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 on 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 750 words]
Advisory Ends After Residents Were Told Not to Bathe, Drink or Cook With Their Tap Water Hugo - the small town that made a sudden appearance in national headlines for nearly two days - is returning to normal after state laboratories determined that all six field tests that gave rise to suspicions about THC-contaminated water turned out to be false positives. Sandie Bailey and her 10-year-old daughter, JoHanna, said Friday that dishes were starting to pile up in their kitchen in Hugo because they were scared to use the town's water. The water was feared to be contaminated by THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana. Testing by the CBI, announced Saturday, eliminated that fear. Photos by RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post [continues 355 words]
DENVER - There are no marijuana dispensaries or greenhouses in the tiny railroad town of Hugo, where Theodore Roosevelt once ate breakfast with the local cowboys. But this week, Hugo's 740 residents were told to stop drinking the water after the town's water supply tested positive for THC, the psychoactive chemical in Colorado's most famous cash crop. The trouble started when a local company trying to calibrate its employee drug tests pulled a positive reading from Hugo's tap water. The town's Public Works Department investigated and found signs of tampering and "forced entry" at one of the wells that supply the town's drinking water, a spokesman for the Lincoln County sheriff told reporters. The town sealed off the well that seemed to be the source of the tainted water. [continues 298 words]
The state's highest court said Wednesday that people convicted on drug charges in cases that involved a disgraced state chemist, Annie Dookhan, can seek new trials. Last year, the Supreme Judicial Court gave special permission to people to undo their pleas if they had pleaded guilty to drug charges in Dookhan-related cases. On Wednesday, it ruled that the same protection must be extended to some defendants who went to trial. "Regardless whether a defendant pleads guilty to a drug offense or is found guilty at trial . . . the evidence is still potentially tainted by Dookhan's misconduct," Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote for the court. "The taint is still attributable to the government [because] it may be impossible for the defendant to prove [their] case . . . was actually tainted by Dookhan's misconduct." [continues 609 words]
California's historic medical-marijuana regulations are reshaping the state's multibillion-dollar industry - but niche areas remain in a legal limbo. Consider the Chalice California hash and glass-art bash, which went down in the high desert of Southern California earlier this month. Wu-Tang Clan performed before thousands of attendees, and hundreds of vendors spent three days accepting "donations" for concentrated pot resins, which were many-times stronger than raw marijuana flowers. The event itself sprawled across dozens of acres of the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, and free "dabs" - tiny hits of super-potent vaporized weed oil - were handed out like slushies in the 95-degree heat. All this despite the fact that California's marijuana-concentrates industry exists in an evolving grey area. [continues 673 words]
Health workers highlight fentanyl, W-18 Party people are heading in droves to Pemberton Music Festival this weekend, and it's a truth acknowledged that some will be on a chemically fuelled trip, Hunter S. Thompson style. But given B.C.'s fentanyl crisis, provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall is warning festival enthusiasts that mixing drugs could be fatal. He said health officials still don't know how much fentanyl - or worse, W-18 - is added to some recreational party drugs like ecstasy, cocaine and speed. [continues 406 words]
The police raids around a gritty Brooklyn intersection were meant to show that city officials were taking charge after 33 people had been stricken by suspected overdoses of K2. But the spectacle, captured by a crush of news media, came up all but empty, without a single packet of the drug seized. The outcome of the attempted crackdown underscored the challenges the authorities face in combating K2, a potent substance that is easy to distribute and hard to regulate. Its low price and powerful high have made it popular among some homeless people, and its effects have periodically transformed patches of the city - like the one on the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant where the raids were carried out - into theaters of public drug use. [continues 873 words]
Halfway through 2016, Colorado's employment growth is meeting expectations and the the economy continues to outperform the nation: Employment is growing faster here, housing is hotter and incomes are higher, according to a report released Thursday by the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business. And Colorado's fledgling marijuana industry - which, in the grand scheme of things, is just a tiny sliver of the economic pie chart - is backfilling retail sales losses from the bankruptcy of a certain Englewood-based sporting goods retailer and bolstering otherwise sluggish manufacturing segments, according to the Colorado Business Review report. [continues 650 words]
All Three Parties Support Legalization, but Specifics Are Scanty Justice Minister Andrew Parsons, Opposition Leader Paul Davis, and New Democrat MHA Gerry Rogers have all smoked marijuana, and all three are in favour of legalizing it. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of legalized weed in Newfoundland and Labrador, the picture is still very hazy. "There's plenty of meetings, plenty of work, but all of it sort of based on a wait-and-see," Parsons said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise of legalizing marijuana in Canada, and since taking office last year, the federal government has started to make moves in that direction. [continues 394 words]
No One Knows What Legal Weed in N.L. Will Look Like Justice Minister Andrew Parsons, Opposition Leader Paul Davis, and New Democrat MHA Gerry Rogers have all smoked marijuana, and all three are in favour of legalizing it. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of legalized weed in Newfoundland and Labrador, the picture is still very hazy. "There's plenty of meetings, plenty of work, but all of it sort of based on a wait-and-see," Parsons said. [continues 424 words]
Growth of Dispensaries in B.C. Increased Demand; Where Supplies Come From Unclear Customers of Victoria's marijuana dispensaries have to rely on pot luck. While the bottle of Pinot Grigio at the liquor store shows where the wine was grown, the alcohol content and whether it contains sulphites, customers are not told where the marijuana sold at local dispensaries is coming from. "No store will tell its clients exactly where they get it from," said James Whitehead, owner of medical marijuana dispensaries in Sooke and Victoria. "It's not like a vineyard where they say: 'Here it is on the vineyard map. Go drive by and have a look.' There are no tours of the grow facilities. They are clandestine operations." [continues 1201 words]
Nevada billionaire and Sands Las Vegas CEO Sheldon Adelson once proposed the U.S. nuke Iran, and donates to Republican Party candidates who share his uncritical and unwavering support for Israel. He has lobbied to expand the Interstate Wire Act to outlaw all online gambling instead of just sports betting. He is currently lobbying for a special session of the Nevada Legislature this summer to approve his scheme to bring the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas by an increase in the hotel room tax. If the new Las Vegas football stadium is such a great idea, why doesn't Mr. Adelson use some more of his own considerable fortune to build it? [continues 494 words]
Last Wednesday in Sonoma County, officials responded to a report of workplace safety violations with armed law enforcement officers in Kevlar and camouflage. Until that day, a major cannabis company called CBD Guild had been producing cannabis oil cartridges, cannabis gel-caps, sprays, and other marijuana products sold without issue all over the state under the popular brand names AbsoluteXtracts and Care By Design. Just a few weeks before, the company was comfortable enough to welcome in officials from local and state government to take a peek at the operation, which was considered a "model" for other companies in the state's burgeoning commercial cannabis industry to follow. [continues 755 words]
The Wednesday police raid that halted production of a popular line of cannabis oil-infused products made in Santa Rosa - and widely distributed throughout California - has revealed the deep political connections of a homegrown collective and raised questions about the safety of marijuana extraction methods. At least 150 medical marijuana patients, activists and supporters of the CBD Guild collective filled the steps outside the Sonoma County Superior Courthouse on Thursday. They demanded an end of criminalization of the medical marijuana industry. [continues 1096 words]
Health Canada Data on Dangers of Drug May Have Come From Preliminary Research in '84 Experts are questioning widely circulated Health Canada claims that the drug W-18 is 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, or that the new arrival to the illicit-drug scene is even technically an opioid. Dr. David Juurlink, head of pharmacology and toxicology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said that while W-18 could very well be dangerous, more research is needed before conclusions can be drawn about its chemical behaviour and potency. [continues 555 words]
More San Diegans are getting high off of spice and causing medical emergencies as a result. Since October, 911 calls relating to spice have been on the rise. In February, there were 200 emergency medical services calls, more than double the previous month, according research by the San Diego Association of Governments. Spice, also known as K-2, is synthetic marijuana made of herbs or some other smokable substance that is sprayed with chemicals that cause a high. Spice is sold with the label "not intended for human consumption," so it isn't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, compounds are often changed, allowing manufacturers to create the drug despite laws attempting to ban it. [continues 234 words]
Nevada City - Silas Hurd's "golden ticket" was losing its luster. The Medi-Haze B provided by Grass Roots Solutions, the Nevada County medical marijuana collective rallying to help the boy, wasn't having the same effect. His seizures returned in late 2015 following a four-month respite that had brought his parents so much hope. But Nicole and Forrest Hurd still believed in the potential of CBD - a compound in marijuana that has shown medicinal promise in limited childhood epilepsy studies - to help their son. [continues 3031 words]
The Debate on Medicinal Cannabis Needs the Major Parties to Grow Up. I think I am the only member of parliament in Australia to acknowledge my recreational use of cannabis. In fact, I have enjoyed the many blessings that cannabis can bestow for a lot of my adult life and have not lost my mind or become a serial killer. Indeed, I became a politician and some have even said I would not have been elected without it! Jokes aside, I'm declaring my usage or non-usage of cannabis, just so everyone knows where I'm coming from. This debate would be far more informative if every journalist, every politician and every commentator on the subject of cannabis law reform did the same, instead of hiding their drug use, drug abuse or their nonuse in the closet. [continues 620 words]
Editor's note: This is day one of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR Eric Buntain described the feeling of injecting heroin into his vein as "warm, euphoric, comfortable and relaxing: It feels great." About 30 seconds after injecting heroin, there's a surge of warmth coming from the low spinal area, a rush of sensation and an overriding sense of well-being. [continues 1448 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]
