Posted on 09/07/2019 4:37:12 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Colorado's experiment with marijuana legalization has been an epic disaster, according to one doctor seeing its effects on the front lines.
Dr. Karen Randall, an emergency room physician certified in "cannabis science and medicine," said the legalization of marijuana has damaged, rather than helped, her home state. Randall, who spoke alongside former White House drug czar John Walters at the right-leaning Hudson Institute on Friday, said the public is being misled about the effects of recreational marijuana.
"I think the public needs to know that we are not okay," Randall said. "The grand experiment is not going so well. I don't think the public is hearing about this as they should be."
In 2012, Colorado and Washington become the first states in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The Centennial State is often pointed to as a success story with more than $1 billion in tax revenues generated since legalization. Eight more states followed in approving recreational use.
While the country has plowed ahead with marijuana legalization, less attention has been paid to potential downsides of the weed market. Randall said legalization has brought with it high-potency dope: The average joint in Colorado, she says, now contains 20 milligrams of THC, 10 times as much as the average joint at Woodstock. Concentrated products, sometimes called "shatter," can be up to 99 percent THC.
"My fellow physicians don't understand, they don't understand the potency that we're dealing with in Colorado at this point," Randall said. "The potency has dramatically increased."
Randall has seen a "marked increase in medical problems" at the emergency room she works at in Pueblo, Colo. She's experienced increased admissions for cannabis-related nausea and cardiac issues. Dr. Randall is likely not alone. One recent study found a three-fold increase in marijuana-related admissions in the aftermath of legalization.
At the same time many patients use legal marijuana heavily under the misguided impression that it has medical benefits, according to Dr. Randall. She cited one patient who used marijuana to treat his brain cancer—unsurprisingly, without success.
"Patients routinely use a gram a day, five grams a day," she said. "Why? It's okay, it's legal, it's healthy, the industry has said it will cure all kinds of diseases."
The Colorado state government is also working to perpetuate this belief. Randall cited the state's recent decision to add Autism Spectrum Disorder to the list of conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana, which specifically permits the drug's use by minors. The Autism Science Foundation says there is "limited research, and no evidence, on the potential short-term, long-term or neurodevelopmental risks and benefits of medical marijuana or its related compounds in ASD."
There is, however, evidence that marijuana adversely affects developing brains. The U.S. surgeon general warned that chronic teen marijuana use negatively affects IQ, school performance, and is even linked to psychotic disorders including schizophrenia.
Randall said the state government has not only ignored scientific findings about marijuana's effects to push sales, but failed in the regulatory responsibility it promised would accompany legalization. The surgeon general's report noted that marijuana use during pregnancy is linked to "adverse outcomes, including lower birth weight." A recent study of Colorado dispensaries found that 69 percent recommended women use marijuana anyway, with some actually discouraging mothers from telling their doctors about their drug use.
Randall pointed to other commonly cited effects of legalization, including a historic increase in homelessness and a growing population of chronic, marijuana-dependent users. All of these, she suggested, have gone unreported in spite of the toll they are taking on her community.
The glittering image of post-legalization Colorado—with billions in tax revenue and a happy populace—runs up against the uncomfortable reality of poor regulation and patients dangerously misguided about the risks and benefits of marijuana use.
"There are a whole host of us who are speaking out about it, and people need to start listening and looking to the future," Randall said. "This is going to be a crisis with potential long-term consequences that will far outpace the opioid crisis, with lasting damages and lasting injuries, as well as a significant cost to the public."
Some states have made things illegal that are legal in other states; guns, abortion, gay marriage used to be an example, recreational intoxicants, even gambling, and prostitution. I prefer the feds stick to those things where they have a constitutional role. Gun rights are protected yet they have been eroded. Alcohol prohibition was not a federal role Colorado should decide this issue.
“You have to wonder if this has anything to do with the mass shootings.”
THC in marijuana (the psychoactive component that is concentrated in the extracts for sale) strongly increases the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.
Most anti-psychotic drugs work by reducing dopamine levels.
THC will push borderline psychotics into full blown psychosis (hallucinations, break with reality). In fact, anyone will hallucinate if they take a high enough dose of THC - it is just a matter of the individual’s tolerance.
Although most people (the great bulk), using dosages like those found in traditional marijuana use, are relatively sedated by its effects, at dosages high enough to induce psychosis, people can become quite agitated and violent.
Well, maybe the liberals should something else... Like huffing gasoline.. Or maybe using hornet killer in their vapor thingie.. GLUE..!! That's it.!! What we need is a nation full of glue heads with 10 thousand nuclear weapons... Yeah ... that'll fix it... :(
The train wreck that is Colorado was caused by the exact same pathology that caused marijuana to be criminalized in the first place: The idea that a large group of people has rights to do what the individuals in that group do not.
We call it government power, or some such, In order to obscure the fact that it’s raw oppression.
Use of a natural plant should never have been criminalized, but now that the mob has assumed the power to do so, they have also assumed the responsibility for the outcome we’re seeing now.
She ought to be aware of what an alcohol fetal syndrome adult loos like.
Sorry, phrenology and homeopathic remedies were at least non-fatal if you got them wrong. This Cannabidiol oil nostrum is right up there with colloidal silver.
It being "legalized" in some states is saying lawmakers can write a law to cure cancer. By Stupids, for Stupids.
> You have to wonder if this has anything to do with the mass shootings.
The drugs to blame there are called SSRIs and as far as we’re able to tell, nearly every single one of these mass shooters had been taking them.
Harry J. Anslinger couldn’t have wrote a better script. Booze and cigarettes kill more people every year then pot does. No one ever od on weed.
“the LD 50 THC is probably the safest drug ever discovered”
Far from true.
“the lethal half dose (LD50) for THC in humans is estimated to be around 30 mg/kg. This means that approximately 2 grams (.07 ounces) of pure THC has a 50% chance of killing a 150 pound man.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24598271)
The mechanisms of death are “marked increase in heart rate or supine blood pressure”.
Concentrated THC derivatives consisting of up to 80% THC are now available - one tenth of an ounce of these would contain a LD50 dose of 2 grams of THC.
I try to stay out of "Reefer Madness" threads but you need to source that statement. I have no clue what a millier is.
One hundred years of a drug war , a domestic Vietnam. So when is victory in sight, another hundred years? And if fighting an intoxicating substance can be successful why is the 18th. Amendment still in place?
This appears to be driven by pretend-Christians in open defiance of the very first commands given by God to mankind in Genesis 1:26-28.
They really ought to have better things to do.
“Cannabidiol oil nostrum is right up there with colloidal silver.”
Colloidal silver was the most effective oral antibiotic we had, before penicillin. It is way better supported with hard data than CBD.
Just stop, your ignorance is extreme and everyone who has any familiar with the subject is going to spot that right away. You sound like AOC talking about guns.
re: “ No one ever od on weed.”
Never mind the other effects on one’s life -
“Whistling past the graveyard.”
No, I don’t have to wonder that.
Young brains have been smoking MJ long before mass shooting became a thing.
DING! DING! DING!
We have a winner!!
They asked to be freed from the “protective” oppression of their state government’s rules, and now they got it. Let them deal with their new found freedoms and all that go with that!
“No one ever od on weed.”
People can and do die, directly from ingesting THC.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24598271
Moderate use is very safe for the great bulk of people, but when dosages are raised significantly, such as with concentrated extracts, more serious effects are seen (such as hallucinations, but including sudden death).
Approximately 2 grams of pure THC (intraveneous) has a 50% chance of killing a 150 pound man.
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