Implications of Non-Consensual Unleashing Cannabis Teratogenesis and Neuroteratogenesis on Whole Unsuspecting Populations in North America

Introduction

I am advised that the present US farm bill will essentially legalize cannabis across the USA, including its ability to be sold for animal feed, which will introduce cannabinoids into the food chain via meat and dairy food and eggs.  It would appear that no proper public debate has occurred on this issue.  I am further advised that Europe has allowed cannabis to be used freely as stockfeed for several years now.  However, Switzerland has not allowed this to occur due to concerns of unbridled and unmeasured amounts of cannabis in the food supply, and its access to pregnant females and growing children.  Then Swiss concern is apparently that cannabinoids might have effects on the developing foetus or growing children, and in particular in their brain growth, development and wiring during their formative years.  A good question therefore is which approach is correct — the European approach or the Swiss approach??  And why do we really need to have an open discussion anyway??  With 22% of Californian teenagers recently testing positive for cannabis, the issue is far from trivial ¹.

For complete paperCannabis in the US Foodchain via US Farm Bill 2ReeceDec2018

Overshadowed by opioids, meth is back with a vengeance

A surge in hospitalizations and deaths “is just totally off the radar,” said one addiction researcher. “Nobody is paying attention.”

Nov. 28, 2018  By Anna Gorman, Kaiser Health News

The number of people hospitalized because of amphetamine use is skyrocketing in the United States, but the resurgence of the drug has largely been overshadowed by the nation’s intense focus on opioids.

Amphetamine-related hospitalizations jumped by about 245 percent from 2008 to 2015, according to a JAMA published study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That dwarfs the rise in hospitalizations from other drugs, such as opioids, which were up by about 46 percent. The most significant increases were in Western states.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t see someone acutely intoxicated on methamphetamine.”

The surge in hospitalizations and deaths due to amphetamines “is just totally off the radar,” said Jane Maxwell, an addiction researcher. “Nobody is paying attention.”

Doctors see evidence of the drug’s comeback in emergency departments, where patients arrive agitated, paranoid and aggressive. Paramedics and police officers see it on the streets, where suspects’ heart rates are so high that they need to be taken to the hospital for medical clearance before being booked into jail. And medical examiners see it in the morgue, where in a few states, such as Texas and Colorado, overdoses from meth have surpassed those from the opioid heroin.

For complete story https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/overshadowed-opioids-meth-back-vengeance-n940701

HEADLINES BRING UP MORE MARIJUANA — RELATED BEHAVIORAL ISSUES

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Amanda Bynes made headlines last week, sharing her story for the cover of Paper Magazine.  Her optimistic tale of recovery repeats in People Magazine, which published portions of the interview. Amanda admitted that she began drug abuse starting with marijuana, age 16.  She continued pot use and also used Molly, Ecstasy and Adderall.

An article from four years ago quoted her mother explaining the former child star’s odd, unpredictable behaviors at the time.   In 2014, Lynn Bynes told TMZ, “She has no mental illness whatsoever.”   The gossip mills were claiming otherwise, suggesting that Amanda had schizophrenia.  It was clear that her mother attributed Amanda’s hospitalization to marijuana and cannabis use disorder.

In Paper, Amanda explains how she spiraled downward. Overdosing on Adderall was behind one of her episodes and marijuana was behind the second time she flipped out.  She gave up acting.  “I literally couldn’t stand my appearance in that movie and I didn’t like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it,” Bynes explains. “I was high on marijuana when I saw that but for some reason it really started to affect me. I don’t know if it was a drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a different way than it affects other people. It absolutely changed my perception of things.”

On Instagram, she wrote “I have no fear of the future.  I’ve been through the worst and came out the other end and survived……it’s only up from here.”  Amanda plans to finish a degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology and perhaps go into fashion design or back into acting.   Her recovery inspires us and it can give hope to others!

For more http://www.poppot.org/2018/12/03/headlines-bring-up-more-marijuana-related-behavioral-issues/

CDC says life expectancy down as more Americans die younger due to suicide and drug overdose

Friday, November 30, 2018

(CBS News, November 29)Increases in suicides and drug overdoses nationwide have caused American life expectancy to go down, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A baby born in the U.S. in 2017 is expected to live approximately 78 years and 7 months, a one month decrease from 2016.

In 2017, there were 2.8 million deaths in the country — an increase of about 70,000 over 2016. This is the highest number of deaths in a single year since the government began counting.  There were over 70,000 drug-related overdose deaths in 2017, about a 10 percent increase from 2016.

\”These sobering statistics are a wake-up call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable,\” Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC\’s director, said in a statement.

And This Is Progress???

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-11-secondhand-pot-kids-lungs.html New research found evidence of secondhand marijuana smoke exposure in nearly half of children whose parents smoke the drug.

\”While the effects of tobacco smoke have been studied extensively, we are still learning about marijuana exposure,\” said researcher Dr. Karen Wilson, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

\”What we found in this study is that secondhand marijuana smoke does get into the lungs and little bodies of young children,\” Wilson said in a school news release.

The study included parents in Colorado who used marijuana and was conducted after recreational use of the drug became legal in that state. Currently, 10 states permit recreational marijuana use and 33 allow medical use of the drug.

Among the parents in the study, smoking was the most common form of marijuana use (30 percent), followed by edibles (14.5 percent) and vaporizers (9.6 percent), the investigators found.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/acoa-sms110718.php# New research being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting shows it\’s possible for both children and adults with uncontrolled asthma to find their symptoms worsening due to cannabis allergy and exposure to marijuana smoke.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-children-hospitalized-lung-inflammation-positive.html A study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting found that one in six infants and toddlers admitted to a Colorado hospital with coughing, wheezing and other symptoms of bronchiolitis tested positive for marijuana exposure.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27299295/

We report a case of mild cannabinoid poisoning in a preschool child, after 3-week ingestion of hemp seed oil prescribed by his pediatrician to strengthen his immune system. The patient presented neurological symptoms that disappeared after intravenous hydration. A possible mild withdrawal syndrome was reported after discharge. The main metabolite of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol was detected in urine, and very low concentration of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol was detected in the ingested product. This is, as far as we know, the first report of cannabinoid poisoning after medical prescription of hemp seed oil in a preschool child.

Could medical cannabis be the new THALIDOMIDE? Fears of a crisis as doctors consider doling marijuana-based medicines out to pregnant mothers despite evidence the drug can damage foetuses

• Pressure to loosen NHS guidelines on medical cannabis use is growing in the UK
• The British Medical Journal warned that widespread use could lead to disaster
• The potential crisis was compared to the thalidomide scandal of the 50s and 60s

By GUY ADAMS FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 24 November 2018

Each of the 400 phone calls to the cannabis dispensaries followed a script. ‘Hi,’ said a female voice. ‘I’m eight weeks pregnant and feeling really nauseated. Are there any products recommended for morning sickness?’

In two-thirds of cases, the reply was: ‘Yes’.

Around half of those callers who’d received an affirmative answer were then advised to buy a specific ‘cure’ in a form they could eat.

Just under 40 per cent were told to get it in a form that could be inhaled or smoked. Most of the remainder were offered tinctures or drinks.

The recommended cure in question? Marijuana. But far from being genuine requests for help from expectant mothers, the phone calls were part of a research project by the University of Colorado.

The researchers were pretending to be pregnant to see how cannabis – legal for medical reasons in the U.S. state of Colorado since 2000 and fully legal since 2014 – was being dispensed. The answers they received offer a worrying insight into the booming medical marijuana industry.

‘After eight weeks [of pregnancy], everything should be good with consuming alcohol and weed,’ one dispensary assistant replied.

‘When I was pregnant and started to feel nauseous, I did not smoke [cannabis] more than two times a day,’ recommended the proprietor of another clinic.

‘Edible [marijuana] would not hurt the child,’ reassured another, telling the woman, wrongly, that something ‘going through your digestional tract’ will have no effect on an unborn child.

Of the 277 dispensaries that recommended cannabis as a cure for morning sickness, three-quarters then attempted to sell a version of the drug containing THC, the chemical that gives users a ‘high’.

Many also advised their pregnant patients to keep their consumption of this intoxicating drug secret from their doctor.

‘The doctor will probably just tell you that marijuana is bad for kids and try pushing pills on you,’ said one. ‘I do not know if the baby doctors are chill or not, [so] do not go stoned when you talk to them,’ warned another.

Perhaps those doctors had good reason for their reservations about cannabis. For the Colorado research paper, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology earlier this year, highlights cannabis as a matter of growing concern to medical practitioners across the world.

Increasingly, marijuana is being sold for medical reasons. Yet this ‘medical’ marijuana is very far from being the safe, natural healthcare product its often-rapacious suppliers would have us believe.

In some circumstances, the product – which is becoming legal in growing numbers of countries, including Canada, the U.S. and most recently Britain in highly specific circumstances – can be dangerous and possibly fatal. Particularly when taken by pregnant women.

To blame is a simple fact: a multitude of studies over several years have shown all forms of cannabis to be ‘teratogenic’. Meaning that, like tobacco or excessive alcohol, they can harm a foetus.

The drug has been linked to a host of serious birth defects, including at least six life-threatening deformities.

They include two congenital heart problems; a neurological condition called anencephaly, in which a child is born with a large portion of the brain missing, often dying within hours; and the birth defect gastroschisis, where the intestines develop outside the body.

‘Babies exposed to marijuana in utero are at increased risk of admission to neonatal intensive care units,’ says Torri Metz, a University of Utah professor who was among the Colorado study’s authors.

‘There are also concerns about possible long-term effects on the developing brain, impacting cognitive function and decreasing academic ability later in childhood.’

Which brings us to the situation in Britain, where there is pressure on the Government from an increasingly powerful cannabis lobby to loosen the NHS guidelines on medical cannabis use.

For complete story https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6423269/Could-medical-cannabis-new-thalidomide.html