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Featured, News Articles

SAM Defeats marijuana in nine states

Efforts by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and SAM’s allies defeated marijuana legalization and commercialization in 9 state legislatures: New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Hawaii.  When legislators listen to experts, as well as doctors, they reject marijuana legalization, a failure in every other state.

This year, only the Illinois rejected experts’ opinions and positioned itself as an outlier.  Continue reading SAM Defeats marijuana in nine states →

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.

Addiction, Gateway Drug, Politics

Marijuana Can’t Treat the Opiate, Heroin Epidemic

Any marijuana use leads to less intelligence potential, less empathy for life, less motivation and poorer decision making.  A war on drugs is a protection and defense of our brains.   Governor Susana Martinez probably recognizes how Colorado’s marijuana problem leads to the drug epidemic and filters into New Mexico’s substance abuse issues.   Read about her veto in Part 1.

One young man who gave us a testimony explained how his marijuana use led directly to heroin addiction.

In Colorado, Dr. Libby Stuyt, addictions psychiatrist, traces a direct line from marijuana legalization to the heroin epidemic.    Colorado’s recent report on heroin has shown that the number of deaths from heroin overdose have doubled between 2011 and 2015.

In fact, Pueblo County, has suffered from heroin use and addiction more than any other Colorado county.  Pueblo, Denver and Boulder have the highest rates of youth marijuana use.   Southern Colorado is suffering the most from the heroin epidemic. Counties that have banned marijuana dispensaries have been affected the least by the heroin.

Misunderstanding of the Opioid and Heroin Epidemic

Since the government has clamped down on opiate prescriptions, more users have replaced the pain drugs with heroin.  Since the legalization of marijuana, Mexican cartels have replaced much of their marijuana with heroin.  Heroin is now cheaper and addicts find it easier to get heroin than prescription pills.

Politically there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the opioid epidemic. If it was initially caused by over prescribing of medications, that’s no longer primarily the case.   Seth Leibsohn wrote an insightful article on the subject last week. The abuse of opioid prescriptions acquired legitimately constitutes a small portion of the overdose problem, he said. *

A simple crackdown on prescriptions will not solve the problem, according to Maia Szalavitz.  Although Szalavitz misunderstands the  inherent danger in using marijuana,* she explains the underlying causes of substance abuse quite well.  Impulsive children are at high risk of becoming drug users, but so are some highly cautious and anxious young people.   Two thirds of people with opioid addictions have had severely traumatic childhoods, and the more exposure to trauma, the higher the risk.  We need to help abused, neglected, fragile and otherwise traumatized children before they turn to self-medication as teens.  On the other hand, we should also provide tools and teach coping skills to children who are impulsive, ADHD or anxious.   (Overmedicating children doesn’t allow them to develop the skills needed to transition into adulthood.)

Let’s Help People Get off ALL Drugs

Effective treatment for addictions is getting off all drugs, not going to other harmful, brain-altering substances.   “The goal in helping a loved one with a substance use problem is not to reduce their use. It is to stop drug use,” according to Sven-Olov Carlsson of Drug Policy Futures.  He gave the opening address at the World Federation of Drugs Conference in Vienna last year.  As Carlsson said, the current heroin epidemic proves that “harm reduction” is not saving lives.

No one sets out to become an addict.   Fortunately, more people and states are realizing the foolishness of allowing “medical” marijuana for intractable pain.  It opens up a Pandora’s Box of problems, as in California and elsewhere.

Addiction specialists estimate that one in five American adults is addicted to drugs or alcohol.  With such large numbers, there should be no “stigma” attached to addiction or treatment.  A new or revised health care act should maintain the provision to treat addiction.

Those who are addicted have a strong need to protect a secret.  Their brains have been hijacked and there isn’t a straight path back to previous functioning.

Optimum treatment requires a period of time when the person is not using any substance of addiction in order for the brain to heal.  During that time, the person needs to be able to learn new things. The lack of treatment resources which allows this to happen is a big barrier to recovery.   Marijuana cannot be used to treat this current drug epidemic.

___________________________________________________________________________*  Another recent article explains how doctors began to take pain seriously, treating it as a fifth vital sign.  Szalavitz based her 10% addiction rate for marijuana on the weaker pot of the ’70s and ’80s, not the pot of today.  She also disregarded teen users of pot.

 

Addiction, Gateway Drug, Politics

Governor Martinez Denies Marijuana to Treat Opioid Addiction

On April 7, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez vetoed a bill which would have made opioid addiction a qualifying condition for medical marijuana.  Governor Martinez has consistency shown leadership in working to prevent drug addiction.  Earlier this year, legislators in New Mexico wisely rejected a bill to legalize pot,.

Maryland legislators recently proposed using marijuana to treat heroin addiction.   They removed the provision from the  bill after researchers explained there’s no evidence that cannabis is effective in treating addiction.

The mass insanity surrounding cures from “medical” marijuana sometimes comes from the Press.  As the number of newsprint subscribers dwindles, newspapers are looking to marijuana for new sources of advertising money.  (The New York Times, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and Denver Post are pro-marijuana newspapers.)  Another problem is that the marijuana industry’s paid lobbyists are pumping unscientific information to state legislators.   Many of these lobbyists have advanced degrees in Social Policy, Law or Political Science, but not the biological sciences.

Marijuana , Opioid Addiction and Heroin

Tyler Martel, finally free of opioid addiction, was getting his life back on track when the state of Washington legalized marijuana.  On December 5, 2012, marijuana became 100% legal for those ages 21 and over.  A few days later, Martel refused to drink with his parents, but smoked marijuana before driving.  His car crossed the center lane, and both he and his fiancé, also 27, died.  Another man was badly injured in that crash.  Martel died a victim of the “safer than alcohol” phrase that the marijuana lobby used to gain acceptance for legalization.

His death also demonstrates the public’s ignorance of marijuana as a dangerous drug.  Brain science reveals a connection between marijuana and the opiate/heroin epidemic.

Dr. Mark Willenbring, an addictions psychiatrist,  believes that alternative treatments are needed for pain, but not another drug of abuse.  He doesn’t believe you can solve the problem of addiction with another drug of abuse.  “The concept on its face is absurd,” he said.  “It doesn’t work,” he said. “Like trying to cure alcoholism with Valium.”

Pam Garozzo and Carlos, who lost his life Dec. 23, after 10 months of being off drugs. She told Gov. Christie’s panel at the White House that marijuana had been a gateway for her son.

Stop Denying the Potential Gateway Effect

Generally speaking, marijuana is already in the mix of drugs used by those who abuse opiates.   Those who use heroin invariably are using other drugs, including marijuana.   In fact, a group of parents in Massachusetts recently made a video tribute to 79 of their children who died from drugs.   In all cases, the deceased sons and daughters had started their drug use with cannabis.

When Governor Chris Christie convened a panel on the drug epidemic at the White House last week, a mother, spoke.  Pam Garozzo, whose son Carlos died from drugs in December, said her son had started smoking marijuana at age 15-1/2.  For him it was a gateway drug, and he’d be the first to tell you.   He died of heroin that had been laced with fentanyl–after being clean for 10 months.

Read Part 2 to learn how marijuana leads to opiates and heroin.