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Although 95 percent of the complications due to drug use are not captured in this data, the link to cardiovascular disease was clear: The death rate due to cardiovascular disease from marijuana use was as high as 25.6 percent.

heart, OpEd

Does nobody else see the multiple flaws and outright dangers associated with such an amendment? Does anyone else not recognize the fact that “medical marijuana” is a fantasy created for profit?

ballot, Colorado-0, Medical, chemicals, follow the money

Basically what this amendment is doing is legalizing pot. Really it's a facade to say it's medical marijuana. That's not the end game of this movement," he said. "Marijuana use is harmful, addictive and is a gateway drug."

Florida

I thought 'medical' marijuana was a health issue.  If you don't think its about recreational  legalization and getting vote... think again.
"We want to be able to have our stereotypical, lazy pothead voters to be able to vote from their couch," said Ben Pollara, a Democratic fundraiser and campaign manager for the United for Care group, which also plans to get voters to the polls on Election Day.
Organizers of the medical marijuana effort plan to raise and spend $10 million on their campaign, with much of the money devoted to a turnout operation aimed at registering voters to cast absentee ballots.

voters, political
follow the money, grow sites

During the last three years, Metro's forensics lab screened 4,500 blood samples for marijuana with the bulk of those being impaired drivers.
Metro said marijuana is dangerous because it slows down mental reactions and a driver's judgment of time and distance. Statewide records from 2002 to 2012 show 45 percent of drivers who were impaired by drugs had marijuana in their system.

car crashes 2, impaired, Las Vegas
Studies, Medical, Brain, youth

For the first time, researchers at Northwestern University have analyzed the relationship between casual use of marijuana and brain changes – and found that young adults who used cannabis just once or twice a week showed significant abnormalities in two important brain structures.

Research, Brain, young adults, Studies

If you don't think promoting marijuana for medical purposes is about making a profit... THINK AGAIN.

soros, profit, pot shops

Deal has consulted with the federal Food and Drug Administration on how the state can begin legal clinical trials with cannabis oil products at Georgia Regents University Augusta.

Georgia, Charlotte's Web, Studies
pot shops, lawyer, dispensaries

Through a network of nonprofit groups, Mr. Soros has spent at least $80 million on the legalization effort since 1994, when he diverted a portion of his foundation’s funds to organizations exploring alternative drug policies, according to tax filings.
It isn't about For The People it's about the rich taking advantage of the innocent.

 

soros, funding, legalization

The coroner also listed "marijuana intoxication" from cannabis-infused cookies as a significant condition contributing to the death.


 
Colorado-0, Teen, Death

A new study suggests people with mental illness are more than seven times as likely to use marijuana weekly than people without a mental illness.

In total, 4.4 percent of individuals with a mental illness in the past 12 months reported using cannabis weekly, compared to 0.6 percent among individuals without any mental illness.

Cannabis use disorders occurred among 4 percent of those with mental illness versus 0.4 per cent among those without.

Researchers also noted that, although cannabis use is generally higher among younger people, the association between mental illness and cannabis use was pervasive across most age groups.

Research, addiction, mental health, usage
Potency, impaired
lobby, soros, Morgan, legalization, follow the money

"The only thing green about that bud is its chlorophyll."

Environment, Growers, Electricity, grow sites, Water, traffic

It's time now to change the flawed medical marijuana system by insisting that standard medical procedures be followed in the dispensing of the drug. Let's save our children from the dangers of "marijuana doctors" before all concerns for safety go up in smoke.

addiction, debate, Teens, abnormal, Medical

Marijuana does possess certain medicinal properties. So does opium. But we don’t allow unscrupulous quacks to write raw opium prescriptions for anyone willing to pay $65. And if we did, would anybody be surprised that the vast majority of opium buyers were not recovering from surgery—and that many of them shared or resold some of their opium to underage users?

Medical, car crashes 2, impaired, IQ

We welcomed in a new industry that knowingly promotes an addictive and harmful substance SO THAT PEOPLE COULD MAKE MONEY. The business of business is to make money and when there is money to be made people will signup no matter how messed up the means are. 
For these businesses to continue making the huge money they are making they will need to do two things: 1) engage new users, 2) convert current users to more frequent users.
Our weed in Colorado is so strong (20-30 percent THC in its smoked form) that we have a strain called “green crack.”
Our concentrates, which are advertised aggressively, are 80-90 percent THC, and are often smoked on a super-heated needle and puts the smoker on their back with one hit.  Our edibles come in gummies, fruit sodas, suckers, candy and yummy looking baked goods that are so potent that a single pot brownie in Colorado comes with a warning that it has to be cut into fourths before consuming.

Colorado-0, edibles, Potency

Marijuana for Epilepsy: Weighing the Evidence, Epilepsy Notes, Andrew N. Wilner, MD, March 25, 2014

Considering Marijuana

In 2011 (more than 2.5 years ago) in "Marijuana: A Viable Epilepsy Therapy?" I reviewed the possibility of marijuana (Cannabis sativa) for the treatment of epilepsy. That article concluded, "More research is needed before patients should consider marijuana for seizure relief, particularly because this represents criminal activity under US federal law and may be accompanied by adverse medical (and legal) events."

What Hasn't Changed Since 2011?

What hasn't changed is the desperation of people with uncontrolled seizures and their families. Heather Jackson, the mother of Zaki, one of the children who responded to Charlotte's web, stated in a Huffington Post video interview, "If you wanted to take my money, I would give it to you. I wanted to save my boy."[13] Such vulnerable families need to be protected from scams, false promises, and dangerous drugs.

Conclusions

Despite the recent journalistic hype, my 2011 conclusions about "medical marijuana" have not changed. Marijuana is still a schedule I drug. It is not FDA-approved for the treatment of epilepsy or any other neurologic condition. Its medical (and recreational) use is still illegal under federal law. There are no controlled trials demonstrating that marijuana is "safe" or "effective" for the treatment of epilepsy. On the other hand, there is evidence that marijuana may be harmful, particularly in the developing brain after regular use. Synthetic cannabinoids appear even more toxic.

However, for many people with epilepsy, seizures cannot be controlled with FDA-approved medications. Other treatment options, such as the vagus nerve stimulator, responsive neurostimulation, or the ketogenic diet, may not work or may not be appropriate choices. For patients who have exhausted conventional therapies, medical marijuana, for which there is anecdotal evidence of seizure control, could be considered as an unproven, "compassionate use" alternative. Any such use of marijuana should be carefully monitored by a physician. A better alternative for children with intractable epilepsy would be enrollment in the new Epidiolex clinical trial.

Charlotte's Web, Notes, Studies
Multple Sclerosis

Cannabis is involved in approximately 50% of psychosis, schizophrenia, and schizophreniform psychosis cases Cannabis is a known risk factor for schizophrenia, although the exact neurobiological process through which the effects on psychosis occur is not well understood. Cannabis is also of particular interest in both the first-episode psychosis (FEP) and the ultra high risk (UHR) populations. This is mainly due to their increased susceptibility to cannabis abuse.

cannabis-induced psychosis, ncbi, Psychosis

In a survey and other anecdotal reports, parents of children with drug-refractory epilepsy syndromes have reported successful treatment with cannabidiol-enriched marijuana. But little high-quality evidence is available about the efficacy and safety of cannabidiol in patients with Dravet, Lennox-Gastaux, and other pediatric epilepsy syndromes, as shown by a recent Cochrane Collaboration review of four randomized trials totaling 48 patients with epilepsy that found no adverse effects with 200-300 mg daily over short periods but did not report on the efficacy of the drug.

Charlotte's Web, Dravet syndrome, Orphan Study

Kevin A. Sabet, the director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and a former senior advisor for President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy, also takes issue with this sweeping claim.   "Show me that data," Sabet said in reaction to hearing this. "Also, chocolate doesn't cause car crashes or IQ loss or mental illness."

Calvina Fay, executive director of Drug Free America, a nonprofit that educates the public about the dangers of drug abuse, responded, "Unlike marijuana, I am not aware of anyone in treatment for chocolate addiction and it certainly is not a substance that sends people to the hospital or impairs one's ability to work or operate a vehicle or machinery."

addiction, chocolate

Kevin A. Sabet, the director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and a former senior advisor for President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy, also takes issue with this sweeping claim.   "Show me that data," Sabet said in reaction to hearing this. "Also, chocolate doesn't cause car crashes or IQ loss or mental illness."

Calvina Fay, executive director of Drug Free America, a nonprofit that educates the public about the dangers of drug abuse, responded, "Unlike marijuana, I am not aware of anyone in treatment for chocolate addiction and it certainly is not a substance that sends people to the hospital or impairs one's ability to work or operate a vehicle or machinery."

addiction, chocolate

I’d still argue that the police action here was excessive and unnecessary. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I characterized it. And the timing was, by all appearances, a coincidence.  My apologies for the errors. 

Morgan, ALS, Arrest, Balko
lungs, harm, warning, Side-Effects
  • Drugged driving kills an average of two people per week in Colorado. That’s more than four times the number of deaths of Columbine and Century Theater combined.
  • One half of those deaths are caused by marijuana use.
  • Deaths caused by drugged driving are increasing at the same time overall traffic deaths are decreasing. The most rapidly increasing cause of drugged driving deaths is marijuana use.
  • Fatalities caused by drivers who tested positive for marijuana increased 26 percent.
Fatalities, car crashes 2, car crashes, Colorado
health, safety, cancer

Pot candy

candy, border, california, edibles

They discovered that the deaths of two of the patients could not be put down to anything other than marijuana use.

Both of these people were men who had died after their hearts started beating either too fast or too slowly.

The researchers believe that this change in heart rhythm – called arrhythmia - was caused by cannabis.

The reason they came to this conclusion was that both had smoked the drug within a few hours of their death and neither had any history of heart problems.

overdose, Studies, Death
legalization, Sabet, Morgan

Pill mills can become pot shops-  unethical doctors will find a new job!

Doctors, pot shops, pill mills

“I urge caution,” he said at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington last week. When states promote something that is not good for people, he said, they need to be prepared for “unintended consequences.”

Colorado-0, warning, legalization, Children

This may come as a surprise to some, but if you’ve been smoking pot anytime in the 21st century, you’re most likely smoking a GMO strain. Back in the 1970’s, weed used to be much weaker generally, as most of it was grown naturally without pesticides or chemical alteration, it didn’t look or smoke anything like what we have today. So if you’re looking for non-GMO marijuana, you’re gonna find something that most would just call “schwag” – nearly everyone is smoking GMO pot, because that’s the best that’s around – and they don’t even think twice about it.

GMO, Monsanto

There’s no antidote for marijuana but Fitzgerald said those worried about a pet’s recent exposure have a limited amount of time to take action before it’s too late.

pets, edibles, vet
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

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
kennedy, treatment

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

 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
  • 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
epilepsy, Research
  • 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

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

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

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
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
Colorado-0, Medical

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
crime

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

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

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

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

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

addiction, Morgan

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

 

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
IQ, NIDA
youth, Medical, states

 

 

Pregnancy

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
crime

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

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
Myth, legalization

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
Potency, Psychoactive
Laws, Sabet, SAM
Economy, jobs

"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

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
  • 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

2013 University of Maryland summary of Hookah legislation by state.

Public Health, Hookah, policy, 2017 Legislation

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