Seminar warns of legal-marijuana dangers

Photo by Jake West/New Jersey Herald - Nick Loizzi, alcoholism and substance abuse services coordinator for Sussex County's Department of Health and Human Services, discusses the proposed law to legalize recreational marijuana. 

 

By Bruce A. Scruton 

SPARTA -- At a glance, the packages look authentic.

At second glance, the names are off slightly: Cap'n Chronic; bear-shaped candies; Pot Tarts; Best Buds, a kind of chewing gum.

Tina Aue and Ashley Brown, with The Center for Prevention and Counseling, and Nick Loizzi, alcoholism and substance abuse services coordinator for Sussex County's Department of Health and Human Services, appeared at a meeting of the Sussex County League of Municipalities last week to talk about the proposed law legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana in New Jersey.

"It's not necessary to roll a joint anymore," said Aue, who has been with the center for more than 16 years, as she showed a slide of packages of mimic products that she said were already being sold.

Also on the slide were lollipops and sodas infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the intoxicating component of marijuana.

In her hand, Aue held a device about half the size of a drinking straw. Called a vape or dap pen, it is designed to hold a special concentration of THC -- up to 95 percent pure -- which can be inhaled directly.

"No smoke, no fumes, nothing on your breath, it's nearly undetectable," she said as she slipped it into a side pocket.

Aue said the "pot" that people smoked in the 1990s was 3-5 percent THC. Selective breeding of plants, she said, now produces marijuana as high as 30 percent concentration in the flower part of the plant, also known as buds.

Among edible projects, such as gummy bears and gum, percentages go to 60-90 percent, she said.

A Google search of Cap'n Chronic does not turn up any edible products, only graphics that appear on T-shirts and as stickers.

Pot Tarts appear to have been made by a California company that was raided in 2006 and put out of business. That company also made other sound- and look-similar candies.

But other products are still on the market that are infused with THC and could be confused by children with products meant for them.

Federal and state authorities have conducted raids and closed down companies making look-alikes. 

And even though the federal government is taking it easy, possession of marijuana is still a federal crime, under a law enacted by Congress in the late 1930s.

Currently, 10 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the sale of marijuana, although in Vermont the legislation does not allow sales, but does allow people to grow their own for personal use.

Medical use of marijuana has been approved in 33 states, which accounts for the variety of edible products with higher concentrations of THC. It is easier, and more potent, for a patient to suck on a lollipop or chew a gummy bear than to smoke several joints.

At Thursday's meeting, Aue said the concern is that should New Jersey legalize marijuana, "the use is going to go up; it will be more acceptable and more accessible."

And, she stressed, "Marijuana is an addictive drug."

Brown talked about the very real chances of use going up among teens and even pre-teens. She used the Center's surveys of Sussex County students as an example.

She said the latest survey showed 60 percent of 12th-graders believed marijuana was not harmful, and among high school students surveyed, nearly 30 percent said that there was a "good chance" that smoking marijuana would be seen as "cool."

Twelve percent of 10th-graders had smoked pot in the 30 days prior to answering the survey, a 68 percent increase over the 7 percent from the 2015 survey.

Loizzi went into the proposed law in New Jersey, which, if passed in its current form, would wipe out individual municipal ordinances.

Some municipalities in the county have passed resolutions against the law. Others have approved ordinances that set aside areas where the plants can be grown, and others have taken a wait-and-see stance.

The law would allow localities to pass new ordinances within the first 180 days of the law becoming effective, but if nothing is done in that time, it would ban new ordinances for five years.

Hardyston Police Chief Bret Alemy, who attended the meeting, said on Friday he has concerns about enforcement, especially among drivers on highways.

Currently, there is no state-approved roadside test available to confirm an officer's observations that a driver is impaired by marijuana. Unless a person is physically smoking a joint, there is no smell on the person's breath.

With alcohol, a state standard of .08 percent blood alcohol is the quantified standard for intoxication.

Special training is needed to become a drug recognition expert, and even a blood test would need to be sent to a specialized lab for analysis.

"And again, there are no standards to prove impairment," Alemy said.

Physiologically, THC is absorbed into the body through fat, while alcohol is absorbed through liquid.

Compared to alcohol, the ability to charge someone with impairment through marijuana "is very, very limited," Alemy said.

He said with more states legalizing the drug, technology will catch up, just as breath analyzers caught up to driving while intoxicated on alcohol.

"What's the rush?" he said, adding he preferred a period of de-criminalization for marijuana use

Sparta Mayor Christine Quinn, president of the league, said in her council's view, "It doesn't do any good for Sparta to say ‘No' but others around us say ‘Yes.'"

She said that if the state Legislature's vote is put off, it has been suggested that the League approach the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders about putting a county-wide, non-binding referendum on this November's ballot to gauge voters opinion on legalization.