Soros would disagree.
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."
“Never mind the other effects on one’s life”
You’re the one assuming things about experiences being the same.
And what is “my kind”? Looks to me like you’re making another assumption, especially considering that you don’t know me at all.
You are an obnoxious hypocrite.
But, but, but...think of all the tax money the guvment is getting to help pay for these problems! /sarc
I used to think marijuana was harmless. Not so much anymore. Now I think it may be a trap. God centered clean living and optimism are the happy way. Not drugs
You never smoked 1980’s skunk weed, did you?
And yeah, I wouldn’t want kids smoking it either, but they are either going to or not going to regardless of anything you do or do not do.
Everyone makes their own choices in life, and you can’t save people from bad ones.
Your last three posts all violate TOS here.
A man who can’t even abide by voluntarily-agreed rules of using a website has no business discussing laws.
Nothing to see here. “MAYBE” lower birth weight?
“nausea and cardiac issues.” Nausea? Really? Cardiac issues? Like are you saying or trying to infer/scare people into thinking “HEART ATTACKS?” YES, actual heart attacks, I doubt it or you would have said so.
More likely people getting “scared” because they didn’t expect the effects they got. Likely first time users.
“One recent study found a three-fold increase in marijuana-related admissions in the aftermath of legalization.”
ONE study, ZERO details. It must have been series.
“a historic increase in homelessness and a growing population of chronic, marijuana-dependent users.”
Invasion of the WEED JUNKIES! OMG,
I’m not a pot head, I don’t support legalizing Marry-Jo Wanna, but the “war on weed” is LOST.
This report, shall I say “hit piece”, is a yuge NOTHINGBURGER. It’s purpose was to alarm the public about the alarming effects of weed. Then, it didn’t really reveal any.
This article is an epic fail. You didn’t “scare” ANYBODY.
Once upon a time, I thought “Reefer Madness” was ridiculous over-the-top hyperbole. Now, I am not so sure.
For references on LD50s, unfortunately, most of the scientific articles are behind paywalls. However, according to the abstract of the article referenced below, available at Elsevier, the LD50 of THC in mice is 276 mg/kg, which equates to about 21 grams in a 165 pound person. Reply #30 in this thread quotes an article that estimates LD50 in humans as about 2 grams for an adult. (It is common that LD50 varies between species).
A “millier” is the result of the auto-uncorrect function of my iPad. I had typed “milliliter,” which is about 1/28 of an ounce. This would be slightly more than a gram of THC.
Reference:
Cannabichromene and delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol: interactions relative to lethality, hypothermia and hexobarbital hypnosis.
Hatoum NS, Davis WM, Elsohly MA, Turner CE.
Gen Pharmacol. 1981;12(5):357-62. No abstract available.
Soros would disagree.
I had to look up the hornet spray thing to see if you were joking. You weren’t. I grew up in the sixties and some some really stupid things done for a high. A good friend died by frostbiting his lungs trying to huff N02 right out of the tank. This is right up there on the Darwin scale
Evaluate THIS post for us, thoughtomator:
To: MarvinStinson
Bite me.
50 posted on 9/7/2019, 8:56:43 AM by thoughtomator
The war on murder has been going on for millennia, and we *still* have not won it. Maybe it’s time we gave up on that one, too.
Oh, wait a minute. We *did* give up in the war on murder with respect to a certain class of victims. When we did that, the murder rate of unborn children skyrocketed from fewer than 10,000 per year to over 1.6 million per year in just a few years, and is currently around 800,000 per year. Yep, giving up that particular fight sure had positive results.
It is impossible to eliminate any kind of criminality. The best we can do is control it and reduce its incidence by making and enforcing laws against it. If your standard is that laws must completely eliminate criminal activity or be thrown out, then we will have no laws and civilization becomes impossible.
Your numbers are way off.
Might want to check your math.
We didn’t call users “dopeheads” back in the 70s, when I was growing up, for nothing. All of us that didn’t do that stupid stuff could see what it did to our friends and family members who did. It generally made them lazy and slow, and that was on a good day.
The friends of mine in junior high who began doing it when they were in high school? If they graduated at all, it was toward the bottom of the class as they tossed aside sports and academics and really got into weed/bong culture. ;-)
I can’t speak to so-called “casual use” (Michael Phelps, ahem...), but regular and sustained use really seemed to have an affect on everyone around us who were dopeheads.
It will do that if one smokes throughout the day.
But then again, if one drinks all day, one will be drunk all day, and there are plenty of people who do exactly that.
Moderation versus abuse.
Really? You know this, how?
Let’s take your average ignorant pothead, who absolutely believes that using marijuana is as safe as drinking water. And he gets ahold of that pure THC. With a published report that 2 grams has resulted in death, and another study that shows the LD50 in mice equates to about 21g in a 165 pound human—what do you think is going to happen when that pothead thinks he is going to have a super great high if he consumes that 99% pure extract?
Also, there have been recent reports of over a hundred (maybe over 200) deaths from vaping around the country. This seems to be related to vaping of marijuana oils, not nicotine products.
I think the marijuana lobby is going to have a hard time suppressing evidence of the deleterious effects of legalized marijuana as time goes on and the effects are seen more frequently.
“Just stop.”
Not one for objective give and take of facts are you?
Do you recognize the LD50 of THC? That means, its measured effect of inflicting death.
It simply exists objectively, as a fact.
The two cases in the referenced study, were two young men, who died due to THC use. It happens. The causes of death are cardiac failure, or blood pressure effects.
No doubt that more die at lesser doses, due to the psychoactive effects. As the National Institutes of Health’s Toxicology Data Network puts it (https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+6471): “High doses of delta 9-THC can induce frank hallucinations, delusions, and paranoid feelings. Thinking becomes confused and disorganized; depersonalization and altered time sense are accentuated. Anxiety reaching panic proportions may replace euphoria”, and “With high enough doses, the clinical picture is that of a toxic psychosis with hallucinations, depersonalization, and loss of insight”.
Do you mean to propose that there is no LD50 for THC? Or that there is no risk due to to psychological effects? Just a few moments of web search will easily produce evidence to the contrary from authoritative sources.
If you just want to hear that THC is free of risk, and that CBDs are a panacea, you can find people to tell you that. And you can (obviously) just tell everybody else to “Just stop” and ignore all evidence to the contrary.
It is a common choice made by substance abusers, to rationalize/enable their drug seeking behavior.
That is a recent development with the legalization of pot. When the E cigs came out a few years ago there was no such problem and in fact a means to wean smokers off cigarettes and ultimately smoking all together.
OKIES ARE THE LATEST SUCKERS TO BUY INTO LEGAL WEED MYTH
Nothing good comes from legal narcotics. As a strictly monitored medicine? Maybe. But here in Okie land, Tiffany has a medical stoner card and she's buying dope for her stoner friends who don't want to get into the system.
“what do you think is going to happen when that pothead thinks he is going to have a super great high if he consumes that 99% pure extract?”
Nothing.
A “pothead” has a significant tolerance to THC.
A “pothead” could smoke you under the table while you pass out from two hits.
You don’t seem to have a good understanding of how things work.
Neither do I, but have you looked around lately?
I'm next door in rural WV and I'll grant you it's nowhere near as bad as where I used to live (NYC) but in the 17 years I'm here, things have gone downhill. Jobs are going begging because applicants can't pass drug screenings. Add to that the slow (for now) increase in illegals into the area and the outcome is pre-ordained.
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