Medical marijuana: Local politicians support legalization

Jeff DeMoss

The Utah Legislature has until March 8 to take up a bill regarding medical marijuana in the state, but many people who support legalization aren’t holding their breath.

Count local farmer and Box Elder County Commissioner Stan Summers among them.

Summers has become an outspoken supporter of medical marijuana after learning that the drug could help his 26-year-old son, Talon, who has an inflammatory condition that leaves him in a state of chronic pain. The medications that doctors are allowed to prescribe in Utah haven’t been very effective in helping manage Talon’s pain, and a growing body of research suggests that marijuana could be the best answer, Summers said.

Recent studies show that marijuana can be an effective pain management solution for people in a similar situation as Talon, and Summers’ frustration at the Legislature for its failure to act on the issue thus far is growing with each day he has to watch his son suffer.

“You don’t want to hold someone’s hand and tell them there’s nothing you can do for them,” he said. “If this is going to help him, let’s make it legal someway. Just make something legal so I don’t have to look behind my back when I’m trying to get him what he needs.”

Utah already has a provision allowing a narrow population of people with certain types of seizures to use oil infused with cannibidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana that has demonstrated medicinal value. But Summers said that leaves out the vast majority of people who need marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of their illnesses, and it doesn’t allow for the use of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that produces the high, and also provides pain relief.

“There’s probably 100,000 people in the state who don’t fit the hole,” he said. “(The current law) doesn’t even come close to reaching everyone who needs it.”

Summers is not holding out much hope for progress on the issue this session, even though there are likely to be several proposals floated over the next five weeks. No one seems to be willing to take up the mantle, he said, ever since Utah County Senator Mark Madsen left the Legislature in 2016 following an unsuccessful attempt at legalization.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to take that problem,” Summers said. “It’s one of those things where no one wants to put their name on it, even though everybody wants it.”

The most recent polls suggest widespread public support for medical marijuana across the political spectrum in the state. Results released last week from a joint poll by The Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics show that 76 percent of Utah voters are in favor of medical marijuana – about the same level of support indicated by similar polls conducted in 2017.

Those poll results include 64 percent of Republican respondents showing their support, as well as majorities of voters who aren’t necessarily affiliated with a political party, but identify themselves as “conservative” or “very conservative.”

Also, a recent poll by Dan Jones & Associates found that 76 percent of voters who identify as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints support the legalization of medical marijuana.

“Then you’ve got just a couple of naysayers,” Summers said. “
 
Summers said that based on conversations he has had, the Legislature will most likely wait and see what happens in the fall, as it appears likely there will be a ballot initiative put forth to voters in November of this year.

If the ballot measure were to pass, adults in Utah (or minors through a parent or legal guardian) would be able to receive a card to legally use marijuana from the Utah Department of Health based on a physician’s recommendation. The health department would start issuing the cards by March 1, 2020.

The initiative would also allow for the licensing of growing operations, testing laboratories, and dispensaries. The number of dispensaries allowed in a given area would be based on a population density formula, so patients in rural counties might have to travel to the Wasatch Front to obtain marijuana. Based on the current formula, one dispensary would be allowed in Box Elder County and up to eight in Salt Lake County, the state’s most populous county.

Dispensaries would be allowed to sell marijuana to card holders, and there are limits on the amount any one patient could buy in a given two-week period.

The measure also includes a provision that would allow card holders to grow up to six plants for personal use starting in 2021 – but only those who live more than 100 miles from the nearest dispensary. Other provisions would include bans on smoking marijuana, driving under the influence of the drug, or using it in public view except in medical emergencies. Marijuana would also be exempt from state sales tax.

Local governments would be limited in their ability to restrict medical marijuana-related activities, as they would be prohibited by the state from banning cultivation, processing, testing and dispensary facilities on the basis that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. They would be allowed to regulate times, locations and procedures for dispensing marijuana, and related businesses wouldn’t be allowed within 600 feet of schools, public parks, playgrounds, churches or libraries, or within 300 feet of residential areas.

A group called the Utah Patients Coalition is behind the effort to put the issue before voters.

According to DJ Schanz, director of the coalition, the petition is on track to receive the nearly 113,000 signatures needed within a couple of weeks -- about two months before the April 15 deadline.

Republican Rep. Scott Sandall of Tremonton isn’t planning to sponsor a bill on the issue, but said he supports legalization under the right conditions.

“I am very much in favor of medical marijuana if we can get it into a dosable form,” Sandall said.

“It’s time for us to get into labs, break down the THC and cannabidiol (the compounds in marijuana on which most research is focused), get it into a pill or something else with so many parts of this and so many parts of that, and figure out how that affects a person of a certain weight. Otherwise, it’s a crap shoot on what a patient’s response will be.”

He said the Legislature approved some funding last year for marijuana-related research at the University of Utah, but their hands are tied because the substance is still illegal at the federal level.

Sandall would like to see a solution go through the Legislature, as he said ballot initiatives can be problematic. If voters approve the initiative, he said legislators would still have to go back and deal with the many specific provisions included, as the issue is still fraught with potential legal problems and other ramifications.

“Ballot initiatives are troublesome because they tend to be very narrowly focused,” he said. “If it passes, the legislature has to respond after its passing.”

While he remains frustrated with the slow pace in the Legislature on the issue, Summers sees plenty of reason for optimism as well, as he says he is witnessing a gradual change in attitude at the federal level as well. He has made trips to Washington, D.C. to testify and share his family’s experience, and believes that effort is helping to make an impact on policymakers.

“Eighteen months ago, Senator Hatch got on the Senate floor and talked about marijuana as a gateway drug, and after our interaction, he put in a bill to start federal trials (on marijuana research),” Summers said.
                         
Meanwhile, he’s trying to make progress at the state level as well. He said he’s met with lobbyists for the LDS Church at the state capitol, one of whom told him “we’ve got to look out for the good of the whole.

“That’s telling me to look at the 99 and not the one,” he said. “I’ve been a card-carrying member (of the Church) my whole life, and I was never taught that.”

He said he understands the lingering perception of marijuana as a recreational drug, but believes times have changed, and state policy should be adjusted accordingly.

“We’re not talking about Cheech and Chong. We’re talking about right and wrong,” Summers said. “The generation of ‘get high and make love’ is gone, and the rest of us are just trying to get by.”

Marijuana-based anti-seizure drug could hit U.S. market in 2018

Tests show strong results from use of the drug, called Epidiolex, in a controlled study.

By ariana eunjung cha

A new class of epilepsy medications based on an ingredient derived from marijuana could be available as soon as the second half of 2018 in the United States, pending Food and Drug Administration approval.

Officials from GW Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed the drug, on Wednesday announced promising results from a study on 171 patients randomized into treatment and placebo groups.

Members of the group, ages 2 to 55, have a condition called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and were suffering from seizures that were not being controlled by existing drugs. On average they had tried and discontinued six anti-seizure treatments and were experiencing 74 “drop” seizures per month.

Drop seizures involve the entire body, trunk or head and often result in a fall or other type of injury.

The results, published in the Lancet, show that over a 14-week treatment period, 44 percent of patients taking the drug, called Epidiolex, saw a significant reduction in seizures, compared with 22 percent of the placebo group. Moreover, more of the patients who got the drug experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in drop seizures.

Elizabeth Thiele, director of pediatric epilepsy at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study, said the results varied depending on the patient.

“For some, it does not do a whole lot. But for the people it does work in, it is priceless,” she said.

“One child who comes to mind had multiple seizures a day. She had been on every medication possible,” said Thiele, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Then the patient tried the cannabis-based treatment and has been seizure-free for almost four years. “She is now talking about college options. She would have never had that conversation before. It has been life-changing.”

A town councilor in Standish, Maine, made headlines when he posted a video of his son having a seizure who appears to calm down after a substance is rubbed on his gums. Peter Starostecki said he and his family moved to Maine because medical marijuana helps control his son’s seizures and is legal. The Facebook post captured more than 13 million views.

Epidiolex is based on a purified cannabidiol, an oil from marijuana plants that has made headlines in recent years.

Interest in the substance, one of many components of marijuana plants, began to take off when Paige Figi, a Colorado mom, began writing about how an extract – nicknamed “Charlotte’s Web” from the special strain it was taken from – had nearly stopped her daughter’s seizures. Numerous families moved to the state, where marijuana is legal, to try to get the treatment, and others mobilized in their own states to try to get permission to import it.

Despite its apparent effect, Charlotte’s Web has been controversial because of the lack of oversight and regulation regarding the production, sales and dosaging. The oil was produced by a small business run by brothers who are cannabis growers. Epidiolex, which is based on the same scientific theory about cannabidiol as an active ingredient but is unrelated to Charlotte’s Web, is intended to be a prescription drug dispensed by doctors.

“As a pharmaceutical product, it is the subject of rigorous and intense manufacturing controls.

Patients have the reassurance that the product is what we say it is and what they think it is,” Justin Gover, GW’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. He declined to discuss the pricing of the drug but said the company is already in discussions with health insurers about coverage.

A previous study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May, showed that Epidiolex also appears to be safe and effective in children who suffer from Dravet syndrome, a rare, severe form of epilepsy.

Epidiolex is somewhat unusual in the world of drugs under development because about 1,500 people are already taking the drug free under the FDA’s “compassionate use” exception, which allows products to be used on a limited basis before they are approved.

GW Pharmaceuticals said it also has a new drug application pending before the European Medicines Agency.

Pot holes ahead: Police prepare to crack down on driving-while-high

CHRIS ZELKOVICH

Things are more than a little, ahem, hazy as Canada prepares for the legalization of marijuana at some unspecified date this summer.

But while many details are still, ahem, up in the air, one thing is clear: police forces across the country are expecting a big increase in driving-while-high cases.

"In jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana, there has been an increase in cannabis usage while driving," Sergeant Ray Moos of the RCMP says.

The facts bear that out. The number of Colorado drivers who tested positive for marijuana use jumped 145 per cent from 2013 to 2016. Marijuana was legalized there in 2014.

A study released last summer reported that the number of collisions reported to insurance companies in Colorado, Oregon and Washington State is 3 per cent higher than what would have been expected if those states had not legalized marijuana.

Scarier, yet, is a recent Health Canada survey that showed 39 per cent of cannabis users polled said they had driven within two hours of smoking up.

With that in mind, Canadian police forces are gearing up for what's expected to come this summer when lighting up a joint is scheduled to become legal.

While much of what police forces do won't change – charging those who drive while high on drugs has been enforced for decades – there is already a lot more emphasis on those who get behind the wheel after smoking marijuana.

The RCMP, for one, have stepped up training with the proposed law in mind.

"That's aimed at giving our officers a better ability to detect cannabis impairment as well as all other drug impairments," Moos says.

While the techniques are pretty much the tried and true – looking for unsteadiness, dilated pupils, lack of focus and so forth – police do have one new tool in their arsenal. There's been a substantial increase in the number of drug-recognition evaluators across the country and police forces are expecting to triple the number of evaluators by the end of next year.

These are trained officers who make the final call on whether to lay impaired-driving charges after a driver has been taken off the road. They conduct thorough tests to determine level of impairment.

"It's a 12-step evaluation where there are over 100 pieces of information obtained," Corporal David Botham of the RCMP says. The evaluation includes tests of body temperature, muscle tone and attention abilities.

Once the expert has decided the driver is impaired and can identify the drug, he will order a blood or urine test to confirm the drug or drugs involved.

"Through all these different training initiatives and through our past and current training, we are confident we'll be in a position to tackle all forms of impaired driving," Moos says.

The proposed law, Bill C-46, also offers one new tool. If approved by the Senate, it will empower officers to use oral-fluid screening devices to detect the presence of drugs. That's basically a spit test using a swab to determine the level of drugs in the driver's system, although the standards have yet to be finalized.

While not all of the details of Canada's legislation are clear yet, one thing is evident: Those caught driving high will pay a severe price.

The proposed law dictates that as little as two nanograms of THC per millilitre can result in charges and fines up to $1,000. Anything over five nanograms could land the offender in jail.

Several provinces have stepped up penalties in anticipation of legalization.

Insurance companies are ready to make offending drivers pay, although they are waiting for the law to pass before setting standards. But existing penalties are fairly onerous for impaired drivers.

"If you're under 21 and have been convicted, your car-insurance premium may cost you more than your car," says insurance expert Anne Marie Thomas at InsuranceHotline.com, noting that once you get your licence back, you could be paying an annual premium of up to $12,000.

"If you hurt somebody … you're going to be a high-risk driver for a long time and that's going to cost you a lot of money," she says, noting that impaired driving also brings a criminal record.

But that's under today's system. Because of the controversy surrounding legalization, don't be surprised if both legal and insurance penalties become much harsher, Thomas notes.

Is Smoking Pot While Pregnant Safe For The Baby?

Sarah Varney

Andria Smith (left) with her daughter Delilah Smith (center) and Jenna Sauter's son, Maverick Hawkins, in Nevada City, Calif. The mothers are both members of the Facebook group "Pot Smoking Moms Who Cuss Sometimes."

Two-year old Maverick Hawkins sits on a red plastic car in his grandmother's living room in the picturesque town of Nevada City, Calif., in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. His playpal Delilah Smith, a fellow 2-year old, snacks on hummus and cashews and delights over the sounds of her Princess Peppa stuffie.

It's playtime for the kids of the provocatively named Facebook group "Pot Smoking Moms Who Cuss Sometimes."

Maverick's mother, Jenna Sauter, started the group after he was born. "I was a new mom, a young mom — I was 22 — and I was just feeling really lonely in the house, taking care of him," she says.

She wanted to reach out to other mothers but didn't want to hide her marijuana use.

"I wanted friends who I could be open with," Sauter says — "like I enjoy going to the river and I like to maybe smoke a joint at the river."

There are nearly 2,600 members now in the Facebook group. Marijuana, which became legal for recreational use in California earlier this month, is seen by many group members as an all-natural and seemingly harmless remedy for everything from morning sickness to post-partum depression.

Delilah Smith's mom Andria is 21 and a week away from her due date with her second child. She took umbrage when an emergency room physician recently suggested she take "half a Norco"— a pill akin to Vicodin, an opioid-based painkiller — for her excruciating back pain.

Smith is disdainful. "She was like, 'We know more about Norco and blah, blah, blah and what it can do to you, but we don't that much about marijuana,' " Smith says.

"I was like, 'Test me!' I was like, 'Observe me. My kid could count to 10 before she was even 2 by herself, and I smoked pot throughout my whole pregnancy. She's not stupid! There is no third eye growing.' "

The number of women in the United States who use marijuana during pregnancy has been difficult to gauge, partly because some women are reluctant to tell their doctors; at least 24 states consider substance use during pregnancy a form of child abuse, so divulging such information can have serious consequences.

Still, a number of studies nationally suggest there's been a sharp jump in pot use among pregnant women, especially among younger mothers.

Smith and Sauter both told their doctors of their marijuana use, and after they gave birth, their babies were tested for signs of marijuana's chief active ingredient, THC.

Researchers say psychoactive compounds in marijuana easily cross the placenta, exposing the fetus to perhaps 10 percent of the THC — tetrahydrocannabinol — that the mother receives, and higher concentrations if the mom uses pot repeatedly.

When Jenna Sauter's youngest son, Axel, tested positive for THC — marijuana's active ingredient — after he was born, she got a home visit from local social services. Sauter says she and her friends don't smoke near their children.

Dr. Dana Gossett, a research obstetrician and gynecologist at the University of California, San Francisco who also treats patients, says studies show marijuana increases the risk of stillbirth and adversely affects how a baby's brain develops.

Gossett cites some research that suggests children exposed to marijuana while growing in the womb can have poorer performance on visual-motor coordination — tasks like catching a ball or solving visual problems like puzzles.

And studies also show, she says, these kids may have behavioral problems at higher rates than other children by the age of 14, and are at greater risk for initiating marijuana use.

"That is biologically plausible," Gossett says, "because the effects of THC in the brain may actually prime that child for addictive behavior, not just to marijuana but to alcohol as well."

There has been little research on the effects of THC passed to a baby via breastfeeding. But because there isn't enough evidence to determine the risk, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists discourages marijuana use during pregnancy, and warns breastfeeding moms to avoid eating or smoking marijuana or inhaling its second-hand smoke — since some amount of THC, just like alcohol, can pass into the baby that way.

To Andria Smith's point that her daughter, Delilah, is just as smart as her peers, studies do show that, in general, children exposed to marijuana in utero don't score worse on reading or mathematics as they get older.

After their babies tested positive for THC, Sauter and Smith were visited at home by county social service workers, who gave the women information about the effects of marijuana use during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Sauter says she and her friends don't smoke near their children, nor do they spend their days stoned to oblivion.

"It's not like being totally out of it," Sauter says. "I'm completely aware of my surroundings. I'm watching my kid, watching my friends' kids. I'm hanging out. You totally know what's going on."

Sauter says many parents she knows are uncertain if they can get in trouble using pot now in California. Indeed, child protection laws in most states remain at odds with liberal marijuana laws.

Some moms on the Facebook page will not go to the doctor — even when they're sick.

"They don't want to get tested," Sauter says. "And that's dangerous. We should be able to be open about it. Because if something does go wrong, we've got to know."
 
ACOG does not endorse mandatory testing for THC in pregnant women or newborn babies — out of concern that women could be jailed or have their babies taken from them. Instead, the organization urges obstetricians to ask pregnant women about drug use during prenatal visits, counseling these patients against substance use and helping them alleviate their nausea, back pain or post-partum depression with medications deemed safe by federal drug regulators.

But with recreational cannabis now legal in at least eight states and the District of Columbia, physicians like Gossett are worried that newborns and young children, whose brains are rapidly developing, constructing billions of neural connections, will come to know the world in an altered state.

"They're learning what things look like and how things move and how to respond to the world," Gossett says. Marijuana's psychotropic effects, she adds, will change "a child's ability to interpret the world around him."

Cannabis-Based Seizure Medicine on Track for FDA Approval This Year

If the FDA approves Epidiolex, which is derived from purified cannabidiol, the federal agency will be confirming that a cannabinoid does indeed have an official medical use.

by Chris Moore 

A cannabis-derived medication may become widely available across the U.S. later this year after a promising new study has confirmed the drug's ability to effectively reduce seizures. Epidiolex, a drug comprised of purified cannabidiol, was created by GW Pharmaceuticals in order to treat a wide variety of seizure disorders. This week, a research study published in the Lancet journal confirmed the efficacy of the drug, increasing the chances that the FDA will approve the medication for use in the U.S.

The new study investigated the effects of Epidiolex on patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome who were suffering seizures that could not be controlled by existing pharmaceuticals. According to GW Pharmaceuticals, this is “the only well-controlled clinical evaluation of a cannabinoid medication for this severe, drug-resistant condition.”

The research team randomly divided 171 patients aged between 2 and 55 into two groups, one of which received Epidiolex, while the other received a placebo. Over the 14-week study period, 44% of the patients taking the CBD-based drug saw a significant reduction in seizures.

"For some, it does not do a whole lot," Elizabeth Thiele, director of pediatric epilepsy at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study, told The Washington Post. "But for the people it does work in, it is priceless."

The results of the Lancet study dovetail nicely with another study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that Epidiolex was able to effectively and safely treat symptoms of Dravet syndrome, another severe form of epilepsy. Although the FDA has not fully approved the use of Epidiolex, around 1,500 Americans are currently taking the drug under the agency's "compassionate use" exemption, which allows some products to be used on a limited basis before they receive the FDA's final approval.

Normally, the FDA would have no issues with approving a drug that has demonstrated such promising clinical results, but the fact that Epidiolex is derived from a federally-prohibited drug has been making things difficult for GW Pharmaceuticals. In addition to following the strict rules imposed by the FDA for all new drug trials, the company must also ensure that all hospitals where the drug is being tested are inspected and licensed by the DEA.

Cannabis, in all its consumable forms, is currently classified by the feds as a Schedule I narcotic, which is reserved for dangerous drugs with no medical use. If the FDA approves Epidiolex, the agency will be confirming that a cannabinoid does indeed have an official medical use, and Epidiolex will have to be placed into a different schedule. Unfortunately, this potential rescheduling will not apply to cannabis in general, or even to other CBD-based medicines. That said, having the federal government officially admit that a form of cannabis has medicinal benefits would be another promising sign for the future of medical marijuana usage throughout the U.S.

54 lawmakers send letter urging Trump to restore Obama-era pot guidelines

Dylan Stableford

 

A group of lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., sent a letter to President Trump on Wednesday urging him to restore Obama-era guidelines that allowed states to determine their own marijuana laws.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, a 2013 directive from the Obama administration that directed U.S. attorneys to place a “low priority” on enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized pot. To date, nine states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing for the recreational use of marijuana. Dozens more have passed laws legalizing it for medicinal use.

Sessions’ decision to rescind the guidelines, the lawmakers said, “will have a chilling effect” in those states.

“This action by the Department of Justice has the potential to unravel efforts to build sensible drug policies that encourage economic development as we finally move away from antiquated practices that have hurt disadvantaged communities,” reads the two-page letter, which was signed by 54 members of Congress, 51 of them Democrats. Three Republicans — Alaska Rep. Don Young, California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz — signed it, too.

The lawmakers pointed out that as a candidate Trump signaled he would leave marijuana laws “up to the states.”

In October, a Gallup survey found 64 percent of Americans believe marijuana use should be legal — the highest level of public support for the proposal in nearly a half-century.

The letter urged Trump to follow the “will of the voters” and allow states to “provide common sense, responsible regulations for marijuana that balance public health and public safety needs with limited criminal justice resources.”

Polis and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who threatened to block all nominees to Justice Department posts in response to Sessions’ decision, sent a similar letter to Trump on Jan. 4, the day Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo.

“I’m prepared to hold every Justice Department nominee until Jeff Sessions lives up to what he told me, lives up to his commitment,” Gardner tweeted the same day.
 

Support for Marijuana Legalization Grows With 60 Percent of Americans Now in Favor

New poll shows majority of respondents up to age 64 support legalization.

By Julia Conley

A growing majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana for personal use, according to a new poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal.

Sixty percent of those surveyed said adults should have the right to buy marijuana, with even higher levels of support among Democrats and respondents under the age of 35.

The survey results were consistent with another recent poll taken by Pew Research Center earlier this month, which found that 61 percent of Americans back legalization.

Nearly three-quarters of people ages 18 to 34 supported legalization according to the new poll. While support was lower among those ages 35 to 49 and 50 to 64, majorities in both age groups said the substance should be legalized.

The poll showed an increase in support since 2014, when only 55 percent of Americans supported legalization.

The survey results came out days after Vermont became the ninth state to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults ages 21 and older, with a law that will go into effect in July. The state is the first to pass legalization through its legislature rather than a ballot initiative. Maine, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Alaska have all decriminalized the substance in recent years.

New Jersey and Michigan are expected to vote on legalization this year, while groups in red states including Oklahoma and Utah are mounting efforts to include medical marijuana use on this year's election ballots. 

What are the benefits, risks of marijuana use? Experts are just finding out

By Brad Branan

During his 25 years of researching cannabis, Dr. Daniele Piomelli has received hundreds of emails from people desperately wanting to know whether the plant can help them with medical problems. He recalls the one he received from the father of a girl with autism who was desperate for help.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, I have to say, ‘We just don’t know,’ ” said Piomelli, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “It’s heartbreaking.”

While Piomelli and other marijuana researchers acknowledge a shortage of research on the benefits and risks of the drug, they also said they feel the need to spread what is known about cannabis as California and seven other states move forward with legalized, recreational weed for adults. Piomelli was one of several public health experts who spoke Thursday during a legislative briefing at the state Capitol on the health effects of cannabis.

The briefing comes as the state Legislature recently returned to the Capitol and California started retail sales of marijuana on Jan. 1. Lawmakers are likely to consider a range of legislation aimed at addressing the perceived risks and benefits of marijuana.

Piomelli was in a good position to give an overview of what is known, as he sat on a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that recently examined the topic.

The organization, which “provides nonpartisan, objective guidance for decision makers,” called the June 2017 report “one of the most comprehensive studies of recent research on health effects of recreational and therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabis-derived products.”

One of the key findings of the National Academies report was that “conclusive or substantial evidence” exists showing that cannabis is effective for treating chronic pain, Piomelli said. Another one: Marijuana helps treat nausea and vomiting.

California and other states also have sanctioned the use of cannabis for treatment of Alzheimer disease, Parkinson’s disease and a host of other chronic conditions. However, available evidence does not support or deny the effectiveness of these treatments, Piomelli said.

Federally, marijuana remains listed under Schedule 1 in the Controlled Substances Act, a category for drugs deemed to be the most harmful and addictive and with no accepted medical use.

The National Academies report found risks associated with marijuana use by pregnant women and youths, but added that more research is needed in these areas, Piomelli said.

Other experts speaking at the Capitol on Thursday focused on risks to youths.

Phillip Gardiner of the University of California, San Francisco, said policymakers need to consider the addition of flavoring to cannabis products, as the tobacco industry used that approach to attract young people to smoking.

He said that’s not the only quality marijuana shares with tobacco. “Smoke is smoke, and it’s not beneficial,” said Gardiner, who acknowledged that cannabis is not just consumed in joints and also is taken through food, beverages and other means.

Lynn Silver, also of UCSF, said she is concerned about how cannabis edibles are packaged and how they might appeal to kids. She said the packaging often mimics well-known candy. “We need to keep marijuana boring so it’s not attracting youth,” she said.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/california-weed/article196756549.html#storylink=cpy

Alcohol Sales Dropped 15% In States With Medical Marijuana Laws

Thomas Pellechia,

 

Shutterstock

A joint study by researchers at two U.S. universities and one in South America claims a reduction in the U.S.’s overall alcohol consumption appears directly related to the rise of medical marijuana laws recently enacted in a number of states. Presented by Michele Baggio, University of Connecticut, Storrs; Alberto Chong, Georgia State University, Atlanta and Universidad del Pacifico, Lima; and Sungoh Kwon, University of Connecticut, Storrs, the working paper may add to what many believe will prove definitive regarding the relationship between wine and marijuana consumption.

The research for this study made use of available Nielsen Retail Scanner alcohol sales data from 90 alcohol chain stores—grocery, convenience, drug, and mass distribution stores—from 2006-2015. They did it this way because they believed asking consumers does not provide reliable information, as many people simply don’t tell the absolute truth about their alcohol consumption habits.  

Using the 90-chain data, the study compared alcohol sales of states that do not have medical marijuana laws and states with medical marijuana laws (before and after the laws were implemented). 

The researchers also included demographics (age, race) as well as economics (income) for the study because those areas make a measurable impact on alcohol consumption.


Over the ten years studied, counties located in medical marijuana states showed almost a 15 percent reduction in monthly alcohol sales.



The overall conclusion of the study is that marijuana and alcohol are strong substitutes for each other. 

In other words, they share almost the same audience. If that’s true, then it stands to reason that introducing legal marijuana where alcohol consumption is legal may very well result in a negative effect on alcohol sales. 

Medical marijuana is legally sold to a small percentage of overall marijuana users, but this study may be an indicator of what the alcohol industry can expect in states where recreational marijuana laws go into effect that will increase legal access to every adult in the state.

Another aim of the study appears to have been to determine whether legalized marijuana promises to replace alcohol consumption altogether. The jury is still out on that question. But in a recent Webinar concerning the state of the wine industry, host Rob McMillan, Silicon Valley Bank Wine Division president, joined by two wine industry guests stated flatly they see no evidence and do not believe legalized marijuana will be a major substitute for wine consumption. McMillan pointed out that beer is more likely than wine to suffer sales reductions. His reasoning: wine compliments a meal, marijuana doesn’t. 

McMillan has a point, but something else needs to be considered: after smoking pot, many people eat--and drink--considerably more. With that in mind, it's not hard to imagine that instead of decreasing alcohol sales recreational legalization of marijuana across the country might increase the sales.

The wine and marijuana industries are poised to discover. Stay tuned.

New study to use social media for exploring blunt use among African-American young adults

HealthNews

The use of blunts--tobacco cigar shells filled with marijuana--has increased steadily since they first became popular in the 1990s, especially among young adults. According to data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, approximately 50 percent of blunt smokers fall between the ages of 18 to 25.

A new study at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine will use social media, specifically Twitter, to engage this target group in discussions on blunt use and the health hazards.

"Given that social media is already fully integrated into the lives of many young adults, my research will focus on the development and evaluation of a private online Twitter group to support African-American young adults who are interested in reducing heavy blunt use," says LaTrice Montgomery, PhD, assistant professor and a licensed psychologist in the Addiction Sciences Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience who is leading the study. "It is important to develop innovative and cost-effective interventions for young adults who might be reluctant to enter or remain engaged in traditional substance abuse treatments."

Montgomery notes that this will be the first study to develop and assess a treatment intervention specifically for blunt use. While existing studies may look at tobacco or marijuana use separately, there is little data available on the dual use of tobacco and marijuana via blunts.

"Compared to traditional marijuana joints, blunts have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases due to high levels of carbon monoxide exposure," Montgomery says. Blunt use has also been associated with other illicit drug use, especially among young adults. Given the limited number of studies in this area, Montgomery's plan is to examine the many facets of blunt use in the African-American community, such as the aggressive marketing tactics of little cigar and cigarillo companies, perceptions of blunt use in popular cultural and artistic channels and the role of social media.

Montgomery will use a National Institute on Drug Abuse Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)--$726,000 over five years--to focus on the development and evaluation of a digital health intervention for African-American young adult blunt smokers.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), K23 grants support the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. The award provides support for a five-year period of mentoring from senior-level investigators and a health-related research project. Montgomery will structure and conduct her research with the support of four mentors: Theresa Winhusen, PhD, professor of psychiatry and the vice chair and director of the Addiction Sciences Division at UC; Vicki Plano-Clark, PhD, associate professor in the UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services; and researchers at Dartmouth College (Alan Budney, PhD, professor of psychiatry) and Stanford University (Judith Prochaska, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry).

Montgomery's project will begin with individual interviews with young adults to gain a stronger understanding of cultural norms and patterns of blunt use and gauge attitudes toward social media engagement. Following that, she will develop a small-scale randomized clinical trial of a Twitter-based intervention, engaging groups in discussion on the social media channel to promote the reduction of blunt smoking among African-American young adults.

"Although research consistently indicates higher rates of blunt use among African-American young adults, very few studies assess the root causes, risk and protective factors, and prevention and treatment interventions that might be effective for this population," she says. The lack of studies among African-Americans represents a significant knowledge gap, Montgomery adds, and her research is designed to address this gap with the ultimate goal of reducing racial/ethnic health disparities related to blunt use.

If found to be a feasible approach Montgomery says, "A Twitter-based intervention may provide an accessible and effective way to reduce blunt smoking and thereby decrease morbidity and mortality rates associated with marijuana and tobacco co-use."

New Study Says Marijuana Does Not Reduce Fertility In Men Or Women

By James McClure

Good news: If you’re trying to get pregnant, there’s no need to lay off cannabis before conception. At least, not according to this preliminary research.

A new study by Boston University School of Public Health that examined the relationship between marijuana use and fertility has found that cannabis does not lower the chance of conception for either men or women.

Researchers were drawn to the issue because roughly 15 per cent of couples have trouble with making babies. Meanwhile, fertility treatments cost the American healthcare system over $5 billion dollars per year, so scientists wanted to know if they could help reduce that expense by determining if recreational drug use was responsible for the infertility problem.

The research studied fecundability — a fancy word for how likely you are to conceive per menstrual cycle — by surveying roughly 4,000 women aged 21 to 45 who were in stable relationships and were neither using contraception nor any kind of fertility treatment. Just over 1,000 of their male partners also agreed to take part in the study.

Researchers noted that 12 percent of the women and 14 percent of men used cannabis over the four-year study (2013-2017). After following up with the couples 12 times over the course of the study, researchers found that the possibility of getting pregnant was similar for the couples who used cannabis and the couples who did not.

However, they stressed that the study is very preliminary: it doesn’t examine the influence of one-time cannabis use vs. chronic consumption, and it relied on self-reported data. But the researchers say there is a lot of opportunity for future studies, so we will likely learn more about marijuana and fertility in the near future.

French Government Recommends Cannabis Decriminalization

 

 

By Jon Hiltz

 

A new parliamentary report from the government of France recommends a set fine of €150-€200 for marijuana possession, which would effectively decriminalize cannabis in the nation.

Despite the fact that France has some of the most stringent laws related to cannabis possession, the country has one of the highest rates of marijuana use in Europe. The most recent numbers show that 17 million French citizens have tried cannabis and 1.4 million use it regularly —  including 700,000 who enjoy the plant on a daily basis.

Currently, marijuana users face up to one year in prison and a fine of €3750, but a government document scheduled to be released on Wednesday concluded that the current laws and punishments are clearly not dissuading use.

The report shows that in 2015 there were approximately 64,000 drug-related convictions in France, 40,000 of which were for possession. Out of the 40,000, only 3,098 concluded in a prison sentence.

Despite the low number of convictions, French police have been mired in a bureaucratic quicksand filled with cannabis possession charges due to all the paperwork involved in getting a conviction. The report states that by implementing fines instead of criminal prosecution, it would free up the police to concentrate on black market dealers and illegal cultivators instead.

“The fixed fine of €150-€200 that I propose would enable police officers in the field to stop the legal procedure there and then with the person who has been caught,” said MP Robin Reda, who was one of the authors of the proposed legislation. “The advantage of this is that the punishment is immediate and systematic.”

Last year, cannabis was a hot topic during the country’s general election, with 4 out of 5 major candidates in favor of some type of cannabis reform. The winner, President Emmanuel Macron, has stated he supports decriminalization. The country’s Interior Minister announced in May that decriminalization might happen by Sept. 2017. Although that announcement has not yet become a reality, this new government document could push the movement forward.

More Women Are Using Marijuana During Pregnancy – Here’s Why

By Suzee Skwiot

 

Image via iStock

While prenatal vitamins and folic acid are standard diet additions during pregnancy, a new emerging trend among young mothers-to-be is coming to light. According to recent research published in JAMA, an increasing number of women between the ages of 18 and 24 are consuming marijuana during their pregnancy.

Researchers took to Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, where they looked at a group of 279,457 pregnant women and observed the rates of smoking weed while pregnant. While, across the board, women consumed more marijuana during pregnancy (in the time period of 2012 to 2016, the rate went from 4.2% to 7.1%), the biggest increase came in the youngest age range.

For those mothers-to-be who were under the age of 18, the rate increased from 12.5% to 21.8%, and for those who were between 18 and 24, their rates increased from 9.8% to 19%. For mothers who were a bit older, 24-25 years old, the rate also went up slightly, from 3.4% to 5.1%.

However, the researchers do warn that rates could be much higher since some mothers would be unlikely or unwilling to report their marijuana usage to their doctor.

While many people use marijuana to manage anxiety and pain, expectant mothers report using it to combat morning sickness during the start of their pregnancy.

Image: Unsplash

“As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, some pregnant women have turned to using marijuana to ease nausea or other pregnancy symptoms,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

“However, researchers don’t know a lot about what the effects might be and while the research is in progress, most experts advise pregnant women not to use marijuana.”

The CDC also warns that many chemicals in marijuana “can pass through a mother’s system to her baby and can negatively affect a baby’s health… research shows that using marijuana while pregnant can cause health problems in newborns—including low birth weight. Using marijuana during pregnancy may also increase a baby’s risk of developmental problems.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourages expectant mothers or women who are trying to conceive to “discontinue use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in favor of an alternative therapy for which there are better pregnancy-specific safety data.”

And because of the new data, researchers encourage mothers (of all ages) to speak with their doctor honesty about their marijuana use, and to find other potential alternatives to help cope with the morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms.

 

Cancer Patients Get Little Guidance From Doctors On Using Medical Marijuana

Karen Weintraub

Kate Murphy felt frustrated by a lack of advice from doctors on how to use medical marijuana to mitigate side effects from her cancer treatment.

Jesse Costa/WBUR 

 

Even three queasy pregnancies didn't prepare Kate Murphy for the nonstop nausea that often comes with chemotherapy.

In the early months of 2016, the Lexington, Mass., mother tried everything the doctors and nurses suggested. "But for the most part I felt nauseous 24/7," she said.

Murphy, then 49 and fighting breast cancer, dropped 15 pounds from her already slim frame in just two months. Then, she remembered what a fellow cancer patient had advised while she was waiting for her first dose of chemo: "Make sure you get some medical marijuana."

Scientific research, mostly in animals, supports the idea that cannabis can effectively treat the nausea of cancer therapy, in addition to some types of cancer-related pain, according to the National Cancer Institute's cannabis information page.

And roughly a quarter of cancer patients use cannabis in Washington state, where both medical and recreational marijuana is legal, a study from September found.

In Massachusetts, medical marijuana has been legal for six years, but it's still a challenge for cancer patients to get a state-issued medical marijuana ID card, or then figure out what kind of cannabis to use.

"I was flabbergasted that there was no real resource A, B and C, and 'here's how you do it,' " Murphy said. "What I liken it to is, 'you need chemo, now go figure it out.' "

This story from WBUR's CommonHealth is part of an ongoing series called "This Moment In Cancer." Here is a selection of other stories from the project:

Like most patients, Murphy's first step was to ask her oncologist. Murphy said she loved her doctor and care team at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, but they had no advice to offer on medical marijuana.

"They said 'yes, you can look into it,' " she said. "But I felt sad because you're so lost and you're so sick and this is so not your area of expertise, that it was very upsetting to me to not get direction one way or the other."

Only about 1 percent of Massachusetts' 25,000 doctors are registered with the state and allowed to legally prescribe marijuana. And only a fraction of those know much about cancer care.

Last June, the Massachusetts Medical Society approved a new online curriculum for medical marijuana. Six months later, only 27 medical professionals have taken the section on cancer care and cannabis. Both the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center said they had no experts on staff to speak with us for this report.

Murphy eventually found her way to Dr. Jordan Tishler, who runs medical cannabis clinics in Cambridge and Brookline, called inhaleMD.

Tishler, a former emergency room physician and music producer, said he treats cannabis like any other therapy, meeting with new patients for an extended conversation and follow-ups. But some cannabis prescribers, he said, just want to sign the state paperwork and move on.

"By and large, physicians are simply saying, 'yes, you can have it,' and then stopping the conversation there," he said.

Tischler explained that medical centers — particularly those that take federal funding — are in a tight spot because federal law still classifies cannabis as an illegal drug, despite its legalization for medical purposes, at a minimum, in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

"Most of those institutions are prohibited and/or afraid of the prohibitions from the federal government, so have opted not to pursue this within their domain," Tischler said. He set up his private clinic so he could operate outside of those systems, though he said he receives referrals from all the major hospitals.

In early January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the nation's U.S. attorneys to resume aggressively pursuing marijuana growers and distributors, even in states where marijuana has been legalized. It's not clear yet what that will mean for Massachusetts' medical marijuana system, but a few days later, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said he cannot and will not rule out prosecuting state-sanctioned marijuana businesses.

As it currently stands, authorized doctors like Tishler have to fill out an online form with the state, which the patient then submits with a $50 check to request a license. Tishler said the process used to take several weeks, but now the state usually issues a medical card within three or four days of receiving a request.

Then, the patient has to take that license to one of the state-approved medical marijuana dispensaries, which offer a wide array of products containing cannabis.

New England Treatment Access in Brookline, Mass., is located in a former branch of Brookline Bank.

Jesse Costa/WBUR 

 

New England Treatment Access, or NETA, whose Brookline dispensary is housed in an old bank building, sells 130 products. Garden Remedies, whose dispensary is in Newton about a block from a Whole Foods, sells 50 items, including bath bombs, lip balm and marijuana-infused honey they make themselves in their cultivation facility.

Murphy said she would have been overwhelmed by those choices if she hadn't had a doctor like Tishler advising her on what to take. Tishler said he tells cancer patients, for example, that they should avoid using novelty items like bath bombs and creams. They may be fun, but they won't help with nausea or pain, he says.

Murphy didn't like the idea of edibles. She had young children at home and was anxious they might find a brownie too tempting to pass up.

Tishler warned his patients against getting advice on care either from the Internet — which he said is loaded with misinformation — or from the counter folks at the dispensaries, who are trained in their products but are not legally allowed to give out medical advice.

"They're doing the best they can, but fundamentally, they're salespeople," he said. "Their level of training, I often say, is about the level of a Starbucks barista. So, I tell patients, 'look, if you wouldn't ask your coffee guy about your health, probably you shouldn't ask these guys, either.' "

Dispensing Experimental Wisdom
Dr. Karen Munkacy, president and CEO of Garden Remedies, said her staff generally recommends that someone with nausea use a vape pen, to get a quick effect from the cannabis, and then, if they need something longer-lasting, take an edible.

"Inhalation medical marijuana works within a few minutes, and so, now their nausea and vomiting is under control," she said. "If they want to get a good night's sleep they're going to need to get something that they ingest because it's going to last longer. They won't wake up vomiting in the middle of the night."

Munkacy started her company after her own bout with chemo-induced nausea. She was treated for breast cancer a decade ago in New Jersey, where medical marijuana was illegal.

"It was months of feeling a thousand times worse than any flu I've ever had," said Munkacy, who at the time was an anesthesiologist with a 2-year-old son. "Before [medical cannabis] became legal, people would have to choose between breaking the law and suffering terribly."

Convinced that medical marijuana could help other people avoid her misery, Munkacy worked to help get legalized medical marijuana on the ballot in Massachusetts in 2012, and said she is now committed to educating patients who come to her dispensary.

"Our goal is that when patients leave, they've learned everything they need to know," she said.

Cannabis is generally very safe, Tishler said, as long as patients buy their medical marijuana from a dispensary, because state requirements ensure a safe, consistent product. There is no lethal dose, and the worst side effect for most of his patients, he said, is an unwanted feeling of getting high when they've taken too much.

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Norton Arbelaez, director of government affairs for NETA, which also has a dispensary in Northampton, said that safety profile means patients can afford to be a little imprecise about what kind of marijuana they use and how much they get.

"There is some room here for the patient themselves to experiment and see what's right for them," he said.

In the end, that's what Murphy did. She experimented. She tried a few joints and smoked a few times with a pipe.

She had already spent $700 paying Dr. Tishler, getting her $50 state license and buying the cannabis, so she didn't want to invest more in the vaporizer Dr. Tishler recommended.

But even just those few weeks of occasional smoking made a big difference, Murphy said.

"It made me feel like I had an appetite for the first time in probably six months," she said. "Instead of lying around thinking about how sick I felt all the time — which was not my personality, which was very upsetting to my whole family — I was up and cooking, which was not anything I had done since I hadn't felt well."

Murphy, who is now cancer-free, hasn't smoked since her treatments ended in the summer of 2016. She still wishes patients didn't have to work so hard to get the information they need about medical marijuana.

Younger Patients and Cannabis
The situation for children and teens with cancer is a little different than for adults, according to Prasanna Ananth, a pediatric oncologist at Yale Cancer Center. Ananth published a study in early December showing that an overwhelming majority of pediatric oncologists, nurses and other health care professionals in Massachusetts, Illinois and Washington state were willing to consider medical marijuana for children with cancer — particularly for those with advanced illness.

There are decades of research showing the potential dangers of marijuana for children and teenagers, but almost none into its possible benefits for young cancer patients, she said.

"Our calculus shifts when we're talking about children facing serious, life-threatening illness," Ananth said. "Health care providers must weigh their desire to provide compassionate care for their patients against limited scientific evidence to support use of medical marijuana by children."

In her survey, nearly 1 in 3 pediatric oncology experts said they had been asked about medical marijuana by at least one patient.

Ananth said she would prefer to talk with her patients about their marijuana use than not know that they're using it.

"Especially for the purpose of knowing what my patients are on and what the medical marijuana might interact with, it is important for us to maintain open lines of communication," she said.

With Legal Pot Shops, Medical Use May See Boost
It's not clear how Massachusetts' medical marijuana system will change later this year when recreational marijuana sales are set to begin. Patients will pay 20 percent less than recreational users because they won't have to pay taxes on their cannabis.

But Munkacy said she believes many more people will start using cannabis for their medical problems once recreational use becomes legal.

They may not have wanted to give their name to the state for a license, but the reduced restrictions and added legitimacy of legal marijuana will give them the push they need to start using it, Munkacy explained.

"I'm thinking there's going to be a lot of people who will no longer have to buy their medicine on the black market."

Norway is aiming to decriminalise drugs. The UK should choose legalisation

Daniel Pryor

The government must realise it’s hopelessly out of step with sensible drug policy. Legalisation would take the market out of the hands of criminals
         

In 2001 Portugal decriminalised all drugs. Last month the Norwegian parliament made clear its intentions to follow this lead. Republican senators across the Atlantic are openly defending the legalisation of marijuana. It’s high time the British government realised that it’s hopelessly out of step with sensible drug policy.

Decriminalisation ends criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of a drug for personal use, but all other aspects of the drug market remain illegal. For Norwegian advocates of harm reduction, this might seem like a big step forward. They are probably right.

Prison isn’t rehab, and a criminal record is a hammer blow to an ex-user’s career prospects.

By contrast, decriminalisation makes it easier for problematic users to seek treatment, which leads to decreased use among vulnerable groups. This is what happened in Portugal, as shown by multiple studies – and may explain Portugal’s extremely low rate of overdose deaths. Portugal’s decriminalisation has also reduced the number of HIV-positive people addicted to drugs. This is a huge win for public health.

Decriminalisation was not the only option on the table for Norway, however. As Sveinung Stensland, deputy chairman of the Norwegian parliamentary health committee, put it: “It is important to emphasise that we do not legalise cannabis and other drugs, but we decriminalise.” That’s a shame: Norway would be better off if politicians opted for legalisation.

Decriminalisation is not a panacea: street dealers face no competition from regulated alternatives, and there is a risk that supply to the black market will at best remain unchanged. When the London borough of Lambeth, where I live, experimented with partial decriminalisation (or “de-penalisation”) between 2001 and 2002, a surge in street dealing depressed house prices, most prominently in areas with the highest concentrations of dealing. Lower house prices may sound like good news, but they fell because dealing reduced the local quality of life. The consequences of underground drug markets are well known: more violence, more crime and more dangerous drugs.

Commentators such as Peter Hitchens wrongly believe that these issues are the result of British police not fighting the war on drugs harshly enough – especially for cannabis. It’s true that our prohibition is lenient in comparison with some parts of the US. But I imagine most of the 11,970 people in prison for drug offences in 2016 would have raised their eyebrows at the suggestion that we operate under “de facto decriminalisation”.

There’s appetite to reform the UK’s drug laws, but it has to be done right

Unlike decriminalisation, a legalised, regulated market would drive many street dealers out of existence. This is especially important for underage drug users because, unlike regulated shops and pharmacies, street dealers don’t ask for ID. They also tend to be unreliable sources of information on recommended dosage, and black market drugs are rarely pure. When I go to the pub, I know whether I’m getting beer or vodka; drug buyers on the street can only hope they’re getting what they’re paying for. The UK-based drug testing organisation The Loop has reported finding drugs laced with everything from concrete to crushed-up malaria tablets at music festivals.

Legalisation also opens up the opportunity for significant tax revenue, which could be used to fund treatment and addiction services properly. Recent estimates have suggested that a legal UK cannabis market alone could be worth nearly £7bn a year, raising £1.05bn in tax. And while decriminalisation is a blunt tool for all drugs, legalisation allows the government to tailor regulations to suit the potential harm levels of different substances. We don’t regulate alcohol in the same way as cigarettes, and we shouldn’t treat cannabis and MDMA in the same way as heroin.

Some parts of the world have attempted to compromise between decriminalisation and legalisation, with poor results. When I lived in Washington DC for a year after graduating, it was legal to grow and possess cannabis for personal consumption, but illegal to sell it. Within two weeks of arriving, I was offered a $20 bottle of water with a “free gift” of cannabis, on my morning commute. 

 

There’s appetite to reform the UK’s drug laws, but it has to be done right. The public are ahead of politicians, with recent polling showing that more people support a legal, regulated cannabis market than oppose it. The government’s silence on this crucial issue is deafening. A few British politicians from across the spectrum, such as Paul Flynn, Nick Clegg and Crispin Blunt, agree with the public. I wish more would.

In the wake of Norway’s decision to decriminalise drugs, politicians from all parties should use this opportunity to take a different approach to our drug policy. By opting for legalisation, we can take the market out of the hands of criminals and raise some money for treating vulnerable users while we’re at it.

Congress Misses Opportunity To Vote On Marijuana Amendment

By Tom Angell
 

A powerful congressional committee debated, but did not vote on, a far-reaching amendment to protect state marijuana laws from federal interference on Wednesday night.

The measure, sponsored by Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO), would have prevented the Department of Justice from spending money to prosecute people who are in compliance with state marijuana policies.

Amidst an impassioned debate in the House Rules Committee, Polis opted to withdraw the amendment instead of forcing a vote that he likely would have lost due to the panel’s partisan makeup and tendency to decide along party lines. As a result, the measure will not be considered by the full House this week as part of legislation to fund federal agencies and avoid a government shutdown by a Friday deadline.

“I, as probably everybody in this rooms knows, have a strong opinion on drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol,” committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX), who has blocked numerous cannabis amendments from advancing in recent years, said during the debate. “Marijuana is an addictive product, and the merchants of addiction make it that way. They make it for addiction. They make it to where our people, our young people, become addicted to marijuana and keep going.”

Polis argued that his amendment “says nothing about whether you or I think marijuana should be legal or illegal. It simply respects the reality of the named states that have moved to regulate marijuana.”


A similar proposal sponsored by Polis and Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) came just nine flipped votes short of passage on the House floor in 2015. Advocates believe that the amendment would pass if given another opportunity, because the number of states with legalization has doubled since the last attempt, and significantly more members of Congress now represent businesses and consumers who would be protected by the measure.

Under a related appropriations rider that is currently in effect, the Department of Justice is barred from spending money to interfere with state medical cannabis laws or people following them, but provides no protections for recreational marijuana businesses or consumers.

Advocates are concerned that in the wake of U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s rescission earlier this month of an Obama-era memo that generally allowed states to implement their own laws without federal interference, businesses that operate in accordance with adult-use local marijuana policies are now at risk.

Last week, a bipartisan group of nearly 70 House members sent a letter to congressional leadership asking that the broader state cannabis protection language be included in the funding bill.

If the current legislation is approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Trump, funding for the federal government, along with policy riders like the medical cannabis protections, would be extended through February 16 as congressional leaders negotiate a full Fiscal Year 2018 spending package.

Passing the short-term extension is by no means certain, however, as partisan squabbles over immigration and other issues have put the legislation in jeopardy. If the government shuts down, the medical marijuana provision would expire and the Justice Department would be free to prosecute state-legal medical cannabis businesses.

9 Reasons to End the War on Marijuana

Al Harrington

I remember the first time my grandma tried cannabis. She was 80 years old. We were sitting in my garage in Denver back in 2011. I just about fell out of my chair when she said she’d try it. She was 100% serious. 

But the story is even crazier when I tell you about who my grandma is. She’s a sweet little southern Christian lady named Viola who stills calls me Baby Doll. You know what? I’m not mad at that nickname. We’ve always been close.

And the other thing is, she’s always been scared of marijuana. She grew up believing what the government said about marijuana — about how it was as dangerous as other Schedule I drugs likes ecstasy and heroin. You know, all that stuff we all heard about how it made you a criminal, a bad person … a thug.

So back in 2011, it was me and my grandma — the woman who still carries a Bible with her when she travels — hanging out in the garage I had turned into a den. And we were just sitting there talking when she dropped it on me: She had been struggling with chronic pain for a long time.

It was a day I’ll never forget. My grandma had never told me about her pain before. She started telling me about the constant throbbing behind her eyes. It was getting worse, to the point where it was affecting her vision. It was tough for me to see her like that. 

“Is that you, Baby Doll? I can barely see you there.” She’d say stuff like that. It was hard.

 
Courtesy of Al Harrington
She told me that her doctors prescribed her painkillers and other medicine. They weren’t helping, and they were making her lethargic and depressed. She was miserable. It had been going on for years.

Marijuana was already legal in Colorado, but I didn’t mess with it yet. I was still in the league and the NBA tested for it. But even more than that, I still had antiquated views about it. I viewed it the way I saw it as a kid, as a scary drug and nothing more than that.

But on her second day staying with me, she shocked me by agreeing to try it. You have to remember, this is a God-fearing old lady from the South who never touched a drug in her life. She didn’t drink alcohol. She didn’t even like going out to restaurants. My grandma, man … old school to the core. But she was desperate for an alternative.

Nothing’s been the same for her since she tried it.

The day after she had cannabis for the first time, she called my mom to tell her all about it. My mom actually recorded the conversation because she was so shocked. On the recording, you can hear my grandma saying how her the whole world felt “brighter.” She was calling it a miracle. “I can read my Bible again!” she was saying. Since then, my grandma has continued taking cannabis and she’s found the right dose for her symptoms. She’s in far less pain, and it’s pretty incredible to see. 

Now you know a little about my grandma. She’s a cool one.

So lemme ask you, is my grandma doing something wrong? According to federal laws, she is. She’s committing a crime. 

Is that where we’re at? Are we really trying to put grandmas in prison for using marijuana to treat pain?

 

I’m gonna tell you what I think is the most important statistic about marijuana.

First we’re gonna have to go all the way back to the ’80s. Back to Orange, New Jersey, where I grew up and lived until I was in high school. You know how some people are always being like, “You don’t know where I come from?” Orange is the kind of place where people say that. If you know, you just know. 

To picture where I lived, envision a huge U-shaped apartment complex. There must have been hundreds of apartments in that complex. In the middle of the U, there was this big field of grass where me and the other kids played football, kickball and baseball when we were 10, 11, 12 years old. Almost every day, after we were done playing, everyone would go over to the little convenience store on the corner of Tremont and Scotland. I’d usually get a quarter water and bag of chips. 

Maybe some Now and Laters. Run me about 65 cents total. In the back of the store they had arcade games — Street Fighter and NBA Jam. If we had any money left over, we’d play those games. Otherwise we’d be outside chillin with all the other kids.

 
Courtesy of Al Harrington
I came up during the War on Drugs. I didn’t know what it was called. But I knew what I saw. 

Almost every week, at some time or another, a police car would roll up to the corner. If there was a group of young black men standing on a corner, it was only a matter of time. That was just normal for us. 

We’d be chilling outside and the police would get out and make everyone empty their pockets. 

They’d search us, make us stand against the wall, the whole routine. “Who got drugs? Show me the drugs.” But me and my friends never had any. I never messed with marijuana when I was a kid. 

I knew my mom would kill me if that ever happened. But no lie, I never got used to those searches. 

I was like 12 years old, man — that shit was scary. Sirens are going off and you’re being searched by dudes with guns. It’s crazy — I always felt like I was doing something wrong even though I wasn’t. 

In Orange, it was mostly marijuana they were looking for. I’m sure there was hard stuff there, but it seemed like it was mostly weed. It was the ghetto — and the ghetto means cheap weed. So people would come from all around to get it. 

 
Courtesy of Al Harrington
Sometimes, kids got picked up. Sometimes you didn’t hear from them after that. Today I’m 37 years old and sometimes I still wonder what happened to some of those kids. Maybe they made it out all right. But c’mon, if you’re from the hood, you’ve heard too many stories of the opposite — lives changed forever, relationships changed forever, black men who can’t get jobs because they’ve got a non-violent marijuana offense on their record.

I moved from Orange to a nice neighborhood for high school. Then I went to the league right after that. For the first time in my life I was meeting people from all walks of life. Some guys from nice upbringings, some from places like Orange. Most of them had gone to college.

Talking to them, I heard about another side to the War on Drugs. The way some dudes were describing it, marijuana was everywhere in the suburbs and at colleges. But police weren’t really caring too much about it. I was hearing about people selling weed like it was nothing — never getting caught. I was hearing how everyone casually smoked weed in college like it was just another class.

Basically, I was hearing how police in some communities weren’t really policing marijuana the same way I was used to.

Alright, now I’m gonna finally tell you that statistic. I came across it a couple years back:
The rate of marijuana use is relatively similar across racial lines. But black people are almost four times as likely to be arrested for it.

Think about that for a second. In other words, yo … everyone uses marijuana at the same rate but not everyone is punished the same.

Enforcing marijuana laws costs the country about $3.6 billion a year, but it hasn’t stopped the use of marijuana, or decreased the availability of it.

More important, people’s entire lives have been altered for using or selling something that’s legal today in multiple states. Today, the cannabis industry makes billions of dollars and there are still people in other parts of the country, mostly minorities if we’re being real about the stats, who are incarcerated for the same substance.

Maybe I didn’t know the definition of the War on Drugs when I was 12 years old, but now I do. It wasn’t a war on drugs. It was a war on certain people who used drugs. And that’s a fact.

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I encountered pain early in my career. Then I encountered the pills that they tell you will help. I was lucky I never got hooked.

After my second year in the league, I had to have back surgery. It was my first time knowing real, sustained pain. The inflammation in my back, and then later in my knees, was a battle I fought my whole career. The doctors gave me Vicodin and other strong painkillers for the month or two right after surgery, when the pain was really bad. But then I stopped. I really didn’t enjoy the way I felt. I was having all kinds of side effects — stomach aches, feeling woozy. It was terrible.

But I count myself as lucky, not strong. It was a window into the world of opiates. Painkillers do what the name says. They kill the pain. But it’s temporary … and then you need more just to mask the same pain. Maybe you saw this stat: This year 64,000 people in America died from overdoses on opioids. When I read that, my first thought was about how much of the addiction starts with a real injury, like the one I had with my back. And then spirals out of control from there. That’s why I count myself as lucky. 

Photo By Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

The most common thing I got prescribed was something called Celebrex, for inflammation. I played 16 years in my career, and damn near my whole career I was taking some type of pill for inflammation. I took two Celebrex in the morning and one at night for inflammation, just to be able to practice or play or get through the day. I probably still have bottles of Celebrex in some drawer in my house. Looking back, who knows what effect that’ll have on me long term. But nobody really talks about the side effects or the long-term issues. You’re supposed to just pop a pill and let it do its thing. You’ve seen those commercials on TV where the narrator is always sounding super happy as she lists 43 side effects? “It’ll cure this — but your eyeballs will fall out!” … “You’ll feel happier but there’s a chance of sudden death!” It’s crazy, man. We’ve gotten to a place where side effects are like some kind of background noise. I challenge you to tell me how many overdose cases there have been from cannabis. I’ll wait.

As I said, I was never into marijuana when I was in the league, but I tried everything the doctors could prescribe. After my career, when I was around 32, after seeing what cannabis did for my grandma, I tried out cannabidiol, which is the non-psychoactive form of it — you get the anti-inflammatory effects and the pain relief without the THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets you high. I took the cannabidiol (CBD) as a cream or oil that could be rubbed on topically. 

And look, I’m not trying to give out medical advice, so I’ll just say this — for me, cannabis changed my experience with pain. It has worked better, with fewer side effects, than anything I’ve gotten from a doctor. To this day, at 37, after 16 years in the NBA and back surgery and all the miles on my body, I’m still playing ball every week in L.A. Meet me out there. Afternoon runs Tuesday and Thursday. You don’t want none of this!

Marijuana changed my life with regard to pain. Now it’s my second calling after basketball.

Photo By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A few years ago I co-founded a business that produces non-psychoactive cannabis as well as THC-based products. Marijuana changed my life with regard to pain. Now it’s my second calling after basketball. And in a way, it all goes back to that day seven years ago in the garage with my grandma.

Being a minority in the cannabis industry has made me realize how rare it still is. That’s why I’m active in the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA). The MCBA is about improving access and empowerment for minorities in the industry. It basically comes down to this: We’re the communities most hurt by the War on Drugs. Now that marijuana is legal in so many parts of the country, we shouldn’t be left without a seat at the table as the industry takes off.

 

Alcohol abuse and the NBA. You don’t hear a lot about it, but it’s there. It flies under the radar.

This is just the reality: NBA players are affected by anxiety and stress. We’re like any other people with a full-time job that involves a lot of emotional and physical ups and downs.

Many NBA players have a few alcoholic drinks a day. I’ve seen the progression to where they’re having more than a few — just to unwind a little bit or relieve some pain. Pretty soon, it’s easy to be doing that after every game. That takes a serious toll. Pain is just part of sports, though. Athletes are going to seek ways to ease that pain.

I won’t say names, but in my 16 years in the league, I knew of at least 10 or 12 players who had their careers cut short due to alcohol. It either affected them physically or mentally, but one way or another, alcohol shortened their careers. No judgment from me, just facts. We all should be honest. 

It’s well known how liquor can destroy lives. But we’re still out here demonizing cannabis while alcohol is promoted at sporting events? It all starts with some honesty.

 

Jeff Sessions, man. I almost left him out of this … because I’m not usually heavy into politics.

But then I thought, We can’t just let these politicians off the hook.

You maybe saw how Sessions, the attorney general, said, just a few days ago, how he plans to enforce federal marijuana laws in states where it’s already legal. Sessions says marijuana is a federal issue.
But I think he’s confused about his own politics. 

When it comes to the votes of the people in states where cannabis is legal, Sessions is all about the federal government’s power. But then when it comes to laws that would make it easier for minorities to vote, he’s a states’ rights guy?

Jeff Sessions, man.

 

Young people need to run for office. That’s my first thought on that subject. 

 

But not only that, I’ve got some advice for y’all: if you want to win, make marijuana legalization one of your main issues. You could win on that issue alone, I really believe that. Because it’s not just about legalization, it’s about addressing racism, policing, the prison system, sentencing laws — all of that. Decriminalizing marijuana is one of those issues that cuts across party lines.

Some politicians are understanding what we need to do. I’m grateful that New Jersey senator Cory Booker introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, a bill modeled on California’s Proposition 64 that ends federal marijuana prohibition and centers on communities most devastated by the War on Drugs. 

I worked with the Drug Policy Alliance to support Prop 64 here in California. Now I’m continuing my support of Senator Booker’s bill. I hope you’ll read up on it and see why it makes sense on a civil rights level and a common sense level.