Tag Archives: Canada

Driving, Editorial, Uncategorized

Legal Marijuana Is Making Roads Deadlier

Cannabis-related traffic fatalities are a threat to public safety. Governments need to get serious.

By the Bloomberg News Editorial Board,   April 4, 2024

Marijuana legalization is killing a lot of people. Not slowly — though some studies suggest that it may be doing that, too — but quickly, in car crashes. It’s one more symptom of the disastrous rush by lawmakers to capitalize on cannabis sales without doing the work needed to keep the public safe. 

In Canada, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, one study found a 475% increase in emergency-room visits for cannabis-related crashes in Ontario between 2010 and 2021. Many more cases likely went undetected, owing to a dearth of reliable testing for driving while high. 

In the US, the proportion of motor-vehicle fatalities involving cannabis use soared to 21.5% in 2018, up from 9% in 2000. One analysis found a 10% increase in vehicular deaths, on average, following legalization by states. In California, the increase was 14%; in Oregon, it was 22%. 

This suggests that more than 1,000 Americans could be dying annually because of marijuana-related accidents — and that’s just in states where legalization has occurred. Given the ease of transporting the drug across state lines, the real number could be far higher. 

The cause of these deaths isn’t just the drug itself. It’s ignorance. A recent study found that about half of marijuana users thought they were OK to drive 90 minutes after inhaling or ingesting the drug, yet their driving performance in a simulated vehicle was as bad as it had been after 30 minutes. Evidence suggests people should wait a minimum of four hours before getting behind the wheel; some experts recommend eight to 12 hours. 

That people don’t know this is the fault of governments, which have rushed headlong into legalization without doing the required research or adopting necessary safeguards. In effect, they’re conducting live experiments on their own citizens. Voters should hold officials accountable for boosting public awareness and developing better detection technology.

The fight against drinking and driving offers a useful precedent. After widespread government-sponsored campaigns helped stigmatize such conduct, drunk-driving fatalities were cut in half. Stronger enforcement also played a part. The advent of Breathalyzers made drinkers think twice before getting behind the wheel. 

So far, marijuana users don’t face the same disincentive, partly because the technology for roadside testing isn’t reliable or widespread. Fear of arrest is a powerful public-policy lever, but right now, many drivers are getting high with impunity, and the public is paying a high price.

Bloomberg News published this editorial on April 4, 2024. It was reprinted in part by the Chicago Tribune on April 10, 2024. 

The photo above comes from a crash that killed three teens and injured another near Lynnwood, WA in July, 2017. Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, and commercialized it in 2014.

Testimonies

Redemption and Recovery from Marijuana Addiction can happen

By Veronique, Ottawa, Canada, November, 2018

It was an adult who made me smoke my first hashish joint, a man of about forty years who loved little children. I was 15 years old and I didn’t feel anything the first time. It is a funny phenomenon, the first joint that does not do anything. This often happens. By the second joint, I was addicted.

I had always struggled to make friends, but instantly I became part of a group in high school: the “freaks”. I did not even know what it meant, but I was proud of it. Very quickly, I had to smoke every day. I financed this operation by hitch-hiking and accepting the advances of the men who picked me up. Continue reading Redemption and Recovery from Marijuana Addiction can happen →

Canada, Featured

Canadians: Learn the Truth About Marijuana Dangers

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to legalize marijuana by summer 2018.  While marijuana has been directly linked to multiple suicides across the United States, the Canadian government refuses to recognize pot as anything but a harmless drug.  In response to Trudeau’s legalization plans, Health Canada has unveiled a marijuana consumer fact sheet, warning Canadians about the adverse effects of marijuana use.  With legalization on the horizon ClearTheAirNow.org partnered with RIWI to survey over 1,100 Canadians from May 2 to May 12 and gauge their awareness of marijuana’s dangerous health effects, as previously reported by Health Canada. Continue reading Canadians: Learn the Truth About Marijuana Dangers →

Child Endangerment, Medical Marijuana

Maryland children get sick as Big Marijuana pushes Agenda

Gummy bears in Southern Maryland Middle School

Five schoolchildren were hospitalized in southern Maryland after a middle school student brought and shared marijuana-laced food to school.   Following an investigation, the St. Mary’s County sheriff has charged a father from Great Mills with reckless endangerment.

The man’s daughter and four other students had a reaction to marijuana laced gummy bears on January 2, the first day after winter break.  All five students reported feeling ill, and they were taken to the hospital in Leonardtown.   All children survived and went home to their parents or guardians, but not without a lot of drama.   The event triggered a police investigation, and a father has been charged.

In the affidavit filed, the father claims that “the edible gummy candies were given to him by an associate who came to his house for a party.”   This man left his candies in a plastic bag in his bedroom, knowing they were easily accessible to the daughter.

Maryland’s “medical” marijuana program opened its dispensaries about two months ago.  Southern Maryland Relief, LLC, is the only dispensary in southern Maryland.

Marijuana gummy incident in New Mexico

Also in January, a fifth grader in New Mexico brought gummy bears to school, perhaps unaware that they were tainted with THC.   The girl shared the candy with fourth graders at Albuquerque School of Excellence’s cafeteria.  Three students ate a single gummy, and the girl who brought the THC-laced gummies ate three or four pieces. A local TV station reported the incident on January 18.

The gummies, brought from home, came from a box labeled ‘Incredibles.’  ‘Incredibles’ brand medical marijuana told a TV station they do not make gummy bears and suspect someone counterfeited the logo.

The school suspended the girl for one week, although the administration believes it was an accidental mistake.  The girl’s parents said the candies were medicinal.  But it shouldn’t be so hard to keep medicine away from children without getting other people’s children sick, too.

Last week in Chicago, many students became sick after eating tainted gummies and chocolates.   Fourteen students from the elementary school in Humboldt Park needed to be hospitalized.

The Maryland, llinois, New Mexico incidents demonstrate how difficult is to control access to children once a state legalizes “medical” marijuana.  We reported several other incidences of school children accessing gummies and other treats last year.

Judicial overreach in Illinois leads to judge’s flawed decision

Medical marijuana advocates want and need chronic patients. There’s no evidence that marijuana cures pain.  It only lessens pain for a brief period of time. Anyone who uses marijuana for pain will have to come back for more.  Americans for Safe Access, a stepchild of Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Policy Project, has at least two staff members working full-time to lobby for Big Marijuana, suggesting that it’s as an alternative to pain pills.

Last week Judge Mitchell of Cook County declared that the state of Illinois must expand qualifying conditions for medical marijuana to include pain. The ruling came after a lawsuit filed by Ann Mednick, 58, who says she needs it for osteoarthritis.  Ann uses pain pills, but wants a treatment with fewer side effects.

Since when are judges allowed to decide on science and medicine?  Never, but the case was litigated in a very corrupt county, Cook County, Illinois.   (Is corruption the reason why media reports are not reporting that the tainted candy in Humboldt Park had THC?)

The ruling came at the same time when two other big stories to contradict the judge’s decision are also in the news.

Charles Johnston, a man from Illinois was recently arrested in Iowa for shooting at trucks indiscriminately, due to a grudge.   When police searched his car, they found prescription pill bottles full of marijuana, a marijuana pipe and a cigarette box with a marijuana joint.   Obviously, Mr. Johnston’s use of marijuana for pain triggered a violent eruption, possibly with psychosis.  Johnston teaches Psychology at Harper Community College, which also happens to be in Cook County.

Medical Marijuana Fraud in Canada

It would be interesting to know if Judge Mitchell and Ann Mednick heard about what happened to another woman who took “medical” marijuana for her arthritis pain.

Dawn Rae Downton, 60, took marijuana for inflammatory arthritis and developed constant vomiting, according to reports from Canada.  Downton, 60, is suing a dispensary in Nova Scotia for giving her eight months of sickness from their tainted product. Massachusetts and California, as well as Canada, have had widespread problems with tainted marijuana products, especially those claiming to be “medical.”

As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned in 2014, medical marijuana is slippery slope.  It poisons people while creating addiction, including children who will always be attracted to gummy bears.  Big Marijuana pushes its agenda quickly in order to avoid exposure of their medical scam.