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Driving, News Articles

Parents Warn Legal Marijuana Increases Traffic Deaths

For Immediate Release

Parents Opposed to Pot Warns Retail Marijuana Sales Increases Traffic Deaths

Merrifield, VA –March 31, 2022–As New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Virginia move to legalize commercial sales of marijuana, Parents Opposed to Pot warns people in those states to expect a rise in traffic deaths. In Illinois, the first state to commercialize marijuana through the state legislature (June 2019), traffic deaths rose 33 percent in the first two years after cannabis shops opened on January 1, 2020.

Traffic deaths in Illinois were 1,010 in 2019.In 2020, which included the COVID lockdowns, traffic deaths rose 18.2 percent to 1,196. Then in 2021, traffic deaths rose to 1,342, according the state website.

A study published in the June 2020 Journal of American Medical Association Internal Medicine estimated nationwide marijuana legalization would result in 6,800 more traffic deaths each year.  The researchers looked at the first four states to legalize marijuana, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, and compared them before and after with states that had neither recreational nor medical marijuana. 

Congress is expected to vote on the MORE Act this week, a move to legalize marijuana nationally that the House is expected to vote on this week. 

Two years ago, an American Automobile Association post-legalization study of Washington state, found drivers involved in fatal crashes who test positive for marijuana, doubled.[1] A study in 2019, five years after Washington and Colorado opened retail cannabis shops found a statistically significant increase in marijuana related traffic fatalities of 2% in these states.[2]

Before the Illinois state legislature passed a bill to legalize pot in May 2019, the Illinois Sheriff’s Association, warned of the need for a roadside test comparable to the breathalyzer for alcohol.[3] States legalized marijuana without an adequate test to find out if a driver is marijuana impaired.

As of 2021, Illinois had trained only 122 law enforcement officials trained as Drug Recognition Experts in the entire state.  According to Chicago- HIDTA,Illinois does not distinguish DUI arrests made for alcohol, marijuana, or other substances.

Marijuana poses numerous risks to safe driving. “The drug causes alterations in mental status, vigilance, judgment, and other neurologic functions. Studies have shown that impairment persists even when the driver no longer feels high. Because THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) is fat soluble it leaves the blood quickly and builds up in the brain. Daily users have been shown to have cognitive impairment that lasts weeks after stopping marijuana,” explains Russell Kamer, MD, a board member of Parents Opposed to Pot, a nonprofit with a mission to educate parents.

Parents Opposed to Pot is tracking news reports of child deaths related to adults under the influence of marijuana. Since 2012, when Colorado first legalized recreational marijuana, at least 39 children died in DUID marijuana car crashes related to parent or caregiver drug usage.[4]  

Parents Opposed to Pot is a 501C3 nonprofit based in Merrifield, Virginia. Follow PopPot in social media: Twitter @poppotgroup, Facebook @poppotorg. For more information, visit the website, PopPot.org or call phone 773-322-7523.

[1] https://newsroom.aaa.com/2020/01/fatal-crashes-involving-drivers-who-test-positive-for-marijuana-increase-after-state-legalizes-drug/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457519310267

[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/drivers-influence-marijuana-crash-illinois-legalization/

[4] https://poppot.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/122921-Child-dangers-fact-sheet-FINAL.pdf

Mental Health

Does Marijuana Cause Mental illness?

The THC in cannabis can destroy critical neuronal pathways in the developing brain, which can result in permanent brain changes. The worst case scenario is psychosis that becomes permanent and is then considered schizophrenia, a life-long, debilitating disease. No one can predict in advance who will be susceptible, as some can experience symptoms after a few times of use.

The mental health harms of cannabis are well known to scientific researchers. Professionals say the evidence found in peer-reviewed studies is undeniable: THC in cannabis, even in low concentrations, can cause psychosis. And out of the drugs that can cause a temporary episode of psychosis, marijuana/cannabis has the highest conversion rate to chronic psychotic disorders like bipolar and schizophrenia.
 
https://youtu.be/uDmkfNMNrCw

Symptoms of psychosis are: paranoia, feelings of doom, irrational thoughts or behaviors, delusions, confusion, hearing voices or seeing people who are not there, and inability to communicate coherently.

Cannabis Induced Psychosis (CIP)  is listed in the DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a manual used by medical professionals for assessment and diagnosis. 

Continue reading Does Marijuana Cause Mental illness? →

Mental Health, Politics, Reviews

US Public Broadcasters Cannabis Program Decried by Drug Prevention Advocates

NOVA PBS The Cannabis Question Fraught with Conflict of Interests – Soros and Koch influences over program downplay the harms of cannabis.

MERRIFIELD, VIRGINIA, USA, October 14, 2021 — Parents Opposed to Pot (PopPot.org) calls out PBS’s science program NOVA, The Cannabis Question, for using Koch funding and Soros-funded sources when claiming to objectively explore cannabis science. NOVA’s documentary film aired on September 29, downplaying the major risks of marijuana, without mentioning the conflicts of interests of several featured “experts.”

This bias breaches the public trust in PBS and NOVA. “It is well established that marijuana can cause psychosis, ” explains Aubree Adams, Director of EveryBrainMatters.org, a project of PopPot.org.

Continue reading US Public Broadcasters Cannabis Program Decried by Drug Prevention Advocates →

Featured, News Articles

The Stealthy Progress of Marijuana Legalization

MomsStrong.org recently reprinted the latest The Marijuana Report newsletter, which details the history of marijuana legalization in the U.S., and some of the negative outcomes identified by government surveys and reports. As politicians and citizens alike remain asleep and unaware on this issue, the steady rollout of the pot profiteers and their greedy plan continues. To understand history is to mount an adequate resistance. PopPot urges our readers to take the time to not only read, but disseminate this article!

The Timeline of Marijuana Rollout in the U.S. Exposed by the Marijuana Report

Reprinted with permission of Moms Strong and The Marijuana Report See original 9/15/2021 Newsletter here.

Are scientists missing the forest for the trees?

Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study by DM Anderson and colleagues, scientists from universities in Montana, Spain, and San Diego, California. The study finds that legalization does not increase adolescent marijuana use. The researchers analyzed the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began conducting in 1991.

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)

YRBSS collects data from high school students every two years about behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, alcohol and other drug use, tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and inadequate physical activity. Not all states participate in YRBSS, and those that do participate periodically, although in the 2019 YRBSS all but five states did so. Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington State have never participated in YRBSS. The survey asks three questions about marijuana: ever use, current use, and what age students were when they started using marijuana. It began asking about vapor product use in 2015, but never asks what students are vaping.

So far as these limited data are concerned, the researchers’ findings seem true. But two other national surveys show us something more…

Read the full article, The Timeline of Marijuana Rollout in the U.S. Exposed by the Marijuana Report on MomsStrong.org

 

 

Editors Note: The Marijuana Report is a project of National Families in Action. Visit their website at NationalFamilies.org.