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Consider workplace safety in legalized marijuana rules, groups urge
NEWS Nov 04, 2017 by Gemma Karstens-Smith The Canadian Press Hamilton Spectator
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The BC Trucking Association, meanwhile, is asking for a “legalized framework” for random drug and alcohol testing. – Ron Ward,The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER – New rules for legalized marijuana need to consider the impact on workplaces and clarify the rights of both employers and employees, say some business groups.
Ottawa has set July 1 as the deadline for regulations to be in place and many provinces and territories are still working to craft legislation, including British Columbia, where a public consultation on legal pot wrapped up this week.
Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, said large and small companies need guidance from the provincial and federal governments on how they should balance employee privacy with safety in the workplace.
\”For any employer, what are their rights and responsibilities in the face of an employee who is under the influence of cannabis?\” she said.
\”How is an employer supposed to be able to deal with that type of situation without compromising their business and their workplace?\”
Huberman said the board of trade wants to see the provincial Employment Standards Act amended to specifically address marijuana usage. For more UNSAFE WORKPLACE
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England – 2016
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Publication date: November 02, 2017
Summary
This report contains results from an annual survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15). 12,051 pupils in 177 schools completed questionnaires in the autumn term of 2016.
This is the most recent survey in a series that began in 1982. Each survey since 1998 has included a core set of questions on smoking, drinking and drug use. In 2000, the survey questions changed to focus on smoking and drinking or on drug use in alternate years and in 2016, the survey reverted back to including both drinking/smoking and drugs focused questions in one survey.
The survey report presents information on the percentage of pupils who have ever smoked, tried alcohol or taken drugs and their attitudes towards these behaviours. It also includes breakdowns by age, gender, ethnicity and region.
Other areas covered include the use of new psychoactive substances (also known as legal highs), beliefs about drinking, whether pupils had ever got drunk and consequences of drinking. Questions on the use of nitrous oxide have also been asked for the first time.
The attachments below include a summary report showing key findings in slides format, excel tables with more detailed findings, technical appendices and a data quality statement. An anonymised record level file of the underlying data on which users can carry out their own analysis will be made available via the UK Data Service in 2018.
Key Facts
In 2016
- 19 per cent of 11-15 year old pupils had ever smoked, which is similar to 2014.
- 44 per cent of pupils had ever drunk alcohol which is not comparable with earlier surveys.
- 24 per cent of pupils reported they had ever taken drugs. This compares to 15 per cent in 2014. Part of the increase since 2014 may be explained by the addition of questions on nitrous oxide and new psychoactive substances. After allowing for this however, it still represents a large increase which has not been observed in other data sources1. Therefore an estimate from the next survey in 2018 is required before we can be confident that these survey results reflect a genuine trend in the wider population. In the meantime the results for drug taking from this survey should be treated with caution.
- 3 per cent of pupils were weekly (regular) smokers, 10 per cent had drunk alcohol in the last week and 10 per cent had taken drugs in the last month
For complete SURVEY
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THE GENIUS BEHIND WASHINGTON’S MARIJUANA BALLOT
Alison Holcomb designed I-502 and the state changed the terms
Alison Holcomb of the ACLU used her genius to write I-502, the 2012 ballot which legalized pot in Washington. She addressed the public’s biggest concerns about accepting the legalization of marijuana, and wrote the ballot to appeal to non-users. It was a brilliant tactic. Soon after legalization, the state disregarded many of those terms.
I-502 had safeguards to prevent stoned driving, public smoking of marijuana, home grows and under-age usage.
Yet, passage of I-502 created many new victims. To a strong extent, the 5-nanogram allowance for THC in drivers is not protecting public health and safety.
The law passed when the state did not have a plan or laws to deal with BHO labs and hash oil explosions. However, federal charges were pressed against serious offenders.
Politicians change the terms of I-502
Politicians changed or loosened some of the most important public safety nets built into I-502. Going against voter expectations, the city of Seattle decided to no longer issue any citations against public use of marijuana.
When Fife, Washington, did not want a dispensary in its community, the ACLU represented a dispensary owner, trying to force the city to allow pot. Fife, however, won in court.
Eventually, “medical” and “recreational” marijuana were unified. NORML’s Keith Stroup told an audience at Emory that his group would use medical marijuana as a red herring to give marijuana a good name to get full legalization. Slowly but surely, this promise made in 1979 has become true.
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board is currently seeking comments on home grows. Washington is the only state with commercial pot stores which does not also allow home grows. For Complete article Parents Against Pot
www.SayNopeToDope.nz
Tuesday, 24 October 2017, 11:53 am
Press Release: Family First
SayNopeToDope.nz Website Will Oppose Legalisation
Family First NZ says that their website www.SayNopeToDope.nz will inform families about the attempts to legalise marijuana, and to help them speak up in the public debate.
“The Green party have done us all a favour by declaring the true intention of marijuana campaigners — full legalisation for personal use. Groups like NORML and the Drug Foundation have used medicinal marijuana and decriminalisation as a smokescreen for the real goal,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“Families simply don’t want marijuana plants being grown next door by dope dealers in view of the children, tinnie houses on street corners and pot shops in local shopping areas, or marijuana being disguised as lollies and edibles as has happened overseas. Legalising marijuana and the rise of Big Marijuana is the wrong path if we care about public health, public safety, and about our young people. There are too many health risks including the effect of marijuana on cognitive ability, cardiac function and psychosis, and research just this weekend showing that cannabis use during puberty is a major risk factor for schizophrenia.”
“Drug use is both a criminal and a health issue. There is a false dichotomy that criminal sanctions apparently haven’t worked so we should ditch them all together and we should focus only on education and health initiatives. We should maintain both. Policing burglary, theft and the drug P also costs money — should we decriminalise these also because the ‘war on burglary’ or the \’war on P\’ is failing?” For more go to SAY NOT TO DOPE
ASIA-PACIFIC FORUM AGAINST DRUGS 2017
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“Together, A Drug-Free World for our Children”
The National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) of Singapore organised the 2nd Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs (APFAD) today. The event brought together local and foreign delegates from government agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil society groups, to network and discuss how to better counter the continuing global calls for drug liberalisation and the lobbying of pro-drug groups. 2. In the two years since the inaugural APFAD in 2015, the calls for drug decriminalisation and legalisation have grown louder. Pro-decriminalisation and legalisation groups continue to push their agenda. Against this backdrop, APFAD aims to rally like-minded people and organisations in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and reiterate our firm position that drugs have no place in our societies and communities.
For Complete Press Release
Survey shows marijuana use disorder linked to substance use/mental disorders and disability.
Marijuana use disorder is common in the United States, is often associated with other substance use disorders, behavioral problems, and disability, and goes largely untreated, according to a new study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The analysis found that 2.5 percent of adults – nearly 6 million people – experienced marijuana use disorder in the past year, while 6.3 percent had met the diagnostic criteria for the disorder at some point in their lives. A report of the study, led by Bridget Grant, Ph.D., of the NIAAA Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, appears online today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“…Marijuana use can lead to harmful consequences for individuals and society.”
–George F. Koob, Ph.D., Director, NIAAA
“The new analysis complements previous population-level studies by Dr. Grant’s group that show that marijuana use can lead to harmful consequences for individuals and society,” said George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of NIAAA.
In a recent report, Dr. Grant and her team found that the percentage of Americans who reported using marijuana in the past year more than doubled between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, and the increase in marijuana use disorders during that time was nearly as large. The new study analyzed data about marijuana use that were collected in the 2012-2013 wave of NIAAA’s National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), the largest study ever conducted on the co-occurrence of alcohol use, drug use, and related psychiatric conditions.
The researchers interviewed more than 36,000 U.S. adults about alcohol use, drug use, and related psychiatric conditions. Notably, the current study applies diagnostic criteria for marijuana use disorder from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to the NESARC data. In DSM-5, marijuana dependence and abuse are combined into a single disorder. To be diagnosed with the disorder, individuals must meet at least two of 11 symptoms that assess craving, withdrawal, lack of control, and negative effects on personal and professional responsibilities. Severity of the disorder is rated as mild, moderate, or severe depending on the number of symptoms met.
Consistent with previous findings, the new data showed that marijuana use disorder is about twice as common among men than women, and that younger age groups are much more likely to experience the disorder than people age 45 and over. The risk for onset of the disorder was found to peak during late adolescence and among people in their early 20s, with remission occurring within 3 to 4 years. Also in keeping with previous findings, the new study found that past-year and lifetime marijuana use disorders were strongly and consistently associated with other substance use and mental health disorders. For more MUD always MUDdies the Brain