Cannaworld
Inc., of Springfield is seeking to open a marijuana business including a
retail store, cultivation and manufacturing center at the former Macy's
Store at the Eastfield Mall, seen here in file photo.
By Peter Goonan
SPRINGFIELD
— Local businessman David Mech told residents on Thursday that his
proposal for a marijuana facility at the former Macy’s store on Boston
Road would bring new life to Eastfield Mall, new jobs and strong
security.
Mech, president of Cannaworld
Inc., is proposing a recreational marijuana retail store on the first
floor and a marijuana cultivation/manufacturing business on the second
floor.
The proposal has the support of Mountain Development Corp., which
owns the mall.
Approximately
75 residents attended the community outreach meeting at the mall,
including several who raised questions regarding if it could contribute
to crime, and if there would be any fire hazard. Mall officials, in
response to questions, said that entrances to the Macy’s site for the
proposed marijuana business are not yet finalized.
Mech
and Charles Breidenbach, managing director for MDC Retail Properties
Group, said the new business would bring a great deal more foot traffic
to the mall as malls across the nation struggle with keeping anchor
stores.
Ward 8 City Councilor Orlando
Ramos, who attended the meeting along with Ward 7 Councilor Timothy
Allen, said there is a big difference between retail and cultivation,
which is why the council is requiring cultivation to be in industrial
zones.
"Retail belongs in commercial
areas; cultivation belongs in industrial areas," Ramos said.
"There are
some nuisances that come with marijuana cultivation including odor.
This
area is not zoned appropriately for cultivation."
Mech said his group is exploring the possibility of seeking a zone change to allow for that component of the project.
Regarding
safety, Mech said that marijuana facilities must comply with very
strong state regulations for safety and security including an extensive
video camera system both inside and outside the mall.
He
and Breidenbach said there is existing security at the mall, with
Cannaworld bringing in its own security to make the mall even safer.
Regarding fire safety, Bridenbach said the mall has an advanced
sprinkler system.
"It seemed people
were receptive once we explained what we were doing," Mech said after
the meeting. "A lot of fears were allayed."
While
some people might question having marijuana sales inside a mall, it
presents an ideal location when considering such factors as ample
parking, a full traffic light system, and the ability to shop for other
goods before and after going to the marijuana store.
Bringing
children to the mall is not a problem, but the marijuana facility is
highly regulated to prevent anyone under 21 to enter, Mech said. Mall
officials said the marijuana facility fits in with its long-range
redevelopment plan that includes mixed-used space with offices as well
as retail and dining.
A resident asked
if there could be crime expanded to the nearby residential area, and
Mech responded that studies have shown in other states that crime goes
down when a marijuana store opens. He said he would expect property
values to go up.
A resident asked if that could be promised in writing, triggering laughter from some residents.
The
retail operation will create at least 20 full-time jobs, and the full
operation with cultivation and manufacturing would bring more than 120
jobs.
Cannaworld will be applying for
city and state approvals soon, including submitting its retail store
proposal in early April to a city review committee, Mech said. The City
Council is allowing up to 15 retail marijuana stores in the city, and
will be ranking proposals.
In response
to another question Thursday, Breidenbach said he wants a weekend
marketplace at the Macy’s site to continue operations, possibly
relocated in the mall.
The proposed
Cannaworld business will include a customer education program regarding
the various products and services offered, Mech said in a handout at the
meeting.
There will be free access to materials providing information
on “marijuana use, holistic healing, research, legality issues and
advocacy/activism; the differing strengths of marijuana strains and
products; and potential drug-to-drug interactions,” the handout stated
in part.
Federal legalization of hemp arrived in the U.S. late last year and
expanded an industry already booming because of the skyrocketing
popularity of CBDs, a compound in hemp that many see as a health aid.
But now, just a few months after Congress placed the
marijuana look-alike squarely in safe legal territory, the hemp industry
has been unsettled by an unexpected development.
Truckers, now free to haul hemp from state to state, have
been stopped and sometimes arrested by police who can’t tell whether
they have intercepted a legal agricultural crop or the biggest marijuana
bust of their careers. That’s because the only way to distinguish hemp
and marijuana, which look and smell alike, is by measuring their
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and officers don’t have the testing
technology to do so on the spot.
Marijuana, illegal under federal law, has enough THC to
get users high. Hemp has almost none — 0.3 percent or less under U.S.
government standards — yet drug-sniffing dogs will alert on both.
Field
tests that officers now use can detect THC but aren’t sophisticated
enough to specify whether a shipment is legal hemp or low-grade illegal
pot.
In a sign of the significance of the problem, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this month put out a request for
information on private companies that might have the technology for
field tests sensitive enough to distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said. “To enable us to do our job, we have to have something that can help us distinguish.”
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It’s an unanticipated hiccup for the rapidly growing hemp
industry, which relies on interstate trucking to transport hemp from
farms to processing labs that extract the compound cannabidiol, or CBD,
from the raw plant material. The pure CBD powder is then resold for use
in everything from makeup to smoothies to pet food.
Kentucky and Oregon are big producers of hemp, and much
of what they grow is processed in Colorado. Companies that transport the
plant often drive through Oklahoma and Idaho, which is where some
arrests have occurred.
Hemp remains illegal under Idaho law, and lawmakers there
are scrambling to pass a legalization bill. Law enforcement agencies
are urging them to include guidance on field tests.
To further complicate the issue, states that already have
their own hemp programs must have them approved by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, which could take months.
“It’s the greatest example of the cart being put before
the horse that I’ve ever thought of,” said Grant Loebs, who is on the
board of directors of the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association, which
has demanded better testing. “You’re trying to make hemp legal so
farmers can grow it, but you haven’t put into place anything that’s
going to keep marijuana dealers from taking advantage of a huge
loophole.”
At least three truckers and two security guards
transporting state-certified hemp have been arrested and charged with
felony drug trafficking. Thousands of pounds worth more than $2 million
combined after processing remain in warehouses in Oklahoma and Idaho as
evidence while the cases play out.
Frank Robison, a Colorado-based attorney specializing in
such cases, said he has about a half-dozen clients in similar situations
in other locations. He declined to provide more information, citing his
clients’ desire for privacy.
“What local law enforcement is doing is they’re stifling
an industry that Congress intended to promote to help American farmers
and help the American economy — not to make people nervous that they’re
going to get tossed in jail over a (THC) discrepancy,” said Robison, who
represents one of the companies involved in the Oklahoma case.
Robison and others hope the USDA will work quickly to
create rules for validating hemp shipments that local law enforcement
could use instead of relying on THC field tests, such as state
agricultural certificates or lab certificates. That way, police could
let a suspicious load through without arrests and if the hemp samples
come back high in THC from testing done in a lab setting, authorities
could pursue the grower or shipper after the fact.
Andrew Ross, a Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq,
is facing 18 years to life in Oklahoma if convicted after he was
arrested in January while providing security for a load of
state-certified hemp from Kentucky. Ross and a colleague were riding in a
van behind a semi-truck filled with the plant that ran a red light and
was pulled over.
Ross said he provided police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with
the state-issued license for the Kentucky farm that grew the hemp, the
license for the Colorado lab that was buying it and chemical analysis
paperwork for all 60 sacks of hemp that he said shows it was within
federal guidelines for hemp.
That wasn’t enough for the officers. They tested the
shipment and found it contained THC — although not how much — and
arrested Ross, his colleague and the two truck drivers.
The charges against the drivers eventually were dropped,
but their 18,000-pound (8,165-kilogram) cargo with a value of nearly $1
million after processing still is being held.
The case and a similar one in Idaho prompted the Oregon
Department of Agriculture to issue a formal warning to hemp growers not
to ship their crop across state lines.
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Ross posted bail and continues to run his hemp transport
business, Patriot Shield Security, from Denver while awaiting trial in
Oklahoma. He said potential customers from places like Nevada, West
Virginia and Wyoming say they now are afraid to send their hemp out of
state.
“The whole industry has been turned upside down. Everyone is terrified. No one wants to transport anything,” Ross said.
Osage County First Assistant District Attorney Michelle
Bodine-Keely said the seized hemp was still being tested. Some samples
sent to a DEA lab in Washington, D.C., came back within the legal range
for THC, but several were over, she said.
Based on the results so far, Bodine-Keely said she’s not convinced it’s all hemp.
“Part of it is hemp, and part of it is marijuana. It’s an
ongoing case, and not only is it an ongoing case, it’s still an ongoing
investigation,” she said.
But, she allowed, “It would be nice to have a different kind of test in the field that will actually tell what the percent is.”
Separate but similar bills in both the Alabama House and the Senate are proposing easing penalties on marijuana possession.
Rep.
Laura Hall is sponsoring House Bill 96, and Sen. Bobby Singleton is
sponsoring Senate Bill 98.
Both bills propose reclassifying the
penalties for marijuana possession, downgrading felonies to misdemeanors
punishable only by fines.
SB 98 would
revise the crime of unlawful possession of marijuana in the first degree
to require possession of two or more ounces of marijuana. It would
create the crime of possession in the third degree for possession of
less than one ounce of marijuana. A first or second offense of unlawful
possession of marijuana in the third degree would be punishable by a
fine of $250 or less. A third offense of third-degree marijuana
possession would be punishable only by a fine not to exceed $500.
Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, which worked on an extensive report last year
on excessive penalties and imprisonment for marijuana that
disproportionately affect blacks, has been advocating reclassification
of marijuana.
The bills, dealing with
personal possession of marijuana only, are essentially the same as two
bills that never got a vote on the floor of the Legislature last year.
“What
we know needs to happen in Alabama is decriminalization,” said Carla
Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law &
Justice. “These bills would be a great step in that direction. The
collateral consequences of even a minor marijuana arrest can be
devastating for some communities.”
Crowder said law enforcement agencies also see the growing need for more reasonable laws on marijuana.
“This
is important to local law enforcement officials,” Crowder said.
“They’re tired of their resources going to really minor offenses, in the
face of much more serious crimes they’d like to focus on. We’re
encouraged by what we’re hearing locally and we’re hoping that our state
lawmakers will be paying attention to the data that shows the waste of
resources and the harm that it causes.”
Ten states and the District of Columbia now have legalized recreational marijuana.
“We’re
talking about a substance that’s legal in states where half of the
population of the country lives,” Crowder said. “Alabama is spending $22
million a year in enforcement on it. Other states are making money;
Alabama is wasting money.”
There is also a bill in the Legislature proposing legalizing medical marijuana through the use of cannabis medical cards.
“That
is not the step we need,” Crowder said. “The decriminalization would be
more important.
I think that should be a higher priority. We don’t want
to stop with medical.”
At his final hearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee on
Thursday, outgoing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott
Gottlieb was again pressed on the agency’s plan to regulate
hemp-derived CBD products.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) voiced concerns about the “significant
regulatory and enforcement uncertainty” surrounding marketing CBD, which has been raised at several hearings since industrial hemp and its derivatives were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. The senator asked Gottlieb how he thinks the FDA should use discretion in its enforcement efforts.
“We’re using enforcement discretion right now,” the commissioner
said. “I will take enforcement action against CBD products that are on
the market if manufacturers are making what I consider over-the-line
claims.”
But what constitutes an “over-the-line” claim?
Gottlieb specified that people who are marketing CBD and “claiming
that it can cure cancer or prevent Alzheimer’s disease” will be subject
to enforcement action “because that can mislead a patient into forgoing
otherwise effective therapy.”
“But there are products on the market right now that, given our
enforcement priorities and our limited resources, we haven’t taken
action against,” he said. “That’s not an invitation for people to
continue marketing these products—we’re concerned about it—but we heard
Congress loud and clear here.”
As Gottlieb has explained to lawmakers a number of times this year,
part of the reason that regulating CBD products is especially
complicated is that CBD currently exists as an approved drug in the form
of the epilepsy medication Epidiolex, and is also “under substantial
clinical investigation.”
“Even if it wasn’t an approved drug, because it was never previously
in the food supply, we don’t have a clear route to allow this to be
lawfully marketed short of promulgating new regulations,” he said.
That challenge will be taken up by an FDA working group comprised of
“some of our most creative policymakers,” who will develop “potential
legislative alternatives” to CBD regulation. In essence, Gottlieb has
suggested that unless Congress passes a law that specifically targets
CBD, it could take years for the FDA to enact CBD regulations.
“There is precedent for Congress legislating in the context of a
single ingredient,” the commissioner told Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) in a
subsequent exchange. “You could, for example, contemplate a scheme here
where Congress gave FDA authority to contemplate CBD as a food
ingredient at certain concentrations and potency and purity and then
have it exist separately as a drug product at a different concentration,
different potency and purity.”
“Fish oil, for example, exists that way in the marketplace,” he said.
“But fish oil, we didn’t need to come up with a legislative option to
do that because it was previously in the food supply. CBD, obviously, it
was not.”
With
two major health retailers announcing that they’re bringing non-THC
cannabis-derived products to shelves nationwide this year, the
inevitable battle between the FDA and CBD proponents has reached new
heights.
On March 27, Walgreensannounced that it will sell CBD products in 1,500 of its stores in states across the U.S., from California to Vermont. Just days before that, CVS threw its hat in the CBD ring with a distribution deal with Curaleaf Holding Inc., which will send its products to 800 of CVS’s 10,000 stores this year.
The moves make the retailers the
highest-profile targets for the FDA, which clarified that, even though
industrial hemp is legal following the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD remained
under heavy scrutiny from the regulatory agency.
Cannabis and cannabis-derived
products claiming in their marketing and promotional materials that
they’re intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment,
or prevention of diseases (such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease,
psychiatric disorders and diabetes) are considered new drugs or new
animal drugs and must go through the FDA drug approval process for human
or animal use before they are marketed in the U.S. Selling unapproved
products with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims is not only a violation
of the law, but also can put patients at risk...
Because both CBD and THC are active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs, the FDA goes on to warn
companies that introducing food containing added CBD or THC into
interstate commerce, or to market CBD or THC products as, or in, dietary
supplements, regardless of whether the substances are hemp-derived, is
against the law.
So what's all this mean?
It means some of the products on drugstore shelves and the display
cases of day spas might not legally be there, and may not remain as the
CBD debate grows more heated. In making
this announcement, the FDA makes known its awareness of the popularity
of CBD products—an enthusiasm it will be hard-pressed to control at this
point.
You can find CBD in everything from coffee to shampoo to products for your pet.
If you’re an economically-minded person, hemp-derived CBD represents an
exciting and explosive new market. It is projected to grow from $591 million in 2018 to $22 billion by 2022, which is really, really good for an economy that shows signs of slowing down.
CBD as a dietary supplement Separate from CBD’s popularity is the question of its safety and efficacy. Writing for Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. Peter Grinspoon argues, “We
need more research but CBD may be prove to be an option for managing
anxiety, insomnia, and chronic pain,” while also noting that “Without
sufficient high-quality evidence in human studies we can’t pinpoint
effective doses, and because CBD is currently is mostly available as an
unregulated supplement, it’s difficult to know exactly what you are
getting.”
It's this fine line between safety and
efficacy on one hand and the economic pressure on the other that the
FDA will have to walk in the coming year. The FDA’s stance in their
letter sets the terms for a war that will certainly escalate after the
CVS and Walgreens announcements: does CBD move forward as a
pharmaceutical or dietary supplement? The answer to this question could
seriously dampen the growth of the CBD industry and restrict access for
patients if CBD is relegated to pharmaceutical oversight—especially if
the Affordable Care Act gets thrown out entirely.
Dietary supplements are largely unregulated,
as federal law “does not require” them “to be proven safe to FDA’s
satisfaction before they are marketed,” nor does the seller’s claim have
to be proven “accurate or truthful before it appears on the product.” By
refusing to bestow CBD with the dietary supplement label, the FDA is
hampering the market’s development and patient access to these products.
They’re also out-of-step with the international stance on the issue.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization sent a report to the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in which they recommended, among other things, that
Cannabis should be removed from Schedule IV of the 1961 Convention, the designation for the most dangerous substances;
All forms of THC should similarly be de-scheduled;
Any form of CBD containing less than 0.2% THC should not be regulated by international drug control conventions
While the recommendations would still
leave THC and marijuana an internationally scheduled substance, the
recommendation to de-schedule CBD is a huge victory. (The UN’s
Commission on Narcotic Drugs is expected to make a ruling by 2020.)
In 2018, Mexico moved to make CBD available as a dietary supplement,
one of the first countries to do so. Raul Elizalde, president of
HempMeds Latin America, was one of the people who spoke before the World
Health Organization on behalf of de-scheduling CBD. I met Elizalde two
years ago at an industry conference when I interviewed him about his first-hand, very personal experience getting access to medical marijuana. Speaking
with him again recently, Elizalde supports broader access to the
medicinal properties and effects of CBD by considering it a health
supplement, as well as a clinically-tested drug.
Already, patient access to cannabis products is progressing more quickly in Mexico than in the United States. Canadian company CannaOne Technologiesrecently announced signed
an agreement with Manna Health Services SA de CV of Mexico City, to
build an online CBD product purchase and delivery marketplace for the
entire Country of Mexico. But we're talking about a political
culture that's turned so cannabis-progressive the official Twitter
account for the nation’s secretary of Security and Citizen Protection,
who is responsible for overseeing federal police, intelligence agencies,
and prisons, shared a Twitter poll that asked citizens whether Mexico should legalize cannabis for adult use.
Back in the United States, the FDA has been cracking down on CBD products
being sold for human consumption (so much for that fine line). New York
City became the first major American city to enforce the FDA’s position
on CBD in February. A New York City Department of Health spokesperson toldThe Atlantic
that “Until cannabidiol…is deemed safe as a food additive, the
department is ordering restaurants not to offer products containing
CBD.”
Other cities from California to Maine are stepping up enforcement as well. As Restaurant Hospitality reports, restaurateurs are finding workarounds to the enforcement by allowing the guests to add the CBD to the food and drinks themselves.
While your CBD-shampoo may still be
safe, consumption is one of the most popular ways to partake in CBD, and
the FDA’s crackdown represents a threat to many people’s means to treat
themselves.
Last summer, when the FDA approved a
first-of-its-kind cannabis-derived pharmaceutical drug to treat Dravet
syndrome, a rare form of childhood epilepsy, FDA Commissioner Scott
Gottlieb promised the FDA would consider other forms of cannabis-derived drugs.
“Such a process ensures that any new therapies from marijuana and its
constituents are safe, effective and manufactured to a high and
consistent quality and most importantly, that these products have been
proven safe and effective for patients,” Gottlieb stated.
While that stance sounds prudent, the bulk of scientific evidence to date shows that CBD is largely safe for use, and has a “better side effect profile” than many drugs.
I spoke with Blake Schroeder, CEO of Kannaway,
a leader in the hemp and CBD industry, about the fight over the fate of
CBD’s classification. For Schroeder, who supports CBD being regulated
as a dietary supplement, the main difference comes down to access. “If
you can buy something online or in a store without having to see your
doctor first, people are going to have better access to the product,”
Schroeder told me.
But that doesn’t mean he’s for a strictly laissez-faire approach.
In his view, he’d like patients and doctors to be educated about proper
dosing, similar to daily intake amounts for things like Vitamin C.
For Schroeder, the future of CBD is
bright. “I think that you’re going to see more governments the
non-psychoactive components as good for people. It will cut down on
medical costs and reliance on certain prescriptions. There’s a lot of
opportunities out there, but there’s a lot of education that needs to be
done as well.”
The demand for CBD oil and CBD-infused
products is unlikely to fade as people look for natural and affordable
alternatives to pharmaceuticals. By suppressing research into cannabis
for decades, the FDA has now put itself in a position to try to regulate
from the rearguard of the CBD movement.
Hopefully, with pressure from
patients and the industry, the FDA will grant CBD nutritional supplement
status, while also investing in testing to discover the benefits and
side effects of short-term and long-term use.
In a world where information is at our fingertips, unbiased and scientifically rigorous knowledge is harder and harder to find.
A generation ago, everyone was entitled to his or her own opinions but no one was entitled to their own facts.
Now, every opinion has a scientific study; every nightmare scenario can be preceded by "a new study shows."
In
2017, after months of public pressure, the Drug Enforcement
Administration removed factually inaccurate information from its
website.
One publication, "Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana,"
contained 23 of the 25 factual inaccuracies in violation of the
Information Quality Act. Such inaccuracies included claims that cannabis
was a gateway drug, caused irreversible cognitive decline in adults,
and contributed to psychosis and lung cancer.
If this same bad science isn't good enough for the U.S. Department of Justice or the DEA, it shouldn't be good enough for us.
We all want our children to grow safely, successfully and strong, wherever life may take them.
A simple fact
But amid all the bad science – all the fear that this debate can spread – one simple fact remains true:
Ten
states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the adult use of cannabis
since 2012, and not a single one has repealed their laws and gone back
to prohibition – not one.
So why aren't there a pack of politicians racing to
repeal these laws in each of these states? If adult-use cannabis makes
us unsafe, why isn't there a massive movement for change?
Drug
dealers won't card you to make sure you're 21. Drug dealers don't have
to tell you how the cannabis was grown, what was added to it or how
strong it is. Drug dealers don't have to be licensed; their places of
business are never disclosed to the public or subject to inspection.
The truth is, pretending you don't have a problem doesn't make it disappear.
We can be a safer, more responsible community – but we can't do that from a place of fear.
Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, has repeated a myth about the dangers of marijuana being laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid and one of the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths in the United States.
“People are unwittingly ingesting it. It’s laced into heroin,
marijuana, meth, cocaine, and it’s also just being distributed by
itself,” Conway said in a news conference last week, as reported by BuzzFeed News.
While the fentanyl-contamination has been seen in heroin, and
sometimes in cocaine and methamphetamine, there is no conclusive
evidence of fentanyl-laced marijuana incidents.
Snopes.com has an extensive fact-checking article full of claims of fentanyl in weed. It showed that any report of contamination was not based on facts.
When asked about the claims, White House spokespersons referred to a 2018 speech
by Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA). She said that "fentanyl is being used to lace a wide variety of
drugs, including marijuana.”
The base for this claim is anecdotal reports from a Vancouver police
report in 2015, but the BuzzFeed story shows that the same police
department said they had not seen such a thing. No marijuana seized by
the Drug Enforcement Administration has had any significant traces of
the dangerous opioid in it.
Despite the complete absence of proof, the
myth doesn’t die. The myth has gone from hearsay and urban legend to
being legitimized by the federal government.
These claims, and many like them, keep getting repeated over and over
until they are often assumed to be true because “everyone has heard of
them.” Another enduring myth is that severe fentanyl toxicity can be
easily assimilated through the skin. If this were true, it would be bad
news for first responders and law enforcement. However, once
again members of government agencies are repeating the information until
someone, like the American College of Medical Toxicology for example, actually look into it.
On average, 130 Americans die
every day due to opioid-related overdose. Fentanyl is involved in 59
percent of those deaths, roughly 28,000 deaths per year. That's a huge
increase over the last decade, when it was only responsible for 14.3
percent of deaths in 2010.
Supporters legalized recreational marijuana rally ay the Capitol. Photo: Karen DeWitt
Supporters of including legalized
recreational marijuana for adults in the state budget rallied at the
State Capitol to try to convince lawmakers to move faster on the issue.
Around 200 advocates form the Drug Policy Alliance, VOCAL-NY and
other groups held a boisterous rally, at one point blocking off
entrances to the Assembly and Senate chambers.
Stanley Fritz of Citizen Action, who spoke at rally one day earlier,
says it’s a matter of justice for communities adversely affected by the
cannabis prohibition.
“We have a silly war on drugs that has disproportionately harmed black and brown people,” Fritz said.
Kelly Cardinuto, with the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, begun
by former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, says the protesters will not see
social justice if the drug is legalized. She says they will instead see
tactics by the major manufactures, similar to big tobacco, to target
adults and teens.
“I believe the vision that they have is not what’s going to happen,”
said Cardinuto. “This industry, their goal is to create an entirely new
class of addicted people, for profit.”
She says around 5 to 10% of marijuana users become addicted, around the same percentage as those who use alcohol.
Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders say it’s still possible that
legal marijuana could be part of the state budget. The spending plan is
due March 31.
Legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes could lead to more
traffic accidents, according to a new study released by the Insurance
Information Institute (III), a nonprofit insurance think tank.
With the number of states allowing pot for non-medical reasons
increasing, there are likely to be more marijuana-impaired drivers on
the nation’s roads, the report says.
The authors, James Lynch, the III’s chief actuary and vice president
of research and education, and Lucian McMahon, its senior research
specialist, warned that this, in turn, could lead to more crashes.
Though the authors noted that marijuana affects users differently,
they also noted that the drug generally impairs users’ cognitive and
motor skills.
“The intensity and duration of marijuana impairment depends on several factors,” they wrote.
“But most research agrees that marijuana use to some degree results
in impairment in the following: coordination, memory, associative
learning, attention, cognitive flexibility and reaction time.”
But the study also conceded there is no agreed-upon impairment limit
above which an individual is indisputably impaired. Nor is there a
breathalyzer equivalent for marijuana impairment, though some have
argued that saliva testing may help in determining THC levels during a
roadside stop,
Others have argued that the mere presence of THC still cannot consistently and scientifically determine impairment.
Finally, the authors claim auto insurance rates may be affected by
the spread of marijuana legalization, particularly if such legalization
is associated with an increase in impaired driving and related
accidents. An individual’s auto insurance rates may rise following
conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana.
Currently, 10 states and Washington D.C. permit recreational marijuana for any adult over the age of 21.
In the eyes of the government Dannielle Luttrell is a criminal.
Why? Because she openly admits to growing her own cannabis to make CBD oil.
Ms
Luttrell told nine.com.au she uses the product to treat her
permanently disabled son, 10, who had been suffering up to 60 seizures
each day before she started treating him with CBD oil.
The
cultivation of cannabis is an offence in Tasmania unless it is done for
medicinal purposes by a person licenced to grow cannabis under the
federal licencing scheme.
Cultivating controlled
plants such as cannabis or opium poppies is punishable by penalties at
different levels depending on the amount of plant grown.
And
even though she doesn’t sell the cannabis on the black market, the
Tasmanian mother lives in constant fear of police persecution. However,
she has taken the decision to speak out in a desperate bid to raise
awareness of the issue.
“I
feel saddened and frightened that at any time I could be arrested for
helping my son. I believe we have anti-discrimination laws to protect
people like my son but the government is discriminating again him by
blocking access to a legal medicine,” she told nine.com.au.
The
41-year-old said her son, Shelby, was born without health problems, but
she stared to notice something was wrong when he was just 11 days old.
“I
noticed my son wasn't well and I took him to hospital immediately, only
to be told that he had drug withdrawals and that he would be given
morphine and diazepam to help him. Knowing 100 per cent that my son had
not had any drugs, I pushed for more tests to find out what was wrong,”
she said.
“It wasn't until the lumbar puncture returned with a positive result for meningitis that they started taking me seriously.
“The
hospital treated Shelby aggressively with four very strong antibiotics
and as a result my son had a bleed on both sides of the brain.”
Ms Luttrell said her son was later diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia - the most severe of the three types of spastic cerebral palsy, marked by the inability to control and use the legs, arms, and body.
“At
around four years old, Shelby started having seizures, sometimes up to
50 or 60 a day which was quite frightening,” she said.
“That’s
when the doctors started the cocktail pharmaceutical drugs that made
him an absolute zombie. My beautiful boy was a shadow of his normal self
on all these drugs.”
Ms Luttrell said after
much research, she decided to try Shelby on cannabis oil and within 20
minutes she started to notice to remarkable changes, which improved
further over time.
“Cannabis has made Shelby's
life so much better. He is eating via his mouth instead of only using
his peg (feeding tube), he's sleeping better, he's a completely
different child now,” she said.
“I will not stop
using cannabis because it's working wonders. My son used to vomit if
the wind blew past him and now he hardly vomits at all. He's a good
weight and is looking really good.”
“Cannabis has given my son his life back, he's doing things we thought were lost to him.”
Ms
Luttrell said even though she has gone to the doctors with evidence
cannabis is helping her son, they refuse to give him medicinal
marijuana.
“They've said they want Shelby to try pharma drugs, but those drugs are toxic,” she said.
The young mother added even if she was approved the cost of medicine was too high.
“It's around $1600 a month for a supply,” she said. “They do subsidies here in Tasmania but try getting approved.”
Ms
Luttrell said she hoped sharing her story would help people drop what
she said are archaic views about using cannabis as an alternative
treatment to pharmaceuticals.
“Help the most vulnerable people in the community get access so they can have a good quality of life,” she said.
IS THERE ANY EVIDENCE?
In
2017, Australian doctors were part of an international trial testing
CBD oil in kids with Dravet syndrome - a complex disorder where children
suffer drug-resistant seizures and a high death rate.
Published
in the New England Journal of Medicine the study gave patients either
the cannabidiol liquid or a placebo alongside their normal medications.
Of
those given medicinal cannabis, more than 40 per cent had their
seizures halved and 5 per cent became seizure free. University of
Melbourne Professor and study author Ingrid Scheffer said she has no
doubt CBD can be a valid treatment for seizures, but added it didn’t
necessary make it more effective than other treatments.
“We
found CBD oil worked in about 40 per cent of cases, however that
responder rate is about the same found with other anti-epileptic drugs,”
she said.
Prof. Scheffer said while there is
evidence to support using medical cannabis to treat children with
seizures, the study only looked at cannabinoid oil which contained 98
per cent CBD and less than 0.2 per cent TCH – the psychoactive
ingredient found in cannabis.
“If it’s not pharmaceutical grade CBD there is no way of telling what’s inside the pill,” she said.
“We
don’t actually know the effects of giving THC to children – there is
some evidence to show in some cases THC is associated with early onset
psychosis.”
Prof Scheffer added the study found
some of the patients given cannabidiol reported mild to moderate side
effects such as diarrhoea, vomiting or fatigue.
“I’m
really supportive of using CBD oil, but it’s about trying to make the
decisions for the patient and their family. It’s important that what we
administer is safe and good for them.”
As it
currently stands, Tasmania allows medical cannabis in limited
circumstances where conventional treatment has been unsuccessful, as
does Western Australia, South Australia, the NT and the ACT.
Victoria
has become the first state to legalise marijuana for young children
suffering from epilepsy, while NSW also allows use for patients
suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer or multiple sclerosis.
Queensland’s laws
are the most flexible in the country, which grant patients of any age
or suffering from a range of illnesses access to medicinal cannabis
products.
By Scott Scanlon
As state lawmakers squabble this week over whether to legalize
marijuana and how cannabis tax revenues would be spent, doctors hope to
keep one thing front and center.
Public health.
This is the message two leading health advocates shared as state
lawmakers work toward an on-time budget that may, or may not, include
legalization.
"There are a number of concerns based on the evolving experiences in
the states which have legalized,” said Dr. Thomas J. Madejski,
president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.
“That has
caused us to strongly recommend that the state take a pause before
making recreational adult use marijuana widely available.”
Approval of such use in 10 states – starting with Colorado in 2013 – came with consequences
that included a rise in cannabis-related motor vehicle fatalities,
child hospitalizations and mental health challenges, said Madejski, a
primary and palliative care doctor in Orleans County.
He and Dr. R. Lorraine Collins, associate dean for research with the
University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions,
said three major health concerns should keep legalization on the shelf
until they can be better understood and addressed: • Age. As is the case with tobacco, alcohol and
other potentially addictive drugs, a small but growing body of research
shows that regular marijuana use can impact brain development and raise
the risk of addiction into at least the mid-20s. A large review of
previous studies published last month in JAMA Pediatrics also suggests those who regularly use marijuana as teens have a higher risk for depression and suicide in early adulthood. • Benefits and harms. Marijuana legalization
advocates have touted a variety of health advantages cannabis brings as a
growing number of states – now 34 in all – have legalized medicinal
marijuana use. “The problem that we face is that people are making
claims about effects that are not based on science," Collins said. • Related health and social costs. The New York City comptroller reported last spring
that recreational marijuana could become a $3 billion-plus industry
statewide and bring the state up to $436 million annually in tax
revenue. Madejski estimates roughly 15 percent of those who use
marijuana are at risk for addiction, as is the case with alcohol and
opioids – which likely will translate into higher state and
employer-related health costs.
Collins – who last year served as one of 20 representatives with Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo’s Working Group on Marijuana – said it’s important for
lawmakers to have a strong understanding about how to address all those
issues before rolling out adult recreational use.
"It’s also best to have an established public education campaign in
place before legalization takes place," said Collins, a professor in the
UB Department of Community Health and Health Behavior.
"We
need to know more about everything related to cannabis,” said Dr. R.
Lorraine Collins, associate dean for research with the University at
Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions. (University at
Buffalo)
False beliefs
Collins and Madejski both said popular attitudes about regular
marijuana use rarely consider its dangers – even among some expectant
and new mothers.
“You have people thinking marijuana is an herb,” Collins said. “It's
natural. It helps deal with nausea.
But what does it do to a growing
fetus? There are just so many high-risk areas that we don't know enough
about."
Marijuana has shown helpfulness in controlling seizures and managing
pain in some cases – Madejski said he has seen it benefit patients who
have been able to lower their reliance on opioid prescriptions – but
researchers have yet to untangle how most compounds within the plant
work best.
That extends to how it should be ingested, whether through
smoking, vaping or eating.
"We need to know more about everything related to cannabis,” added
Collins, who also was part of an effort by the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to make recommendations about ways to
expand and improve cannabis research and better inform the public.
“The
research that we have is completely inadequate in most areas.”
Marijuana classification
Marijuana legalization push
The National Institutes of Health has invested billions of dollars on
alcohol-related research, including millions at the UB Research
Institute on Addictions. Because of its classification, however, most
marijuana research is driven by the industry that stands to benefit most
from greater use.
The state medical society and American Medical
Association are among health-related groups that have called on the
federal government to remove cannabis from the Drug Enforcement Agency
Schedule I list of drugs considered the most dangerous and addictive in
the nation, with no currently accepted medical use. This means that
researchers who look to conduct research with the drug technically open
themselves to federal criminal charges.
Heroin and LSD also are on the Schedule I list.
Still addictive, but considered less dangerous, are Schedule II drugs
that include hydrocodone, methamphetamine and fentanyl; Schedule III
drugs such as codeine with Tylenol, ketamine and anabolic steroids; and
Schedule IV drugs that include Xanax, Darvocet and Ambien.
The lack of research hampers the ability of medical researchers and
public health leaders to get a concrete feel for marijuana use,
including the extent of its addictive qualities. It also has turned
users into medical guinea pigs and comes with related businesses making
all sorts of claims for products, including cannabidiol (CBD) oils, that
have yet to undergo large-scale, double-blind, evidence-based research
studies to back them up, Collins said.
"What kind of public health messages do we put out there to alert
young people, the elderly, whomever about cannabis use," Collins said,
"if we don't have research that says, 'Here are some of the ways it
might harm your health or help you?' This needs to be linked to
well-validated, scientific information that people can use to make
decisions. Right now, we are in this vacuum."
The
Medical Society of the State of New York supports removing marijuana
from the federal Schedule I list of the most dangerous drugs, says Dr.
Thomas J. Madejski, a Western New York primary care and palliative
physician, as well as president of the society. (Sharon
Cantillon/Buffalo News)
“Consistent data” already exists when it comes to the impact of
regular cannabis use on the developing brain, Collins said. It’s why
other states have limited adult recreational use to those age 21 and
over, why the drinking age stands at the same age and why New York is
moving toward restricting tobacco sales to those above that age.
"The later age at which one starts to use a substance, the lesser the
risk that you will become dependent on that substance," she said.
The lack of foundational research in other areas, however, raises
questions and concerns about the pharmacological and neurological
effects on judgment, as well as reaction time and behaviors related to
driving, flying an airplane or operating heavy equipment. There also is
the question of proper “dosage” and frequency of marijuana use –
including the level at which motorists should be charged with driving
under the influence or employees dismissed for what might be
drug-related workplace decision-making.
"If we have more data, I'm very open to starting to prescribe it on a
medicinal basis and, at that point, I can have an intelligent
discussion with my patients about the best way to use it," Madejski
said.
He said he already is comfortable prescribing it to some patients
who struggle with pain or are nearing the end of life.
No illusions
Collins believes it is only matter of time before adult-use
recreational marijuana becomes legal in New York. She is heartened that
the state already features one of the most restrictive medical cannabis
programs. "We're not starting from scratch," she said.
The state medical society opposed medicinal marijuana legislation.
"We still have issues about how it's been implemented,” Madejski
said, “but we've been able to have a dialogue with the state Health
Department and that has been constructive. … The difficulty we have is
there is very little data on dosing, what combinations of CBD, THC and
other ingredient dosing is best. And we have very little, if any, data
on long-term consequences of use."
Madejski would like more data to inform the decision.
“We should make these decisions based on science and reason, not
anecdotal reports and industry-driven positive press, which is a lot of
what we've had to deal with trying to make the case that we need to go a
little bit more slowly here," Madejski said.
When might the state be ready for recreational marijuana legalization?
"If ready is, 'We know everything and now we can move ahead,' then I
don't think anywhere on the planet is ready,” Collins said. “We don't
know a lot. But if you talk about a process that has involved key
stakeholders, that will involve discussion at various levels within the
Legislature and governor's office, then we're going about this in a
thoughtful way."
With marijuana use rising among pregnant women, new study raises concerns
By
Gerry Everding
Pregnant women who use cannabis may slightly increase the risk their
unborn child will develop psychosis later in life, suggests new research
from Washington University in St. Louis. Fine
“Our research shows that prenatal marijuana exposure after maternal
knowledge of pregnancy is associated with a small increase in psychosis
proneness during middle childhood or about age 10,” said Jeremy Fine, an
undergraduate majoring in psychological and brain sciences in Arts
& Sciences at Washington University and the study’s lead author.
The findings come on the heels of several national studies
documenting a dramatic increase in marijuana usage by pregnant women,
including a 2018 study
from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis that found
past-month marijuana use among pregnant mothers in the United States
increased by 75 percent between 2002 (2.85 percent) and 2016 (4.98
percent).
As more states legalize medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, other reports suggest that many marijuana dispensaries commonly suggest cannabis as a natural cure for pregnancy related nausea.
This latest study, published March 27 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry,
suggests that pregnant women should be discouraged from using cannabis
at any time in their pregnancy because so little is yet known about its
health effects.
But its findings also raise new concerns that prenatal exposure to
cannabis may pose a greater risk after the fetal brain begins to develop
a receptor system for endocannabinoids, which are part of the naturally
occurring neurotransmitter network through which cannabis affects the
brain. Bogdan
“One possible explanation for the finding of increased psychosis risk
for marijuana use following, but not before, knowledge of pregnancy is
that the endocannabinoid receptor system may not be in place during the
early weeks of pregnancy,” said Ryan Bogdan,
associate professor of psychological & brain sciences and senior
author of the paper. “Prenatal cannabis exposure may be associated with
later psychosis proneness in offspring only when there is sufficient
fetal endocannabinoid type 1 receptor expression, which may not occur
until after many mothers learn they are pregnant.”
Bogdan, who directs the Washington University BRAIN Lab
where the research took place, said these latest findings build on
other basic research suggesting that endocannabinoid signaling may
contribute to processes, such as neurogenesis and neural migration, that
play important roles in early development of brain structure and
connections.
“This study raises the intriguing possibility there may be
developmental windows during which cannabis exposure may be more likely
to increase psychosis risk,” he said.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the principal psychoactive
component of marijuana, mimics our body’s endocannabinoids and binds to
endocannabinoid receptors to exert its effects.
Various studies have
confirmed that THC crosses the placental barrier to gain access to the
developing fetus.
“Data from rodent studies suggest that the endocannabinoid type 1
receptor, through which the psychoactive effects of THC largely arise,
is not expressed until the equivalent of 5-6 weeks of human gestation,”
Fine said. “Given that mothers in our study on average learned of their
pregnancy at 7.7 weeks, it is plausible that any impact of THC on
psychosis risk would not arise until sufficient endocannabinoid type 1
receptors are expressed.” After
alcohol, cannabis is the second-most widely used recreational drug in
developed nations. In the United States, 45 percent of adults report
using cannabis at some point in their lives, with 12 percent using in
the past 12 months, according to federal estimates.
The BRAIN Lab findings are based on data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study,
an ongoing longitudinal study of child health and brain development
with data collection sites throughout the nation. They used data from
the initial ABCD baseline data release which included survey responses
from 3,774 mothers about marijuana usage during 3,926 pregnancies. Risk
of psychosis in the 4,361 children born from these pregnancies between
2005 and 2008 was measured using a questionnaire administered to the
children between ages 8.9 and 11 years.
Among the 4,361 children sampled in this study, 201 (4.61 percent)
were reported to have been exposed to marijuana before birth; of these
63 were exposed following maternal knowledge of pregnancy.
Bogdan and his co-authors acknowledge that the study has many
limitations, including the small sample of prenatal cannabis–exposed
offspring; potential maternal underreporting of use during pregnancy;
imprecise data on timing, amount, frequency and potency of cannabis
exposure; absence of data on whether childhood psychosis proneness is
associated with conversion to psychosis; and lack of data on some
potential confounders, such as maternal stress and genetic risk of
psychosis among parents. Moreau
“Our research is correlational and as such cannot draw causal conclusions,” said Allison Moreau,
study co-author and a graduate student in psychology at Washington
University. “However, that the relationship between prenatal marijuana
exposure following maternal knowledge of pregnancy was associated with
offspring psychosis proneness after accounting for potentially
confounding variables — such as maternal education, prenatal vitamin
usage, prenatal alcohol and nicotine use, child substance use, and so on
— increases the plausibility that prenatal cannabis exposure may
contribute to a small risk of increased psychosis liability in
children.”
The study provides further evidence that expectant mothers should
think twice before considering cannabis usage during pregnancy.
“Given increasing cannabis accessibility and potency, as well as
growing public perceptions that it’s safe to use, it is critical for
additional research to understand the potential adverse consequences and
benefits of cannabis throughout development and how these associations
may arise.” Bogdan said.
“In the meantime, evidence that prenatal
marijuana use is associated with a small increase in offspring psychosis
proneness suggests that marijuana use during pregnancy should be
discouraged until more is known.”
Other Washington University co-authors include Nicole Karcher, post-doctoral research scholar; Arpana Agrawal, professor of psychiatry; and Cynthia Rogers, MD, assistant professor of child psychiatry, all in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine; and Deanna Barch,
chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts
& Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry at the
School of Medicine.
The number of seniors who use marijuana to alleviate symptoms of
illnesses has increased over the years. The drug has been proven to
provide relief for several health conditions that come with old age. (
Pixabay )
Older American adults are turning to marijuana to relieve joint pains
and symptoms of other health conditions that come with age.
Marijuana Use Among Senior Citizens
Over the years, the use of medical marijuana has soared among seniors citizens.
In fact, industry experts agree that people aged 65 years and older are
the fastest-growing segment of marijuana users across the country.
"I would say the average age of our customers is around 60, maybe even a little older," stated Kelty Richardson, a registered nurse at the Holos Health clinic which provides physician-recommended cannabis.
A study published last year claimed
that the number of baby boomers, age 50 and above, who smoke weed or
consume cannabis products have doubled in the past decade. For seniors
age 60 and above, the use of the drug increased sevenfold.
Marijuana is becoming more popular among the older population because it addresses conditions
that many seniors face because of old age. The drug promises to
alleviate issues such as joint pain, muscle spams, anxiety, insomnia,
and loss of appetite. It also has been proven effective for chronic pain.
Ron
Atkin, 76 years old, told Los Angeles Times that he turned to marijuana
out of "desperation."
Although his doctor never recommended it, he
tried marijuana when his prescription opiates stopped working to treat
his painful spinal stenosis.
Another
senior, Adele Frascella, takes marijuana in the form of gummy candies
to prevent arthritic pain. She said she does not like to take an opioid
to cure her ailments.
Advice On Senior Use Of Marijuana
Little
is known about the effects of marijuana use among the older
populations, but medical experts cannot deny its potential benefits. A
group of professors from the University of Washington released
recommendations to prevent any harm from the use of marijuana.
"Start low, go slow," stated Zach Marcum, an assistant director of research at the University of Washington's School of Pharmacy.
Those who are using medical marijuana for the first time should begin with one-quarter to one-half of the recommended dose.
Senior
users should also consider the CBD-THC ratio to avoid experiencing the
psychoactive effects of the drug. Experts recommend opting for topical
and transdermal products.
Lastly, they must only buy from
reputable sources. They should not purchase marijuana products over the
internet or on the streets.
Popular cult classics like The Big Lebowski would have you
believe that people who use marijuana not only always have the munchies,
but they’re also too lazy to engage in a lot of physical activity.
With those kinds of stereotypes pervading movies and TV shows, it
makes sense that many people would assume marijuana use is positively
associated with weight gain.
But a new study published last week in the International Journal of Epidemiology appears
to undermine that belief. It’s the latest research to show
that marijuana users are actually less likely to be obese compared to
non-users.
For their work, Michigan State University researchers drew on data
from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions
(NESARC), a cross-sectional, nationally representative study sample of
U.S. citizens aged 18 and older. In total, they looked at the reported
responses of more than 33,000 people.
In the first wave of interviews completed in 2001-2002, participants
were asked if they used cannabis and, if so, how recently and how
frequently. When they returned for their follow-up interview in
2004-2005, researchers asked participants if they used cannabis since
that first interview.
Between the two interview periods, researchers tracked an increase in
body mass index (BMI) in all categories of respondents—those who’d
never consumed, people who had discontinued past use, “initiates” or
newbies and persistent users.
Once they excluded participants who were older than 65 (because
research shows BMI declines in older people are often due to loss of
muscle mass), they discovered “an attenuated BMI gain for cannabis-use subgroups when compared with never-users.”
In other words, those who reported using marijuana gained weight, but
at a reduced rate compared to those who have never consumed cannabis.
“In NESARC, persistent cannabis users and the initiates were under-represented in stably obese subgroups,” the study
states. “In addition, these same actively cannabis-using subgroups were
under-represented among newly incident cases of obesity observed at
W2.”
The study offers a couple of theories to explain why marijuana users
experience lower weight gain. One, for example, has to do with how the
density of a specific cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) decreases with chronic
cannabis use. It’s a theory that was first introduced last year by a separate team of researchers at Indiana University South Bend.
“For many patients,” they wrote in the meta-analysis they published
in December, “Cannabis may be a better option for weight loss than
surgery or pharmaceuticals.”
Another possibility to explain the relationship between marijuana use
and BMI has to do with the anti-inflammatory properties of another
cannabinoid receptor, CB2R. “The association of inflammation and obesity
is widely established in pre-clinical and clinical studies,” the
study’s authors write.
These findings are important for future biomedical research regarding
cannabinoids—especially since medical marijuana is often toted as a
potential treatment for preventing weight loss in HIV and cancer
patients, the study states.
The average cannabis consumer concerned about their waistline might
also find a little bit of comfort in these results, too—especially since
other research has indicated that states with legal marijuana saw an increase in junk food purchases.
As it becomes increasingly clear that marijuana legalization is not a strictly partisan issue, with surveys showing growing, bipartisan support
for reform from across the political spectrum, questions remain as to
what factors shape momentum toward enacting state cannabis laws.
A study recently published in the journal Contemporary Drug Problems
offers some answers.
Researchers looked at each state’s marijuana laws
and analyzed their political, demographic, economic and social
characteristics to identify various trends associated with legalization.
Specifically, they wanted to know whether there were statistically
significant differences among states that were early or late adopters of
medical cannabis laws or adult-use legalization as compared to
non-legal states. The results indicate that differences do exist, often
in ways that might not be apparent at first glance.
Here are some of the main trends identified in the study:
—Compared to non-legal states, those that have legalized marijuana
for medical or adult-use (regardless of when they legalized) had larger
immigrant populations. For example, states with recreational cannabis
had almost two times as many immigrants as non-legal states, 12.3
percent vs. 6.8 percent of the population, on average.
—There were some interesting divides in terms of religious
affiliation among states with different marijuana policies. States that
were early adopters of medical cannabis have more people who identify
as Catholic. Non-legal states have more Evangelical Protestants on
average. And both recreational marijuana and early-adopter medical
cannabis states have more people who claimed no religious affiliation
compared to non-legal states.
—Politically, 77 percent of states that were quicker to legalize
medical marijuana had legislatures controlled by Democrats in 2014. That
trend was even more pronounced in states with adult-use legalization,
where 82 percent of legislatures were Democratic-controlled. When it
came to late adopters of medical cannabis, however, nine out of 10
states that legalized after 2014 had Republican-controlled legislatures.
—Voters in states that legalized for medical or recreational purposes
were more likely to be approving of same-sex marriage compared to
non-legal states (a range of 55-61 percent versus 44 percent on average,
respectively).
—When it came to gun policy, there were no statistically significant
differences in the prevalence of stand-your-ground or concealed carry
laws across all categories of cannabis states, which “could be accounted
for by the different political configurations in more libertarian
western states, where personal freedoms are highly valued, including
both freedoms to own guns and use marijuana,” the study authors wrote.
The researchers also emphasized that the results of their analysis
are correlational in nature, so readers should take the findings with a
grain of salt. But the data does raise some interesting points about the
nature of states that have legalized marijuana at different levels over
time, further demonstrating that support for cannabis policy reform is
about much more than partisan politics.
