CBD can be used to treat a whole host of
different medical conditions and ailments. And this means the future is
bright for thousands of patients worldwide
By Alexandra Hicks
Considering CBD offers numerous medicinal benefits and general
functionality for users, it’s no surprise that this sector is expected
to outpace the rest of the cannabis industry within a few years.
Cannabis may well be America’s (and now Canada and Europe’s) next
billion dollar crop.
The dot com boom from the 90s now pales in
comparison to how big cannabis
has already become.
Overall, cannabis is booming, but certain sectors
are showing more potential than others, mainly the extracts and
derivatives market. One of the most popular cannabinoids these days is
CBD, or cannabidiol, and with good reason. CBD is derived from hemp and
it’s easily extracted, non-psychoactive, and is full of therapeutic
benefits.
From a marketing standpoint, one of the most appealing things about
it is the fact that it produces no high for the patient. This means it
can be sold in a variety of stores, farmers markets, and online
platforms, and people are more inclined to try it.
As of now, CBD comprises a modest share of the medical cannabis
market, but experts believe that will change by 2020. According to Tapio
Maki, CEO of CBD Incorporated
in Escondido, CA, “Most cannabis entrepreneurs have their eyes on
medical marijuana markets, and very few are on medical hemp. Aside from
being considered a health food, it provides immense medical benefits to
users as well. It’s also not a federal crime to import CBD and it isn’t
subject to state-by-state regulation in terms of transporting it.”
What are CBD’s Therapeutic Benefits?
It’s safe to say that right now, the benefits of using CBD are
immeasurable. Each and every day, researchers are discovering new ways
that cannabis derivatives can heal our bodies and spirits. Some of the
most prominent uses for CBD are: pain, inflammation, epilepsy, mental
health disorders, cancer, and even as an aid to help quit smoking and/or
drug use.
Natural pain relief or anti-inflammatory properties
Many people prefer using CBD instead of prescription or
over-the-counter pain medications because it’s natural, non-addictive,
and users can’t develop a dangerous tolerance and subsequent addiction. A
2012 study
published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine determined that CBD
was an effective, alternative treatment option to reduce pain and
chronic inflammation. CBD is already used to treat many related
conditions such as multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.
Quitting smoking and using drugs
Evidence suggests that CBD can be used to help people quit smoking cigarettes. A preliminary study from 2013 showed that smokers who used a CBD inhaler had less tobacco cravings and smoked fewer cigarettes. Another study
found that CBD can aid people in the battle against opioid addiction,
which is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. CBD helps
to reduce pain, anxiety, mood disorders, and insomnia, all of which lead
to a decreased need for opiates.
Epilepsy and other mental health disorders
CBD has also long been touted as a miracle medicine for Epilepsy patients,
especially those suffering from a refractory form of the disease. CBD
is known to have a profoundly positive effect on some neurological
diseases. Another study,
posted by the Current Pharmaceutical Design concluded that CBD could
function as a strong anti-psychotic treatment. Contrary to previous
misinformation stating that cannabis can cause schizophrenia, this more
recent research suggests the exact opposite, that it can actually help
with the disorder.
Helps fight cancer
Not only can CBD help relieve the pain and nausea associated with standard cancer treatments, but in a 2013 review
posted in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, researchers
found that CBD can actually block metastasis. This is the process of
cancer cells spreading throughout the body and invading other organs and
tissues. It can also be used in conjunction with other treatments
because of its low toxicity levels.
Image credit- Medical Marijuana
Where Can You Find It?
Since CBD is non-psychoactive, it can be found much more easily than
whole flower cannabis or THC extracts. You can find it in most health
food stores. You could also find it from a slew of online vendors. Some
of them allow you to Try CBD for as low as $4.95.
If you decide to take the plunge, it’s best to use a trusted company
with an established reputation.
Many companies send their products off
to a third party lab for testing, and some even offer a money back
guarantee. That certainly offers some peace of mind!
Twelve years since the release of the Grammy Award-winning Welcome to Jamrock, Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley, released his fourth album, Stony Hill,
on his birthday, July 21. The promotional path of this album release
was accompanied by the news of the artiste's foray into the medicinal
marijuana business. "Of course, it goes without saying that we inna
Jamaica, myself and many others, we smoke herb over the years, and we
say herb is the healing of the nation. But we kinda use it for more like
spiritual sacrament and recreational use."
With the titles, president and CEO of Stony Hill Corporation, Jr Gong
helms a start-up company which plans to set up a global medical cannabis
platform through investments in medical marijuana.
"My brand when it comes on to the marijuana business, is called Stony
Hill, and it kinda coincide with the album, and they cross-promote each
other," Jr Gong told The Gleaner.
"What's happening now, because it's become legal in other places,
there's a lot of research which is kinda starting to now prove the
medical benefits of marijuana," he added.
Success testimonials
Social media promotion for the reggae star's latest single, Medication, involves success testimonials from a variety of chronically ill patients who have been helped by marijuana.
"These testimonials are talking about, which is very important to me,
the medical benefit of marijuana. Featured on that recently released
single is older brother Stephen Marley, who sings, 'Your leaves of
green, your purples and blues, has cured little kids, and old women too,
and I say to myself, what a wonderful herb.'
"Everybody know seh it good for glaucoma, help cure cancer and them
kind of things. But there're various other life-threatening ailments
that this plant is proving itself to be beneficial to getting over those
things. That is something that we want to highlight. And it's not just
the usual suspects.
"We ah talk 'bout epilepsy - young children who have seizures and tek
sick regular. The methods of how the medicine is administered, it
doesn't always necessarily make yuh feel high. You're using the same
elements of marijuana, but not the same way that we're used to it," Jr
Gong said. "It doesn't come with the same side effects as normal
pharmaceutical drugs come with. There's really no downside to it.
Jamaica always embrace marijuana, whether it's on the front page,
legally or not - but it's big in our culture.
"In California, what we're doing is actually growing herb and producing oil that you use in vape pens.
Where the Medication video was filmed is actually the same facility where we're growing the herb now," he told The Gleaner.
In October 2016, it was announced that Jr Gong partnered with Ocean
Grown Extracts for the acquisition of a former prison, which was
converted into a cannabis grow space, to cultivate medical marijuana for
state dispensaries.
"We're actually starting to grow some herb now, where you can actually
buy the flower, like the plant itself. We involved, you know? Which is
right. It's great now to see that we were right all along.
The
Meadowlands — already set to be the home of the state's largest
shopping and entertainment complex — will also be the site of the
state's largest dispensary of medical marijuana.
Once it opens for business, the dispensary plans to serve up to 4,000 patients a month with a variety of strains of cannabis.
The Christie administration this week issued a permit to grow medical marijuana to Harmony Foundation and will consider issuing a permit to dispense marijuana after the crop is tested later this year.
The nonprofit foundation will operate the 10,000-square-foot facility on Meadowlands Parkway in Secaucus.
"After
two years of designing and constructing this state-of-the-art facility,
we are excited to finally put it into action," said Shaya Brodchandel,
Harmony's president and CEO. The strains selected "are well suited for
New Jersey medical patients' conditions and to our unique growing
system," he said.
New Jersey currently has 13,200 patients
registered to purchase medical marijuana, which can prescribed for
certain medical conditions only by physicians who have registered with
the program.
Medical marijuana in New Jersey is the
most expensive in the country, according to Ken Wolski, the head of the
Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey. It sells for about $500 an
ounce, he said.
The state Legislature has begun considering a measure
to legalize recreational marijuana, which is projected to generate as
much as $300 million in tax revenue. Phil Murphy, the Democratic
candidate for governor, has said he favors legalization. That would make
it easier to purchase marijuana and would change the environment in
which dispensers of medical marijuana operate.
Once
the Secaucus center opens, New Jersey will have six marijuana
dispensaries, which state officials call alternative treatment centers.
The others are in Montclair, Egg Harbor, Woodbridge, Cranbury
and Bellmawr in Camden County.
Former
Gov. Jon Corzine signed New Jersey's law allowing compassionate use of
marijuana to treat certain medical conditions in 2010, leaving it for
Gov. Chris Christie to implement.
Christie, who
vehemently opposes legalization of recreational marijuana, enacted some
of the strictest regulations in the nation for medicinal marijuana.
Wolski
said he welcomed the new dispensary, but added: "We're very
disappointed with the pace of the process." Approval of the sixth
center, he said, "is long overdue." The law had anticipated that
additional centers would be approved by the state after the first six.
The Health Department says its permitting process for new growers is modeled after the background checks for casino operators.
The
examination of Harmony Foundation's executives and funding sources
began in December 2014. The leaders and financing have changed since
then, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the Health Department,
prolonging the vetting process.
"The permit was
issued after a comprehensive review, including several site inspections,
background checks of its corporate officers and a review of its
security operations and cultivation facility," she said.
Brodchandel,
who is 30, has no previous experience in the marijuana industry, but
led a company that produced products used in nuclear medicine, a highly
regulated industry that prepared him for this role, said Leslie
Hoffmann, a spokeswoman for Harmony. He joined the foundation in 2015.
The
company's automated, robotic growing system is designed to produce a
consistent, high-quality product in an environment where light,
temperature, humidity, water, nutrients and carbon dioxide are strictly
controlled and tracked, Hoffmann said. It will produce an "extremely
consistent, pure product," she said.
Friday, Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a bill that fully
implements consumer access to adult-use marijuana while creating a
robust public health and safety framework. Senator Pat Jehlen
(D-Somerville), Senate Chair of the Joint Marijuana Policy Committee,
served on the six-member conference committee responsible for
negotiating the final bill.
“We have protected the right of adults to grow, possess, and use
marijuana. To give them access to a safe, legal supply, the bill removes
barriers to the development of a legal market,” said Senator
Jehlen. “It protects the rights of medical marijuana patients, and gives
opportunity to farmers and to people who have been harmed by the War on
Drugs. This bill increases public health and safety protections, and
specifies ways to prevent products from appealing young people. The tax
rate remains among the lowest in the country, and the same as in Oregon,
often seen as successful.”
This bill helps ensure that adults who want it have access to legal marijuana.
The bill preserves the voice of the voters. In the vast majority of
communities, the voters supported legalization. In those communities,
any ban or restriction on the number of marijuana establishments greater
than those permitted under the ballot question can only be done by
referendum. In communities that opposed legalization, their elected
officials can ban or severely limit production and sale.
The bill assures that zoning and other regulations will not be used
to evade the requirement of voter approval for numeric limits.
It allows new producers and retailers who don’t already have medical
marijuana licenses to apply without a one-year waiting period, as in
the ballot question.
It allows up to 3% local tax for communities to allow licenses. It
caps the host agreement provision at 3% and limits them to no longer
than 5 year terms.
The bill places responsibility for implementation with 3 state
officials who will all face re-election in 2018. They should all have an
incentive to make sure the law works and a safe legal market is
developed.
The bill contains Senate priorities for addressing social
justice and remedying the damage to people and communities harmed by
years of arrests and incarceration based on previous marijuana laws.
It preserves the opportunity for people with marijuana conviction
records to have a second chance as employees in this new, legal
industry. It clarifies that people with records of offenses under
repealed laws can have their records sealed, and requires a public
campaign to inform them of this opportunity.
It gives priority to license applications from applicants with
demonstrated experience in promoting economic empowerment in communities
disproportionately impacted by high rates of arrest and incarceration
due to previous marijuana laws.
18 to 21 year olds will be subject to civil penalties but not
arrest, just as other adults, so no one will go to jail for possessing
small amounts of marijuana.
It plans to use generated funds to provide restorative justice, jail
diversion, workforce development, and technical business assistance for
people in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the
War on Drugs.
The bill contains protections requested by medical marijuana patients.
It ensures confidentiality of their records.
It allows electronic filing of healthcare provider certifications,
allowing immediate access to temporary registration cards and to medical
marijuana, instead of waits of up to two weeks.
While consolidating operations such as inspections for medical and
adult-use marijuana, it ensures separate records of license fees and
spending in the medical program so that medical fees don’t subsidize the
adult-use market.
It allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants, as well as physicians, to recommend marijuana.
Medical marijuana remains untaxed.
The bill helps farmers and small businesses.
It legalizes the production of hemp, which can be a valuable crop for farmers.
It requires the Cannabis Control Commission to develop ways for
small producers to form coops, and license fees based on the size.
The CCC and the Department of Agriculture will work together to give farmers technical assistance.
It eliminates the two-year wait for licenses for cultivators, which advantaged only existing medical operators.
It limits the number of licenses in each category to three per entity.
The bill increases protection for public health and safety, and for young people.
It gives more specific direction to the Cannabis Control Commission
about product labeling, safety, and marketing. It specifies ways to
prevent products from appealing to young people, such as prohibiting
edibles that resemble branded consumer products, and prohibiting
advertising in media unless more than 15% of its audience is expected to
be over 21.
It requires edibles to be marked with the serving size.
It prioritizes spending from the marijuana tax to go to public
health and public safety campaigns, particularly school based programs.
It establishes a commission to study regulation and testing for impaired driving.
The bill raises the excise tax on marijuana to 10.75%.
The state tax will total 17%, with a 3% local option.
Massachusetts marijuana taxes will still be among the lowest among
the 8 states that have legalized marijuana. It will be the same as
Oregon, which is seen as among the most successful states.
DOR estimated that a 10% marijuana specific tax would raise $51
million the first year, $102 million the second year, with $32 million
and $64 million additionally going to the general fund from the regular
sales tax. According to their estimates, local sales taxes would bring
in $15-30 million to communities.
Home-grow of up to six plants per person and twelve per household, as
well as possession of marijuana, was legalized on December 15, 2016.
Members of the Cannabis Control Commission are to be appointed by
September 1, 2017, applications for cultivation and retail licenses will
be accepted by April 1, 2018, and retail outlets will be open July 1,
2018.
Although
this claim is based on official testimony from a pathologist during an
inquiry into a mysterious death, scientific evidence makes such an
explanation problematic, if not completely untenable.
UNPROVEN
Alex Kasprak
On 30 January 2014, the British tabloid Daily Mail published an article with the following liberally capitalized and attention-grabbing headline: Devout
Christian Mother-of-Three, 31, Becomes First Woman in Britain to DIE
from Cannabis Poisoning After Smoking a Joint in Bed to Help Her Sleep.
Based on the testimony of the pathologist who performed an autopsy on
a 31-year-old woman named Gemma Moss, who was found dead next to a
half-smoked marijuana joint, the Mail concluded that she “died directly from cannabis poisoning”:
A young mother of three died after she was poisoned by
the cannabis she smoked to help her get to sleep. Gemma Moss, 31, was
killed by the level of the drug in her blood, an inquest heard. The
regular churchgoer, who was found dead in her bedroom, is thought to be
the first woman in Britain known to have died directly from cannabis
poisoning.
Her death was caused by cannabis toxicity, and a coroner recorded a
verdict of death by cannabis abuse.The inquest was told that Miss Moss
smoked half a joint a night to help her sleep.
Reports
from the local newspaper of the town in which Moss lived confirm both
her death, which occurred on 28 October 2013, as well as the suggested
link between her demise and a half-smoked joint. An inquest (i.e., a
legal investigation into her death) was held on 21 January 2014. During
this proceeding, a pathologist provided his opinion that cannabis
“caused [Moss’s] death.” The testimony that inspired that pathologist’s
interpretation, however, was a bit more vague than the Daily Mail’s specific claim of cannabis “poisoning”, based on a longer account of the proceedings published by the UK’s more respectable Telegraph newspaper:
A post mortem examination revealed that there were no
obvious signs of abnormality in Miss Moss’ body. But Dr Kudair Hussein, a
pathologist, told the inquest in Bournemouth, that there were moderate
to heavy levels of [chemicals associated with cannabis] in her blood.
He said: “The physical examination and the examination of various
organs including the heart and the liver showed no abnormality that
could account for her death. The level of cannabinoids in the blood were
0.1 to 0.15 milligrams per litre, this is considered as moderate to
heavy cannabis use. I looked through literature and it’s well known that
cannabis is of very low toxicity. But there are reports which say
cannabis can be considered as a cause of death because it can induce a
cardiac arrest.”
Mr Sheriff Payne, the Bournemouth coroner, asked Dr Hussein: “You are
satisfied it was the effects of cannabis that caused her death.”
Dr Hussain replied: “Yes sir.”
The phrase “the effects of cannabis” leaves room for presuming an
indirect relationship between Moss’s death and cannabis (i.e., one that
would not be considered a “poisoning”). In captions attached to some of
the photographs, and in a sidebar, the Daily Mail seems to
suggest a heart attack triggered by cannabis — an entirely different
claim than the one expressed in their headline — might have been the
cause of Moss’s death:
Tests of Moss’s vital organs revealed nothing wrong with
them, although testimony offered at the inquest was suggested she might
have suffered a cardiac arrest triggered by cannabis toxicity.
Perhaps unintentionally, then, the article presents two conflicting
hypotheses that require investigation: 1) Is it possible to consume
enough cannabis that you are directly poisoned by its toxicity?; and 2)
Is it possible for marijuana to trigger a (fatal) heart attack?
Is it Possible to Consume Enough Cannabis to Be Directly Poisoned by Its Toxicity?
There is a near universal agreement on the answer to this question:
No. While no studies designed to ascertain a lethal dose level for THC —
the primary psychoactive component of cannabis — have been undertaken
on humans, a number of animal studies suggest that THC’s potential
toxicity is remarkably low.
Such studies seek to address what concentration of a chemical causes a
lethal reaction in 50% of population of test subjects, known as the LD50. A study performed in the 1970s (whose results are described here) attempted to determine this value in a variety of rodent, dog, and monkey populations:
The acute toxicity of THC is low. Acute lethal human
toxicity for cannabis has not been substantiated. The median lethal dose
(LD50) of oral THC in rats was 800–1900 mg/kg depending on sex and
strain. There were no cases of death due to toxicity following the
maximum THC dose in dogs (up to 3000 mg/kg THC) and monkeys (up to 9000
mg/kg THC).
In other words, scientists were literally unable to intentionally
cause fatal toxicity from cannabis in both dogs and primates. This lack
of lethality was famously put into perspective by an oft-cited 1972 report
issued by President Nixon’s “National Commission on Marihuana and Drug
Abuse” (The Schaller Commission), a group whose findings the Nixon
administration ultimately ignored:
In summary, enormous doses of Delta 9 THC, All THC and
concentrated marihuana extract ingested by mouth were unable to produce
death or organ pathology in large mammals but did produce fatalities in
smaller rodents due to profound central nervous system depression.
The non-fatal consumption of 3000 mg/kg A THC by the dog and monkey
would be comparable to a 154-pound human eating approximately 46 pounds
(21 kilograms) of 1%-marihuana or 10 pounds of 5% hashish at one time.
In addition, 92 mg/kg THC intravenously produced no fatalities in
monkeys. These doses would be comparable to a 154-pound human smoking at
one time almost three pounds (1.28 kg) of 1%-marihuana or 250,000 times
the usual smoked dose and over a million times the minimal effective
dose assuming 50% destruction of the THC by smoking
While higher potency of marijuana would change that math a bit, it
would not change it enough for that amount of combustion and inhalation
to be possible. A 2011 report
on drug abuse from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) states that
there had been (at least at that time), zero documented cases of fatal
overdoses from cannabis.
If cannabis killed Gemma Moss, it would had to have done so through a mechanism other than direct toxicity.
Is it Possible for Marijuana to Trigger a Heart Attack?
That cannabis affects the cardiovascular system is uncontroversial. A 2001 study published in the journal Circulation reviewed the most significant interactions between cannabis and the heart:
Several effects of smoked marijuana on the cardiovascular
system have been well described. For example, smoking marijuana is
associated with a dose-dependent increase in heart rate. In addition,
most subjects experience an increase in blood pressure, particularly
when supine.
In addition to the hemodynamic effects, smoked marijuana is
associated with an increase in carboxyhemoglobin, resulting in decreased
oxygen-carrying capacity. Thus, taken together, smoking marijuana is
associated with an increase in myocardial oxygen demand and a
concomitant decrease in oxygen supply.
To see if these effects contributed to the incidence of heart
attacks, researchers surveyed 3882 patients who had suffered heart
attacks, asking them to recall when they had most recently smoked
marijuana (if at all) prior to their heart attacks. The investigation
concluded that:
Smoking marijuana is a rare trigger of acute myocardial
infarction and may pose a health risk to patients with established
coronary artery disease and perhaps to individuals with multiple
coronary risk factors.
As well, a variety of case reports at least hint
at the fact that marijuana could increase the risk of heart attacks in
users who already exhibit other risk factors. The question is, however,
whether marijuana could cause a heart attack on its own (i.e., in the
absence of these risk factors or other contributory causes). To date,
the answer to this question remains controversial, but most research suggests that other risk factors need to be present for cannabis use to be a trigger for a heart attack.
While we allow it is technically possible that cannabis could have
contributed to Gemma Moss’s death, as suggested by a pathologist and
some news accounts, it is important to note that — based on the Daily Mail’s own reporting — Moss exhibited no signs of a heart attack or any other form of organ failure.
Other Explanations
The only evidence presented linking Moss’s death to cannabis was the
fact that she was found dead next to a half-smoked joint, and that her
bloodstream showed that she had consumed marijuana.
Nearly any other
suggested cause for her sudden death would be, from an evidentiary
standpoint, as valid as the pathologist’s claim that it was likely from
marijuana.
Yes, the most plausible way for cannabis to have contributed to
Moss’s death would have been through some sort of cardiovascular event,
but research suggests that such an event would be extremely rare (if not
impossible) in the absence of other risk factors. Numerous other
non-marijuana-related causes of cardiac arrest also appear to have been
excluded without investigation.
The fact of the matter is that unexplained, sudden deaths
occasionally strike down healthy individuals. The absence of a clear
explanation for a death should not compel acceptance of a scientifically
implausible one, however. In our view, death from direct cannabis
toxicity is unlikely, as this event is generally viewed to be medically
impossible. The incidence of a heart attack as a contributing factor in
the case of death that is not otherwise fully explainable is certainly a
possibility, but the notion that smoking half a joint would trigger a
fatal heart attack in a person who did not exhibit any existing
cardiovascular disease strains credulity. Accordingly, we rank this
claim as unproven.
How legalized marijuana is affecting our
society has no clear answers, scientists and public health experts
say — mainly because we don't have enough information yet.
In
Colorado, state-sanctioned sales to any adult have been legal only
since Jan. 1, 2014.
Massachusetts, where voters approved a ballot
initiative last year, won't see retail sales until July 2018.
Studies
have shown both increases and decreases in youth and adult use,
unreliable law-enforcement data about crashes and uncertainty about
whether medical marijuana does what its backers claim.
While
marijuana evangelists often deny that the drug could hurt anyone, some
drug treatment experts say that when highly concentrated, it can cause
psychosis.
Medical benefits
Marijuana
appears to be an effective treatment for chronic pain, nausea and
symptoms of multiple sclerosis, according to a January 2017 report from
some of the nation’s top doctors and public health experts.
Commissioned
by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the
report said “conclusive or substantial” research backs the effectiveness
of cannabis for those three conditions.
But
the report also warns of dangers: Increased risk of car crashes, lower
birth weights and problems with memory and attention. It found strong
connections between heavy cannabis use and the development of
schizophrenia and other psychoses.
A variety of
state and federal government agencies helped pay for the report, which
included research from medical doctors, mental health practitioners and
addiction specialists. Authors repeatedly noted that data on marijuana
use is limited and scientists need more information as more and more
states legalize medical marijuana.
"Conclusive
evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects (harms and
benefits) of cannabis use remains elusive. A lack of scientific research
has resulted in a lack of information on the health implications of
cannabis use, which is a significant public health concern for
vulnerable populations such as adolescents and pregnant women,” the
report said.
Deborah Hasin, an epidemiology
professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, has
performed studies that found the prevalence of marijuana use disorders
doubled between 2001 and 2013.
“If you increase
the prevalence of users, you are going to increase the prevalence of
people who have adverse consequences,” she said.
Youth use
But
the data on which Hasin based her most recent study also showed slight
drops in youth marijuana use in Colorado in the years following
legalization. Voters legalized the drug in 2012, but sales didn't start
until about 14 months later.
In Colorado, the
percentage of teens 12 to 17 who had used marijuana in the previous
month dropped from 12.6% in 2012-13 to 11.1% in 2014-15. In the same
period, teens' past-year use dropped twice as fast, from 20.8% to 18.8%.
In
Washington, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, 17% of high
school sophomores surveyed in 2016 reported having used marijuana in
the previous month, down from 20% in 2010, according to the annual
Washington State Healthy Youth Survey.
Nationally, 7.2%
of teens reported using marijuana the previous month in 2014-15,
according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from that year.
The survey is the most recent one available from the federal Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Crime and public safety
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said she believes data collection is lagging everywhere in the marijuana industry.
As
the top law enforcement officer for the first state to legalize pot,
Coffman worries about small towns struggling with the effects of major
growing operations and marijuana users moving to big cities without jobs
or housing.
“Has
the sky fallen? No it hasn’t, but there has been a cultural change,"
she said. "We’ve seen it in small towns and big cities. ...
"I
would be pleased if it didn’t have a significant effect on crime, on
DUI, on kids. It would make me happy to be wrong," she said. "I live in
the world that sees the consequences.”
Dale
Mondary, a police chief in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. — a former Drug
Abuse Resistance Education officer now policing California's first
city to allow commercial marijuana growing operations — remains deeply
concerned about what will happen when people drive high.
First,
he fears they will cause crashes. And second, because marijuana
intoxication has no standard like blood-alcohol content for booze, he
fears that his officers will be spending more and more time in
courtrooms.
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration officials have said they believe drugs are increasingly a
factor in fatal crashes though more research is needed. In 2015, about 1
in 5 of more than 31,000 fatal crashes in the U.S. involved at least
one driver who tested positive for drugs — up from 12% in 2005.
A
separate federal study of 11,000 weekend, nighttime drivers found 15.1%
tested positive for illegal drugs in 2013 and 2014, up from 12.4% in
2007. Marijuana represented the largest increase: 12.6% tested positive
in 2013 and 2014, up from 8.6% in 2007.
Mondary also is worried about security at dispensaries and the persistence of the black market.
"I’m still very, very concerned about the recreational use. And frankly I’m opposed to the recreational use," he said.
But part of his job now is to protect the industry and its customers.
"If
the city is going to allow it, I need to make sure we keep that product
and our community just as absolutely safe as we can get it," he said.
Learning from other states
Mason Tvert,
a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project who
helped pass the Colorado law, believes concerns about marijuana are
overblown and said the vast majority of users consume it responsibly.
The
increasing acceptance of marijuana legalization reflects the reality
that marijuana is far safer than many other widely accepted drugs, from
prescription opiates like OxyContin to alcohol, he said.
“There’s
more use overall because people are recognizing that marijuana use is
not as harmful as they were led to believe,” Tvert said. Many police
officers have struggled to accept that voters have chosen to legalize
marijuana, and many skeptics' claims have proven false.
And
the war on drugs has brought innumerable negative consequences across
the country, particularly for minority communities, he said.
State
lawmakers are watching early adopters Colorado, Oregon and Washington,
John Hudak of the Brookings Institution said. Some states have sought to
preempt disconcerting trends, especially involving kids.
In
the months after legalization, Colorado saw a jump in the number of
children hospitalized for marijuana poisoning. The state later put new
packaging and labeling regulations in place.
Now
states such as Massachusetts, where lawmakers are crafting their own
recreational pot rules, are writing those kinds of regulations into the
laws before the first marijuana products get sold.
The
debate is no longer about whether marijuana legalization will
expand but what steps state legislators take to manage the risks that
can accompany the industry, Hudak said.
"The march toward reform is an obvious one,” he said.
One company's cannabis-based lube (and nationwide legal alternative) may elevate your O's to a whole other level.
By Lauren Mazzo
As
pot slowly becomes recreationally legal across the U.S. (eight states
and the District of Columbia have passed lax legislation so far, but
who's counting), ~weed fever~ seems to be taking the consumer
product-sphere by storm. Example A: Whoopi Goldberg's line of pot-infused period products. Example B: cannabis-infused pain relief creams. Example C: weed-infused wine (yes, really). The list goes on.
If
you've ever smoked pot and loved the repercussions for your love life
(read: between the sheets), you're not alone. About 67 percent of users
report that marijuana enhances their sex lives, according to one informal poll conducted by Psychology Today.
Researchers have also found that the use of a topical cannabis oil
resulted in an increased sexual response in women, according to a study done at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
That's why FORIA (the company behind the marijuana suppositories that promise to nix menstrual cramps)
decided to tap into the powers of the cannabis plant to (literally)
elevate the female sexual experience—without getting high from your head
to your toes. Their Foria Pleasure product (or "weed lube") is a liquid
coconut oil–based spray that contains purified pharmaceutical-grade
cannabis oil, designed to enhance women's sexual pleasure.
"We
weren't the first ones to think of this," says Mathew Gerson, cofounder
and wellness director of FORIA. "Cannabis has a 3,000-year-old
cross-cultural history of being used as an aid in the bedroom."
The
results: feelings of enhanced warmth, increased blood flow, tingling,
relaxation, and, quite possibly, your easiest or most intense O's ever.
And while Gerson originally developed the product as an enhancement
tool, it's also become a great option for all the women who have trouble
reaching climax, says Jennifer Berman, M.D., a urologist specializing in female sexual health and medicine.
(ICYMI, that estimate is close to 70 percent when it comes to traditional P-in-the-V intercourse.)
"As
of early 2014, there were more than 26 sexual enhancement products to
aid male sexual pleasure and zero options for women," says Gerson.
"Foria emerged to address this 'gender gap' in the sexual enhancement
space." Tackling the wage gender gap? Yas. Tackling the sexual gender gap? Double yas.
So how does weed lube work?
While the coconut oil base makes this a perfect lubricant, Foria Pleasure's main function isn't technically
as lube; the company recommends applying it as a pre-lubricant at least
15 to 30 minutes before climax (versus just to keep things moving
during intercourse). Then, you wait for the ~feels~ to kick in. Some
women report waiting up to an hour after application for the best
results. "This time period allows the active compounds of the medicine
to be activated and absorbed," according to Foria.
You can credit
two cannabinoid compounds for those extra intense feelings down low:
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is responsible for
the psychoactive effect of smoking or ingesting marijuana, while CBD is
non-psychoactive.
"When THC is applied topically, or vaginally,
it increases blood flow and nerve sensation, which is how it helps with
arousal and orgasm," says Dr. Berman. Foria Pleasure contains both
cannabinoids—but applying the THC won't actually get you high or make
you feel mentally altered or impaired in any way, she says. "But it does
help to enhance sensation arousal, lubrication, and orgasm in women."
Translation: You get the perks of a high hoo-ha, without the mental fog.
Weed not legal in your state? No worries.
Until now, people outside of weed-legal state lines haven't really been able to take advantage. Enter: Foria's latest product, Awaken,
a topical treatment designed to have a similar arousal- and
pleasure-boosting effect using hemp-derived CBD (which has no legal
limitations).
Although
a CBD-only lube doesn't seem quite as sexy as getting your vagina
stoned, it's actually quite useful in the health sphere. "Taken orally,
CBD is being used to treat things like seizures, depression,
Parkinson's, anxiety, and help with sleep," says Dr. Berman. Plus, it
has an anti-inflammatory effect, plays a part in the endorphin system
and in pain regulation, and increases blood flow (just like THC), she
says.
And you might be surprised to find out that CBD isn't all
that foreign to our bodies: "It's important to realize that our bodies
make CBD intrinsically," says Dr. Berman. "We have CBD receptors in the
cells in our bodies, so it is a natural, endogenously produced
chemical."
The effects of CBD in the Awaken lube are bolstered by
botanical products that are also associated with increased arousal and
touted as natural aphrodisiacs: kava root, cinnamon, ginger, cacao,
vanilla, and peppermint.
But are weed and CBD lubes safe?
Hell
yeah. "You can't do damage or harm to yourself using any of these
products topically as directed," says Dr. Berman. That being said, there
are a few small things to keep in mind.
1. Neither lube is latex compatible, meaning it's not safe to use with your usual condoms.
2.
Don't overdo it. "The thing about the Awaken is that it does have
cinnamon in it, so it can be irritating or cause a burning sensation in
some women if used in excess," says Dr. Berman.
And because Foria
Pleasure also helps to relax your muscles, if you spray too much on,
"you'll have sort of a dulled sensation and a decreased sexual
response," she says.
3. Be careful with oral. While the THC in
Foria Pleasure won't get your head high, ingesting it (through oral sex
or if you were to spray it in your mouth) might indeed have a
psychoactive effect
When
it’s summertime, what’s better than going to the beach? Smoking weed at
the beach, that’s what. Here are five ways to smoke weed at the beach.
By Ab Hanna
So you want to get high by the beach like Lana Del Rey in 2015?
Depending on where you’re at, that can cost you a fine or even jail
time. Even in states with legalized marijuana, public use remains
illegal. Unfortunately, you’ll find most beaches are public places. So
you’ll probably want to keep your weed use on the low unless you’re okay with the consequences. Here are a few ways to smoke weed at the beach without getting caught.
1. Single Hits Away From Strangers
Stick to the group you came with and find a place to chill away from
everybody else at the beach.
Set up far enough that no one can really
tell you’re rolling up, grinding, or smoking.
We’d avoid crowded beaches with families. If a parent catches you
smoking around their kid, they might flip their lid and call the cops.
The goal is to smoke
at the beach in peace. Is your beach is always crowded AF? Time to
start hiding in plain sight. We recommend using a cigarette-style one hitter.
Just pack it and take a hit when no one else is standing too close to you. You can also pack a bowl and smoke it one hit at a time. If it’s a sunny day bring a magnifying glass so you can spark your bowls without the use of butane.
Why Seniors Are Turning to Cannabis for Their Health Woes
More and more states are legalizing marijuana for medical
applications every year, in spite of the fact that the federal
government still classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug. People of all ages
are increasingly turning to cannabis to help treat their health care
woes. The most surprising demographic to take the step into medical
marijuana use is senior citizens. Here is a look at why some seniors
are turning to cannabis for their health over other treatment options.
Living Through the Drug Wars
Senior citizens have lived through multiple wars on drugs, from the
official “War on Drugs” in the 1980s to the “Just Say No” campaigns of
the 1990s. There may even be some still alive who remember Reefer Madness from
the 1930s. For many of them, this decades-long quest to quash any and
all drug use has colored their opinion of using medical marijuana. In
spite of this, many seniors are turning to cannabis for their health
needs, at least in states where it’s legal.
Improving Moods
Whether it’s due to declining health or simply because they’ve begun
to accept their own mortality, many seniors suffer from the symptoms of
clinical depression. Some may even believe it is a consequence of aging —
that depression is just part of getting old — but that couldn’t be
further from the truth, and it causes many suffering from these symptoms
to forgo treatment.
Cannabis has been successfully used to help treat depression, and
there are multiple ongoing studies looking into the short- and long-term
effects of cannabis for depression. One of the side effects of using
medical marijuana is that it tends to promote laughter — and laughter,
as they say, is the best medicine. In this case, that’s not just a
saying — laughter has been found to help improve health and increase
lifespan.
Encouraging Active Lifestyles
While it is true that some strains of marijuana contain levels of THC
and CBD that help you relax, other strains are bred for the feeling of
energy you get after smoking or eating them. These particular strains
can be a great tool for seniors to help them start and maintain an
active lifestyle even at their age.
Regular exercise — even just 10 to 15 minutes of light cardio or
strength training every day — has been found to help prevent the loss of
muscle mass that comes with age. In addition, it can help improve mood
by releasing endorphins into the body, improve mental health and
function and reduce the chance of the senior developing more serious
health risks later in life.
It is always important to talk to a doctor before starting any
exercise regimen, but many seniors are finding cannabis helps increase
their overall energy levels and makes them want to exercise again.
Improve Appetite
A common, but often dangerous, side effect of aging is that senior
patients frequently lose their appetite — reducing their food intake to
the point that they begin to lose weight. This could be due to anything
from depression to medication side effects to simply being unable to
prepare their own meals. Whatever the case, medical marijuana has become
a vital tool to help due to its tendency to increase the user’s
appetite.
Getting the munchies after smoking marijuana is a stereotype that, in
this case, could be useful. Cannabis both helps increase appetite and
reduce nausea — which is also why it’s so popular with patients
undergoing chemotherapy or using other medications that have side
effects like nausea or vomiting.
Reducing Drug Dependency
Many seniors are turning to cannabis for their health issues instead
of their prescription medication for one simple reason. In many cases,
medical marijuana offers better symptom control than prescription drugs,
without all the nasty side effects. In some cases, such as when the
individual lacks health insurance, cannabis can even be cheaper than
prescription medication.
This isn’t to suggest that medical marijuana is an alternative for
all prescription medications, especially for senior patients. Many of
them have simply started turning to cannabis as an alternative.
Prescription drug dependency is a problem across the country — opioid
pain killers, for example, are creating an epidemic of overdoses and
addiction. The United States consumes nearly 80 percent of the opioids
produced in the world, and elderly patients account for nearly 55
percent of prescription opioids in the country. This is leading to
increasing numbers of senior citizens who need some form of substance
abuse treatment. It’s estimated that by 2020, more than 4 million
seniors will require treatment for substance abuse — a number that’s
climbed nearly 260 percent since 2003.
Cannabis could also be used to help senior patients who are suffering
from withdrawal from prescription medication. The research on this use
of medical cannabis is still largely anecdotal, but it is possible to
use marijuana to both reduce the symptoms of withdrawal and decrease the
chance of relapse after the patient has made it through recovery. For
senior patients who are suffering from substance abuse after months or
years of prescription medication use, this could be an invaluable tool.
Medical marijuana is still considered a dangerous drug by the federal
government — it’s classified as Schedule 1, which puts it in the same
category as drugs like heroin and ecstasy. In spite of this federal
mandate, more and more states are legalizing marijuana use every year.
As the legalization spreads, we will likely hear about more reasons why
seniors are turning to cannabis for their health needs instead of
prescription medications for relief from glaucoma to cancer, and
everything in between.
The harm that biased marijuana enforcement has on Black, Latino, and low-income communities is real.
By Cat Packer
I went into law school thinking that I wanted to be a civil rights
attorney. As a black queer woman, I understood many of the social
injustices experienced by marginalized communities and wanted to use my
law degree to fight the many systems of oppression that plagued and
terrorized the communities that mattered to me. It wasn’t until my third
year of law school, that I that recognized current cannabis policies as
a legitimate social justice issue – particularly due to the way
marijuana prohibition is enforced.
In the United States, despite similar rates of consumption and sales across racial and ethnic lines, African Americans are 4x more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense.
According
to Michelle Alexander, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow,
“Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of
people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs.” During the
past two decades, this war, has been fueled largely by marijuana
arrests.
A 2010 ACLU report exposed
that almost half of all drug arrests were for marijuana and that 88% of
those arrests were for marijuana possession only.
For decades
police have targeted communities of color, using marijuana laws as their
legal excuse to stop, search, arrest, prosecute and criminalize Black
and Brown individuals while simultaneously and comparatively ignoring
the same conduct happening at similar rates in many white communities.
This is what is meant when folks say that the war on marijuana is a war
on communities of color.
This, however, should come as no surprise
as marijuana prohibition was racist from its inception.
Over 80 years
ago, America’s first Drug Czar, Harry Anslinger crusaded marijuana’s prohibition claiming
that black people and Latinos were the primary users of marijuana, and
that it made them forget their place in America’s society. The same
racial stereotypes and race mongering that allowed marijuana to be made
illegal are alive and well today.
Although more Americans than ever before want marijuana legalized,
communities of color continue to be disproportionately impacted by its
illegality. These disparities persist even in states that have made
reforms to cannabis policies through decriminalization, medical
legalization and adult use legalization. These continued disparities
further reinforce the ‘war on communities of color’ narrative.
As
long as there are penalties associated with marijuana use, and police
officers are able to continue to disproportionately enforce those
penalties without accountability, Black, Latino and low-income
communities will continue to be harmed by cannabis laws. And make no
mistake this harm is real.
In fact, the policing of communities of
color for marijuana offenses can be deadly. In July of 2016, St.
Anthony, Minnesota Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez killed Philando Castile
after Yanez allegedly feared for his life after Castile ‘had the
audacity to smoke marijuana’ in front of a 5-year-old child. Apparently
Castile’s second-hand marijuana smoke warranted death.
Furthermore, policing often haunts Black and Brown persons alleged to associate with cannabis even after their tragic deaths. Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and
countless other deaths have been further stigmatized by police and
media who seek to use past experiences with marijuana to convey
criminality and justify what can only rightfully be described as
injustice.
Even non-fatal encounters with police carry negative
impacts that can last a lifetime. The collateral consequences of a
marijuana offense and accompanying record affect eligibility for public
housing, student financial aid, employment opportunities, child custody
determinations and immigration status. Moreover the experiences that
Black and brown communities have with law enforcement officials
regarding cannabis have diminished faith in, and respect for the law and
those that disproportionately enforce it.
Communities of color
are long overdue for relief in this racially enforced war on drugs.
Those who care at all about Black and brown communities must too come to
realize that past, current and future cannabis policies are a social
justice issue and that the war on drugs and the policing of communities
of color, particularly for marijuana possession, must come to an end.
A
new study out of the Netherlands is proving to be the most accurate yet
on the effects of marijuana legalization and it has identified a
disturbing result: College students with access to marijuana on average
earn worse grades and fail classes at a higher rate.
Economists Olivier Marie and Ulf Zolitz studied the city of
Maastricht in the Netherlands. It's home to Maastricht University and
chose to change the rules for "cannabis cafes," barring non-citizens of
the Netherlands from buying from the cafes.
Maastricht is close to the borders of Belgium, France and Germany and
the drug tourism was proving difficult for the city to handle.
Because of the new rule, students attending Maastricht University
from neighboring countries were suddenly unable to access legal pot.
Meanwhile, students from the Netherlands continued to use it unhindered.
In their study, published in the Review of Economic Studies, found that out of more than 4,000 students, those who lost access to marijuana substantially improved their grades.
Those banned from the cannabis cafes had a more than five percent
increase in their odds of passing their classes. Those who were
performing the worst previously benefited the most from the ban--the
researchers noted this is especially significant because those students
were at the highest risk of dropping out.
The researchers attribute the results of their study to the cognitive
impairments that go hand-in-hand with marijuana usage (e.g., in
concentration and memory.)
Marijuana researcher Rosalie Pacula of RAND Corporation told The Washington Post that the Maastricht study provides better evidence against legalizing marijuana than any study done in the U.S..
According to Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at Stanford University, this new research, "provides highly
credible evidence that marijuana legalization will lead to decreased
academic success--perhaps particularly so for struggling students."
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General John Kelly, Donald Trump's pick for chief of staff.
Wiki Commons
After yesterday's "resignation" of Reince Priebus,
U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed General John Kelly as the
White House's new chief of staff.
This puts yet another politician
who happens to be vocally opposed to marijuana at the right hand (and
ear) of Trump, something cannabis users in America are already concerned
with thanks to a certain attorney general who is determined to revive
the war on drugs.
In his previous position as the secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kelly made his stance on
cannabis known to Americans back in April, when he spoke about threats
to the United States at a forum at George Washington University.
"Let
me be clear about marijuana: it is a potentially dangerous gateway drug
that when frequently used, leads to the use of harder drugs," he said.
"It's
use and possession is against federal law, and until the law is changed
by the United States Congress, we in DHS along with the rest of the
federal government, are sworn to uphold all the laws that are on the
books."
Kelly also made comments about Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, noting that the body "will continue to use marijuana
possession, distribution, and convictions as essential elements as they
build their deportation, removal, apprehension packages for targeted
operations against illegal aliens living in the United States."
Combined
with Jeff Sessions' determination to reexamine Obama administration
policies that allowed states to legalize cannabis, and Donald Trump's
disdain for "illegal aliens", will Kelly's attitude have the potential
to bring cannabis prohibition and Sessions' new war on drugs to the
forefront?
Uruguayan citizens can now legally buy marijuana at their local pharmacies. (Photo: @Doug88888)
Jeff Sessions reportedly has his eye on suppressing the growing
movement in states to legalize the medical and personal use of
marijuana. In fact, the Drug Policy Alliance, a national organization
promoting enlightened policies on drug use, reported in a news release yesterday:
[T]he Senate Appropriations Committee
voted by voice vote to approve an amendment that would block the
Department of Justice from spending any funds to undermine state medical
marijuana laws. The amendment – led by Senator Leahy (D-VT) – is a
striking rebuke of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had personally requested
that Congress eliminate the amendment and allow him to prosecute
medical marijuana providers and patients.
The amendment passed with
strong Republican support, a sign that Sessions is isolated politically
as rumors of a crackdown on marijuana businesses abound.
The Hill reported last week that "the Trump administration is readying for a crackdown on marijuana users under Attorney General Jeff Sessions."
Sessions personally favors a cruel prison-industrial complex response
to drug use, reversing the slow Obama administration trend toward toward
accepting the decriminalization of marijuana and decreasing the number
of people imprisoned for drug use in general.
The attorney general is an ardent supporter of the ruinous
decades-long war on drugs, which has resulted in innumerable destroyed
lives in the US. The militarization of the so-called war has also led to
the deaths of untold numbers of people in Mexico and Latin America.
However, many countries continue to move away from war-on-drugs
politics. Contrast the Trump Department of Justice's return to failed
anti-drug policies with what occurred in Uruguay this week. It became
the first nation in the world to begin the countrywide retail sale of
marijuana on July 19.
According to the HuffPo,
[Last] Wednesday, Uruguay began sales of legal marijuana for adult residents....
Uruguay’s model will look quite different
from the eight U.S. states that have legalized marijuana. Since there
is no one-size-fits-all marijuana legalization system, it’s important
for each jurisdiction to tailor marijuana regulation to their local
needs and contexts, providing the world with different models to learn
from.
The Uruguayan model allows four forms of
access to marijuana: medical marijuana through the Ministry of Public
Health; domestic cultivation of up to six plants per household;
membership clubs where up to 45 members can collectively produce up to
99 plants; and licensed sale in pharmacies to adult residents.
Regulation will be overseen by the government’s Institute for the
Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA).
The Drug Policy Alliance took note. Hannah Hetzer, the senior international policy manager at the Alliance, said in a press statement:
This is a historic moment. In recent
years, Latin American leaders have decried the staggering human,
environmental and financial costs of the war on drugs in their region.
Uruguay is boldly demonstrating that concrete alternatives to failed
prohibitionist policies are possible.
The Alliance also commented on the status of forms of marijuana legalization in other countries,
Marijuana reform
gained remarkable momentum throughout the hemisphere in recent years.
Twenty-nine U.S. states have legalized medical marijuana, while eight
states and Washington D.C. have legalized marijuana more broadly. Jamaica decriminalized marijuana for medical, scientific and religious purposes; Colombia and Puerto Rico legalized medical marijuana through executive orders; Chile allows for marijuana cultivation for oncology patients; Mexico
recently passed a medical marijuana bill a year after their Supreme
Court ruled that prohibition of marijuana for personal consumption is
unconstitutional; and Canada is set to become the next country to fully legalize marijuana.
Flowing against this tide is Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration. BuzzFlash first reported
on the Uruguayan legalization of pot when the parliament passed the
legislation legalizing marijuana in 2013. I noted then that it is 5,200
air miles between Washington, DC and Montevideo, Uruguay, but that the
separation on national policies toward pot is a whole lot wider. That is
even truer today, unfortunately. The Trump administration, including
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, appear predisposed to
view marijuana use as a crime to be prosecuted. This perspective --
prosecution and punishment instead of controlled use and rehabilitation
-- applies to illegal drug use in general.
The only hope is that a
pending DOJ task force study due out soon will conclude that marijuana
use is not associated with increasing crime, as Sessions has personally contended.
The US already has the largest prison population in the world, yet we
are now saddled with an executive branch that is determined to boost
the size of the prison-industrial complex and pursue more failed
policies. The damage done by this approach does direct harm to people,
particularly people of color, while many others financially benefit from
the growth of the mass-incarceration industry.
In an article about the commencement of retail marijuana sales in Uruguay, The New York Times notes,
The government limits how much people can
buy each week. And in an effort to undercut drug traffickers, it is
setting the price below black market rates, charging roughly $13 dollars
for 10 grams, enough for about
15 joints, advocates say. The law also bars advertising and sets aside a
percentage of proceeds from commercial sales to pay for addiction
treatment and public awareness campaigns about the risks of drug use.
“These are measures designed to help
people who are already users without encouraging others who don’t
consume,” said Alejandro Antalich, the vice president of the Center of
Pharmacies in Uruguay, an industry group. “If this works as planned,
other countries could adopt it as a model.”
In an ideal world, the law now being implemented in Uruguay would
serve as a model for the United States. It is practical and passes the
test of common sense. Unfortunately, while Uruguay moves forward on pot
policy, those who oversee federal policy in Washington, DC appear to
want to row backwards.
Massachusetts
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has signed a new measure that sets in motion a
nearly yearlong process to legalize marijuana for recreational use,
after months of negotiations with the state legislature.
The law
comes nine months after voters in Massachusetts and three other states
approved ballot measures to allow recreational marijuana. The first
recreational pot shops are set to open in July 2018.
“We
appreciate the careful consideration the legislature took to balance
input from lawmakers, educators, public safety officials and public
health professionals, while honoring the will of the voters regarding
the adult use of marijuana,” Baker said in a statement.
The
new legislation makes significant changes to the initiative Bay State
voters passed last year, increasing sales taxes on legal marijuana from
12 percent to 20 percent. The state will levy a 17 percent tax, while
municipalities will issue their own 3 percent tax.
Massachusetts
anticipates generating as much as $83 million in tax revenue from
marijuana sales during the first year of legalization alone, the state
Department of Revenue estimated earlier this year. Sales during the
second year are expected to top out at more than $1 billion, generating
tax revenue of up to $200 million.
Question 4 won approval from
nearly 54 percent of Massachusetts voters last year. In a
first-of-its-kind provision, local governments in cities and towns that
voted against the ballot measure will be allowed to ban marijuana
stores. In cities and towns where Question 4 passed, any bans on
marijuana stores must be approved by voters.
Baker, Massachusetts
Attorney General Maura Healey (D) and state Treasurer Deb Goldberg (D)
must now appoint five members each to a state cannabis advisory board by
Aug. 1. They have another month, until Sept. 1, to appoint members of
the Cannabis Control Commission, the board tasked with writing rules and
regulations for the legal marijuana industry.
The new law gives
the commission until March to issue those regulations, covering
everything from public advertising to cultivation, manufacturing,
testing and sales of edible marijuana products.
Recreational pot
shops may begin applying for licenses by April, and the first licenses
will be issued in June, just weeks before the first stores are set to
open.
Legal marijuana backers said they hope for a speedy regulatory process and an absence of further delays.
“We
take elected officials at their word that there will be no more delays
in implementation of the legal sales system,” said Jim Borghesani, a
spokesman for the Question 4 campaign.
The other three states that
passed recreational marijuana laws last year have moved faster than
Massachusetts to set up their own legal frameworks. Pot sales became
legal in Nevada last month, just seven months after voters approved a
ballot measure last year. California plans to allow its first
recreational sales in January 2018, while the first pot shops in Maine
will open in February.
Marijuana is already legal for recreational use in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia.
When it comes to cognitive benefits, cannabis is a bit of a mixed bag, with various studies concluding that it’s either good or bad in this regard. A new study, published in the Review of Economic Studies, comes down on the latter side thanks to a rather novel experiment.
After observing 4,000 students lose or retain access to
marijuana at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, they found that,
on average, those that partook in a little doobie or two earn worse
grades and fail courses at a far higher rate than those that don’t.
As reported by the Washington Post, the experiment, rather curiously, set itself up.
Maastricht is close to the border of Belgium, France, and
Germany, and many tourists come over the border to sample varieties of
weed before popping off home again. Authorities decided the influx of
pot tourists was too high, and they barred noncitizens of the
Netherlands from purchasing or using weed from the city’s range of
coffeeshops.
This means that students at the university who were
residents of the Netherlands could still buy and use weed for
recreational purposes, but other students could not. Not able to resist
taking advantage of this, a pair of economists from the Behavior and
Inequality Research Institute in Bonn and the Erasmus University of
Rotterdam decided to track students’ grades.
They found that those who lost access to the coffeeshops
showed at least a 5 percent extra chance of passing their classes, on
average. Students who were female, usually underperforming, or younger
showed an even greater benefit from not using cannabis compared to other
groups.
“We find that performance gains are larger for courses that
require more numerical/mathematical skills,” the researchers note in
their study.
They argue that it’s likely that the well-documented effects
of cannabis on most individuals – including difficultly consolidating
memories and an impairment of problem-solving capabilities – are key
here. Although this is correlation and not necessarily causation, it
seems that by having access to weed, students suffer academically.
Some
may see this as a good argument for a ban on the drug, but things are
more complicated than that, both scientifically and politically.
First off, it’s worth pointing out that alcohol is a far more widespread, accessible, and dangerous drug
that endangers the lives and welfare of users and those around them.
Cannabis certainly seems to dent academic performance, but we’d bet that
alcohol has a far more profound effect.
Secondly, banning a drug is widely seen as a way to empower
the black market and criminal elements. Prohibition is clearly
ineffective as a way to stop people getting their hands on drugs.
Perhaps better public education on drugs throughout university life would be the better option.
Last Tuesday, Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB 640, a marijuana
decriminalization bill that will reduce penalties for marijuana
possession. The new law, which will take effect on August 18, diminishes
the penalty for possessing three quarters of an ounce or less of
marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to a fineable civil violation. The
bill passed on March 8 with a vote of 318-36 in the New Hampshire House
of Representatives.
Julia Griffin, Hanover’s town manager, cites
censure from police chiefs and public safety agents as a reason to
oppose the bill. The main opposition towards this policy change is that
it may lead to an increase in the use of marijuana and other drugs, she
said.
“In general, municipalities and state departments are not
eager to see the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana because
of the belief that marijuana is a gateway drug and can lead to heavier
usage of other drugs,” Griffin said.
Patrick Murphy, the director of research and senior fellow
at the Public Policy Institute of California, observed a similar trend
after the initial decriminalization of marijuana in California.
“By all accounts, use went up,” Murphy said.
He added that while the total consumption of marijuana increased,
research is unclear on the law’s impact on individual consumption of
marijuana.
Murphy additionally said he observed a decrease in incarceration
rates following the policy change.
Jason Sorens, a professor of
government at Dartmouth, said he expects an analogous outcome in New
Hampshire.
“Because the smell of marijuana alone will no longer be
probable cause for search, arrests for other drug-related offenses
should also abate,” Sorens said.
He further predicted a decline in state expenditures due to fewer law enforcements.
The decriminalization policy is expected to increase demand for
marijuana, in part due to a shift away from alcohol usage. This
substitution may result in a slight revenue loss for the state of New
Hampshire, but an increase in the price of marijuana both on and off the
black market.
Sorens explains that decriminalization will not have a
negative effect on the demand for marijuana on the black market.
“If lawmakers wanted to remove the black market, decriminalization does
not help with that — only legalization will,” Sorens said.
However, Murphy sees a potential positive effect from substituting marijuana for alcohol.
“If legalization means a lot of people who currently consume alcohol
transition to marijuana, we might be doing better for society,” Murphy
said, regarding the lower risk level of marijuana to alcohol
consumption. He notes that if legalization results in a combination of
alcohol and marijuana usage, there could be a net loss to society.
The long-run political ramifications of the policy change are still
uncertain, Sorens said. Historically, Republicans such as Sununu have
been nearly as likely as Democrats to pass marijuana decriminalization
bills in New Hampshire; however, legalization bills tend to be opposed
by Republicans in the Senate. Both Murphy and Sorens said that
decriminalization does seem to be tied with legalization in the long run
and that recreational legalization of marijuana will happen eventually.
“There’s a roughly 2-1 support for legalization and regulation of marijuana in New Hampshire,” Sorens said.
Marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts and Maine through the
Marijuana Legalization Initiative, a process commissioning the use,
cultivation and possession of recreational marijuana. Sorens said the
legalization will increase state revenues for Massachusetts and Maine.
He added that New Hampshire lawmakers may be concerned by the potential
loss of revenue if they don’t vote for legalization.
However,
though the trend across states has been towards legalization, no state
has yet to do so through the legislative process. Because New Hampshire
does not have a citizen’s ballot initiative, it is unlikely that the
state will legalize marijuana in the next couple of years, Sorens said.
Last month in Vermont, the House voted against a legalization bill
after it passed in the Assembly and Senate. Gov. Phil Scott sent the
bill back to legislators to request stronger protections against
impaired driving and underage access to marijuana. Murphy believes that
Vermont has high incentive to legalize.
“On a population basis,
Vermont is the largest marijuana consuming state in the nation, and has a
strong desire to work towards legalization,” Murphy said.
Whether or not legalization of marijuana is in the future, the most
important responsibility is working towards efficient regulative
measures, particularly because there are have been no definitive studies
on the ramifications of marijuana usage, Murphy said.
Murphy recognizes the challenges in regulation after legalization.
“Locally, we find conflicting viewpoints between political parties
about taxation and growing marijuana for recreational purposes,” he said
of California’s statewide public referendum.
