Pubdate: Sun, 12 Apr 2015
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2015 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: William F. B. O'Reilly

POT IS ALL THE RAGE - AND THAT'S DANGEROUS

Think maple syrup spread across a sheet pan and hardened. Or a thin
crepe made of brittle amber resin.

Smash it into tiny shards, drop a piece in a pipe, and what have you
got?

"Shatter."

It's the hot new smokable marijuana concentrate, and it's guaranteed
to keep you high all day, so high in fact that it's sending
freaked-outkids to emergency rooms across the country, mostly in
Western states. But that shouldn't be for long. Drugs have an annoying
habit of drifting eastward in America.

The average THC potency of domestically grown pot in 2009 was 5.6
percent, according to a University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring
Project report. Shatter can be up to 90 percent pure THC.

If that's not to your or your kids' taste, maybe "wax" is. Wax is what
its name implies: a wax made from cannabis oil. Smoke it or ingest it
and you'll get a THC hit of 50 to 80 percent. It can also be called
"butter," although "budder," as it's sometimes spelled, can also be
made from Hashish resins.

Looking to get high? One of the new marijuana lip balm products will
certainly do. They're made to look like Chapstick or Blistex
containers. Spread them on your lips and ka-boom! No more pesky
learning. A quarter-ounce jar of the stuff with 56 mg of THC is on
sale right now for $8 at a Colorado cannabis retailer. It's advertised
online as "pure, medicated lip balm." Cute.

These are just a smattering of powerful THC concentrates spreading
throughout America, both legally and illegally, largely due to
marijuana legalization in just a handful of states and Washington,
D.C. This is what happens when American marketing and manufacturing
ingenuity meet a growing legal market.

E-vaporizers, "sexy oil," "Full Melt" and "Butane Hash Oil" are among
the myriad marijuana concentrate products now available. Old edible
THC standbys like pot and hash brownies have given way to a booming
THC candy market. Pot-infused lollipops are a big hit with children.
Go figure.

Does anyone -- except the guy reading this in his mother's basement
with a black light and a velvet Hendrix poster -- think this is a good
national development?

I think it's slow suicide.

But I can hear the protests:

What about alcohol? Isn't that worse?

What about cancer sufferers? How can we deny them something that eases
their pain and nausea?

People are going to do it, anyway. Why not get tax
revenue?

These are all fair points, but none of them negate the emerging
reality of where newly legalized marijuana in just four states --
Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska -- is leading us. Seven more
states -- Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Massachusetts
and Missouri -- are close to joining them. New York recently passed
legalized medical marijuana, but hasn't rolled it out in earnest yet.

Marijuana farmers and distributors who lobbied in the name of mercy
for the medically needy, clearly had, or now have, bigger dollar signs
in their eyes than just the medicinal market. In just a few short
years, pot has become big business in America, and big businesses
always seek to expand their product reach. Ask the tobacco industry.
At the same time, state legislators addicted to revenue streams, and
political contributions, are abandoning long-held positions virtually
overnight. No question: Pot is all the rage right now.

A majority of Americans for the first time favor legalizing marijuana
by a 52-42 margin, according to a 2014 General Social Survey. I don't
know if that's because so many adults polled smoked pot in their youth
and don't think they can pass judgment without being hypocritical or
if peer pressure on a massive scale is in play. Whatever it is, it's
sparking a robust and dangerous marijuana concentrates market and that
should be raising red flags.

Mark Twain once wrote that, "It's easier to stay out than to get out."
His quote should be mailed to every state legislator in America.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt