Part 2 of 2

Who is to blame for addicting kids to nicotine and causing the vaping illnesses that sickened and even killed so many people?  Juul and its backers piggybacked onto marijuana legalization and used similar marketing schemes.  Read Part 1.

With fits and starts, Adam Bowen and James Monsees worked diligently over several years to come up with a product that would replace traditional cigarettes. They enlisted the help of venture capitalists from Silicon Valley, including some of the Pritzkers who fund marijuana companies, too. They never imagined getting involved with Big Tobacco.

Their story of one of entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to make a an extraordinary hit. Once  they became successful, they wanted more and more. A slick art director came in and retooled the marketing efforts with style and pizzaz. Puff, and Juul launched with splashy opening parties, and social media helped it take off.

Of course, the company certainly must have noticed that it appealed strongly to teens. But, once everyone realized what they were doing, it was too late to stop it.

Opposition became strong when the children of other Silicon Valley parents and New York bankers became addicted, too.  A huge and powerful parent opposition was born, Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes, PAVe, in 2017.  Currently, PAVe asks the public to write the FDA and voice opposition to menthol vapes. Here’s the petition.

Juul has been hit Is with several lawsuits, including the attorney generals of North Carolina and Massachusetts.   Altria and its shareholders are probably regretting their investment. The tobacco company bought Juul for $12.5 billion dollars (worth 4 billion now) and they paid $16.85 per share for Cronos, which sells for around $10 Canadian dollars per share now.

Trouble in Wisconsin awakens the country

A mysterious lung disease was noticed in the summer of 2019, right after the Juul-Altria deal.  Thanks to astute doctors in Milwaukee and Northern Illinois who noticed the coincidence of several teens getting sick during a short period of time. It turned out that all the teens who got sick were vaping.  Elsewhere the condition was reported, not just with teens, but with older medical marijuana users.

According to the CDC, eighty-two percent of those with EVALI were vaping THC, including many people who died. Of course Juul cannot shoulder all of the blame for the lung disease crisis which occurred right before COVID.  The CDC investigated and believes that much of the illness traces to black market THC vapes cut with vitamin-e acetate.

In Southern Wisconsin, 20-year-old Tyler Huffhines set up a vaping factory, replacing vape pods with THC bought from California and marketed to teens. His mother and brother helped him.

It’s astounding how someone so young was able to create a criminal enterprise that was so successful and destructive. In September 2019, the federal agents caught up with him, and he will face justice soon.

However, for victims of vaping illnesses, it is too late.  Logan Krahn, a victim  described in The Devil’s Playbook, recovered from his nicotine addiction.  However, he may always have reduced pulmonary function and his lungs may not fully recover.

Not learning from past mistakes

Our country makes the same mistakes over and over again – opioids, Juul, marijuana.  Too many Americans buy into the idea of short-term profit rather than slow and steady road to success.  Therefore, they think a few lousy jobs in the marijuana industry helps the economy, but they don’t think of the real costs.

Etter sums up the problem on p. 184 of her book:  “Juul may have started with a mission – Destroy Big Tobacco – but it wasn’t long before it started to deeply internalize the mores of Silicon Valley.  Move fast. Blitzscale. Ask forgiveness, not permission. Aggressively inundate the world with their products before regulators figure out what hit them.”

Silicon Valley mints sudden billionaires, with a motto, “Move fast and break things.”  Unfortunately, these entrepreneurs put profit above all, sacrificing the mental and physical health of our youth for their success.

Click here to read Part 1: Marijuana, E-Cigarettes, Juul and the Crossovers Between Them

The normalization and continued promotion of drug use kills people, harms individuals and harms society. The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) turned people against the “War on Drugs,” a term the government stop using in 2009. The DPA aims for legalizing all drugs, but now uses the term “decriminalization,” disguising their true goals.

DPA wishes to protect drug dealers so that they may never be charged with homicide if a person dies. A press release of November 2017, staked out DPA’s position against drug-induced homicide laws, claiming that “An Overdose Death is not Murder.”

For parents, whose children died after buying pills through dealers, friends or acquaintances, it’s a bitter pill to swallow: the DPA claims their children were already drug users, and no one should be held responsible for death.

Popular therapist Laura Berman warns parents, because her 16-year-old son, Sammy, died after purchasing a fentanyl-laced Xanax on Snapchat. According to Berman, marijuana was the only drug her son used before that fateful purchase.  Unfortunately, the drug dealers who use social media are hard to trace and prosecute.

As the DPA’s harm reduction ideology downplays the harms of drug use, the addiction crisis continues, leading to more deaths, particularly of teens and young adults.

—PopPot.org

We suggest HighTruths.com replace the Drug Policy Alliance as the leading source of information on drugs. In it, Dr. Roneet Lev interviews a series of doctors and other experts from the front lines on current drug trends and problems.

Harm Reduction Strategy leads to more deaths

Drug Policy Alliance pushes the safety-first drug education program, as if young people can use drugs safely. According to their website, the program teaches both the benefits and risks of drugs. According to harm reductionists, drug addiction is caused by a background of trauma, not the drugs. Yet, people without traumatic backgrounds still get addicted to drugs, and the DPA’s claim that there is a safe way to use drugs doesn’t hold water.

The harm reduction ideology suggests the “War on Drugs” is the problem, not drugs. This clever public relations effort brings greater acceptance of drug use, invalidating the best in drug prevention efforts.  DPA scorns abstinence-based substance abuse education, but we believe it is the only way to get our addiction epidemic under control.

Harm reductionists oppose AA because it is a free, abstinence-based program helping people to stop using drugs and alcohol. However, recent research has shown AA to be as effective or more effective than other treatments. To treat addiction, the harm reductionists suggest moderate drug use and learning to use drugs “safely” and “responsibly.”

The DPA scorns abstinence-based drug education.  Their attitude promotes a positive view of drugs.

As one of our partners in California, Safe Launch, tells us, “To permit drug use is to promote drug use.”

Drug use deaths, overdose deaths rise

Drug overdose deaths soared in some black communities during the COVID pandemic.  Certainly the pandemic made things especially difficult for people in recovery and many people relapsed.  Influential newspapers promoted drug use for the “coolness” factor and a way to get through COVID.

Today fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is the most common drug in overdose deaths.

The CDC estimates that more than 92,000 people died from drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in November 2020.  This problem will continue until we make drug prevention, not harm reduction, our priority.

Even before the Drug Policy Alliance turned the “war on drugs” into a negative term, drug courts provided a road to recovery. Drug courts give the option of treatment to those who commit crimes while on drugs because of their addiction. Even the pro-marijuana publication, VOX, admits that very few people were sent to prison for low-level drug use.

For the record, we support the use of naloxone and drugs to reverse overdoses.   However, after saving a life, we need to rebuild lives and get people into treatment.

For more Drug Policy Alliance should have no influence over policy – Parents Opposed to Pot (poppot.org)

By Ron Cuff, originally published in the Paso Robles Daily News

Three Heritage Ranch residents were recently charged by San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow with the tragic death of a 7-month old infant due to methamphetamine and fentanyl poisoning. On June 4th in Indianapolis, Crystal Martin admitted before a court to giving her three-year-old son Johnathan Johnson two 100mg pills of Zoloft, an antidepressant drug, before leaving him unsupervised to play near a creek, where he was found face down in four feet of water.

Many people are against incarcerating people for drug use because they believe drug use is a “victimless crime.” But child deaths like these are not isolated cases and the abuse or death of a child due to parental drug use is certainly not “victimless.” Drug and alcohol abuse, especially by parents, profoundly affects all of us. Drug overdoses alone killed a record 80,000 plus last year, leaving approximately 820,000 parents, grandparents, and friends to suffer immeasurable grief. Furthermore, all of the people who love the 40 million Americans currently struggling with and disabled by, substance use disorder, are also victims.

Our current system that addresses the consequences of drug use, including homelessness, requires a shocking amount of financial and human resources including, but not limited to, shelters beds, hospital care, mental healthcare, long and short term treatment, law enforcement and prisons, paramedics and firefighters, social workers, and homes for abandoned children.

Homeless services

In some locales, taxpayers now employ one “homeless services” coordinator for every three unsheltered persons. There are many people struggling to keep a roof over their head, but for the vast number of people living unhoused, a roof does not begin to address their very real health problems.

California state data shows that the majority of people living unhoused suffer from an untreated mental illness, substance use disorder, or both. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nine of every ten people suffering from the incurable chronic brain disease called addiction began using drugs or alcohol before age18. Until K-12 prevention occupies the lion’s share of resources expended, the cycle of disability that results in “homelessness” will never be broken.

Consider for a moment how we feel when we are told that leaving a person on the side of the street with their worldly belongings in plastic bags is “the best that we can do’.” It’s reasonable to expect that one of the wealthiest communities in the world would ensure that substance-disabled people are guided into long-term residential treatment and aftercare. Since 2016, San Luis Obispo County has been able to provide assistance through Laura’s Law, which provides such care for people suffering from drug-induced schizophrenia or bipolar disorders.

Drug prevention as an alternative

It’s similarly reasonable to expect that one of the most advanced countries in the world would choose to prevent the early adolescent substance use that leads to addiction. The United States represents only 4.5-percent of the world’s population and yet, it’s estimated that it consumes 50-80-percent of the world’s drugs. Are we content to simply accept the high rate of addiction as a natural consequence of hedonism fed by greed and creative marketing? Or can the most compassionate and cost-effective solution be found in the robust protection of our youth?

Due to normal human brain development, youth are inclined to both peer pressure and risk-taking, which can include drug use. During adolescence, our unused brain synapses shrink and those that remain are strengthened. This puts teens at risk of unwittingly training their brains to become dependent on the chemical reactions caused by drug use. And, regardless of which drug- nicotine, alcohol, marijuana or prescription opiate- an adolescent uses first, the likelihood that they will use another drug is increased.

Is this not Theft of All Citizens?

Drug legalization robs us of the ability to help

Addiction is an early onset adolescent disease, not a character flaw. Therefore, we must stop stigmatizing people caught in the cycle of addiction and get them into treatment because it’s the only debilitating and deadly disease for which people don’t usually want treatment. Drug legalization robs us of the tool that courts need to give people a “nudge from the judge.” Though never curable, addiction can be managed, and people can regain their functionality. There is always hope.

Most importantly, we must invest in real primary prevention, which means reducing the demand for drugs and alcohol created by normalization and widespread commercial exposure in the faces of youth. Over time, this strategy will reduce the rate of substance use disorder that negatively impacts 50-percent of families, and results in hundreds of thousands of us living unsheltered on public property.

-Ron Cuff

For more Opinion: Is Drug Use a Victimless Crime? – Parents Opposed to Pot (poppot.org)

My son started using his junior year in high school when he was 15. He was young for his grade. By the time he went off to a UC campus, he was smoking daily. This highly academic student began to lose the ability to focus, and his anxiety got out of control. We had our first indication of psychosis on Mother’s Day 2020 when he was home during the lockdown. We took him to the ER and he was diagnosed with “cannabis use disorder.” I did not understand at the time that this meant ‘your son is addicted.’ He got into an outpatient program through his UC campus and after a brief stint at sobriety, he relapsed.

He subsequently had 5 more hospitalizations within a brief 3-month period. Luckily, we got him into an inpatient rehab program for dual diagnosis since the medical community cannot untangle true underlying mental illness from Cannabis-Induced Psychosis (CIP) until the patient is 6 months sober. He was there for 2 months.

He’s now been sober for 8 months. His bipolar diagnosis has been revised to CIP.  He attends Marijuana Anonymous regularly and is in therapy. He is ready to return to university this fall. BUT my God, this could have easily been a different ending. It still could be. Sobriety is something my son will have to remain actively committed to for the rest of his life.

How many families can’t afford this intensive care?

I don’t know when we will be free from worry. We’re so grateful for the progress our son has made in his recovery and to have had the financial ability to get our son in an inpatient recovery program, but we live in a constant state of fear that he will relapse and die. Every day we live with this fear.

Too many families cannot afford a “good outcome.” Our son’s recovery to date has cost us over $60,000 in out-of-pocket charges, after what little medical insurance covered. How many families can’t get their children the intensive care required for Cannabis-Induced Psychosis?   How many are stuck in a mental health nightmare they can’t get out of?

This is an anonymous submission by a concerned parent. Do you have a story to share? Please contact us. (Parents Opposed to Pot – Post)

Think on these things before getting too deep into smoking Weed*    * Or what the science of marijuana is telling us about the harmful effects of marijuana for you, your friends, or your kids.

A book by Kevin G. Becker Ph.D. reviewed by Sally Schindel

It is a long title for a 222 page VERY readable book.

I have read dozens of books about marijuana — the drug and the industry, mental health harms caused by marijuana, substance use disorders and treatment and recovery.  Additionally, I’ve read books about the reasons so many feel commercializing and normalizing marijuana is acceptable public policy.

Many of the books left me feeling buried and over my head.

I’m not a scientist or medical professional. I’m a retired accountant/financial advisor and a Mom forever grieving the loss of my son Andy to marijuana-induced suicide.

I am insatiable about learning all I can find about marijuana risks and harms.

Seven plus years ago my son died leaving a note that said, “Marijuana killed my soul + ruined my brain.” I was blindsided. I knew he had serious mental illness problems, but I had NO idea at the time marijuana could have been the cause.

If Andy had read this book

I fully believe had Andy read Kevin Becker’s easy-to-read-and-understand book Whoa Dude! he would have had the knowledge he needed to understand what was happening in his brain.  He would have sought the help he needed to treat and recover from his addiction. Had I read this book I would have understood the urgent need to help Andy find the help he needed.

2021 Book by Kevin G. Becker Ph.D.
https://whoadude-the-book.com/

The author reminds the reader, the weed user, to be well informed and make wise decisions. He gives facts, no opinions about whether the reader decides to begin or continue using weed.

Though the author opens by stating he’s writing for the weed user, the book is written for everyone — weed users, parents, friends of users and all those just curious about weed. The goals of the book are to burst some myths — that weed never hurt anyone and that there are not a lot of scientific studies on the effects of weed. It is a source book for the enormous amount of scientific study that has been done about the harms. It is a cautionary tale about the dark side of weed and a reminder that, though weed may not harm YOU, it might harm your brother, your friend, your kid, and others.

Understanding the science

Whoa Dude! contains 10 chapters of well-organized, important information. The book helps the reader get their bearings first, understanding what scientific studies are, how to find them, understand them, use them. He provides advice for novice readers of scientific reports. The website whoadude-the-book.com gives the reader complete free access to all the research referenced in the book. He cautions that older studies may not account for the more recent increases in potency and access. He then teaches the reader how to read the scientific literature covering longer time spans to see if a researcher has corrected for confounding variables of potency and of the greater access to weed today.

He provides a list of ten scientific review papers and encourages his readers to choose any, just ONE, as homework. He has read over 10,000 on behalf of the readers and asks that a reader just choose any ONE. Many, many more are included of course in his list of references.

I found the language used in the book to be important. He is addressing a broad audience, not the medical or scientific community. Note the title Whoa Dude! He often refers to marijuana/cannabis as “weed” as young and longer-term users do. He addresses those who  “wake and bake”, or smoke weed nearly daily, the chronic users. He discusses the “complex mashup” of behavior, genetics, impulsivity, social cues, family history, and metabolism.  So many factors cause different reactions to weed in different people.

Dabbing, Vaping and edibles

Also important is how current the book is in pointing out that users are now more frequently vaping, dabbing, eating edibles or using concentrates like wax or shatter — not just smoking weed.

Especially parents need to know all about this. Younger readers may be drawn into reading this book because the author has made himself familiar with the current state of the industry and social environment, not an old so-called “prohibitionist.”

The illustrations in the book are a highlight in my opinion. They are thought-provoking and memorable, highly unique in a book of this type. I know they would have appealed to my son who appreciated the art in graphic novels. Perhaps they are what will attract a young marijuana user into opening the book and learning some of the science about what drug use does to a brain.

To be shared with everyone

The book is very affordable, only $16.99 for the new paperback or $8.49 Kindle or Nook. Buy Whoa Dude! here.

Author Kevin Baker points out to the reader that if they are going to be a user, they will be spending a lot of money and time with weed. Shouldn’t they know more about it and what it could do to their health?

For me, the end of the book is what grabbed my heart. He tells of his brother Mark and the outcomes of his drug use. I have found it very sad that almost everyone I know who educates about the risks and harms of drug use does it because they have lost, or nearly lost, someone near and dear to them.

Kevin Becker dedicated this book:

“For all the Marks in the world, and for all their families.” 

Someday the balance will be tipped, because too many people will be harmed too much by pot and support for this dangerous product will diminish. I believe many of the readers of this book will quit or moderate their use of weed and begin to help tip that balance.

 Sally Schindel has written several articles for us, including her testimony, Who said No One Ever Died from Marijuana?”

She wrote a well-received op-ed that was published in USA Today, “There’s nothing funny about today’s highly potent marijuana. It killed my son.”

Editors Note: The author of Whoa Dude! is on a mission to get school libraries to order this book. Parents are encouraged to contact their local school librarians and suggest they make this book available to students in the school library.   

Original Post at Parents Opposed to Pot