Scottish churches and Christian groups helped over 2,000 individuals recover from drug addiction, new report shows

07 Jun 2022, by Alex Collett

The Evangelical Alliance together with Serve Scotland have published a new report highlighting how Christians and Churches have been tackling drug addiction across Scotland.

The groups will present the report to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

\’Stories of Hope: addiction recovery\’ shows the extraordinary efforts made by Christians in Scotland to assist and care for those in addiction.

With the Scottish Government introducing new policy and funding initiatives to tackle the addiction crisis, the Evangelical Alliance is seeking to promote Christians as an integral force in directing government policy through addiction response services

Within the past decade, over 2,300 individuals have been directly treated and successfully recovered from their addiction through services offered by Christian groups and churches across Scotland.

Fred Drummond, Scottish director from the Evangelical Alliance told Premier Christian News…\”Death by addiction, particularly drugs in Scotland is particularly high, probably the highest percentage wise of population in Europe…So, it\’s a real challenge for society in Scotland and one that government has been trying to look at.”

\”But what we wanted to show was just on the ground, in organisations and churches, community by community, Christians are actively trying to meet the biggest needs of society, believing that light can shine in the darkest places for people.\”

The Evangelical Alliance and Serve Scotland noted the high percentage of residential beds for addiction patients offered by Christian groups is 121 out of 418.

Drummond went on to encourage Christians to pray for people who might be struggling with drug addiction, he said: \”We\’re praying that people feel that there is hope to that they\’re connected with or find people offer love and support.

\”Also that the light of the power of Jesus can actually break chains, transform people, and see in every community across the UK, lives moving from addiction to recovery, and lives going forward with a sense of purpose and identity and hope.\”

For help or advice regarding drug addiction visit: www.talktofrank.com

For complete article Scottish churches and Christian groups helped over 2,000 individuals recover from drug addiction, new report shows

Three Large Studies Released This Weekend Prove Marijuana Legalization Is Failing, Poses Danger to Americans

• Study 1: Largest-Ever Commercial Marijuana Study Reveals Widespread Mislabeling Issues Among State-Legal Products
• Study 2: Marijuana associated with significantly increased risk for many health conditions, especially behavioral health and HIV
• Study 3: Marijuana vaping, especially very frequent use, on rise among U.S. adolescents; highly associated with other drug use

This past weekend, three large studies by different researchers revealed major issues with the U.S. marijuana industry.

First, in the most extensive study of commercial marijuana products ever conducted, researchers analyzed over 90,000 samples from over six legal states and found widespread mislabeling issues regarding the psychoactive contents of myriad products.

\”The prevailing labeling system is not an effective or safe way to provide information about these products,\” University of Colorado information sciences professor and study author Brian Keegan remarked in a press release. \”[The current labeling of marijuana products] is a profound disservice to consumers. It is a cause for concern.\”

The second study looked at over a million emergency room encounters and found marijuana patients had higher odds of most medical and behavioral diagnoses, especially in the use of other substances, mental health disorders, social anxiety disorder, HIV/AIDS, PTSD, depression, and bipolar disorder.

The third study highlighted the rapidly increasing prevalence of adolescent vaping use.

“Heavy and frequent use of cannabis is increasing among U.S. adolescents, and vaped systems for products for both cannabis and nicotine are growing in number so understanding the prevalence and patterns of frequent cannabis vaping is important public health information for prevention,” said Katherine Keyes, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. “Given rising concerns about cannabis vaping in terms of safety, and potential for transition to cannabis use disorder especially at frequent levels of use, these results indicate a necessity for public health intervention and increased regulation.”

\”These studies show Big Marijuana is only concerned with profits–not safety,\” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president and co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. \”States like Colorado have had a decade to prove that the legal marijuana industry can successfully regulate their products. With this new data, we see that regulation is a farce. Marijuana use is dangerous, and we need a national campaign  to discourage its use, not the shameless promotion currently sanctioned by state governments and regulators alike.\”

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) is a nonpartisan, non-profit alliance of physicians, policy makers, prevention workers, treatment and recovery professionals, scientists, and other concerned citizens opposed to marijuana legalization who want health and scientific evidence to guide marijuana policies. SAM has affiliates around the world and in virtually every US state.

Media Contact: Jordan Davidson

P: (203) 295-5020 E: [email protected]

And Celebrating Decline!

Brace Yourself For 420
A Macabre Celebration of Inebriation

Many people know that \”420\” relates to marijuana but most don\’t know why.  There\’s no concrete proof of 420\’s history, as it\’s been lost in the mental fog of time and the poor memory of pot users. However, the most common story traces back to San Rafael High School, located just north of San Francisco. In the early \’70s, a small group of students started a new routine. During the school day, they\’d utter their secret phase, \”420\” indicating that they\’d be gathering to light up after school at 4:20 pm and celebrate surviving the school day.

There is certainly no reason to celebrate drug culture, addiction, and especially teen drug use. Those who use the term \”420\” are giving legitimacy to an illicit industry encouraging drug use among all age groups to alter one\’s mental state. Since marijuana use tends to arrest mental development the connection of \”420\” to a group of immature teens shouldn\’t be disregarded.

420 has grown up since those early days of illicit teen pot use. The rampant teen drug use remains but it is now a corporate-sponsored national event. Multi-million dollar investors and entrepreneurs have gotten in on the \”fun.\” 420 is now a national ad for the billion-dollar marijuana industry. Free press is given to the events and their products. Car crashes soar during 420 meaning innocent bystanders also become part of the \”celebration.\”

The celebration is especially hollow when the broken promises and lies of marijuana legalization are brought to bear. Marijuana legalization has been terrible for social justice. The black market for weed is stronger than ever. Teen use of marijuana is increasing thanks to marijuana legalization. Are these things to celebrate?

The pot users at these events may have a good time but the people with a real reason to celebrate are the Cannabis CEOs, Investors that pull in record profits through the use, abuse, and addictive quality of the product they peddle. Politicians and legislatures aren\’t being left out in this cannabis cash grab and many have now had ties to the industry and would benefit financially from its propagation. These are the true winners of legalization. Is this something to celebrate?

Or perhaps the real point of the holiday is just to get high and forget the problems the very product you are consuming is causing. While Cannabis Corporate America and pro-pot pundits and politicians celebrate, it is up to the actual adults to recognize the danger such a holiday presents to the country and what message it sends.

10 Days to 420 Archive

Day 1 Legalization is Worse Than A Failure
Day 2 Federal Education on Marijuana Has Been Virtually Non-Existent
Day 3 Marijuana and Mass Murder
Day 4 Marijuana is Not Medicine
Day 5 Marijuana Legalization Harms Teens
Day 6 Marijuana is an Environmental Polluter
Day 7 The Myth of Mass Marijuana Incarceration
Day 8 Marijuana Legalization is Social Abuse. Not Social Justice
Day 9 Cannabis and Cronyism
Day 10 Legalization Increases DUI, Poisonings, Workplace Injuries, and More

Mixed results for Oregon’s pioneering drug decriminalization

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs after being told it was a way to establish and fund addiction recovery centers that would offer people aid instead of incarceration.

Yet in the first year after the new approach took effect in February 2021, only 1% of people who received citations for possessing controlled substances asked for help via a new hotline.

With Oregon being the first state in America to decriminalize possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs, its program is being watched as a potential model for other states.

Some are questioning whether the approach is proving too lenient, but others say the new system has already had a positive impact by redirecting millions of dollars into facilities to help those with drug dependency issues. The funds come from taxes generated by Oregon’s legal marijuana industry and savings from reductions in arrests, jail time and probation supervision.

Under Ballot Measure 110, possession of controlled substances is now a newly created Class E “violation,” instead of a felony or misdemeanor. It carries a maximum $100 fine, which can be waived if the person calls a hotline for a health assessment. The call can lead to addiction counseling and other services.

But out of roughly 2,000 citations issued by police in the year after decriminalization took effect, only 92 of the people who received them called the hotline by mid-February. And only 19 requested resources for services, said William Nunemann of Lines for Life, which runs the hotline.

Almost half of those who got citations failed to show up in court.

Mixed results for Oregon’s pioneering drug decriminalization

Commentary: It\’s vital to note that perceived permission models, a lack of an already \’toothless\’ enforcement, and the ever increasing \’normalization\’ of drug use this experiment all brings, will have more serious health, community and fiscal harms coalesce around this mess not only now but mounting into the future.

No only do these \’permission models\’ invite more unwitting or wilfully ignorant customers into the pool of the self harming, it\’s  the inevitable dependency these psychotropic toxins invariably create that ensures ever increasing chronic health harms – way into the future. The next generation will be paying not only a financial price, but an overall community diminishing price that actually smacks of a complete disregard for the hapless drug user and those closest to them.

What is as concerning is that this is now the \’default\’ mode for so called best-practice.

\’Progress\’ has never looked so dystopian. However, the social engineers steering this train-wreck are largely the ones who don\’t have this chaos in their home or community.

Other resources

What Lessons Can We Learn from Portugal?

Portugal Drug Policy: A Review of the Evidence

Team @ Dont Legalize Drugs

Listen to Podcast with Professor A.S. REECE on extensive seminal evidence-based peer-reviewed research on the genotoxicity of Cannabis and the intergenerational impact

Click Image to Listen

April 3, 2022 \”Cannabis & Childhood Cancer\” – Dr. Stuart Reece 

Merseyside\’s worst \’pot spots\’ revealed

Far more people in Merseyside were caught in possession of cannabis than in other neighbouring

The worst area for people being caught in possession of cannabis in Merseyside has been revealed. Government statistics released by the Home Office, show that there were 4,989 crimes recorded by police in Merseyside where someone was in possession of marijuana last year

The figure was up from 4,030 in 2017, and 3,659 in 2016 and is twice as high as cannabis -related crimes recorded in Manchester and Chester.

The statistics revealed the areas in Merseyside where cannabis-related crimes were most often recorded by Police in 2018. (Complete article Merseyside\’s worst \’pot spots\’ revealed – Liverpool Echo

PLUS

Cancer rates in Liverpool \’highest in England\’ according to new report

PLUS

Cannabis Causing Cancer Part 1 – Epidemiological overview and survey of USA cannabis, cannabidiol and cannabinoid genotoxicity expressed in cancer incidence 2003—2017: Part 1: Complete Research here https://rdcu.be/cKfKp

• Conclusion: Data suggest that cannabinoids including THC and cannabidiol are important community carcinogens exceeding the effects of tobacco or alcohol. Testicular, (prostatic) and ovarian tumours indicate mutagenic corruption of the germline in both sexes; pediatric tumourigenesis confirms transgenerational oncogenesis; quantitative criteria implying causality are fulfilled.

Cannabis Causing Cancer Part 2 – Epidemiological overview and survey of USA cannabis, cannabidiol and cannabinoid genotoxicity expressed in cancer incidence 2003—2017: Part 2: Complete Research here https://rdcu.be/cKfKq

• Conclusion: Data implicate 23/28 cancers as being linked with THC or cannabidiol exposure with epidemiologically causal relationships comparable to those for tobacco. AFE-attributable cases for cannabinoids (91,677 and 48,510) compare with PAR-attributable cases for tobacco (36,450). Cannabinoids constitute an important multivalent community carcinogen.

Cannabis Causing Cancer Part 3 – Epidemiological overview and survey of USA cannabis, cannabidiol and cannabinoid genotoxicity expressed in cancer incidence 2003—2017: Part 3: Complete Research here https://rdcu.be/cKfOH

• Conclusion: Cannabinoids including THC and cannabidiol are therefore important community carcinogens additive to the effects of tobacco and greatly exceeding those of alcohol. Reproductive tract carcinogenesis necessarily implies genotoxicity and epigenotoxicity of the germ line with transgenerational potential. Pseudoexponential and causal dose-response power functions are demonstrated.

EQUALS???

You do the math! 

And many of those in the #publichealth and #policy sector are advocating for liberalization of this #CANCER causing product.

It’s time to protect our communities and our most vulnerable citizens — our kids — from this #toxic tsunami, not promote pot.

Marijuana Legalization Linked to Addiction Dependency, Homelessness, and Youth Addiction: Rep. Good

By Tammy Hung and Melina Wisecup April 4, 2022

The enactment of a proposal to legalize marijuana nationwide would lead to a rise in addiction dependency, homelessness, and youth addiction, as seen in states that have already decriminalized the substance, according to Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.).

The Virginia Republican stated in an April 2 interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report” that “the last thing we need is more people using addictive, behavior-altering recreational drugs,” added to the challenges the United States already faces, including “the rise in violent crime,” as well as fentanyl being illegally trafficked across the southern border resulting in “100,000 Americans dying of overdoses last year.”

The legislation also wouldn’t stop vendors from selling marijuana products such as candy-like edibles or vape merchandise to children, he said.

The measure would eliminate criminal penalties for individuals who grow, distribute, or possess marijuana, require federal courts to expunge prior convictions, open Small Business Administration funding to pot businesses, allow those who have used marijuana to gain security clearance, permit the Veterans’ Administration to prescribe cannabis for medical and mental health reasons, and authorize a 5 percent federal tax on marijuana sales.

The sales tax collected on marijuana products would be reinvested into programs that help “marijuana licensing and employment for the individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs,” according to a May 2021 statement released by Nadler’s office.

If enacted, that means individuals who were prosecuted for their involvement in the drug trade would be prioritized to develop their own “legal marijuana operation,” with the help of federal government resources and funds, Good said.

While critics have argued that the proposed tax on marijuana sales would generate revenue for states, Good said “it’s terrible for the government to try to profit off its citizens using a product that is harmful for them.”

He said that law enforcement officials “will tell you that the criminals and the drug cartels will put their efforts into harder drugs and more dangerous drugs when they lose the profit incentive or the profit opportunity with marijuana.”

A year after the legalization of marijuana, Colorado reportedly saw an 8 percent rise in homelessness, to which then-Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed reinvesting tax revenues from pot sales into homelessness programs, according to statements obtained by The Guardian.

“There’s no question that marijuana and other drugs–in combination with mental illness or other disabling conditions–are essential contributors to chronic homelessness,” Hickenlooper stated, according to the Guardian’s 2017 report.

“It can result in difficulty finding employment, difficulty finding housing, denial of access to federal benefits, denial of financial aid at colleges and universities, and denial of the right to vote,” Hoyer said. “That’s why we’re dealing with this.”

However, the MORE Act will need to gain 60 votes in the evenly divided Senate, an outcome widely seen as unlikely, given the lack of Republican support for the measure.

For complete article https://www.theepochtimes.com/marijuana-legalization-linked-to-addiction-dependency-homelessness-and-youth-addiction-rep-good_4381063.html

for complete resource click below

Risks of Marijuana Use (AALM) 

Overdose Surge Sparks SF Debate Over Harm Reduction

San Francisco has long embraced a philosophy of harm reduction in its drug treatment programs.  The goal is to prevent deaths and disease by providing clean syringes, medications that help curb addiction, and other judgment-free treatment support. Studies show that this approach does save lives. But now the city is in the midst of a fentanyl-fueled overdose crisis, with more than 1300 deaths over two years. In response, some officials are questioning the effectiveness of the harm reduction model, calling for other options like abstinence-only treatment programs. We’ll discuss the history, science and politics of drug treatment in San Francisco.

For complete conversation go to  https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101888161/overdose-surge-sparks-sf-debate-over-harm-reduction

Also see

1. This is NOT Compassion – This is Carnage & Chaos: \’Harm Reduction\’ That Is NOT!

2. San Francisco\’s Deadly Compassion 

3. Why Everything We Thought About Drugs Was Wrong!