A Summerland family is desperate to access their shipment of Charlotte's Web, a medical marijuana oil made especially for children, but it has been held up at the Canadian border. Elaine Nuessler, who advocates for the use of cannabis oil treatments for kids with seizures, is terrified that her granddaughter, four-year-old Kyla Williams, will suffer hundreds of seizures a day if she doesn't get the cannabidiol (CBD) oil, which the family has been importing for more than a year. [continues 459 words]
Low in THC, Grandmother Says A Summerland family is desperate to access its shipment of Charlotte's Web, a medical marijuana oil made especially for children, but it has been held up at customs at the Canadian border. Elaine Nuessler, who advocates for the use of cannabis oil treatments for kids with seizures, is terrified her granddaughter, four-year-old Kyla Williams, will suffer hundreds of seizures a day if she doesn't get the cannabidiol (CBD) oil, which the family has been importing for more than a year. [continues 460 words]
While Nevada looks to the prospect of legalizing recreational marijuana, the state is also gazing into a future that puts its teenage population at risk for higher drug use and high school dropout rates if what's happened in Colorado and Washington are any indication of what's destined to occur in the Silver State. According to statistics in those states, the legalization of recreational marijuana resulted in a significant increase in teen marijuana use - Colorado rose to 18.9 percent and Washington is at 17.5 percent. The 2013 Nevada Kids Count data indicate nearly one in five Nevada youth ages 12 to 25 already smokes marijuana one or more times a month. [continues 57 words]
The state legislature should pass a law legalizing the use of marijuana for patients under 18. Children who have no other options should not be denied this medicine. The worst pain a parent can imagine is the loss of a child. Almost as devastating is to watch a child suffer. If the suffering continues for a long time, or repeats over and over again, the helplessness is agonizing for parents, who would do anything to stop it. Parents of children who suffer multiple seizures a day, and with those episodes, a constant risk of further disability and death, are asking the Connecticut General Assembly to legalize the use of marijuana for patients under 18. For some children it offers relief from the brutal cycle of seizures that make school and play impossible and may steal the ability even to walk and talk. [continues 475 words]
Study Drives Home Need for Substance Counseling Services More than 90 percent of males and nearly 80 percent of females who went through Cook County's juvenile detention center were diagnosed with drug or alcohol abuse and dependency at some point in their lives from childhood through their 20s and 30s, according to newly released findings from a Northwestern Medicine study. The study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, looked at 1,829 youths detained at Cook County's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center between 1995 and 1998 and followed up with them at least nine times over 12 years. According to the findings, by the time the group members reached their late 20s and, for the older participants, their early 30s, more than 9 in 10 males and more than 3 in 4 females were diagnosed with a "substance use disorder," meaning they abused and were dependent on substances ranging from alcohol and marijuana to cocaine and opiates. [continues 502 words]
VANCOUVER - Marijuana use is down among teenagers but bullying is up, according to the results of the latest survey of nearly 30,000 children in 377 schools across the country, released by the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey is conducted in 44 countries every four years to take a snapshot of the mental and physical health of children aged 11 to 15 in grades 6 through 10. It was first administered in 1990. [continues 418 words]
Health Survey Reveals Details of Children's Physical, Mental Health The World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada have released the results of the latest survey of nearly 30,000 children in 377 schools across Canada, first administered in 1990. The 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey is conducted in 44 countries every four years to take a snapshot of the mental and physical health of children aged 11 to 15 in Grades 6 through 10. [continues 512 words]
18 recommendations from Chinnery jury focus on prevention, reaction A coroner's jury looking into the shooting death of Andreas Chinnery by police is proposing wide-ranging recommendations, from controlling young people's marijuana use to police using lapel cameras. The jury made 18 recommendations Monday, adopting all of the suggestions made by the parties with standing - those with a direct interest - and then added three of its own. Chinnery had turned 19 just five weeks before he was shot and killed on Feb. 2, 2011 in his Barton Street East apartment by an officer responding to a call about a disturbance in his unit. [continues 655 words]
It's called infantalization - the treating of adults as if they were children. That's the essence of two bills just passed by the California Legislature. Senate Bill X2-7 would raise the legal smoking age to 21 from 18 and is authored by state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa. "The last several months have proven just how much tobacco's business model depends on their ability to market and sell their poison to our kids," he said. "It is time that we take a stand." [continues 279 words]
Linda Lloyd doesn't want to leave her home in Pawcatuck, where her 6-year-old son, Henry, attends "the best school ... he could possibly attend" and has a support network of family and friends close by. "Please don't force me to move out of state and leave my home in order to give my son a fighting chance," Lloyd told the state legislature's Public Health Committee during a hearing earlier this month. Lloyd, testifying for the first time at the General Assembly, was among eight parents and more than 20 others supporting legalization of medical marijuana for their children and others with debilitating seizure disorders and other conditions that have not responded to traditional pharmaceuticals. [continues 1031 words]
Government Should Look Closely at Research Before Deciding to Legalize Marijuana Use With research showing harmful effects of marijuana on developing adolescent brains, Ottawa should tread carefully in how it legalizes the drug, including considering a high minimum age for usage, a panel on substance abuse said Friday. Two members of a panel speaking in Calgary said updated research about how regular marijuana use negatively affects adolescents many ways should colour the debate over the cannabis legalization. Knowledge cannabis affects the developing brain until age 25 should influence legalization age restrictions, said Dr. Philip Tibbo, director of the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis program. [continues 123 words]
Local shop owners unhappy with legislation KITCHENER - The province has proposed stricter rules on the sale of e-cigarettes, as well as a sweeping ban on the use of e-cigarettes and medical marijuana in public places where smoking is already prohibited. It comes on the heels of a January ban on flavoured tobacco products. Protection from secondhand smoke in public places and curbing the appeal of e-cigarettes to youth are the main drivers of the Smoke Free Ontario Act's newest proposed amendments. [continues 464 words]
EDITOR: Drug abuse is becoming a great epidemic among teenagers in Sonoma County. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that almost 70 percent of seniors in high school will have tried alcohol, about 40 percent will have smoked a cigarette, and more than 20 percent will have tried some type of prescription medicine to get high. Other studies also show that marijuana use at a young age can have a long-term effect on thinking, memory and learning functions. Drug abuse is an issue that we need to address as a community. Sometimes parents aren't aware that their kids are abusing drugs, because they are not well educated about certain drugs and the effect they have on a child's health. Parents need to inform their children about the dangers of abusing drugs at a young age and the consequences for possessing, selling or consuming illegal drugs. Schools should have more programs that educate children about the health effects drugs have on their minds and bodies while are still developing. Only we as a community can put a stop to teen drug abuse. Santa Rosa [end]
After federal prosecutors declined this week to file criminal charges against a white New York City police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in the Bronx four years ago, the Police Department's long-delayed internal case against him will proceed. The mother of the teenager, Ramarley Graham, stood at City Hall on Thursday and called on Officer Richard Haste, who shot her son, to be fired along with other officers of the Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit involved in the episode. [continues 316 words]
Some parents and educators are cautiously backing a requirement that students be screened at schools for signs of substance abuse, but expressed concerns about confidentiality and how the state would implement the program. The proposed drug screening is part of an opioid bill passed Thursday by the Senate and expected to be signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker. The screening would be verbal. It would not include drug testing and would happen at two grade levels in public schools. Parents or legal guardians would have the option to exempt their children from screening. [continues 817 words]
Governor Charlie Baker sought much tougher legislation to deal with the opioid addiction crisis, but his spokesman said Tuesday that the current bill is "a strong step in the right direction. The Legislature is poised to approve a bill this week that would require schools to conduct screenings of students for drug abuse and work to curb opioid use by limiting doctors' initial prescriptions to seven days. Parents and students would have the ability to opt out of the screen, which would come in the form of a confidential interview with children at two still-to-be-determined grade levels. [continues 663 words]
Though there's growing call for more youth-addiction and detox beds, the number of Calgary youth treated in Alberta Health Services-provided beds hasn't changed much. In 2015, 398 youth were admitted to AHS beds, a seven per cent decrease from 428 admissions in 2013 - when the number peaked. In 2010, 385 Calgary Zone youth were admitted. The government's mental health review plans to immediately open three new youth detox beds at Hull Services. Though the numbers seem to flatline, Associate Health Minister Brandy Payne said beds are gravely needed. [continues 150 words]
Affordability, availability and more potent forms of marijuana are spurring alarming trends in pot use among teenagers, law enforcement and school officials say. Not only are more youths being cited for minor in possession, but how they view and use the drug is shifting as marijuana becomes more socially acceptable - and legal. "Pot's chill," says Kate, a 17-year-old North Medford High School student whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity. "It just chills you and opens your eyes. I don't see it as a bad thing." [continues 1717 words]
Sir: Re: Will Canada 'go to pot'? Like many newcomers to cannabis policy, guest columnist Nadine Wark is under the misapprehension that we are arguing over whether or not cannabis should exist, rather than discussing what might be the optimal - not Utopian - regulatory model for minimizing the costs and maximizing the benefits of cannabis in society. While it is true that preventing sales to minors is difficult, and certain to fall short, Canadian teens report that cannabis is easier to obtain than alcohol, and they are about twice as likely to try cannabis than try tobacco before they graduate from high school. [continues 173 words]
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A second-grader's tales of how he was helping a "farmer" grow "special medicine" plants led to the bust of a large indoor marijuana growing operation in Windsor last week. Steven Mann, 54, pleaded innocent Monday in White River Junction criminal court to a felony count of cultivating more than 25 marijuana plants. He was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond. Windsor Police Det. Jennifer Frank wrote in an affidavit that Mann's girlfriend's 8-year-old son told school officials and Frank about Mann's "green thumb" and how he got to help him grow "special medicine that can cure anything at all." [continues 283 words]
