalization Drops. Good news for Teen Health, Public Health.

With support for legalization slipping (down to just 44% from 51% a year ago) there is finally some encouraging news.

Legalization of another drug for recreational purposes might have looked like to good idea on paper to some drug policy and criminology intellectuals. But its not looking so great in reality.

Fortunately, there are now new resources to help Americans better understand the most misunderstood illicit drug in the country.

We don’t determine medicine by public opinion in this country.

And we should not have addiction for profit lobbying groups and wall street speculators pressuring America to legalize a third major addictive drug for “recreational” purposes.

The target market is always the most vulnerable. Predatory advertising targets the suffering and young people to create lifetime customers. Private profits soar, along with over-consumption and public health and safety fallout. Its time to get smart about the about the facts of this drug. Its not your Grandma’s Woodstock Weed anymore. Marijuana harms. Component medicines may heal — but that hasn’t been proven. Continue reading Marijuana Legalization: Not Looking So Good In Reality

Major Poll Finds National Support for Marijuana Legalization Down 7 Points (13.7%) Since 2013

Marijuana-support-for legaliztion-Down-Nationally
Public Religion Research Institute Poll, funded by the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, finds only 44% of Americans now support legalization, down from 51% in 2013. Opposition at 50%. 24% strongly oppose.

September 23, 2014

WASHINGTON- Coming off of a Suffolk University/USA Today poll finding only 46% of Coloradans support legalization now, a new report released today finds that in a survey of over 4,500 adults, only 44% support marijuana legalization. 50% of Americans oppose it, including 24% who strongly oppose such a policy.

“Legalization is not a done deal – far from it,” remarked Kevin A. Sabet, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). “People are waking up and realizing that legalization in practice does not represent the magic policy they were promised.”

Continue reading Major Poll Finds National Support for Marijuana Legalization Down 7 Points (13.7%) Since 2013

Marijuana Legalization Support Plummets 17% — USA Today/Suffolk University Poll

Latest polls show support of marijuana legalization plummeting
“Marijuana Doubts: Colorado voters may be having second thoughts about the legalization of marijuana. A slight majority of voters (50.2 percent) say they do not agree with the decision to legalize recreational marijuana in that state—a decision made by voters in 2012–while 46 percent continue to support the decision. Nearly 49 percent do not approve of how the state is managing legalized pot, compared to 42 percent who approve.” Suffolk University News

Colorado Voters are Turning Against Marijuana Legalization.

A September 17, 2014 Suffolk University/USA Today poll finds support for legalization plummets 17% among Colorado voters.

DENVER- In the first indication of a backlash brewing in Colorado against legal pot, a Suffolk University/USA Today poll finds that now only 46% of likely voters support Amendment 64, the constitutional amendment legalizing and commercializing marijuana. 50% of likely voters oppose the measure entirely. That is a marked difference from election night 2012, when 55% of voters supported the measure. Even fewer people – 42% of likely voters – approve with the way the state is handling the legal change. Continue reading Marijuana Legalization Support Plummets 17% — USA Today/Suffolk University Poll

Teen Marijuana Use: Is This A Price We’re Willing To Pay?

Parental attitudes critical in teen marijuana use
Kids are 6 times more likely to use pot simply because of a parental attitude of indifference

Its becoming increasingly common to hear proponents of marijuana legalization to say its “the government” who wants to keep this drug illegal. Understandably, if one cannot win an argument on the merits, then attack either A) the person making the better case, or B) the government or any other convenient conspiracy canard.

However — many doctors treating kids derailed by this drug, which is almost always a pre-cursor for their young patients and clients who move on to other drugs or developing other co-occurring mental health problems, think expanding the supply of this drug through open commercialization is a bad idea for public health.

The Lancet tells us why:

Dr. Muiris Houston emphasized the recent findings published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry regarding youth marijuana use, which included research showing teenagers who are daily users of marijuana are:

Continue reading Teen Marijuana Use: Is This A Price We’re Willing To Pay?

Life and Learning Impaired: Marijuana and School Don’t Mix

Even a little pot increases college dropout risk.
Some say a 21-year-old age limit solves the problem of adolescent exposures to this drug. A ridiculous assertion. Society is a pourous. Where this is more pot, and more pot promotion, more of this drug falls into the hands of young people.d

Those who say a 21-year-old age limit on marijuana sales solves the problem of youth exposures are dreaming . . . society is porous . . . where there is more pot, more pot falls into the hands of young people.

Adolescent development is a stage where the brain does not process long term consequences, and it is a time of egocentrism and a strong need to figure out peer relationships and find a place to belong.

The euphoria of a cannabis high, when it falsely appears “all the kids are doing it” can trump what well intentioned adults have told their kids about the rules.

We are seeing the highest levels of youth marijuana use in 30 years. And it is a much more potent drug this time around as profiteers seek to deliver the most impactful high to eager consumers looking for just that.

Continue reading Life and Learning Impaired: Marijuana and School Don’t Mix

Our Country Will Never Prosper by Disguising Marijuana Proceeds as Taxes and Fees

Protect youth from marijuana legalizationThe Honorable Mayor of Denver, Michael B. Hancock, expressed his concerns about the impact that drug legalization will have on public health and safety. He concluded with the following words:

“As a parent, I worry about how the increased presence of marijuana in our city will affect our children and our grandchildren. Despite a few lessons learned from medical marijuana, the long-term implications of that industry and the potential for an expanded industry will not be known to us for perhaps a generation or more. There is no denying, however, the potential for a negative impact on our kids — on their home lives, their health, their education and their future. We already know the toll substance abuse takes on so many of our residents. Sadly, many of them are parents. The cost of substance abuse on our healthcare system, our jails and in our courts is substantial. I want more for all of our kids and for all Denverites.”

Continue reading Our Country Will Never Prosper by Disguising Marijuana Proceeds as Taxes and Fees

Teen Marijuana Use at a 30 Year High. Like Tobacco, this is what the Pot Industry Wants

Teen marijuana use is at a 30 year highThe trends are very concerning. We are at a 30 year high for youth marijuana use. This is what the industry wants and is counting on. And the drug is much different this time around.

Prevention education will be more critical than ever for this drug. Sound drug policy, law and messaging should be driving use rates down, not up.

That will be the measure of success.

Here is an interesting infographic about youth marijuana use.

Continue reading Teen Marijuana Use at a 30 Year High. Like Tobacco, this is what the Pot Industry Wants

As Trafficiking From Pot States Proliferates, Wisconsin Girl Eats Dad’s 225g THC Bar from Colorado

Marijuana Legalization creates new source for drug traffickingFile 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.

Continue reading As Trafficiking From Pot States Proliferates, Wisconsin Girl Eats Dad’s 225g THC Bar from Colorado

We’ve Become the Marijuana Black Market

IMG_4153.JPGSome criminologists fancy pot legalization as a magical scheme to get control of the black market for this drug, simple economics easily predicted what is actually occurring when states legalize and “regulate” pot. The black market thrives in the midst of expensive and aggressive “legitimate” pot markets.

Washington State’s pot consultant said in 1978:

“If we legalize marijuana or any other drug, either we will have a
private industry whose profits depend on creating addicts. Or we have a public beauracracy whose revenues depend on creating and maintaining addicts. Somebody’s going to get the revenue stream; whoever gets that revenue stream is going to try to maximize it.”

“This dynamic presents a much bigger threat to America’s Public Health picture that the legalizers seem to appreciate.”

Now we seem to be on a mad trajectory of proving in policy practice what we already knew in theory.

Continue reading We’ve Become the Marijuana Black Market

City Defends Marijuana Dispensary Ban

City defends right to ban marijuana

The city of Fife, Washington is defending its ban on pot dispensaries. The stakes are very high.

28 cities and two counties in Washington have banned the sale of retail pot, and many others have enacted moratoriums.

The litigating dispensary owner is suing to overturn the ban. Let’s hope that the judge makes the right decision by upholding Fife’s right to keep the dispensary from opening.

Continue reading City Defends Marijuana Dispensary Ban

Marijuana? Now a Call to Legalize Heroin

Legalize marijuana and heroin?
Is the fact that 91% of Americans over the age of 12 don’t use drugs a failure or that only .01% or 200,000 people use heroin really a failure of prohibitive drug policies?

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?

Continue reading Marijuana? Now a Call to Legalize Heroin

The Grey Lady Gaffs — NY Times Out-of-Touch on Marijuana

NY Times Marijuana Editorial Leaves Thinkers Scratching Their Heads“It’s a remarkable weekend when one finds the Grey Lady arguing for state’s rights, and worrying huffily about arbitrary Presidential powers. But when it comes to smoking dope, the mind of the New York Times has fully boggled. Against careful science, sound public policy, and even liberal politics that defends the vulnerable, the venerable editors have decided that what America needs now is marijuana, and more of it. …

In his poignant article, “Comparing Alcohol and Marijuana: Seriously” for the Hudson Institute, David Murray underscores what we’ve been thinking.  At a time when journalistic integrity is being ground away under the rolling stones of unvetted internet journalism there are few places we look for the bar to be held up. The New York Times in one of those places. So imagine the dismay when that venerable institution takes a stand on a movement that is fully exploiting “easy to sway journalism” as a cornerstone of a greed-driven manipulation campaign the likes of which we haven’t seen since the tobacco industry fooled us into thinking that smoking was okay. Continue reading The Grey Lady Gaffs — NY Times Out-of-Touch on Marijuana

NY Times Readers Better Educated than Editors on Marijuana

New York Times should look closer on Marijuana
Gil C / Shutterstock.com

The editors of the New York Times should be held accountable for their recklessness.  A growing portion of the population is awakening to the realities that allowing a third addiction-based drug industry would have on the long-term public health and health costs.

Here are the words of a few who joined the White House and other commentators and researchers in their push back on the careless opinion of the Times editors:

Continue reading NY Times Readers Better Educated than Editors on Marijuana

Florida Fights Back Corporate Marijuana

Florida organizes against big marijuana
A concerted and well organized push back in Florida is educating voters to the deceptions of organized, corporate marijuana industry lobbyists.

The formula is being repeated. Marijuana profiteers are picking off states one by one.

The same laws, written by the same pro-pot lobbyists, with the same negative consequences for youth and other vulnerable populations as unsuspecting voters are manipulated into voting against their own best interests for public health and public safety.

Florida is organizing. And doing it well. We’ve seen the playbook so many times. Thankfully Florida got an advance copy and can mount a truth campaign based on experiences in other states.
Continue reading Florida Fights Back Corporate Marijuana

Marijuana Industry Works to Erase Data But can’t Hide The Truth

Marijuana Industry Influences CO Crime Data Manipulation
In the CDC’s latest report, issued late last week, the two states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use — Colorado and Washington — are not represented. As the chart below shows, Colorado data were not weighted, essentially meaning the state failed to provide CDC researchers a sample size suitable for analysis. The State of Washington didn’t participate in the survey at all.

You can try to erase the data, but you cannot change the truth.

The Medical Marijuana Industry Group is just the latest organization dedicated to influencing policy and policymakers in the goal of corporate greed–this time in profit from marijuana addiction.

This corporate marijuana lobby, in its latest deception, issued in June a list of data that is a gross misrepresentation of the facts as it relates to youth use rates and crime statistics in Colorado.

Does drug policy affect the levels at which young people use mind-altering drugs? History has shown that, yes, indeed it does. Not only are youth use rates highest in the United States in “medical marijuana states”, but elsewhere in world, Sweden for example, each time the country softened its drug laws youth use went up, along with public health harms. Continue reading Marijuana Industry Works to Erase Data But can’t Hide The Truth

Study finds medical marijuana farms draining streams dry

"medical" pot farms draining streams dry
“State fish and wildlife officials say much of the marijuana being grown in northern counties under the state’s medical pot law is not being used for legal, personal use, but for sale both in California and states where pot is still illegal.”

We recently wrote about the ecological impacts of marijuana legalization.  The previous day the following article appeared in the Seattle Times. A year prior, The Atlantic highlighted is theme as well in “California’s New Pot Growers: Not at All Earth-Friendly”

The magical notion that legalization will put an end to illegal pot operations is once again exposed as just that–magical.

“People are coming in, denuding the hillsides, damming the creeks and mixing in fertilizers that are not allowed in the U.S. into our watersheds,” 

Cartels no longer need to operate in Mexico. They can do it right here. On Federal and private lands, using Federal water otherwise vital for fish, wildlife and other agricultural needs.

This is the ugly secret of California’s Green Rush.

Continue reading Study finds medical marijuana farms draining streams dry

Grown Indoors or Out, Marijuana is an Ecological Loser

 

Marijuana an ecological loser
There is nothing natural about industrial cannabis production. It’s a net loser for the environment – indoors or outdoors. Mother Nature never produced concentrated THC.

The Econundrum for Big Marijuana and the “it’s a plant from nature” mindset:

Outdoors cannabis production destroys soils with chemical contamination and is a water hog.

Chemical contamination follows the plant to the consumer.

Smaller and players and the black market will inevitably drift to outdoor production — trying to keep it hidden in remote locations.

Like the leaching of any chemical contamination through an ecosystem — this phenomenon IS man made: an industrial cannabis market.

Indoors, it’s got a huge carbon footprint — an energy AND water hog, and is a very chemical intensive agricultural process, with the same fertilizers and pesticides as are required outdoors. And it becomes even more of a genetically modified commodity hybridized for concentrated THC chemical production in plant form.

There is nothing natural about industrial cannabis production.

It’s a net loser for the environment – indoors or outdoors.

Mother Nature never produced concentrated THC. Continue reading Grown Indoors or Out, Marijuana is an Ecological Loser

Buyers Remorse? Montana Initiative to ban marijuana cleared for signatures

Montana buyers remorse on MarijuanaIt’s encouraging to see at least one State’s citizens fighting back against the rise of Big Marijuana. Big Sky Country would be much better off.

That those 8% of Americans who choose to regularly expose their brains to THC get to twist drug control history in order to open the markets to this insidious frequently abused, addictive, drug is beyond common sense.

Most Americans stand with Montana and against commercialized pot. The marijuana backlash is coming. Continue reading Buyers Remorse? Montana Initiative to ban marijuana cleared for signatures

‘Campaign of Deception’ — Is it Time to Sue Marijuana Industry?

Campaign of deception is marijuana playbook.
The time will soon be here when lawsuits against marijuana’s Big Farma will be headline news.

The following article reports a lawsuit filed by California counties against pharmaceutical companies for deceptive advertising, unfair business practices and creating a public nuisance.

Before considering getting into the ganjapreneur game, substitute “marijuana” in the following article for “narcotic” and consider if your business plan has enough in reserves for your legal defense and subsequent penalties.

The same theories that applied to Big Tobacco, are being applied in this case to Big Pharma, can and should be applied against the burgeoning marijuana industry–Big Farma. Continue reading ‘Campaign of Deception’ — Is it Time to Sue Marijuana Industry?

A Caution on Medical Marijuana Legalization — The Thin End of the Wedge

Marijuana -- the thin end of the wedge for addiction and legalization
“Medical” Marijuana is the thin end of the wedge for addiction as well as recreational legalization.

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A version of the following letter was sent to us after its first draft was sent to Governor Dayton of Minnesota.  It is as applicable as precautionary tale for Florida, Alaska, and any other state considering legalization of marijuana in any form.

 

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Dear Governor Dayton — The marijuana backlash is coming. Don’t get caught on the wrong side of history.

I’m a lifelong Democrat and voted for President Obama twice. But this issue is complex. People across the country are organizing in a grassroots response. Continue reading A Caution on Medical Marijuana Legalization — The Thin End of the Wedge

Sanjay Gupta on Marijuana: Will History hold him in the company of the Tobacco Docs?

Doctors were used to sell cigarettes. Doctors recommend marijuana.
RJ Reynolds, 1946
Ads like this regularly appeared in publications like the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Click image to enlarge).
Sanjya Gupta - Weeds Cigarette MD
Reminiscent of the heyday of Big Tobacco, Gupta’s position on marijuana and image is being co-opted to lend credibility to the marijuana industry.

Big Tobacco used doctors for years to convince us that cigarettes were okay.  They even had campaigns pitching the health benefits of smoking cigarettes.

The same playbook is being used to run the next great public health fraud–the legalization of marijuana. And they’ve got Sanjay Gupta playing the role of the Cigarette “MD”. Continue reading Sanjay Gupta on Marijuana: Will History hold him in the company of the Tobacco Docs?

Nurse as Tobacco, Now Marijuana Icon – We’re being duped again.

Tobacco Nurse is model for Marijuana Nurse
Tobacco companies used nurses, as well as doctors, to brainwash unsuspecting generations into smoking. Marijuana is using the same playbook. (Click images to enlarge).
Marijuana Nurse follows in Tobacco Nurses footsteps.
Not as demure as days gone buy, and updated to our digital and racier present, the “Nurse Tactic” of Big Tobacco is being used today to dupe us into thinking that smoking weed is okay.

When you keep lifting the lid a little more on the methods and intentions of the marijuana industry, the parallels to the duping of America and the world by the tobacco industry become so blatantly obvious that it would be laughable if it wasn’t tragic.

As states, like Kentucky, catch onto the farce that is the medical benefits of smoked marijuana, and build laws for use around just the non-high-inducing cannabidiol part of marijuana, the pot legalization proponents get all upset.

The role of the Doctor in promoting tobacco and marijuana legalization has been thoroughly exploited.  And with the doctor, of course, comes the nurse.

Continue reading Nurse as Tobacco, Now Marijuana Icon – We’re being duped again.

Time for Reefer Sanity — Marijuana is Harmful

Marijuana is harmful. Time for Reefer Sanity
Science is not on the side of the Pro Pot faction–regardless of how well they manipulate the data and replay the games of Big Tobacco. At the end of the day it is addiction on which they are planning their profits.

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

Pro Marijuana Events Face Backlash Amid Poor Legalization Report Card

Colorado's image of fresh air and wholesome fun or haze of marijuana smoke.
The pristine clouds and a Rocky Mountain high have been emasculated by marijuana smoke and drug-induced high. The wholesome image portrayed by Colorado’s tourism board is upstaged on 4/20 by pot activists.
State Tourism and Marijuana Legalization
Scenes like this were the face of Denver and Colorado amid this past weekend’s 4/20 pot celebrations.  What might your State’s tourism image look like under legalized marijuana?

Colorado’s wholesome image of fresh air and exercise, hiking and beautiful scenery gave way again this April to a haze of pot smoke while police largely ignored enforcement of the “no public consumption provisions” of the amendment that legalized marijuana in the state.

Meanwhile, a backlash from local and national groups makes headlines as they give Colorado poor marks in first annual 4-20 Report Card.

Continue reading Pro Marijuana Events Face Backlash Amid Poor Legalization Report Card

Left Turning Against Big Pot. Son of dealer, now dad, reflects on marijuana legalization

Left Turns on Marijuana LegalizationThe left is finally turning against Big Pot. We’ve been waiting. Patrick Kennedy’s message (Project SAM‘s message) is finally gaining traction.

Marijuana legalization means commercialization, which means more potent pot, more pro-pot marketing, more youth exposures, more public health fallout, and yet another vice-based industry preying on vulnerable populations.

80% of their profit comes from the 20% of their customers who are chronic users. And the youth market is the target market for building a life-long customer base.

See the video and read the interview with a thoughtful young man coming of age as a new father, and coming to terms with his own father’s legacy as a major drug dealer.

Continue reading Left Turning Against Big Pot. Son of dealer, now dad, reflects on marijuana legalization

Video: Tony Dokoupil on The Coming Marijuana Backlash

In addition to his legitimate and well-earned bone fides as a senior writer for NBC News and Newsweek and The Daily  Beast before that, Tony Dokoupil comes at the marijuana legalization issue from an interesting perspective.  As the son of a notorious marijuana dealer and folk hero, Dokoupil is quoted from his memoir The Last Pirate–A Father, His Son and the Golden Age of Marijuana as saying, “My father went to jail for dealing weed and, to my surprise, I would keep him there.”

“If we really mean to sell marijuana like alcohol, then we mean to create a market where most of the revenue comes from people who have a problem.

That is the business model of alcohol. Eighty percent of the revenues comes from a tiny sliver of the users. It’s not the guy who has a drink after work. It’s the guy who has six and misses his kid’s bedtime, his marriage is in shambles. That’s the kind of guy who supports the industry.”

Continue reading Video: Tony Dokoupil on The Coming Marijuana Backlash

FactCheck: Marijuana Is 300-800% More Potent

“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.

rulings-tom-truePolitiFact, 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

Outright Lies from “Big Marijuana”

Ed Wood is among many who are waking up to the manipulations and outright lies of Big Marijuana.  In his letter to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Wood writes:

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Pot Taxes May Help State Income, but Problems Remain
Regulation does not keep pot out of the hands (and bodies) of youth whose brains, still being in the formative stages, are most susceptible to permanent harm. Continue reading Outright Lies from “Big Marijuana”

Marijuana follows Big Tobacco’s lead

Teen Marijuana Use
Hooking teens is key to Big Marijuana marketing strategy

Science and public health should inform drug policy decisions — not public opinion and a national campaign funded by a multimillion-dollar, pro-marijuana lobby that sells an addictive, psychotropic drug.

The science is clear: marijuana use has been linked to mental illness, depression, psychosis, permanent loss of IQ and memory, heightened risk of heart attack or stroke, likelihood of dropping out of school, addiction to other drugs and testicular cancer. Big Marijuana is doing all it can to cast doubt on these scientific facts in the same way that Big Tobacco succeeded in hiding the dangers of cigarette smoking for more than 80 years. Continue reading Marijuana follows Big Tobacco’s lead