Sizing up the legal use of marijuana I recently completed a C.M.A. survey on the legalization of cannabis (marijuana) for recreational use. I would like to share my responses with you. It's hard to argue against the responsible use of a plant product, which has been around for thousands of years and has been used as a social and personal lubricant since time immemorial. Mankind has always sought respite from the stresses of daily life through chemicals, and often we have turned to psychoactive plants. Relief has included meditation, exercise, religion, collegial organizations, psychotherapy, and illicit psychoactive drugs such as cocaine, heroin and LSD, licit drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, as well as the consumption of fine foods. [continues 387 words]
Prescription Drug Rates Drop As More Patients Turn to Cannabis Recent findings show that medical marijuana not only saves state and federal governments millions of dollars on Medicare but it may help curb prescription drug use too. A new study reports that in states where medical marijuana is available, prescriptions for painkillers have dipped drastically. There's been a spate of studies on how overdose and painkiller abuse - - particularly among chronic pain patients - are lower in medical marijuana states, but the researchers have largely hypothesized that these patients are picking pot over prescription drugs. Now, a recent report in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the link between prescriptions and marijuana is no longer just a hypothesis. [continues 950 words]
Dear Editor: Why are the Liberals thinking of legalizing marijuana? Is it possible that they don't know what's on their own website where Health Canada has posted serious warnings against its use - particularly, for anyone under the age of 25? (Health Canada consumer information cannabis) Is the government blind to the following detrimental effects of legalization in places like Colorado? - - Increased use: An April 2016 report by the Colorado Department of Public Safety found that although high school use dropped slightly, use by 18 to 25 year olds increased from 21 per cent in 2006 to 31 per cent in 2014 while use by adults doubled. [continues 263 words]
Patients Can Get Anything They Want at Ottawa's Illegal Marijuana Dispensaries Inside Weeds Glass & Gifts on Bank Street, store manager Nick Dumond spots a man outside, smoking a joint. "Hey, man, are you smoking in front of my store?" he yells. "I'm trying to run a clean business here! This looks bad! Children could be walking by!" The toker had just left the store after dropping off pamphlets from the Cannabis Rights Coalition and imparting news of an upcoming rally hosted by the cannabis "community." "Sorry," he says sheepishly. "I medicate everywhere." [continues 4329 words]
Researchers at the University of Georgia have published a study in the July issue of Health Affairs showing that Medicare's prescription drug benefit program saves money in states that have legalized marijuana for medical use. Authors Ashley Bradford and Dr. David Bradford - daughter and father, BTW - calculate that in 2013, patients using medical marijuana in 17 states enabled Medicare Part D to save US taxpayers $165.2 million that would have been spent on prescription drugs. As reported by the university's media office, the Bradfords [continues 654 words]
To the editor: Why are the Liberals thinking of legalizing marijuana? Is it possible that they don't know what's on their own website where Health Canada has posted serious warnings against its use - particularly, for anyone under the age of 25? (Health Canada consumer information cannabis) Is the government blind to the following detrimental effects of legalization in places like Colorado? - - Increased use: An April 2016 report by the Colorado Department of Public Safety found that although high school use dropped slightly, use by 18 to 25 year olds increased from 21 per cent in 2006 to 31 per cent in 2014 while use by adults doubled. [continues 265 words]
Patients fill significantly fewer prescriptions for conditions like nausea and pain in states where medical marijuana is available, researchers reported Wednesday in one of the first studies to examine how medical cannabis might be affecting approved treatments. Prescriptions for all drugs that treat pain combined, from cortisone to OxyContin, were nearly 6 percent lower in states with medical marijuana programs. Anxiety medication was 5 percent lower. The result was a drop of more than $165 million in health care spending in states that had medical marijuana programs running in 2013, according to the analysis of national Medicare data. The savings would equal 0.5 percent of the entire Medicare program's drug budget if medicinal cannabis was available in every state, the authors projected. [continues 421 words]
Patients fill significantly fewer prescriptions for conditions like nausea and pain in states where medical marijuana is available, researchers reported Wednesday in one of the first studies to examine how medical cannabis might be affecting approved treatments. Prescriptions for all drugs that treat pain combined, from cortisone to OxyContin, were nearly 6 percent lower in states with medical marijuana programs.Anxiety medication was 5 percent lower. The result was a drop of more than $165 million in health care spending in states that had medical marijuana programs running in 2013, according to the analysis of national Medicare data. The savings could equal 0.5 percent of the entire Medicare program's drug budget if medicinal cannabis was available in every state. [continues 223 words]
Fewer Meds Are Sought in States With Legal Marijuana. Patients fill significantly fewer prescriptions for such conditions as nausea and pain in states where medical marijuana is available, researchers reported Wednesday in one of the first studies to examine how medical cannabis might be affecting approved treatments. Prescriptions for all drugs that treat pain combined, from cortisone to OxyContin, were nearly 6 percent lower in states with medical marijuana programs. Anxiety medication was 5 percent lower. The result was a drop of more than $165 million in health-care spending in states that had medical marijuana programs running in 2013, including New Jersey, according to the analysis of national Medicare data. The savings would equal 0.5 percent of the entire Medicare program's drug budget if medicinal cannabis were available in every state, the authors projected. [continues 1156 words]
The arrival of medical marijuana in Massachusetts and other states is changing the way doctors prescribe conventional medications, a study published Wednesday reports. The study, one of the first to investigate whether medical marijuana laws alter prescribing patterns, analyzed data from 17 states and Washington, D.C. It found that after medical marijuana laws were adopted, doctors wrote fewer prescriptions for Medicare patients diagnosed with anxiety, pain, nausea, depression, and other conditions thought to respond to marijuana treatment. That translated to about $165 million less spent on prescription drugs in just one year in the Medicare program, which provides health insurance for older adults, according to the study published in the journal Health Affairs. [continues 764 words]
Since his election on October 19 last year as Canada's 23rd Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has ushered in an astounding shift in Canada's political atmosphere. No longer are we enjoined by an angry, suspicious, and hateful government to live in fear and loathing of those who might trigger our xenophobic tendencies because of different beliefs, customs, or even methods of preparing foods. We are no longer asked to spy on our neighbours and rat out 'suspicious behaviour or, God help us, have 'Barbaric Practices. Age-old habits of homophobia and loathing of other gender identities are no longer encouraged by a fundamentalist leadership and scientists are no longer gagged, filtered, and silenced, Natives are no longer ignored or despised by government and generally, the air of oppression that hung over the country during the Harper decade has vanished into thin air. [continues 965 words]
Is marijuana an addictive gateway drug that lowers IQs, triggers psychotic episodes and makes roads less safe? Or is it a miracle plant that can ease pain or provide a pleasant buzz with health risks on par with forgetting to floss? Clashing portrayals of cannabis have endured through decades of research and a gradual easing of public resistance to the drug's use. Twenty years after California legalized medical marijuana and as the state appears poised to vote on allowing recreational consumption of weed sorting fact from fiction, anecdotal evidence from rigorous research and "Reefer Madness"-type scare tactics from legitimate health concerns still isn't easy. [continues 1557 words]
If a Customer Does Something Stupid, Are Business Owners to Blame? I own a marijuana dispensary. Will I get in trouble if a customer does something stupid after visiting my shop? I DON'T THINK SO, but anything is possible. You may have been alarmed by the recent Colorado lawsuit where a man named Richard Kirk shot and killed his wife after consuming a cannabis edible. This happened in 2014, but the Kirks' kids and other family members recently sued two Denver-based marijuana companies: the processor that made the product, and the dispensary that sold it. As for Kirk, he was charged with first-degree murder and pled guilty, but switched his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. Kirk claims that cannabis rendered him insane at the time of the slaying. [continues 374 words]
As an epidemiologist and a parent, I am perplexed with the recent momentum toward legalizing marijuana. Of all the arguments I have heard, I have yet to hear any that are compelling enough to remove the drug from prescription status. One argument I have heard is that marijuana is harmless. This argument ignores the fact that numerous studies have reported harm in peer-reviewed academic journals. A summary of the evidence, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2014, concluded, "Marijuana use has been associated with substantial adverse effects, some of which have been determined with a high level of confidence." Some of those effects were addiction to marijuana and other substances, motor vehicle accidents and chronic bronchitis. [continues 658 words]
The marijuana expert was in. Dale Gieringer, 70, a coauthor of California's 20-year-old medical marijuana law, was taking questions at a metal desk plopped down in the middle of an unusual new museum exhibit, "Altered State: Marijuana in California." A neatly dressed 77-year-old woman from Walnut Creek took a seat next to him. She seemed hesitant, but determined. Her husband hovered behind her. "I've never smoked anything," the woman told Gieringer, one of several pot experts invited to answer questions on the occasional Friday evening. "And I've been using Blackberry Kush for sleeping. Will it hurt my lungs? That's what I'm worried about." [continues 906 words]
It's hardly news that marijuana causes psychosis. It was proven in that documentary in the 1930s, Reefer Madness. Ian Goble, Ajax [end]
After last week's pot raids, experts talk about restraint, acceptance of the controversial drug Everybody seems to be talking about marijuana these days. Impending legalization has prompted a many-faceted debate about how our society should incorporate the greenery, even as dispensaries selling cannabis and related goods are popping up like, well, weeds. The sprouting conversation involves many people with divergent perspectives and interests in the marijuana regime of tomorrow. Let's listen to some of them. The casual toker [continues 1946 words]
Scientists Studying What Triggers the Phenomenon Say It's A Myth That Using Cannabis Is Free of Risks At first, the voices he heard in his head were pleasant. But then, they turned malevolent. Jean Thibodeau, a 19-year-old University of Toronto student and avid pot smoker, became convinced he was possessed by the devil. He could see blood gushing down his chest and feel a deep gash in his neck. "I remember thinking, 'I'm going to die,' " Thibodeau said. [continues 894 words]
Richard Kirk Is Charged With Murder, but a Lawsuit Contends That Edible Marijuana Made Him Do It. DENVER - Kristine Kirk's last moments were a harrowing collision of terror and confusion. Her husband, Richard, had burst through the door ranting about the end of the world. He began climbing in and out of a first-floor window, lying on the bedroom floor and asking for someone to kill him. Then he retrieved a pistol from his safe. "He's taking the gun out, sir," Kristine, 44, told a Denver 911 dispatcher. "I don't know where to go.... Richard, please stop ... please stop ... please stop." [continues 897 words]
Of course marijuana will be legalized. Only the misplaced morality of our previous Conservative government was impeding the logic that crime will be lessened, tax largesse will be increased and consumer rights will finally be recognized. How could any reasonable person argue that alcohol should be legal but marijuana not? However, legalization does raise a tricky issue with which we have a responsibility to grapple: kids and marijuana. All of us on the front lines of youth mental health and well-being know too well the disastrous results of frequent marijuana usage by kids. [continues 635 words]
