Global: Why Harm Reduction ONLY ideologies, Drive Drug Desire!

UK: No wonder there’s a prison drug crisis when the State is the main pusher

‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it’ — Upton Sinclair

In 2008 I wrote a pamphlet entitled Inside Out: how to get drugs out of prisons which was intended as a wake-up call for prisons and policy-makers. Ten years on, the state of affairs has gone from bad to worse, even descending into anarchy as seen at HMP Birmingham this summer. In fact Prisons Minister Rory Stewart, announcing a £10million crackdown on violence, drugs and phones in the ten worst prisons, has promised to resign in twelve months if assaults do not fall as a result.

I am talking about successive governments’ failed policy of prescribing substitute drugs such as methadone to prisoners rather than stopping their addiction; of the failed supply reduction policy that limits itself to trying to follow the drugs trail through prison, instead of setting out to eliminate the prison’s drug market completely. I am talking about defeatism and a lack of ambition.

It is fourteen years since the NHS took over responsibility for health care in prisons from the prison service. Since then prison drug treatment has come to mirror the methadone treatment the NHS offers in the wider community. What could be described as ‘situationally sensitive’ help for those entering the prison system with a pre-existing drug problem has all but been abandoned, as has secondary (post prison) residential support and rehab for any who managed to sustain abstinence while in prison. Nor is there much sympathy in the community for former offenders who picked up their drug problem ‘inside’.

For complete story: Using Drug Policy to Push Drugs!

 

CANAD: SAM CANADA – POT WATCH!

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Watchdog Group Launches on First Day of Marijuana Legalization in Canada

Contact: Pat Brogan [email protected] (703) 462-0530

[Vancouver, BC] – Today, despite international treaties outlawing the legal sales of marijuana, Canada became the largest sponsor of marijuana in the world, legalizing the commercial sales of the drug. In response, concerned citizens, activists, and public health experts gathered in Vancouver to announce the launch of a watchdog group dedicated to counting the costs of marijuana commercialization and assisting Canadians in need of help.
The SAM Canada Pot Watch will help Canadians navigate through the real scientific truth about marijuana and will provide referrals to legal, legislative, and other relief for Canadians harmed by today\’s high potency pot.

\”Canada is not only violating international laws by commercializing marijuana, it is letting a new industry – Big Marijuana – grow and prosper,\” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, founder and president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). \”As more Canadians feel the negative effects – secondhand smoke, workplace accidents, car crashes, declining school performance, loss of productivity, and other issues – I am confident the policy will be reversed in time. For now, we will help document the real costs of this policy.  This  watchdog website will help keep government and industry accountable.\”
\”We need to be mindful of what has happened to our southern neighbor under legalization,\” said Pamela McColl, chair of SAM Canada. \”Drugged-driving will go up. Workplace accidents will increase. Children and low-income populations will be targeted. It\’s up to our coalition to ensure Canada remains safe and shielded from the profit-driven interests of Big Marijuana.\”
This project will serve as a much-needed watchdog over the rapidly expanding industry in Canada. As seen in the United States, the marijuana industry dumps massive amounts of money into electing pro-marijuana lawmakers and lobbying on rolling back regulations so that it may pull in larger profits.
\”We will seek to shine a light where the industry would prefer darkness and expose the truth of what commercialization is doing to our country,\” said McColl. \”We will help Canadians get the help and guidance they need to deal with this dangerous, unprecedented policy.\”
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About SAM
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) is a 501 c-3, nonpartisan, non-profit alliance of physicians, policy makers, prevention workers, treatment and recovery professionals, scientists, and other concerned citizens opposed to marijuana legalization who want health and scientific evidence to guide marijuana policies. SAM focuses on education and awareness. SAM has affiliates in more than 30 states. For more information about marijuana use and its effects, visit www.learnaboutsam.org .

PORTUGAL: What\’s Really Going On with Portugal Drug Policy

PORTUGAL SUCCESS? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Portugal’s drug decriminalisation in 2001 is touted as the positive example New Zealand should aspire to. The basis for such a proposition was based on a 2009 report by the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.[1] But the report has been shown to have many shortcomings and weaknesses.[2] Basically, decriminalisation did not trigger dramatic changes in drug-related behaviour because, as an analysis of Portugal’s pre-decriminalisation laws and practices reveals, the reforms were more modest than suggested by the media attention they received.

Furthermore, in 2010, the Obama Administration essentially dismissed the Cato report stating it was “difficult, however, to draw any clear, reliable conclusions from the report regarding the impact of Portugal’s drug policy changes.” [3]

The reports limitations included:

  • supporting analysis not definitive – sometimes focusing on prevalence rate changes as small as 0.8%.
  • fails to recognize other factors – the report attributes favourable trends as a direct result of decriminalisation without acknowledging, for example, the decline in drug-related deaths that began prior to decriminalisation.
  • adverse data trends not reported – adverse social effects — such as the increase in drug-related deaths in Portugal between 2004 and 2006 — is sometimes ignored, downplayed, or not given equal recognition.
  • core drug‐use reduction claims not conclusive – as “proof” of drug legalisation’s success, the report trumpets a decline in the rate of illicit drug usage among 15- to 19- year-olds from 2001 to 2007, while ignoring increased rates in the 15-24 age group and an even greater increase in the 20-24 population over the same period. In a similar vein, the report emphasizes decreases in lifetime prevalence rates for the 13-18 age group from 2001 to 2006 and for heroin use in the 16-18 age group from 1999 to 2005. But, once again, it downplays increases in the lifetime prevalence rates for the 15-24 age group between 2001 and 2006, and for the 16-18 age group between 1999 and 2005.

Additional Studies Offer More Contradictory Evidence

Statistics compiled by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) indicate that between 2001 and 2007, lifetime prevalence rates for cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, and LSD have risen for the Portuguese general population (ages 15-64) and for the 15-34 age group.

Drug-induced deaths, which decreased in Portugal from 369 in 1999 to 152 in 2003, climbed to 314 in 2007 — a number significantly higher than the 280 deaths recorded when decriminalisation started in 2001.

Between 2012 and 2017 Lifetime Prevalence statistics for alcohol, tobacco and drugs for the general population (aged 15-64) have risen by 23%. The study saw an increase from 8.3% in 2012, to 10.2% in 2016/17, in the prevalence of illegal psychoactive substance use.[4]

“Claims that decriminalisation has reduced drug use and had no detrimental impact in Portugal significantly exceed the existing scientific basis.” [5]

Gil Kerlikowske, Director, US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

“A thorough report in 2011 by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug and Addiction (EMCDDA) presented a more nuanced picture. EMCDDA concluded that Portugal’s drug policy of depenalisation is not a “magic bullet” and that “the country still has high levels of problem drug use and HIV infection, and does not show specific developments in its drug situation that would clearly distinguish it from other European countries that have a different policy.” [6]

UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime): Cannabis A Short Review (2012) [7]

“Our drug problems are not solved.”

João Goulão, director-general of SICAD: the Centre for Intervention on

Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies. Known as Portugal’s ‘drug czar’.[8]

There is a black market – “people don’t know what they are buying, what they are selling” – the system “is confusing”, with many people believing that decriminalisation means that drugs are legal.

Adriana Curado, project coordinator at the GAT Harm Reduction Centre[9]

It is also significant to note that Portugal recently voted down a bill proposing to legalise medicinal — including grow-your-own — cannabis, and opted for a more confined law allowing use of some medicinal cannabis.[10]

Portugal coerces treatment and rehab, as does Sweden which reduced its drug use from the late 1970s from the highest levels in Europe to the lowest in the developed world by the early 1990s.

DRUG ADVOCATES DON’T MENTION SWEDEN OR ICELAND

Sweden and Iceland have a proven success in solidly reducing drug use, where education and rehabilitation are central.

Sweden made coerced rehabilitation and school education centrepieces of their restrictive drug policy with the result that their drug use dropped from the highest levels in Europe to the lowest in the developed world. Iceland reduced its illicit drug use by 50% by concentrating on resilience-based education in their schools.

Drug use expanded in the 1960s and rising government concern prompted the formation the Narcotics Drug Committee (1965). By 1969, the government approved a ten-point program for increasing public efforts against drugs. It concentrated heavily on law enforcement measures, but it also looked at demand reduction issues, particularly the provision of treatment services, establishing a demand reduction program operated by youth organisations. An advertising and promotion campaign was launched with literature distribution, newspaper and media advertising. The maximum penalty for serious narcotics offences was increased.

Finally, in 1984 the government adopted its vision toward creating a ‘Drug Free Sweden’. Organisations, political parties and youth organisations encouraged all the community to play an active role, stating: “Everybody who comes in contact with the problem must be engaged. The authorities can never relieve [individuals] from personal responsibility and participation. Efforts by parents, family and friends are especially important. Also, schools and non-governmental organisations are important instruments in the struggle against drugs.”

A study conducted in 2000 supported the view that the new, tougher policy had had a preventive effect on drug use.[11] A report by the UNODC praised Sweden for having one of the lowest drug usage rates in the western world, and attributed this to a drug policy that invested heavily in prevention and treatment (including free community services), as well as in strict law enforcement. [12]

The Swedish drug policy has the support of Swedes. The priorities are:

  • Coerced rehabilitation
  • Education
  • Maintenance of criminal sanctions

This means that decriminalisation of drug use is seen as an impediment to seeking a drug-free society.

Compiled by Family First, New Zealand

[5] Personal letter cited in Manuel Pinto Coelho, Op. Cit., 2010

[6] European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug and Addiction. (2011). Drug Policy Profiles‐Portugal. Accessed November 2011 at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/drug‐policyprofiles/portugal

[11] http://www.popcenter.org/library/crimeprevention/volume_11/08-Knutsson.pdf

What the media refuse to report on, and why propaganda is being substituted for evidence!

Research Report: Portugal Drug Policy Analysis — The Evidence

The Truth on PortugalUPDATED2018DFA

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S.A.M : NEWS ROUND UP September-October 2018

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News Roundup

September/October 2018
Here is a brief rundown of marijuana news as well as an update on what we have been up to over the last month.

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Register Now for the 2019 SAM SUMMIT in Atlanta!
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Don\’t miss the 6th Annual SAM Summit , once again taking place in conjunction with the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, GA on April 25, 2019.
SAM is proud to announce that U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, District Of Colorado, has just been added as the featured keynote.
This will be a must-see presentation as US Attorney Troyer will discuss his first-hand experience dealing with the negative effects of marijuana legalization in the state of Colorado.  Be sure to read his September 2018 op-ed \” It\’s high time we took a breath from marijuana commercialization.\”
Topics to be covered include: Lessons Learned from Legalized States, States to Watch in 2019 and Beyond, Legalization and Social Justice, and more.
We are currently accepting submissions for additional speakers. If you are interested in giving a presentation, please email Brendan at [email protected]
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SAM Goes All-In to Defeat Legalization in North Dakota

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SAM Action launched a statewide group announcing that they will fight passage of recreational marijuana in North Dakota in this fall\’s election, calling it \”bad law\” and promising to educate residents about its dangers.
The proposed law would make North Dakota the most liberal state for the regulation and control of marijuana. It would allow for limitless THC, place no limits on how much pot a person could carry, or how much they sale or where they sell it. Further, the measure would severely hamstring law enforcement efforts to enforce impaired driving laws.
SAM Action is going all out to support efforts to oppose this reckless proposal from passing. To help bolster the opposition to Measure 3, SAM Action officially launched its new affiliate Healthy and Productive North Dakota. The image above is going up on billboards all over the state advertising the reality of limitless pot potency that the measure would allow for.
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Multiple News Outlets Urge No Vote in Michigan, Including Detroit News Endorsement of SAM\’s Efforts

New HHS Survey: Heavy Marijuana Use Skyrocketing
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The Detroit News officially came out in opposition to the efforts to legalize marijuana in the state of Michigan. \”The primary problem with this proposal is that it won\’t do what its name implies: regulate marijuana like alcohol. Prop 1 would leave too much of the marijuana production and distribution network underground, making enforcement of regulatory and tax policies difficult.\”
Additionally, SAM founder and president Dr. Kevin Sabet penned an oped for The Detroit News highlighting the concerns Michiganders should have about legalization:
\”Large increases in drugged driving deaths, a phredatory industry targeting minorities and children, Big Marijuana wants nothing more than to use its power to entice the unsuspecting, the poor, the young and any other group that will listen to its false promises of a better world.\”
I n an oped for the Detroit Free Press, Dr. Sabet discussed how legal pot brings about more substance abuse, impaired drivers, and racial disparities:
\”According to data from the National Institutes of Health, 70% of today\’s illicit drug users began their journey with marijuana. The simple fact is that today\’s marijuana is much more potent – and harmful – than in the past.
There are now twice as many daily or near daily marijuana users in the US than just a decade ago, according to the most comprehensive survey on drug use released this month by the federal government. There are also now 8,300 new marijuana users each day, and 22% of 18 to 25 year olds are currently using the drug-the highest number for all three stats in recent memory.
The marijuana industry is getting their wish. More people are using highly potent pot edibles and other items much more often, and the perception of harm for these products is plummeting. It is time we woke up as a country and put science above ideology.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) also found that 42% of marijuana users use the drug daily or almost daily, and that marijuana was used by more than 8 in 10 substance users. Marijuana use rose significantly among age groups 12 and up, 18 and up, and 26 and up. Use among 12 to 17 year olds was stable versus last year, though in legalized states NSDUH data show marijuana use higher on average in legalized states.
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Op-ed:  \”New Jersey Police Chiefs: Don\’t Legalize Pot\”
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California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have allowed marijuana operations in the state to deduct business expenses from their state taxes, effectively allowing them greater movement to to advertise, promote, and commercialize their products.
\”Governor Brown did the right thing vetoing AB 1863, which would have granted legitimacy to these federally illegal operations. What is disturbing about the bill is that it would allow these operations to deduct advertising costs just like any legitimate business.
\”Because marijuana operations are pushing a federally controlled substance they are not able to deduct these expenses. Had the bill been signed, Big Marijuana would have been able to advertise and operate with even more freedom than they have at present.\”
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As part of SAM\’s ongoing work in New Jersey with its affiliate, NJ-RAMP, Member of the executive board for the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police and the Chairman of the NJSACOP Working Group, John Zebrowski, penned an op-edhighlighting the concerns of New Jersey law enforcement when it comes to marijuana legalization.
\”My community has experienced its share of horrific crashes, traffic congestion, snarl-ups, delays, as well as, pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. So I feel appropriately qualified to discuss the issues and concerns related to impaired driving, and in this case \”drugged driving,\” and its effect upon the motoring and non-motoring public.
Marijuana is not a benign drug. Impairment due to drugged driving has certain comparable similarities to impairment due to drunk driving, but it\’s the differences that will make the roadways less safe and the ability to enforce drugged driving laws much more difficult.\”
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New Data Out of Colorado Show Harsh Reality of Legalization

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A new Colorado  report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalizations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have increased since marijuana legalization.
The  report finds that since marijuana legalization:
  • Drugged driving went from killing roughly one person every 6.5 days to now killing someone every 2.5 days
  • Marijuana positive deaths have doubled
  • Regular marijuana use among the general population increased 45 percent
  • Marijuana use in Colorado is higher than 85 percent of the nation
  • The report also found that youth marijuana use increased 5 percent and is 54 percent higher than the national average, ranked 7th in the nation
  • The number of highway seizures of Colorado marijuana increased 39 percent
  • A total of 7.3 tons of illicit, Colorado-grown marijuana has been seized by law enforcement as it was en route to 24 different states
  • Seizures of Colorado marijuana in the U.S. mail system has increased 1,042 percent from an average of 52 parcels (2009-2012) to an average of 594 parcels (2013-2017
To read the full report, please click here.
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Michigan Prosecutors: \”Legal marijuana would change the landscape of Michigan\”

 SAM President Testifies in Kentucky Legislature as Lawmakers Consider Relaxing Marijuana Laws
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Police, prosecutors, health officials and others across the state of Michigan warned of dangers if a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana is passed by voters in November. The prosecutors also endorsed the efforts of Healthy and Productive Michigan, a SAM-affiliate.
Steve Kempker, the Ottawa County sheriff, said he recently met with law-enforcement officials in Colorado where marijuana has been legal since the start of 2014. He said that homelessness, petty theft and drugged-driving crashes – with marijuana the main drug – have increased. Mostly, he\’s concerned about the impact on children, and their easier access to the drug.
Ottawa County Prosecutor Ron Frantz said the legalizing marijuana would not, as some say, open jail cells for violent offenders. Any notion that the nation\’s jails and prisons are filled with those convicted marijuana-related crimes is \”fallacy,\”
\”It\’s a terrible idea for Michigan,\” Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene said.
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SAM founder and president Dr. Kevin Sabet was in Kentucky recently to testify before state lawmakers as they are considering marijuana legalization.
\”I think we need to slow down a little bit, because I do think this is something we\’re going to regret,\” said Dr. Sabet.
Dr. Sabet spent much of the hearing debunking the radical claims of the marijuana industry\’s lobbyists, including claims that the drug could cure cancer.
\”We are not about criminalizing users or denying medicine that could be helpful for people, especially people with terminal illnesses,\” he said. \”What we want to talk about is making sure we keep in mind what the data are saying and what experience has shown.\”
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Contemporary Health Issues on Marijuana: New Book Co-Edited by Dr. Kevin Sabet Available Now

Hot off the presses of Oxford University, Contemporary Health Issues on Marijuana
is now available for purchase. \"\"
This new book, co-edited by Drs. Kevin A. Sabet and Ken C. Winters, comprises chapters by other experts hailing from a wide range of fields including psychology, epidemiology, medicine, and criminal justice. It is a balanced, data-driven volume highlighting new theory and clinical evidence pertaining to marijuana.
The volume features a comprehensive review of research into marijuana\’s impact on public health, including how it affects cognitive and neurological functioning, its medical effects, suggested treatment approaches for marijuana use disorders, marijuana smoking and lung function, and marijuana-impaired driving.
Supplies are limited, so place your order today!
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MARIJUANA: PREVENTING ANOTHER BIG TOBACCO MEDIA CAMPAIGN TOOLKIT NOW AVAILABLE

Big Marijuana is borrowing the playbook of Big Tobacco in search of the same deep profits at the expense of addicted users. It is time to combat their game with the facts! To help you do so, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) has partnered with Communities for Alcohol and Drug Free Youth (CADY) to offer a comprehensive media campaign prevention toolkit.
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As always, thank you for being a SAM supporter. If you can, please chip-in with a small donation by clicking here.

If you can\’t chip-in, then at the very least,  and help grow the SAM community.

In Health,

Colton Grace

Communications Associate

Smart Approaches to Marijuana
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COLORADO: Prosecution on Legal Pot Posited

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2018
CONTACT: Pat Brogan [email protected]
703-462-0530

Colorado US Attorney Signals Potential Prosecution for \”State-Legal\” Marijuana Operations
(Alexandria, VA) –  US Attorney for Colorado, Bob Troyer, signaled potential prosecution of \”state legal\” marijuana operations and their investors in an op-ed written last Friday in the Denver Post. The piece signaled a new approach to reigning in Big Marijuana in states that have legalized. In the editorial, Troyer stated that his office would begin taking legal action against federally illegal marijuana businesses and their investors that have used Colorado\’s so-called legal status \”as a shield\”. In response, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) President Dr. Kevin Sabet released the following statement:
\”Law enforcement in Colorado have been working overtime to combat this thriving market that has been using the cover of legalization in the state to ship illicit pot to at least three dozen states. Now, the Attorney\’s office is shifting from combating the symptom of the illicit market (illegal grow operations on federal lands) and instead getting to the root of the problem: state licensed operations and their investors that are nothing more than a front for illegal activity.
\”Contrary to the promises of legalization advocates, legalizing pot does not discourage the illicit market, it makes it easier for it to thrive. The legalization \’experiment\’ has turned legalized states into glorified production centers for criminal enterprises and foreign cartels. It is my sincere hope that US Attorneys in other states follow suit.
\”A handful of states currently are being courted by the marijuana industry\’s deceptive promises. However, five states have rejected legalization and no states have legalized since 2016. I applaud the efforts of the US Attorney\’s office in their stewardship of public safety and public health and ask policymakers nationwide to learn from his leadership.\”
\”Colorado\’s experiment in marijuana legalization has led to youth use in Colorado at 85% higher than the national average, and marijuana-related traffic fatalities up 151%. 70% of dispensaries are recommending highly-potent pot to pregnant mothers, environmental concerns over water and energy consumption are abound, and a booming illegal market exploiting the lax regulatory system has flourished. This \’experiment\’ has failed by all measures.\”

 

USA: Doing it the Correct Way – DEA Reschedules Marijuana Meds

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2018
CONTACT: Pat Brogan [email protected]
703-462-0530

Doing it The Right Way: DEA Reschedules Marijuana Medication
(Alexandria, VA) –  Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) today applauded the rescheduling of Epidiolex, an FDA-approved medication derived from the marijuana plant that contains 99.9% pure cannabidiol (CBD). 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published a notice in the Federal Register that moves FDA-approved drugs that contain CBD derived from marijuana and no more than 0.1 percent tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) from schedule I to schedule V.
\”The approval of an FDA-approved CBD product is a very encouraging development,\” said Kevin Sabet, President of SAM. \”SAM has long been advocating for research into legitimate medicines derived from marijuana that can actually be prescribed by physicians. This is how we conduct scientific research and practice modern medicine in America. In contrast, marijuana sold in dispensaries are often contaminated and mislabeled.\”
The scheduling system, as established by the Controlled Substances Act, is not an index of harm, but an implementation of international treaty requirements for the acceptable medical use of substances that have a potential for abuse. Because whole-plant marijuana has not been standardized, dosed, and passed FDA clinical trials, the FDA has denied several petitions to reschedule the whole plant, most recently in 2016. A court of appeals recently rejected a challenge to that denial.
The FDA has issued several rounds of warning letters to the producers of dispensary marijuana products, some of which were found to contain no CBD, some with high levels of THC, and some contaminated with mold or pesticides.
\”The FDA process protects both patients and doctors by ensuring that the products are made with Good Manufacturing Processes and contain medicine patients actually need. Many doctors are reluctant to recommend dispensary products because they know they are exposing their patients to harmful products and themselves to medical malpractice claims,\” Sabet said.
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Global: The Absurdity of Legalizing Drugs!

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/

 

South Africa: Careless Constitutional Court Call – Creates Cannabis Health Crisis

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: Health Care Concern around Cannabis Legalization

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!

 

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