Recent News

Poppot.org 2 October 2018
Family First Comment: Nobody ever died?….
“Henry was at the home of a 19-year-old young man, “dabbing”, which is the use of an inhaler to breathe marijuana into your system, making it extremely potent. This 19-year-old took videos of my son Henry both while he was dabbing and also after he passed out; he then let Henry get into his car to drive home. Apparently, Henry passed out again, only this time behind the wheel. Driving through a stop sign, he hit a semi-truck. He would die a few hours later. And my life has never been the same. You can imagine my agony as my state now faces a decision on the November ballot on whether or not to legalize the very drug that took my son.”

Less than one year ago I received a parent’s worst nightmare at my front door: a Police Officer informing me Henry had been in a horrific car crash. He died a 16-year-old junior at Ludington High School, full of potential. No father should ever have to bury his son. The cause? Recreational marijuana.

How It Happened
It was the evening of October 6, 2017 (homecoming night!). Henry was at the home of a 19-year-old young man, “dabbing”, which is the use of an inhaler to breathe marijuana into your system, making it extremely potent.

This 19-year-old took videos of my son Henry both while he was dabbing and also after he passed out; he then let Henry get into his car to drive home. Apparently, Henry passed out again, only this time behind the wheel. Driving through a stop sign, he hit a semi-truck. He would die a few hours later. And my life has never been the same.

You can imagine my agony as my state now faces a decision on the November ballot on whether or not to legalize the very drug that took my son. I implore Michigan voters: please vote no to legalizing recreational marijuana in Michigan.

Marijuana is Too Accessible
When someone loses a child, you ask yourself, “how can I honor his legacy to make sure this never happens again to someone else’s child?” Some people have said, “if it was legal it would mean less trouble in the world.” Those who make that argument are short-sighted, basing their rationale on their own desire and not on facts or responsible judgment.

Medical marijuana is already legal in Michigan but its use is already being abused. This ballot initiative addresses recreational marijuana, allowing every adult in a home to have up to 12 plants. Can you imagine how accessible it will become to children?! In spite of parents’ best efforts, when a dangerous substance is that easily within reach (often cloaked in gummy bears and brownies), children and teenagers will find access. By making recreational marijuana legal – this will increase abuse on this dangerous drug, not curb danger.
READ MORE: http://www.poppot.org/2018/10/02/my-16-year-old-son-died-from-marijuana/

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The Hill 19 February 2019
Family First Comment: “States beginning to consider full legalization would be wise to take a critical look at the increased rates of violent crime in Colorado, Washington, and the District of Columbia.”

The legalization of marijuana has not resulted in a reduction in crime, as we were told it would. The numbers show the results have been quite the opposite.

In 2012, Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational use and possession of marijuana and eight states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. Other states have tiptoed into the foray by either decriminalizing possession of small amounts or legalizing use or possession of the drug for medicinal purposes. Proponents have pushed the idea that legalization would eliminate the underground, illicit market for marijuana and eliminate, or at least reduce, violent crime related to the illegal sale of the drug. But has legalization delivered on its rosy promise of peace and harmony, or has it just fueled a spike in violence?

A review of the crime statistics cast doubt on proponents’ claim that legalization reduces violent crime; to the contrary, homicides have generally increased in pro-marijuana jurisdictions. In Denver, the homicide rate has steadily climbed from 36 in 2013 to a peak of 67 in 2018. Seattle had 19 homicides in 2013, then the rate increased every year except 2016, reaching a peak in 2018 of 31 cases. Even the District of Columbia has experienced a resurgence of violence — reaching 160 homicides in 2018 after seeing a historically low 116 homicide cases in 2017. Though too early in the year to make a meaningful projection, homicides spiked more than 100 percent in January 2019, as compared with January 2018.

The oft-cited justification for legal marijuana, reducing drug-related violent crime, is not materializing.

It turns out that legalization of marijuana doesn’t eliminate the illicit black market, but may actually increase competition among rival factions of black-market dealers. State regulation, taxes, cultivation, and supply chain logistics force prices much higher for legal pot than its illegal and unregulated competition. The illegal market persists because most users aren’t inclined to pay premium prices just to avoid committing a very low-level transgression that police are increasingly being asked to ignore.

Downward pressure on prices of illegal pot in legalized states is explained by reduced police enforcement of marijuana laws. The “risk premium” that artificially inflates prices of prohibited substances has been virtually eliminated. At the same time, it’s likely that demand for pot has increased in legalized states because users’ fear of adverse legal consequences has subsided and users from prohibition states flock to legalized states for legal or lower cost marijuana. It’s not surprising, given these market dynamics, that there would be increased competition among illegal dealers. And any cop who has worked in narcotic enforcement will tell you that market force disruptions that increase competition often lead to increased violence among and between market participants.
READ MORE: https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/430551-is-marijuana-legalization-driving-increases-in-violent-crime

New York Post 17 February 2019
Family First Comment: So true…
“‘Harm reduction’ in a contemporary context, also means ‘a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.’”
Think Drug Foundation, Green Party….

Drugs are destroying San Francisco’s most densely populated and desirable neighborhoods, as more and more addicts, many of them homeless, fill the streets. Politicians and activists are pushing “harm reduction,” which, in a clinical sense, means a “set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use,” such as overdose or the transmission of disease. But in a contemporary context, it also means “a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.”

Harm reduction, originally a controversial public-health measure, has become a religion among advocates, even as fears that the practice would normalize drug use have been borne out. Organizations like the San Francisco Drug Users Union demand “a safe environment where people can use & enjoy drugs” and a “positive image of drug users to engender respect within our community and from outside our community.” True believers dominate City Hall as well as a network of affiliated, politicized nonprofits that operate in the city with little oversight or accountability. In this environment, questioning harm reduction or its effects borders on heresy. But are the programs actually helping impoverished addicts? And what is the impact on the community?

The Department of Public Health distributes 4.45 million needles each year to the city’s 22,000 intravenous drug users. Heroin and prescription opioids are the most injected substances, though use of methamphetamines and Fentanyl is on the rise. It’s true that sterile needles reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections, and injecting narcotics under supervision can lower the risk of overdose and death. But harm reduction goes far beyond promoting these kinds of needle-safety measures. For example, At the Crossroads, a nonprofit, assembled “safe snorting kits” for at-risk and homeless youth. Baggies were filled with straws, chopping mats, plastic razor blades, and instruction sheets. Other groups offer crack-cocaine “safe-smoking” kits. A proposal to open “safe injection” sites, opposed by Jerry Brown, is favored by Governor Gavin Newsom, and is likely to succeed.

Harm-reduction efforts are sometimes sold as ways to connect with addicts, offer them other services, and help them get off drugs. But those laudable goals are not really what motivate advocates, who want mostly to remove the stigma surrounding drug use. Addicts may eventually pursue treatment or stop using on their own, but a central principle of harm-reduction theory is accepting and respecting drug use. As a result, an astonishing number of addicts on San Francisco streets hover on the edge of death, despite a continuous supply of clean needles.

Erica Sandberg is a widely published consumer-finance reporter based in San Francisco. This essay was adapted from City Journal.
READ MORE: https://nypost.com/2019/02/17/harm-reduction-drug-policies-are-destroying-san-francisco/

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Stuff co.nz 18 February 2019
Family First Comment: Exactly what we warned about regarding cannabis medicine
“When you are dealing with extracts, or medicines that are made from herbal plants or herbal products, getting that consistent level of all the ingredients is very difficult. You need to be very careful in how you regulate that, and the manufacturing process in how you’re testing them. The level of risk the products posed, particularly to children and younger patients, needed to be careful balanced against access.” – ESR
In other words, not smoked!

The nation’s drug tester is warning a strong dose of regulation is required to alleviate the risks of medicinal cannabis.

Environmental Science and Research (ESR) has tested illcitly-obtained medicinal cannabis for concerned patients and parents – and its cannabis expert says the results can be alarming.

Forensic toxicology and pharmaceuticals manager Mary Jane McCarthy pointed to the case of a man who contacted ESR about a supposedly medicinal cannabis product with high levels of cannabidiol, or CBD, for his grandson’s uncontrollable epilepsy.

But the product was actually high in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive property of cannabis that causes the drug’s high.

There is no evidence that exists in clinical literature that demonstrates the long-term affects of taking a high THC product on a child,” McCarthy said.

“That was a very unregulated product, and I just have some fear that our consumers in New Zealand need to know that what they’re taking is safe.”

Medicinal cannabis is set to be legalised in this country, with regulations being drawn up by the Ministry of Health after the Government passed an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act in December 2018.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/110627461/strong-dose-of-regulation-needed-with-medicinal-cannabis-esr-warns

Daily Mail 17 February 2019
Family First Comment: “Today’s Big Dope lobby wants to silence warnings about the dangers of marijuana until they have it legalised, and we can’t go back. They are like the Big Tobacco of the 1950s, a cynical greed campaign prepared to cause misery to others in the pursuit of riches.”
#SayNopeToDope
Read more from our Briefing Booklet – http://saynopetodope.org.nz/big-tobacco-2/

It is not all that long since people seriously tried to pretend that cigarettes were safe. Most of them were motivated by greed, and by fear that the truth would destroy their profits.

Everyone now agrees that cigarettes cause lung cancer and many other diseases. But we forget the struggle that doctors and scientists had to fight, against Big Tobacco, to get this accepted.

Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford-Hill established in 1950 that there was a clear link between smoking and cancer. A wider study in 1954 absolutely confirmed this.

Yet such was the power and wealth of the tobacco giants that it was decades before anything serious was done to discourage smoking. It was not until 1971 that the first feeble warning was placed on cigarette packets in this country.

As late as 1962, the cigarette-makers were still pretending there hadn’t been enough research, and even that tobacco was good for you, claiming ‘smoking has pharmacological and psychological effects that are of real value to smokers’.

A Tory MP, Ted Leather, denounced the doctors’ warnings as ‘unscientific tosh’ and ‘hysterical nonsense’. Lung cancer was blamed on air pollution. The prominent journalist Chapman Pincher proclaimed ‘cigarette risks are being exaggerated’. It was seriously argued that restrictions on smoking were an attack on liberty.

I’d guess that many who made such claims lived to regret, bitterly and with some embarrassment, their part in covering up a terrible danger. Those who listened to them died, early and often horribly. They are still dying now, in cancer wards up and down the country.

Earlier, firmer action would have saved them and their families from much grief. Those tobacco apologists all have their parallels now.

I know, but will not name here, drug lobbyists, a Tory MP and several prominent journalists, who make the same excuses for marijuana, just as the evidence of its grave dangers piles up. They claim the evidence against it is exaggerated. They claim it has medical benefits. They claim its effects are caused by something else. May God forgive them. I cannot.

Our society, learning nothing from the tobacco disaster, has for years been appallingly complacent about this terribly dangerous drug, whose effect on the brains and minds of its users can be utterly devastating. Knowledge of its dangers does not show up in statistics which pay little attention to the sort of damage it does.

The victims of marijuana seldom die (though they increasingly frequently kill others, in mad car crashes and violent crime).

School failure, delinquency, delusional behaviour, persecution mania, young lives wholly blighted and continued only thanks to a devastating cocktails of antipsychotic drugs, do not register much in NHS figures. Nor do the special miseries of the families of these people, compelled to care, for life, for a husk of the person they once knew and had hopes for, and still love. Such families keep their grief to themselves. But there are many of them.

Look, I am right about this. But it is no good being right if you are not believed. I and my allies are roughly where the doctors who warned against lung cancer were in the mid-1950s. The evidence keeps on coming. Last week’s report linking marijuana use to depression and suicidal feelings among the young is just the latest in a great mountain of such studies. But the popular culture continues to act as if there’s nothing to worry about.

It is now seven years since I published a book which pointed out the truth – that the police and courts have given up prosecuting the major crime of marijuana possession. Back in 2012 I was denounced, snubbed, sneered at and told by distinguished academics that I was wrong and that there was a stern regime of cruel prohibition.

Now everybody recognises that what I said seven years ago is absolutely true. It is hard not to do so when so much of our country openly stinks of marijuana. Even if the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, cannot smell it, the rest of us can.

Sooner than seven years from now, I suspect that the connection between marijuana and severe mental illness will also be widely understood and accepted. But will it be too late?

Today’s Big Dope lobby wants to silence warnings about the dangers of marijuana until they have it legalised, and we can’t go back. They are like the Big Tobacco of the 1950s, a cynical greed campaign prepared to cause misery to others in the pursuit of riches.
READ MORE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6713189/PETER-HITCHENS-Cigarettes-healthy-believe-youll-fall-Big-Dopes-propaganda.html?fbclid=IwAR2dbGKYCn6TAtZgoE0eQeTl5NzbIUgdpl_OsBX_eDhdjzk-TZ6in9wDuD8

Vancouver Sun 4 February 2019
Family First Comment: “This tool in 20 seconds can tell you what’s on the end of a vape pen, or what’s been in a kid’s pocket, or in a brownie or in a liquid, or in a gummy bear.”
The sad consequences of a bad decision of liberalising laws and access to marijuana.
#SayNopeToDope

“This tool in 20 seconds can tell you what’s on the end of a vape pen, or what’s been in a kid’s pocket, or in a brownie or in a liquid, or in a gummy bear.”

Anti-pot advocate Pamela McColl is bringing to B.C. a pot-testing tool she hopes will be used by school boards and parents across the province.

McColl, who is chair of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said the “spotkit” was essentially a swab that allows the user to wipe anything — candy, the end of a vape pen or a brownie — and within 20 seconds know whether the product has THC in it (THC being the psychoactive component of cannabis).

She said she came across the product while watching the Today show on NBC, in which a presenter arranged for the kit to be tested on a cookie, gummy bear and student backpack.

The segment can be seen here. The swabs, which are made in Colorado, turn red when THC is identified.

“When I saw that I immediately contacted the manufacturer, because I thought what a great tool. This tool in 20 seconds can tell you what’s on the end of a vape pen, or what’s been in a kid’s pocket, or in a brownie or in a liquid, or in a gummy bear,” she said.

The product has just been released in Canada.

“We are trying to get them into stores, but also in different places,” said McColl, adding she showcased the product at the Wellness Show in Vancouver over the weekend.
READ MORE: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-woman-wants-pot-testers-in-vancouver-schools-as-vape-use-rises

NBC News – Think 14 February 2019
Family First Comment: “Big Tobacco used friendly researchers, polluted science and resisted controls on its product for generations. Millions of Americans died as a result. Marijuana is another addictive smoked product, and even as its use rises, we are still trying to figure out exactly how dangerous it might be and how to discourage its use. Let’s not make the same mistake twice.”
Indeed.

Like tobacco, marijuana is a popular and addictive smoked product — and we are still trying to figure out exactly how dangerous it might be.

The tricks that tobacco companies used to hide the risks of cigarettes are no secret.

Internal corporate documents disclosed during the litigation against cigarette companies show the way the industry worked to create uncertainty about tobacco’s cancer risks long after mainstream scientists had reached a consensus. “Doubt is our product,” a tobacco executive famously wrote in 1969.

A 2005 paper in Public Health Chronicles outlined a six-part strategy by the companies, including suppressing research that did not support their position and taking their case directly to the media. The companies knew that reporters might quote industry representatives in a false quest for balance that misled readers about the actual state of the science.

Millions of Americans died from smoking-related illnesses before legal and political pressure forced the industry to admit the truth. Now, we run the risk of history repeating itself, with a different drug and a new generation of conflicts of interest — but, sadly, some of the same companies.

In the last two decades, scientists have found a link between cannabis use and severe mental illness. Even in controlled laboratory settings, some people dosed with THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis, will have hallucinations. Cannabis use in adolescence appears to change structures in the brain in ways that may contribute to mental illness. And many large studies — dating back to one that covered more than 50,000 people and was published in 1987 — show that people who use cannabis as teenagers have a much higher risk of developing schizophrenia, the most devastating mental illness.

Reviewing the science in 2016 in Biological Psychiatry, three British epidemiologists reported “enough evidence to warrant a public health message that cannabis use can increase the risk of psychotic disorders.” (The research that led to findings like those formed the core of my new book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.”)

The next year, the National Academy of Medicine, a non-profit group that advises the government on health and medical issues, released a landmark 468-page report on the health effects of marijuana. After reviewing the evidence, a 16-member committee convened by the academy found that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater risk.”

But investors and companies in the legalized cannabis industry, which already reaps billions of dollars annually, are doing everything possible to squelch that message. The industry — comprised of venture capital companies, specialized media outlets, consultants, delivery services and large growers — provides users with few warnings about the mental health risks of cannabis while making unproven claims about cannabis’s effectiveness as medicine, even for people with psychiatric disorders.

Some of the people spreading these messages and downplaying the risks are scientists, drug policy groups and even public health experts. And some of these have conflicts of interest reminiscent of those of tobacco-funded scientists.

For example, the Cannabis Research Initiative at UCLA promises “timely education, research, and service to lead public policy and public health decisions regarding cannabis.” Yet the institute accepts donations from cannabis investors, like — better known as Snoop Dogg — who is not just a prominent user but the general partner of a $45 million venture capital fund focused on marijuana companies.

The best known pro-legalization group, the Drug Policy Alliance, also takes money from cannabis companies. It openly solicits money from corporate partners, asking them to “give back:” “Drug policy should create opportunities, not take them away. Support DPA’s work to end marijuana prohibition…[by] making a corporate donation to the Drug Policy Alliance. We’re all in this together.”

Those corporate partners will likely be happy to hear that the alliance refuses to support simple and straightforward warnings on the psychiatric risks of cannabis — warnings I, for one, have suggested — such as “If you have panic attacks or unusual thoughts, especially paranoid thoughts, while using cannabis, the drug may be increasing your risk for severe mental illness and you should not use it.”

Then there is Dr. Mark Kleiman.

Dr. Kleiman, a professor at New York University, is one of the most prominent cannabis public-policy researchers in the United States and an advocate of legalization. Politico called him “the policy wonk behind legal pot.”

In addition, Kleiman is the chairman of a private research firm, BOTEC Analysis LLC, which promises, “The Right Answer to the Right Question.” He has downplayed the connection between cannabis and psychosis, comparing it to the extraordinarily rare risk that vaccines may cause paralysis. (In fact, the evidence suggests that heavy adolescent cannabis users have a doubling or tripling of their baseline risk of developing schizophrenia, implying that at least 1 in 100 additional users may develop it. Flu vaccines cause paralysis roughly 1 in 1 million times they are dosed — a risk one-ten-thousandth as large.)

In response to recent questions about potential conflicts of interest related to BOTEC’s work, Kleiman vehemently and unequivocally denied any conflicts. “BOTEC has never had any business dealings with any firm involved in any way with the cannabis industry,” he told me recently via email.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/smoking-marijuana-isn-t-inherently-safe-we-can-t-let-ncna970681

9 News 13 February 2019
Family First Comment: Good concept!
“Designed to disrupt the supply chain of illicit drugs such as cannabis, methamphetamine and cocaine – the initiative aims to encourage members of the community to report anything they know about drug dealing offences.”

Detectives spent hours seizing and examining a number of items from inside a property in Melbourne’s south-east this morning after executing a drug search warrant.

A number of cannabis plants were among the items removed from the property in Cranbourne after police swarmed the home around 5.30am.

“My dogs start up and then all of a sudden the police saying the usual – your house is surrounded, come out quietly”, a local resident told 9News.

“It was really scary because my other half woke me up and all I hear him saying is Justine, the police are here”.

The critical incident response team assisted with the raid and a 28-year-old man arrested at the scene.

Police say this raid was sparked by a tip-off from the community coinciding with Crime Stoppers launching the ‘dob in a dealer’ campaign today encouraging people to speak up when they notice suspicious activity.
READ MORE: https://www.9news.com.au/2019/02/13/12/07/news-melbourne-cannabis-seized-as-dob-in-a-dealer-campaign-begins

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Stuff co.nz 14 February 2019
Family First Comment: “This group of cannabis users represents approximately 5 to 10 per cent of the adolescent population, with these individuals being at significantly increased risk of co-occurring mental health and substance use problems, as well as engaging in anti-social behaviour. Furthermore, individuals in this group will also display higher levels of risk-taking in general, and are more likely to leave school early.”

Smoking cannabis as a teenager increases the risk of depression and suicide during young adulthood, according to a new study.

Individual risk remains moderate to low, but because so many teens are smoking cannabis, there is potential for large numbers of young people to be affected, according to findings published in the JAMA Psychiatryjournal on Thursday.

However the researchers, led by Gabriella Gobbi from McGill University, Canada, didn’t find a link between marijuana use and increased risk of anxiety.

The team said their findings highlight the importance of efforts aimed at educating teenagers about the risks of using marijuana. “This is an important public health problem and concern, which should be properly addressed by health care policy,” they wrote.

Cannabis is the world’s most widely used illicit drug, with 3.8% of the global population having used cannabis in the past year.

Marijuana is commonly used by many teenagers worldwide, but not much has previously known about how that use might impact mood and risk of suicide later in life.

For this review, the scientists analysed the combined the results of 11 studies with about 23,300 people and found marijuana use during adolescence before age 18 was associated with increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts or attempts during young adulthood between the ages of 18 and 32.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/110580068/smoking-cannabis-as-a-teen-increases-risk-of-depression-and-suicide-as-a-young-adult-says-study?cid=app-iPhone

NZ Herald 13 February 2019
Family First Comment: This is why it’s both a legal and a health issue. Going soft on the law sends all the wrong messages to our vulnerable young people.
#SayNopeToDope
www.VoteNo.nz

Police investigated disturbing footage of young boys in South Auckland boasting of smoking drugs using homemade bongs and of growing marijuana in pot plants and found no illegal drugs were used.

The footage posted, to social media earlier this month, shows four young boys who appear to be primary or intermediate school-aged, sitting next to a creek bragging about taking drugs and growing their own weed.

Three homemade bongs can be seen in the video while two of the boys film themselves “smoking weed” and “getting stoney baloney”.

One boy claims to be the owner of the paraphernalia while the others argue over who owns the drugs.

In the video, one boy lights up and is seen exhaling a substance from the homemade bong.

At least two boys appear to be wearing school uniform during the incident while the others have school bags with them.

One boy is heard encouraging the others to “go again” before making fun of them for not being able to properly light up their drugs.

Facing the camera, one boy admits to “smoking weed” while the others ask for help to light up.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12202929&ref=twitter