Media Release – Sensible Sentencing Trust 1 July 2020
There is a major push to legalise cannabis in New Zealand and all the while, drug addiction problems are growing.

Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) have joined with SAM-NZ in their Vote Nope to Dope campaign.

SST National Spokesperson Jess McVicar says the trust have supported families of victims who have died because of the selfish actions of a person getting behind the wheel and driving while high on drugs and believe more innocent lives will be lost if marijuana is legalised.

Jess McVicar said “The Government have already made a significant impact on the courts by allowing reduced sentences for anyone showing a sign of drug addiction, as it is considered a mental health condition, so why would they think it is acceptable to legalise the root cause of the problem?”

“To legalise marijuana, the substance that has been proven to be a gateway drug, is a very dangerous move that will end in the tragic loss of lives, both young and old.”

Jess said “This Bill is completely contradictory toward the movement of a healthy society and the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. We absolutely believe will see a rise in crime, mental health issues and drug addiction if the use of cannabis is legalised.”

Bob McCoskrie, a member of the SayNopeToDope coalition, spoke to Kerre Woodham this morning on Newstalk ZB to correct statements being made about funding of the campaign.

We want to be open and transparent about our work. We receive no government funding. We receive no overseas funding.

Have a listen to this short phonecall.

BreakPoint 29 June 2020
Our additional comment: The title of the study telegraphs the punchline: “Legalized Cannabis in Colorado Emergency Departments: A Cautionary Review of Negative Health and Safety Effects.” Cannabis legalization has led to significant health consequences, particularly to patients in emergency departments and hospitals in Colorado.” The consequences that are, in their words, “most concerning” are “psychosis, suicide, and other substance abuse,” not to mention the impairment of a user’s “complex decision making,” which may be irreversible, even by subsequent abstinence. In Colorado, cannabis-related emergency and urgent-care visits among “teenagers and young adults” increased nearly three-fold after legalization. Most of these visits required “behavioural health evaluation.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states and another 21 states permit the use of so-called “medical marijuana.” I say “so-called” because, as NYU drug policy expert Mark Kleinman has put it, “the vast majority of ‘patients’ buying ‘medical marijuana’ aren’t doing so under any sort of active medical supervision . . . Many of them aren’t ‘treating’ anything but their desire to get high . . .”

In the push to legalize, America has been sold dangerous lies about marijuana – of financial windfalls with no accompanying social cost and of therapeutic benefits with no accompanying dangers. But marijuana is dangerous. In fact, for some, it’s potentially lethal.

Dr. Erik Messamore, a psychiatrist with a doctorate in psychopharmacology, recently brought attention to a study published by a branch of NIH about my state, which is ground zero of the marijuana push in the United States. The title of the study telegraphs the punchline: “Legalized Cannabis in Colorado Emergency Departments: A Cautionary Review of Negative Health and Safety Effects.”

This “cautionary review” begins rather bluntly: “Cannabis legalization has led to significant health consequences, particularly to patients in emergency departments and hospitals in Colorado.” The consequences that are, in their words, “most concerning” are “psychosis, suicide, and other substance abuse,” not to mention the impairment of a user’s “complex decision making,” which may be irreversible, even by subsequent abstinence.

In Colorado, cannabis-related emergency and urgent-care visits among “teenagers and young adults” increased nearly three-fold after legalization. Most of these visits required “behavioral health evaluation.”

To quote the G.I. Joe public service announcements of my youth, “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” Except, and this should disturb us all, the link between cannabis use and mental illness was already well-known before legalization.

In his book, No One Cares About Crazy People, Ron Powers (who co-wrote the World War II history Flags of Our Fathers) told the story of his two sons, both diagnosed with schizophrenia in their early twenties. Marijuana use, Powers learned, contributed to their diagnosis. Specifically, marijuana use increases the chances of schizophrenia for people who carry the genes AKT1 and COMT, which “affect brain chemistry.” Powers’ sons had these genes. One of them committed suicide, and the other attempted suicide but was saved through a timely intervention.
READ MORE: https://breakpoint.org/the-link-between-marijuana-psychosis-and-suicide/?_hsmi=90329413&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-80qR6EnlQmf4TW9WuSC-IKA3141cMWo9IXgarDX0ZkINIdQ0gKPneMstKAXvN961lmDB_FCiRi-uB1xOdo7OpcKDHi_A

TVNZ One News 29 June 2020
Our additional comment: Excellent result – despite a significant spend by the Drug Foundation ($300k)..
“According to the poll, those more likely than average to be against legalising cannabis are National Party supporters and people aged 70 and over. Those more likely than average to be for the legalisation of cannabis are Green and Labour Party supporters, people aged 18-29, Wellingtonians and Māori.”

Kiwis who were hoping they might soon be able to smoke cannabis legally might be out of luck, according to the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll.

The Conversation 15 June 2020
Our additional comment: Compared to babies whose mothers did not use marijuana before or during their pregnancies, babies whose mothers were still using the drug at 15 weeks had a smaller birth weight, head circumference, and length and were born at an earlier gestational age.

A study in Australia analysed data from 5,610 women who were in their first pregnancy and therefore at low risk for pregnancy complications. Of these, 314 (5.6 percent) self-reported marijuana use three months before pregnancy or during their pregnancy. Of these women, 97 stopped using before their pregnancy and 157 percent stopped using during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. Sixty were still using marijuana at 15 weeks.

Compared to babies whose mothers did not use marijuana before or during their pregnancies, babies whose mothers were still using the drug at 15 weeks had a smaller birth weight, head circumference, and length and were born at an earlier gestational age.

Read the researchers’ account of their study in the Medical Journal of Australia here.
READ MORE: https://theconversation.com/using-cannabis-during-pregnancy-could-be-bad-news-for-your-baby-new-research-140443

Our additional comment: Dr. Jerome Adams is the 20th Surgeon General of the United States. He addresses marijuana-related questions he often receives including those related to the chemical composition and potency of today’s marijuana, associated risks, and what parents and teachers can say to young people about marijuana.
Well worth a watch

The Nation’s Doctor, VADM Jerome M. Adams, M.D., answers top questions about marijuana. The U.S. Surgeon General addresses marijuana-related questions he often receives including those related to the chemical composition and potency of today’s marijuana, associated risks, and what parents and teachers can say to young people about marijuana.
For more information visit: www.surgeongeneral.gov
Dr. Jerome Adams is the 20th Surgeon General of the United States. His mission as the “Nation’s Doctor,” is to advance the health of the American people. As the Surgeon General, Dr. Adams holds the rank of Vice Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. In this capacity, he oversees the operations of approximately 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 800 locations around the world, promoting, protecting, and advancing the health and safety of our nation.

The Doctor Is In: Answering Your Marijuana Questions (Short)

The Nation’s Doctor, VADM Jerome M. Adams, M.D., answers top questions about marijuana. The U.S. Surgeon General addresses marijuana-related questions he often receives including those related to the chemical composition and potency of today’s marijuana, associated risks, and what parents and teachers can say to young people about marijuana.
For more information visit: www.surgeongeneral.gov
Dr. Jerome Adams is the 20th Surgeon General of the United States. His mission as the “Nation’s Doctor,” is to advance the health of the American people. As the Surgeon General, Dr. Adams holds the rank of Vice Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. In this capacity, he oversees the operations of approximately 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 800 locations around the world, promoting, protecting, and advancing the health and safety of our nation.

Surgeon General Adams Releases Advisory on Marijuana’s Damaging Effects on the Brain

Surgeon General VADM Jerome M. Adams issues an advisory emphasizing the importance of protecting youth and pregnant women from the health risks of marijuana use.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | http://www.hhs.gov | HHS Privacy Policy | http://www.hhs.gov/Privacy.html

USA Today 31 January 2020
Our additional comment: If he remains off pot and symptom-free a year after the episode, the psychiatrist can say with certainty he suffered from “cannabis-induced psychosis.” “What shocked me is that I had never heard of it,” said McIntosh’s dad, Rob. “All you hear is all these proponents of legalization of pot without thought to the risks and the consequences.” In March, The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported a two to five times higher risk of psychotic disorders for daily consumers of high-THC marijuana compared with people who never used. 

A number of physicians and parents are pushing back against the long-held assertion of users and advocates that marijuana is a safe, benign and even beneficial drug.

Those sounding the alarm include the nation’s “mental health czar,” as well as doctors in Colorado, California and Massachusetts where marijuana is legal for recreational use. They say the facts are irrefutable: Excessive use of high-THC pot and concentrated oil is linked to psychotic episodes that in some cases develop into full-blown schizophrenia.

There is great disagreement over the strength of the science linking pot and psychosis. Advocates on either side of the marijuana debate have different interpretations of the connection reported in a National Academies cannabis study in 2017 and other studies. In March, The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported a two to five times higher risk of psychotic disorders for daily consumers of high-THC marijuana compared with people who never used.

Arguments surround how much of the illness is preceded or worsened by the drug use, how often marijuana is used in response to it and whether the psychosis would have occurred anyway.

“At the end of the day, you can’t make a causal statement,” said Ziva Cooper, research director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative and a member of the National Academies panel. “You need to have some biological premise to show that this kind of exposure causes psychotic disorder.”

The federal government and other health officials say the type of psychosis McIntosh experienced and other psychiatric disorders are clearly tied to the drug.

“It is time for Americans to understand there are substantial risks with marijuana,” said Elinore McCance-Katz, the Department of Health and Human Services’ top mental health official. “This is not the government making up data.”
READ MORE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/15/weed-psychosis-high-thc-cause-suicide-schizophrenia/4168315002/

NJ.com 27 June 2020
Our additional comment: “The unethical choices the tobacco industry made decades ago marketing its addictive and harmful products to kids and the lax government oversight that allowed it to happen are playing out again in California’s legal weed industry, according to a new study… Lynn Silver, the pediatrician and lead author, said she is not opposed to marijuana legalization, but based on what the study found is “deeply concerned by the irresponsible way legalization is occurring in the U.S. that is allowing the emergence of a new tobacco-like industry.”

The unethical choices the tobacco industry made decades ago marketing its addictive and harmful products to kids and the lax government oversight that allowed it to happen are playing out again in California’s legal weed industry, according to a new study.

With New Jersey voters going to the polls Nov. 3 to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment expanding its medical marijuana law to all adults 21 and older, the study by the Public Health Institute offers ideas of how the state could take a firmer hand regulating the burgeoning industry.

The authors — a pediatrician, an attorney and a research scientist — examined the laws in 534 of California’s 539 cities and counties a year after marijuana was legalized for adults 21 and older in 2018.

Lynn Silver, the pediatrician and lead author, said she is not opposed to marijuana legalization, but based on what the study found is “deeply concerned by the irresponsible way legalization is occurring in the U.S. that is allowing the emergence of a new tobacco-like industry.”

California has a flourishing market for high-potency products, like edibles and concentrates known as dabs, which lack prominent and explicit warning labels, Silver said. It’s not hard to find dried flowers with THC levels as much as 30%, and as much as three times that amount for concentrates, she said.

Cannabis-infused soda and gummies and other products with names like “girl scout cookie” appear to target youth, much in the way “Joe Camel” lured young smokers and cherry and bubble gum-flavored nicotine vapes targeted minors. Billboards promoting marijuana products are commonplace, and cannabis consumption at concerts and fairs is permitted, according to the article.
READ MORE: https://www.nj.com/marijuana/2020/06/marijuana-industry-using-tobaccos-old-tactics-of-preying-on-kids-study-says.html

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