SAM-USA Media Release 6 April 2021
A new study found that secondhand marijuana smoke could be more hazardous to one’s health than secondhand smoke from cigarettes.

The study compared emissions of fine particles, or particulate matter (PM 2.5) from tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke and found that the PM 2.5 emission rate of pre-rolled marijuana joints was 3.5 times higher than the average PM 2.5 emission rate of Marlboro cigarettes. Furthermore, the study also found that smoking marijuana indoors produced much more secondhand smoke emissions than the use of cigarettes indoors.

“Previous research has shown us that secondhand smoke from marijuana is a hazard to health to both smokers and non-smokers alike, and now this study shows that marijuana smoke distributes more harmful particles into the air than cigarettes do,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president and co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “With the recent declaration that the use of marijuana in public areas will be allowed under the new legalization law in New York State, this new research solidifies the need for further public health guardrails to be put in place, not only in New York but also in other states where the public use of marijuana proliferates. These risks to health cannot be ignored.”

This study follows previous research finding marijuana users had higher levels of smoke-related toxins in their blood and urine than non-smokers. Marijuana users were found to have higher levels of dangerous toxins such as naphthalene, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile than those who do not smoke marijuana or tobacco. These toxins are associated with severe harms such as cancer, anemia, and liver and mental health damage.

Legalization organizations have long targeted provisions of the Clean Indoor Air Act to allow for a marijuana exception. They have also denied the harms of secondhand smoke in areas such as public housing, which exposes the most vulnerable. Recent studies have found public housing exposes children to secondhand smoke more so than tobacco.
https://learnaboutsam.org/new-study-secondhand-marijuana-smoke-more-hazardous-than-secondhand-tobacco-smoke/

The Courier Herald 15 December 2020
During the first 9 months of 2019, there were 338 total cases of marijuana exposures to the WAPC. This rose to 424 exposure cases in the first 9 months of 2020, an increase of 25 percent.

For the 0 to 5 age group, the number of cases rose from 85 to 122, a 44 percent increase; likewise, in the 21-59 age group, which suffered the most exposures in both 2019 and 2020, exposure reports increased from 128 to 154, a 20 percent jump.

According to the WAPC, close to half (47 percent) of all exposures in 2020 were due to edibles, whereas plant exposures contributed to about 27 percent of exposures. Concentrates accounted for another 15 percent of exposures, and other products the remaining 11 percent of cases.

The poison center lists 115 of the exposures for kids ages 0 to 5 to be unintentional; the rest were undefined, with the exception of one child supposedly using a cannabis product inappropriately, albeit unintentionally.

However, the vast plurality of exposures for the 21 to 59 age group (67) were due to intentional abuse; another 21 exposures were due to unintentional misuse.

The WAPC estimates roughly $266,000 total was saved due to 73 percent of THC exposure reports made to the center were managed at home, rather than at an ER.
READ MORE: https://www.courierherald.com/news/poison-center-sees-increase-in-cannabis-exposures-decrease-in-nicotine-exposures/

Stuff co.nz 24 March 2021
Criminal charges for methamphetamine have hit record numbers but police say the figures could be higher still as they are using discretion to keep people out of courts.

Changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act in 2019 encouraged police to use discretion when people were caught with drugs for personal use and said a health approach – rather than prosecution – should be considered unless prosecution was in the public interest.

But new figures out from the Ministry of Justice show that more than half of all drug charges are now for methamphetamine, also called P or meth, and the numbers have almost doubled in the past decade with 8262 individual charges for the drug in 2020.

“It is across every stratum of society,” said Lieutenant Colonel Lynette Hutson​, national director of the Salvation Army’s alcohol and drug addiction Bridge programme.

“Professional people, high-functioning people, high-income people, to people in low socio-economic conditions.”

Meth use was on the rise and “doesn’t seem to be slowing”, but alcohol remained the most harmful addiction, she said.

The ministry figures show that 15,434 people faced drug charges in 2020. Of those, 8262 – more than half – were for methamphetamine, or P.

“Methamphetamine is a horrendous drug that can have a devastating impact, not only on the person using it, but their families, friends and their wider community.”
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124607517/meth-convictions-hit-a-record-high-but-police-suggest-numbers-could-be-higher

Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 2021
Doctors are being told not to use medicinal cannabis to treat patients with chronic pain, warning there is no solid evidence it is effective, as Australia’s medical regulator approves its 100,000th cannabinoid script.

Recreational Cannabis Use Among Adults at Home Is On the Rise, But What About the Children?
Columbia Public Health 17 March 2021
Among adults with children living in the home, cannabis use was more common in states with legalized cannabis use, according to a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Irving Medical Center and the City University of New York. Legalization for recreational and medical use were both linked with significantly higher prevalence of past-month and daily cannabis use. Until now, most tobacco control and harm reduction efforts protecting youth from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke focused on parental cigarette smoking, ensuring smoke-free homes, and not smoking in the presence of children. The findings are published in the journal Addiction.

The potential risks of exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke and education on the merits of protecting youth from exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke have received little attention in the cannabis legalization effort, according to  Renee Goodwin, PhD, MPH, in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and lead investigator.

“If legalization for medical or recreational purposes has increased cannabis use among adults living in the home with children, adults deserve education about the risks of secondhand smoke to youth, as well as information on any other risks to their children associated with parental cannabis use,” said Goodwin. “In contrast to cigarettes, there are no public health or clinical guidelines for parents designed to address or educate about best practices for use of cannabis toward avoiding or reducing harmful exposures of secondhand smoke to children’s health.”

The researchers analyzed data from the 2004-2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual representative survey on substance use and mental health of individuals ages 12 and older, to determine past-30-day cannabis use and daily cannabis use by age, gender, annual family income, and educational attainment as well as cannabis legalization.

In states where cannabis is legal for recreational purposes, 12 percent of the adults reported past-month use, and 4 percent used daily. For states with medical marijuana laws, the percentage of users in the month dropped to 9 percent, and to 6 percent in states without legalization laws. On a daily basis, adults reported using at 4.2 percent, 3.2 percent, and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Legalization for recreational use was associated with significant jumps in cannabis use among adults with children living in the home. The effect of legalization for medical use was concentrated more among parents who are older, with higher income and education levels. While increases in states with recreational legalization were observed consistently across all demographic groups.
READ MORE: https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/recreational-cannabis-use-among-adults-home-rise-what-about-children

NewScientist 8 March 2021
Legal cannabis production in Colorado emits more greenhouse gases than the state’s coal mining industry, researchers analysing the sector’s energy use have found.

The production and use of cannabis for medical or recreational reasons is now legal in several US states, which has led to a booming industry.

Hailey Summers and her colleagues at Colorado State University have quantified and analysed the greenhouse gas emissions produced by cannabis growers.

They found that emissions varied widely by state, from 2.3 to 5.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilogram of dried flower produced.

In Colorado, the emissions add up to around 2.6 megatonnes of CO2e, which is more than that from the state’s coal mining at 1.8 megatonnes of CO2e.

“The emissions that come from growing 1 ounce, depending on where it’s grown in the US, is about the same as burning 7 to 16 gallons of gasoline,” says Summers.

Most US cannabis is grown indoors, as some states don’t allow outdoor growing and the crops are also at risk of theft. This means that the majority of cannabis production emissions come from climate-control systems and high-powered lights that take the place of the sun.
READ MORE: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2270366-colorados-legal-cannabis-farms-emit-more-carbon-than-its-coal-mines/#ixzz6oepDryEg

New York Times 8 March 2021
Experts in the many specialties in which medical marijuana is said to be helpful have only rarely been able to demonstrate its purported benefits in well-designed scientific studies. And they caution that what is now being legally sold as medicinal marijuana in dispensaries throughout the country is anything but the safe, pure substance Americans commonly expect when they are treated with licensed medications.

For example, in Oregon, where both recreational and medicinal marijuana can be sold legally, all recreational marijuana must be tested for pesticides and solvents, but such tests are not required for most medical marijuana, an audit by the Secretary of State published in January 2019 showed. The Oregon Health Authority does not require tests for heavy metals and microbes that might sicken users.

Indeed, most of the same health concerns raised decades ago about using marijuana therapeutically are still unresolved, even as the potency of the plant’s intoxicating ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, best known as THC, has increased fivefold. Furthermore, exclusive medical use is uncommon; in a Canadian study of 709 medical users, 80.6 percent also reported using marijuana recreationally.

“People are using a medical excuse for their recreational marijuana habit,” said Dr. Kenneth Finn, a pain management specialist in Colorado Springs and editor of a new, 554-page professional book on the subject, “Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach.”

Proponents of medical marijuana argue that cannabis is relatively safe and less expensive than licensed pharmaceuticals and is often used for conditions for which effective therapies are lacking or inadequate. Opponents say that what is most lacking are standardized marijuana products and randomized controlled clinical trials that can clearly establish benefits and risks.
READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/well/live/medical-marijuana.html

Reuters 8 March 2021
In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado (Children’s Colorado) have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding. This is the first study examining THC in breastmilk and plasma among women with known marijuana use in pregnancy since a 1982 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“With the increasing utilization of marijuana in society as a whole, we are seeing more mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy,” said Erica Wymore, MD, MPH, primary investigator, neonatologist at Children’s Colorado and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. “However, given the lack of scientific data regarding how long THC persists in breast milk, it was challenging to provide mothers with a definitive answer regarding the safety of using marijuana while breastfeeding and simply ‘pumping and dumping’ until THC was no longer detectable in their milk. With this study, we aimed to better understand this question by determining the amount and duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women with known prenatal marijuana use.”

The researchers studied women with prenatal marijuana use who delivered their infants at Children’s Colorado and UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital between November 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. Specifically, researchers recruited women who:

• Had a history of marijuana use during pregnancy/a positive urine test for THC when admitted for delivery
• Were over the age of 18
• Had an intention to breastfeed
• Were willing to abstain from marijuana use for six weeks after delivery
• Were willing to provide milk, blood and urine samples during those six weeks

Of the 394 women who were screened, 25 enrolled. Seven of these women were ultimately able to abstain from marijuana use for the duration of the study. Reasons listed for the others’ inability to abstain included stress, sleep and pain relief.

The study found that, while the concentrations of THC varied from woman to woman (likely depending on their level of use, BMI and metabolism), THC was excreted in the breast milk of these seven women for up to six weeks. In fact, all of the women still had detectable levels of THC in their breastmilk at the end of the study.
READ MORE: https://medicalxpress.cohtmlm/news/2021-03-marijuana-thc-breast-weeks.

Reuters 9 March 2021
Family First Comment: How’s the legalisation experiment going, Canada?
“Health Canada highlighted recent police raids and arrests at production sites where people were using licenses to “cover and support large-scale illegal production and sale”.”
And the black market still seems to be thriving
“The move comes as Canada tries to fix its ailing pot market, where illegal producers sell more annually than hundreds of licensed cultivators, even over two years after the country became the first major nation to legalise weed in 2018.”

Canada on Monday launched a public consultation seeking to tighten rules for individuals who are allowed to grow their own medical cannabis, in an effort to clamp down on pot seeping into black markets.

In a draft guidance issued for the consultation, Health Canada highlighted recent police raids and arrests at production sites where people were using licenses to “cover and support large-scale illegal production and sale”.

The move comes as Canada tries to fix its ailing pot market, where illegal producers sell more annually than hundreds of licensed cultivators, even over two years after the country became the first major nation to legalize weed in 2018.

Households spent more than C$3.1 billion ($2.45 billion) buying non-medical pot from illicit channels last year versus C$2.9 billion of legal purchases, according to Statistics Canada data.

“Abuse of the medical purposes framework undermines the integrity of the system that many patients and health care practitioners rely on to access cannabis to address their medical needs,” Health Canada said in the draft document.

Reuters first reported the news earlier on Monday.

The draft guidance for the first time sets out factors that the regulator may consider in refusing or revoking a registration for “personal production”. Factors include authorization of unjustified amounts and “criminal activity and/or diversion of cannabis”. (Graphic: Black markets plague Canadian cannabis, )
READ MORE: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-cannabis-exclusive-idUSKBN2B017Q

NewsHub 9 March 2021
A new poll suggests most New Zealanders support decriminalising cannabis.

Just over 48 percent of voters supported legalising cannabis in a referendum held last year.

A poll conducted by market research firm UMR for the Helen Clark Foundation found an additional 20 percent voted no but said they think cannabis should be decriminalised. The poll was of 833 people who voted in the referendum; 49 percent were in favour of legalisation – mirroring the actual vote – while 30 percent thought the current law should stay the same or get tougher.

This makes a total of 69 percent who either supported legalisation or would support decriminalisation.

Foundation executive director Kathy Errington said this proved there was a strong public appetite for drug law change.

“The poll really shows how much New Zealand culture has changed in their attitude to drug policy and that we are, as a country, moving away from an approach to drugs that is rooted in criminal law and prohibition.”

She said decriminalising cannabis would achieve many of the health-related outcomes hoped for in the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.

“It depends how you do it and the details will matter a lot but what it gets at is that one of the key injustices that hasn’t been resolved about our cannabis laws, which is the unequal burden of criminalisation, that still very much needs to be addressed.”

Errington said, in particular, the unequal impacts were worn by young people and Māori.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/most-new-zealanders-support-decriminalising-cannabis-poll-suggests.html

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