This 4-1/2-minute video by Heather Sells of CBN News, Clearing the Smoke: The Real Costs of Legal Pot, exposes what legalizing means for the children of Colorado.
Twice as many 8th graders in Denver use pot than elsewhere in the country. Tax revenue is less than expected. Wake up Americans to the hidden costs of marijuana legalization. It is a great video to show if your politicians are promoting legalization.
Here’s the web article, published with the video in April 2014.
This Video comes from the Concordance Blog and is dated 2012.
This video deals exclusively with the documented negative health consequences of recreational cannabis use.
I used data from over 140 papers in the process of preparing this video. I’ve done my best to document sources. Below are some key papers for reference.
1. CANNABIS USE AND RISK OF LUNG CANCER: A CASE-CONTROL STUDY
Eur Respir J. 2008 February; 31(2): 280–286.
2. Possible role of marijuana smoking as a carcinogen in the development of lung cancer at a young age.
J Psychoactive Drugs. 1994 Jul-Sep;26(3):285-8.
3. Associations between duration of illicit drug use and health conditions: results from the 2005-2007 national surveys on drug use and health.
Ann Epidemiol. 2010 Apr;20(4):289-97.
4. Cannabis and road crashes: a survey of recent French studies.
Ann Pharm Fr. 2006 May;64(3):192-6.
5. Drugs in fatally injured young male drivers.
Public Health Rep. 1985 Jan–Feb; 100(1): 19–25.
6. Dose related risk of motor vehicle crashes after cannabis use.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2004 Feb 7;73(2):109-19.
7. Developing limits for driving under cannabis.
Addiction. 2007 Dec;102(12):1910-7.
8. The effect of cannabis compared to alcohol on driving.
Am J Addict. 2009; 18(3): 185–193.
9. If cannabis caused schizophrenia–how many cannabis users may need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia? England and Wales calculations.
Addiction. 2009 Nov;104(11):1856-61.
10. Cannabis and suicide: longitudinal study.
Br J Psychiatry. 2009 Dec;195(6):492-7.
11. Cannabis use and the risk of developing a psychotic disorder.
World Psychiatry. 2008;7(2):68-71.
12. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol effects in schizophrenia: implications for cognition, psychosis, and addiction.
Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Mar 15;57(6):594-608.
13. Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use.
Lancet. 2009 Oct 17;374(9698):1383-91.
14. General and oral health implications of cannabis use.
Aust Dent J. 2005 Jun;50(2):70-4.
15. Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use.
Lancet. 2009 Oct 17;374(9698):1383-91.
16. Adverse effects of cannabis on health: an update of the literature since 1996.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Aug;28(5):849-63.
17. Evaluating the drug use “gateway” theory using cross-national data: consistency and associations of the order of initiation of drug use among participants in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2010 Apr 1;108(1-2):84-97.
18. Does marijuana use serve as a gateway to cigarette use for high-risk African-American youth?
Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2008;34(6):782-91.
There are another dozen or so papers I would like to include here, but will not for the sake of brevity.
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marijuana pot cannabis legalization health effects safety impairment science biology medicine c0nc0rdance
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Two Is Enough D. C. has formed to fight off marijuana legalization in the District of Columbia this fall. Although it has taken years to reduce the smell and litter of cigarettes, the public health benefit could be erased and replaced with the widespread infiltration of marijuana smoke.
Polls show that DC voters favor legalization, but they need to look at what has happened in Colorado and Washington state. One wonders how, after seeing what alcohol and tobacco do to health, voters can want a third vice. The answer appears to be the huge amount of money backing full legalization.
The change of public opinion has gone hand-in-hand with the large influx of money to fund marijuana legalization. Since the early 1990s, money-fund manager George Soros has been providing financial backing to groups such as the Marijuana Policy Project. Together Soros and the late Peter Lewis donated approximately 100 million dollars to legalization and medical marijuana campaigns. The well-organized marijuana lobby has gained some backers in Congress: Dana Rohrabacher of California, Jared Polis of Colorado, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Stephen Cohen of Tennessee.
Laws revolving around marijuana have gradually changed. Support is especially strong in the western states, where politics involves personal freedom and individual rights. A movie released in 2011, Guns and Weed, reflects the views of many who have advocated for this freedom. Unfortunately, the freedom issue has become stronger than protecting children. Legalization legitimizes a vice and promotes the greed of both dealers and governments, at the expense of future generations.
The normal course for changing marijuana laws has been decriminalization, followed by introducing medical marijuana and finally allowing voters to tax and regulate. About a year ago, medical marijuana was implemented in the district. This spring the city council voted to decriminalize pot, with a $25 fine.
Only one city council member in Washington, DC, Yvette Alexander, stood firm against the measure. The fine for kids smoking marijuana in public is now less than the fine for smoking cigarettes. It is likely that the marijuana lobbyists, such as NORML and Drug Policy Action Committee, have worked long and hard to gain the support of politicians in Washington, DC.
Typically voters don’t even notice what is happening because these lobbying groups talk only from the side people going to jail or the inefficiency of drug wars and suggest that drug money could go to governments instead of criminals. The first medical marijuana initiative passed in California back in 1996. California voters rejected full legalization in 2010, despite being outspent 10 to 1.
One member of Congress, Andy Harris of Maryland, a physician, has tried to stall the implementation of decriminalized marijuana in Washington, citing the negative effects it has on children. The marijuana lobby waged an expensive, negative advertising campaign against Harris and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who has also stood firm against the pot lobby.
Congress has the ability to slow legislation in the district. A House budget bill passed last month included a provision to block not only a legalization effort but the decriminalization bill that is now in effect. Rep. Harris argued that the law has no drug-treatment component, even for minors, and that the fine for a young teen who is caught with a joint would be half that of the city’s $50 ticket for underage smoking of a cigarette.
A three-member D.C. Board of Elections voted unanimously today to approve the ballot initiative. Malik Burnett, leader of the D.C. Cannabis Coalition, turned in more than 57,000 signatures to get the referendum on the November ballot. However, he was not sure how Congress would ultimately react to this legalization effort, but he said that the vote “will send a message that D.C. is serious about reforming its marijuana laws.”
Editor’s Note: There is much misunderstanding about “medical” marijuana. National Families in Action explains when a controlled substance becomes medicine. NFIA has also published some helpful leaflet on the difference between marijuana and “medical” marijuana.
It’s hard to protect kids when the names of medical marijuana dispensaries are so enticing. The stores using “health,” “wellness,” “medicinal” and “candy” in their titles make pot very alluring. Imagine if a liquor store, tobacco store, or pharmacies did the same. (See our investigation into medi-pot dispensaries.)
In states with medical marijuana, 12-17 year-old teens use marijuana to a much greater degree than in states without medical marijuana. States that voted down medical marijuana, Arkansas and South Dakota, have some of the lowest rates of youth marijuana usage. Before legalization in Colorado, a study showed that more than half the teen users surveyed said they had obtained pot from a medical marijuana ‘patient’.
Parents Opposed to Pot calls on those who support medical marijuana to address how to prevent substance abuse and secondary sales to children. The best laws have been adopted by state legislatures, as in New York and New Jersey. Whenever there have been statewide votes, as in California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, the records for protecting children are poor.
Teen usage has been going up since 1996, when medical marijuana was voted upon in the 1st state, California. Additionally, the teen perceptions of the risks in using marijuana have been going steadily downward since the 1991. Certain states with medical marijuana, especially Vermont, Oregon and Colorado, also have some of the highest usage of opiate pills, cocaine and alcohol in children and adults. It looks like marijuana is the gateway drug, when comparing state statistics for marijuana usage with all other drug usage. Vermont has been having a heroin problem this year, and Oregon has had problems with pill abuse over the past several years.
As Americans have learned to expect easy, medicinal solutions to complex problems, the prescription drug and medical marijuana industries have grown.
While it is completely understandable that somebody that is sick, or the family of a patient, will want to use any means necessary to ease the pain and to cure, we would hope that there would be the correct information out there necessary to make a sound decision about the pros and cons of use.
Pharmaceutical drugs must undergo rigorous testing by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before approval. During these tests, placebos can work almost as well as the drugs being tested. Approved pharmaceutical drugs must warn of any and all potential side effects.
On the other hand, marijuana is recommended without warnings, and providers often do not need to prove their qualifications. Claims of cures by medical marijuana are promoted without testing. The marijuana plant holds 480 chemical components. If one component holds curative properties, another component could work against that property or have negative side effects.
Even if marijuana helps Multiple Sclerosis (MS), it also increases the brain fog in MS in patients. Why aren’t we discussing side effects when we talk medical marijuana? According to former Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Project SAM, the Institute of Medicine has concluded that if there is a future for marijuana as medicine, it lies in isolated components.
Epidiolex, a derivative of CBD in liquid form, is available to children with epilepsy in 10 states. It is being fast-tracked for FDA-approval, along with Sativex for Multiple Sclerosis. Sativex, a derivative of marijuana will be used for as a tongue spray. Both products were developed by GW Pharmaceuticals of Great Britain.
Getting a dog has been shown to be a very good solution for those who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress-Syndrome (PTSD). Both yoga and dogs can bring back connectivity, open up energy and free blocked emotions. Quite the opposite could occur with use of marijuana. It may bring relief by numbing feelings even more, but it is known to harm memory and may not allow PTSD survivors a recovery back to their prior state of functioning.
There are problems with conventional treatments for cancer, but there are also problems with alternative treatments for cancer. The marijuana lobby has yet to explain why marijuana is often not the drug of choice for cancer patients in medical marijuana states. Is it because there are better drugs out there? Marinol, a synthetic marijuana, has been available to address the nausea and vomiting from cancer treatments and AIDs.
In Montana a few years ago, Cashy Hyde’s father claimed to have cured his son of cancer using cannabis oil. Sadly, the boy eventually died, after dramatic announcements that he had been cured. The constant nurture and love from his parents probably helped to extend his life. Any parent may have tried the same thing, maybe preferring it over harsh chemotherapy treatments.
When reading about the remarkable claims advocates of medical marijuana propose, please remember the placebo effect. We don’t know why placebos cure some people and not others. It could be the power of belief, or the result of a person’s own immune system having the ability to fight the disease.
Diet change can treat many of the autoimmune diseases which medical marijuana advocates list as conditions to be treated with marijuana: Crohn’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis. Medical marijuana treatments address the symptoms of disease, rather than the underlying causes. Diet and environmental changes can bring us closer to addressing the root causes of autism, autoimmune disease and epilepsy.
The ketogenic diet is a very successful means of controlling Dravet’s Syndrome and other types of epilepsy in children, a fact not discussed by those advancing medical marijuana.
Sometimes psychiatric medications are blamed for the actions of disturbed mass killers, such as Adam Lanza. However, James Holmes, Jared Loughner and Johar Tsarnaev were heavy marijuana users. Even the recent Santa Barbara killer, Elliot Rodger, had made a video about using marijuana every day.
We do not know the extent to which marijuana or pharmaceutical drugs contribute to teen violence. While the pharmaceutical industry has flaws, at least rigorous testing is required. The government has the ability to take a drug off the market.
In this day and age, when people want miracles and pharmaceutical drugs can fall short of expectations, the marijuana industry looks for potential openings.
All claims of marvelous, miraculous cures need to be viewed with skepticism, whether considering pharmaceutical medicine or marijuana as medicine.
The push to reschedule marijuana from a schedule I to schedule II drug comes from Rick Doblin, the same person who wanted the FDA to approve MDMA (Ecstasy) as medicine. Doblin holds a PhD in Political Science. He doesn’t have the credentials you’d expect from someone making medical judgments.
The designation of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning “high probability of abuse,” was upheld by the Federal Appeals Court for the DC Circuit, on January 22, 2013. Three pot advocacy groups had appealed a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruling of July 8, 2011, a ruling backed up by evidence by the Department of Health and Human Services. Previous reviews were in 1972 and 1986. Pot has become more potent since that time. There were 455,000 hospital emergency room visits for marijuana in 2011, a reason the FDA and Health and Human Services are reluctant to change.
The decision-making should come from the health and medical professions, using their expertise, not from political advocates.
Most doctors don’t agree with medical marijuana, but some see isolated components of the plant most helpful . The Pro-Con website lists 105 double-blind studies, and the conclusions from these studies are inconclusive: 40% suggest it can be helpful, 30% find no possible medical usage and 30% find it neither favorable or unfavorable.
If your state has a referendum, study the details. How does it protect children and prevent profiteering in the secondary markets?
