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marijuana to fentanyl pipeline continues …….until Death

On November 17, 2019, Michelle Leopold’s son Trevor died of an overdose after purchasing counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl. He was only 18. His drug use started a few years earlier, when he used marijuana as a freshman at Redwood High School in Marin County, CA.  He graduated from Tamalpeis High School in 2019. (Trevor is shown with his mother Michelle at a residential treatment center in Utah, above photo)

The nation was shocked when television therapist Laura Berman’s son, Sammy Chapman, 16, died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year.  She and her husband knew he had been using marijuana and tried to stop him.  All it took was a pill that he purchased on Snapchat. 

The teens dying of overdoses in California are getting younger and younger —16, 15, 14, 13.

The number of overdose drug deaths this past year climbed past 100,000. Of these deaths, 75% were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Initiation of marijuana use before age 18 is the predominant predictor of an opioid use disorder.

A revealing obituary in Illinois

An obituary of a young man from Illinois who died in October appeared in a local paper. Beloved to his family and friends, the tribute reads: “He was passionate about cannabis.”  

The announcement said he was in recovery but died of heroin laced with fentanyl.  Marijuana is often the “relapse drug” for those addicted to opioids, as well as the gateway. This webpage covers many explanations of how marijuana provides the gateway effect to other drugs.

Would he still be alive if his state had not joined the marijuana bandwagon last year?  By legalizing pot, under the guise of social justice and tax money, Illinois may have sabotaged his recovery, as they did for this man. Pot use wires the brain for other pathways of drug and alcohol addiction.

People in the more experienced drug markets of California understand the marijuana to fentanyl pipeline, sometimes followed by death. 

Tori Kropp’s son Xander also died of a fentanyl overdose:                                          “18 months after he first smoked weed, he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose,” his mom said.

The Northern California epidemic

We learned about Tori through The Pitch, a newspaper put out by the advanced journalism students of Archie Williams High School in San Anselmo, California.  Henry Pratt’s article, “Every parent’s worst nightmare”: fentanyl epidemic overtakes teens” won a national journalism award.  

In the article, Kropp explains that “marijuana is a “gateway drug” to other illicit substances and that it is more dangerous for the developing teenage brain. According to Kropp, marijuana sold today has much stronger concentrations of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main component of marijuana that gives users a high. “

Pratt also interviewed Michelle Leopold for the article.  Leopold explains that the cannabis industry’s anger at her comes from her truthful comments about marijuana as a “gateway drug” to other addictive substances.  The industry, unable to admit the dangers of their products, blames her as a parent for her son’s addiction. 

Pratt’s outstanding student article further explains what fentanyl is, how it’s infiltrating the world of students. COVID, the lockdown and social media have made the situation worse.  Pratt explains how Narcan may be able to stop a fentanyl overdose. However, it’s not a long-term solution to the addiction and overdose epidemic. Primary drug prevention will take us much further.

Marijuana to Fentanyl pipeline in other states

Officials from Connecticut Overdose Response and the Department of Public Health put out a warning about the dangers of marijuana laced with fentanyl. The press release of November 18 explained 39 overdose cases since July 2021, in which patients required naloxone but claimed to have only used marijuana.  Testing proved that the marijuana had been laced with fentanyl.

Two days ago Michigan Poison Control put out a press release warning of 8 such cases in Michigan since June.  Since fentanyl-laced marijuana shows up in states with legalized marijuana, it’s clear that state “regulation” doesn’t take away these dangers. 

Today COVID, the overdose epidemic and the marijuana-to-fentanyl pipeline converge for a very challenging period of time!

“San Fransicko”: Bold proposals to cure it, but is it too late?

Michael Shellenberger’s book San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities came out on October 12, 2021. The author is a veteran activist and advocate of progressive policies, but he’s concluded they aren’t working in San Francisco. He blames the homelessness problem in west coast cities on widespread mental illness, drug addiction and bad policy, not on mild weather or the numerous other reasons cited by homelessness advocates.

Shellenberger casts a wide net to gain a perspective based upon a diversity of viewpoints. His book combines personal experience, deep research and numerous interviews with policy experts; individuals of various races and political persuasions; formerly homeless and incarcerated individuals; homeless advocates and relatives of those living in the streets.  He recommends a new policy, Cal-Psych, which would replace the failed program from Proposition 63 (on Mental Health) and come up with a new plan for conservatorships, voluntary and involuntary mental health and addiction treatments.

His plan is bold, but is it too late? Will severely ill, violent, drug-addicted offenders be able to submit to treatment?  We hope San Francisco can go back to the beautiful city it once was, but the transition will be difficult. If anything, “San Fransicko” should be a warning to other cities not to follow the lead of San Francisco.  However, it appears that many Californians are also revolting against the drug-enabling policies of the Bay Area and the state.

Continue reading “San Fransicko”: Bold proposals to cure it, but is it too late?

The Problem with Delta – 8 THC and other THC Analogs

Why is the United States passively allowing the manufacture, sale, and use of Delta 8-THC, Delta 10-THC, and THC-O, all of which are harmful chemicals that may be even more damaging than nicotine/tobacco? Why is this happening in a supposedly science-based society? Could this be occurring because of loopholes in the 2018 Agriculture Bill?

Currently, hemp-derived CBD is being synthesized and converted into these chemicals, which are then made into different products for retail sale.¹ ² ³ We can see many of these products being advertised for sale online, in vape & smoke shops, gas stations, and convenience stores in almost every state. These items are even being marketed to children through the use of very inviting packaging and products, such as the all popular gummy bears. Luckily, some state authorities have decided to stop the sale of these products because health officials have identified that there is a potential for serious harm when using these chemicals.

The FDA even recently issued a warning about one of these synthetically produced chemicals, namely Delta 8-THC: https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/5-things-know-about-delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol-delta-8-thc. Continue reading The Problem with Delta – 8 THC and other THC Analogs

Going Green: The Physical, Mental, And Emotional Problems Associated With Marijuana

By Ben Johnson, an article which appeared on the Daily Wire as Going Green: The Physical, Mental and Emotional Problems Associated with Marijuana

In an era when the Left obsessively fights against “misinformation,” at least one subject has evaded their concern: Although scientific studies indicate that marijuana is associated with profound mental illnesses, emotional problems, and physical diseases, a shocking number of Americans believe that weed is harmless or helpful — possibly even a natural cure for cancer.

The media frequently parrot the talking points of billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis, and John Sperling, who spent an estimated $71.3 million between 1996 and 2016 to promote drug legalization, in the process creating the image of marijuana as a benign natural remedy. Websites like Vox.com promote that narrative, telling readers, “Overall, marijuana is a relatively safe drug. … marijuana’s harms appear to be relatively small.”  Media malpractice has led to a new pandemic of Americans ingesting increasingly high-potency marijuana, unaware of the consequences.

Billionaires changed the public perception

After a precipitous fall during the “Just Say No” era of the 1980s, marijuana use has been rising, especially among America’s young people. In 1992, the number of children between the ages of 12 to 17 who had used marijuana in the last month stood at 4%. In 2019, that rate more than doubled, to 9%, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a large part of that has been the push for drug legalization/decriminalization begun that year by George Soros. After Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, the number of total users increased by nearly two-thirds.

Positive public relations help the marijuana industry

Marijuana’s positive PR has proven particularly successful among the most desperate and vulnerable Americans. Almost one in four breast cancer victims smokes marijuana, and “49% of cannabis users believed that medical cannabis could be used to treat cancer itself,” according to a new study published by the American Cancer Society. A separate study found that 80% of “high-impact articles” on social media “were false news that proposed cannabis as cancer cure.”

Psychological illnesses emerge as a result of marijuana use

That should be concerning for a panoply of reasons, since numerous studies show that marijuana use can harm people in (at least) the following ways:

Psychosis and schizophrenia: Several studies have found that smoking marijuana may trigger mental illnesses, including psychoses like schizophrenia, especially in people already predisposed to develop them. “[C]annibis use, primarily THC in cannabis, in genetically predisposed or at-risk populations, leads to earlier diagnosis of psychosis/schizophrenia,” found a systematic review of existing research conducted by Shweta Patel and colleagues, and published at the peer-reviewed Cureus Journal of Medical Science. “THC in cannabis also makes schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms worse and causes more relapses and hospitalizations.”

Theirs was one of numerous studies linking mental illness to marijuana consumption. “Ten studies [have] found a significant risk of young cannabis users developing psychosis,” reported the Scientific American in 2017. “Cannabis use during puberty is a major risk factor for schizophrenia,” said Hannelore Ehrenreich of the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine at the 2017 World Psychiatric Association’s World Congress. Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatry at King’s College in London, found that nearly one out of every four cases of schizophrenia he researched involved the use of high-potency marijuana. There is a “strong association of cannabis use with the onset of psychiatric disorders,” the American Psychiatric Association summarized in 2019.

Pot use increases anxiety and paranoia

Anxiety and other psychological issues: Ironically, although many people use marijuana to reduce anxiety, it may make the problem worse. A 2017 study found, in the words of Psychology Today, that smoking marijuana “increased feelings of paranoia, anxiety, visual illusions, strangeness, inattention and slowed time, as well as poor performance on tasks related to memory and response inhibition.” The culprit is THC, which “appears to decrease anxiety at lower doses and increase anxiety at higher doses,” according to the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. The potential for harm has increased, as the mean THC concentration of marijuana nearly doubled between 2008 and 2017.

Socio-economic problems multiply with pot

Shorter life expectancy: Men who used marijuana heavily in their teen years are 40% more likely to die by the time they reach the age of 60, according to a massive study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. “Swedish researchers analyzed the records of more than 45,000 men beginning in 1969 and 1970,” reported CBS News. “The scientists from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm reported that 4,000 died during the 42-year follow-up period, and men who’d used marijuana heavily at ages 18 and 19 were 40 percent more likely to die by age 60 compared to guys who hadn’t used the drug.” Their findings upended previous studies that found no such linkage.

Becoming poorer, with more relationship problems: Regular marijuana users end up in “a lower social class than their parents, with lower-paying, less skilled, and less prestigious jobs. They also experience more financial problems, more problems at work, and more relationship difficulties,” according to a study that followed 1,000 regular marijuana users from age 18 to 38.  Individuals who reported regular cannabis use and persistent dependence experienced downward socioeconomic mobility, more financial difficulties, workplace problems, and relationship conflict in early midlife,” according to Magdalena Cerdá of the University of California-Davis, Health System, and Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt at Duke University, whose study appeared in Clinical Psychological Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Pot triggers loss of memory and brain aging

Memory problems, and brain aging: Regular marijuana users had a harder time remembering new information, according to a team of researchers who studied nearly 3,400 American marijuana users over a 25-year period. Marijuana usage can reduce decision-making ability, memory, and psychical control in the short term, and some negative effects may persist for life.

Harvard Medical School explained that “there’s no question that marijuana … can produce short-term problems with thinking, working memory, executive function, and psychomotor function (physical actions that require conscious thought, such as driving a car or playing a musical instrument). This is because marijuana’s main psychoactive chemical, THC, causes its effect by attaching to receptors in brain regions that are vital for memory formation, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebral cortex.” While the full effect of long-term use is unknown, a 2016 UC-San Francisco study found that even past use of marijuana made people less likely to remember words in adulthood.

After examining 62,454 brain scans, researchers found that cannabis abuse accelerated brain aging by 2.8 years, a contributing factor to developing Alzheimer’s Disease, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. “Prior papers have suggested that marijuana can damage the brain. What surprised [us] was how low blood flow was in the brains of our cohort – virtually every brain area had reduced blood flow on perfusion imaging in relation to marijuana use,” said Dr. Cyrus Raji, who co-authored the study.

Marijuana use causes specific serious physical diseases

Lung diseases like asthma and bronchitis: “Marijuana smoking is associated with large airway inflammation, increased airway resistance,” according to a synthesis of scholarly research produced by the U.S. government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, “and those who smoke marijuana regularly report more symptoms of chronic bronchitis than those who do not smoke.” NIDA also cited studies showing that marijuana may suppress the body’s immune system, increasing the chances of developing pneumonia and chronic bronchitis.

Testicular cancer: Several studies have found a positive correlation between marijuana use and the development of testicular cancer, especially among “heavy” users who had smoked pot at least 50 times in their lives. One review of scholarly literature cautions the existing evidence is “low-strength,” because so many marijuana users also smoke cigarettes — but they still find weed inhalation increases the likelihood of developing testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT).

Other cognitive functions decline with pot use

Possibly lowers intelligence: Some evidence indicates that marijuana use decreases the intelligence of people who take it. The most consequential study comes from New Zealand (the Dunedin study), where researchers followed marijuana users from age 18 to 38 and found that people who began using marijuana in adolescence lost between six and eight points from their IQ – and quitting does not reverse the intelligence lost. Future studies disputed this somewhat, as researchers discovered cannabis users “already had significantly lower IQ scores. Put another way, cannabis did not drag down their IQ; it was already low.” To put that colloquially, researchers are now pursuing the chicken-and-egg question of whether adolescent marijuana use makes people stupid or if stupid people choose to use marijuana.

Inability to feel joy: Researchers warn about higher THC levels causing cannabis-induced “anhedonia” — a medical term which means the “inability to feel pleasure” in Greek. “Over years, the regular use of cannabis has substantially increased among young adults, as indicated by the rise in cannabis use disorder (CUD), with an estimated prevalence of 8.3% in the United States,” said a March 2021 study in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychology. “Research shows that exposure to cannabis is associated with hypodopaminergic anhedonia (depression), cognitive decline, poor memory, inattention, impaired learning performance, reduced dopamine brain response-associated emotionality, and increased addiction severity in young adults.”

On the other hand, researchers in Canada found a marked increase in “emergency department consultations for cannabis-related mood disorders, as well as suicide and intentional self-harm” after the nation legalized recreational marijuana in October 2018. This may stem from marijuana’s addictive components altering the person’s approach to the brain’s reward circuitry after a flood of dopamine.

False memories fuel misinformation

Creating false memories: Any media interested in combating misinformation would condemn the rising rate of marijuana use, since “[c]annabis seems to increase false-memory proneness,” according to a March 2020 study from The Netherlands.

Marijuana use harms non-users, too

Innocent bystanders: Although drug use is often presented as a personal decision, the harm caused by marijuana extends beyond the user alone. Aside from the toll of innocent victims when marijuana users drive under the influence, the American Lung Association warns, “Secondhand marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins and carcinogens found in directly-inhaled marijuana smoke, in similar amounts if not more.” Their biggest concern is about “vulnerable children in the home.”

Contrary to MSNBC and CNN hand-wringers, the real disinformation comes from paid propagandists, scientists on the take, and billionaires who (for whatever reason) are promoting a drug that appears to inhibit Americans from exercising the cognitive functions necessary to be independent citizens. The effort to whitewash drug abuse is typical in a world that demands pleasure with no consequence. But that world doesn’t exist — a fact too many people find out too late.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment.  (Editor’s Note:  Parents Opposed to Pot does not identify with conservative or liberal politics, because deliberate misinformation comes from both sides of the aisle. Its principals and followers include independents and people who belong to both political parties. )