Articles

03/12/2017

03/12/2017

The state capital may be in Tallahassee, but the pot shop capital for the South may soon become Tampa. Hillsborough County commissioners stuck down a provision that would have limited the number of marijuana dispensaries/pot shops. What does that mean for citizens living in unincorporated Hillsborough?

03/03/2017

The Washington Poison Center (WAPC) experienced another year of increased calls on marijuana exposures and poisonings. In 2016, there were 286 calls related to marijuana exposures*. Over 42% (n=120) of the total calls were regarding individuals 13-29 years who had been exposed to some form of marijuana. Highest marijuana exposure rates in 2016 were King, Spokane, Snohomish, and Pierce counties.

03/02/2017

Please review the following information to better understand how alcohol misuse impacts our families:

1. Overview of Alcohol Consequences- NIAAA PowerPoint (easy reading)

Consequences

• Physical Effects: Infectious disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Neuropsychiatric disease, Cardiovascular disease, Liver and pancreas disease, Unintentional and intentional injury Heart, liver, pancreas
• Unintentional and Intentional consequences: fatal crashes, falls, drownings, burns, suicide, stabbing, shooting, HOMICIDE, assault, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse.
• Social harm: family dysfunction, unemployment, criminal conviction, financial, child & family neglect

Cost of Alcohol Abuse:

• Globally, alcohol is third leading risk factor for premature death and disability
• $223.5 billion in 2006- estimated costs of alcohol abuse in U.S.
• Nearly 60% costs paid by government and others
• 15% of U.S. workforce drinks enough alcohol to lead to workforce impairment

     2.  Teen Theft
Teen shoplifting, liquor a bad mix

• Several Capital High School students agreed with Graham’s assessment, " that teens are taking advantage of it being easier to shoplift liquor" than beer or wine.
• “You’re not an automatic suspect when you walk in a grocery store,” said one student interviewed Tuesday in the school parking lot.

Doubly illegal: Qualitative accounts of underage alcohol access through theft

• … In addition to 9% of respondents who reported stealing alcohol from commercial outlets themselves, a total of 26% respondents reported occasions when their close friends stole alcohol.

       3.  Florida Ranks 3rd in the Nation for DUI Fatalities
2015 DUI Arrest by County
2014 Summary State DUI arrests and Fatalities
      4.  16-18 other states allow hard liquor in grocery store ailses.
               2016 Issue Briefs for State Policymakers- Healthy Alcohol Market

03/02/2017

But the complex details on how to get that done is now being hashed out in Tallahassee and as we uncovered, some key lawmakers in Florida's weed wars are already seeing the green from it.

02/27/2017

UC Davis physician researchers have found that medical marijuana contains multiple bacterial and fungal pathogens that may cause serious and even fatal infections. They warn that smoking, vaping or inhaling aerosolized marijuana could pose a grave risk to patients, especially those with leukemia, lymphoma, AIDS or conditions requiring immune-suppressing therapies.
 
“Infection with the pathogens we found in medical marijuana could lead to serious illness and even death,” said Joseph Tuscano, a professor of internal medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at UC Davis, and a lead study author. “Inhaling marijuana in any form provides a direct portal of entry deep into the lungs where infection can easily take hold.”

02/14/2017

The mold and bacteria was so widespread and potentially dangerous that the UC Davis academics concluded that they cannot recommend smoking raw or dried weed. "We cannot recommend inhaling it," says George Thompson III, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the university who helped conduct the cannabis research.

02/13/2017

Pennsylvania is getting ready to launch its new medical marijuana program next year, but state regulations could keep dispensaries from opening in Philadelphia. But regulations requiring these facilities to be at least 1,000 feet from schools and daycare centers leave little room for the industry to set up shop here, said City Councilman Derek Green.
Pennsylvania medical marijuana.

02/13/2017

Short-term side effects include impaired short-term memory, impaired motor function, altered judgment, and, in high doses, paranoia and psychosis. Not to mention that drivers who have recently smoked marijuana are twice as likely to get into a car accident than their sober counterparts.Approximately 9% of people who experiment with marijuana will become addicted.
If marijuana can meet all of the FDA requirements, including efficacy data, evidence of safety, and a meticulous quality control program, then the medicinal use of marijuana could be supported. Until then, we will need smoke and mirrors to make it appear that this drug not only makes people feel good, but is indeed good for you.

02/08/2017

02/07/2017

After his death, testing of 20 medical marijuana samples from across the state found the vast majority were contaminated with dangerous bacteria and fungi.

02/01/2017

“There is some misinterpretation that employers can’t fire employees now that [cannabis is] legal, but employers can still enforce their policies as there is nothing in the law that says they have to accommodate that,” said Robin Largent, partner at Carothers Disante & Freudenberger LLP in Sacramento.
However, employers who do not have a well-documented cannabis policy could expose themselves to allegations of discrimination.   “I advise clients to modify their policy if necessary to make clear it’s illegal, giving employees clear expectations,” Daniel said.

02/01/2017

01/24/2017

"The study suggests that the effects of cannabis use on verbal intelligence are explained not by neurotoxic effects on the brain, but rather by a possible social mechanism," said lead author Natalie Castellanos-Ryan, Assistant Professor at Universite de Montreal in Canada

01/17/2017

According to research studies, marijuana use causes aggressive behavior, causes or exacerbates psychosis and produce paranoias. These effects have been illustrated through case studies of highly publicized incidents and heightened political profiles.

Marijuana is currently a growing risk to the public in the United States. Following expanding public opinion that marijuana provides little risk to health, state and federal legislatures have begun changing laws that will significantly increase accessibility of marijuana. Greater marijuana accessibility, resulting in more use, will lead to increased health risks in all demographic categories across the country. Violence is a well-publicized, prominent risk from the more potent, current marijuana available.

01/15/2017

Some people think that marijuana is not truly “addictive” or that people can’t become “hooked” on the drug, but research shows that about 1 in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. For people who begin using before the age of 18, that number rises to 1 in 6.
Marijuana use directly affects the brain — specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision making, coordination, emotions, and reaction time.
 

01/07/2017

Colorado Assistant Attorney General Michael Song:

• Song cautioned that doctors have to be tightly regulated, with means to punish those abusing the ability to recommend medical marijuana.
• Song said problems are arising as people, for example, eat a whole cookie, or worse, several, while they wait for the effects to hit. Then they wind up in emergency rooms stoned way over the edge.

01/07/2017

Now, as citizen groups attempt to put the brakes on the growing industry, a heated debate has emerged about the drug’s societal impact. Doctors report a spike in pot-related emergency room visits—mostly due to people accidentally consuming too much of potent edible pot products. Police face new cartel-related drug operations. Parents worry about marijuana being sold near their homes and schools. And less affluent communities like Pueblo struggle with the unintended consequences of becoming home to this emerging and controversial industry.
Groups serving the poor in Pueblo report a flood of homeless people arriving from other states. Local homeless shelter Posada, for instance, has witnessed a 47% jump in demand since 2014, including 1,200 people who reported to shelter workers that they came to smoke pot or get jobs in the industry, says Posada’s director, Anne Stattelman. She says her funding is tapped out. “It’s changed the culture of our community,” she says.
Since 2013, law officials say, they have busted 88 drug cartel operations across the state, and just last year law-enforcement made a bust that recovered $12 million in illegal marijuana. Adds Coffman: “That’s crime we hadn’t previously had in Colorado.”
Another surprise to many Coloradans is that a promised huge tax windfall to benefit schools hasn’t materialized. Of the $135 million generated in 2015, for example, $20 million goes to regulatory and public-safety efforts related to cannabis, $40 million funds small rural school construction projects, and the rest goes to youth drug prevention and abuse programs. That’s a drop in the bucket for a $6.2 billion education budget.
For a growing number of her neighbors, however, legalized marijuana is starting to feel like a really bad high.

01/06/2017

“But the bottom line is that long-term, heavy cannabis use may impair the dopaminergic system, which could have a variety of negative effects on learning and behavior,” said Dr. Anissa Abi-Dargham, professor of psychiatry and a lead author of the paper.
 
“I used to be able to read a book and even after a couple years I would still know most of the book,” she said. “Now I have to read something four or five times to remember.”

01/05/2017

As Dr. Meng reported at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (abstract 2909), management of chronic neuropathic pain with available pharmacotherapy is associated with a high failure rate.

“Given the void of effective therapy, there’s been an increase in use and popularity of cannabis and cannabinoid for treating this type of pain,” Dr. Meng said. “The concern that we have, however, is that recent pain guidelines provide contradictory recommendations.”
 

12/31/2016

"Every time we destroy a field ... the locals come back to plant after our personnel has left the area," said Colonel Cipriano Cruz Quiroz, chief of staff of a special narcotics eradication unit based in Badiraguato, Sinaloa state.
 

12/29/2016

Marijuana use skyrocketed under President Obama, up 27 percent among kids, according to the National Institutes of Drug Abuse. Phoenix House reports that up to 50 percent become addicted.
 
Nearly 100,000 parents lose their children to drugs annually

12/28/2016

If the changes observed in Washington are attributable to legalization, why were there no changes found in Colorado? The authors suggest that this may have been because Colorado’s medical marijuana laws were much more liberal before legalization than those in Washington. After 2009, Colorado permitted medical marijuana to be supplied through for-profit dispensaries and allowed advertising of medical marijuana products. This hypothesis is supported by other evidence that the perceived risks of marijuana use decreased and marijuana use increased among young people in Colorado after these changes in 2009.

12/26/2016

Western Colorado law enforcement officials say that Colorado has now become a magnet for criminals coming to take advantage of the state's marijuana laws.
A little over a week later, a 51-year old Palisade man was shot and killed in different incident related to a large pot grow operation. So far, there have been no arrests in the case.
“Legalization was supposed to get rid of the black market – it hasn’t done that – I would estimate that the black market has grown 20 fold since legalization,” said Gaasche.
 

12/26/2016

12/22/2016

12/20/2016

12/18/2016

This year, daily marijuana use exceeded cigarette use among 10th (2.5 vs. 1.9 percent) as well as 12th (6.0 vs. 4.8 percent) graders.

12/15/2016

12/13/2016

"If we don't aggressively seek to limit the use and sale of marijuana, our country and state as we know it will never be the same. Florida will be trading our beautiful white, sandy beaches filled with vacationing families for a hazy, skunk-smelling coastline laden with unemployable, unmotivated homeless people," said Teresa Miller, a drug prevention activist and founder of the "no2pot.org" website.

12/13/2016

Research findings on the topic of marijuana use and its impact on people’s health and on society have been mixed; however, in the midst of diverse conclusions, it is essential to err on the side of caution for our community’s youth. According to a publication by the American Psychological Association (APA), short-term marijuana use has been shown to impair attention, memory, learning and decision-making.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article120529268.html#storylink...

12/12/2016

Is it possible to regulate a plant that people can grow in their backyards? Questions to consider and recommendations for implementing Amendment 2 (legalizing 'medical' marijuana in Florida).
Written document

12/09/2016

In a recent case in Massachusetts, 15-year-old Mathew Borges has been charged with first-degree murder in the decapitation death of a classmate. But you have to read deep into the articles about the case to discover a motive. Police said he told them that he and his victim, Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, went away together to “smoke marijuana.” 
Don’t expect our liberal, pro-drug media to draw the obvious connections between marijuana, psychosis and violence.

12/08/2016

In hopes of protecting others from their daughter’s fate, her parents last year persuaded Florida Rep. Dave Kerner, D-Lake Worth, to propose a bill that would allow law enforcement to charge people with additional crimes if they were under the influence of marijuana when involved in a crash in which someone was seriously hurt.

12/07/2016

12/04/2016

DENVER - A 29-year-old Louisiana man who was also wanted in his home state has been formally charged with killing a homeless man in Denver while trying to steal marijuana and other belongings.

11/24/2016

The Pope emphasised that while prevention is a priority, “it is also fundamental to work for the full rehabilitation of victims in society, to restore their joy and to help them regain the dignity they have lost. Until this is guaranteed, also by the state and by legislative means, recovery will be difficult and victims risk becoming victims once again”.

11/21/2016

It is about money not medicine.  If the number of patients exceeds 250,000 anytime soon in 2017, Bradley said he could see the medicinal marijuana growing businesses jump from a half dozen “to nine or 10 in short order under current law.”

11/17/2016

11/14/2016

"This development of stress cardiomyopathy in younger patients who used marijuana suggests a possible link that needs to be further investigated," said Sahil Agrawal, M.D., co-author of the paper and also a chief cardiology fellow at St. Luke's.

Marijuana users were more likely than non-users to have a history of depression (32.9 percent vs. 14.5 percent), psychosis (11.9 percent vs. 3.8 percent), anxiety disorder (28.4 percent vs. 16.2 percent), alcoholism (13.3 percent vs. 2.8 percent), tobacco use (73.3 percent vs. 28.6 percent) and multiple substance abuse (11.4 percent vs. 0.3 percent). Because some of these can increase the risk of stress cardiomyopathy, the researchers adjusted for known risk factors to investigate the association between marijuana use and stress cardiomyopathy.

11/04/2016

As T. Willard Fair, president of the Urban League of Greater Miami and former chairman of the Florida Board of Education, said in 2014: “I will not vote to legalize the street drug marijuana…label it medicine and make it available to anyone… for any condition…” Fair’s statement is just as applicable today as it was then.

11/01/2016

CONCLUSIONS:
Medical marijuana law exposure between age 14 to 18 likely has a delayed effect on use and education that persists over time.

10/31/2016

Since the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado in 2013 traffic related marijuana deaths have increased 48%, marijuana related emergency room visits have increased 49%, and marijuana related calls to the poison center have increased 100%. According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in 2015 statewide homicides in Colorado rose 14.7% over the previous year.
Pueblo, Colorado had the highest homicide rate with 11.1 killings per 100,000 residents. Aurora, Colorado’s homicide rate more than doubled from 2014. Additionally, more places in Colorado were robbed and more thefts occurred, especially vehicle theft. A total of 193,115 vehicles were reported stolen, up 27.7% in 2015 from the previous year. In 2015, sexual assaults rose 10% in Colorado with Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Westminster, and Pueblo all reporting higher numbers as well. The letter also notes:
In the city of Denver since the legalization of recreational marijuana the number of crimes in Denver has grown by about 44%, according to annual figures the city reported to the National Incident Based Reporting System. In 2015 in Denver alone crime rose in every neighborhood in the city. The murder rate hit a decade high, 1059 more cars were broken into, there were 903 more auto thefts, 321 more aggravated assaults and 2321 more homes were broken into compared to 2014.

10/25/2016

To prove this last point, last weekend a “medical marijuana awareness” festival featured pot smoking on stage in front of children, a giant blunt display and the advocacy for marijuana candies. This was Hemp Fest: Tampa Medical Marijuana Awareness Fest in Lutz, FL, promoted as a family friendly event with food and games for kids and advertised free admission for children under 10.

10/19/2016

Governor Owens –
Four years ago, Colorado voted to legalize marijuana.
Colorado now leads the nation in the teen use of marijuana.
Marijuana edibles are marketed to children and marijuana-related traffic deaths have increased 62 percent.
 
Mayor Webb –
We were promised new money for education. Instead, that money has gone to marijuana regulation and the pot industry. Denver schools got nothing.
In one Colorado hospital, 50 percent of newborns tested had marijuana in their system.
Don’t repeat our terrible mistake.

10/07/2016

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed cannabis use by drivers in one of those states, Washington, and found that the proportion of drivers involved in fatal crashes who had recently used marijuana more than doubled after Washington legalized the drug for recreational use. In addition, there’s currently no easy way to test whether a driver is impaired by marijuana: Unlike alcohol, it can’t be determined by breath or blood tests.

10/02/2016

Edibles

09/28/2016

Using a quasi-experimental design wherein we assessed cannabis use patterns after the onset of psychosis, we were able to investigate the causal nature of the association between cannabis use and risk of relapse in psychosis. Although it has been proposed that a common genetic liability or reverse causation may underlie the association between continued cannabis use and relapse,13 our results indicate that change in cannabis use represents a robust risk factor for relapse in patients with FEP.

09/26/2016

The State Board of Missions has individual and corporate empathy for those Floridians suffering from debilitating diseases, but the Board does not believe legalizing an addictive drug without strong regulatory oversight is an appropriate solution; and the effort to legalize marijuana is contrary to the interests of the public health, safety and welfare, and will adversely affect the rights of citizens to live and work in a community where drug abuse is not accepted and citizens are not subjected to the adverse effects of the drug abuse.