LIES AND PROPAGANDA DESIGNED TO GET FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

DECEMBER, 2019

These claims aren’t based on fact, but they’re propaganda points commonly used to get public support for legalization.

• Marijuana needs to be rescheduled in order to explore its medical properties. (The National Academy of Medicine Report of 2017 considered at 10,000 scientific abstracts to reach 100 conclusions.  There’s no shortage of research studies on marijuana.)

• Marijuana is safer than alcohol. (The risks of marijuana use are somewhat different from those of alcohol. Seth Leibsohn’s article, When a Lie Travels, demonstrates why it’s inappropriate to compare these two substances.  Both are dangerous, but marijuana is far more toxic to the brain than alcohol. Keeping marijuana illegal keeps usage down which is a form of “harm reduction.”)

Strangely, pot advocates often talk about the dangers of alcohol as a reason to legalize marijuana.

• Legalization is “inevitable.” (In 2009, nine state legislatures rejected the legalization and commercialization of marijuana.)

• Millions of people are in jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana. (The number of people in federal and state prisons for minor marijuana infractions is less than 1%. There is truth to the claim that blacks and Hispanics are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system. True before and after legalization, this issue cannot be resolved by legalization and it isn’t limited to drug policy.)

Not good substitute for opioids

• Marijuana can be used to replace opioids and solve the current opioid addiction crisis. (No, any marijuana use primes the brain for more addiction, especially in youth.  Pain patients who also use marijuana are less likely to get off opioids.)

• The black market goes away when states legalize marijuana. (Black markets increase after legalization, and even in-state buyers continue to buy on the black market.)

• Legalizing marijuana frees police to concentrate on more serious crimes. (FBI data from the first four states to legalize, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon, shows that crime increases significantly after legalization. Those four states had about 450 murders and 30,300 aggravated assaults in 2013. In 2018, they had almost 620 murders and 38,000 aggravated assaults–an increase of 37 percent for murders and 25 percent for aggravated assaults, far greater than the national increase.

• Regulation works. (Despite the fact that states have costly regulatory bodies, much dispensary marijuana is tainted with mold, fungus and pesticides.  Some of the vaping illnesses and deaths can be traced to legal, regulated marijuana stores. In other words, it’s not only bootleg marijuana vapes that are causing deaths.)

Not a tax windfall

• Legalized marijuana brings billions of tax dollars into the states that have legalized. (In all the states that have legalized, marijuana tax money represents less than 1% of state revenue.  We don’t have detailed analysis of the social costs: crashes, traffic deaths, butane hash oil explosions, mental health and emergency room costs related to cannabis.)  States that have legalized faced a huge increase in homelessness.

• People do not drive better under the influence of marijuana, as pot advocates claim. (Traffic deaths rose in the first states to legalize marijuana. Although data is preliminary, insurance company statistics suggest this outcome, too.  Mixing marijuana and alcohol, and multi-drug impairment is a rising problem that coincides with marijuana legalization. Drugged driving surpassed drunk driving as a cause of traffic deaths a few years ago. Marijuana is the number one drug associated with drugged driving.)

• Marijuana isn’t addictive. (Roughly 30% of regular marijuana users in the US are classified as having a cannabis use disorder, versus 10-20% of alcohol users.  A study from UC Davis found that adults dependent on cannabis had more financial and social problems than those dependent on alcohol. Addiction studies show that 9% of adult users and 17% of those who begin pot use as adolescents become addicted. These statistics come from the last century and don’t account for today’s high potency cannabis.)

The most devious lie

• Marijuana never killed anyone.  The most pernicious lie is that marijuana never killed anyone, which advocates repeat because marijuana doesn’t cause overdose deaths by crossing the blood-brain barrier.  (In addition to those killed by marijuana-impaired drivers, we have a long list of those whose marijuana use caused mental illness and led to other drugs or suicide.  Young people have also died from cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, heart arrhythmia and from vaping marijuana. Not to mention when people do foolish and stupid things when under the influence, causing accidental death.)

When asked in polls, about 65% of the people claim to favor legalization, but these polls don’t ask about decriminalization.   When polls ask about decriminalization, the answers change.

The Drug Policy Alliance, an organization at the forefront of drug policy reform, pushes for the legalization of all drugs.

For complete story to Proactive and Protective Parents Opposed to Pot

Toward Healthy Drug Policy in the United States – The Case of Safehouse

In finding an overdose-prevention site to be a legitimate public health measure, he relied on the consistent scientific evidence that such facilities have both therapeutic value for participants and public health benefits. This respect for international evidence was striking, given how great a barrier the CSA has been to applying health services innovations and research findings from peer countries in the United States.

The judge’s next step was to reject the U.S. attorney’s restrictive interpretation of the law. McHugh started by observing that “no credible argument can be made that facilities such as safe injection sites were within the contemplation of Congress either when it adopted § 856(a) in 1986, or when it amended the statute in 2003.” Adopting a conservative approach to statutory interpretation, McHugh was disinclined to stretch the law to prohibit an activity that Congress had not considered. He used the rest of his opinion to consider whether the statute’s language was even applicable to Safehouse.

Dalgarno Institute Comment:

Safe and Drug Use Consumption – The misappropriated nomenclature

The lens for both investigation and interpretation for drug use \’management\’, must have demand, supply and harm reduction filters, not simply the latter.

The continuing growth in the misuse of harm reduction only vehicles that end up endorsing, empowering, equipping or enabling ongoing drug use (thus both undermining the two other vital pillars of harm minimization – being Supply and Demand Reduction) is not simply an emerging phenomena, but a now entrenched one.

All harm reduction vehicles, whether pharmacotherapy or consumption mechanisms such as injecting rooms and needle/syringe programs, MUST have a sunset clause on them to be an effective drug policy tool. The exiting of the harm causing enterprise of drug use IS supposed to be the goal of harm reduction, not the continuation of it, and particularly at the expense of the non-drug using public.

There is no argument that more needs to be done, but it is the effective and uncompromising collaboration of all three pillars of Harm Minimization that will see the change needed. However, as long as harm reduction ONLY mechanisms are used to \’re-interpret\’ drug policy and implementation, then cessation of drug use is perpetually sabotaged, and harms grow!

For complete article https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1913448?query=TOC

See also

Needle & Syringe Program – An Australian Overview

Dealing With Addiction – Research Report 

Charges against man who killed Jewish kindergarten teacher while chanting verses from the Koran are DROPPED after it is ruled he suffered a psychotic episode by smoking cannabis

• Kobili Traore, 29, believed to have tortured Sarah Halimi in her Paris flat in 2017
• Mali immigrant shoved the 65-year-old mother from eleventh arrondissement
• He has admitted killing her but claimed he was not aware of his actions at time
• And the senior procureur général said that the killer should be sent to hospital

Traore confessed to the murder of Halimi at her Paris apartment (stock image). Psychiatric examinations of the defendant, who claims to smoke up to 15 joints per day, found his mental functioning was impaired due to his cannabis intake

The Mali immigrant then shoved the 65-year-old mother-of-three from the eleventh arrondissement building before reportedly yelling: \’I\’ve killed the Shaitan (devil)!\’

Psychiatric examinations of the defendant, who claims to smoke up to 15 joints per day, found his mental functioning was impaired due to his cannabis intake.

Although three assessments determined Traore\’s long-term drug habit had not inflicted him with mental illness, their verdicts differed insofar as his mental capacity during the killing.

(These continuing and growing behaviours are what generate stigma for the drug user, and rightly so! The pro-drug lobby continue to ignore or playdown these shocking and disturbing behaviours as they promote the ‘don’t label me, I have sickness that I will continue to grow by failing to be accountable for my actions or stopping drug use!’)

For complete article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7739949/Charges-against-man-killed-Jewish-kindergarten-teacher-chanting-Koran-DROPPED.html

Study outlines concerns around natural psychoactive substances

(It’s ONLY a PLANT! Well so, the ‘Stoner’ mantra goes — Guess what? So is tobacco and deadly nightshade and hemlock and mushrooms and cannabis and opium and… they are ‘just plants’ too — So, where’s the harm in that? Read on….Bloggers Comment)

New research finds that over a period of 17 years, people in the United States increased their use of natural psychoactive substances, believing them to be safe. This has led to many reports of adverse symptoms in adults and children alike.

Because these substances come from sources such as plants and mushrooms, many people believe them to be safe to use.

However, because they interfere with biological processes in the central nervous system, they can be a threat to human health. These interferences can also cause euphoria and altered states of consciousness.

For these reasons, many people are now using natural psychoactive substances for recreational purposes.

New research has studied trends in the number of people in the United States who reported adverse reactions as a result of exposure to psychoactive substances during 2000—2017.

35% of exposures occurred in teenagers

For the new study, the researchers accessed data from the National Poison Data System regarding exposures to natural psychoactive substances in U.S. populations.

They found that between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2017, the National Poison Data System processed up to 67,369 cases of dangerous exposure to natural psychoactive drugs. This is an average of 3,743 cases per year, or around 10 cases per day.

\”These substances have been associated with a variety of serious medical outcomes, including seizures and coma in adults and children,\” warns study co-author Henry Spiller, the director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children\’s Hospital.

During this time, there was a 150% increase in exposure to marijuana, a 64% increase in exposure to nutmeg (which contains the hallucinogenic substance myristicin), and a 4,948.9% increase in exposure to kratom, the leaves of which contain potent mind-altering substances.

Spiller points out that 47% of the exposures to natural psychoactive substances in 2000—2017 were to marijuana, which is now legal – for medical or recreational purposes – in 33 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

\”As more states continue to legalize marijuana in various forms, parents and healthcare providers should treat it like any other medication: locked up, away, and out of sight of children,\” Spiller advises. He warns that \”[w]ith edibles and infused products especially, curious children are mistaking them for kid-friendly candy or food, and that poses a very real risk for harm.\”

According to the study findings, 41% of the dangerous exposures occurred in people aged 19 and older, and as many as 35% occurred in people aged 13—19.

Kratom, khat (which contains the stimulant cathinone), various anticholinergic (central nervous system-disruptive) plants, and hallucinogenic mushrooms accounted for most hospital admissions due to exposure to natural psychoactive substances. They also accounted for most cases of serious medical outcomes.

Exposure to kratom, in particular, accounted for 8 of the 42 deaths in 2000—2017 that occurred due to natural psychoactive substances.

Also, 7 of the 42 deaths occurred in people under 18, and 5 of the 42 deaths occurred in people aged 13—19. These deaths were caused by exposure to anticholinergic plants, hallucinogenic mushrooms, kava kava, or marijuana. Two of the 42 deaths occurred in children aged 12 or younger, and both were due to exposure to marijuana.

For complete article Medial News Today 3^rd December 2019

Corbynomics really does make business go up in smoke! Labour leader son\’s \’National Hemp Service\’ selling cannabis products goes bust owing £100,000

• Jeremy Corbyn\’s son Tommy set up a company selling products made of hemp
• The firm, which was set up with Mr Corbyn\’s help, has gone into liquidation 
• The Islington-based company was called National Hemp Service – or NHS 
• One angry investor claims he has lost £30,000 in the failed start-up venture 

23 November 2019

Has Jeremy Corbyn’s son provided a glimpse of the economic future under Labour?

The Daily Mail can disclose that the company Tommy set up with the support of his father has gone into liquidation with debts of £100,000.

Called National Hemp Service, or NHS, the business was to have sold a range of products made from hemp, a strain of cannabis, from a cafe in Mr Corbyn’s Islington North constituency in London.

For complete Stoner Story go to https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7716123/Jeremy-Corbyns-sons-firm-goes-liquidation-owing-100-000.html

Legalisation of cannabis IS a fool’s crusade

By Kathy Gyngell  November 28, 2019

ON Monday, Times commentator Clare Foges wrote an admirable rebuttal to the LibDems’ much-vaunted cannabis legalisation policy, and took the whole legalisation case by the horns.

Though the self-confessed dope smoker Jo Swinson is unlikely to become PM, Foges points out that she could become a power broker. She has a point — if the LibDems are addicted to anything, it is to their defining but barmy idea that normalising drug use will make it OK. We are also, as Foges sets out in her article, ‘drifting on the tides of fashion towards a dangerous destination’.  Debunking the legalisers’ brave new world of dope was never more urgent.

It’s not just political pressure but commercial too. And they are prepared to spend money to get their way. Earlier this year I attended a conference The Spectator hosted for commercial cannabis hopefuls and political lobbyists which was misleadingly subtitled ‘Understanding the impact’. Forget that — there wasn’t a dissenting voice on the platform. It was all about when and why, little about why not. But for Peter Hitchens and David Raynes in the audience no hard questions about the social and health impact of Big Dope would have been posed. For a window into the world of the alternative ‘health’ entrepreneurs and city analysts who can’t wait to exploit this drug and whose attitude is ‘I’m all right, Jack’, this was chilling.

Foges also tackled the perception that to be against legalisation is to be in favour of the status quo. There are few of us however who are satisfied with its blind eye default.

She dealt with the standard arguments against legalisation explaining that ‘losing’ the war on crime doesn’t mean we stop prosecuting it. She reaffirmed too that potency is higher than ever before; that study after study has found a clear association between the high levels of THC which most present-day cannabis contains and serious mental health problems, particularly schizophrenia and psychosis.

But she went further, highlighting hospitalisations and how ‘those tormented by devils today tend to seek sanctuary in the local A&E, where admissions for psychosis have been rising’. An omission in this otherwise tour de force was any mention of the gulag of over-subscribed secure mental health units. Psychiatrists have called them cannabis dependency units, and they are populated largely by irreversibly damaged young male psychotics, betraying the fact that this is not an equal opportunities illness. Young men are the main victims of cannabis. Importantly she did turn to what Peter Hitchens has made his personal crusade which is to report and question ‘the third link in the chain: cannabis use; mental health problems; violent crime’.

Most journalists have carefully avoided the unpalatable (to drug liberalisers) fact of the extraordinary number of brutal crimes in which the assailant had a history of heavy use. Not so Clare Foges.

Many have been documented on a website called Attacker Smoked Cannabis to which Foges refers and whose curator says: ‘Once one learns the characteristics of violence committed by cannabis smokers – frenzied, savage, sustained, unprovoked — such violence becomes easy to spot. A young father violently killing his child? A victim stabbed ten, 20, 50, 100 times? . . . Such crimes used to be rare in the UK and Ireland, if they happened at all. In 2019, there were more than two dozen before Easter.’

She highlights, too, a book called Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence by the former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson which ‘shines a light on the data in states that have legalised cannabis’. The author, she reports, ‘calculated a 35 per cent rise in murders from 2013 to 2017 compared with a 20 per cent rise nationally’ in the four states that changed their laws from 2014 to 2015: Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

Foges’s article was one of the most comprehensive reviews of the impact of cannabis liberalisation by a journalist in recent years. Her conclusion, after weighing the evidence, that legalisation is no liberation but the reverse, was hugely welcome, as I wrote to the Times in response. 

For those readers not behind the paywall, I wrote:

‘Clare Foges’s warning against the momentum building for cannabis legalisation is timely and welcome. The flawed thinking behind the Lib Dem proposal needs spelling out. Most fundamental is the deceit that cannabis “harms” have derived from its prohibition, not its use. The reverse is the case. ….For more https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/legalisation-of-cannabis-is-fools-crusade/

California Cannabis Industry Sending SOS To State Leaders As Black Market Continues To Thrive

CBS Sacramento November 28, 2019

 “They didn’t realize how strong this illicit market was going to stay,” Hunter said. “I think people really thought that it was just going to stop [after legalization]. And actually, the opposite has happened. It almost feels like the illicit market is getting stronger.

And as 2019 comes to a close, California is indeed home to the world’s largest cannabis market, totaling close to $12 billion in estimated sales. But here’s the rub: $8.7 billion of that is changing hands in the illicit market.

Now, members of California’s cannabis industry are sending an S.O.S. to the state capitol, saying they’re struggling to compete against black market operators who don’t have to meet stringent regulations or pay taxes and fees. They’re urging leaders to make swift regulatory changes or risk the collapse of their emerging industry.

“The hard truth is that until legislative changes are made, our industry will continue to wither away,” said Michael Steinmetz, CEO of cannabis distributor Flow Kana, which recently joined a growing list of California cannabis firms that have cut their workforces.

Following the job cuts, which were first reported by the Sacramento Bee and described as an an “epidemic” of layoffs, Steinmetz cobbled together an informal coalition of more than a dozen leading companies and business associations to lobby the state.

However, not all legacy businesses transitioned to licensed operations under the new laws. While some have no intention to become regulated, others believe it’s cost-prohibitive or currently operate in municipalities where cannabis sales are banned, said Josh Drayton, spokesperson for the California Cannabis Industry Association.

Fewer than 40% of California’s municipalities have cannabis regulations in place, and only one in four of those allow for regulated retail operations, Drayton said. Earlier this year, lawmakers struck down a bill that would have required municipalities to allow recreational cannabis programs if a majority of their residents voted for the 2016 measure that legalized cannabis.

“They didn’t realize how strong this illicit market was going to stay,” Hunter said. “I think people really thought that it was just going to stop [after legalization]. And actually, the opposite has happened. It almost feels like the illicit market is getting stronger.

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/11/27/california-cannabis-industry-sos-black-market-thrives/

FDA Says Most CBD Products May Not Be Safe, and Warns 15 Companies to Stop Selling Them

CBD may pose unknown health risks and cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement, food or therapeutic cure-all.

CBD products may be trendy, but health officials are worried that these products – which are often marketed illegally – may not be safe.

Yesterday (Nov. 26), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warning letters to 15 companies that sell CBD products because the products violate federal law. The agency also issued an update to consumers about the popular products, and stressed that there is limited evidence for their safety.

CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a chemical found in cannabis that does not induce a mind-bending high. Although drug developers have long sought to uncover the potential health benefits of CBD, to date, only one CBD product has survived the FDA approval process – a prescription drug to treat  rare forms of childhood epilepsy. Nonetheless, consumers can now purchase any number of unapproved CBD products, from oils to chocolate bars to pet foods, from companies that claim their goods deliver therapeutic benefits or help treat disease.

Related: Mixing the Pot? 7 Ways Marijuana Interacts with Medicines

These companies have broken federal law by marketing the unproven health benefits of their CBD products, mixing the drug into food, or advertising CBD as a dietary supplement, the FDA announced yesterday. What\’s more, these companies may have placed their customers at unknown risk, the FDA said.

\”We remain concerned that some people wrongly think that the myriad of CBD products on the market, many of which are illegal, have been evaluated by the FDA and determined to be safe, or that trying CBD \’can’t hurt,\’\” Dr. Amy Abernethy, the FDA\’s principal deputy commissioner, said in a statement. In reality, the FDA does not have enough data to say whether CBD can be \”generally recognized as safe,\” and several reports raise questions about the unintended health consequences of consuming the compound.

For instance, when scientists first tested the safety of the approved CBD epilepsy drug, they noted that CBD could inflict damage to the liver. If taken without medical supervision, the damage could prove more extensive, the FDA said in a consumer update on cannabis-derived compounds. Several studies indicate that CBD may alter how the body breaks down other drugs, either increasing or decreasing their potency. In addition, studies in animals suggest the compound may impede the function of testes and sperm, deplete testosterone levels and impair male sexual behavior.

Some reports have uncovered contaminants \”such as pesticides and heavy metals\” in CBD products, the FDA said. Other studies highlight the potential side effects of taking the compound, including sleep disruption, diarrhea, abdominal pain and mood changes. And questions still linger about how repeated CBD exposure might affect someone over time.

Moreover, the compound may trigger unknown effects in vulnerable populations, including pregnant people and children. Some of the companies called out today specifically market products \”for infants and children,\” who may not metabolize and excrete the drug as adults do, the agency noted.

\”As we work quickly to further clarify our regulatory approach for products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds like CBD, we\’ll continue to monitor the marketplace and take action as needed against companies that violate the law in ways that raise a variety of public health concerns,\” Abernethy said.

The FDA defines a \”drug\” as any non-food product intended to treat a disease, have a therapeutic use, or affect the structure or function of the body. By this definition, many CBD products count as drugs and should be subject to the same scrutiny as other pharmaceuticals, Abernethy said. In addition, the FDA will continue to evaluate the safety and regulation of CBD products intended for \”non-drug uses,\” according to the consumer update.

\”This overarching approach regarding CBD is the same as the FDA would take for any other substance that we regulate,\” Abernethy said. The agency encouraged consumers to speak with health care professionals about how to treat diseases and conditions with existing drugs, and to be wary of  \”unsubstantiated claims\” associated with CBD products.

The FDA requested that the companies issued letters respond within 15 working days and report how they plan to correct the violations.

For complete story Originally published on Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/fda-warns-companies-selling-cbd-products.html  (28/11/19)