Ed

Stuff co.nz 9 December 2019
Family First Comment: “A child turned up with a vape that he took from home … and was discovered trying to experiment with it with some of his friends. Nelson principals were concerned that vaping products were being marketed as harmless alternatives to smoking. The message about cigarettes has been heard fairly loud and clear, but vaping is not seen in the same light at all at this point.”
Significantly, the proposed cannabis legislation makes NO mention of vaping products – despite the chaos happening in US states with THC-vaping.

Nelson school principals are criticising delays to regulation of the vaping industry, after children at a primary school were caught with a vaping device.

The president of the Hieke-Nelson Principals’ Association, Peter Verstappen, said the incident happened at a local primary school last month.

“A child turned up with a vape that he took from home … and was discovered trying to experiment with it with some of his friends.”

Verstappen couldn’t recall students having ever taken cigarettes into school, in his 12 years as principal at two primary schools.

Nelson principals were concerned that vaping products were being marketed as harmless alternatives to smoking.

“The message about cigarettes has been heard fairly loud and clear, but vaping is not seen in the same light at all at this point.”
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117737986/primary-school-children-vaping-backs-need-for-action-principals-say

Stuff co.nz 6 December 2019
Family First Comment: Read all the concerns from the police – and then ask yourself, who’s opinion do you trust more? The Police who deal with this every day, OR Chloe, Andrew, Helen and the Drug Foundation.
Police concerns…
• One of the proposed benefits is to free up police resources but that is not actually the case. And If it was be to more closely monitored, that would put more demand on police.
• Tax and pricing could be a problem. If you can’t drive that price down, that is not going to get rid of the black market.
• There were some concerns from members about breaching the legal grow limits, which would be hard to police.
• There was also some confusion around the purchase limits of 14g a day. Unless you have a database, how are you ever going to police that.
• Members were also concerned that a law would support the idea that it was ok to use cannabis and that it was not harmful
#saynopetodope

Police are raising concerns about how cannabis would be legalised if there’s a yes vote at next year’s referendum, and if gangs will really be shut out of the market.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced the details of the cannabis bill to be voted on in next year’s referendum, and a new government website to provide information on both the cannabis and End of Life Choice referendum being held in 2020.

Personal possession of 14 grams of cannabis, the sale of cannabis edibles, and growing up to four cannabis plants per household, are all included in the bill, which the public will be asked to vote “yes or no” at the 2020 general election.

New Zealanders could buy the equivalent of 42 joints each day under the draft law to legalise cannabis use.

The New Zealand Police Association President Chris Cahill said, without a doubt, there would be challenges for cops and he questioned if they would even bother policing it.

Cahill has just returned from a trip to Canada, where cannabis has been legal for about one year.

The reality was that police in New Zealand, just like in Canada, did not spend a lot of time investigating cannabis supply because there were so many other drugs, Cahill said.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117981753/police-concerned-cannabis-reform-can-not-be-policed-and-shut-out-gangs-from-black-market

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Psychcongress.com 6 November 2019
Family First Comment: “More than a third of people who experienced psychosis with cannabis use later transitioned to schizophrenia, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis.”

More than a third of people who experienced psychosis with cannabis use later transitioned to schizophrenia, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published online in Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Similarly, schizophrenia transition risk among people who experienced psychosis from hallucinogen or amphetamine use was also considerable.

“These findings have important implications for mental health care and services. Substance-induced psychoses are common reasons for seeking mental health care,” a Psychiatric News Alert quoted from the study. “Yet despite this, people with substance-induced psychoses are often excluded from early psychosis services or assertive mental health care due to a perception that these are benign or self-limiting conditions.”

Cannabinoids Not Justified as Mental Health Treatment, Study Says

The meta-analysis spanned 50 studies which provided 79 estimates of transition to schizophrenia among 40,783 people with substance-induced, brief, or atypical psychoses. Some 25 of the studies, which included 34,244 people, had substance-specific estimates.

Overall, 25% of people who experienced substance-induced psychosis transitioned to schizophrenia, researchers reported. The rate of transition for people who transitioned to schizophrenia after brief, atypical, or not-otherwise-specified psychoses was 36%.

The highest rates of transition to schizophrenia were associated with cannabis-induced psychosis (34%), hallucinogen-induced psychosis (26%), and amphetamine-induced psychosis (22%), according to the study. Transition rates were lower when drug-induced psychosis was associated with opioids (12%), alcohol (10%), and sedatives (9%).

“Substance-induced psychoses associated with cannabis, hallucinogens, and amphetamines have a substantial risk of transition to schizophrenia,” researchers wrote, “and should be a focus for assertive psychiatric intervention.”
https://www.psychcongress.com/article/drug-induced-psychoses-may-signal-substantial-schizophrenia-risk

Science Alert 4 December 2019
Family First Comment: Another good reason to avoid dope
“The study found that men who smoked one marijuana cigarette, or joint, daily for 10 years or more had an estimated 36 percent increased risk of developing testicular cancer compared with men who had never smoked the substance.”

There’s new evidence that a daily marijuana-smoking habit could increase your risk of testicular cancer.

A study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open found that men who smoked one marijuana cigarette, or joint, daily for 10 years or more had an estimated 36 percent increased risk of developing testicular cancer compared with men who had never smoked the substance.

To come to their conclusion, researchers analysed 25 studies that looked at the link between marijuana use and testicular cancer, lung cancer, oral cancer, and head and neck cancer.

Though the researchers found no association between regular marijuana use and lung, neck, or oral cancer, they did find that regular weed smoking over many years could heighten a man’s risk of testicular cancer.

Smoking marijuana releases cancer-causing substances
Like smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana releases carcinogens, or substances that can increase a person’s risk of developing cancer.

That’s because cannabis, the plant marijuana is derived from, is like any other plant in that it burns and releases smoke when you light it, according to Dr. Jeffrey Chen, the director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative.

“When you combust any plant, you’re creating significantly more carcinogens,” Chen previously told Insider.
READ MORE: https://www.sciencealert.com/men-who-smoke-marijuana-daily-may-be-more-likely-to-get-testicular-cancer

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NZ Herald 4 December 2019
Family First Comment: “But it is confectionery items like chocolates, lollipops, gummy lollies and soft drinks, that have raised the ire of Family First, with spokesman Bob McCoskrie saying such products could be targeted at children. Opposition lobby group Say Nope to Dope, of which Family First is a part, has run giant billboards throughout the year against the referendum, including a series featuring a deep green gummy bear smoking a joint.”

If the international market is anything to go by getting high off lollipops, gummy lollies, soft drinks and even protein powder could be an option following next year’s cannabis referendum.

The Government yesterday announced the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, designed to govern the recreational cannabis market should it come into effect.

The legislation specifies a minimum age of 20 to use or purchase a recreational cannabis product, and prohibits consumption in public spaces, among many other measures.

But two aspects have raised more questions than others – the inclusion of edible products, and a 14g carry limit.

In legal cannabis markets overseas cannabis edibles have gone well past the traditional brownies, to everything from protein powder, beer, and even THC-infused beef jerky.

But it is confectionery items like chocolates, lollipops, gummy lollies and soft drinks, that have raised the ire of Family First, with spokesman Bob McCoskrie saying such products could be targeted at children.

Opposition lobby group Say Nope to Dope, of which Family First is a part, has run giant billboards throughout the year against the referendum, including a series featuring a deep green gummy bear smoking a joint.

National’s drug and alcohol spokeswoman Paula Bennett said she was concerned about youth still accessing cannabis.

“Young people are still going to try it, but they will be getting it from the black market.”

In introducing the draft legislation, which will be open to submissions, Justice Minister Andrew Little said the primary objective was to “reduce overall cannabis use and limit the ability of young people to access cannabis”.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12290788

Courier Mail (Aust) November 2019
Pill testing will not make our kids safer. As a former senior detective who spent more than 28 years in the frontline on the war against drugs, I am concerned by the calls for pill testing to be implemented and policing actions reduced in the wake of the NSW Coroner’s findings into the deaths of six young people at music festivals.

NSW Police Commissioner Mike Fuller is correct to resist such calls. The perception is that pill testing makes taking drugs safe for young kids. The reality is it doesn’t.

A number of toxicologists have highlighted concerns that current pill testing cannot identify pills that contain novel psychoactive substances. Quite simply, there is no hard evidence that pill testing saves lives.

Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, has said “demonstrating a clear reduction in deaths from pill testing was a real challenge”.

When this is put to the advocates, they say it is too hard to show and start talking about other pill-testing benefits that could and should be used as evidence, such as education and awareness.

Pill-testing advocates claim you will not be told at any stage that your drug is safe. Edith Cowan University addiction expert Stephen Bright has stated: “One of the biggest misconceptions around pill testing is that it will portray taking drugs as safe.” Ironically, the pilot project in Canberra was run by the Safety Testing Advisory Service At Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE) consortium. Perhaps aware of this fallacy, the same consortium changed its name to Pill Testing Australia for its second pilot in 2019.

Many of the supporters of pill testing laud the pilot study at the Groovin’ The Moo festival in Canberra in 2018 as an unmitigated success. But the devil is in detail. Of the 21,000 or so patrons who attended, only 83 patrons had their drugs tested – Less than .4 per cent.

Young people getting their drugs tested at the festival were forced to sign a legal waiver to access the pill-testing service. Signed forms were locked away immediately in a safety box. This gives some indication as to the level of confidence those providing the service had to ensure the safety of the young people they are servicing.

The waiver form finishes with the sage advice that the only way to guarantee, 100 per cent, that you are not harmed by consuming drugs is not to consume drugs. Isn’t that the whole premise of the war on drugs?

In reality, pill testing would not have saved the six young people who died. At least four of them took more than one tablet of MDMA or ecstasy. MDMA was found at toxic levels in all six people. At least four of the young people engaged in ploydrug use on the day of their death.

The fact that a death does not occur at an event with pill testing is not proof it works. It is not proof of causation; it is merely proof of correlation. The solution to deaths such as these is not to prevent the police from doing their duty, nor is it to put in place a pill-testing regime to give false confidence to young people as to their safety.

We need to make young people aware that with reckless actions can come deadly consequences, and that supposed harmless party drugs can never be rendered safe.

Dr Terry Goldsworthy is an Associate Professor at Bond University having previously worked as a Detective Inspector in the Queensland Police Service.

Big Marijuana wants to go “Full Colorado” in states all across the nation. They are sugar coating the impact on kids and denying the staggering costs of legalization. Don’t let your state be the next Colorado.

CNN 26 November 2019
Family First Comment: Remember how Chlöe and Drug Foundation say the black market and gangs will disappear under legalisation??
“California is indeed home to the world’s largest cannabis market, totaling close to $12 billion in estimated sales. But here’s the rub: $8.7 billion of that is changing hands in the illicit market.”

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NewsTalk ZB 28 November 2019
Family First Comment: “The legalisation in Canada had the same sort of ideological bollocks wrapped around it as the pro dopers are pedalling here. It’s a health issue, we want to offer support, we want to control the market, we want the bad guys out of the business. One year on none of it has happened. In fact, quite the opposite, the illegal side of the trade has flourished.”
#saynopetodope

I think we can be somewhat grateful to Canada for legalising cannabis a good year or so ahead of us. They’re making a complete hash – no pun intended – of it.

This week’s news is the massive over supply: the market went nuts, grew it like there was no tomorrow, so now they have warehouses full of it. And you know what happens to the price when the supply side is out of kilter – yes, it crashes.

That’s the trouble when it comes to drugs. Cheap drugs then lead to greater uptake, which is fine if its fruit and veggies but not if it’s the sort of product that leads to dependence and psychosis.

The legalisation in Canada had the same sort of ideological bollocks wrapped around it as the pro dopers are pedalling here. It’s a health issue, we want to offer support, we want to control the market, we want the bad guys out of the business.

One year on none of it has happened. In fact, quite the opposite, the illegal side of the trade has flourished.

And here’s the simple truth about government vs private enterprise when it comes to business of which pedalling dope is: the private sector always wins. It wins on agility, creativity, flexibility and street smarts.

They’re not driven by policy, by politics, by agencies, by bureaucracy, they’re driven by a bottom line: you want it, they got it.

So not only do the Canadians have two and a half years’ worth of supply in warehouses. They also have the psychological things they didn’t think of.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mike-hosking-canadas-example-shows-the-dangers-of-legalising-cannabis/