One of the arguments Soros' groups advanced for supposed medical marijuana laws was pain relief. I have always been skeptical of the medical marijuana claims because it seemed like an excuse for people whose "pain" was often sobriety. There is enough evidence now that marijuana increases the risk of schizophrenia to be concerned about giving it the stamp of approval that such laws provide. 3/26/21 Medical Xpress:
Researchers from the University of Bath's Centre for Pain Research have contributed to a major international review into the safety and efficacy of cannabinoids when used to treat pain, including chronic pain in children and adults.
Conducted for the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and recently published across 13 linked scientific articles in the journal Pain, leading experts from around the world including Dr. Fisher and Professor Eccleston from Bath reviewed existing data into cannabinoids, including for so-called 'medicinal cannabis' and 'medicinal cannabis extracts."
Their findings suggest that although there is preclinical data supporting the hypothesis of cannabinoid analgesia, uncertainties especially in clinical evidence, imply the evidence base for efficacy and safety does not reach the threshold required for the IASP to endorse their general use for pain control. The studies and the statement from the IASP are limited to the use of cannabinoids to treat pain, and not for other conditions for which cannabinoids are used.
Dr. Emma Fisher who led the review of the clinical evidence said: "Cannabis, cannabinoids, and cannabis-based medicines are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to manage pain. However, our review shows that there is limited evidence to support or refute their use for the management of any pain condition. The studies we found were poor quality (high risk of bias) and the evidence was of very low-certainty, meaning that we are very uncertain of the findings and more research is needed."
Yes, many businesses near the heart of the action suffered broken windows and fell prey to looters as fury over the police killing of George Floyd reached a boiling point. However, the crime spree that's now touched seemingly every Bay Area dispensary was not the inadvertent result of a riot or a small-scale effort to make off with a souvenir.
Instead, according to Magnolia Wellness executive director Debby Goldsberry, 20 men armed with guns paid her store an after-hours visit on Saturday, May 30, and left with everything they could take.
"Little did we know," Goldsberry told SFGATE by phone, "that on Friday night, the 29th, five dispensaries had armed robberies. Nobody notified us that five dispensaries had been robbed. The city didn't warn us. The police didn't warn us. We didn't know, so Magnolia didn't even know to be prepared."
While licensed pot shops and delivery services represent the customer-facing aspects of the cannabis industry, the Bay Area is also home to a large number of manufacturers, cultivators, and distributors as well. The licensing databases for all of these businesses were, until recently, fully accessible to the public.
As a result, there is now reasonable belief among industry insiders that this database was utilized as a way to target grow houses and other facilities that are often tucked away in industrial neighborhoods in hopes of avoiding unwanted attention.
On June 4, the databases were disabled in response to a letter requesting the action from the California Cannabis Industry Association.
Unfortunately, however, the damage is already done.
Nug’s CEO John Oram estimated losses to the company’s Oakland cultivation facility may top $2 million, which Budzu calculates as being worth 900 pounds of cannabis. A nearby growhouse for Cookies, the Bay Area cannabis-clothing empire overseen by rapper Berner, was also targeted. Meanwhile, down in Los Angeles, a Cookies location on Melrose was hit by looters on May 30.
A roadside strip search in N.J. draws protest and legal action. How far can an officer go?While I oppose decriminalization, this is the sort of behavior that makes "War on Drugs" a dangerous idea. It means anything, no matter how absurd, is in play.
The trooper is then seen pulling on blue latex gloves, reaching into the driver’s underwear, and groping his genitals and buttocks while the two stand on Route 206 in Southampton, Burlington County. All the while, trucks and cars pass by on the busy highway.
Legislative powers are the power to make and repeal laws. Those powers are not vested in the executive branch, which includes the president and, more relevant to this discussion, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recently announced that he will no longer follow an Obama-era policy of not enforcing federal laws against marijuana. Some states have repealed their own laws against marijuana, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and will stay that way unless Congress legislates otherwise.Unlike Instapundit, I no longer support decriminalization because of the increased risk it creates for schizophrenia, which most young people know nothing about. But this is the right answer. If Congress does not like the law, repeal it, do not administratively ignore it, or find a previously unknown constitutional right to get stoned.
California would become the first state in the nation to legalize psychedelic mushrooms if a long-shot ballot initiative passes muster with voters next year.
The measure is backed by a legalization activist who says he kicked his heroin habit with the help of a mushroom trip in Death Valley. It would exempt Californians over the age of 21 from a state law that criminalizes mushrooms containing psilocybin, the compound that gives some mushrooms psychedelic properties.
“There is a cultural fascination with mushrooms that goes really deep,” said Kevin Saunders, the activist behind the initiative. “The soccer moms are all pretty much, for lack of a better term, high now, and some of them are taking mushrooms.”...
Saunders, who is running for mayor of the small coastal community of Marina, said he believes psilocybin-laced mushrooms could have been transported to earth by an asteroid.
“What I think we’re dealing with possibly is alien contact,” Saunders said in an interview. “It may be some sort of communication from an advanced society, to reprogram us, to reprogram our souls or mind. I think this could be the next big awakening.”Some would say, "California politics suggest that they are already legal; the aliens won."
Psilocybin can produce euphoria, hallucinations and a distorted sense of time for the user. It is very common for those under the influence of magic mushrooms to act erratically and irrationally. Behavior may include odd reactions to normal events, distinct outbursts and panic attacks.
The effects of magic mushrooms cannot always be foreseen until the drug has already been taken. Unfortunately, as with most hallucinogenic drugs, the effects of magic mushrooms are unreliable and unpredictable. Some users will experience a spiritual or otherwise enlightening high while others may experience a “bad” trip that could cause them to suffer from extreme paranoia, anxiety, depression or schizophrenic like outbursts and chaos.
Cyclic vomiting syndrome is, I think, the best and worst clinical term for a condition that I’ve ever heard. Most clinical terms somewhat obscure the grossness of the thing described (think “incontinence” for diarrhea), but not cyclic vomiting syndrome (or CVS). It is pretty clear, pretty immediately, that what you are in for here is nonstop puking, in episodes lasting anywhere from a few hours to several days at a time. The exact cause is unknown, though there are a number of factors thought to contribute: emotional stress (particularly in children), hot weather, overeating, fatigue, migraines. A diagnosis of CVS is most common among young children, though the number of diagnoses among adults is increasing—and one of the reasons for that increase may be pot. A study published in 2012 found that marijuana use may be as high as 40 to 50 percent among male CVS patients. (While studies show that the typical patient for CVS linked to marijuana use is a middle-aged white man, women and minorities are also susceptible.) So, because I fear throwing up about as much as I fear drugs, I decided to speak to a medical professional to find out how likely it is that the average casual pot smoker will develop CVS.Remember: marijuana is health food! The comments over there from pot worshippers are as you might expect: There is no hazard from inhaling psychoactive burning vegetables! And here's a paper on it.
Abstract
Coinciding with the increasing rates of cannabis abuse has been the recognition of a new clinical condition known as Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome is characterized by chronic cannabis use, cyclic episodes of nausea and vomiting, and frequent hot bathing. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome occurs by an unknown mechanism. Despite the well-established anti-emetic properties of marijuana, there is increasing evidence of its paradoxical effects on the gastrointestinal tract and CNS. Tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, and cannabigerol are three cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant with opposing effects on the emesis response. The clinical course of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome may be divided into three phases: prodromal, hyperemetic, and recovery phase. The hyperemetic phase usually ceases within 48 hours, and treatment involves supportive therapy with fluid resuscitation and anti-emetic medications. Patients often demonstrate the learned behavior of frequent hot bathing, which produces temporary cessation of nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. The broad differential diagnosis of nausea and vomiting often leads to delay in the diagnosis of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome. Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome shares several similarities with CHS and the two conditions are often confused. Knowledge of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and natural course of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome is limited and requires further investigation.
Does driving while high have any impact on auto accident rates? Legalized recreational marijuana use in Colorado, Oregon and Washington correlates to about a 3 percent increase in auto collision claim frequencies compared to states without such legislation, according to a new Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) study. It's the first one the group has conducted since the drug went on sale legally.
"More drivers admit to using marijuana, and it is showing up more frequently among people involved in crashes," the study said.It is an article of faith that legalizing pot reduces impaired driving because drunks drive, while pot smokers do not, and pot substitutes for alcohol. It should be apparent that anything that increases the percentage of people intoxicated is likely to increase number of people driving while intoxicated. Further, I have seen no evidence that pot replaces alcohol abuse; often it seems to be in addition to alcohol.
The federal Liberals’ cannabis legislation should not be passed in its current form, argues a strongly worded editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“The purported purpose of the act is to protect public health and safety, yet some of the act’s provisions appear starkly at odds with this objective, particularly for Canada’s youth,” the editorial argues. “The government appears to be hastening to deliver on a campaign promise without being careful enough about the health impacts of policy.”
Young adults’ brains are developing until the age of 25. Some studies (but not others) seem to show that marijuana use harms the developing brain.And this 4/17/17 report should make you all warm and fuzzy inside (perhaps the unborn child will end up fuzzy):
Adolescent girls are more than twice as likely to smoke marijuana if they’re pregnant, a U.S. study suggests.
While previous research has tied teen drug and alcohol use to higher odds of multiple sex partners and pregnancy, the current study offers fresh insight into marijuana use among young women.
About 14 per cent of pregnant girls ages 12 to 17 smoke marijuana, compared to roughly 6 per cent of their non-pregnant peers, the study found. By contrast, older pregnant women were at least half as likely to smoke pot as their peers.
Among all pregnant women ages 12 to 44 in the study, about 6 per cent reported marijuana use during the first trimester, while 3 per cent said they smoked pot in the second trimester and about 2 per cent use the drug in the third and final trimester.
“These findings should be considered in a broader context in which young people increasingly view marijuana not just as a benign, but even as a beneficial drug,” said lead study author Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland.
Doctors advise women to completely avoid marijuana during pregnancy because it may have negative effects on fetal neurodevelopment, especially during the first trimester.Gee, do you suppose being stoned might be a part of the reason for the pregnant 12-year-olds?
Heavy marijuana use in the late teen years puts men at a higher risk for death by age 60, a new long-term study suggests.
Swedish researchers analyzed the records of more than 45,000 men beginning in 1969 and 1970. The scientists from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm reported that 4,000 died during the 42-year follow-up period, and men who'd used marijuana heavily at ages 18 and 19 were 40 percent more likely to die by age 60 compared to guys who hadn't used the drug.
The authors of the new study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, said the findings contradict previous research involving the same group of men.
But this study was longer and participants might have reached an age where the long-term effects of cannabis were taking a toll on health, said addiction expert Scott Krakower, an assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital, in New Hyde Park, NY.
"Cannabis users have poorer health in general. You'd expect there to be increased mortality risk," Krakower told CBS News. He pointed to another long-term study linking early heavy marijuana use with lung cancer, and a second study that associates the drug with increased heart problems.
A man who was arrested for randomly slashing a woman’s neck earlier this month in Brooklyn told police he attacked her because she is white, police sources said.
Gregory Alfred, 25, told police he set out to find white people to slice back on Mar. 10 because he blamed them and “the system” for preventing him from freely smoking weed, sources said.
(Reuters Health) - As marijuana becomes more accessible to young and old alike in the U.S., researchers warn that long-term use of the drug may cause lasting harm to at least one type of brain function.
A new study based on following thousands of young adults into middle age finds that long-term marijuana use is linked to poorer performance on verbal memory tests...
A public Board of Health meeting Wednesday night was cut short after the standing room only crowd began to chant in protest of the ban. The meeting was held in a school cafeteria rather than the usual cramped conference roomat Town Hall.
Only a handful of the dozens who wanted to speak did.
“I find smoking to be one of the most disgusting habits anybody could possibly do. On top of that, I find this proposal to be even more of a disgusting thing,” resident Kevin West said at the meeting.
Researchers at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas in Dallas sought to clear up some of the confusion with a study that looked at a relatively large group of marijuana users and evaluated their brains for a slew of different indicators....
What they found was complex, but the pattern was clear: The brains of marijuana users were different than those of non-marijuana users. The area of the brain responsible for establishing the reward system that helps us survive and also keeps us motivated was smaller in users than in non-marijuana users. But there was also evidence that the brain compensated for this loss of
Relative to other studies, this one had a fairly large sample size; it also excluded participants who had symptoms of psychosis, brain injury or neurological disorders in order to reduce the likelihood that the tests would pick up on other confounding factors. And it looked at three brain characteristics: the volume of the orbitofrontal cortex, how connected that part of the brain was to other areas, and the structural integrity of the white matter.
"We found that while the orbitofrontal cortex was smaller, there was greater functional and structural connectivity," said Filbey. "The white matter seemed to have greater integrity than the [non-marijuana using group]. And the connection between the orbitofrontal cortex and other areas were stronger."This November 11, 2014 CNN report points out:
Filbey said the people who regularly used marijuana had IQ's that were five points lower, on average, than the nonusers in the study, although there is no definitive proof that marijuana alone was to blame for the lower IQ.Just think, a whole nation like Jamaica! No wonder Democrats like the idea of legalizing pot.
Researchers noted that the IQ of the marijuana-using group was significantly lower than that of the non-using group--not a finding of the study, but an incidental factor that might be indirectly linked to marijuana use.
