NOVA PBS The Cannabis Question Fraught with Conflict of Interests — Soros and Koch influences over program downplay the harms of cannabis.

MERRIFIELD, VIRGINIA, USA, October 14, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ – Parents Opposed to Pot (PopPot.org) calls out PBS’s science program NOVA, The Cannabis Question, for using Koch funding and Soros-funded sources when claiming to objectively explore cannabis science. NOVA’s documentary film aired on September 29, downplaying the major risks of marijuana, without mentioning the conflicts of interests of several featured “experts.”

This bias breaches the public trust in PBS and NOVA. “It is well established that marijuana can cause psychosis, ” explains Aubree Adams, Director of EveryBrainMatters.org, a project of PopPot.org.

There were no interviews with the doctors from the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis (IASIC). Instead, the television program gave prominence to Dr. Staci Gruber, part of The Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation, launched in 2021 “with the purpose of influencing policy and potentially shaping the first federal cannabis regulations.” Her coalition includes corporate interests such as alcohol and tobacco companies.

At the beginning Gruber stated that policy should be informed by data and science, an irony considering that the program failed to explore the conclusions of the 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids.” The show doesn’t mention the comprehensive medical text published by Springer Press in 2020 on the topic Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach.

One brief interview was with Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Volkow said that many people end up with marijuana-induced psychosis. However, the filmmaker chose to skip over the very important science on psychosis and its irrefutable connection to cannabis. The film also neglected to cover EVALI (the vaping illnesses related to THC), Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, the types of cancer associated with cannabis, and negative impacts on heart and lung functions.

While focusing on the story of a veteran with PTSD arrested for using marijuana, the program didn’t delve into research on marijuana for PTSD. A large, long-term study of American veterans by Wilkinson et al. found that “initiating marijuana use after treatment was associated with worse PTSD symptoms, more violent behavior, and alcohol use.”

The film featured Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, funded by George Soros to promote the legalization of all drugs. Although David Koch Foundation for Science funds NOVA, the program veered away from science into criminal justice, claiming that arrests for marijuana are more harmful than adverse outcomes of cannabis use, an opinion with which we strongly disagree. A psychotic break from a marijuana-induced psychosis sometimes results in severe, lifelong mental illness or early death.

For the program to claim that not enough research has been done on THC and CBD is disproven by clinicaltrials.gov which publishes hundreds of studies funded by National Institute of Health (NIH) . This research is in addition to the multitude of research conducted overseas, in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, particularly notable in terms of rigorous epidemiological investigations of harmful side effects of cannabis use.

NOVA PBS chose a biased moderator for a follow-up Internet Q & A on October 7. Our questions about the links between marijuana and psychotic disorders, violence and addiction to other drugs were ignored in favor of questions pushing an agenda. “Every day I speak to families whose children have been tragically harmed by cannabis,” says Aubree Adams. She continues, “NOVA’s The Cannabis Question needs to broadcast their voices.”

Parents Opposed to Pot, a 501c3 non-profit based in Merrifield, VA, “bursts the bubble of the marijuana hype” and represents families who have been harmed by the false notion that marijuana is safe. Visit the website, PopPot.org, email [email protected] or call 773-322-7523 for more information.

This column appeared in the Columbus Dispatch last week.

I received the worst news a parent can get nine years ago: my 22-year-old daughter had been killed in a car crash.

Even more heartbreaking was the fact that my daughter’s death could have been avoided if the other driver hadn’t been high on marijuana.

With stories like mine becoming tragically more common, we must reassess and slow the rapid expansion of the marijuana industry.

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to include the deceptively named SAFE Banking Act in the National Defense Authorization Act.

This bill would permit pot companies to accept significant investments from corporations that only have one concern: profit. These corporations, who growingly consist of tobacco and alcohol companies, care nothing about the victims of marijuana-impaired driving like my daughter.

In fact, a high return on investment for these corporations depends on the misuse of this drug, even when it leads to tragedy.

Additionally, despite myriad reports of product contamination and illegitimate financial practices within marijuana dispensaries, SAFE Banking is now making its way to the Senate.

There may be one member, though, who can prevent the SAFE Banking Act from becoming law, and that’s Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Senator Brown can make a difference

Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, understands that real progress in marijuana policy reform means fighting for social justice, not lining the pockets of venture capitalists. He recently said that ​​reform on this front is “not just taking care of the banking industry and that industry, it’s making sure that we do sentencing reform at the same time or it’s not going to happen without it.”

Going further, in 2015 Brown expressed that he had serious concerns with expanding marijuana legalization here in Ohio saying, “it’s a step that we should take with great caution.” Given my experience, I couldn’t agree further

As a mom, it’s hard for me to understand why some lawmakers want to spur rapid and unlimited growth in this industry without considering its dire consequences. Pot shops advertise colorful marijuana-infused gummies that are attractive to kids.

Nationwide, dispensaries market marijuana vapes that contain high potency THC. In fact, the average levels of THC today compared to 1995 is the same as comparing hard liquor to a light beer. And what are the results? Addicted teenagers, contaminated products and high drivers who crash and kill people like my daughter.

No matter how much I want to, I can’t bring my daughter back. That doesn’t mean that other lives can’t be saved. The SAFE Banking Act will only serve to bolster an industry that aims to recruit new, heavy users to drive their bottom line. It is without a doubt that some of those users will get behind the wheel while high. Traffic deaths involving a driver high on marijuana more than doubled from 2013 to 2018 in Colorado, and the American Automobile Association (AAA) found similar increases in Washington state.

SAFE Banking Act

SAFE Banking will do nothing to provide racial, economic or criminal justice to the communities that have been impacted the most by the war on drugs.

If justice was the main priority of this industry, they would not be lobbying hard to pass a banking bill before any equity-based laws. This bill makes the rich richer at the expense of minority communities and of those who are affected by the consequences of unsafe marijuana use, like my daughter.

I sincerely hope Brown uses his power as the Banking Committee chairman to prevent the SAFE Banking Act from advancing. Keep my daughter in mind when considering this issue.

If SAFE Banking is passed, families like mine will only experience more tragedy.

Parents Opposed to Pot has taken on as a project Corinne’s website devoted to informing of the dangers of driving high, jennifersmessengers.com .

MomsStrong.org recently reprinted the latest The Marijuana Report newsletter, which details the history of marijuana legalization in the U.S., and some of the negative outcomes identified by government surveys and reports. As politicians and citizens alike remain asleep and unaware on this issue, the steady rollout of the pot profiteers and their greedy plan continues. To understand history is to mount an adequate resistance. PopPot urges our readers to take the time to not only read, but disseminate this article!

The Timeline of Marijuana Rollout in the U.S. Exposed by the Marijuana Report

Reprinted with permission of Moms Strong and The Marijuana Report See original 9/15/2021 Newsletter here.

Are scientists missing the forest for the trees?

Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study by DM Anderson and colleagues, scientists from universities in Montana, Spain, and San Diego, California. The study finds that legalization does not increase adolescent marijuana use. The researchers analyzed the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began conducting in 1991.

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)

YRBSS collects data from high school students every two years about behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, alcohol and other drug use, tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and inadequate physical activity. Not all states participate in YRBSS, and those that do participate periodically, although in the 2019 YRBSS all but five states did so. Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington State have never participated in YRBSS. The survey asks three questions about marijuana: ever use, current use, and what age students were when they started using marijuana. It began asking about vapor product use in 2015, but never asks what students are vaping.

So far as these limited data are concerned, the researchers’ findings seem true. But two other national surveys show us something more…

Read the full article, The Timeline of Marijuana Rollout in the U.S. Exposed by the Marijuana Report on MomsStrong.org

Editors Note: The Marijuana Report is a project of National Families in Action. Visit their website at NationalFamilies.org.

California Peace Coalition Forms

Concerned citizen groups rallied in Sacramento on August 16, 2021, They issued a press release as the California Peace Coalition, signaling a new alliance. A large and varied group of non-profits and individuals affected by the explosion of drugs united for this important cause.  They stand against drug dealers, bad policies and open drug markets, problems that fuel addiction, overdoses and California’s large homeless population.

Their objectives include ending the open drug markets. They wish to find workable solutions for the homelessness crisis and rehabilitation for addiction.  Many groups in the alliance were started by parents who lost children to addiction or drug poisoning deaths. Many of these families would prefer forced treatment for addiction over the policies that enable addiction.

Cities like San Francisco and Seattle make life easier for drug use, thus keeping people enslaved to their addictions.  Tom Wolf and many adults who survived and recovered from drug habits want to see a change.  That’s why they joined the coalition

Among the parents in the group are those whose children died of fentanyl, usually not knowing they were getting it.  Most of them object to letting drug dealers, who sell drugs and poison young people, off the hook.

A progressive changes his mind

On Substack a few weeks ago, Michael Shellenberger wrote his apology for progressive policies, “In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I worked with a group of friends and colleagues to advocate drug decriminalization, harm reduction, and criminal justice reform…. I fought for the treatment of drug addiction as a public health problem not a criminal justice one. And we demanded that housing be given to the homeless without regard for their own struggles with drugs.”

“Our intentions were good.” he said, but concluded, “Everything we thought about the drugs was wrong.”   https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-everything-we-thought-about-drugs

At the end of the article, he explained:

“Progressive advocates and policymakers alike blame the drug war, mass incarceration, and drug prohibition for the addiction and overdose crisis, even though the crisis resulted from liberalized attitudes and drug laws, first toward pharmaceutical opioids, and then toward all drugs”

In an article of August 26, Shellenberger proclaimed, “Finally the Media Are Starting to Tell the Truth About California, Drugs, & Homelessness[J1] ”  https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/finally-the-media-are-starting-to

He concludes that bad policy drives homelessness more than anything else. We may read more about this topic in his book coming out on October 12.

Homelessness is largely a matter of drug addiction and mental illness.  Since drug abuse often precedes mental illness, many people would not need mental health care if they hadn’t used drugs. Although poverty and the high price of housing contribute to California’s problems, the excessive homelessness did not appear until after marijuana became legal.  Many people don’t see homelessness as we do, but an upcoming recall election in California signals widespread dissatisfaction in the state.

Shellenberger wrote a book about San Francisco.  Harper Collins will release it next month.  Will the rest of the country wake up?

Used with permission: Parents Opposed to Pot Platform 

By Aron Ravin  This article appeared in the National Review on August 14, 2021.

At the outset, I’d like to lay my cards out on the table: I despise weed.  I think that I reeks, that it’s a waste of money and time.  I dislike cheap euphoria, and I think getting high promotes escapism.  Forever a nudnik, I do not, and do not plan to, partake in the devil’s lettuce.

Nevertheless, many people whom I respect and consider my friends are more open to Miss Mary Jane than I. So I take their arguments seriously when we discuss the issue of legalization. Some of the most common ones, which I’ll discuss at more length below, appear tenable on the surface, if not particularly convincing. Others that have tended to exist on the periphery of the debate – e.g., concerns about a nanny state and the problems of disproportionate sentencing – are much more compelling.

That said, the old-fashioned, party-pooper folk with whom I find myself sympathizing tend to fall back on one point: Weed is unhealthy. Since 2002, the proportion of Americans twelve and older who reported having used marijuana in the last year has increased by over 60 percent. Recently, the American Lung Association has been trying to reduce the ever-increasing number of marijuana users, many of whom consume the drug via inhalation. Pot smoke can cause lung cancer in the same way tobacco can, and secondhand marijuana smoke may have even more carcinogens than cigarettes. Marijuana smoke can also compromise the immune system, and there’s a growing amount of scientific literature indicating a significant correlation between any form of cannabis consumption and psychosis.

To their credit, many marijuana users (both medicinal and recreational) are well aware of the risks. They simply believe they should be entitled to make their own health decisions. Unfortunately for them, however, not everyone can be swayed by appeals to liberty.

Generally speaking, things in the United States aren’t just legalized for laissez-faire reasons. The Leviathan is as slow as it is large, so those angling for major reforms usually can’t rely on ideological arguments alone to build political will; they need tangible benefits to point to, or at least evidence that the tangible harms can be mitigated, before politicians will risk supporting them. The support for ending Prohibition, to take one famous example, was sparked in part by antipathy toward the mobsters who had accumulated wealth and power from bootlegging.

The movement for recreational-marijuana legalization is fueled by much the same train of thought as the movement for the 21st Amendment was. Advocates claimed that legalization would cripple the black market and weaken Mexican cartels. They argued that legalizing weed would reduce children’s access to it, as licensed distributors would have a greater incentive to card than criminal dealers, and that users would actually be healthier, as the government would be better able to regulate and inspect the stuff they were smoking. The libertarians at the Drug Policy Alliance waved aside critics who said use would increase with legalization. Top that all off with the Cato Institute’s promises of billions of dollars in new tax revenue and billions more in law-enforcement expenses saved, and you’d have to be silly to disagree.

But the libertarians got it wrong.

Most of the predicted benefits rested on one assumption: that legal weed would render criminal dealers obsolete much in the same way that repealing prohibition weakened bootlegging mobsters. But that has not happened. It has been nearly a decade since Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, and the state is dealing with a larger black market than ever before. Drought-plagued California, never to be beaten, has over 5.4 million gallons of water stolen by illegal growers every day. (For perspective, that’s enough to cover the daily needs of almost 70,000 people.) Upwards of 80 percent of all of California’s marijuana sales go through the black market. Massachusetts (70 percent) isn’t faring much better, and Nevada is growing desperate.

Other predictions have also fallen flat. As this chart from the Cato Institute shows, states that have legalized recreational marijuana have experienced major spikes in usage, far outpacing national trends. (For context, the proportion of Americans who reported having used marijuana in the previous year increased from 17.8 percent in 2015 to 20.8 percent in 2019.)

This does not seem to be mere coincidence. Life has gotten easier for illegal growers, not harder, as legalization has spread. Riana Durrett, a Nevada cannabis regulator, explains that legalization has prompted law enforcement to deprioritize marijuana crimes, which has allowed the problem to spiral out of control. Legalization bills have also permitted individuals to grow cannabis on their own, which in turn allows for the creation of far more potential unlicensed sellers, and makes it harder for police officers to be able to tell who is breaking the law and who isn’t.

In hindsight, the fact that legalization would backfire so spectacularly is almost obvious. Both the data and my joint-friendly peers admit that the chill ganja of the hippie era was replaced by new, harder-hitting strains a long time ago. THC levels in pot today are anywhere from five to 50 times as high as they were in the ’70s. Young people increasingly just want to get high on the cheap, and illegal weed in a legal market is as cheap as it gets. The combination of greater potency than ever before and greater access than ever before is an obviously dangerous one.

Of course, libertarians are nothing if not willing to stick to their guns. Legal dispensaries simply cannot match the low prices offered by their criminal competition when they’re being stifled by so much regulation and taxation, legalization advocates say. Yet weren’t generating tax revenue and protecting users major arguments for legalization in the first place?

Again, I take my libertarian, pot-smoking friends seriously. Their anti-paternalistic arguments can often be persuasive. But they got this one wrong.

Source Parents Opposed to Pot