Jamaica’s recent decriminalization of possession of up to two ounces of ganja is contributing to a dangerous practice that officials warn needs urgent attention.

Disturbing findings in the 2016 National Drug Prevalence Survey show that one in six males and 17 females drive under the influence, with most admitting to using ganja since it has been decriminalized.

Executive director of the National Council on Drug Abuse Michael Tucker has raised a red flag about the data, which he said highlights the fact that people behind the wheel as well as non-drivers are in serious danger.

He told the Jamaica Gleaner: “This is very troubling, as potentially these persons are not only a harm to themselves, but to other users of the road. Many times they might be carrying passengers, including children.”

More than 4,500 people across Jamaica participated in the survey conducted in April and July last year which sought to find out the pattern of substance abuse among citizens between 12 and 65, and attitudes towards ganja decriminalization, among other things. Tucker was particularly concerned that some of the frequent road users, including the drivers of public transport, were among the offenders.

“We don’t want to raise any alarm on a particular group of persons, but if you look at the population, I would assume that a reasonable number of them, (respondents) would have come from that group (bus drivers),” he said.

At the same time, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dr Lucien Jones lamented that the problems associated with drug use were often misunderstood and underestimated.  Pointing to police data, he noted that distracted driving has been identified as one of the main causes of accidents.

“It goes back to the basic problem we have on the road, which is indiscipline. It’s a mindset, which we are definitely trying to change. So it’s one other issue, apart from just driving recklessly on the road. It’s a major concern for us that people don’t understand the problems, which are associated with drug use,” Jones told The Gleaner.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has suggested that educating citizens about the effects of substance abuse is a key way to tackle the problem.

He noted that while Jamaica is positioning itself to be a major player in the marijuana industry, government would ensure that the drug is not misused or abuse.

Source:  http://www.caribbean360.com/news/jamaica_news/influence-jamaicans-driving-high#ixzz4WEiVvycI   Caribbean360 – January 18, 2017

Germany’s lower house of parliament has passed a law legalising the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

People with serious illnesses, such as multiple sclerosis and chronic pain, or a lack of appetite or nausea, could be offered marijuana under the law.  Patients will only have the right to be treated with cannabis “in very limited exceptional cases” and they will not be allowed to grow their own cannabis, according to the bill.

The health minister, Hermann Gröhe, said: “Those who are severely ill need to get the best possible treatment and that includes health insurance funds paying for cannabis as a medicine for those who are chronically ill if they can’t be effectively treated any other way.”

A health ministry spokeswoman said cannabis would only be used as a last resort. She said a scientific study would simultaneously be carried out to assess the effects of cannabis use in such cases.  Until now, patients have only been able to access cannabis for medicinal purposes by special authorisation, making the process complicated. Now they will be able to get a prescription from their doctor and a refund for the upfront cost from their health insurance, she said.

The spokeswoman said the law was likely to take effect in March after a procedural reading by the upper house of parliament.  Until state-supervised cannabis plantations are set up in Germany cannabis will be imported.

Other European countries that allow cannabis to be used for medical purposes include Italy and the Czech Republic.

Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/19/german-mps-vote-to-legalise-cannabis-for-medicinal-purposes

More than 900 people died in British Columbia last year from illicit drug overdoses, but the provincial health minister says the toll could have been far higher and he warned the federal government Wednesday the epidemic is spreading across Canada.

The arrival of the powerful opioid fentanyl pushed the provincial death toll to a new peak of 914 overdose deaths in 2016. The BC Coroners Service reported the figure is almost 80 per cent higher than the 510 deaths due to illicit drugs in 2015.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said December was the worst month at 142 deaths, the highest monthly death total ever.

“The introduction of fentanyl to our province is a game-changer,” Lapointe told a news conference. “We’ve now got this contaminant in the illicit drug system that is not manageable.”

Health Minister Terry Lake said B.C.’s death toll would have been much higher if it had not been for overdose prevention measures undertaken by the province and the often heroic efforts by first-responders and others who rushed to provide aid to victims.

“The evidence suggests many, many more lives would have been lost had we not done what we have done,” he said.

Lake said he has records of 96 overdose reversals at community overdose prevention sites where addicts can use drugs under supervision of health officials. There were no overdose deaths at the Insite safe-injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, he said.   “We’ve seen the mobile medical unit, over 600 overdoses treated,” he said.

The B.C. government declared a public health emergency last spring in an attempt to reduce the rising numbers of drug overdose deaths.  The B.C. Centre For Disease Control also launched a take-home naloxone program for residents to reverse the effects of opioids.

The government also announced late last year that overdose prevention sites would be established in communities across the province where people could take illicit drugs while being monitored by trained professionals equipped with naloxone.

Lake said the federal government should declare a nationwide public health emergency, saying the problem is spreading across the country.

“It would focus, from a national perspective, action on this epidemic,” he said. “We haven’t had any additional funding from Ottawa to help us with this. Declaring a national public health emergency would focus all Canadians on an issue that is wracking B.C. at the moment.”

Lapointe couldn’t forecast an end, saying it will require long-term vigilance and programs on the part of governments, health providers, first-responders, families and drug users themselves.

She said she recognizes that those who are dependent on illicit drugs aren’t going to be able to abstain, but she urged them to take the drugs in front of someone who has medical expertise or at least with a sober friend.

An average of nine people died every two days from overdoses last month, she said.

“We know that this represents suffering and devastation in communities across our province.”

The coroner’s service said fatalities aren’t just happening among those who use opioid drugs, such as heroin.

“Cocaine and methamphetamines are also being found in a higher percentages of fentanyl-detected deaths in 2016,” Lapointe said.

People aged 30 to 49 accounted for the largest percentage of overdose deaths last year, and males accounted for more than 80 per cent of the overall toll.  Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s chief medical health officer, said the number of deaths is difficult to confront.

“This was unexpected and disheartening,” he said. “We still have not as yet been able to reverse the trend. This is frankly a North America-wide problem.”

He said he will review European drug treatment programs that prescribe heroin-like medicines to addicts.

Source:  THE CANADIAN PRESS Published on: January 18, 2017 |

Once you drop, you can’t stop – sometimes for up to 15 hours. Images revealing how LSD interacts with receptors in the brain could explain why a trip lasts so long, while another study involving a similar receptor unpicks how the drug makes these experiences feel meaningful.

LSD acts on with a number of different receptors in the brain, including ones for the chemicals serotonin and dopamine, but it’s not known exactly which receptors are responsible for its various effects. Daniel Wacker and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, used crystallography to look at the structure of LSD when it binds to a receptor in the brain that normally detects serotonin. They discovered that part of this serotonin 2B receptor acts as a lid, closing around the LSD molecule and trapping it.

This could explain the extended trips the drug produces. “It takes LSD very long to get into the receptor, and once it’s stuck it doesn’t go away,” says Wacker.

However, there is conflicting evidence. Other studies have shown that LSD hangs around in the blood for a long time. “No prolonged action at the receptor is needed to explain the duration of action,” says Matthias Liechti at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

But if Wacker is right, the fact that LSD seems to get stuck inside the receptor might mean it can have effects at very low doses. In recent years, there have been reports of some people taking LSD in amounts too small to cause hallucinations, in an attempt to boost creativity or general well-being.

There’s little hard evidence about whether this microdosing works, but Wacker says psychoactive effects at low doses are plausible. “Our study suggests even very low amounts of LSD may be enough to cause psychoactive effects.” Scientific interest in LSD’s clinical use has revived in recent years – notably to relieve severe psychiatric conditions such as PTSD and anxiety. There are also signs that LSD has helpful non-psychoactive effects on other ailments, such as cluster headaches.

Suppressing bliss

A second study finds evidence that LSD affect the brain by binding to serotonin receptors, and hints at possible ways to harness some of its effects therapeutically. Katrin Preller and her colleagues at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, gave 22 volunteers 100 micrograms of LSD each to determine the role of the serotonin 2A receptor, which is similar to the one studied by Wacker’s team.

In some of the tests, subjects were also given ketanserin, a drug that blocks the serotonin 2A receptor. In those tests, the trippy effects of LSD – including hallucinations, feeling separate from the body, and feelings of bliss – were completely blocked, showing that this receptor must be responsible for them.

The researchers also played songs to the participants. Some of the songs were ones the volunteers had chosen as meaningful beforehand, while others were not. While on LSD, they rated what had been non-meaningful songs as highly meaningful – an effect that, once again, ketanserin blocked.

Preller thinks these findings suggest that the serotonin 2A receptor is important for how we decide which things are relevant to us. “This is something that’s incredibly important for our everyday life,” she says. “We do it constantly, for example if you see a familiar face.”

Some psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and phobias, are associated with paying too much attention to unimportant stimuli. Preller speculates that LSD might help people refocus their attention in a different direction.

“If you have a depressed patient ruminating about negative thoughts, LSD might facilitate a process where you attribute meaning to other things,” says Preller.

Alternatively, people with these conditions might benefit from drugs that reduce the action of the serotonin 2A receptor, like ketanserin.

Source: Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.030 Journal reference: Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.12.033

A medical marijuana patient in Lower Sackville, N.S., said he’s worried after the marijuana he consumed for nearly a year was recalled by Health Canada because it was grown with two pesticides that, if heated, can emit hydrogen cyanide.

John Percy, 67, smokes, vapes and bakes his cannabis to control pain in his hip caused by osteoarthritis. The former Green Party leader had been ordering his medical marijuana from OrganiGram in Moncton, N.B., the only licensed producer in Atlantic Canada.

He said his pain was an “eight out of 10.”

“I was shocked,” said Percy, when he first learned of the voluntary recall in late December. The letter said the marijuana he consumed “tested positive for bifenazate and/or myclobutanil, both unapproved pesticides and not registered for use on marijuana.”

“I assumed like most patients that the product would be organic,” he said.

According to Health Canada hydrogen cyanide interferes with how oxygen is used in the body and may cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Larger concentrations may cause gasping, irregular heartbeats, seizures, fainting, and even death.

‘I got angry’

He said he was willing to take a wait-and-see approach. But less than two weeks later, there was another, higher-level recall notice from OrganiGram saying all products manufactured since February had been recalled.

“That’s when I got angry and I started to consider what the effects on me have been,” said Percy, who also sits on the board of Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana.

He said he plans to talk to his doctor about whether the recalled medical marijuana he’d been consuming, about three grams a day, has adversely affected his health.

‘Patient safety at risk’

Percy said he’s upset that Health Canada did not issue a mandatory recall. Health Canada said no cases of adverse reactions have been reported.

“Putting patient safety at risk is unacceptable, and for a government department that is supposed to take care of people’s safety, I think they’ve fallen down on the job,” said Percy.

He said he’s written to the health minister and to members of Parliament. He believes Health Canada should test marijuana for more than 13 compounds to ensure it’s safe for consumption.

Percy said he and other licensed medical marijuana patients have discussed starting a class-action lawsuit.

Without a licensed producer, he’s going to an illegal dispensary — and paying 30 per cent more for his medication. There’s no compassionate pricing at the illegal spot, so his monthly marijuana budget has shot up to about $850 from $600. “It hurts, it hurts,” he said.

He said getting a prescription filled for another one of the 30-plus licensed producers in Canada would take months, but didn’t want to wait in pain.

Source:  https://ca.news.yahoo.com/medical-marijuana-user-shocked-recall-120500202.html

Abstract

The objective of the present research was to examine the association between lifetime cannabis use disorder (CUD), current suicidal ideation, and lifetime history of suicide attempts in a large and diverse sample of Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans (N = 3233) using a battery of well-validated instruments.

As expected, CUD was associated with both current suicidal ideation (OR = 1.683, p = 0.008) and lifetime suicide attempts (OR = 2.306, p < 0.0001), even after accounting for the effects of sex, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, alcohol use disorder, non-cannabis drug use disorder, history of childhood sexual abuse, and combat exposure.

Thus, the findings from the present study suggest that CUD may be a unique predictor of suicide attempts among Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans; however, a significant limitation of the present study was its cross-sectional design. Prospective research aimed at understanding the complex relationship between CUD, mental health problems, and suicidal behavior among veterans is clearly needed at the present time.

Source:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28129565 J Psychiatr Res. 2017 Jan 5;89:1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.01.002. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

Cannabis use is observationally associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, but whether the relationship is causal is not known.

Using a genetic approach, we took 10 independent genetic variants previously identified to associate with cannabis use in 32,330 individuals to determine the nature of the association between cannabis use and risk of schizophrenia. Genetic variants were employed as instruments to recapitulate a randomized controlled trial involving two groups (cannabis users vs nonusers) to estimate the causal effect of cannabis use on risk of schizophrenia in 34 241 cases and 45 604 controls from predominantly European descent.

Genetically-derived estimates were compared with a meta-analysis of observational studies reporting ever use of cannabis and risk of schizophrenia or related disorders. Based on the genetic approach, use of cannabis was associated with increased risk of schizophrenia (odds ratio (OR) of schizophrenia for users vs nonusers of cannabis: 1.37; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-1.67; P-value=0.007). The corresponding estimate from observational analysis was 1.43 (95% CI, 1.19-1.67; P-value for heterogeneity =0.76).

The genetic markers did not show evidence of pleiotropic effects and accounting for tobacco exposure did not alter the association (OR of schizophrenia for users vs nonusers of cannabis, adjusted for ever vs never smoker: 1.41; 95% CI, 1.09-1.83). This adds to the substantial evidence base that has previously identified cannabis use to associate with increased risk of schizophrenia, by suggesting that the relationship is causal. Such robust evidence may inform public health messages about cannabis use, especially regarding its potential mental health consequences.

Source:Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 24 January 2017; doi:10.1038/mp.2016.252.

The letter below speaks of the heroin epidemic in the USA.  The figure of heroin and opioid addiction that has destroyed countless families and killed more than 50,000 Americans in 2015 alone is salutary.

A chronicle of President Barack Obama’s tenure must include the heroin epidemic that he leaves us with. Our nation is plagued with a systemic heroin and opioid addiction that has destroyed countless families and killed more than 50,000 Americans in 2015 alone. This one-year death toll is greater than the total number of Americans killed in action during the Vietnam War.

The opioid casualty count only tells part of the story. More than half a million Americans admit to being addicted to heroin, and each of them has a very difficult, if not impossible, road to recovery. Yet, heroin flows into our nation every day and is readily available for $5 a bag 24/7 on street corners throughout the cities and suburbs of America.

How was this level of accessibility not reason enough for President Obama to make slowing our porous borders a priority?  Obama, in his final days as president is now becoming more vocal about the epidemic he leaves behind. However, this is too little, too late in the extreme. His record-setting pardoning and lessening of drug dealer sentences, which have included heroin dealers, further erodes his record on the heroin epidemic. Classifying a heroin dealer as a nonviolent criminal in the face of the American opioid death toll is nonsense.

Perhaps Obama was one of the lucky ones that didn’t have a close friend or relative addicted or taken by heroin and he just didn’t notice the plague that took root under his watch.

Robert Cochran Stafford

Source:  http://www.app.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/01/14/letter-obama-legacy-includes-drug-addiction-epidemic/96557686/

FRAMINHAM, Mass. – A Framingham middle school student was hospitalized Monday after he and another student ate a marijuana edible on the school bus, according to a letter released by Fuller Middle School.   School officials are trying to find out who brought the edibles on the bus and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Stacy Velasquez says her 12-year-old son was riding the bus to school Monday morning when he found a container of gummy bears that got him very sick.   He called her crying.

“He said, ‘I ate something.’ I said, ‘what did you eat?’ He said candy. Where did you get it? He said he found it on the bus,” Velasquez explained.   When she arrived at Fuller Middle School, she says he was in a trance-like state, barely able to speak. She rushed him to the emergency room, snapping a video of his behavior.

“Once the tox screen came back, they said they’d never seen this before in a child so small, like an overdose so to speak of marijuana, but basically it would run its course and he would sleep it off.  And that’s what he did last night,” said Velasquez.

The district superintendent says they have no comment in regards to what happened, just that the police are now investigating.   Though marijuana is now legal in the state of Massachusetts, it’s not legal for anyone under the age of 21 to handle or ingest the drug.

“I would just like someone to make sure the school is doing their part and the bus drivers are doing their part to make sure the children get to and from school safely and that something like this doesn’t happen to someone else’s child,” Velasquez said. “I think the teenager involved [should be charged], because right now, it’s expected to be one of the high schoolers.”

Velasquez said her son is doing fine, he’s just embarrassed about what happened.   As for possible charges, police are looking through video taken on the bus to see who the edibles link back to.

Source:  http://www.fox25boston.com/news/framingham-middle-schooler-hospitalized-after-eating-marijuana-edible-on-school-bus/483211673?utm_source=January 11th 2017

The United States surgeon general’s landmark report on alcohol, drugs and health entitled “Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health,” concludes that alcohol and drug misuse, disorders and addiction are among America’s most pressing public health concerns. As noted in the report, nearly 21 million Americans – more than the number of people who have all cancers combined – suffer from substance use disorders.

The exhaustive report’s chapter dedicated to prevention programs concludes that evidence-based prevention interventions, carried out before the need for treatment, are critical because they can delay early use and stop the progression from use to addiction resulting in costly individual, social and public health consequences. As the study states, “The good news is that there is strong scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of prevention programs and policies.”

The report concludes that interventions for adolescents ages 10 to 18 have been shown to affect either the initiation or escalation of substance use. D.A.R.E.’s “keepin’ it REAL” curriculum is among a number of select programs the surgeon general identifies as building social, emotional, cognitive and substance refusal skills that provide children with accurate information on rates and amounts of peer substance use.

D.A.R.E. America formed an alliance in 2008 with Pennsylvania State University for adoption of the curriculum as the D.A.R.E. middle school program. The program was developed by PSU with support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, utilizing rigorous longitudinal scientific evaluations to create this evidence-based program. D.A.R.E. adopted the “keepin’ it REAL” middle-school curriculum that same year and its elementary school curriculum in 2013. D.A.R.E.’s “keepin’ it REAL” Elementary and Middle School Curricula adhere to relevant National Institute of Health’s Lessons from Prevention Research principles.

In 2014, Scientific American magazine commended D.A.R.E.’s Keepin’ it REAL curricula in its article, The New D.A.R.E. Program — This One Works. The “keepin’ it REAL” substance-abuse curriculum focuses on elementary and middle-school students’ decisions, not drugs (www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/).

Source:   http://www.flyergroup.com/news/surgeon-general-commends-efficiency-of-d-a-r-e-program/article_d202095f-e269-5f43-ac12-b7d271f6f225.html

This Report reviews what we know about substance use and health and how we can use that knowledge to address substance misuse and related health consequences.

First, a general Introduction and Overview of the Report (PDF | 1.5 MB) describes the extent of the substance use problem in the United States. Then it lays a foundation for readers by explaining what happens in the brain of a person with an addiction to these substances.

Chapter 2 – The Neurobiology of Substance Use, Misuse, and Addiction (PDF | 6.0 MB) describes the three main circuits in the brain involved in addiction, and how substance use can “hijack” the normal function of these circuits. Understanding this transformation in the brain is critical to understanding why addiction is a health condition, not a moral failing or character flaw.  Few would disagree with the notion that preventing substance use disorders from developing in the first place is ideal. Prevention programs and policies are available that have been proven to do just that.

Chapter 3 – Prevention Programs and Policies (PDF | 1.5 MB) describes a range of programs focused on preventing substance misuse including universal prevention programs that target the whole community as well as programs that are tailored to high-risk populations. It also describes population-level policies that are effective for reducing underage drinking, drinking and driving, spread of infectious disease, and other consequences of alcohol and drug misuse.

If a person does develop a substance use disorder, treatment is critical. Substance use disorders share some important characteristics with other chronic illnesses, like diabetes. Both are chronic conditions that can be effectively managed with medications and other treatments that focus on behavior and lifestyle.

Chapter 4 – Early Intervention, Treatment, and Management of Substance Use Disorders (PDF | 629 KB) describes the clinical activities that are used to identify people who have a substance use disorder and engage them in treatment. It also describes the range of medications and behavioral treatments that can help people successfully address their substance use disorder.

As with other chronic conditions, people with substance use disorders need support through the long and often difficult process of returning to a healthy and productive life.

Chapter 5 – Recovery: The Many Paths to Wellness (PDF | 335 KB) describes the growing array of services and systems that provide this essential function and the many pathways that make recovery possible.  Responsive and coordinated systems are needed to provide prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Traditionally, general health care and substance use disorder treatment have been provided through distinct and separate systems, but that is now changing.

Chapter 6 – Health Care Systems and Substance Use Disorders (PDF | 1.3 MB) explains why integrating general health care and substance use services can result in better outcomes and describes policies and activities underway to achieve that goal.

The final chapter, Chapter 7 – Vision for the Future: A Public Health Approach (PDF | 255 KB), provides concrete recommendations on how to reduce substance misuse and related harms in communities across the United States.

Source:  https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary/report

January 12th, 2017

A new study finds ignition interlocks, devices that prevent a person from starting a car if their blood alcohol level is too high, prevents deadly accidents.

Ignition interlocks are associated with a 7 percent decrease in the rate of fatal crashes involving at least one drunk driver, researchers report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.   Cars with the device will not start if the driver’s blood alcohol level exceeds a preset limit,  HealthDay reports.

While all states have some type of ignition interlock law, only half require everyone convicted of a DUI to use the device, the researchers noted. Some states require them only for repeat offenders, or for those caught driving with very high blood alcohol levels.

Source:  http://www.drugfree.org/news-service/ignition-interlocks-prevent-deadly-drunk-driving-accidents/

As well as targeting children with ‘marijuana edibles’ children’s books are now being used as ‘a tool in (his) campaign for legalisation’.  Cannabis is addictive and the younger a person is when they begin to use the more likely they are to have problems later.

The author of ‘Hairy Pothead’ and ‘Green Buds and Hash’ explains why children’s books are the perfect way to make weed approachable.

When marijuana activist Dana Larsen first started writing his pot-themed fan fiction, he just thought it would be fun for other cannabis users to read. But after years of selling thousands of copies of his parody children’s stories like Green Buds and Hash and Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone, Larsen realized they could be more: a tool in his campaign for legalization.

In Canada, where Larsen lives, a nationwide legalization policy probably isn’t far off. Possessing and selling weed is still illegal across the country, but this spring, the Canadian government will propose new laws that could make it the first major country to legalize marijuana across the board. Marijuana activists hope that this shift in regulation up north will trickle down to the United States—and eventually the rest of the world—in a major victory against the war on drugs.

That’s where Larsen believes his books come in. And he’s not the only one: An emerging collection of books—from It’s Just a Plant to If a Peacock Finds a Pot Leaf—are looking to make marijuana part of children’s literature. We talked to Larsen about how he believes his children’s book parodies can open up new dialogues about cannabis and can help usher in a new era of legalized, normalized weed.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VICE: So how did this all start?

Dana Larsen: Well, I wrote the Hairy Pothead book quite a few years ago. It came out in 2008, and it’s been re-published a couple of times since then. I read the Harry Potter books to my daughter and thought they were quite good. When I was reading them, I could just see this whole parallel world of it all being cannabis related. I just wrote it all down, and people liked it. I’ve got a sequel to that coming out, but it’s taking a bit. I’m hoping to put out  Hairy Pothead and the 420 Code next year sometime. I wrote the Green Buds and Hash poem quite a few years ago, and I just posted it online. It picked up a lot of traction, and I thought, Well, this should be a book.

Are these books meant to be for children?

I didn’t really write them for kids. I write them because they amuse me, and I enjoy them. What actually struck me—especially with the Green Buds and Hash book—is how many parents do read it to their kids, and often it’s because either the parent or the child is a medical-marijuana user. It’s a way for them to have this dialogue in a non-judgmental way with their kid. There are plenty of children who I know that who have epilepsy and use cannabis medicinally or their parents do, and I’ve had some kids send me drawings of characters from the book that say, “My daddy’s medicine,” or something. That’s not what I expected when I wrote it. I don’t really write these for kids,

but I don’t see any harm in anybody of any age reading a story or thinking about these ideas. I don’t think that an eight-year-old is going to read this book and start lighting up a joint or whatever.

Are you hoping your market shifts toward more children in the future?

I have had many parents tell me they read my books to their kids, or that they’re buying them for their kids to read. But usually those kids are teenagers or older, and not children. If I had written Green Buds and Hash for children, I wouldn’t have had lines like, “Do you suffer from sclerosis, epilepsy, or neurosis?” I doubt many pre-teens know what those words mean. However, that book does get read to some young children, and it does please me to know that some parents are using my books—and that one especially—as a way of talking to their kids and teaching them about marijuana medicine. Especially when parent or child is a medical cannabis user themselves.

I don’t think reading Hairy Pothead will make someone start smoking pot, any more than reading Harry Potter will make them start practicing witchcraft. Right now, I have four books, and I do see an age progression in them. Green Buds and Hash is the early reader; The Pie Eyed Piper is for elementary school age. Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone is for teens, and the Cannabis in Canada history book is for young adults and up.

If children are reading these books, how does that help normalize weed?

Much of the information that we get about cannabis is government and corporate propaganda against it. Cannabis and cannabis users are regularly demonized and mocked in the mainstream media. Even pro-cannabis media often portray cannabis users as dopey, lazy, and ignorant. In my stories, cannabis users are usually a little smarter than non-users—like they’re part of a secret group that has extra insight and wisdom. My stories portray cannabis as a magical substance with many uses and transformative powers, which I think is a valid assessment. Although the stories are fantastical, the cannabis information is accurate, and the stories can be educational.

The first Hairy Pothead book is 242 pages long—that’s close to the same length as the original. How long did that take you to do?

It took me about a year to write it. The sequel has been taking me a while because it should be about double the length. I’m also working on a new series coming out next year called, The Hash-tastic Voyages of Sinbad the Strain Hunter. He goes around finding giant cannabis plants that are hundreds of feet tall or finding little, tiny microscopic ones or other crazy adventures that sort of parallel all those stories from The Arabian Nights. I’ve got Jack and the Hemp Stalk and Little Green Riding Hood. I’m hoping to put out some of those stories next year as well.

Are you smoking pot every time you sit down to write?

Yeah. I smoke pot all day, every day, pretty much. I’m a very chronic cannabis user and have been for the past 20 years or so. I run dispensaries in Vancouver and do a lot of political activism work, so writing is not really my main focus. Most of my work is more like, I led a big referendum campaign in 2013 to collect signatures to try to force a vote here. We didn’t hit the signature target because it’s brutally hard in British Columbia compared to any American state. I work with the New Democratic Party; I do a lot of political stuff, and I’m a big part of the dispensary movement here in Canada.

What are your goals for legalization, and how do you see it playing out?

I think that legalizing cannabis is going to be the first step in a bigger shift to ending the whole global war on drugs. I think it’s going to take many years for all of this to play out, but to me, the war on drugs is really a war on the world’s best, most medicinal and culturally relevant plants—opium, poppy, coco, mushrooms, peyote, cactus, cannabis flowers, etc. These are things that are safest and most beneficial in their natural forms, and it’s really prohibition that makes them dangerous. My work has been focused on cannabis because although users of other drugs might have it worse in some ways, most of the policing, most of the enforcement, most of the money in the war on drugs goes against cannabis users because there’s more of us. I think that comes out in my fiction a lot, where a lot of my fairy tales end up in a transformative kind of way where everything changes because the metaphor of prohibition in that story is eliminated in some way.

It’s really a testament that Canada [could be] the first major country [to legalize marijuana nationally]. People will look to Canada and see what we do here, and it will definitely have an influence around the world with what other models come out there. Canada will hopefully be an example, and we’ll keep pushing here. Once it starts to happen, it’s going to happen everywhere.

Do you think educational tools like your books will help transform the overall perspective on pot over time?

Yeah. These things can be dangerous and risky, but they can also be wonderful and positive. I think a thing to compare that to, in a way, is sex. You want to be honest with your kids about sex and want them to understand how it works. We have sex-education classes in school. You might tell your children that abstinence is better, and you’d prefer them to be abstinent, but if you’re going to have sex, it’s better in a loving relationship, and it’s better if you use condoms or birth control. I don’t see any dichotomy or contradiction between those things, between encouraging abstinence and also saying, “If you’re going to do it, here’s a way to not kill yourself and to be safer.” With cannabis and drug use, that message can be there, too. You might not want your kid taking anything, but if you’re going to use something, cannabis is a lot safer than other substances.

I hope that my books and stories help normalize cannabis, because cannabis is normal. Especially in the Hairy Pothead book, as Hairy goes through his time at Hempwards School of Herbcraft and Weedery, you learn along with him. You learn a lot about hemp and cannabis and extracts and all the different classes. I sneak in a lot of learning and information in there. If people learn a little bit while they’re laughing and enjoying my stories, that is exactly what I want.

Source:  https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/childrens-books-are-the-new-frontier-in-weed-normalization

Earlier this week, the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), released a study that claims a 24 percent decline in marijuana-related problems among teenagers, such as becoming dependent on the drug or having trouble in school and in relationships. The researchers also claim there is an association between drops in problems related to cannabis and reductions in behavioural issues, such as fighting, property crimes and selling drugs. Pro-marijuana bloggers have picked this up as “proof” that legalization is not harmful to kids, but an editorial in the very same journal says that “no such inference is warranted.”

At first blush this study seems encouraging, however, there are several facts that are not consistent with media headlines and interpretations:

* The study examines data from 2002 to 2013, and thus does not examine any time period with retail marijuana legalization even though researchers state that they did look at legalization policies. Legalization was not in place until late 2012 in two states only, and retail sales started in 2014. Also, data show that marijuana use declined from 2002 to 2009, but increased after.

* The findings of this study contradict data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the US Monitoring the Future Study which all show an increase in kids using marijuana and needing treatment.

* The article lumps together all states and does not differentiate between those with less restrictive “medical” marijuana policies and those with stricter controls. * Finally, as Hopfer discusses in his editorial, it is possible “a decrease in conduct problems accounted for the decrease in the development of marijuana use disorders. Although this is not proof of a causal effect, one potential inference is that as marijuana use becomes more acceptable, more individuals without conduct or adult antisocial problems will use marijuana and that the risk of developing a use disorder is lower in individuals without comorbid conduct or adult antisocial problems.”

The legalization lobby will try and tout this research as proving that legalization works. In reality, legalization is ushering in the advent of marijuana candies and other kid-friendly items by big business. Colorado is the top state in the nation for youth marijuana use. Problems related to marijuana in Colorado and Washington are mounting, as evidenced here, with an out-of-control marijuana industry focused on hooking kids and retaining lifelong customers. The World Health Organization report on marijuana found several negative effects for teens, including “several components of cognitive function, with the most robust effects on short term episodic and working memory, planning and decision-making, response speed, accuracy and latency.” The report also detailed studies that found “heavy cannabis use over several decades produced substantial declines in cognitive performance that may not be wholly reversible… (and) an association between poorer verbal memory and sustained daily use of cannabis throughout adult life.”

Source:  https://learnaboutsam.org/despite-study-marijuana-still-linked-problems-among-teenagers/

Does Medical Marijuana Have a ‘Visit Florida’ Future? Check Out the New Las Vegas

Las Vegas has changed, folks. I couldn’t believe how much since I last visited. And I’m not talking about the glitzy hotels or the towering slot machines or the raving nightlife. I’m talking about changes you can see on the airport concourse two minutes after you deplane. I’m talking about medical marijuana. OMG.

Could this be Any Florida Airport in 2020?

You know how you used to walk down the moving walkway toward baggage claim, past casino show ads, and you’d hear a flutter of jokes from resident comedians? Now the jokes are gone. Most of the show ads are still there, but the posters directing visitors to medical marijuana will knock your eyes out.

Ads for businesses like Las Vegas ReLeaf, a 3,700-square-foot “pharm” that bills itself as “the Bellagio of dispensaries.” Or, if you prefer, set your GPS for Dr. Green Relief. Or, Sahara Wellness. Or, The Travel Joint.   On the other hand, once you reach the strip, you can always keep an eye out for the “Cannabus,” run by 420 Tours, Las Vegas’ first cannabis tour company. It’s more an SUV than a bus, but its promise is, “We take people looking for a medical marijuana card and legal pot from street corner to dispensary in less than an hour.”

I have to admit, it sounds wilder and woollier than it actually is. Las Vegas isn’t Colorado or California or Oregon yet. There are strict rules about how dispensaries can advertise in the city limits, for one thing. But it has a proposition on the November ballot similar to United for Care’s in Florida. That’s all cannabis entrepreneurs are waiting for to put doctors in charge and get the government out. Then, they say, medical marijuana will be snuggled in right next to — probably even part of — every corner of the Vegas tourist scene. They are so ready to set up shop in a bigger way. You can feel it in the air.

I saw one ad on television — shot in what amounted to a greenhouse, or a grow house, with all the “plant attendants” wearing white coats, soft music playing in the background. Strangest ad I ever saw. Memorable, somehow.

At any rate, right now it’s tough for long-suffering Nevadans with conditions that might be helped with pot to get it. They have to stumble through the state’s months-long red tape to get a medical marijuana card. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are cashing in on the state’s reciprocity laws. In 2015 Nevada became the first state to allow non-resident reciprocity, giving medical marijuana cardholders from other states the legal ability to buy medical marijuana in Nevada.

To explain further:

The Las Vegas Sun reports the Nevada Legislature legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in 2013. Although lawmakers undeniably had fiscal considerations in mind, they wanted to make it easier for patients with cancer, AIDS, seizures and other serious conditions to find legal relief from pain and chronic suffering. Medical marijuana itself had been legalized in 2000 in Nevada, but it was pretty much a bust. Patients had to grow their own supply and had few legal options for obtaining seeds or clones. 

Medical marijuana cards in Nevada are valid for one year, but because of the state’s lengthy processing time, by the time many patients receive their card, it often is valid for only eight or nine months.

“Just in case you haven’t waited long enough for your card, you have that much less time before you have to reapply,” Andrew Jolley, owner of the Source dispensary, told the Sun.

Nevada Organic Remedies’ grow house in Las Vegas

While Nevada law states that a medical marijuana patient’s application should be processed in fewer than 30 days, it almost always takes longer, explains Pam Graber, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health. The process, which includes a background check, often takes state officials 33 to 35 days to finish. 

And that’s for only a portion of what’s required. That timeframe doesn’t include the time needed to process a prospective patient’s original application request to the state, nor does it account for getting a signed physician statement or completing the last step — making a trip to the DMV.

In other pot-friendly states, such as California, Washington and Oregon, patients need only a doctor’s note to load up at dispensaries, including those in Nevada.

The lawmaker who championed the medical marijuana cause in the Nevada Legislature, Sen. Tick Segerblom, told the Sun the reciprocity law, which has attracted “thousands” of out-of-state patients, is part of a move to increase tourism in the state.

“We encourage the convention authority to promote that for our visitors,” Segerblom said.

Why would residents of California or Oregon buy their meds in Las Vegas instead of at home? One dispenser claims it’s because “people just don’t want to travel with their meds because it’s still a federal crime.”

In some ways, I understand casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s hostility toward medical marijuana. He’s a very savvy billionaire who can see the future. He doesn’t want visitors spending their money in dispensaries instead of his casinos. Anyway, by Nevada law, casinos aren’t allowed to get into the cannabis business, and so therefore have little incentive to back legalized marijuana.

Many people are nevertheless optimistic that soon enough, Nevada will allow everyone — locals and visitors alike — to use marijuana. That includes longtime local marijuana activist Jason Sturtsman. The International Business Times writes that while Sturtsman advocates for patient rights as a part of the organization Wellness Education Cannabis Advocates of Nevada and is lobbying to keep testing requirements reasonable as a member of the state’s Independent Lab Advisory Committee, he’s also working as a part-time manager at Las Vegas ReLeaf and welcomes the Las Vegas-ification of cannabis. Even if that means exacting regulations and an industry dominated by the rich and powerful, he believes the payoff nationwide will be worth it. 

Oh, yes, and there are 43 pending medical marijuana business licenses in Clark County, and more than a dozen more pending in the county seat Las Vegas and in Henderson and Reno. There are eight production facilities, 21 cultivation facilities and five testing labs operating in Clark County.  I walked the Strip this past weekend, from MGM Grand to Harrah’s, and at more than half a dozen spots along the way, smoke from the weed — legal or not — was clearly wafting in the air. I make that walk every trip, and the unmistakable aroma of cannabis there, in cold light of day, was a first in my experience.

I felt as if I were getting a vision of things to come — the changing face of tourism — not just in Sin City, but eventually in Florida. Florida is a tourism state, too. In fact, a state with more cities than Nevada to attract out-of-state visitors, many of them carrying notes from their doctors. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa and Orlando for starters. Walt Disney World might be a family-friendly Magic Kingdom now, but I can see it developing another identity down the road. And it has nothing to do with casinos.

Source:  Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423.

 Twitter: @NancyLBSmith   April 21^st 2016

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