Even as a business owner and father of two children, I am convinced that legalizing cannabis is the right choice for Nevada. TV ads decrying the dangers of edible cannabis for children miss the point: Cannabis-related hospitalizations in Colorado still make up a tiny fraction of total poisonings and have led to no reported deaths. Legalization will not change child endangerment laws or the importance of responsible parenting. And arguments that legalization will affect older children's educational development also ring hollow. [continues 89 words]
According to A Drug Free World, an organization that employs education in our schools to attempt to stop drug experimentation amongst our youth, it is estimated that 25% of children are involved with drug use. As we all know, in the last year, over 400 young people have died as a result of drug use. Our emergency departments are increasingly attending young people with side effects due to drugs, including marijuana. When the government legalizes this powerful psychoactive drug, it is going to get worse. Why they are legalizing this agent is a mystery. We must start teaching our young in our schools about the true facts about drugs, both legal and illegal. (Back in the day, drug awareness lessons in school were terrifying.) [end]
Political reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez moderates a debate between Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery (against) and J.P. Holyoak from the Pro Prop 205 Campaign over legalizing recreational marijuana in Arizona. William Bennett needs to spend some time on a high school campus ("3 lies the pro-marijuana side is pushing ...," Sept. 19). Marijuana is already prevalent and widely available. I am going to support legalization because I want to get the drugs out of our schools. The people who sell marijuana also sell other things that are very nasty and things that can get you very addicted. [continues 119 words]
'If these places are not going to be shut down, there should be rules' Some parents in Orleans are furious that an illegal pot shop has opened in the building where their children attend martial-arts classes and after-school tutoring. A marijuana dispensary called CannaGreen opened on Sept. 11 in the front of a small commercial building on St. Joseph Boulevard. The back of the building houses The Edge Taekwon-Do Academy and Kumon Math and Reading Centre. All the businesses share a parking lot in the back. [continues 1439 words]
Price, availability, addictiveness appeal to young people, police say THE city's youth are fuelling a surge in methamphetamine use because it's a cheaper way to get a long-lasting high. In fact, "because of its affordability, addictive nature and accessibility, the methamphetamine user base in Winnipeg has increased significantly over a few short years, allowing traffickers to prosper," the Winnipeg Police Service said in a statement. Sadly, both police and health officials don't expect the situation to get better any time soon. [continues 1087 words]
Hospital, former lab director point fingers at each other, deny allegations in proposed class action lawsuit The Hospital for Sick Children and the director of its former Motherisk laboratory are now battling each other in court. The two sides have issued cross-claims against each other as part of their statements of defence filed in a proposed class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was launched by parents who claim they lost their children because of faulty drug and alcohol hair tests carried out by Motherisk. [continues 574 words]
Free naloxone kits aimed at saving lives of drug users UBC Okanagan is now offering free take-home naloxone kits to help students reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. The new program is in response to the public health emergency declared in April by provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall over the increasing number of drug overdoses across B.C. "We have not seen an increase of drug use on campus, but the risk of drug use is significantly higher as a result of fentanyl being cut with other drugs or being used alone," said Jean Bryans, primary health nurse at UBCO. "We at student health services have not responded to any drug overdoses on campus, (but) I think it would be naive to think there aren't any students on campus that are using any kind of illicit drugs." [continues 269 words]
We understand why there are concerns about legalizing marijuana, but the fears are misplaced. There is a lot of misinformation. People with a political agenda have been lying about cannabis for quite some time. Studies have shown cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana use has never been linked to cancer, and it is physically impossible to overdose. The "gateway drug" myth is persuasive but untrue. Most hard drug users' first drug was alcohol or tobacco. While it is generally true that users of dangerous narcotics such as heroin and meth have used marijuana in the past, few who have tried marijuana go on to use hard drugs. [continues 181 words]
Expanding Medical Use Is Part of the Explanation. Smoking weed is often seen as an indulgence reserved for the young and the reckless: kids get high, in the popular imagination, but by and large their parents don't. But new federal data show a stunning reversal of that ageold stereotype. Middle-aged Americans are now slightly more likely to use marijuana than their teenage children. The research, released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that only 7.4 percent of Americans aged 12 to 17 years old smoked marijuana regularly in 2014, a 10 percent decline since 2002. [continues 400 words]
Use of Marijuana Among Those Aged 55-64 Up 455% Since 2002 Smoking weed is often seen as an indulgence reserved for the young and the reckless: kids get high, in the popular imagination, but by and large their parents don't. But new federal data show a stunning reversal of that ageold stereotype. Middle-aged Americans are now slightly more likely to use marijuana than their teenage children. The research, released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that only 7.4 percent of Americans aged 12 to 17 years old smoked marijuana regularly in 2014, a 10 percent decline since 2002. But 8 percent of 35-to-44-year-olds used marijuana regularly in 2014, surpassing use among teens for the first time since at least 2002. (Survey data prior to that year aren't directly comparable, as the methodology changed.) [continues 421 words]
A Napanee-area marijuana facility is now able to sell its medical product to patients in need, and a mother says her son is benefitting from the development. Six-year-old Gage is able to sit up by himself, playing with a few coloured balls and his iPad while his mother, Kelly, shares their story. Gage has lissencephaly type 1, a rare and incurable neurological disorder, as well as having a severe, rare, yet unnamed, form of epilepsy. "They can't even give it a name because he has so many characteristics from other syndromes of epilepsy," Kelly, whose last name is not being released to protect Gage's privacy, said. "And he currently takes cannabis." [continues 641 words]
Columnists Brent Stafford and Petr Pospisil battle over the issues of the day. This week's topic: Is the B.C. government responsible for protecting youth from drug overdoses? Responsibility for B.C.'s addiction crisis does not rest on the slight shoulders of our youth, who are especially vulnerable to peer pressure, low self-confidence, and a limited grasp of consequences. The tragic case of 16-year-old Gwynevere Staddon, who died in a Starbucks bathroom, adds to the staggering 371 overdose casualties so far this year. Most deaths go unpublicized - their families still in shock and suffering, almost invisible to our government. [continues 353 words]
Columnists Brent Stafford and Petr Pospisil battle over the issues of the day. This week's topic: Is the B.C. government responsible for protecting youth from drug overdoses? Professional government critics such as Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth - should acknowledge that government ministries and support services dedicated to caring for youth exist not because government has a problem, but because society has a problem. I caution to not expect such an admission anytime soon, for misery-mongers like Turpel-Lafond never miss an opportunity to turn tragedy into a political attack. [continues 360 words]
Youth representative says B.C. failed to provide necessary treatment B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth says the suspected overdose death last weekend of a Coquitlam teenager was a "tragedy that could have been prevented." Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said her office worked with 16-year-old Gwynevere Staddon's family to try and find her treatment, and said her father did everything possible to properly navigate the system and ask for help. She called the family's case "a heartbreaking nightmare" that was completely preventable. [continues 1028 words]
For One Whole Day IT WAS the mid '80s, and I was living in the jewel of Northern California: Sacramento, where the only culture was the agriculture. I was doing my time in high school, trying to sort out all the things that go on during those golden years, particularly trying to figure out what was "cool." And that included cannabis. I had already tried drinking. My first few forays involved beer-or, at least, some Mickey's Big Mouths, as this was still a long time before craft microbrews were a thing. Not long after, someone produced a bottle of tequila. My first time drinking it, I quite literally went blind in the city's only 24-hour doughnut shop, and then proceeded to vomit until the early hours of the next day in their tiny, filthy bathroom. [continues 607 words]
This is the time of year parents start worrying about back-to-school stuff. For those with college-age kids who will soon go off to live by themselves, there's an extra bit of preparation to think about. You may not realize it, but police departments across the country, especially those near colleges and universities, often "flip" students caught with even a tiny amount of marijuana and recruit them into the ranks of "confidential informant." [continues 712 words]
Medical Study Shows 34% Rise in Cases of Pediatric Marijuana Exposure As more Colorado adults become comfortable with marijuana in their homes, more young children are ingesting the drug, a new study reports. The JAMA Pediatrics report notes Colorado saw an increase of pediatric marijuana cases by 34% annually, compared with 19% for the rest of the USA. Coloradans are baking marijuana into chocolate chip cookies, brownies and pies and adding it to candy fruit chews and chocolate bars - all sweets that toddlers find irresistible. And, the edibles market is still in its infancy. [continues 152 words]
A new study shows marijuana poisoning in young children has risen 150 percent in Colorado since the substance was legalized in 2014 - a frightening statistic that has opponents of the Bay State legal marijuana ballot initiative warning that the same could happen in Massachusetts. "The edible products for the marijuana industry are a huge part of the profit and growth model," said Rep. Hannah Kane, of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts' steering committee. "Children are highly susceptible to these products." [continues 213 words]
To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more than a sugar high. A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in Colorado, the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally. [continues 524 words]
To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more than a sugar high. A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in Colorado the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally. [continues 225 words]