Canadians are going to need to force government to protect kids from smoking

PAMELA MCCOLL   Published:October 13, 2018

A Langley resident has launched a petition to convince the provincial government to ban smoking in all condominiums and apartment buildings.

No amount of second-hand smoke is safe. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to develop lung diseases and other health problems. Second-hand smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The fact that one in six infants and toddlers admitted to a Colorado hospital with symptoms of bronchiolitis tested positive for marijuana exposure should be of grave concern to Canadians as they move to legalization.

The dangers of second-hand, carcinogenic and psychoactive chemically-laden marijuana smoke were ignored by the Trudeau government in its push to legalize pot. This government in fact sanctioned the smoking of marijuana in the presence of children.

The government did not commission an in-depth child risk assessment of the draft legalization framework, a study called for by child advocates across the country.

The Alberta Ministry of Children’s Services’ Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act Placement Resource Policy on Environmental Safety states that a foster parent must be aware of, and committed to provide a non-smoking environment by not allowing smoking in the home when a foster child is placed; not allowing smoking in a vehicle when a foster child is present; and not allowing use of smokeless tobacco when a foster child is present. As the Alberta government’s policy contains all-inclusive language of “non-smoking environment,” the same rules have been extend to legalized marijuana. Some children in the province of Alberta have been protected under the policy while the majority of Albertan children and other children in Canada should rightly ask: “What About Us?”

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms secures the safety of children from threats to their health and their life. Section 15 of the Charter prohibits discrimination perpetrated by the governments of Canada. The Equality Rights section states that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. The provisions that protect children in foster care should extend to every child.

For complete article https://theprovince.com/opinion/op-ed/pamela-mccoll-canadians-are-going-to-need-to-force-government-to-protect-kids-from-smoking

Devastating figures reveal true toll of cannabis on the UK\’s health as 125,000 people are admitted to hospital over the drug in just five years

• Some 15,000 teenagers have been hospitalised after taking cannabis since 2013
• The levels of admissions in England have jumped by more than 50 per cent
• Last year, 31,330 people required hospital treatment having taken cannabis
• Experts fear regular cannabis use can interfere with brain function and memory

By STEPHEN ADAMS and SANCHEZ MANNING FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY PUBLISHED: 08:01 AEDT, 14 October 2018

The devastating effect of cannabis on Britain’s mental health can be revealed for the first time today.

Analysis carried out by NHS officials for this paper has also revealed how children below the age of ten have been admitted to hospital after taking the powerful and addictive substance. Some people hooked on the drug have taken their own lives after suffering hallucinations and many more are now unable to lead normal lives, according to doctors.

The number of cannabis-related hospitalisations per year in England has leapt by more than 50 per cent since 2013 — from 19,765 to 31,130.

The dramatic rise has coincided with an increasingly liberal approach to policing the Class B drug in many parts of the country. In Durham, police now turn a blind eye to possession — and even small-scale cultivation. Last week, the Royal College of Psychiatrists announced it was setting up a panel to consider backing legalisation of cannabis — arguing that could be a way to control its increasing strength.

But evidence from the US, where nine states have legalised recreational use, shows that is not happening. In Colorado and Washington State, for example, the average strength of the drug is going up. And since it was legalised in Colorado in 2014, cannabis-related trips to emergency rooms by teenagers have quadrupled, according to an academic report.

Evidence is also building that regularly smoking cannabis during teenage years can affect brain development — shrinking the hippocampus, essential for memory and regulating emotions.

Last night, Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said the figures were a stark wake-up call to those considering legalisation. ‘Far too few people are aware of the severe mental health problems cannabis can cause, particularly on younger, developing brains,’ he said. ‘Caving in to populist demands to legalise a harmful drug is not the way to deal with preventing its normalisation and use.’

Around 2.4 million people in Britain smoke cannabis, including a million 16- to 24-year-olds. While rates are little changed over the last decade, there are signs teens are starting to use it more. Cannabis has been growing stronger and stronger over the years — a key reason why more people are ending up in hospital, say doctors.

Powerful varieties known as skunk now account for 94 per cent of cannabis consumed in Britain, according to recent research.

It contains at least four times as much of the main psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol as previously dominant types of cannabis. ‘THC’ is strongly linked to increased risk of psychosis.

Yet there is a growing perception among youngsters that cannabis is harmless. Experts say many interpret the Government’s decision to let doctors prescribe cannabis-based medicines as a green light to smoke it — even though the medicines and street drugs have hugely different effects. Addiction specialist Dr Cyrus Abbasian said: ‘The main reason we are seeing more cannabis-related hospital admissions is its increasing strength.’

In some areas cannabis strength has increased tenfold since the 1990s, from two to 20 per cent THC, he added, with less powerful forms so hard to find in the UK that users go online to buy from overseas.

Ex-mental health nurse Ian Hamilton, a lecturer at York University, said people were increasingly ending up in A&Es with ‘absolutely terrifying’ cannabis-induced psychotic episodes, as its growing strength meant they had no idea how much THC they were consuming. ‘People can see things, hear things, become hyper-anxious, or enter a state of “depersonalisation” where they don’t feel they are real,’ he said.

They can end up vomiting, while the anxiety can ‘make your heart-rate go through the roof’.

Consultant psychologist Matthew Gaskell, of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust, said stronger cannabis — including the synthetic version spice — was leading to ‘more cannabis dependence in addiction services, and great difficulty stopping’ among regular users. He said: ‘Acute intoxication can have severe effects including a rapid heart rate, vomiting, violent behaviour, seizures and suicidal thoughts.’

The NHS figures show there were 125,290 cannabis and spice-related hospital admissions in England from April 2013 to March 2018, including 14,888 under-20s. Of those, nine were admissions of children under ten.

For complete article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6273159/UK-hospitals-treat-125-000-cannabis-users-past-five-years.html

What About Us? October 2018

No amount of second-hand smoke is safe. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to develop lung diseases and other health problems.  Second hand-smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The fact that one in six infants and toddlers admitted to a Colorado hospital with symptoms of bronchiolitis tested positive for marijuana exposure should be of grave to Canadians as they too have moved to legalization.

The dangers of second-hand, carcinogenic and psychoactive chemically-laden marijuana smoke were ignored by the Trudeau government in their push to legalize pot. This government in fact sanctioned the smoking of marijuana in the presence of children.

The government did not commission an in-depth child risk assessment of the draft legalization framework, a study called for by child advocates across the country.

The Alberta Ministry of Children’s Services’ – Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act Placement Resource Policy on Environmental Safety states; that a foster parent must be aware of, and committed to provide a non-smoking environment by not allowing smoking in the home when a foster child is placed; not allowing smoking in a vehicle when a foster child is present; and not allowing use of smokeless tobacco when a foster child is present. As the Alberta government’s policy contains all-inclusive language of “non-smoking environment,” the same rules have been extend to legalized marijuana. Some children in the province of Alberta have been protected under policy while the majority of Albertan children and other children in Canada should rightly ask: “What About Us?”

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms secures the safety of children from threats to their health and their life. Section 15 of the Charter prohibits discrimination perpetrated by the governments of Canada. The Equality Rights section states that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. The provisions that protect children in foster care should extend to every child.

Section 7 of the Charter is a constitutional provision that protects an individual’s personal legal rights from actions of the government of Canada, the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The Cannabis Act fails to protect Canadian children’s right to security of the self. The right to security of the person consists of the rights to privacy of the body and its health and of the right protecting the “psychological integrity” of an individual.  Exposure to marijuana in poorly ventilated spaces exposes the non-user to the impact of a psychotropic high, including the distortion of one’s sense of reality.

Canada is a party to the Rights of the Child Treaty, the most widely ratified piece of human rights law in history.  The treaty establishes the human rights of children to health and to protection under law. Placing marijuana products and plants into children’s homes fails to protect their rights under international treaty obligations.

A petition, before the BC Government Legislative Assembly via the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, seeks to make all multi-unit dwellings in BC smoke-free. Smoke-free housing is needed to protect the non-user’s health. Smoke travels, it escapes and contaminates beyond a single unit. Law consists, primarily, in preserving a person from death and violence and in securing their free enjoyment of their property. The Cannabis Act fails to preserve the rights of non-users of marijuana. It rests with citizens to stand up for their rights and those of children. Be prepared this will be an ugly, costly and lengthy process.

“We think that the true rule of law is, that the person who for his own purposes brings on his land and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it at his peril, and, if he does not do so, is prima facia answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape. “ House of Lords Rule. Doctrine of Strict Liability of Dangerous Conditions Rylands versus Fletcher — 1868. Successful argued in Delta, Canada 1983. Individual prevented from smoking in his residence.

Provincial governments can correct the mistakes made by the federal government. Concerned citizens must see that they do.

Pamela McColl — www.cleartheairnow.org

Vancouver BC Canada  [email protected]

Javid’s jolt for the City cokeheads

Mr Javid is quite right. Cocaine use is not a victimless crime, even when it’s city slickers, media trendies or showbiz celebrities who think it’s their right to snort a line whenever they fancy — yes, those very same people who virtue-signal about ‘fair trade and organic food’. They have never really had any excuse not to know about the deadly wake their demand for the drug leaves in its trail. It’s well known that child mules have been moving class A drugs around the country.  The Metro, the Independent and the Guardian were all reporting on this alarming exploitation of children from a year ago.

Reports about the plight of female Jamaican drug mules ending up in our prisons abounded in the first decade of this century.

Anyone still in doubt about the trade’s latest nasty turn — the effective enslavement of young and vulnerable children in the UK — should read Guy Kelly’s detailed account published last month in the Telegraph. Let’s hope that the bankers he spoke to ordering coke to be delivered to their Canary Wharf apartments will at last understand that ‘the young person who turns up may have had that gram in a Kinder Egg capsule up his bottom’.

‘Rosie’ (in Kelly’s article) by her own admission had ‘never really put too much thought into how it got here, just how I can get it’. Kelly described her as still not bothered. Well, it is to be hoped that Mr Javid’s initiative will finally wake her up out of her complacency and into the knowledge of her complicity in a trail of destruction all the way back to Colombia. There is no excuse now to pretend this habit is just harmless fun that has no impact on anyone else.

For complete article CocaineCorruptsChildren

The following article reveals, yet again, what we at the Institute have known for the last 3-4 years.

Here we again see, supposedly intelligent (at least ‘educated’) self-aware, and clearly product aware people, deliberately seeking out illicit substances, purchasing them with disposable income, not due to the tyranny of addiction, but for a planned and sought after ‘party experience’.

The awareness of risk and harm is not an issue with this demographic as experimentation is increasing, not decreasing.  The perception of risk is being eroded with every pro-drug liberalizing mantra, every misuse of Harm Reduction mechanism and every other tacit permission given by a ‘wink at drug use’ by the drug-culture gate-keepers and their promoters and permitters.

This entire risk taking, self-intoxicating and law-breaking activity is a calculated process that gives no regard to best health and community practice. ‘Legalizing’ or even ‘testing’ these drugs will have no bearing on this cohort, as they care only for their next hedonic excursion and they are fully convinced (due to much of the above) that the risks in these practices are manageable.

Of course, they are also fully aware that the ‘Nanny-State’ that they so carelessly ‘thumb their nose at’ with utter contempt, will be there for them when their self-indulgence fails them — Nanny-State Ambulance will take them to a Nanny-State hospital, where free Nanny-State health care will attempt to restore them to a semblance of what they once were prior to the self-harm. And, finally, if that doesn’t ‘reboot’ them for the next round of partying, then the Nanny-State will supply the welfare to care for their permanent self-sabotage!

The hypocritical cacophony of all this is as deafening as the cognitive dissonance is breathtaking!

When will the ‘user pay’? It appears never! Social responsibility and accompanying justice cannot come into play because someone else will always pick up the tab — That someone else is inevitably the silent majority of non-drug taking citizens, who are rapidly also becoming the ‘gagged’ victims of this pro-drug cohort and their manipulatively emotive speech codes.

Yet another reason why this conduct, this behaviour needs to remain illegal. Civil Society demands that, even if we don’t care about ourselves, that we must still regard the health, safety, productivity and well-being of those around us — particularly our societies children.

Dalgarno Institute

Multiple substance abuse rife

Young people are increasingly turning to purer forms of party drugs that are stronger and potentially more harmful, a new report on Australian drug trends has revealed.

Findings released on Monday by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) show the percentage of people using ecstasy in crystal or capsule form has hit record levels over the past decade.

Ecstasy crystals and capsules often contain a higher purity of the drug, and are reportedly stronger than ecstasy pills, the researchers said

Dr Amy Peacock, program lead for drug trends at NDARC, cautioned that the findings do not represent drug use in the general population but the trends observed in this recent study are a cause for concern.

“Use of higher-purity stimulants can increase the risk of experiencing acute and long-term negative health effects,” Dr Peacock said.

The researchers also found an overwhelming majority of users were combining ecstasy and other stimulants with a cocktail of other drugs, including cannabis and LSD.

“Nine in 10 participants reported the last time that they used an illicit stimulant that they’d also used cannabis, some depressants such as alcohol, they might have used hallucinogens like LSD, or a dissociative [painkillers such as ketamine],” Dr Peacock said.

“That combination of substances can be quite risky in terms of the likelihood of experiencing an adverse health event.”

Ketamine is a prescription medicine that is used by doctors and vets as an anaesthetic or painkiller. Known as ‘K’ or ‘Special K’, the substance is illegally used to induce a trance-like state.

When combined with other substances, especially alcohol or anti-anxiety medicines, the unpredictable drug can affect breathing or stop it altogether.

Cocaine use has also increased to record levels in the past decade, from 23 per cent in 2003 to 59 per cent in 2018.

Another NDARC study sample, involving 910 illicit drug users, found crystal methamphetamine use is also higher in 2018. Half of the survey respondents reported using meth on a weekly or more frequent basis.

For complete article  ‘Higher purity’ party drugs on the rise among young people

Marijuana\’s – An Assault On The Human Species

For anyone under age 25 or 30, marijuana causes permanent brain damage and loss of IQ because their brains aren\’t fully developed.   The younger they are, the worse the damage.  Marijuana causes psychotic breaks leading to gruesome acts of violence, mental illness, addiction, suicides and myriad health problems.  Marijuana is a fat soluble toxin that remains in the body for weeks and months. It causes DNA damage that can cause physical and mental abnormalities in the next four generations.  People who are sick, mentally ill, impaired or addicted can\’t learn or produce effectively if at all.  They turn to crime, become homeless, rely or food banks and seek public health care. One-third of prisoners are mentally ill, two-thirds addicted and 80% are high school dropouts.   Can you think of a better way to destroy a nation than to inflict youth with all of the above?

Canada is toast, having legalized marijuana.  America is on the brink of the abyss.  In the last 10 years, owing to lack of federal enforcement, marijuana use has increased by over 60, from a about 15 to 24 million people..  The potency (i.e. THC content) has increased from about 8% to as high as 37% in smoked form, and 99% as concentrates used in dabbing, vaping and edibles.  Not all who use marijuana move on to other drugs but they are 2 1/2 times more like to do so.  Almost all of those who die from overdose started their drug journey with pot.  From 2008 to today, overdose deaths have increased from 105 people a day to the unimaginable level of 198 a day.  The foundation for America\’s drug problem is marijuana.

But can you imagine what marijuana will do to Africa?  The population in 2016 was estimated at 1.2 billion and projected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050.  41% of the people are under 15 years of age, 25% are illiterate. Unemployment rates are as high as 50% in some areas like South Africa.   Food security is a major issue.  Medical facilities are badly lacking.  Crime is already rampant.  The conditions are ripe for expanding  marijuana and other drug use. It is realistic to think that 1/3rd of the population will become mentally ill or impaired, physically sick or addicted on what is projected to be the most populous continent on earth.  This is a holocaust the likes of which the world has never seen, with global implications not just for Africa, but for the the entire human species. .

The UN needs to use all of its resources to reign in the marijuana movement, and the federal government in the U.S. needs to re-establish the rule of law.

Roger Morgan
Take Back America Campaign

POT POISONINGS AND LEGALIZATION VIOLATIONS IN WASHINGTON STATE

CHILD ENDANGERMENT, VIOLENCE, WASHINGTON OCTOBER  2018 EDITOR

Which will destroy Washington faster, cannabis or earthquakes?  Legalization violations run rampant, as the Washington Poison Control reported 378 cases of toxic exposure to marijuana in 2017.  Last week, the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board announcedannounced rules to end the production of cannabis-infused gummy bears and candies that appeal to children.  On October 12, the regulators reversed their decision because of fierce opposition from the marijuana industry.

Once again, the cannabis industry proves that it is hostile to all attempts at honest and sensible regulation.  In 2016, the cannabis industry bought off a ballot designed to cap the potency of marijuana sold in Colorado dispensaries to 16% THC.

Since Washington opened commercial marijuana stores in July 2014, the rate of children’s poisonings quadrupled.  Among smallest children, the 0-5 year age group, there were 82 exposures last year compared to 52 in 2016 and 52 in 2015.  This rate compares to 20 poisonings in 2012, the year Washingtonians voted to legalize pot.

Legalization violations happen frequently in Washington State, even if they don’t make national news.  Unlike other states, Washington doesn’t allow home grows.  Yet the black market and the aftermath of legalization in Washington is daunting. Here’s some examples:

For complete story http://www.poppot.org/2018/10/13/pot-poisonings-and-legalization-violations-in-washington-state/

One of the world\’s largest stock brokerages is warning investors to steer clear of the \’Wild West\’ of legal marijuana stocks

JEREMY BERKE OCTOBER 2018

• TD Ameritrade is warning investors to steer clear of marijuana stocks.
• The stock brokerage called out Tilray‘s wild swings in recent weeks as an example of “extreme volatility” and dangers to potential investors.

TD Ameritrade is warning investors to steer clear of the burgeoning marijuana industry.

“The marijuana and cannabis industry — sometimes referred to as the Wild West of investing — is littered with high-flyers, potentially over-valued companies, and even scams,” the stock brokerage firm said in a three-minute video posted on its Youtube account.

Young traders have flocked to stock trading apps from companies like Robinhood and TD Ameritrade to cash in on the hype around marijuana stocks.

TD Ameritrade, however, is warning investors to be cautious. They likened the frenzy around prominent marijuana stocks like Canopy Growth and the NASDAQ-listed Tilray to other market bubbles, like the dot-com boom of the early 2000s and the housing market collapse in 2008.

“As marijuana moves from the black market to the stock market, the potential opportunity is easy to see,” the young professional-looking man in the video said. “This excitement coupled with a hazy regulatory outlook means extreme volatility and high-risk for investors.”

For complete article https://www.businessinsider.com.au/td-ameritrade-warning-investors-away-from-wild-west-marijuana-stocks-2018-10?r=US&IR=T