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Marijuana, even in low to moderate doses, negatively affects driving performance in real situations. While previous research on alcohol effects alone show that alcohol at BACs around .10 is far more impairing than low or moderate THC doses alone, marijuana does impair driving performance. Drivers would be less than normally able to avoid collisions if confronted with the sudden need for evasive action. The effect of combining moderate doses of alcohol and moderate doses of marijuana resulted in a dramatic performance decrement and levels of impairment, as great as observed when at 0.14 BAC alone.

alcohol

Decreased car handling performance, increased reaction times, impaired time and distance estimation, inability to maintain headway, lateral travel, subjective sleepiness, motor incoordination, and impaired sustained vigilance have all been reported. Some drivers may actually be able to improve performance for brief periods by overcompensating for self-perceived impairment. The greater the demands placed on the driver, however, the more critical the likely impairment. Marijuana may particularly impair monotonous and prolonged driving. Decision times to evaluate situations and determine appropriate responses increase. Mixing alcohol and marijuana may dramatically produce effects greater than either drug on its own.

NHTSA, THC, Pharmacokinetics, driving
youth, risks

 The overwhelming majority of people incarcerated for marijuana offenses are not occasional, casual, or first­time users. Rather, they are criminals who have been found guilty of trafficking, growing, manufacturing, selling, or distributing the drug, or who were convicted of multiple offenses that happened to include a marijuana charge. Seldom does anyone in this country go to prison for nothing more than smoking pot.

possession, ONDCP, prisons
Danger, Psychosis, Studies

Marijuana's impact on the sleep cycle can produce both acute and chronic effects on a person's functioning.Researchers have demonstrated that THC ingestion decreases SWS and REM sleep, and has sometimes been found to eliminate REM sleep altogether in rats, rabbits, and cats. In later research, the same effect was observed in humans in controlled studies, with the added finding that sleep cycles did not return to normal until after about one week of abstinence.
 

Sleep, Immune System
Teen, Brain
Potency

Cannabis and alcohol acutely impair several driving-related skills in a dose-related fashion, but the effects of cannabis vary more between individuals than they do with alcohol because of tolerance, differences in smoking technique, and different absorptions of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. 

alcohol, driving

Long-term marijuana abuse has several negative impacts on the user, including:10

  • Limiting the brain's capacity to store and retrieve information
  • Damage to the brain's memory functions, as well as math and verbal skills
  • Sexual dysfunction and reproductive problems, including irregular sperm and lowered sperm count in men and menstrual and ovulatory disruption in women
  • Weakening of the immune system
  • Increased risk of cancer and lung damage
  • Increased blood pressure and risk of heart attack
  • Loss of motivation and interest in everyday activities and future plans
History, illegal, CEASAR, Long-term
Psychosis, Schizophrenia

In fact, the benefits of keeping marijuana and other illicit drugs illegal clearly outweigh the negative and predictable consequences of legitimizing these substances.
Our position is simple and evidence-based: both decriminalization and legalization of illicit drugs would increase their use, along with their associated health and social costs. Unless advocates of decriminalization or of outright legalization can establish that more drug use is a net good for society, both arguments are self-refuting.
Higher prices help hold down rates of usage.

legalization, usage, social costs, alcohol

Conclusions and Relevance  Although individual-level risk remains moderate to low and results from this study should be confirmed in future adequately powered prospective studies, the high prevalence of adolescents consuming cannabis generates a large number of young people who could develop depression and suicidality attributable to cannabis. This is an important public health problem and concern, which should be properly addressed by health care policy.

anxiety, depression, suicide, study, meta-analysis, Research, 2023 Presentation Dr Berry

The argument that drug decriminalization, or legalization, will solve the budget crisis, reduce prison overcrowding and cripple drug cartels is simply not supported by evidence. In fact, the benefits of keeping marijuana and other illicit drugs illegal clearly outweigh the negative and predictable consequences of legitimizing these substances.

decriminalization, legalization, illegal

The truth is that both tobacco and marijuana have damaging effects. Those who smoke both cigarettes and marijuana suffer the compound consequences of two different drugs destroying their health simultaneously.

cigarettes

Evidence is mounting that regular marijuana use increases the chance that a teenager will develop psychosis, a pattern of unusual thoughts or perceptions, such as believing the television is transmitting secret messages. It also increases the risk of developing schizophrenia, a disabling brain disorder that not only causes psychosis, but also problems concentrating and loss of emotional expression.

Teens, Schizophrenia
Teens, Psychosis
Police, legalization

The resulting price tag is about $5 billion in annual electricity costs, said Mills, who conducted and published the research independently from the Berkeley lab. The resulting contribution to greenhouse gas emissions equals about 3 million cars on the road, he said.

Water, Electricity, Growers

An Army official says Tucson massacre suspect Jared Loughner, who wanted to sign up for military service two years ago, was a “habitual drug abuser.”

 

The revelation brings up the question of whether marijuana played a role in an apparently troubled man's life. While cannabis is legal in California and is sometimes seen as a medicinal panacea in L.A., the pot shop capital of the nation, some say it has a dark side, especially for daily users.

violence, mass killings

In addition to 9% of respondents who reported stealing alcohol from commercial outlets themselves, a total of 26% respondents reported occasions when their close friends stole alcohol. Our findings unveiled that teens had a body of knowledge that some drew upon for stealing alcohol. Youths revealed detailed knowledge about store layout, theft protection devices and store policies. In particular, respondents disclosed knowledge about which aisles have blind spots, how to remove security tops on bottles, and no-chase policies.
 
As one 17 year old female described: “in a liquor store the cashier’s gonna be watching you and in a big supermarket it’s more open. [...] it’s just some open place and there’s no one around, you can just steal it more easily than in a small business.”
 
Youths also reported knowing the layout of large commercial stores, in particular the locations of security cameras and blind sports. Youths used blind spots to slip a bottle of alcohol into a pocket or backpack unnoticed. A 17 year old boy discussed how he and his friend strategized: “We had a whole system. As it turns out, the only aisle in every store that doesn’t have security cameras is the pet food aisle. So my friend looks really old, and I’d have the backpack. He’d go and he’d grab the handle [1.75 liter liquor bottle], walk into the pet food aisle, put it into my backpack and we’d walk out.”

alcohol, ncbi
youth, Teens

In radioactive tracing studies, scientists found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, binds to specific receptors called cannabinoid receptors, many of which coordinate movement. This may explain why people who drive after they smoke marijuana are impaired. The hippocampus, a structure involved with memory storage and learning, also contains many receptors for THC. This finding provides some insight into why heavy users or those intoxicated on marijuana have poor short-term memory and problems processing complex information.

Brain, society of neuroscience

Even after controlling for the confounding effect of mental illness symptoms preceding marijuana use, these studies showed an increased risk of developing schizophrenia or mood disorders (depression, anxiety) in adulthood if individuals regularly smoked marijuana during adolescence. The risk was particularly heightened if there was any family history of mental illness (i.e., “genetics provided the loaded gun and marijuana pulled the trigger”). Also, mental illness, among those at risk, tended to show up earlier with marijuana use.
 
 

Brain, mental health, Teen, CEASAR

Records for 24,874 women: The results of this study show that the use of cannabis in pregnancy is associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes. Prevention programs that address cannabis use during pregnancy are needed.
 Multivariate analysis, controlling for potential confounders, including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, and use of other illicit drugs, showed that cannabis use in pregnancy was associated with low birth weight, preterm labor, small for gestational age, and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Pregnancy
Research, Studies, Psychosis, Glaucoma, mental health, organs, risks
Harvard, Placebo

As expected, prescription cannabinoids are effective antiemetics and appetite stimulants, and some studies report their effectiveness as adjunct therapy in chronic pain syndromes, spasticity, and glaucoma. Similar results are reported by the few studies of smoked cannabis plant for these same indications. As noted earlier, safe and effective alternative treatments for all these syndromes are available.  Studies assessing psychological aspects of smoked cannabis and prescription cannabinoids uniformly report undesired effects: acute psychosis, poorer prognosis of chronic psychosis, or cognitive dulling in medical patients. 

health, addiction, pills, youth, Research, social costs

This article estimates the energy consumption for this practice in the United States at 1% of national electricity use, or $6 billion each year

Environment, Electricity

Cannabis has enormous affinity for milk and produces a milk/plasma ratio of 8, although the levels in milk are generally considered subclinical. THC crosses the placenta readily, and there is increasing evidence that it may increase rates of growth retardation and adverse neurodevelopment following prenatal exposure.
 
One study indicated an increased incidence of reduced head circumference in young adolescents (9-12 years of age) who were exposed in utero to heavy marijuana use.  Prenatal exposure resulted in a higher rate of low birth weight infants and childhood leukemia. Recent studies have suggested a reduction in long and short-term memory retrieval and retention in children exposed to prenatal cannabis. These children were also weak in planning, integration, and judgment skills.
 
While the effect of cannabis on infants from breastfeeding mothers is limited, cannabis use in breastfeeding mothers should be strongly discouraged. Thus, in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, this drug should no longer be viewed as safe.

Pregnancy
Pregnancy, Research
SAMHSA, Methodology

Several Capital High School students agreed with Graham’s assessment, " that teens are taking advantage of it being easier to shoplift liquor" than beer or wine.

“You’re not an automatic suspect when you walk in a grocery store,” said one student interviewed Tuesday in the school parking lot.

“We’re only catching a small percent of what’s happening,” Graham said. “We are not getting all of the alcohol-related incidents referred for criminal charges.”

School officials and police have said they are concerned that the store’s liquor is sold in the same aisle as soft drinks and energy drinks where students congregate.

alcohol

Acute cannabis consumption is associated with an increased risk of a motor vehicle crash, especially for fatal collisions. This information could be used as the basis for campaigns against drug impaired driving, developing regional or national policies to control acute drug use while driving, and raising public awareness.

Studies, Research, car crashes, meta-analysis, Fatalities

Alcohol is legal and regulated. Its use is our nation’s No. 3 cause of preventable death, behind diet related illness. Alcohol use costs our country at least $185 billion annually — which is also roughly 10 times the amount of money our state and federal governments collect from today’s taxes on the substance (HHS)
Marijuana: According to the 2010 National Study on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) • Marijuana accounted for 4.5 million of the estimated 7.1 million Americans dependent on or abusing illicit drugs • In 2009, approximately 18 percent of people aged 12 and older entering drug abuse treatment programs reported marijuana as their primary drug of abuse • 61 percent of persons under 15 reported marijuana as their primary drug of abuse

impact, social costs, Colorado

Conclusions/Significance: Sustained cannabis abstinence moderately improved critical tracking and divided attention performance in chronic, daily cannabis smokers, but impairment was still observable compared to controls after 3 weeks of 

abstinence. Between group differences, however, need to be interpreted with caution as chronic smokers and controls were not matched for education, social economic status, life style and race.

Studies, Research, chronic

In summary, by sampling on use-days and amount used, we find that most of the consumption and, hence, most of the associated intoxication and flow of money into the black markets, comes from people who use frequently. Examining the number of users can be enlightening but does not fully capture the dynamics of cannabis usage. In order to understand market-related quantities like demand, and to better assess implications for crime, health, and productivity, researchers should analyze cannabis usage indicators like use-days and quantity consumed.

marijuana use, 2023 Presentation Dr Berry

This is an important public health issue because, in general, adults who do not graduate from high school tend to have lower paying jobs than those who do and thus are at greater risk for living in poverty, lacking health insurance, and suffering from poor health.

dropout, national, SAMHSA

2013 University of Maryland summary of Hookah legislation by state.

Public Health, Hookah, policy, 2017 Legislation
  • The earlier an individual begins to use marijuana, the likelier he or she is to be arrested.
  • What greatly concerned the researchers is that many teens don’t even consider marijuana use a distraction to their driving.
  • According to National Families in Action, four individuals—George Soros, Peter Lewis, George Zimmer, and John Sperling— contributed $1,510,000 to the effort to pass a “medical” marijuana law in California in 1996, a sum representing nearly 60 percent of the total contributions.
  • “THC, a key ingredient in marijuana, alters the ability of the hippocampus, a brain area related to learning and memory, to communicate effectively with other brain regions. In addition, we know from recent research that marijuana use that begins during adolescence can lower IQ and impair other measures of mental function in adulthood
  • GREAT INFORMATION
DEA, position paper, dangers, medical association, non-users, youth usage
Colorado-0, car crashes 2, youth, emergency room

There is absolutely no reliable scientific evidence that THC is necessary to synergize the effects of CBD. Instead, there is evidence from preclinical research that THC may be pro-convulsant in sensitive brains; other research indicates that chronic use of THC can impair IQ in adolescents. Physicians are beginning to report instances of THC toxicity in children taking “high CBD” preparations, e.g., high anxiety, increased seizures, insomnia, etc. Until more is known, the most conservative course of action would be to remove THC entirely from a CBD product.

CBD, SAM, Potency, THC

"Our results suggest that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to develop cognitive impairment from cannabis and that the drug, far from being harmless, as many teens and even adults are coming to believe, can have severe neurotoxic effects on the adolescent brain,"..

Studies, youth, Brain
Economy, jobs
Laws, Sabet, SAM
Potency, Psychoactive

Based on reviews by the National Eye Institute (NEI), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and on available scientific evidence, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Complementary Therapy Task Force finds no scientific evidence demonstrating increased benefit and/or diminished risk of marijuana use in the treatment of glaucoma compared with the wide variety of pharmaceutical agents now available.

Glaucoma
Myth, legalization

Institute for Behavioral and Health- 
The threat to public safety on the roadways posed by marijuana-impaired driving has been pushed to the top of nation’s agenda by the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington as well as by the legalization of “medical” marijuana in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Marijuana has significant impairing psychological and physiological effects on driving. 

car crashes 2, impaired, IBH, Research, Studies, car crashes

This article focuses on cannabis' medicinal and recreational aspects.

Cannabis, the plant, contains over 400 chemicals, including a penicillin-like antibiotic, cannabidiolic acid. The Cannabis plants' chemical derivatives can be used for either recreational or therapeutic (medicinal) purposes.

Active Ingredients, body, Side-Effects, youth
crime

In Colorado, the combination of decriminalizing medical marijuana and declining federal prosecution was associated with a significant increase in the exposure of young children to marijuana. Physicians, especially in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana, need to be cognizant of the potential for marijuana exposures and be familiar with the symptoms of marijuana ingestion. This unintended outcome may suggest a role for public health interventions in this emerging industry, such as child-resistant containers and warning labels for medical marijuana. The consequences of marijuana exposure in children should be part of the ongoing debate on legalizing marijuana.

Colorado, ingestion, Children

 

 

Pregnancy
IQ, NIDA
youth, Medical, states

 

Eighty percent of the adult males arrested for crimes in Sacramento, Calif., last year tested positive for at least one illegal drug. Marijuana was the most commonly detected drug, found in 54 percent of those arrested.

 

The study found similar results in four other cities: New York, Denver, Atlanta and Chicago. Among the cities, it included examinations of 1,736 urine samples and 1,938 interviews with men who were arrested.

 

violence

Since marijuana contains cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens) similar to tobacco smoke, your risk for lung cancer may be increased if you smoke marijuana. Also, marijuana users expose their lungs to a larger amount of smoke because they tend to inhale more deeply, smoke without filters, and hold their breath when they inhale. This type of inhalation pattern exposes your lungs to more smoke than a cigarette.

 

Aspergillus can live on the marijuana plant and be inhaled in the marijuana smoke. It is not recommended that you smoke marijuana if you have cancer, are taking chemotherapy, have had a lung transplant, or have a weak immune system.

 

Second-hand smoke (inhalation of another person’s marijuana smoke) can cause serious health problems, especially in infants and children or anyone with a chronic lung condition. Second-hand marijuana smoke contains many poisons including cyanide and ammonia.

 

lungs, aspergillus, second hand smoke

Orlando attorney John Morgan said that "nobody’s addicted to" marijuana. Morgan quickly admitted that he was wrong, and experts agreed.

addiction, Morgan
abuse, addiction
Taxes, Colorado-0
adolescent, Psychiatric, addiction, Schizophrenia, opioid, Studies

"Greg and I have never talked about it, but I'm spending a boatload of money to get it on the ballot in Florida this fall," Morgan said. "Now that I know he feels this way, maybe we can do something in Kentucky, too."

Kentucky, Morgan

House Speaker Greg Stumbo has accepted a position as partner at Morgan & Morgan, a Florida-based personal-injury law firm whose founder, John Morgan, is a major financial backer of the movement to legalize medical marijuana.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/17/2881362/house-speaker-greg-stumbo-pit...

Kentucky, Morgan, Stumbo
Epidiolex, Charlotte's Web, epilepsy, Dr. Guy, gw pharm
legalization, Colorado, School
AMA, opposed, risks

At any given time, the firm has $30 million to $40 million invested in cases awaiting a verdict or settlement. It spends about $45 million annually on advertising, not just television and radio but a sophisticated social media operation led by a team in New Jersey. The firm has zero debt.

legalization, Morgan

Significantly more drivers pulled over by police in Washington state are testing positive for marijuana since legalization of the drug's recreational use took effect in January, according to figures released this week by the Washington State Patrol.

DUI, Arrest, Washington

The number of unintentional marijuana poisonings in children rose markedly in Colorado after medical marijuana was decriminalized in 2009, with visits to one emergency department climbing from zero to 2.4% of all poisoning cases in just 2 years, according to a report published online May 27 in JAMA Pediatrics.

poisoning, Children, Medical
crime

Not that it wasn’t predictable, but the federal government, fueled by new Monitoring the Future data collected by the University of Michigan on behalf of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is reporting a rise in the illicit use of marijuana among high school students.

NIDA, School, Data
Medical, THC, Effects
Colorado-0, Medical
Taxes, Colorado-0

Overview of Findings: The most important finding for this reporting period in the Denver/Colorado CEWG area was the upward trend in indicators for methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription opioids/opiates other than heroin.

Rx Drugs, Colorado, NIDA

Recent attention has been focused on the long-term impact of cannabis exposure, for which experimental animal studies have validated causal relationships between neurobiological and behavioral alterations during the individual's lifetime.

Studies, THC, Pregnancy, Consequences

The effects of cannabis, the report continues, can be euphoria or dysphoria, calm, anxiety or even psychosis. Additional phenomena include heightened wakefulness followed by drowsiness, a sharpening of the senses followed by slower comprehension, and increased motor activity followed by problems of coordination. “Many of these side effects of cannabis stems from a high dosage or chronic use,” writes the pharmacists' association.

Death, Isreal, Pharmacists, Effects, Side-Effects

Costs for the first two weeks in January could easily push Morgan's contribution close to $3 million, covering about three-quarters of United for Care's budget.    By February Morgan admitted to spending $4 on the ballot initiative. 

Morgan, pollara, Amendment 2
  • Florida should not legalize marijuana because it is a gateway drug that is addictive and damaging to the teenage brain. Moreover, without FDA regulation there is no way to monitor the drug’s potency.
  • He then fell into the habit of taking pills in order to maintain the buzz he got from pot.
  • It is out of love for our children, for those like my son, that we must say no (to legalizing marijuana).
Death, addiction, legalization

Marijuana today is "genetically modified," with THC levels that "far surpass the marijuana" of the 1970s.    YES

The number of samples confiscated with a THC concentration greater than 9 percent has increased significantly, from 3.2 percent in 1993 to 21.5 percent of the 1,635 marijuana samples collected in 2007.

Potency, kennedy, obama, GMO
epilepsy, Research
  • A growing body of medical research shows that the psychoactive substance in marijuana may cause permanent cognitive damage when used by adolescents, such as impaired memory and learning.
  • The drug can trigger psychotic episodes, especially among vulnerable late adolescents, and the price decreases and social normalization of recreational use will increase the number of underage potheads.
  • Very few people are incarcerated for simple possession, which makes up about 88% of arrests. There are currently about 40,000 state and federal prisoners serving time for marijuana-related convictions, and most have violent criminal histories.
  • Mr. Obama is also kidding himself if he thinks drug legalization will be a boon to the poor. His own history of drug use is well known, but most users aren't the privileged students of the Punahou School.
  • Calling the ballot measure’s wording “disingenuous,” he predicted if the measure becomes part of the Florida constitution, “We’ll have more places selling [pot] than we have Starbucks.”
  • No responsible scientific studies exist to demonstrate that inhaling the smoke of burning cannabis constitutes the optimum delivery system, but data indicating the same risks associated with smoking tobacco (cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, heart disease) attach to toking up.
pot shops, ballot, legalization, THC

 cannabis use during pregnancy can increase the risk for ill‐behaviors (Goldschmidt et al2004; Day et al2011
Data suggest that administration of THC during pregnancy can induce long‐term structural and functional modifications of the cortical circuitry.
Maternal cannabis use during pregnancy reduces SCG10 in human fetal cerebrum

Brain, Pregnancy
addiction, Rx Drugs
Chuck Norris, School, alcohol
Studies, car crashes 2, national, Epidemiology
Pregnancy, Research
Death, overdose
Colorado-0, Laws
car crashes, Studies, Washington, Fatalities
Morgan, news video clip, video
alcohol, car crashes 2, traffic, Fatalities
video, youth, Brain, body, Behavior

Cannabinol, a remnant of marijuana, was found in 12.2 percent of those deceased drivers during 2010, (up from 4.2 percent in 1999). Pot was the most common non-alcoholic drug detected by those toxicology screenings.

car crashes 2, impaired, alcohol, Colorado-0
car crashes 2, car crashes, Colorado
kennedy, treatment

A highway safety official in Colorado, where marijuana is legal, said that “a lot of people don’t think D.U.I. laws apply.”

DUI, Impairment, alcohol
car crashes 2, Impairment, DUI

Furthermore, early users of all three substances were more than twice as likely to meet the criteria for marijuana dependence (21% vs. 8%).

alcohol, addiction

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