‘Marijuana Manufacturing Method Mayhem! Your community at real risk!

In light of the recent butane caused fire in a marijuana company that injured many firefighters in Los Angles, you should prosecute butane companies who sell butane to make marijuana products. In 2017, the US Attorney for Southern California successfully prosecuted a butane company for supplying butane that was used to make marijuana products. Read how they did it.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/company-owner-admits-supplying-butane-make-illegal-hash-oil

Many methods are utilized to convert or \”manufacture\” marijuana into marijuana concentrates. One method is the butane extraction process. This process is particularly dangerous because it uses highly flammable butane to extract the THC from the cannabis plant. In this process, shredded or ground up plant material is stuffed into a glass, metal, or plastic pipe, with a filter on one end and then the butane is forced in the open end of the pipe. As the butane goes through the pipe, the THC within the plant material is extracted and forced through the filter usually into a receptacle. The receptacle is then heated to burn off the remaining butane creating a butane gas. Given the extremely volatile nature of heating butane and creating a gas, this process has resulted in violent explosions. THC extraction labs are being reported nationwide, particularly in the western states and in states where local and state marijuana laws are more relaxed. https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/resource-center/Publications/marijuana-concentrates.pdf

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Los Angeles Times: Criminal inquiry begins in downtown L.A. explosion

Cause is unknown in blast that damaged several buildings and injured 12 firefighters.

A criminal investigation is underway after a massive explosion in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse on Saturday injured 12 firefighters and left several buildings damaged, law enforcement sources told The Times.

• Downtown was rocked Saturday night by the blast, which broke out in an older business district off East 3rd Street, known for its various smoke shops. Authorities referred to it as Bong Row.

“We are in the early stages of an investigation. We are looking at every aspect at this stage. We haven’t determined a cause,” Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Horace Frank said. “The explosion was massive and those firefighters are very lucky to be alive.”

An initial investigation identified the business that caught fire as Smoke Tokes, a warehouse distributor with supplies for butane hash oil, said Capt. Erik Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Authorities said carbon dioxide and butane canisters were found inside the building, and investigators are trying to determine whether oil stores on site might have sparked the blast. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

The owner of Smoke Tokes could not be reached for comment.

The explosion damaged several storefronts, melted fire helmets and left one firetruck burned and covered in debris. Officials said firefighters had to pass through a fireball to escape.

“Firefighters were coming out with obvious damage and burns,” Scott said. They ran “straight through that ball of flame to get to safety across the street.”

Eleven firefighters received treatment for burn injuries at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, according to the LAFD. A 12th firefighter was treated and released at an emergency room Saturday night for “a minor extremity injury,” said Nicholas Prange, an LAFD spokesman.

For complete article https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-17/criminal-investigation-downtown-la-building-explosion

Quantifying the social costs of pharmaceutical opioid misuse and illicit opioid use to Australia 

In recent decades the range and patterns of opioids used for extra-medical purposes have changed. The use of pharmaceutical opioids exceeds the use of heroin. In 2017, 63 percent of opioid deaths were attributed exclusively to pharmaceutical opioids, 28 percent to illicit opioids and 8 percent to both illicit and pharmaceutical opioids (aged 15-64 years).

The objective of this report was to estimate the social costs arising from extra-medical opioid use in Australia for the financial year 2015/16. Due to data limitations in most cases we only estimated the costs occurring in this 12-month period. For example, on-going care of chronic conditions was not included. The exceptions to this were for certain harms which occurred in 2015/16 but which had longer-term ramifications, for example premature deaths, where discounted streams of future costs (lost economic activity and lost contributions to household chores) and partially offsetting savings (future health expenditure ’avoided’ by premature deaths) were estimated. The authors also included the long-term costs of road traffic accidents, as were the expected future costs of opioid attributable imprisonment for those sentenced in 2015/16.

For complete report go to APO – Quantifying the social costs of pharmaceutical opioid misuse

Policy Reflection: The misuse of OST (Opioid Substitute Treatments) or MAT (Medically Assisted Treatments) or any other opioid pharmaceutical displacement mechanism that does not have a sunset clause to usage, will continue to be a major contributor to both morbidity and mortality. This can either occur over a longer time simply due to the toxic nature of persistent opioid use on the human biological unit; or short term, by direct  misuse of the legal opioid for ‘recreational’ or self-harming purposes, by either the client or their network.

This growing issue continues to be overlooked or deliberately discounted by certain sectors. Which means that this, arguably well-meaning, but poorly implemented ‘harm reduction’ mechanism, continues to add to the drug using cohort and the increasing harms this ‘pairing’ collectively bring.

The net result of a no-exit, perpetual use of opioids, whether licit or illicit, only causes harm, the very thing the policy pillar was supposed to reduce.

If sunset clauses and exit strategies are not harnessed to these chemical mechanisms, then we will only see these harms grow, along with an ever-burgeoning pressure and cost to the health-care system. This is not best practice health care, and no longer rates as a positive ‘net community benefit’ economic rationale either.

Reducing drug use is the primary objective of the National Drug Strategy, and in both its intent and specifics does not promote, or we would argue, condone this policy and people failing measure.

Drug use exiting recovery is not only possible, but consistently achieved when actively facilitated in its best practice format too.

We will leave you with a very provocative quote (now 14 years old) but perhaps even more relevant today? A statement that could have only been published then, but with the  ‘cancel culture outrage’ in play at present, may well be ignored now and for the very reasons it confronts.

“The medical profession and the addicted community have a complex, symbiotic, mutually dependent relationship that does none of us any good. Basically, they pretend to be ill and we pretend to treat them. And thousands of public employees make a good living out of it. Prescribing for opiate addicts is like throwing petrol on a fire; pointless, counterproductive, stupid, self-defeating. And yet we keep doing it.”    Dr Phil Peverley, PULSE, 22 June 2006

Drug Use is Transmitted from Old to Young

May 15, 2020 (PittWire, May 13)

Does age play a role when it comes to the risk of fatal drug overdose? A recent study says yes.

The generation a person is born into (whether it is the Silent Generation, Baby Boomer, Generation X or Millennial) could let us know how likely he or she may be to die from a drug overdose, according to research from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Researchers analyzed data from over 660,000 drug overdose deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1979 and 2017.

They found that overdoses increased sharply among Baby Boomers, and rose higher than ever among Millennials.

For complete study https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/news/drug-use-transmitted-old-young

As a non-communicable disease, then the two medical imperatives are required in managing this disease

• Reduce susceptibility and
• Reduce exposure

The above article confirms what we have always known, it is the responsibility of the adult to create environments that don’t increase susceptibility and exposure to drug use, but reduce it.

The pro-drug, addiction for profit lobby/industry care nothing for the emerging generation, as the young are seen by them as purely a metric for profit. The hedonist cares nothing for community or child well-being as they are only clamoring for their faux ‘right’ to do with their body as they please and do not believe they are responsible, let alone accountable for the secondary harms caused by their capacity, agency and faculty reducing drug use.

Caring and responsible communities and governments should be setting up the emerging generation so be better, not worse.

The United States for the first time in its history has seen a reduction in life expectancy in the current generation for one reason only — Illicit Drug Use!

And they say this is ‘progress’?

Team@ D.L.D. 

For Immediate Release: May 13th, 2020

U.S. House Leadership Includes Blatant Giveaway to Big Pot in COVID-19 Aid Package

(Alexandria, Va) – Today, leadership of the United States House of Representatives unveiled the latest stimulus package as part of the continuing effort to deal with the economic fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Baked into the package is language similar to the SAFE Banking Act, which would grant the federally-illegal marijuana industry access to the federal financial system and allow them to receive large institutional investments.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former three-time White House drug policy advisor, released the following statement in response:

“Pot companies are raking in major profits. They should not be given consideration in a bill designed to help people who are suffering in this country. And while it is encouraging to see Congressional leadership taking serious steps to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, the inclusion of such a blatant giveaway to Big Marijuana – which would allow cartels and criminal syndicates to potentially access our financial system – should be a complete nonstarter as the discussions over this package continue.

“Millions of small business owners across the nation have seen their livelihoods dramatically affected by this pandemic. Numerous industries have been forced to completely shut down and have made great sacrifices to comply with shutdowns and limitations on their business operations. The marijuana industry has been a painfully obvious exception to this. This industry has used its lobbying arm to force state officials to keep their storefronts open, sued leaders who shut them down, and bragged incessantly about their revenues. The idea of including this industry in the relief package makes no sense.

“Furthermore, granting this industry access to banks will bring billions of dollars of institutional investment from the titans of addiction and vastly expand the harms we are already witnessing from marijuana commercialization and its highly potent products.

“Simply put, we cannot allow much-needed aid bills such as this to be loaded up with the wish lists of Big Pot. Thankfully, due to conversations with key members of Congress and continued advocacy by SAM’s supporters, it is unlikely these provisions will make it to the President’s desk.”

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Media Contact:  Luke Niforatos P: (303) 335-7584

E: [email protected]

As you may already know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Given the myriad risks marijuana use presents to mental health, such as schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, depression, future substance abuse, and suicide, we always ensure we present these risks prominently in all of our materials.

To help you spread the message on marijuana use\’s harms to mental health, we have created the graphic below for you to share on your social media channels.

The graphic includes a link to one of our most comprehensive resources, our webpage dedicated to Marijuana and Mental Health.

The site has plenty of facts and links to further research that you could share to help raise awareness.

Furthermore, this week is also National Prevention Week, as sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

On Wednesday, May 14th, the focus will be on Preventing Illicit Drug Use and Youth Marijuana Use. As such, please feel free to use some of our materials to lead discussions on the harms of youth marijuana use and how marijuana commercialization and normalization has led to a concerning rise in use of the drug among our young people.

Here is our latest one-pager discussing the recent rise in youth use:

Speaking of SAMHSA, we recently sat down and interviewed Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse and director of SAMHSA, as a part of our 2020 SAM Summit.

Click here to register today so you will be able to virtually view all of our presentations and speakers as soon as they are made available.

Once again, all of our efforts would be impossible without your support. Please consider chipping in to the fight against Big Pot with a tax-deductible gift today by clicking the link below.

Thank you for all that you do,

Dr. Kevin Sabet,

Founder & President

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)