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

By James McClure

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

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

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

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

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

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

French Government Recommends Cannabis Decriminalization

 

 

By Jon Hiltz

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Suzee Skwiot

 

Image via iStock

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

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

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

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

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

Image: Unsplash

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

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

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

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

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

 

Cancer Patients Get Little Guidance From Doctors On Using Medical Marijuana

Karen Weintraub

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

Jesse Costa/WBUR 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesse Costa/WBUR 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Pryor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Congress Misses Opportunity To Vote On Marijuana Amendment

By Tom Angell
 

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

9 Reasons to End the War on Marijuana

Al Harrington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

Photo By Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

Photo By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Jeff Sessions, man.

 

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

 

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

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

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