Articles

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? ....

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.

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? 

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 Doctor Is In: Answering Your Marijuana Questions

The Nation's Doctor, VADM Jerome M. Adams, M.D., answers top questions about marijuana. The U.S. Surgeon General addresses marijuana-related questions he often receives including those related to the chemical composition and potency of today’s marijuana, associated risks, and what parents and teachers can say to young people about marijuana.

The SAFE Banking Act (H.R. 1595/S. 1200) contains no public health guardrails to deal with the pot vaping crisis or incredibly potent flavored marijuana vapes that have been warned about by the Surgeon General. • The SAFE Banking Act would allow billions in investment into the same illegal marijuana companies that are creating marijuana vapes like those that are causing this crisis.

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

While the total number of suicides is accurate (1,145), the number of toxicology results is likely higher than 888 – it’s just difficult/impossible for the state to obtain all the available toxicology results. For these reasons, an exact percentage of suicides with toxicology results can’t be calculated.

The key points raised by the advisory (and supported by significant research) include:

• Strongly advising that marijuana should not be used during pregnancy or by adolescents.
• Marijuana use during pregnancy can affect the developing fetus by, among other things, hindering fetal brain development and increasing the risk of lower birth weight.
• Likewise, marijuana use by adolescents causes deficits in attention, impaired learning, decline in IQ and school performance, and an increased risk for early onset of psychotic disorders.
• Marijuana is also still considered a “gateway drug” and its use by adolescents increase the likelihood of the misuse of opioids.

I found it interesting that, in addition to issuing the warning regarding marijuana use, Dr. Adams reiterates what the Food and Drug Administration has been warning the public about regarding CBD products,

People need to be educated that marijuana even 'medical' marijuana is not FDA approved and therefore is not a prescription.  Often contains mold, pesticides, fertilizers, unknown amounts of other chemicals and THC potency may be incorrect. 

Reason's Jacob Sullum and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson debate eliminating laws that prohibit the use and sale of narcotics.

A previous study last March in the Lancet also showed that cannabis use increases psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Two preliminary studies presented this November out of Oklahoma and Virginia at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia tentatively connect cannabis use with doubled stroke risk and heart rhythm disorders.

CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and local health departments, and other clinical and public health partners are investigating a national outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI).

           Findings: Respondents who reported using daily (i.e., 30 days in the past month) consumed almost twice as much per day of use on average as did those reporting less than daily. We find only modest increases in intensity among those using less than daily, but then a substantial increase (p< 0.001) for those who use daily. Most respondents report that on heavy or light use days their consumption differs from a typical day of use by a factor of 2 or more, but only about 25% of days were described as heavy or light. We estimate those using cannabis 21+ days a month account for 80% of consumption vs. 71% of the days of use.
Discussion: Daily cannabis users consume more intensively than others, including near-daily users. When possible, survey questions should move beyond the presence or absence of use and number of days used.     

The study also uncovered the scanner's ability to distinguish among different varieties of hemp and marijuana. In the changing legal landscape, there are thousands of varieties of cannabis, many of questionable quality.

Machine learning can accurately predict adults at risk for OUD, and identify interactions among the factors that pronounce this risk. Curbing early initiation of marijuana may be an effective prevention strategy against opioid addiction, especially in high risk groups.

In the United States, he is best known for almost single-handedly creating a narco-nation through legalization of marijuana, causing human suffering and environmental devastation on a scale most people do not yet comprehend.

With the nation focused on the opioid danger, and President Trump accusing China of pumping fentanyl into the veins of American victims through Mexico, the marijuana problem has gotten less attention. Indeed, liberal politicians and prosecutors, some of them getting Soros money, are treating the dope as a harmless substance and even a money-maker for local and state governments.  

CONCLUSIONS:
Drivers who test positive for marijuana are significantly more likely to test positive for prescription opioids. Longitudinal studies with rigorous designs and toxicological testing data are needed to further address the substitution hypothesis between marijuana and prescription opioids.

“We had a kid that had to be taken over to Utah and put in a mental health facility. He was there about a month or more because of a drug-induced psychosis caused by too much marijuana products. The only thing that was in his system was THC,” Hildreth said. “It was scary for his parents and us because no one knew what was happening. None of us had ever seen marijuana do that to anyone before.”

The real cost in legalizing marijuana can be counted by the lives impacted- addiction, vaping, dispensing, traffic deaths, suicides, overdoses, … 
 

E-cigarette use poses a significant – and avoidable – health risk to young people in the United States. Besides increasing the possibility of addiction and long-term harm to brain development and respiratory health, e-cigarette use is associated with the use of other tobacco products that can do even more damage to the body. Even breathing e-cigarette aerosol that someone else has exhaled poses potential health risks.

After screening 11,348 potential studies....These results demonstrate a moderate association between cannabis use and physical violence, which remained significant regardless of study design and adjustment for confounding factors (i.e., socioeconomic factors, other substance use). Cannabis use in this population is a risk factor for violence.

Today, a coalition of social justice, drug prevention, recovery, family, and faith organizations penned a joint letter to the leadership of the United States House of Representatives strongly opposing the MORE Act, a bill to federally legalize the commercial marijuana industry that is tentatively scheduled for a vote the week of September 21st.
According to the letter the MORE Act would not simply decriminalize marijuana, as some proponents have claimed, but rather “fully legalize and commercialize the drug. This would allow major corporations like Altria (formerly Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro Cigarettes), vaping giants Juul and PAX, and Imperial Brands (makers of Kool Cigarettes) to deepen their existing investments into the marijuana industry and expand those investments to capture the United States market.”

“These companies disguise and market their products as safe, fun and healthy, going so far as to represent to consumers that the products ‘deliver(ed) the wellbeing and relief to all those that seek it.’ What they do not tell consumers is that the use of their products carry extreme risk of serious injury or even death,” said Francavilla.”

In human studies, the preponderance of evidence suggests that prenatal cannabinoid exposure is predictive of several adverse neonatal outcomes, most notably FGR Fetal growth restriction and LBW low birth weight.
There is thus an urgent need to better understand the mechanistic links between these prenatal developmental events, their impact upon neurodevelopmental pathology and risk factors and how exposure to cannabinoids might synergistically modulate these complex interrelationships.
 

Rep. Smith is pro-pot and rude to speakers... write on his twitter  https://twitter.com/CarlosGSmith/status/1361822803922722826
 
Dr. Madras speaks the truth:  “People who go into the emergency department with psychosis, due to their initiation into marijuana use, and they continue to use, they’re more likely to convert to full-blown schizophrenia, and the conversion rate is between 20% and 40%,” she said.
 

What else explains the rapid march towards legalization by both Democrats
and many Republicans?

For two parties that can't even agree on the time of day, how does pot
become the ONE ISSUE that unites them? It is insane.

• In Florida, Ballard Partners, a Florida-based lobbying firm once called “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington” is tied to two separate FBI inquiries connected to Florida’s cannabis industry. The firm was subpoenaed by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York who are investigating the illegal foreign money donor scheme.
• Shortly after her 2018 election as Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, Nikki Fried reported a $1 million increase in her net wealth, thanks in part to a gift from the CEO of a marijuana company that was awarded a license under a new Florida law who she was romantically involved with.
• Parnas and Fruman’s company, Global Energy Producers, donated $50,000 to the DeSantis campaign, and Parnas was a part of the host committee for a DeSantis fundraiser in July 2018. Gray Rohrer and Steven Lemongello, “DeSantis, Indicted Ukrainian-American Parnas Met at Least 6 Times, Governor’s Office Says,” Orlando Sentinel, November 15, 2019, https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-nedesantis-parnas-fruman-201....

This study provides preliminary evidence that adolescents' cannabis use with ENDS may have negative health consequences. Lifetime cannabis use with ENDS was substantially associated with higher odds of respiratory symptoms.

A model of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from indoor cannabis cultivation across the US. Depending on the region, indoor cultivation results in between 2,283 and 5,184 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram of dried flower.
In the five years after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, indoor cannabis cultivation went from 1 percent of Denver's electrical consumption to 4 percent 

An analysis of survey data from more than 280,000 young adults ages 18-35 showed that cannabis (marijuana) use was associated with increased risks of thoughts of suicide (suicidal ideation), suicide plan, and suicide attempt. These associations remained regardless of whether someone was also experiencing depression, and the risks were greater for women than for men.
“Suicide is a leading cause of death among young adults in the United States, and the findings of this study offer important information that may help us reduce this risk,”

Hundreds of reports to the National Poison Data System have been linked to insufficiently labeled products containing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration are urging consumers to keep the products out of reach of children and pets.
In the first seven months of 2021, the National Poison Data System received 660 reports of adverse events in people exposed to delta-8 THC. About 41% of reports involved unintentional exposure, and 77% of the unintentional exposures were in children under 18 years. Some of the children who were exposed to products with delta-8 THC were admitted to intensive care units.

CANNABIS AND THE GATEWAY DRUG THEORY: CORRELATION OR CAUSATION – WHERE DOES THE EVIDENCE POINT?
Whilst the Gateway Theory, may give us further pause in our public health policy making, it should not be the key driver of such policy formulation. The drug, in and of itself, has way too many other community diminishing issues that warrant it being kept out of the permission, let alone promotion space. But be rest assured, cannabis use will not lessen drug use engagement and the mounting harms these practices bring, so any action that creates, enables or expands a ‘gateway’ to self and community harm inducing drug use should be called out for what it is, in both policy and practice.

[1]. In 2018 Michigan legalized the use of marijuana for adults. Since this law took effect, increased availability and use of cannabis have led to an increase in emergency department (ED) visits, as well as complaints about the drug's neuropsychiatric effects [2]. High doses of cannabis can be associated with undesired effects such as paranoia, psychotic-like symptoms, and panic attacks, depending on the content of its principal active constituent, D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and that of cannabidiol, a constituent with anti-anxiolytic properties [3]. Higher concentrations of THC relative to cannabidiol, as demonstrated in many commercial products, are associated with increased incidence of psychotomimetic symptoms [4,5]. Various studies in adults with acute THC exposure have shown a dose-related reduction in performance at laboratory tasks measuring memory, divided and sustained attention or concentration, reaction time, and tracking and motor function [3,6-9]. Less is known regarding the acute effects of THC in the pediatric population, and much of the

data that currently exist involve retrospective reviews of large, coded data sets [10-12]. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence, clinical features, and disposition of cannabis neuropsychiatric toxicity in a community-based study.

Both high- and low-frequency marijuana usage were associated with a significantly increased risk of schizophrenia. The frequency of use among high- and low-frequency users is similar in both, demonstrating statistically significant increased risk in developing schizophrenia.

In summary, much of the available evidence supports the criteria of strength, consistency, biological gradient, and temporality for cannabis causing psychosis. Furthermore, supporting specificity, while many substances are known to induce psychosis, the risk for conversion to schizophrenia is greatest with cannabis-induced psychosis.

Articles on link between mental illness and marijuana

Though research among pregnant women and marijuana-exposed neonates is limited, there is evidence to suggest that marijuana use may increase the risk of stillbirth and is associated with neurodevelopmental deficits in the infant.

Evidence-based programs to prevent initiation of marijuana use should target women of childbearing age.

In addition, THC passes from mother to baby through breastmilk; thus, cessation should continue post-partum. 

After dinner one night, she says her family stopped for a treat at Groovy Smoothie in Tarpon Springs. According to their Facebook page, the store sells items such as fruit bowls, juices and smoothies with the choice of being infused with cannabis.
Villarreal claims an employee offered to make them a smoothie without cannabis in it that was safe for children to consume.
“I told her I thought it was just a smoothie store. She said, ‘No, no, it’s okay. I can still make a smoothie for the kids,” Villarreal said.
Meanwhile, her 3-year-old son asked for a cake pop from a refrigerator that was labeled as a “kid-friendly cake pop.”
“Ten minutes later, it triggered him,” Villarreal said. “He fell asleep on the car ride home, and we put him to bed. When he woke up, he was screaming and crying.”
That’s when she rushed her son to Advent Health North Pinellas Hospital. The diagnosis was accidental marijuana overdose.

These results indicate that legal medical marijuana, particularly when available through retail dispensaries, is associated with higher opioid mortality. The results for recreational marijuana, while less reliable, also suggest that retail sales through dispensaries are associated with greater death rates relative to the counterfactual of no legal cannabis.

Research has found that prenatal cannabis use may adversely affect fetal growth and neurodevelopment, be associated with future learning and behavioral problems in children, and increase risk of neonatal morbidity. (Cornelius et al., 2002; Day et al., 1994; El Marroun et al., 2011; Fried and Smith, 2001; Fried et al., 1999; Fried et al., 2003; Fried et al., 1997; Goldschmidt et al., 2000; Goldschmidt et al., 2008; Goldschmidt et al., 2012; Metz et al., 2017; Noland et al., 2005; Willford et al., 2010; Ryan et al., 2018; El Marroun et al., 2018) Several US organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend abstinence from cannabis use during pregnancy. (Ryan et al., 2018; Gynecologists, T.A.C.O.O.A, 2020) Despite these recommendations, there are concerns that the trend of cannabis use during pregnancy will continue to increase as more states and countries legalize cannabis and allow for commercial sales through dispensaries. (Mark and Terplan, 2017)

Conclusions: Higher quality evidence suggests an increase in adolescent past-month consumption of cannabis following legalization in several geographical jurisdictions. Consumption evolution prelegalization and postlegalization differed by age group and for young women and for binge drinkers. Consumption evolution differences suggest a variety of strategies might be required in efforts to lower public health impacts of cannabis consumption following legalization.

• A new study shows that using cannabis products to treat pain, anxiety and depression failed to improve these symptoms while doubling the risk of developing the addictive symptoms of cannabis use disorder.
• People seeking cannabis to treat symptoms of anxiety and depression were at greatest risk of CUD.
• Contrary to evidence-based medicine, people with medical marijuana cards choose their own products and dosing, suggesting the need for better controls over dispensing, use, and professional follow-up of these patients.

Alex Berenson—one of the foremost “dissident” voices to speak out against COVID hysteria throughout the pandemic, who joins Charlie to talk about a different topic that rarely gets breached on the program: Weed and it’s crushing effect on society when it comes to crime and civilizational decline. 

Associations of Cannabis Use across Adolescence and Early Adulthood With Health and Psychosocial Adjustment in Early Adulthood and Midadulthood in Men
Results: Whereas there was almost no prediction from prior cannabis use to the physical health outcomes, there were comprehensive associations of cannabis use from the prior developmental period and psychosocial outcomes in both early adulthood and midadulthood.
Conclusion: Cannabis use in prior developmental periods was associated with a broad range of types of poor psychosocial adjustment in adulthood.

Delta-8 products are marketed as though it was candy, cereal, or vitamins sold in child/family friendly packaging.  
Ellen Snelling, a board member of the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance, has been wanting commissioners to act.
"It’s completely unregulated, fruit flavors, gummy bears. Bright colors attracted to children all allowed in the state of Florida. If this was laying on your dining room table a child would eat the entire package," she told commissioners at a previous meeting.