HHS DATA, MONITORING THE FUTURE DATA SHOW TROUBLING TRENDS
Youth drug use increases in legalized states
State-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the most authoritative study on drug use conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), found significant increases in youth marijuana use in several recently legalized marijuana states versus last year. At the same time, mental illness indicators worsened across the country while alcohol, cocaine, and tobacco use dropped, especially among young people.
“Once again, marijuana is the stubborn outlier — the only drug significantly going up in several areas across the country,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “Weed normalization and commercialization has consequences, and unfortunately we are being hit hard while for-profit pot companies continue to enrich themselves.”
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According to the data, adolescents aged 12-17 using marijuana in the past year significantly increased versus last year in the legalized states of Nevada, Oregon, and California. All other legal states showed increases as well, but versus last year they did not reach statistical levels of significance.
There were large increases not witnessed in non-legal states: Nevada experienced a 17.4% increase, while Oregon and California witnessed increases of 15.4 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively. States should study the data before they legalize.
Data shows youth in California use more
The data additionally show a statistically significant, 25.5 percent increase in past-month use in California among those aged 12-17. Marijuana billboard advertising on interstate highways in California leads to normalization and the false belief that pot is harmless.
The data also show us that youth use in states that have “legalized” marijuana far outstrips use in states that have not. Past-month marijuana use among young people aged 12-17 in “legal” states is 54.5 percent higher than past-month marijuana use among 12-17-year-olds in “non-legal” states (10% versus 6.47%). Past-year marijuana use among this age group in “legal” states is 41 percent higher than that of 12-17-year-olds in “non-legal” states (17.12% versus 12.14%).
And earlier this year the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey showed that teens were using the high-THC concentrates at record rates.
Washington, DC leads the way
Finally, the data also show that Washington D.C. has catapulted to the top of the list for youth first-time use, closely followed by Vermont. (We hope this fact deters the federal government from allowing pot shops in DC!) This is concerning given that Vermont’s legislature just recently passed a bill allowing for commercial sales. Maine and Nevada also witnessed statistically significant increases in this metric as well.
Versus ten years ago, legal Vermont, DC, and Maine show significant increases in past month adolescent use, while non-legal states levels are flat across the U.S. as a whole. Use among young adults aged 18-25 skyrocketed, especially in legal states. In non-legal Virginia and New York, adolescent past year marijuana use significantly fell, as it did in the non-legal Southern region of the United States.
At the same time, mental health indicators, including major depressive episodes, suicidal thoughts, and serious mental illness have worsened.
“Today’s data further cements the need to hit pause on the rush to expand the commercialization of marijuana,” said Sabet. “We call on state lawmakers across the nation to halt all efforts to legalize marijuana and we urge Congress to pass a bill to streamline the process for research on the potential health & safety impacts of marijuana. With the year over year increases in use, we cannot afford to continue this misguided approach to drug policy — an approach that puts profits over our youth.”
Vaping Trends upward, despite COVID and harms
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For complete story go to \’Protect our Future – Protect our Young
Legal Drugs Are Fashionable–and Treacherous for Children
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When kids have to be put in foster care, parental substance abuse is usually the underlying reason. By Naomi Schaefer Riley and John Walters
The U.S. election didn’t produce a blue wave or a red wave, but some are celebrating a green wave as voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota approved the legalization of recreational marijuana. Meanwhile, Oregonians decriminalized the possession of small amounts of harder drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. “Drugs, once thought to be the scourge of a healthy society, are getting public recognition as a part of American life,” the New York Times gushed.
In reality, drugs are very much a scourge, particularly in the lives of young children. In 2019 parental substance abuse was listed as a cause for a child’s removal to foster care 38% of the time, a share that has risen steadily in the past decade. Experts suggest this is an underestimate and the real number may be up to 80%.
Ms. Riley’s interviews with foster parents suggest that there are very few cases of children in the system that don’t involve substance abuse. And that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of children who are in the care of a single parent or other guardian because of a mother or father’s drug use. In a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, three professors from Notre Dame estimated that “if drug abuse had remained at 1996 levels, 1.5 million fewer children aged 0-16 would have lived away from a parent in 2015.”
Decriminalization efforts will likely exacerbate these problems. Such measures lower the risk and the cost of doing business for drug dealers and increase the supply of these drugs on streets across the country. Drugs will be cheaper and easier to get for adults already suffering from untreated mental illness, poverty or abuse. And the effects will be felt most severely by children.
For complete article go to Wall Street Journal
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Summary of a Few Key Findings from Throughout the Report
Section One: Potency and Price of Marijuana
- Nationally, the average potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive found in marijuana, has risen in marijuana concentrates from 13.23%in 1995 to 60.95% in 2018.
- Nationally, the average potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive found in marijuana, has risen in traditional marijuana from 3.96% in 1995 to 16.16% in 2018.
- The price of a pound (lb.) of marijuana in California can vary from $100 to $2000 depending on THC potency level.
Section Two: Vaping
- Nationally, lifetime (any) vaping use among middle and high school students has increased from 2017 to 2019: 8th grade increased from 1.6% to 3.9%, 10th grade increased from 4.3% to 12.6% and 12th grade increased from 5.0% to 14.0%.
- Nationally in 2019, the daily use of nicotine vaping is higher than the daily use of smoking tobacco across all grade levels: 1.9% vs. 0.8% in 8th grade, 6.9% vs. 1.3% in 10th grade and 11.7% vs. 2.4% 12th grade.
- Nationally, the 30-day prevalence of marijuana (non-vaping), vaping marijuana and cigarette use increased across 8th, 10th and 12th graders from 2017 to 2019, with the exception of cigarette use in 10th and 12th graders in 2019 which decreased from 5% to 3.4% and 9.7% to 5.7%.
- From 2017 to 2018, national past month marijuana vaping use among college aged individuals more than doubled in those enrolled in college, while remaining relatively stable among those not in college.
Section Three: California Youth Marijuana Use Ages 12-17
- California youth have consistently had a lower perception of risk of smoking marijuana once a month, compared to the national average (2010-2018).
- California continues to have a higher rate of past month use of marijuana in individuals ages 12 and older (2011-2018).
- Nationally in 2019, vaping (any substance) has surpassed alcohol and marijuana use for 8th and 10th graders.
Section Four: California Marijuana Use Ages 18-25
- From 2017 to 2018, California’s marijuana use by 18 to 25 year olds continued to surpass their use of cigarettes, 25.16% vs. 14.52%.
- In California, 36.3% of adults aged 18 to 25 reported using cigarettes, e-cigarettes or marijuana in 2018.
Section Five: California Marijuana Use Ages 26 and Older
- From 2017 to 2018, California’s marijuana use for individuals 26 years and older continued to surpass the national average, 10.39% vs. 8.25%.
Section Six: California Arrests for Drug Sales, DUI and Possession of Cannabis While Driving
- In California, (state) arrests for the sale of marijuana has decreased from 2015 (8,368) to 2018 (1,857).
Section Seven: Public Health
- From 2016 (125,418) to 2019 (236,954), California Emergency Department visits and admissions for any related marijuana abuse has increased by 89%.
- From 2005 (1,412) to 2019 (16,151) there was a 1044% increase in California emergency department visits and admissions for primary marijuana abuse, with a 56% increase from 2016 (10,361) to 2019 (16,151).
- From 2005 (1,393) to 2019 (14,993) there was a 976% increase in California emergency department visits with marijuana as the primary reason for being seen.
Section Eight: Treatment
- In California in 2019, 41% of marijuana treatment admissions were amongst those 12 to 17 years of age.
Section Nine: Diversion and Eradication
- In 2019, 59% of illegal marijuana plant seizures occurred on private land (trespass grows/not by owner), which was a significant increase from 44% in 2018.
- United States Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations (nationwide) marijuana seizures have increased by 176% from 59,396 lbs. in FY 2019 to 164,216 lbs. in 2020 (TD August).
Section Ten: THC Extraction Labs
- There were 194 reported clandestine lab incidents in California in 2019. Out of the 194 reported labs, 72.6% were honey oil/THC extraction (141), followed by precursor chemicals 9.3% (18).
Section Eleven: Environmental Impacts of Marijuana Cultivation
- Outdoor marijuana grow sites consume an estimated 29.4 million gallons of water per year.
- Researchers estimate over 1.4 million pounds of fertilizers and toxicants are used annually at outdoor marijuana grows sites in California.
For complete Report go to California 2020 HIDTA CA MJ IMPACT REPORT
THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA IN COLORADO: THE IMPACT
Volume 7 September 2020 Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
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Executive Summary: The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) program has published annual reports every year since 2013 tracking the impact of legalizing recreational marijuana in Colorado. The purpose is to provide data and information so that policy makers and citizens can make informed decisions on the issue of marijuana legalization.
Section I: Traffic Fatalities & Impaired Driving
- Since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013, traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 135% while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 24%.
- Since recreational marijuana was legalized, traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 in 2013 to 129 people killed in 2019.
- This equates to one person killed every 3 1/2 days in 2019 compared to one person killed every 6 1/2 days in 2013.
- Since recreational marijuana was legalized, the percentage of all Colorado traffic deaths that were marijuana related increased from 15% in 2013 to 25% in 2019.
Section II: Marijuana Use
Since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013:
- Past month marijuana use (ages 12 and older) increased 30% and is 76% higher than the national average, currently ranked 3rd in the nation.
- Past month adult marijuana use (ages 18 and older) increased 19% and is 73% higher than the national average, currently ranked 3rd in the nation.
- Past month college age marijuana (ages 18-25) use increased 6% and is 50% higher than the national average, currently ranked 3rd in the nation.
- Past month youth marijuana (ages 12-17) use decreased 25%and is 43% higher than the national average, currently ranked 7th in the nation.
Section III: Public Health
- Marijuana only exposures more than quadrupled in the seven-year average (2013-2019) since recreational marijuana was legalized compared to the seven-year average (2006-2012) prior to legalization.
- Treatment for marijuana use for all ages decreased 21% from 2009 to 2019.
- The percent of suicide incidents in which toxicology results were positive for marijuana has increased from 14% in 2013 to 23% in 2018.
Section IV: Black Market
- RMHIDTA Colorado Drug Task Forces (10) conducted 278 investigations of black-market marijuana in Colorado resulting in:
237 felony arrests
49 tons of marijuana seized
68,600 marijuana plants seized
29 different states the marijuana was destined
- Seizures of marijuana reported to the El Paso Intelligence Center in Colorado increased 17%from an average of 242 parcels (2009-2012) to an average of 283 parcels (2013-2019) during the time recreational marijuana has been commercialized.
Section V: Societal Impact
- Marijuana tax revenue represent approximately 0.85% of Colorado’s FY 2019 budget.
- 67% of local jurisdictions in Colorado have banned medical and recreational marijuana businesses.
For complete data go to… Volume 7: Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area — 2020 RMHIDTA-Marijuana-Report
As goes the Youth, so goes the nation – This is a war for our children, or future – not a war against drugs!
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steptowardstruth December 7, 2020
The future and progress of any country rests on the youth of the country. If the young generation of the country goes the wrong way, then surely their life goes into darkness. The youth of the country have a desire to live every aspect of life and explore it on their own terms. The youth consider drugs to be their pride or coolness quotient. The youth today are intoxicated by alcohol, gutkha, tobacco, bidi, cigarettes. Their celebrations & parties are incomplete without intoxication.
The person with the drug addiction is financially strapped. Due to drug addiction, a person loots his financial wealth, gets intoxicated and acts on society and work place, which causes his honor to get hurt.
Drug addiction is an irony of Indian society. Low-income group of people often spend their daily work money drinking alcohol. If they use that money in their children’s education, then their future can be bright. Sadly, it never happens, for two moments of happiness and fun, a person loses everything. Young people and many other people get drowned in addiction when they are deceived in love affairs. Humanity in total has to bear its consequences.
The Indian government has established several de-addiction centers to get relief from de-addiction. There are several types of de-addiction centers that treat people suffering from addiction. Many people have come to these de-addiction centers and have given up the addiction, which is quite a good thing. Doctors advise the patient to stay away from intoxication such as alcohol and cigarettes.
Public awareness program like Quit Drug Abuse with meditation and selfless service, quitting drugs to save the country are being run by Dera Sacha Sauda time to time for this.
Drugs are an unholy weapon in the proxy war waged by terror outfits against the country. The youth are becoming physically unfit and unproductive because of drugs. When the children and youth are entrapped in intoxicants, the country will clearly spiral downwards. Also, it is well known that the trade in drugs is fuelling narco-terrorism. This is clearly a war that the whole world needs to win in order to defeat terrorism as well.
At last but not least we can say proudly that Dera Sacha Sauda playing a lead role for drug free society since last few years and the result also comes up for these types of campaigns. Millions of people say bye bye to different types of drugs and living a healthy drug free life and say thanks to Dr. MSG for this.
In future, we hope that Dera Sacha Sauda works in this field more rapidly with blessings of saint Dr. MSG.
Writing credits — Shafi Jindal For complete article go to Step Towards Truth – Addiction, Depression and Narco-Terrorism
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THINK YA KNOW IS IT SAFE TO DRIVE ON MARIJUANA?
December is Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.
* Reader discretion is advised, content describes details of violent crimes.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) helped wake up the country to the dangers of drunk driving. They succeeded in getting laws changed, nationwide in the United States. Now that four more states have legalized marijuana, what about stoned or high driving? Driving under the influence of a drug (DUID), is this something to be concerned about or, is it, as many stoners believe, people drive better while impaired?
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“According to a study released today by the largest federation of auto clubs, the AAA, nearly 70% of Americans think it’s “unlikely” a motorist will be busted for driving while high on marijuana. The study also found that in the last 30 days almost 15 million drivers have gotten behind the wheel of a car within an hour of smoking, ingesting or covering themselves with a marijuana product. That can be as bad – or even worse – than driving while intoxicated or texting on a cellphone, because the drug’s effects usually last up to four hours.”
| More drivers are driving under the influence of pot than ever before, and the reason is that most drivers assume they won’t get caught, according to this new study by the American Automobile Association. |
| Unlike with alcohol, a blood test does not determine marijuana impairment. It can only prove there is THC is in the bloodstream. There is a high correlation between blood alcohol content (BAC) and levels of alcohol-impairment, but THC is unlike alcohol chemically, biologically and metabolically. |
Use the Right Terms
Driving under the influence of marijuana is driving impaired, not driving “high”. There is nothing positive about an impaired driver who causes fatal injury to others.
Traffic incidents caused by impaired driving should be referred to as crashes, rather than “accidents.” Driving under the influence of a substance, and without your full mental capacity, is a choice. During the sentencing of the driver who killed 9-year-old Carter Vo, Cook County Circuit Judge Lauren Gottainer Edidin said Carter’s death wasn’t accidental because the driver, Hanin Goma, smoked marijuana on the day the boy was killed.
“These are the most tragic cases we get as judges,” Edidin said. “I don’t see it as an accident. I see it as a traffic crash.”
Marijuana DUID in the News
Today, the press often reports of “driving under the influence” as if it must mean alcohol, not mentioning when an impaired driver was under the influence of marijuana, another drug or both alcohol and marijuana. The false reporting minimizes to readers the fact that there is a danger to driving after using marijuana. Combined with the pot users who brag of driving better while stoned, it’s clear why teens, who assume that stoned driving is safe, have been given the wrong impression.
Parents Opposed to Pot has tracked news reports of at least 140 fatal crashes in which only marijuana, and not other drugs, contributed to the impairment causing the crash. These cases are particularly notable for the many teens who died this way, making the mistake of riding in a car with friends who recently used marijuana.
Driver Education Needs to Teach about Drugged Driving
A recent survey of students found that they were much more aware that drinking alcohol and driving was hazardous than driving under the influence of marijuana. Although 88% of the students knew alcohol impaired driving to a dangerous degree, only 68% thought cannabis could do the same. This excellent government website, Just Think Twice has great information to educate young people. See Getting High and Driving.
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Read article about University of Michigan Medical School Survey.
PopPot wrote an article in 2018 warning about mixing alcohol and cannabis and getting behind the wheel.The effects of using both drugs multiplies the mind-altering effects. Alcohol and Marijuana together Magnifies Driving Difficulties.
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| The Governors Highway Safety Administration offers some good educational graphs and other training materials. Although their aim is educating state policy makers, parents and teachers we need to do the grassroots education of our children and teens. We also need to make sure our state representatives see this valuable information. |
Pilots Grounded for 28 Days After Marijuana Use
| Canadian pilots are warned that because of the length of time it takes for cannabis (including CBD) to leave your system, they must not fly for 28 days if they consume the drug. See Transport Canada. |
What the Science Reveals
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A study authored by researchers from New York Medical College and Harvard University, found marijuana commercialization to be associated with an increase of 2.1 traffic fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled (BVMT). Furthermore, the study finds that were marijuana to be legalized nationwide, it would be associated with 6,800 excess roadway deaths each year. See the study in JAMA, Change in Traffic Fatality Rates in the First 4 States to Legalize Recreational Marijuana by Russell S. Kamer, MD; Stephen Warshafsky, MD; Gordon C. Kamer.
Harvard researchers found that recreational cannabis use decreases driving performance, even when the person is no longer high. See this article in the Insurance Journal. The lead paragraph in CNN reporting on the same study said, “Running red lights. Driving at high speeds. Crossing center lines into the opposite lanes. Getting into accidents – even hitting pedestrians. A new study found these were some of the dangerous driving behaviors of regular, heavy users of recreational weed who began using before the age of 16.” See Weed Impairs Driving Long After the High is Gone.
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In this radio interview, Dr. Marilyn Heustis and Tom Marcotte discuss the fact that drivers high on marijuana are more impaired for longer periods that we realize.
DUID Crash is a Violent Crime
A Mother’s Story
Many people think that violence involves only guns, knives, fists and other such things. But think for a minute about this, isn’t killing someone with your car a violent crime? I think the person being hit would say it’s very violent.
Everyday, innocent people are walking and riding bikes on and around the streets, as well as other people in cars going to work, and some containing families; and all containing people that are loved by others. People out and about partially depend on others, as well as themselves, to be sure they are safe, sober and alert as they go about their lives.
These are senseless tragedies involving cars that take precious lives each day. Statistics show that 29 people die each day from impaired driving, but in many cases the use of marijuana goes undetected. Once law enforcement finds alcohol and charges the perpetrator, they stop looking for other intoxicants and no drug testing is administered.
We need to be aware of the great numbers of people driving impaired. The sad news is, it’s estimated that an impaired driver has driven impaired up to 80 times before they are ever caught. I fear that was the case when my most beautiful daughter was killed in a violent crash on July 24, 2012. The 26 year old man was driving high on medical marijuana, sanctioned via a medical marijuana card, granted to him by the State of Michigan. He said in a mumbling low voice when asked, “why were you driving so fast (82mph) and why did you go through the red light in the intersection”? “Gee, I don’t know”, he responded. Well, here’s another question, if he didn’t know, then who did? THC impairs the brain, causes tunnel vision, distorts the sense of movement and space perception. It delays the response time as the brain function is slowed. This is why I say that this is a violent crime.
My daughter’s car took the full impact of that man’s Camero. He hit her broadside, careening her car across the intersection through the front of a Lube Stop building, taking out the building’s center beam. Now that’s a violent crime and there is no disputing it. Granted, he didn’t know he would kill my daughter, but he had to know from all the warnings he received from previous DUIs, that what he was doing would lead to someone’s death in a violent way. So again, marijuana is a drug that leads to violence and you can’t say “unintended” as all drivers know, they shouldn’t be driving while impaired.
—Corinne Gasper, Ohio
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The Other DUID Victims Featured in our Video
Click on each name below photo to read their stories.
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ACTIONS
You can take 4 very important easy steps to help increase awareness and education about marijuana-impaired driving.
1. Support Jennifer’s Messengers by buying a car care kit, jenniferscarkit .
2. Write a letter to your Senators to educate them on the dangers of the MORE Act.
Find your Senator Here
Dear Senator ,
It’s important to oppose the MORE Act HR 3884 S.2227 for the following reasons:
- It gives tax breaks to businesses for promoting the use of drugs during an addiction crisis.
- It fully legalizes every marijuana product available on the market, including high potency concentrates (up to 99% pure THC), edibles, and vapes.
- It rewards companies who have been marketing THC vapes to TEENS over social media.
- It allows the advertising of marijuana products on social media and television.
- It allows members of the military and those with security clearances to be CURRENT marijuana users which can cause impairment, and the removal of marijuana from the list of substances that must be tested for in safety-sensitive jobs like truck drivers, airline pilots, and train engineers.
- It gives cover to cartels and illicit market exporters.
- It ignores the science that marijuana is addictive, a gateway drug, and can cause psychosis and schizophrenia. Out of all the drugs that induce psychosis, it has the highest conversation rate for schizophrenia thus increasing America’s addiction and mental health crisis.
Thank you for your time and service on this very important issue, Your name
3. Please Visit JennifersMessengers.org to stay abreast of our efforts to fight DUID on our streets, roads and highways.
4. December is an awareness month for drugged and drunk driving prevention. Watch for PopPot’s daily Facebook memes about DUID and traffic fatalities related to marijuana. Please share them on Facebook and Twitter to help us increase awareness of this important problem.
P.S. – For your educational efforts, Project SAM has an excellent downloadable fact sheet on marijuana-impaired driving, called Driving and Marijuana a Dangerous Mix.
Please familiarize yourself with the data presented in this excellent video by Phillip Drum, a pharmacist whose sister was killed by a marijuana-impaired driver. He is now a leading expert on marijuana DUID.
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TRIGGER WARNING ON SUICIDE AND SOCIAL PRESSURE TO DO POT
I can say that marijuana can make you very suicidal and sad!
My first time and only time I’ve smoked dabs and marijuana was the time I was pure pressured by my mother and brother.
Back story – I’m really against marijuana due to the fact of this product making people very lazy and not being able to hold a conversation with someone who is high. My mother and brother thought it would’ve been a good thing for me to do so I’m not so judging on someone getting high.
When I smoked marijuana for the first time I did it from a pipe and my mom was like you have to do it a couple times….. hmm?…. how can something be so “healthy” if it burns? Then my brother made me do a dab pen. I could not breathe, I kept coughing, it burned my lungs so bad and they thought it was funny.
My husband was extremely mad at my family once this stuff kicked in. I was so suicidal if someone told me to jump off the roof I would’ve done it in minutes. I could not hear people talking to me due to things zooming up on me.
First I don’t understand how someone can drive or do this every single day.
Second my mom told me that I didn’t feel that way because weed makes you happy.
My brother did the same thing to my 15-year-old sister locked her into the room with him when my parents were sleeping and made her smoke weed. She got really sick and couldn’t go to work the next day and got fired.
My mother gave her guilt trip saying it wasn’t my brothers fault but hers because she didn’t scream.
Pot instigated violence, coercion and broader community harms
The MORE Act will cause more problems: Addiction for Profit Big POT want \’more\’. Not just decriminalization, but full weaponizing of this toxic substance through commercialization! #childrenandyouthfirst
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – A San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge ruled on Friday that billboards advertising marijuana will no longer be allowed along California highways.
Judge Ginger Garrett ruled against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control striking down a 2019 regulation it had adopted that allowed for the advertising of cannabis on billboards on virtually all portions of California’s highways that cross its border.
The final ruling is the end of a public interest lawsuit filed in 2019 by San Luis Obispo resident Matthew Farmer, a father of two, who argued that the billboards were illegal under California Proposition 64 and wrongfully exposed his children and millions of others to cannabis advertising.
Business and Professions Code section 26152(d), enacted under Proposition 64, states that a licensee shall not advertise or market on a billboard or similar advertising device located on an Interstate Highway or on a State Highway which crosses the California border.
“This ruling is a major triumph on several fronts,” said one of Farmer\’s attorneys Saro Rizzo. “First, it’s a victory for all Californians over the desires of unelected Sacramento bureaucrats who illegally tried to put corporate profits ahead of children’s health. Second, it’s a vindication of the doctrine of separation of powers in that an agency under the control of the Governor’s Office was basically told that it cannot subvert the voters will by adopting a regulation that clearly conflicted with a statute.”
Farmer\’s second attorney Stew Jenkins added, “Besides endangering public health, the unlawful regulation issued by the Bureau of Cannabis Control put California in danger of losing 10% of its desperately needed Federal Highway Funding under the Lady Bird Johnson Highway Beautification Act. This ruling will prevent that loss.”
On Friday, Nov. 20, the Bureau of Cannabis Control announced that its Chief, Lori Ajax, is resigning effective Dec. 2, 2020.
For more go to https://keyt.com/news/2020/11/22/slo-county-judge-rules-to-ban-billboards-advertising-marijuana-along-ca-highways/
Can\’t Cope In Life Without Drug Use?? Self-Medication to Cope is the Latest \’Progress\’?
And this is the very best pro-drug sector can offer a struggling culture. \”Feeling better, but ONLY getting worse!\”
RESPONSE TO NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
A New York Times article by Jonah Engel Bromwich last weekend reveled in 21st century American escapism, the notion that we can magically will away the vicissitudes of life by using drugs.
A few days later, the New York Times did it again, suggesting people simply can’t live without a crutch. The election’s over but not the stress. Any edibles left? Drug enthusiasts in the media hype anxiety, as if all of us must be neurotics. It’s not only COVID anxiety they’re pushing. The pot industry and its proponents want local politicians to see marijuana as the solution to lost revenue revenue from restaurant closings, no matter what the medical costs. The clever public relations approach covers many bases, creating a mystique, but forgets to mention that the tax revenues from marijuana fall far below expectations.
Opponents to marijuana legalization, other than Kevin Sabet, have not left the scene, something Style section author Bromwich gets wrong. Parents Opposed to Pot, as well as Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana and MomsStrong in California, make up a strong bipartisan opposition. Bromwich interviewed author Emily Dufton, who told another journalist that it’s possible a new parent movement will arise. Dufton was correct – Parent Movement 2.0 began this year in California. Johnny’s Ambassadors, a new group formed by Laura Stack and her family in Colorado, sounds the alarm about “dabbing,” and the tragic loss of her son, a victim of marijuana-induced psychosis.
While apparently in awe of the ballots passed by numerous states, the author deliberately avoids the fact that vast infusions of money bought those ballot votes. Billionaires fund New Approach PAC, which, in turn, gives the money for marijuana ballot campaigns. Just since the election, Alexandra Cohen, wife of a New York hedge fund manager, gave $750,000 to New Approach PAC. Money and clever messaging buy the votes for this anti-science drug policy. Rather than grassroots efforts, it’s the clearest example in politics today that money can buy an outcome.
Stakes are high as we lose kids to drug addiction
The new generation of opposition thinks differently from “Just Say No” or the DARE approach of the nineties. We believe children or teens deserve an explanation why it’s preferable not to use or need drugs to get through life. We emphasize that there are healthy ways to embrace life, and find joy, without anxiety or the need for drugs.
The stakes are high; currently we lose too many young people to deaths or permanent mental health problems, from drug use. Some overcome it, but many others do not. No one can predict who will survive after they start using drugs, and who will not.
Smart Colorado, which throws daggers when the Colorado pot industry markets to children, plans to go national with its new initiative, One Chance to Grow Up. Dr. Robert DuPont wishes to build on youth sobriety and make that choice part of a new movement. One Choice emphasizes that 31 percent of youth below age 21 do not drink, smoke or use drugs.
Drug Policy Alliance, the major organization behind changing drug policy, pushes the mentality that clings to drug use.
Who benefits from more drug use?
We strongly believe — with good evidence — that the harms of drug use alone outweigh the harm of anything the current legal system does to punish someone who is only using drugs and committing no other crimes. Mr Bromwich ignores the huge percentage of people committing crimes related to theft, murder, domestic violence and rape, while on drugs. Like it or not, there’s a high correlation between drug use and criminal behavior. Empirical evidence would show a very low rate of crimes committed by those who don’t use drugs or alcohol.
Mr. Bromwich correctly states that the effort to reframe marijuana as something medical — even without evidence — brought public acceptance. This clever marketing strategy helped teens to see marijuana as less harmful than it really is. A large subset of the population can become paranoid from marijuana use and the paranoia can easily convert into psychosis. This view is backed up strongly by science, and science was ignored in discussions of marijuana legalization in the states.
Our emphasis is on preventing start of drug use. People are forgetting that selling drugs is not a victimless crime. Indeed some people die from using a drug for the very first time, and this fact goes against the projection of drug use as harmless. The Drug Policy Alliance pushes to protect from prosecution those who give or sell drugs to another, even when a person dies. (Such cases are never so clear cut; they need to be investigated.)
For the New York Times to encourage drug use when we’re in the midst of an overdose epidemic – 70,000 killed directly from drugs in each of the last three years – is reckless. We call on the New York Times to be more honest, and to explain the downsides of marijuana legalization.
Democratic governors warned not to do it
Democratic governors of Colorado and California, John Hickenlooper and Jerry Brown, warned other states that legalization is fraught with problems:
- You can’t legalize marijuana for the TAX MONEY. A Los Angeles Times article explained possible reasons why all states that legalize lag behind the tax projections.
- The illegal marijuana market grows stronger under legalization. Governor Gavin Newsom called on the National Guard and actually asked President Trump to curb the illegal growers in California. Many international groups buy up real estate in the suburbs and convert the basements into grow houses.
- There’s no good way to stop stoned driving. We still lack a test that works well for judging marijuana impairment in drivers. Traffic deaths, vaping illnesses and new cases of psychosis increase the load on our health system. In Washington, the number of traffic deaths involving driving under the influence of THC doubled the first year of legal marijuana.
As a newspaper, the Los Angeles Times gives a more honest view, exposing the dark side of both legal and illegal marijuana grows. The New York Times reveals its biases, suggesting that Finally New Jersey may be cooler than New York.