The absurdity of legalising drugs:

“The war on drugs”: what a bombastic, vainglorious phrase that is…But the war on drugs isn’t a war at all. It is an ongoing and complex process of law enforcement. It has different components which are handled in different ways by different jurisdictions and with differing degrees of effort, intelligence and success.

Generalisations are impossible — except one: unlike war, law enforcement is never ‘won’.

Here’s another two things that can go together: the availability of a legal, regulated and abundant supply of drugs and a thriving criminal trade in the same or similar substances. In theory, legalisation should mean no more illegal supply — after all, why go to some guy down an alleyway when you could go to a licensed outlet with unadulterated products sold in standard units?

In practice, it’s more complicated than that — as America’s opioid epidemic proves beyond doubt. Far from pushing out the pushers, the over-prescription of entirely legal opioid-based medications has created new opportunities for them. By expanding the size and the demographic diversity of the opioid dependent population, the legal trade has expanded the market for illegal opioids including heroin. If your prescription has run out, or you need something cheaper (or stronger or perhaps merely different) then the dealers will sort you out. Of course, the product may or may not be cut with super-strength synthetic opioids like fentanyl — which is key factor in the epidemic’s horrific and worsening death toll.

Remember, all of this has happened in the context of a regulated and abundant supply of unadulterated opioids, and yet everything that isn’t supposed to happen has happened. The criminal trade hasn’t just survived, it has extended its reach — and innovated in all sort of dangerous new ways.

For completes article https://unherd.com/2018/09/absurdity-legalising-drugs/

Cannabis: primary cause of addiction in South Africa:

South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) has reacted with disappointment to the decriminalisation of the private use cannabis by the Constitutional Court.

JACARANDA FM Download 1.4 MB https://iono.fm/e/606056

Canada: Addiction, health-care specialists need to brace for cannabis legalization: CAMH:

Addiction, health-care specialists need to brace for cannabis legalization: CAMH

Jenny Yuen Published: September 22, 2018

A Centre for Addiction and Mental Health director said they’re expecting an upswing in cannabis “poisoning” when federal legalization for pot takes hold on Oct. 17.

Dr. Peter Selby, the director of medical education for the organization, said he’s concerned that legalization will make more people aware of the substance and want to try it. Where health workers are likely going to see a change is more curious first-timers trying it out because of the legalization, who may come to harm from it.

“Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it safe,” he said this week.

“That’s the key thing people should it understand. And just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it mean you mean you use it everywhere for every condition without understanding how it’s made and how it affects you.”

With a lack of standardized dosing or guarantees the marked level of THC on the label is actually what you’re getting, it may also be a contributing factor to the disorder. Selby dismisses cannabis users that infer that smoking weed isn’t addictive.

“Not addictive is not true because why would people otherwise get addicted? The issue is what is the relative addiction risk?, which is low compared some of the legal drugs we have on the market like tobacco and alcohol, but it’s not innocuous,” he said.

“People want to conflate many things here. They get into this absolutist kind of thing, but it’s not accurate. If it isn’t addictive, why are we getting people coming in for addiction treatment for their cannabis use.”

In the last year, 289 patients came to the CAMH emergency room because of problematic cannabis use, representing 2.4% of all patients. If you include patients who came because of cannabis and other issues, including alcohol and mental illness, the number is 721, representing 6% of all patients.

For complete story Toronto Sun — Legal IS NOT SAFE!

FORMER New York Times WRITER’S NEW BOOK WARNS OF MARIJUANA, VIOLENCE, MENTAL ILLNESS!

A former New York Times reporter and now a best-selling author, Alex Berenson has an important new book, Tell Your Children: The truth about marijuana, violence and mental health. Simon & Schuster will publish and release it on January 8, 2019.

“I know this topic is controversial……I spoke to scores of scientists and doctors and examined hundreds of studies and papers. Whatever you think of marijuana, you owe it to yourself and to your families to know the truth that legalizers and the media have hidden from you.” Alex Berenson

Indeed, Berenson’s book promises to confirm the facts that we’ve been warning about: the marijuana-psychosis links; that pot use often makes people violent; that it leads to more crime, more overall drug abuse and more fatalities.  As we try to “tell our children,” NO amount of marijuana use is worth the risks.

The Inconvenient Truth

– Almost no one is in prison for marijuana;
– A tiny fraction of doctors write most authorizations for medical marijuana, mostly for people who have already used;
– Marijuana use is linked to opiate and cocaine use. Since 2008, the US and Canada have seen soaring marijuana use and an opiate epidemic. Britain has falling marijuana use and no epidemic;
– Most of all, THC–the chemical in marijuana responsible for the drug’s high–can cause psychotic episodes. After decades of studies, scientists no longer seriously debate if marijuana causes psychosis.

Psychosis brings violence, and cannabis-linked violence is spreading. In the four states that first legalized, murders have risen 25 percent since legalization, even more than the recent national increase.

According to the overview on Barnes & Noble and a description on Amazon, “Berenson’s reporting ranges from the London institute that is home to the scientists who helped prove the cannabis-psychosis link to the Colorado prison where a man now serves a thirty-year sentence after eating a THC-laced candy bar and killing his wife. He sticks to the facts, and they are devastating.”

“With the US already gripped by one drug epidemic, this book will make readers reconsider if marijuana use is worth the risk.”

For complete story Exploding Myths of Marijuana NYTimes Journalist Emeritus

NEW GROUPS RISE UP AGAINST POT, CHALLENGE BIG MARIJUANA

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Beware of Big Marijuana.  A nationwide movement is fighting back against the marijuana industry, and the victims will no longer be silent.  The Marijuana Victims Alliance ( MVAA.org)  has harsh words for the marijuana industry.   Parents Opposed to Pot, as well as national anti-marijuana organization, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), focus on stopping the marijuana tsunami which is already taking over the country.  National Families in Action writes of the latest studies and reports about marijuana in its blog, The Marijuana Report.

Moms Strong is a critically important website which shares the stories of parents whose children have lost their lives because of marijuana.  It serves to inform and warn others.  Marijuana Science Forum doesn’t take a stand against legalization, but the science presented on its website states the facts, and those facts are  sobering. When the Smoke Clears has another excellent page devoted to facts. The group posts very effective graphics on its Facebook page.

Drug Free America Foundation works in opposition to all drugs, recognizing the marijuana is usually the drug of initiation drug for young people who die of drugs.  All of us are united and support each other.

Help us stop the commercial marijuana industry.  If these groups have a Facebook and Twitter presence, please follow or “LIKE” them. Those simple actions can raise the profile of all groups that fight against BIG MARIJUANA.

For more http://www.poppot.org/2018/09/28/new-groups-rise-up-against-pot-challenge-big-marijuana/

Vapers tricked into buying synthetic cannabis-laced product

An Observer investigation finds a synthetic cannabis substance hidden in liquid William McLennan 2018

Drug producers are capitalising on the rise of vaping to sell a liquid form of “spice” — an illegal synthetic substance nicknamed “zombie” — to unwitting customers.

Suppliers of Kronic Juice, which is being shipped into the UK labelled as a harmless e-liquid, refuse to disclose the ingredients, referring only to a “patent pending flavour enhancer”. However, laboratory tests commissioned by the Observer found it to contain a strain of synthetic cannabis that was banned in 2016.

The same chemical, sprayed on to plant matter and smoked in cigarette papers, was one of the so-called “legal highs” that came to be known as the zombie drug.

The emergence of liquid spice is the latest chapter in a battle between law enforcement and manufacturers, which led to the introduction of a blanket ban under the Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016. For complete story https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/22/vaping-cannabis-substance-liquid-spice