{"id":16350,"date":"2023-03-07T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=16350"},"modified":"2023-05-16T19:47:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T19:47:49","slug":"the-dangers-of-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2023\/03\/the-dangers-of-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dangers Of Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

POT SHOPS will soon be officially open for business in Massachusetts. While this may be good news for the marijuana industry and its lobbyists, state officials need to proceed with caution \u2014 especially when regulating high-potency pot products such as gummies, lollipops, and other treats aimed at children. The fact is that we really don\u2019t know what\u2019s in these products, nor do we know about their long-term effects. More awareness is desperately needed about the dangers of today\u2019s highly potent marijuana. Public health \u2014 not the pot industry \u2014 should be leading this conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make no mistake: Pot is no longer about Woodstock \u2014 it\u2019s about Wall Street. Replicating the playbook of Big Tobacco, the marijuana industry routinely manufactures and markets kid-friendly products with the intent of creating life-long customers. Some of these new edibles and vaping extracts are\u00a099 percent THC<\/a>, the ingredient in marijuana that gets you high. Compare this to the 5 percent potency of the average joint in the 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n

While more research and data are needed to understand what these newly engineered products do to your brain, the negative impact of marijuana commercialization is already being felt in other legalized states. In the years since these states moved to liberalize their pot laws,\u00a0drugged driving deaths have increased<\/a>, emergency room visits\u00a0have risen<\/a>, and more young people\u00a0are using marijuana<\/a>. Last month, the National Institutes of Health\u00a0released a study<\/a>\u00a0finding that 1 in 4 12th-graders reported that they would try marijuana for the first time, or use it more often, if marijuana were legalized.<\/span><\/p>\n

What the marijuana industry will not tell you is that regular, heavy marijuana use during adolescence is associated with an 8-point drop in IQ<\/a> \u2014 a loss that is not reversed when marijuana use stops. We also know from several studies<\/a> that heavy marijuana use among adolescents is associated with lower grades and exam scores, and a lower satisfaction with life. People who use marijuana are less likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college and more likely to earn less income.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pot potency should be capped. The marijuana industry\u2019s influence on rule-making should be halted. And protections for vulnerable populations should be established and strictly enforced. In Colorado, an undercover study<\/a> recently found that 69 percent of randomly selected marijuana stores recommended THC products to treat pregnancy-related nausea in the first trimester. Fewer than 1 in 3 of these stores recommended consulting a doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our choice was never between locking up users or commercializing an addictive substance. But now that we have forsaken a sensible policy of decriminalization for a commercial regime that thrives on addiction, the stakes are too high to let the marijuana industry define the terms of regulation. Public officials have a responsibility to curb industry influence, enforce rigorous THC standards, protect vulnerable populations, and launch comprehensive public health campaigns. Our children, communities, and families deserve nothing less.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Sabet is a former three-time White House drug policy official and president of SAM, Smart Approaches to Marijuana.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source: The dangers of pot – The Boston Globe<\/a> July 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POT SHOPS will soon be officially open for business in Massachusetts. While this may be good news for the marijuana industry and its lobbyists, state officials need to proceed with caution \u2014 especially when regulating high-potency pot products such as gummies, lollipops, and other treats aimed at children. The fact is that we really don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,68,82,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-economic","category-global-drug-legalisation-efforts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}