Mexico considers decriminalizing marijuana – thanks to U.S. example

By Gardenia Mendoza

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  (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) (2014 Getty Images)

For the last couple of years, Mexican legislator Fernando Belaunzarán has watched as millions of Americans in 24 states across the country have approved the legal use of marijuana – mostly as medicine but also for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

As a deputy in the Congress, Belaunzarán has tried to get Mexico to do the same, but the country has stuck to laws banning the drug, although millions of tons of it is harvested in the country every year.

Only in recent months has the topic of legalization been taken up in earnest, discussed in courtrooms, in the corridors of power and in the mainstream media.

"We should have taken up [legalization] a while ago," Belaunzarán told Fox News Latino. "Now we've done it poorly and late, while over [in the U.S.], there's already an industry, companies that even send marijuana to this country through our porous border."

He also said, “In Mexico the politicians are cowards, and, even now, they accepted the debate only … because they had no other choice with the legalizations in the United States.”

Mexico outlawed the cultivation of marijuana in the 1940s, bowing to pressure from the United States, and, since then, the Mexican black market for the drug has only grown, empowering the country's already mighty criminal organizations.

Belauzarán was one of the first Mexican legislators to bring back the legalization  debate. For him, it was an imperative brought about by the country's fight against drug cartels, which since 2006 has left some 53,000 dead, more than 26,000 disappeared and an unknown number displaced.

Another legislator, Elsa Conde, has also tried to legalize the industrial production of hemp – a fibre derived from marijuana plants that can be used commercially in the production of rope, clothing and construction material.

Like Belauzarán’s proposals, however, Conde has been frustrated by a lack of cooperation from her fellow federal deputies.

Despite that, the fight for marijuana legalization in Mexico is gaining steam, with ordinary citizens taking up the fight to try to force authorities to accept cannabis use.

Raúl Elizalde, father of an epileptic 8-year-old girl, Graciela, convinced a federal judge last month that his daughter needed medical marijuana to treat her condition.

It's now imported from California at $250 per dose.

Another case was brought by the founders of the group Josefina Ricaño, Armando Santacruz and Juan Francisco Torres and has reached the country's Supreme Court, where justices next week will discuss the right to grow, consume and transport pot for personal consumption.

"What's at stake is the individual liberty of people," said Justice Arturo Zaldívar, author of the opinion that, if approved by the rest of the justices, would set a precedent in Mexico for the legalization of pot, despite the opposition of many in the highest levels of government.

"We don't want to turn ‘Chapo’ Guzmán into an entrepreneur," said Arturo Escobar y Vega, the subsecretary of the Interior Ministry, in a recent interview with the newspaper, El Universal, when he was asked about possible legalization.

Other powerful opponents include the Secretary of Health, Mercedes Juan, and President Enrique Peña Nieto himself, who was waiting to take over the presidency in November 2012 when Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to vote to legalize recreational use of marijuana.

Luis Videgaray, the chief of Peña Nieto’s transition team at the time, pointed out that the votes complicated matters for the Mexican government.

"Obviously we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status," Videgaray told reporters [http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/11/08/legalization-marijuana-in-two-us-states-forces-review-pot-fight-in-mexico/]. "I believe this obliges us to think the relationship in regards to security ... This is an unforeseen element."

Among the official arguments against legalization, opponents point out that Mexico has signed a number of international treaties pledging to fight the trade in marijuana and other illegal drugs – treaties that have been ignored by states in Mexico's northern neighbor.

Leopoldo Rivera – editor of the Mexican magazine Hemp, which launched in May and is already under investigation by officials for "inciting consumption" – told FNL, "We should do the same as Washington and Colorado, which haven't taken into account international treaties. They said, 'We live here, and we want this for ourselves.'"

I Used Pot for Morning Sickness

Photo Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast

Some doctors believe moms with a debilitating pregnancy complication could get relief from smoking pot, but it's not as simple as that.

In early January 2015, Trinity Dogood started vomiting and couldn’t stop.

“I thought I had food poisoning or an awful stomach bug,” Dogood said. But after three days, the vomiting still hadn’t subsided, and Trinity found herself in the ER of a local hospital, begging for relief.

When the triage nurse took her blood for testing, they discovered she was pregnant.

“I was shocked,” Dogood said. The pregnancy was wanted, but unintentional. Doctors released Dogood and advised her to take more vitamin D and spend some time outside to treat what they thought was standard morning sickness.

“I didn’t get much medical advice other than that,” Dogood said.

After two more weeks of continuous vomiting, it became clear to Dogood that what she had wasn’t run-of-the-mill morning sickness.

“At one point,” Dogood said, “I had my sea bands on, I had peppermint oil on my stomach and lemon oil in my nose. I was eating a ginger chew and I still threw up.” Fearing an adverse effect on the baby, Dogood refused any prescription meds for the first trimester, including Zofran, which is sometimes prescribed for pregnant patients with severe nausea. Zofran is labeled as a Category B drug by the Food and Drug Administration, meaning that there is no research that can conclusively prove it is safe for fetuses. For this reason, Dogood “wanted to hold out until the second trimester [for Zofran].”

As Dogood researched natural remedies for morning sickness, she discovered a rare complication of pregnancy called Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), which is diagnosed in one to three percent of pregnancies—an underestimate, according to HelpHer.org. HG is characterized by severe and unrelenting nausea and vomiting, extreme dehydration, weight loss, and even fetal demise. Physically and psychologically, the effects can be devastating. Some women have opted for termination, even in wanted pregnancies, because the symptoms are often so severe.

Dogood’s symptoms fit the bill for HG perfectly. “I woke up every day around 4 or 5 a.m., like clockwork, just puking,” Dogood said. In the beginning, Dogood vomited “upwards of 30 times per day” and was barely able to care for her older children. “I would just lie around,” she said. “I only got up to change a diaper or puke.”

Miserable, non-functioning, and terrified of Zofran, Dogood decided to give medical marijuana a try.In 23 states, including Dogood’s home state of Arizona, marijuana is recognized for its medical benefit and can legally be prescribed to patients by doctors. According to 24/7 Wall St., 11 more states have taken steps to decriminalize marijuana and will likely legalize it, either for recreational or medical purposes, in the near future.

But for pregnant women, getting legal marijuana is a different beast altogether. Even in states where medical marijuana is legal, such as Arizona, physicians must sign off on a medical marijuana license—and most refuse when the patient is pregnant.

Some women have opted for termination, even in wanted pregnancies, because the symptoms are often so severe.

Perhaps this isn’t surprising. The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists (ACOG) has repeatedly warned against using marijuana in pregnancy, citing insufficient data to determine any harmful side effects. “In the absence of data,” ACOG states, “marijuana use is discouraged.”

In some states, pregnant women can even be arrested for marijuana use, in violation of so-called “Chemical Endangerment Laws” that are swiftly gaining popularity.

In 2014, when the state of Tennessee passed a chemical endangerment law, 28 women were arrested within the first six months of its enactment. According to AI.com and ProPublica, marijuana was the drug most listed in the arrest affidavits. Due to the high rate of arrest, the ACOG released a joint statement in June 2015 stating that although marijuana use is not recommended during pregnancy, women who decide to smoke should not be treated punitively. “Drug enforcement policies that deter women from seeking prenatal care are contrary to the welfare of the mother and fetus,” the statement reads.

Dr. Anthony Anzalone, a general practitioner from New Jersey, agrees that marijuana could be potentially risky for the fetus. But, he says, the risks of untreated HG could be even more harmful.

“I did obstetrics for 25 years,” said Anzalone. “On a scale from one to 10 [in terms of severity], Hyperemesis Gravidarum is off the charts.” In Anzalone’s clinical experience, “Hyperemesis creates a lot of problems,” ranging from severe weight loss to electrolyte imbalances, and worse. For such a severe condition, Anzalone says, “marijuana would help tremendously.”

Anzalone is currently one of the few physicians who oversee the New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. He makes recommendations to the state for which of his patients should qualify for medical marijuana. When the state issues them a marijuana license, the patients visit Anzalone in conjunction with their own physician to decide what kind and what amount of medical marijuana best suits their need. New Jersey’s program is similar to the one Arizona runs—but unlike many physicians in Arizona, Anzalone is one of the few that would prescribe MMJ to pregnant women, if he could.

“We don’t prescribe it to pregnant women because of malpractice lawsuits,” he said. “If something were to happen to the fetus, [people] would try to blame it on the marijuana.”

But Anzalone is convinced that medical marijuana would benefit pregnant women with Hyperemesis, and fully advocates for its use in pregnancy—as long as it’s tightly regulated and managed responsibly.

“The problem comes when you buy it off the street,” Anzalone said. “It can be very dangerous when it’s used recreationally because you never know what’s in it.”

But through environmental changes like moisture and cross-breeding, Anzalone said, centers could grow medical marijuana with a low amount of THC, meaning that it would be therapeutic for the patient but not incredibly potent. “If you keep the psychoactive component to a low amount, you don’t need a lot,” said Anzalone. And a small amount of marijuana could make a huge difference.

“You have to weigh the risks and benefits,” Anzalone said. “I think it would save a lot of medical needs and hospital visits. It would save a lot of money. You can control vomiting and weight loss. And then when the patient is stable and out of the hospital, they can stop [using].”

Eight weeks into her pregnancy, Dogood was desperate to control the vomiting. One night, Dogood’s boyfriend came home to find her “laying on the couch, in tears, vomiting up stomach acid.” Crawling off the couch, still retching into a bucket, Dogood followed her boyfriend outside onto the porch where he produced marijuana for them to smoke together in the hopes that it would stop the vomiting. “I couldn’t stop heaving long enough to take a hit from the pipe, so he took a hit and blew it into my face,” Dogood said.

Within 30 seconds, she had stopped retching.

“I started to sob,” Dogood recalled, and within minutes was able to take hits from the pipe herself. Slowly, Dogood recognized a familiar sensation, one she hadn’t felt in weeks—hunger. Cautiously, she tried a slice of pizza...and then quickly wolfed down another. And another.

She kept all three slices down, the most she had eaten in months. “I was so excited. I was so relieved not to be puking. I knew all I needed to do was find a doctor [who could prescribe marijuana] during pregnancy and I’d be all set.”

But finding a doctor on board with Trinity’s treatment plan ended up being harder than she anticipated. When Dogood met with an OB at 18 weeks gestation and was upfront about her usage, the OB informed Dogood that she would be reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) when the baby was born. Dogood was devastated. “I was petrified that they were going to take all of my children, not just my new baby,” she said.

In order to test clean and avoid CPS at the hospital, Dogood decided to quit marijuana at 36 weeks and power through the rest of the pregnancy on Zofran alone. “I spent the last month of pregnancy begging for someone to kill me,” Trinity said. “I begged for it to be over. I begged [my boyfriend] to cut [the baby] out of me.” Trinity counted the minutes until her scheduled C-section—literally. “When I was bent over my trash can heaving up stomach acid, in tears...I would stare at the clock and watch the seconds just fall away.”

In late September 2015, after nine continuous months of sickness, Dogood delivered her “perfect” daughter by planned cesarean section. Dogood tested negative for marijuana—but the baby tested positive. CPS was called immediately.

“I was shaking,” Dogood said, when doctors informed her that CPS was on the way. “And my chest was hurting from anxiety.”

When a CPS worker finally showed, Dogood was questioned for over an hour. Terrified CPS would take the baby, Dogood refused to let anybody else hold the baby for the entirety of their visit. “She never left my sight.” CPS ended the visit amicably, but promised future visits to Trinity’s house and interviews with her older children.

Dogood’s nightmare with Hyperemesis Gravidarum is finally over, but her nightmare with Child Protective Services has just begun. Having already endured a second CPS visit at her home, Dogood’s family is now waiting for the agency to process their hair samples. If the family tests clean for marijuana, Dogood says, the case will be closed.

Regarding her drug use, Dogood doesn’t regret her choice. “I’m convinced it would have been much worse if I hadn’t [smoked],” she said. Dogood does, however, look forward to the day her family is no longer under scrutiny. “CPS scares me to death,” she said.

In the meantime, Dogood and her family will love on the new baby—and wait.

Cannabis ‘can delay onset of diabetes’

• 
  Debbie Jones, of Bermuda Diabetes Association
  

Sarah Lagan
Pharmacist and university lecturer Dr Marcia Williams made a presentation highlighting studies that suggest cannabis can reduce the risk of contracting diabetes.

Dr Williams, who was invited to the Island to give a presentation at the Bermuda College by the Bermuda Pharmaceutical Association during Pharmacy Week, is a lecturer at the University of Technology in Jamaica and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutics from Queen’s University in Belfast.

During her presentation, titled Cannabis Sativa — Recent Developments and Implications, she focused on a joint study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston. While it was published in 2013, it was not publicly reported on in Bermuda, which has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

Legislation was passed at the end of last year allowing the use of cannabis-derived medicines but not cannabis itself.

Diabetes mellitus is a group of autoimmune diseases characterised by defects in insulin secretion resulting in abnormally high concentrations of glucose in the blood. It can eventually lead to blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, hardening of the arteries and death.

Those diagnosed with type 1 diabetes can not produce pancreatic insulin while those with type 2 diabetes, which can be controlled by diet, produces inadequate amounts of insulin.

The researchers in the study assessed the relationship between marijuana use and fasting insulin, glucose, and insulin resistance in a sample of 4,657 male subjects. They concluded that those who reported using marijuana over the past month had lower levels of fasting insulin and insulin resistance, as well as smaller waist circumference and higher levels of HDL-C high-density lipoprotein or “good” cholesterol.

The report said: “These associations were attenuated among those who reported using marijuana at least once, but not in the past 30 days, suggesting that the impact of marijuana use on insulin and insulin resistance exists during periods of recent use.”

The results of the study were published in the American Journal of Medicine which reported: “These are indeed remarkable observations that are supported, as the authors note, by basic science experiments that came to similar conclusions. We desperately need a great deal more basic and clinical research into the short- and long-term effects of marijuana in a variety of clinical settings such as cancer, diabetes, and frailty of the elderly. I would like to call on the National Institutes of Health and the Division of Extramural Activities to collaborate in developing policies to implement solid scientific investigations that would lead to information assisting physicians in the proper use and prescription of THC in its synthetic or herbal form.”

Dr Williams told The Royal Gazette: “They found that users did not develop diabetes and that it can delay the onset of the disease. One effect is to lower sugar levels. The studies that have been done have shown that it slows the effects of diabetes and the complications you get with it — the neuropathy — diabetes effects your nerves so you get that tingling feeling and sometimes you don’t have any feeling in your extremities.

“This is a study that I am planning to reproduce in Jamaica and see if it correlates with what is happening in the Caribbean.”

Dr Williams went as far as to say that Bermuda should consider changing the law to allow for the use of medical marijuana.

“The direction for Bermuda is probably to allow persons to have medical use with standardised products. It has to be approved and from a reputable company that has shown it says what it says it does and contains what it is said to contain.”

Debbie Jones, of the Bermuda Diabetes Association, said: “It is becoming recognised that marijuana appears to have some real metabolic benefits in respect of diabetes.”

Referring to those in the study who used marijuana, she continued: “That subgroup had better fasting blood glucose levels, lowered waist circumference and improvement in insulin resistance. Current marijuana use in these subjects saw 16 per cent lower fasting insulin levels and 17 per cent lower HOMA-IR (Insulin resistance).

“Marijuana affects areas of the brain called the cannabinoid receptors. These receptors play a role in appetite and metabolism.

“A drug called rimonabant was developed to affect these same receptors but in a slightly different way than marijuana. Rimonabant was effective in lowering weight and reducing blood glucose levels.

“However, rimonabant had psychiatric side effects and was removed from the market. It actually had never been approved for the US market.

“So researchers at Harvard who were involved in the study published in the AJM concluded that marijuana has an intriguing role to play and suggested more research be done on its beneficial effects in treating and preventing diabetes.”

Bernie Sanders wants to end federal marijuana ban

'Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use'

• Emma Bracy

Bernie Sanders speaks in Virginia. Alex Wong/Getty

Bernie Sanders has called for federal government to remove marijuana from the list of outlawed drugs — opening the way for states that wish to legalize the drug to do so.

The Democratic presidential hopeful said it was time to “to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana” in a speech at George Mason University on Wednesday, where thousands of college students gathered to hear him speak.

Mr Sanders was also careful not to ignore racial justice issues, and used this speech as an opportunity to call out racial bias in criminal justice related to drug sentencing.

“Although about the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana, a black person is almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person,” Sanders said. “Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use.

That’s wrong. That has got to change.”

While both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged racial bias as problem within criminal justice, few have gone so far as to call for an end to the federal ban on marijuana as a remedy.

According to Mr Sanders, a shift away from criminal prosecutions for marijuana could improve the lives of black Americans who are unfairly burdened with criminal records for doing something Americans of all races also do.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration currently classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, along with heroin, ecstasy, and LSD. The Schedule I ranking is reserved for drugs with the greatest potential for abuse and no medicinal value. Cocaine and methamphetamine are classified as Schedule II, one ranking lower than marijuana.

A Gateway Drug to Less Pain and Suffering

Robert Finkel, CEO/creative strategist, FreshBlood 

 

Health market Consultants

Did you happen to catch the one question that got passed from speak er to speaker like a lit joint during the first Democratic presidential debate? “If elected president, would you legalize medical marijuana?” Talk about peer pressure. Every candidate, even those who claim never to have smoked pot, drew a deep breath before exhaling a clear-headed position. The short answer was a repetitious yes.

But hold on just one hemp-picking moment. Brushing partisan politics aside, let's imagine medical marijuana being prescribed to patients as a legitimate treatment option. Will all hell break loose at CVS and Express Scripts, like some maniacal scene straight out of Reefer Madness? Not likely, according to those in the know.

Thousands upon thousands of individuals have communicated not only a desire but expressed an unmet medical need. Anecdotal reports from physicians, parents and patients (like me) suggest the therapeutic benefits of marijuana-derived cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive form, are quite real and not so easily dismissed.

Topping the list of potential medical uses are intractable epilepsy, chronic pain, cancer, schizophrenia, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, arthritis, diabetes, neuropathic pain, spasticity, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, HIV and the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. And there are others. Once substantiated, the sweeping range of therapeutic properties attributed to cannabidiol—analgesia, anti-inflammatory, anti-emetic, anti-ischemic, anti-oxidant, anxiolytic and others—would present like a drug marketer's smorgasbord.

The mountains of evidence should provide stable footing for companies like GW Pharma, makers of cannabinoid-derived Sativex and the investigational orphan drug Epidiolex. The AMA, American Epilepsy Society and American Academy of Pediatrics, along with advocacy groups like Cure Epilepsy and the Epilepsy Foundation, have all issued positioning statements on the use of medical marijuana calling for increased access and additional research.

These prestigious groups don't stand alone. A January 2010 ABC News poll showed that 81% of Americans believed that medical cannabis should be legal in the United States. In December 2014, Congress and the Obama administration “quietly” ended the federal prohibition on medical marijuana. As of October 2015, 25 of 50 states have legalized medical cannabis.

If that's any indication of things to come, legalization for research purposes and therapeutic use is less a matter of when, and more a matter of how soon.

But before we all get our hopes too, well, high, here's a small dose of reality. Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration has blacklisted all forms of cannabis, lumping in medical marijuana with recreational varieties. This is akin to grouping people with life-threatening diseases with Cheech and Chong.

As it now stands, in order to pave the way for well-controlled clinical research—not to mention using government-supplied grant money—the DEA will need to reconsider the status of medical cannabis as a Schedule 1 substance.

Only when the legal shackles are removed can researchers objectively study the true risk/benefit profile of medicinal cannabis across a spectrum of illnesses. Naturally, the usual questions will need to be answered before anyone seeks FDA approval, much less a prescription.

Medicinal cannabis won't work for everyone, and it shouldn't have to. For the many people who swear by it, medical marijuana isn't just blowing smoke.

How safe is it to smoke pot and drive?

 By Stephanie Barry

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SPRINGFIELD - A Supreme Judicial Court ruling said that an officer who pulls over a driver after detecting marijuana smoke is violating the state constitution, leaving unanswered the question of whether such drivers pose a threat.

A 5-2 vote by the state's high court in September overturned a New Bedford district court decision that allowed police to pull a vehicle over solely because an officer detected marijuana smoke wafting from it.
The seven-justice panel ruled "such stops are unreasonable; therefore, the stop in this case violated" the Massachusetts Constitution, the order states.

The decision homed in on the 2008 initiative petition that changed state law on criminal possession of marijuana. The change decriminalized possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, making it a civil infraction instead of a crime.

While local police departments adjust to the change, the debate over whether or how much marijuana use truly impairs drivers is ongoing.

Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Delaney said he believes marijuana can have an equitable effect on driving to alcohol.

"I've pulled over many drivers in my career who were high on marijuana exhibiting the same behaviors as a drunk driver. It absolutely impairs driving," Delaney said recently, adding that he and the police force are aware of the SJC decision and intend to abide by it.

"I've seen a lot of changes in the law over my career, and we learn and adapt," he said. "So we will treat suspicion of impaired driving the same: we'll look for crossing marked lanes; running stop signs and the other classic signs of impaired driving."

Drivers suspected of high driving versus drunken driving can be subject to the same sobriety test, but there is no breath test equivalent for testing for levels of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, Delaney said.

A study released in June by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office on National Drug Control Policy, and federal safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found pot smoking had an effect on driving skills, but not as much as drinking alcohol.

However, depending how much a driver smoked, his peripheral vision could be reduced and his weaving within a lane increased, according to a CNN report on the study which admitted the issue remains "elusive."

Mixing alcohol and marijuana presented a real danger, with "drivers using both substances weaved within lanes even if their blood THC and alcohol concentrations were below the impairment thresholds for each substance alone," CNN reported.

The tide seems to be turning on marijuana use, with the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana legalized in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon. Cities in Maine and the District of Columbia have legalized the drug for both purposes although Congress has barred commercial sales.

Twelve states including Massachusetts have sanctioned medical marijuana. New England Treatment Access, the only dispensary in Hampshire County, opened in late September.

Massachusetts voters authorized the dispensaries on a 2012 ballot question, but the 118 Conz St. facility in Northampton was only the third in the state to go online, following ones in Salem, in June, and Brockton, on Sept. 3.

For its part, the SJC ruled: "We have determined that the people's intent in decriminalizing possession of this small quantity of marijuana was to establish that this offense was no longer 'a serious infraction worthy of criminal sanction,' and that those who commit this offense should be treated differently from other drug offenders."

Bad News: We May Have a Marijuana Problem on Our Hands

Data from a new long-term study demonstrates a potentially worrisome trend when it comes to marijuana use and marijuana use disorders.

Image source: Pixabay.

Marijuana has been something of an unstoppable force over the past two decades. After being completely outlawed in all states in 1995, marijuana in 2015 can now be legally sold in 23 states for medicinal purposes (as well as Washington, D.C.), and it can be sold legally for recreational use to adults ages 21 and up in four states (and Washington, D.C.).

A big component of this sweeping change is the rapid shift in public opinion as well as the need for states to generate revenue. Over the past two decades, respondents in Gallup's marijuana polls have pushed their favorability of the drug from a mere 25% to more than 50% on a consistent basis in recent years. As the negativity surrounding marijuana has lessened, the push for experimentation into its possible medical benefits, and the desire to use marijuana without potential federal consequences, has intensified.

States have also played a big role in marijuana's recent proliferation. Along with the desire to follow the sentiment of their constituents, many states' elected officials are desperate for new sources of revenue.

Raising taxes on an entire constituency is often not a path to reelection. Taxing marijuana, though, pulls in extra revenue from a defined consumer base and industry, while leaving a majority of residents unaffected by the new tax. This extra revenue can be used to create or maintain jobs, or as is the case in Colorado, to possibly support the education system. Colorado residents will vote very soon on what should be done with the tax revenue generated from marijuana sales.

Image source: Flickr user Cannabis Culture.

Do we have a marijuana problem on our hands?
As marijuana sales have grown, concern about marijuana's proliferation has grown as well. A study released a little more than a week ago in JAMA Psychiatry subtly implies that we may very well have the beginnings of a marijuana problem on our hands if we don't educate consumers.

The study, which was authored by a dozen researchers, sought to examine what changes we've witnessed in marijuana use prevalence rates over the past decade. Additionally, it sought to examine trends in marijuana use disorders, which are defined as abuse or dependence on the drug. Marijuana use disorders can lead to comorbidities and disabilities, which have the potential to strain an already thin U.S. healthcare network.

Researchers used data of U.S. adults compiled in two separate surveys. The first included face-to-face interviews of 43,093 adults between April 2001 and April 2002, and the second involved face-to-face interviews of 36,309 adults between April 2012 and June 2013.

Image source: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

What researchers discovered was that marijuana use prevalence and marijuana use disorder prevalence had both risen over the prior decade. Past-year use prevalence in the 2001-2002 period was just 4.1%. By the 2012-2013 period, this had more than doubled to 9.5%.

The rise in marijuana use disorder prevalence was a bit less straightforward. In terms of the percentage of marijuana users exhibiting abuse of or dependence on the drug, it actually dropped from 35.6% in 2001-2002 to 30.6% in 2012-2013. However, the total number of users exhibiting a marijuana use disorder as a whole is up over the prior decade simply because of the sheer increase in marijuana use among respondents. Additionally, the prevalence of a diagnosis of a past-year marijuana use disorder rose from 1.5% in 2001-2002 to 2.9% in 2012-2013.

Based on marijuana's growing prevalence, researchers suggest that consumers, physicians, and lawmakers be educated about the potential harms of marijuana use, as well as the propensity for addiction to the drug. Researchers note that clearly not all of marijuana users will become addicted, but the data suggests that around three in 10 will.

Marijuana's federal roadblock
The truth is, studies just like this one help to reinforce many of the roadblocks currently in place within the federal government that'll keep Congress from changing its stance on marijuana anytime soon.

Perhaps the biggest roadblock of all is the long-term safety profile of marijuana. Don't get me wrong, we've witnessed numerous instances of marijuana providing medical benefits in somewhat recent clinical studies.

Marijuana has been shown to create positive benefits in treating epilepsy, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and aggressive forms of brain cancer.

Image source: White House on Flickr.

However, marijuana also has a mound of clinical studies stacked a mile high detailing harmful side effects. A lot of this imbalance has to do with marijuana studies centering on its risks rather than its benefits for multiple decades. Only within the past decade or so have researchers really begun to turn their attention to the drug's possible benefits. The problem is that it takes time for these long-term benefit studies to mature, and one study is not enough on its own to establish safety. Each study is like a puzzle piece that helps set the stage for lawmakers regarding marijuana's safety profile -- and it's going to be years before that puzzle is even fully framed!

Another issue is that the federal government appears somewhat apathetic toward the marijuana movement. It's a bit of a head-scratcher considering the slim majority of respondents that support marijuana in a number of national polls, but as President Obama suggested earlier this year, the youth of America should be focused on far more important issues than marijuana. Both President Obama and Congress have made it a point to emphasize economic and job growth, as well as national security, while de-emphasizing the debate over marijuana.

What this means for you is that marijuana is unlikely to become the "next big thing" anytime soon, even though the market potential for marijuana is much, much bigger than we're seeing today. With Congress having little incentive to alter its perception of marijuana, it very well could mean that marijuana-based businesses could lose money or struggle to survive in the meantime.

My suggestion, as it's remained all along, is to keep your money squarely on the sidelines and away from the marijuana industry until we witness a definitive change in policy from the federal government.