Articles

VERMONT MEDICAL SOCIETY RESOLUTION- WHEREAS, non-prescribed CBD consumer products sold can contain up to 24 mg of THC, more than that of a typical cannabis joint, which contains up to 17 mg of THC, putting the consumer at risk for intoxication, unintended cannabis addiction relapse, and unintended mental health harm;

Conclusion: These results underscore the importance of health advocate participation in developing cannabis legalization frameworks.

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Although this article is from 2010, the information is still relevant.  We now have more data to oppose legalization of marijuana for any reason.  

The Florida medical marijuana market continues to expand at a rapid pace.
The two publicly held companies with the largest presence in the state are Trulieve followed by Curaleaf.
Extensive Florida operations have allowed Trulieve and Curaleaf to avoid the bear market that has engulfed multi-state operators MedMen, Acreage Holdings and Harvest Health.
Acreage Holdings' lack of ANY sales in Florida sends a strong signal that it is adrift.

Link continues to update with information.  Latest from the Florida Department of Health on the Vape Lung Illness Crisis. The number of vape lung illnesses increased from 27 to 39. When will Governor DeSantis announce his plan to fight against this crisis? According to the CDC, most cases are linked to vaped marijuana (THC). What is the FL medical marijuana industry doing to protect patients? 

There they found an illegal cannabis product manufacturing operation apparently operated by Kushy Punch, a legal state-licensed company. Authorities seized a number of finished products, including gummies in Kushy Punch packaging and disposable vaporizers in Kushy Vape packaging.

A new study finds that approximately one in three adolescents were exposed to marijuana promotions on social media or had a favorite marijuana brand.
 
Those who did had five times higher odds of past-year marijuana use.
 
Researchers recommend future studies might want to find ways to restrict marijuana marketing to young people.

The House of Representatives is about to consider a bill called The Safe Banking Act, which, like many titles of federal laws, is completely misleading. 

It should be called the “Let’s Pretend Marijuana Is Safe and Give Pot Pushers, Cartels, and Terrorist Organizations Access to Our Banking System” Act. 

Don’t hold your breath for a title change. Regardless of the title, the idea behind the act ignores reality and, if passed, will lead to disastrous results.

This bill is... Read More

What Do I Need to Know about Marijuana?   Podcasts   Answers all the myths with science and facts.  Is it safe to drive using marijuana?  If it is a medicine, how can it hurt me?  What does marijuana use do to my brain? ....

• Patients in this investigation have reported symptoms such as:
  • cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
  • nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
  • fatigue, fever, or abdominal pain
• Some patients have reported that their symptoms developed over a few days, while others have reported that their symptoms developed over several weeks. A lung infection does not appear to be causing the symptoms.

Vaping Pens... Honeycomb   - the "Pass Out Pen" 

The ABC7 I-Team has been given exclusive access to the largest set of test results and analysis on CBD products to date. Those tests reveal not only potential dangers, but also patently false claims plaguing the industry.

• 7 people have died from severe respiratory complications associated with vaping. At least 380 cases have been reported across the United States.
• Early reports link marijuana vapes to 84 percent of the lung illnesses being reported in the wake of the vaping epidemic.
• 84% of the cases of illness and at least 2 of the 7 deaths have been connected to THC oils.

But  the  lives  of  vulnerable  people  may  be  put  at  risk when  science  is  distorted  for corporate  or  ideological  ends.  As  noted,  several  USstates  responded  to the  much-hypedoriginal study of cannabis and opioid overdosesby authorizing the use of medical cannabis to treat  heroin-addicted  individuals.  Advice  that  opioid  users  should use medical  cannabis toreplace  opioid  agonist  therapies  (e.g.,  methadone,  buprenorphine) poses significant  risk because abrupt... Read More

In the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers surveyed almost 50,000 adolescents in Arizona. The researchers found that among teens who used any form of cannabis, 72 percent had experience with the more potent products.

Overall, the researchers found that 33 percent of the teens had tried some form of pot and 24 percent said they had used concentrated forms. The likelihood of a student using cannabis rose with age: 20 percent of the eighth graders said they’d... Read More

Just last year, the Parents Opposed to Pot lobby group tried to sound the alarm on the link between marijuana and mass shootings, compiling a list of mass killers it claims were heavy users of marijuana from a young age, from Aurora, Colo., shooter James Holmes and Tucson, Ariz., shooter Jared Loughner to Chattanooga, Tenn., shooter Mohammad Abdulazeez.
You can’t address the youth mental health crisis without considering the effect of rising teen marijuana use.
Among American... Read More

Toxicologist Peter Stout, CEO and president of the Houston Forensic Science Center, said the toxicology report showed low levels of anti-anxiety drugs and marijuana in Kelley's system.

Conclusions: RWID and DUI are significantly associated with greater alcohol and marijuanause over time. This study highlights that teens may be at higher risk for problem substance use in the future even if they ride with someone who is impaired. Prevention and intervention efforts for adolescents need to address both driving under the influence and riding with an impaired driver to prevent downstream consequences.

Their observations and initial research show that marijuana use may affect patients’ responses to anesthesia on the operating table — and, depending on the patient’s history of using the drug, either help or hinder their symptoms afterward in the recovery room.
If pot users indeed need more anesthesia, are there increased risks for breathing problems during minor procedures? Are there higher costs with the use of more medication, if a second or third bottle of anesthesia must be... Read More

FDA has determined that your “CBD Lotion,” “CBD Pain-Relief Patch,” “CBD Tincture,” and “CBD Disposable Vape Pen” products are unapproved new drugs sold in violation of sections 505(a) and 301(d) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act), 21 U.S.C. 355(a) and 331(d). Furthermore, these products are misbranded drugs under section 502(f)(1) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 352(f)(1). FDA has also determined that your “Bido CBD for Pets” products are unapproved new animal... Read More

The AES believes that these compounds need to be under the full regulatory control of the FDA and that distribution should be limited to the well-developed legend drug process. While drug regulation is desired, in the interim, the following equally important steps should be taken to assure continuous and safe access to CBD products for patients who are currently benefiting from them.

An alarming finding shows that an estimated 14.8 million drivers report getting behind the wheel within one hour after using marijuana in the past 30 days. The impairing effects of marijuana are usually experienced within the first one to four hours after using the drug.1 And marijuana users who drive high are up to twice as likely to be involved in a crash.2

Then he started asking them, “do youJUUL?" and their answers changed.

“I wasn’t even asking the right questions, and I think a lot of clinicians still don’t ask the right questions,” Winickoff said. “Once I found out that kids were using, many of them thought that what they were using was not a big deal, that maybe they could stop any time they wanted. Some of them thought that vaping was just water vapor plus some flavor.”

"If it's not USDA Organic certified, and it's not full panel lab tested, you have no way of knowing what you're getting," said Cranford, who's been producing CBD long before it was en vogue.

"Overseas they use hemp to do cover crops. They use it to purposely suck out the pesticides and heavy metals on soil there so they can plant food crops next," Cranford said. "These crops are being imported into the US and people are making CBD out of it. The really scary part is... Read More

A Paulding County student collapsed and nearly died after taking a hit off a vape pen. The dramatic scene unfolded in front of a class when the South Paulding High School student collapsed and stopped breathing.
 
*** This is exactly why we need to raise the age for purchasing these products to 21... give our youth a chance.

Adolescent Marijuana Use increases in Florida

She quit marijuana completely for three months and was symptom-free. Then she tried CBD, hoping there was some form of cannabis she could enjoy. One day she took 200 milligrams of CBD in capsules. That night, she ended up in the ER.   cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS.

The study authors consider high-potency cannabis to be products with more than 10 percent tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the compound responsible for the drug's psychoactive effects. The fact that consuming high-THC cannabis products has a greater risk is concerning, Lisdahl says, because these products are more common in the market now.

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It is the latest in a long line of evidence that marijuana is not an innocent relaxation drug. “Smoking high-potency cannabis, used daily, has been linked to diagnosis of conditions like schizophrenia, paranoia and other psychosis disorders, new findings say. About 50 percent of new cases of psychosis disorders diagnosed in Amsterdam were linked to use of high-potency cannabis, according to a study published Tuesday in The Lancet.

Significant effects of prenatal cannabis exposure have been found on children's sleep, cognitive functions (memory and scholastic skills), as well as on executive (frontal lobe) functions (reasoning, attention, impulsivity, and motivation), and affective (depression) and anxiety symptoms throughout the stages of development. Following the presentation of two case vignettes, we integrate the published information on outcomes of maternal use of cannabis during pregnancy on the developing fetus... Read More

Is the solution to the opioid epidemic as simple as the legalization of medical cannabis? Commenting on the Bachhuber et al. analysis (1), Finney et al. (4) cautioned that an ecological fallacy may be present—... Read More

The authors discovered several interesting things. First, all elements of both alcohol and cannabis use increase annually across the various levels of frequency of use, with the exception of daily alcohol use. Second, the effects of cannabis are considerably greater than those of alcohol. Third, there appear to be both concurrent and lagged effects of cannabis use on several cognitive domains. Thus, use of cannabis has... Read More

I was surprised, to say the least. I tended to be a libertarian on drugs. Years before, I’d covered the pharmaceutical industry for The New York Times. I was aware of the claims about marijuana as medicine, and I’d watched the slow spread of legalized cannabis without much interest.
Jackie would have been within her rights to say, I know what I’m talking about, unlike you. Instead she offered something neutral like, I think that’s what the big studies say. You... Read More

In 2017 Colorado had a record number of opioid overdose deaths from any opioid, including heroin and Colorado has had a medical marijuana program since 2001.6
There are several reasons as to why any reported benefit will be outstripped by lack of benefit and increased risk of harm, and why cannabis is... Read More

Not good news!
Only 5 Republican Governors got passing grades from NORML and the 2nd highest grade (C) of this group was Ron DeSantis. :-( The only Republican Governor who got a higher grade (B+) was the Gov. of Vermont who signed a bill that legalized recreational pot! Most Republican governors got Ds and Fs.

The seven most frequently occurring drugs found in decedents were ethyl alcohol (5,258), benzodiazepines (5,064, including 1,889 alprazolam occurrences), cocaine (3,129), cannabinoids (2,367), fentanyl (2,088), morphine (1,992), and fentanyl analogs (1,685). Since heroin is rapidly metabolized to morphine, this may lead to a substantial over-reporting of morphine-related deaths as well as significant under-reporting of heroin-related deaths.
Cannabinoids 7 (... Read More

The advisory mentions the following risks:
1. Marijuana is addictive. Approximately one in eleven individuals who use marijuana will become addicted. The risk is greater in youth. One in six teenagers who use marijuana will become addicted, and the risk for developing a marijuana substance use disorder further increases for those who use marijuana frequently.....

• Marijuana is addictive. Approximately one in 11 adults who use marijuana will become addicted, and the risk of addiction is greater among youth.  
• ... Read More

When mothers use marijuana during the first 12 years of their child's life, their cannabis-using children are more likely to start at an earlier age than children of non-using mothers, according to a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. This study is the first to establish a relationship between maternal cannabis use during a child's lifetime and earlier initiation in a nationally-... Read More

There was more alarming news. Use of illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, and opioids by pregnant women increased significantly between 2015 and 2017. About 7 percent of pregnant women reported using marijuana. Three... Read More

In conclusion, cannabis use is common in people with chronic non-cancer pain who have been prescribed opioids, and interest in medicinal use of cannabis is increasing. We found no evidence that cannabis use improved patient outcomes; those who used cannabis had greater pain and lower self-efficacy in managing pain. Furthermore, we found no evidence that cannabis use reduced pain interference or exerted an opioidsparing effect.

Over the past several years, FDA has issued several warning letters to firms that market unapproved new drugs that allegedly contain cannabidiol (CBD). As part of these actions, FDA has tested the chemical content of cannabinoid compounds in some of the products, and many were found to not contain the levels of CBD they claimed to contain. It is important to note that these products are not approved by FDA for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any disease.... Read More