Articles

03/20/2016

What makes this new study more compelling than previous studies is that the researchers followed the same individuals for over 50 years from a young age to adulthood.  This is precisely what one needs to solve the chicken or egg riddle with respect to cannabis and violence:  just look and see which one happens first.
One fifth of those who were pot smokers (22%) reported violent behavior that began after beginning to use cannabis, whereas only 0.3% reported violence before using weed.  Continued use of cannabis over the life-time of the study was the strongest predictor of violent convictions, even when the other factors that contribute to violent behavior were considered in the statistical analysis.
 In conclusion, the results show that continued cannabis use is associated with a 7-fold greater odds for subsequent commission of violent crimes.  This level of risk is similar to the increased risk of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes over a similar duration (40 years).  The authors suggest that impairments in neurological circuits controlling behavior may underlie impulsive, violent behavior, as a result of cannabis altering the normal neural functioning in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. 

03/15/2016

On public record, one application for an indoor grow states they will use over 9,700 gallons a day at full production. The purpose of indoor growing is year-round full production, right? So that’s 3,540,500 gallons per year, or 5.36 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Imagine me putting that pool in my backyard, draining and refilling it every 10 weeks because it makes me a ton of money, keeps a lot of people stoned, and you voted for it.
Where is the outrage? Pot drains water & electric resources #Waste&wasted

03/15/2016

By study’s end, the Epidiolex group had a median 39 percent reduction in the number of convulsive seizures in a month, while the placebo group had a 13 percent reduction. It was a difference the researchers called highly statistically significant.
Epidiolex, however, would be the first proposed drug made solely from cannabidiol, the plant’s second major chemical component, though one that’s steadily being bred out of existence in commercial stocks.
Ten patients, or 16 percent, experienced more severe side effects, and 8 patients decided to stop using the treatment altogether, compared to one in the placebo group. Overall, though, 84 percent of patients who experienced adverse events rated them mild or moderate.

03/14/2016

Naomi Pomerance loved music and dance. And judging by the 500 people who turned out for her funeral, the 16-year-old Wellington girl was herself much beloved.
Naomi was killed March 28 when the Honda Rukus scooter on which she was a passenger ran a red light and T-boned a Toyota 4Runner, according to a police report.

03/10/2016

• Rates of cannabis use are approximately 2 times greater in persons with psychosis
• Cannabis has negative effects on cognition that are qualitatively similar in the general population, in people with psychotic disorders and in people at risk for psychotic disorders
• Adolescence is an important but vulnerable period of development for both the general population and especially for individuals at high risk for psychotic disorders

03/01/2016

Alcohol and Cannabis

02/26/2016

What is the bottom line for information that a person with Parkinson’s disease will need to know if considering medical marijuana. Marijuana should never be thought of as a replacement for dopaminergic and other approved therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Second, though most available large studies have not shown a benefit, that does not mean that there will not be a benefit. Much more research will be needed to understand which patients, which symptoms, and how best to safely administer medical marijuana in Parkinson’s disease, especially over the long-term. It may turn out that non-motor features such as depression, anxiety, and pain respond best, but studies are desperately needed to sort this out.

02/20/2016

A new study suggests marijuana smokers may be significantly more likely to develop an addiction to other drugs and alcohol than people who don’t use marijuana.
The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, included almost 35,000 adults who were interviewed three years apart. At the time of the first interview, almost 1,300 used marijuana. After three years, two-thirds of people who used marijuana had some form of substance use disorder, compared with less than 20 percent of people who did not use marijuana in the previous year.

02/18/2016

"Many adolescents and young adults hear that marijuana is harmless," Miller said. "This is a myth. Research shows that the brain continues to grow until the age of 25. Marijuana is extremely harmful to the developing brain."
Officials in St. Petersburg also have discussed a similar de-escalation of the war on this particular drug. Last year, Miami-Dade, Miami Beach, Fernandina Beach and Hallandale Beach all launched citation programs.

02/12/2016

Citrus Park, Florida -- Two students at Sergeant Smith Middle School were rushed to the hospital on Thursday after they ate marijuana-infused candy.   According to a source, the boys were given the edible marijuana that looked like Fruit Loops by a third student.

02/11/2016

Medina's back seat passenger, Daniela Benavides San Miguel, 18, was killed in the crash. Benavides San Miguel had graduated from Gulliver Preparatory last spring and was a freshman at Pepperdine University in California.
A passenger in the front seat, Mathew Saldana, 17, was injured in the crash. Medina and Saldana were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center with head injuries.
According to a court document, toxicology reports showed that Medina tested positive for marijuana.

02/08/2016

Pot is becoming more potent, a new study suggests.
In the study, the researchers looked at more than 38,600 samples of illegal marijuana seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration over 20 years. They found that the level of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol— marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient — in the marijuana samples rose from about 4 percent in 1995 to about 12 percent in 2014.
Conversely, the level of CBD, or cannabidiol — an ingredient sometimes touted for its potential health benefits — fell from about 0.28 percent in 2001 to less than 0.15 percent in 2014.
But smoking marijuana with high doses of THC may involve a higher risk of negative health effects, such as psychosis orpanic attacks, he said.
"Great article- clearly based on the previous posted comments  marijuana severely impairs a person's ability to understand and process information. Their anecdotal evidence continues to validate scientific statistics. " -No2Pot

02/01/2016

Acceptance of employee marijuana use means increased accidents and injuries, loss of workplace productivity, increased workers' compensation claims, and employee turnover, to name a few problems (National Institutes of Health). These losses have real dollar value that impacts small-business owners considerably. Ultimately, the most costly battles will be fought in the courts at the employers' expense. Weakening or removing employers' rights for a safe and drug free workplace ultimately threatens all of us.

01/23/2016

According to the Institute for a Drug Free Workplace, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that 50 percent of all on-the-job accidents and up to 40 percent of employee theft is due to drug abuse. The Institute says that drug-abusing employees are absent from work ten times more frequently than their non-using peers, and the turnover rate is 30 percent higher than for those employees who do not engage in abuse of illicit drugs.
Between safety concerns and cost savings, companies are very invested in keeping pot users out of the workplace. Something to think about if Florida ever legalizes marijuana: getting fired is a real buzz kill.

01/18/2016

December showed Bradley’s PAC maintaining its consistency: $59,500 raised pushed his PAC’s total up to $405,775.
A big contributor: Costa Farms of Miami, one of five nurseries approved to grow medical cannabis, and the biggest nursery in the state.
Costa Farms’ $25,000 contibution adds up to a lot of green.
Notable: in 2014, Costa Farms filed a lawsuit objecting to the lottery system for choosing dispensing organizations, reported the Miami Herald. Since then, the hurt feelings have been healed.

01/09/2016

Our data indicate that persistent cannabis users constitute a burden on families, communities, and national social-welfare systems. Moreover, heavy cannabis use and dependence was not associated with fewer harmful economic and social problems than was alcohol dependence. Our study underscores the need for prevention and early treatment of individuals dependent on cannabis. 

01/04/2016

Thus, adolescent THC exposure induced behavioral abnormalities resembling positive and negative schizophrenia-related endophenotypes and a state of neuronal hyperactivity in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway. Furthermore, we observed profound alterations in several prefrontal cortical molecular pathways consistent with sub-cortical DAergic dysregulation. Our findings demonstrate a profound dissociation in relative risk profiles for adolescent versus adulthood exposure to THC in terms of neuronal, behavioral, and molecular markers resembling neuropsychiatric pathology.  

01/02/2016

12/30/2015

Although studies are beginning to show that some ingredients in marijuana are likely to be helpful for people with certain conditions, the findings have yet to nail down the specifics about the dose, the frequency, the best form to take (such as getting the active compounds from edible products or smoking it), the risks from frequent use, and whether marijuana works as well as or better than other available treatments

12/19/2015

In conclusion, if the states' initiative to legalize medical marijuana is merely a veiled step toward allowing access to recreational marijuana, then the medical community should be left out of the process, and instead marijuana should be decriminalized. Conversely, if the goal is to make marijuana available for medical purposes, then it is unclear why the approval process should be different from that used for other medications.

12/18/2015

he Washington Poison and Drug Information Center is reporting a record number of marijuana exposures in Washington State since before recreational marijuana was legalized in 2012. The majority of calls occurred within the 13 – 19 year age range followed quickly by the 20 – 29 years of age group. The majority of exposures were a result of intentional abuse (n= 108) in ages 13 years and older followed by unintentional, unsupervised ingestion (n=36), predominantly in children less than 12 years of age. Marijuana products implicated in these exposures included but were not limited to marijuana chocolate bars, brownies, butane hash oil, marijuana-infused drinks, and marijuana gummy bears.

12/11/2015

 "During this time of drought, San Diegans should be concerned that our water is being stolen for a criminal enterprise."

12/08/2015

"He had drugs influenced on him. Just cannabis. It give him mental problem. Bit paranoia. He was diagnosed by a doctors and treated in 2007 for paranoia.

11/30/2015

State after state is legalizing medical marijuana, but doctors and patient groups aren’t demanding these laws. The AMA doesn’t want them, nor does the American Cancer Society. The American Academy of Pediatrics is against medical marijuana and the Glaucoma Foundation warns patients not to use it.

Prescription cannabinoids are also much less likely to be abused or diverted to teenage use. And they’re more long acting, which is good for genuine patients who don’t want to be stoned all the time. So there’s no reason for anyone to smoke marijuana.

The main people who benefit from medical marijuana laws are people who want to get high or who want to sell the drug.

11/28/2015

11/28/2015

"We found that frequent use of high-potency cannabis significantly affects the structure of white matter fibres in the brain, whether you have psychosis or not," 
The main psychoactive ingredient in weed, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is much more concentrated in modern skunk strains as compared to traditional pot and hash -- up 14 percent as compared to 4 percent.

11/15/2015

11/08/2015

Children whose mothers use marijuana during pregnancy have a higher risk of stunted growth and of developing ADHD, anxiety, and depression later in life.
When THC enters the body, it interferes with endocannabinoid’s actions, competing with it for binding sites on target cells and generally getting its way.

11/07/2015

Inside the home, police found drug paraphernalia, and plastic baggies containing what appeared to be pot-laced push pops, chocolate bars, and other various marijuana infused candies.

11/06/2015

"What most people don't realize is that growing marijuana is a very intense power use," Roger Blank, the utility's director of safety, said in a statement. Using older, less-efficient standard lights to grow four plants is akin to running 29 refrigerators, he said.

11/04/2015

1. The first major change involves the rising concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).As the potency of this drug increased over time, a number of thresholds of toxicity have been exceeded.
2. The anxiety and depression problems resulting from THC consumption are nothing new, but they are much more common now. (I have seen more cases in the last year than in the 4 years prior combined.)
3. Schizophrenia:  All who have suffered this complication have experienced a major decline in functional capacity, often becoming permanently disabled. The prognosis for this condition is very poor. Similar presentations can result from contaminated marijuana.
 
 

11/03/2015

More Positive Results With Cannabidiol in Epilepsy (You will need to google this title in order to get the article to avoid creating an account)
They found a reduction of the total number of seizures by a median of 38% at 3 months and 31% at 6 months.
These patients started on a cannabidiol (CBD) dose of 2 mg/kg per day, which was increased to a maximum tolerated dose or to 25 mg/kg per day.
Of the 25 patients enrolled in the study, two discontinued treatment before 6 months. One boy stopped medication after a few months because of intolerable diarrhea, and another patient discontinued the drug because of persistent nausea/vomiting. One patient didn't report 6-month data at the time of the analysis.
More than three quarters (77%) of the 22 remaining patients experienced fewer seizures after 6 months.
However, he stressed that the study was uncontrolled, symptoms were self-reported by families, and there has been a lot of news coverage of medical marijuana for the treatment of epilepsy. "Many parents had been avidly desirous of their child going on this cannabidiol because of what they had read in the lay press, so they were primed to believe this cannabidiol might be beneficial." On the other hand, he said, it's important to keep in mind that these children have "horrible epilepsy" and most have been on more than 10 medications for seizure without success. "Any improvement to that degree in this population that is sustained is a pretty dramatic response."

11/01/2015

10/28/2015

With considerable discussion about Arizona’s education funding, along with high school and college graduation rates, shouldn’t we do all we can to improve our state of education instead of making it much worse by legalizing marijuana?
The Journal Clinical Pediatrics has also found an over 600 percent increase in the amount of marijuana exposure to children six and under in states with marijuana-friendly legislation.

10/19/2015

 But at a bare minimum, these findings suggest we should be avoiding recreational cannabis use during pregnancy. 

10/19/2015

Known as hash oil, wax, dabs, and shatter, concentrates deliver a high so fast and intense many users refer to them as “green crack.” One ounce of the highest potency THC concentrate can yield 560 average tokes on an electronic cigarette. In edibles, Colorado law defines an average serving of THC as 10 milligrams.

The 10-milligram serving size established by Colorado lawmakers means one 1 ounce of high-potency THC oil — the amount one adult is allowed to buy or possess at any given time — also can equal 2,800 average servings. That’s a well-stocked bakery.

Edibles make up about 45 percent of Colorado’s marijuana sales, based on state figures, and are projected to quickly surpass the sale of THC products that are smoked.

10/16/2015

No "anatomic or toxicological" causes of death were found, autopsy documents show. Drug tests revealed only the presence of THC, a chemical found in both prescription drugs and marijuana. The body showed no signs of external injury. The Kentucky medical examiner's office concluded excited delirium killed Gibson.
Excited delirium typically affects those who suffer from mental illness or use illicit drugs. It can manifest as extreme hostility, agitation, super strength and erratic behavior.

10/14/2015

The Justice Department estimated that 3.6 percent of state inmates in 2013 had drug possession as their most serious offense. That includes possession charges for all drugs, not just marijuana. To gauge the marijuana-only percentage, we have to go back to data that’s about a decade old.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/sisfcf04_q.pdf

10/12/2015

Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Colorado saw a 29 percent increase in emergency room visits, and a 38 percent increase in hospitalizations during retail marijuana’s first year.

10/11/2015

But “having medical value” isn’t the same thing as “being a medicine.” A medicine is a material of known chemical composition and dosage that has been shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective in the management of some condition in some patient population. By that standard, natural cannabis can’t be a medicine, simply because natural cannabis varies so widely in its chemical content: not only from one strain to another, but from one plant to another and even from one bud to another from the same plant.

10/11/2015

At the moment, there simply isn’t enough evidence to prove that cannabinoids – whether natural or synthetic – works to treat cancer in patients, although research is ongoing. And there’s certainly no evidence that ‘street’ cannabis can treat cancer.

10/08/2015

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic investigations are also required. Finally, the health consequences of passive vaping should be also considered.  
In conclusion, the new social phenomenon of vaping may slide from nicotine towards other psychoactive drugs (e.g., THC); it therefore deserves the urgent scientific investigation and strict risk assessments which are especially important when young people are concerned. In particular, the presence of toxic substances in the cannabis aerosols generated by e-cigs—from multiple models, brands, BHO and e-liquid manufacturers—need to be investigated.
A synthesis of the practical recipes and experiments reported on the Internet (in addition to our own experiments) shows that the simple, direct use of purified cannabis extracts in e-cigs is not easy because cannabinoids are poorly soluble in e-liquids. Indeed, used pure or in mixture with glycerol, the propylene glycol (PG, or propane-1,2-diol) that is commonly used in e-liquids has both hygroscopic and hydrophilic properties. Consequently, it is not miscible with mineral and vegetable oils and fats. In contrast, cannabinoid concentrates are very lipid soluble, but water insoluble. Furthermore, PG, glycerol, terpenoids, plant fats and waxes, cannabinoid concentrates and THC are very viscous substances. Accordingly, the manufacture of a homogeneous solution using these viscous liquids is a tedious task. Cannabinoid concentrates resemble more a thick, sticky, gummy resin than a liquid. We can infer from these facts that they do not mix readily with glycols, and even less so with glycerol. The addition of terpenoids (e.g., limonene) or lecithin has been advocated to help make cannabis oils miscible...

10/01/2015

My main finding is that it's primarily women who were younger when they become mothers who do continue to use marijuana overtime. Also women who are depressed over longer periods of time, women who smoke, women who use more than the recommended amount of alcohol are more likely to continue to use marijuana while pregnant as well as when they're raising their children. So the take-home messages is to ask women about marijuana use. We know that marijuana use is considered more and more acceptable by women and that they may continue to use while they are pregnant and while they are having children.

09/30/2015

There has not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans report,1,2 yet the amount of prescription painkillers dispensed in the U.S. quadrupled since 1999.3 Changes in how providers prescribe painkillers has helped fuel this epidemic. There is wide variation in painkiller prescribing between states which can't be explained by differences in health issues from state to state.

Deaths from prescription painkillers have also quadrupled since 1999, killing more than 16,000 people in the U.S. in 2013.4Nearly two million Americans, aged 12 or older, either abused or were dependent on opioids in 2013.5

09/30/2015

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use and abuse and mental disorders in the U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized population, age 12 and older. The survey generates estimates at the National, state, and substate levels.

09/27/2015

The impact of those changes can be seen not just in marijuana sales, but also in lives lost and harmed. In 2014, the report notes, there was a 32 percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths in Colorado compared with 2013. Marijuana-related traffic deaths increased 92 percent from 2010 to 2014.
In contrast, the increase in all traffic deaths during that time period was just 8 percent. Had it not been for marijuana-related traffic deaths, the state would have experienced adecline in traffic fatalities.
There's reason to think this problem won't go away soon. According to the report, an estimated 485,000 Colorado adults regularly use marijuana. Adults who consume marijuana almost daily make up the top 21.8 percent of that population — but they account for 66.9 percent of the demand for marijuana.

09/21/2015

Survey highlights:

• Parents still have a big influence over their children when it comes to using marijuana.
• More than 60 percent of marijuana users don't think it's addictive or damaging to the brain.
• One in 10 surveyed report being high at school and while driving, on a daily basis.

09/21/2015

Given these statistics.... is legalization worth the consequences....
Cannabis has been found to be the most frequently used drug in the U.S. after alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. 
The risk of developing addiction associated with cannabis use has been reported to increase to about 17% among those who start using marijuana in adolescence, and to 25-50% among those who smoke marijuana daily.
The long-term effects of marijuana use include altered brain development and cognitive impairment, including impaired neural connectivity in specific brain regions, decreased activity in prefrontal regions, and reduced volumes in the hippocampus.
Cannabis is most commonly consumed through smoking, a route of drug delivery that predictably has a variety of negative effects on pulmonary function. Smoke from marijuana combustion has been shown to contain a number of carcinogens and cocarcinogens, as well as many of the toxins, irritants, and carcinogens as tobacco smoke.  Additionally, marijuana smokers tend to inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than cigarette smokers, which leads to a greater exposure per breath to “tar” (the carcinogenic solids in smoke). Regular smoking of marijuana, in the absence of tobacco, produces visible and microscopic injury to the large airways
http://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/publicy-policy-statements/mariju...

09/15/2015

Positive top-line results have been reported from an exploratory phase 2a placebo-controlled clinical trial of cannabidiol (CBD, GW Pharmaceuticals) in patients with schizophrenia who had failed to respond adequately to first-line antipsychotic medications.  DOES NOT CONTAIN THC.