People 25 November 2020
Family First Comment: You don’t have to take it from us. Take it from Ben Affleck’s real life experience…
“I had a bad experience with marijuana at 15 — I had a dissociative panic attack. So I only smoked weed if everyone else was smoking, and I had to sort of Bill-Clinton it and fake it. I didn’t really like marijuana.”

The Conversation 21 November 2020
Family First Comment: “While alcohol use is falling among 18-to-22-year-olds, marijuana use is inching upward. The number of young adults using both alcohol and marijuana is also rising, heightening concerns about a future surge in substance abuse problems, new research shows. The bad news is that the number of college-age young adults saying they used marijuana at least once in the previous year has increased, from 33% to 37%. The vast majority who said they used marijuana also used alcohol. We found that the increase in young adults using both was a result of young adults who used alcohol taking up marijuana, too. This increase in using both alcohol and marijuana is an important warning sign, because young adults in that group also had much higher rates of other illicit drug use, like cocaine, and prescription drug misuse, involving medications like opioids or benzodiazepines.”

Young adults aren’t drinking as much as they used to. In fact, more than a quarter don’t drink alcohol at all, recent surveys show.

It’s good news for health. But there is also a downside in the data: While alcohol use is falling among 18-to-22-year-olds, marijuana use is inching upward. The number of young adults using both alcohol and marijuana is also rising, heightening concerns about a future surge in substance abuse problems, new research shows.

I am a professor of psychology at Texas State University who has been studying young adult and adolescent substance use for over 15 years. A key interest of mine is how substance use changes over adolescence and young adulthood. It is a period of profound change: A 13-year-old is very different from a 25-year-old in nearly every way.

With colleagues at the University of Michigan, the University of Central Florida and Iowa State University, I have been investigating trends in alcohol and marijuana use in young adults to better understand how use changes with age. The latest numbers offer both hope and concern.

Gen Z is breaking stereotypes
There are reasons for the stereotype of hard-drinking, substance-using young adults, as photos and videos from bars and college parties will attest. But surveys and our analysis suggest that binge drinking isn’t as common as people may believe it is.

Using data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we found that in 2018 nearly 30% of college-age adults, ages 18-22, had not had a single alcoholic drink during the previous year, compared with fewer than a quarter in 2002. Over 60% had not used marijuana at all.
READ MORE: https://theconversation.com/college-age-kids-and-teens-are-drinking-less-alcohol-marijuana-is-a-different-story-149895

Latest data from the Ministry of Health shows that past 12 month use of cannabis has remained at just 14.9%.

In contrast, 4 in 5 adults drank alcohol in past year.

The law is a deterrent – and the coercion of the law ensures referral to health services.

Win win.

Unfortunately Maori are more than twice as likely to use cannabis than non-Maori.

The solution is not to normalise drug use. The solution is to find out why Maori are more prone to drug use, and deal with the underlying issues.

The data also shows that young people are most at risk – and legalising it would simply add to the normalisation, availability, health harms and targeting towards this subgroup.

Fox 29 18 November 2020
Family First Comment: “In 2019, there were nearly 700,000 youths, ages 12 to 17, that was addicted to marijuana, which shows an increase of nearly 187,000 new youth in 2019 alone with cannabis use disorder,” said Dr. Kenneth Finn, Pain Medicine Physician in Colorado. Finn has seen the negative effects it’s having on teens who live in a state where marijuana is legalized. “When you’re having a fragile brain that is still developing and having negative impacts on that, some of those bridges, you cannot uncross, like the schizophrenic or the psychosis, some of that those symptoms persist even after cessation of use.” According to the Institute for Social Research, almost 80% of seniors in 2018 say getting marijuana is very easy.
Of course it is. Legalise = normalise.

More and more research suggests the high potency of THC or marijuana is having dangerous impacts on the developing brains of teenagers. Teens who use cannabis could be at a higher risk of experiencing depression and attempting suicide.

“In 2019, there were nearly 700,000 youths, ages 12 to 17, that was addicted to marijuana, which shows an increase of nearly 187,000 new youth in 2019 alone with cannabis use disorder,” said Dr. Kenneth Finn, Pain Medicine Physician in Colorado.

Finn has seen the negative effects it’s having on teens who live in a state where marijuana is legalized.

According to the Institute for Social Research, almost 80% of seniors in 2018 say getting marijuana is very easy. The latest study show marijuana is linked to school failure. Marijuana’s negative effects on attention, memory, and learning can last for days and sometimes weeks. Some students who smoke marijuana tend to get lower grades and are more likely to drop out of high school, compared with their peers who don’t use.
READ MORE: https://foxsanantonio.com/news/yami-investigates/dea-teen-depression-and-suicide-linked-to-marijuana-use

Radio NZ News 18 November 2020
Family First Comment: Looks like the current law is working well.
40% reduction in cannabis prosecutions in the last 5 years. Statistics for the three months to September show prosecutions for Māori are down by 17%, and there’s been a 50% increase in warnings to Māori where there are two or more offences. Fewer than 20% of all people caught with cannabis were prosecuted, and 500 people have been referred to health professionals.
Health and coercion and deterrent of the law. 🙂

The Police Commissioner has rejected criticism that Māori are still being unfairly prosecuted for low level cannabis offences but is concerned they are more likely to be found in possession of the drug.

The Māori Council and the Drug Foundation say a law change last year giving police more discretionary powers has done nothing.

Andrew Coster told Nine to Noon the law change was intended to confirm what was already happening.

He said there has been about a 40 percent reduction in cannabis prosecutions in the last five years.

Statistics for the three months to September show prosecutions for Māori are down by 17 percent, and there’s been a 50 percent increase in warnings to Māori where there are two or more offences.

“So we have seen a continued ongoing trend of greater use of warnings and a lesser use of prosecutions and that is consistent with the trend that has been running over the last five years.”

Fewer than 20 percent of all people caught with cannabis were prosecuted, and 500 people have been referred to health professionals.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430879/prosecution-of-maori-for-cannabis-offences-falling-police-commissioner

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.

Family First Comment: The most common way adolescents get marijuana is from friends (bought or shared). Not the black market.
But once they’re hooked, ‘then’ they’re more likely to use a stranger / drug dealer.
#saynopetodope

Anna C. Wagner and colleagues at the University of Minnesota analyzed data from the national Monitoring the Future survey to determine where 12th-grade students who used marijuana in the past year got it.

The top three methods for getting marijuana were:
• Given for free from friends
• Bought from friends
• Bought from a drug dealer/stranger
Sociodemographic and frequency-of-use differences emerged in their analysis. Male students, urban students and recent frequent users tended to buy marijuana from a drug dealer, while nonfrequent users were more likely to have friends who gave it to them for free.

The researchers say that knowing where adolescents get marijuana is useful for targeting specific prevention messages to specific groups.

Read Addictive Behaviors abstract here.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460320308601

The Guardian 15 November 2020
Family First Comment: “In herbal cannabis, THC concentrations increased by 14% between 1970 and 2017. This was primarily due to a rising market share of stronger varieties, such as sinsemilla. Concentrations in cannabis resin, which is extracted from herbal cannabis, increased by 24% between 1975 and 2017.”
And with higher potency comes greater harm and addictions. This is not your parent’s pot.

Concentrations of intoxicating THC have risen, data from more than 80,000 street drug samples gathered over 50 years shows.

Cannabis resin – or “hash” – has increased in strength by nearly 25% over the past half century, a major international study has revealed.

Researchers with the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath analysed data from more than 80,000 cannabis street samples tested in the past 50 years in the US, UK, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Italy and New Zealand.

Their findings, published in the journal Addiction, reveal concentrations of THC – the intoxicating component of cannabis responsible for giving users a “high” – have changed over time.

In herbal cannabis, THC concentrations increased by 14% between 1970 and 2017. This was primarily due to a rising market share of stronger varieties, such as sinsemilla. Concentrations in cannabis resin, which is extracted from herbal cannabis, increased by 24% between 1975 and 2017.

This was the equivalent of a 5mg increase in THC per annum. One 5mg dose is enough for mild intoxication, according to the researchers.

“Cannabis has continued to increase in strength over time, such that today it differs enormously from the type of drug used by people 50 years ago,” said lead author Dr Tom Freeman. “During this time attitudes have also shifted. There is now a greater appreciation of its complex interplay with mental health and potential medicinal uses.”
READ MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/15/cannabis-resin-now-25-more-potent-global-study-reveals?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Radio NZ News 11 November 2020
A medicinal cannabis company is relieved the referendum went up in smoke, saying more research into the drug is needed.

Meanwhile, other companies are disappointed in the result but they say the result won’t shake their business too much.

The cannabis referendum recently flopped by a slim margin – 50.7 percent of New Zealanders said no, but 48.4 percent supported the legalisation of recreational cannabis.

Doctors can already prescribe medicinal cannabis, but New Zealand companies are still developing products for use.

The first MedCan summit took place yesterday, drawing dozens of industry members to Auckland’s Aotea Centre.

Among those attending the summit was Greenlab director Parmjit Randhawa.

Greenlab, a Christchurch-based medicinal cannabis company, is aiming to make its market debut next year.

Randhawa was glad that the referendum failed to pass, as he did not think there was enough research on the active compounds in cannabis, or consistent results from clinical trials.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430326/medicinal-cannabis-companies-have-mixed-feelings-about-referendum-outcome

NewsHub 6 November 2020
New Zealand has voted not to legalise recreational cannabis, final referendum results show – despite special votes narrowing the margin of defeat.

While they narrowed the margin of victory for the ‘no’ campaign, the newly counted votes weren’t enough to swing the referendum in favour of legalisation.

The final results showed 1,406,973 (48.4 percent) of Kiwis support bringing the Bill into force, with 1,474,635 (50.7 percent) against. Another 26,463 people (0.9 percent) did not clearly indicate the option for which they wish to vote.

The defeat means the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill will not be introduced to Parliament, and possession and consumption of cannabis will remain illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/11/nz-election-special-votes-fail-to-swing-cannabis-referendum-weed-won-t-be-legalised-in-new-zealand.html

Tears and anger as special votes fail to flip narrow cannabis referendum loss
Stuff co.nz 6 November 2020
Say Nope to Dope spokesperson Aaron Ironside said the group was pleased, and relieved, with the result.

Despite their opposition to recreational cannabis, the group was backing further reforms for medicinal users.

“I think the reason that the no vote has won is enough New Zealanders believe enough reform has occurred with medicinal cannabis being legal, although that law obviously needs to be improved, and a change to the Misuse of Drugs Act. I think really this is a vote which says this is enough change for now.”

He felt medicinal cannabis needs to be made available to people who were sick and suffering.

“We think a no vote forces the Government to fix a broken law, rather than to try to overlook the weakness of that law by bringing in legalisation.”
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123324311/tears-and-anger-as-special-votes-fail-to-flip-narrow-cannabis-referendum-loss

Referendum on legalisation of cannabis narrowly fails after special votes counted
TVNZ One News 6 November 2020
Family First’s Bob McCoskrie of the Say Nope to Dope campaign said last week he was “pretty stoked”.