Orlando Sentinel 5 November 2019 Family First Comment: “He listed a litany of problems that followed, including an increase in positive drug tests in the workforce, legal marijuana being siphoned into the black markets of other states and a spike in the use of other, still illegal drugs.” Don’t believe the Green Party hype #saynopetodope
Recreational marijuana has brought trouble to Oregon, a law officer said Tuesday, as Florida lawmakers prepared to deal with the chance that Sunshine State voters could legalize pot next year.
The House Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony from Chris Gibson, a narcotics officer in Oregon, where marijuana was legalized in 2015.
He listed a litany of problems that followed, including an increase in positive drug tests in the workforce, legal marijuana being siphoned into the black markets of other states and a spike in the use of other, still illegal drugs.
Gibson stopped short of calling marijuana legalization a “gateway” to other drugs, as Rep. Mel Ponder, R-Destin, suggested, but said, “we have seen reported drug use in Oregon increase across the board … we’re seeing users that are using everything all together.”
The presentation was the latest in a string of speakers planned by committee chairman Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero.
A Harvard medical school professor spoke of the medical dangers of marijuana last month, and Rodrigues says he plans to have other law enforcement officials from Colorado, another state where marijuana is legal.
Reuters 1 November 2019 Family First Comment: Big Marijuana loves vaping products. Don’t legalise. #saynopetodope
U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 1,888 confirmed and probable cases and 3 more deaths from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total death toll to 37.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 1,604 cases and 34 deaths from the illness and said the number of reported cases in the epidemic appears to be leveling off or declining.
If anything, the model is out of control. Here’s some key problems:
1. It will be legal to grow cannabis for personal use
The Drug Foundation wants to allow ‘small-scale growers‘ to allow for ‘community development‘ (!!) and to ‘redress the harm caused by prohibition‘. They also want to ‘allow people to grow plants at home as proposed, and share with friends.‘ Yeah – let’s get the whole neighbourhood high!
The problem with private homes being used as ‘grows’ is that dope dealers will simply stay under the radar with multi-location grows, and children will be exposed to the industry – right in their backyard.
Home grows are simply a form of black market. They avoid any regulation. Who is going to monitor what a local drug dealer is growing in their backyards?
The Drug Foundation makes a shocking and insulting assertion about our Police, saying that ‘a key goal should be to prevent cannabis offences being used as ‘convenience charges’ to target vulnerable populations.’ Apparently the aim of the Police is simply to find any excuse they can to charge ‘vulnerable populations‘.
2. No age restriction on use
While the Drug Foundation agrees with a legal purchase age of 20, they ‘caution around setting a legal use age as this could result in further penalising vulnerable communities with negligible impact on use.’ They argue that teenagers can then take advantage of ‘allowing them access to products that carry health warnings and potency controls‘.
Apparently, a 12, 13 or 14 year old (or even younger) using drugs is not the issue. It’s whether they have good product, and don’t get penalised.
So in effect it will be totally legal for a 12 year old to be carrying and smoking / consuming cannabis – as long as they persuaded a 20 year old ‘big brother’ to buy it for them. They argue that it’s to help vulnerable communities, but increasing access will simply add to the vulnerability and harm.
3. Online sales
The Drug Foundation wants to increase the availability of drugs by allowing ‘online sales through a single website‘ and to ‘ensure strict requirements for age checking at point of purchase and delivery.’ This is both flawed – and naive.
Researchers at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health analysed dozens of the most popular local e-cigarette vendors operating online, and found only 10% of them – six out of 59 – required proof of age before buying, such as a driver’s licence or passport. Nearly half of them – 28 – just asked buyers to click a box to confirm their age, while another 24 didn’t check for ages at all.
Online age checking has proved generally to be a farce and very difficult to monitor. And once again, the cost of providing this level of regulation and enforcement will be very costly – yet they want the online sales to be ‘non-profit‘. But hang on – isn’t the taxes on cannabis going to pay for all the new schools, hospitals, roads, and every other great cause we can think of?
They then argue that ‘it could be run similarly to TradeMe, with licensed retailers able to offer products in a controlled way‘. Apparently nobody is on TradeMe for the purposes of making a quick buck with dodgy products. They also argue that ‘small-scale growers who are currently operating illegally‘ (like the gangs and your local drug dealers standing outside schools) ‘to become part of the mainstream economy‘.
4. SmokeFree – but a joint, edible or dab in the home is fine
In an incredible display of confused thinking, they want to ‘avoid the proliferation of other licensed premises such as cannabis cafés, as these may encourage and normalise cannabis use‘.
Yet in the same policy, they want to ‘allow for the consumption of cannabis in homes‘. The reason? ‘Otherwise people will break the law and continue to be targeted‘.
Imagine what example this sets to young people and children about drug use. And of course, as mentioned above, the whole neighbourhood can join in the party.
5. ‘Gummy bear heaven’ – all the products that Big Marijuana wants
Despite correctly saying that ‘there are good public health arguments for keeping the range of products available in NZ to an absolute minimum so as not to encourage new cannabis users and increase overall demand‘, they recommend vaping (despite ALL the problems happening in the US at the moment with THC-vaping), high potency concentrates (because, apparently, people want them) and edibles (‘proceed with caution‘).
Dear Drug Foundation – the cannabis industry ‘don’t do caution’. They want consumers – young and addicted. Lifelong customers.
And every other jurisdiction has been engulfed – either through the legal market (Colorado, California), or through the black market (Uruguay, Canada) – with edibles. The market share of bud has fallen and the market share of THC-infused edibles and THC concentrates continues to rise.
Interestingly, they say that ‘concentrates should be stored out of sight behind the counter and labelled high risk and unsuitable for inexperienced users‘.
But still legal, eh.
6. Stoned drivers won’t affect our roads
‘It is highly unlikely that legalisation of cannabis will cause a big upswing in fatal accidents on our roads.‘
We’ll just leave these here…
7. Research that fits the narrative
Most people are concerned about the effect on young people with any legalisation of cannabis. So this graphic they use suggests that we have should have no concerns. The study – published in JAMA Pediatrics – purports to show the legalisation of marijuana leads to a reduction in teen use of the substance.
Here’s the problem. This study, funded in part by the pro-drug legalisation Charles Koch Foundation, is flawed for several reasons:
It is based on the CDC YRBS, which completely omits Oregon and Washington – two large legal states – in 2017
It also excludes young people who are not in school, such as dropouts
According to the most comprehensive survey on drug use, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health — which includes all young people in households, not just those who gave permission to take a school survey — youth use of the drug is on the rise in legal states while declining in states that have not legalized the substance
“To put it simply, this study is awash with problems,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “The data here runs counter to what we see from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health: youth use is on the rise in ‘legal’ states while declining elsewhere.”
According to NSDUH data, the percentage of youth aged 12-17 using marijuana is declining faster in states where marijuana is not “legal,” and overall use is high in legal states while declining in non-legal states. Further, the percentage of youth in this age range using the drug in “legal” states was 7.7% versus 6.2% in non-legal states.
The paper had some limitations, including that only an association was found in the study — not a causal relationship — and more research is needed to determine why this association exists. “Because many recreational marijuana laws have been passed so recently, we do observe limited post-treatment data for some of these states,” Anderson said…
The CNN report then went on to show how inconsistent it was with other research
For instance, a 2018 report from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice Office of Research and Statistics found that the proportion of high school students in the state who said they used marijuana ever in their lifetime or in the past 30 days remained statistically unchanged from 2005 to 2017. Meanwhile on the national front, the overall prevalence of marijuana-only use among youth in the United States since the early 1990s increased from 0.6% in 1991 to 6.3% in 2017, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health on Wednesday.
Summary
New Zealanders should be very concerned that a government-funded charity is pushing so strongly for legalisation of recreational cannabis. Their evidence simply doesn’t stack up. The policy recommendations are flawed and dangerous.
Yahoo News 29 October 2019 Family First Comment: The authors found little evidence that the products were safe and effective in treating six common disorders: depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis.
People with psychiatric disorders may want to pass on the joint — at least until further research is done, a new Australian study suggests.
The paper, published Monday in The Lancet Psychiatry, looked at 83 previous studies conducted over almost four decades on medical cannabinoids, including products from the cannabis plant, such as leaves, buds and oils.
The authors found little evidence that the products were safe and effective in treating six common disorders: depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis.
Cannabis and cannabinoids are increasingly being made available for medicinal use in North America, Britain and Australia without undergoing standard testing, lead author Louisa Degenhardt told AFP.
“One of the most striking things about the spread of legislation in multiple countries permitting cannabis/cannabinoids for medicinal purposes is that this is in many instances happening outside of the regulatory frameworks that medicine development typically occurs within,” said Degenhardt, from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
The Guardian 29 October 2019 Family First Comment:“..after eating the cake, 13 people experienced nausea and dizziness and needed medical treatment.”
Investigation reveals restaurant employee’s teenage daughter baked cannabis sweet for separate occasion.
Police say a funeral in eastern Germany ended on an involuntary drug high when mourners were accidentally served hash cake.
Rostock police said on Tuesday that after the burial in Wiethagen, the funeral party had gone to a restaurant for coffee and cake, as is customary in Germany. But after eating the cake, 13 people experienced nausea and dizziness and needed medical treatment.
A police investigation revealed that the restaurant employee in charge of the cakes had asked her 18-year-old daughter to bake them.
However, the mother accidentally took the wrong cake from the freezer to the funeral. She took a hash cake that the teenager had made for a different occasion.
Police said the 18-year-old was under investigation.
Reuters 29 October 2019 Family First Comment: “Cannabinoids are often advocated as a treatment for various mental health conditions. (But) clinicians and consumers need to be aware of the low quality and quantity of evidence … and the potential risk of adverse events.”
Evidence is weak for whether medicinal cannabis treatments can relieve mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and psychosis, and doctors should prescribe them with great caution, researchers said on Monday.
In a review of scientific studies that analyzed the impact of medicinal cannabinoids on six mental health disorders, the researchers found “a lack of evidence for their effectiveness.”
Their findings have important implications for countries such as the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada, where medical cannabis is being made available for patients with certain illness, said Louisa Degenhardt, a drug and alcohol expert at Australia’s University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“There is a notable absence of high-quality evidence to properly assess the effectiveness and safety of medicinal cannabinoids … and until evidence from randomized controlled trials is available, clinical guidelines cannot be drawn up around their use in mental health disorders,” she said as her results were published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
PressReader 25 October 2019 Family First Comment: Next time the Drug Foundation and the Greens talk about how much tax money will be raised by legalising pot, tell them about Canada. “The province said the updated numbers reflect weaker consunption than initially predicted following cannabis legalisation in October 2018… After a year of legalisation, it appears the black market cannabis industry is still thriving since it isn’t subject to legal sector demands.” Read our analysis –https://saynopetodope.org.nz/social-costs-v-tax/
Bringing legalised marijuana to market has proven costly for Alberta, with no sign it wil turn a profit anytime soon.
The UCP budget, tabled on Thursday, projects that cannabis income will remain negative over the next four years, despite previous estimates it would make the province money by 2020…
..The province said the updated numbers reflect weaker consunption than initially predicted following cannabis legalisation in October 2018.
TVNZ One News 28 October 2019 Family First Comment: This is a great scheme which gives families the benefits of home ownership. But here’s the best bit (and explains why these families will succeed).. “The community is drug and alcohol free and has social support services, including addiction support, childcare and a trade school.” Yes – drug free! Someone tell the Drug Foundation and Chloe that it works.
A Kaitaia housing project that sees homeless families rent to own their own home is being touted as a solution the housing crisis.
He Korowai Trust is taking state houses set for demolition and using them to house those in need.
Hayleigh Tata-Te Hira lived in a car for four months before moving into the site in the Northland town.
Ms Tata-Te Hira, the single mother of six is one of 18 homeless families that have moved into the village and are on track to owning their own home.
“It’s an opportunity for people to break free of the shackles of state housing dependence and hop onto home ownership,” said Ms Tata-Te Hira.
Ricky Houghton rescued the former state houses from Auckland that were set for demolition and brought them to Kaitaia to set up the community four years ago.
Independent 28 October 2019 Family First Comment: “Whether or not children continue with vaping is important – the longer and more frequently you vape, the more you’re exposing yourself to toxins in e-cigarette aerosol and put yourself at risk for nicotine addiction. Regulations that reduce youth exposure to flavoured e-cigarettes may aid in preventing young people who try e-cigarettes from becoming long-term e-cigarette users, and also from inhaling more aerosol into their lungs.”
Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) carried out a study to investigate how flavours of vaping devices impacts regular use of e-cigarettes.
The scientists tracked nearly 500 teenagers from Los Angeles who vaped, assessing them at six-month intervals between 2015 and 2017.
Around nine in 10 of the participants were found to have a preference for e-cigarettes with sweet, fruity or other non-traditional flavours.
Of the teenagers who vaped using non-traditional flavours, 64.3 per cent still regularly smoked e-cigarettes six months later, compared with 42.9 per cent who vaped using flavours such as tobacco or menthol.
NZ Herald 25 October 2019 Family First Comment: Mr Kilkelly told the court Middlemiss’ errant behaviour was the result of a raging drug addiction which had him taking opioids four times a week and cannabis daily.
A man who attacked his pregnant partner three times in her first trimester has been jailed for nearly three years.
In the Dunedin District Court yesterday, 30-year-old Zachary Bruce Middlemiss (a.k.a. Cox) simultaneously became the first person in the city to be sentenced on a charge of strangulation after legislation was passed at the end of last year.
On February 13, the defendant became angry when his partner returned home without food for him.
The victim threatened to pack her bags and leave the apartment, prompting Middlemiss to scream at her to get out without her possessions.
Defence counsel Brian Kilkelly said his client was truly remorseful for his actions.
“He regrets he won’t be there for birth of their first child,” he said.
Mr Kilkelly told the court Middlemiss’ errant behaviour was the result of a raging drug addiction which had him taking opioids four times a week and cannabis daily.
The Drug Foundation has recently released a model for regulation entitled “
While the Drug Foundation agrees with a legal purchase age of 20, they ‘caution around setting a legal 
The Drug Foundation wants to increase the availability of drugs by allowing ‘online sales through a single website‘ and to ‘ensure strict requirements for age checking at point of purchase and delivery.’ This is both flawed – and naive.
In an incredible display of confused thinking, they want to ‘avoid the proliferation of other licensed premises such as cannabis cafés, as 
Despite correctly saying that ‘there are good public health arguments for keeping the range of products available in NZ to an absolute minimum so as not to encourage new cannabis users and increase overall demand‘, they recommend vaping (despite ALL the problems happening in the US at the moment with THC-vaping), high potency concentrates (because, apparently, people want them) and edibles (‘proceed with caution‘).
