Boogity-boogity Evil Weed propaganda

**Occam's Banana** · 04-13-2022, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by jct74

Putting aside the bogus "gateway" argument which is completely laughable, wouldn't marijuana being laced with other drugs be an argument in favor of legalization and getting it off the streets? The whole "laced with fentanyl" thing is basically a myth in the first place, but even if it were true that would be an argument for legalization, not against it.

What an idiot.

Exactly. Just like adulterated "bathtub gin" was a symptom of Prohibition.

**tod evans** · 07-03-2022, 02:27 PM

EXCLUSIVE: How California's legal cannabis dream became a public health nightmare: It's a class B drug in the UK - but in the US state it's led to spiralling addiction, psychotic illnesses and hospitals facing a deluge of poisonings

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...nightmare.html

I spot one pot – a snip at $43, or roughly £35 – that is specifically designed for 'replenishing and rejuvenating' tissues in the, er, vagina. Alongside me, expensively dressed customers peruse the goods, clutching colourful iced smoothies and juices.

I'm in upmarket Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California, in one of the area's many so-called 'wellness' shops, just a stone's throw from designer boutiques such as Gucci and Saint Laurent. It's a far cry from Holland & Barrett, not least because all the products here at the Serra boutique contain high-grade, genetically engineered cannabis.

There are balms and lotions, things to eat and, of course, to smoke. One display cabinet showcases dozens of dried cannabis flowers, each bud sitting in its own pretty porcelain dish, labelled according to its supposed benefit: happiness, creativity, relaxation.

In another cabinet is a perfect grid of individual chocolate truffles, priced up to £5 a pop, a bit like something you'd find in the food hall in a department store. Only these sweet treats are laced with 10mg of THC, the psychoactive component in the marijuana plant.

Recreational use of cannabis, which is classified as a class B drug in the UK, possession of which could land you with up to five years in prison, has been legal in California since 2016. Two decades earlier it was made available to buy, via a doctor's prescription, to treat a variety of minor ailments from back pain to anxiety.

Today, about one in five people in California use cannabis regularly, and it has become something of a health trend – not simply legal and above board but, judging by the stylish throng at Serra when I visited, practically de rigueur.

The sales assistants – who all look like Hollywood star turned health guru Gwyneth Paltrow – tell me of the variety of uses: aching muscles, headaches, anxiety, insomnia, arthritic pain and many more.

'I take a very small dose every day, just to calm any nerves I might be feeling,' one willowy, tanned brunette tells me. 'It's definitely changed my life for the better.'

Out on the streets, billboards advertising cannabis shops, or dispensaries as they are officially known, which makes them sound very medical, are on every corner, inviting customers to try 'alternative healing'.

Some shops are also art galleries, while others sell hipster favourites such as artisan coffee.

And you don't have to smoke the cannabis. You can eat, drink and bathe in it, rub it on your sore spots and even brush your teeth with cannabis toothpaste.

It's an industry that turns over roughly £8 billion – and rakes in more than £2.5 billion in tax revenue – every year.

And I must admit, the way it's all sold, as some kind of divine health-giving elixir, certainly makes the idea of dabbling more palatable. But I am not here to partake. Because behind the shiny pots and serenely smiling assistants, a far more disturbing picture is emerging.

Over the past few years, doctors in California have begun to voice concerns about the repercussions of increasing cannabis use. In particular, how the laissez-faire approach is fuelling a surge in addiction and mental illness.

Many are particularly concerned about Los Angeles, where teenagers use the drug more often than in any other Californian city.

I spent a week travelling across LA and beyond, meeting emergency doctors in the eye of the storm, as well as devastated parents who say their families have been torn apart by cannabis.

Part of my journey followed in the footsteps of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who recently visited a number of LA's dispensaries on a 'fact finding mission'. He announced that a new group would be set up to look at the benefits of legalising cannabis in the UK, although Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed the suggestion, saying he had 'no powers' to make any such changes.

Perhaps Khan would benefit from a chat with Dr Roneet Lev, an emergency doctor at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, who tells me: 'We've been seeing the problems for a while now: depressive breakdowns, psychosis, suicidal thoughts, all related to cannabis. The patients are regular people, not down-and-outs.

'I want people to know the truth about this drug. We've been sold a lie, that cannabis use is harmless and even has a multitude of health benefits. It is exactly the same as what happened with tobacco. The industry told the public it was good for their health at first, before it was proven to be deadly.'

In California, hospital admissions for cannabis-related complications have shot up – from 1,400 in 2005 to 16,000 by 2019. In California, and the other 18 states that have legalised cannabis, rates of addiction are nearly 40 per cent higher than states without legal cannabis, according to research by Columbia University.

A study published on Thursday suggested recreational marijuana users were 25 per cent more likely to end up needing emergency hospital treatment. And, according to data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the risk of being involved in a cannabis-related accident is significantly higher in states where the drug is legal.

There are other concerns too, not least about the black market that has grown by nearly 100 per cent since cannabis laws were relaxed, as bootleggers sell products at a lower price, undercutting the registered shops.

Experts say these problems are mostly down to record levels of cannabis use – with roughly 40 per cent of Californians now saying they've dabbled at least once, according to a California Department of Public Health survey.

UK laws around the medical use of cannabis were relaxed four years ago, allowing specialist doctors to prescribe medicine made from the drug to some patients with epilepsy, or to treat vomiting related to cancer treatment and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Just last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that 9,000 Britons are regularly prescribed the drug by private doctors, in some cases outside of official rules.

Pro-drug legalisation campaigners have long seen medical use as a way to gain a foothold in public acceptance. And perhaps it's working. Polls show that between 30 and 40 per cent of Britons are in favour of full legalisation – with research suggesting six million would smoke cannabis if it was legalised.

As it is, about a third of Britons say that they've used cannabis, according to data by research firm Statista.

California became the first US state to authorise the sale of cannabis for medical reasons in 1996 after a handful of studies showed small doses of the drug were beneficial for patients suffering cancer pain.

At the time, health chiefs were desperate to find a solution to the record-high numbers of Americans addicted to prescription painkillers: opioids such as oxycodone and methadone. Cannabis was touted as a less harmful alternative.

'Suddenly it became a health product which doctors were giving out, and people trust doctors,' says Scott Chipman, chairman of American lobby group Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana.

'People thought, well if it helps people who are dying of cancer and in pain, we support the use of it.

'The state ruled that doctors who prescribed it would have to have a special licence, but no one checked. Within two years we had 240 stores in San Diego prescribing and selling medical cannabis, and not one of them had a licence. It meant anyone could walk in and get a prescription if they said they had insomnia, anxiety or even an ingrown toenail.'

Other experts I spoke to describe similar scenarios, with private doctors offering 'medical marijuana cards' which entitled patients to walk into any dispensary and buy the drug, no questions asked.

When full legalisation came into force a decade later, the 'health halo' of cannabis spread further.

'Dispensaries look like Apple stores now,' says Chipman. 'They are a very nice place to be.'

The benefits of cannabis are said to be down to two key elements. First, cannabidiol, or CBD, extracted and put into body oils, candles and a host of other wellness products available in the UK. Then there's tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, which affects brain chemicals and is responsible for the 'high'.

It's a fact
Last year, 27,304 Britons were treated on the NHS for cannabis misuse, according to Government figures.
The UK is the world's largest producer of cannabis for medical and scientific uses, harvesting 320 tons in 2019, a UN report revealed.
Last month a major review of 25 studies concluded there was insufficient evidence for the long-term pain-relieving effect of cannabis.

As for mental health, a 2020 review by psychiatrists at the University of Melbourne concluded the evidence is 'too weak' to prove cannabis helps anxiety, depression or insomnia.

Scientists overwhelmingly conclude that frequent use of the drug is not worth the risks.

THC stimulates areas of the brain involved with mood, attention and memory, while triggering the release of the hormone dopamine, responsible for feelings of reward and pleasure.

Small, infrequent doses have little long-term impact, according to studies. But with prolonged, regular use, signals in these key brain areas can start to go awry.

Studies have shown that frequent ingestion of cannabis can increase the risk of serious mental illness like psychosis and schizophrenia, as well as insomnia, social anxiety disorder and suicidal thoughts.

'We are seeing a lot more patients who have gone from smoking once every few months to using cannabis every day, and they don't realise the harms,' says Dr Ziva Cooper, who runs the Center For Cannabis And Cannabinoids at the University of California in Los Angeles.

'Frequent and heavy use is becoming so normalised in LA, those who are addicted or have complications might not realise it because all their friends are the same.'

Experts say another serious consequence of legalisation is the increasing potency of cannabis.

Plants are bred and chemically treated so they contain ever more THC. While an organic cannabis plant produces flowers with about four per cent THC, the items in most dispensaries today range from about ten to 98 per cent.

A similar pattern is happening in the UK's illegal market, with average THC levels in cannabis at roughly 14 per cent, according to a King's College London study.

Regular use of quantities above ten per cent are linked to a higher risk of addiction, violent behaviour and a newly recognised condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or 'scromiting'.

'It means screaming and violent vomiting,' says Dr Lev. 'I call it the audible cannabis condition, because I hear the violent screams down the hall before I see the patient.'

Before 2016, Dr Lev rarely saw patients with this problem. Now she sees at least one per shift. Symptoms can continue for days, or weeks, and there is no effective treatment.

Three young men have died from complications of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome since it was first identified in 2004. In Colorado, emergency admissions for the condition have doubled since cannabis was legalised in 2012.

At the dispensary visited by Mr Khan earlier this year, called Traditional in trendy downtown LA, I'm intrigued by a tiny pot of crystals, which look like broken-up sugar lumps. The shop assistant explains they are called edible cannabis crystalline. According to the label, it is 95 per cent THC. 'This will give you a really intense high, so we wouldn't recommend it for someone who isn't experienced,' they add.

Experts describe these highly concentrated products as 'the crack cocaine of cannabis', and say demand for ever-stronger stuff is another by-product of legalisation.

'Because so many Californians have been using for so long, they develop a tolerance and go in search of more powerful highs,' says Kevin Sabet, a former White House drugs policy adviser who runs the anti-cannabis legalisation group, SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).

'So the industry has to keep inventing more products to keep them hooked.'

As for the belief that legalisation and regulation will eliminate the criminal element: the illegal cannabis market in California is booming, estimated to be worth £6 billion – twice that of the legal industry.

Scott Chipman of Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana says: 'These operations charge far less for high-potency products because they have no overheads, which is popular with customers.'

Michelle Leopold, 57, from San Francisco, has fallen victim to the worst possible consequences of the normalisation of cannabis use.

In 2019, her 18-year-old son Trevor died after dabbling with prescription painkillers – and unwittingly taking a tablet of powerful opioid Fentanyl – following four years of addiction to cannabis.

'The only reason he touched those pills was because he was searching for stronger highs,' says Michelle, who owns a chain of hardware stores with her husband Jeff, 56. She believes studious nature-lover Trevor would never have smoked in the first place had it not been for the relaxed laws.

When Trevor's habit began in 2014, cannabis was 'everywhere', she says. 'At that time it was permitted for medical reasons – but regulation was a farce. He wasn't yet 16 but he and his friends could log on to a website, say they had anxiety, and get marijuana. I don't think the potential harms were on his radar.'

Within a few weeks, Trevor was smoking most days after school. 'We very quickly realised that this was not the same stuff we'd seen people smoking at college. It didn't make him mellow or relaxed, it made him angry and violent.'

Michelle's 'adorable' son began punching walls during screaming arguments with his parents.

'He broke cell phones and computer screens in anger, ' she adds. 'He started skipping school and his grades plummeted. He was a bright, studious kid before. We tried therapy, raiding his room and tough love. Nothing worked to get him to stop.'

Trevor enrolled in three rehabilitation programmes, at a total cost of more than £100,000, but none worked. Then, in 2019, shortly after Trevor turned 18, a medical marijuana card arrived in the post.

'Trevor suffered with terrible anxiety about his final exams in his last year of high school, and everywhere you look there are messages telling you cannabis helps you de-stress,' says Michelle.

'We obviously confiscated it, but every time we did he'd order another one.'

That September, Trevor began reading business studies at Sonoma State University, just outside San Francisco. On the evening of November 17, 2019, a friend gave Trevor four painkiller pills, one of which was Fentanyl.

The drug carries a high risk of respiratory failure, where patients become so sedated they stop breathing. Trevor's body was found by his roommate the next morning.

Michelle says: 'After it happened, we couldn't be quiet any more – it's a matter of saving lives. The industry is doing its best to drive a false narrative about the raft of health benefits of cannabis. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of parents like me who are losing their children.'

After speaking with Michelle, it is hard to imagine any benefit of legalising cannabis that would be worth the risk. Said benefits are supposedly freeing up police time to deal with more serious crimes, and generating Government income via high taxes on cannabis products. Advocates also say legalisation reduces opioid dependence, as chronic pain patients are self-treating with cannabis instead.

But two 2019 analyses concluded that the tax revenue from Californian dispensaries was 'far lower than expected'.

As for freeing up police time, a 2020 report by the US Department of Justice found legalisation did not have a 'consistently positive' impact on public safety.

I hear first-hand about this when I visit Compton, in the south of Los Angeles. The area is known for its history of drug-related gang warfare and violent crime, and here it remains illegal to sell cannabis.

The area is unique, in that local politicians must ask residents for permission to pass certain laws, regardless of what the state rules. In 2018, the community voted against legal cannabis sales.

Spearheading the anti-weed campaign were lifelong Compton residents James and Charmaine Hays, who I meet at their home.

James, 65, who owns a biomedical firm and ran for local mayor twice, explains: 'The majority of residents here own their home and are bringing up children. They don't want drugs in the neighbourhood.'

He says many still recall the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s which hit Compton badly, killing thousands of young locals.

His concerns about cannabis grew shortly after legalisation came into play in California and drug dealers began operating out of abandoned local shops, posing as legal dispensaries.

'Whenever there are drugs around, there are gangs trying to steal them, and that's when you get the violence,' he says. The father of-two adds: '[Cannabis] has been portrayed as this harmless product with health benefits which doctors give out.

'Residents received leaflets from the local cannabis industry, telling them how much income dispensaries would generate. But there was nothing about the potential harms. When we made clear to neighbours that this was a drug, they voted against.'

I ask him what he makes of the claims of some advocates: that legalisation of cannabis would reduce the number of black and Latino Americans in US prisons, who are more likely to be jailed for cannabis-related crimes.

'It is a total lie,' he replies. 'Most people who are in prison for cannabis-related crimes are in jail because they have done something serious. Either they've tried to smuggle tons of it across borders or they have been involved with other illegal drugs.

'Saying to these people, run a shop instead but be subjected to regulation and taxes, won't work.'

Just outside Compton, on the way home, I pull up at traffic lights beside a line of ten abandoned cars at the side of the road.

I open the window and see the vehicles have smashed windows and flat tyres, and are surrounded by a flood of rubbish, with urine marks staining the pavement.

A group of dishevelled men wander along the street. Some hang out of the cars, motionless.

But it isn't the sight that overwhelms me, it is the smell of weed. I roll up the windows and feel relieved to be heading back to good, old sensible Britain in the morning.

**pcosmar** · 07-03-2022, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by tod evans

[B][SIZE=5]EXCLUSIVE:

'It is a total lie,'

Sums it up.

Come to Longview Wa. Sit near my favorite store and observe.. You will see Professionals, and Blue collar workers,,and more middle age to elderly than young folks.

It has been a known Health benefit for some time,, and more benefits are being discovered.

I like the scent.

**jkr** · 07-03-2022, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by pcosmar

I like the scent.

love that smell!

**jct74** · 07-06-2022, 05:17 AM

Laura fear-mongering over legalization again... to protect us from mass shooters.

@ 6:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDjcTwTqkNY

**dannno** · 07-06-2022, 07:26 AM

Smoking Gun
Nixon's Plot to Criminalize Marijuana and Voters

Republicans may well try and take away millions of Americans’ right to vote in the next presidential election by enforcing a federal law called the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), a law enacted by President Nixon in 1970.

This law was the brainchild of John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic affairs advisor and John Dean, Nixon’s general counsel. I was Dean’s literary agent for Blind Ambition, a best-selling book about his White House years. While working with Dean on the book, he told me about how the act came about.

He and Ehrlichman came up with the idea to drastically reduce the number of Black and young people being able to vote in Nixon’s upcoming presidential election. Their new law would make smoking or possessing marijuana a felony. If an American citizen is convicted of a felony, they lose their right to vote. Dean told me what the “war on drugs” was really about was taking the vote away from Black people and the anti-war left. The new law resulted in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which then divided all the drugs Americans used into five categories.

The DEA sorted these drugs into a schedule. Those at the top of the schedule were deemed to be the most dangerous. They included heroin, LSD, and marijuana. DEA agents were ordered to prosecute those who used or sold such drugs.

Ehrlichman and Nixon’s plan was that by getting the public to associate hippies and African Americans with marijuana, they would make them into criminals. Ehrlichman said, “We could then arrest their leaders and raid their homes. We’d be able to vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about drugs? Of course we did.”

That was 50 years ago. Today over 100 million Americans have smoked marijuana. It is legal in 33 states. Cannabis has also widely been accepted for its medical uses. Much of the world has, by now, decriminalized it. Smoking pot is even legal in North Korea.

Smoking or even possessing pot is still illegal in the United States and can still be prosecuted under federal law. The fact that the last few administrations have not widely enforced the law doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

One would hope that the many states that have legalized pot would protect its citizens from felony convictions, however, under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, federal law preempts conflicting state and local laws. There is no protection for a citizen because state laws are always subservient to federal laws. When a conflict between the two occurs, federal laws always prevail.

So, what does all this mean? According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, there have been over 12 million cannabis arrests in the United States since 1996. Just a decade ago almost a million persons were arrested for marijuana violations. According to the American Civil Liberties, there were 8.2 million marijuana arrests from 2001 to 2010, and 88 percent of those arrests were for marijuana possession alone.

Finally, even though it has been shown that Black and White people use marijuana at about the same rate, there is a 3.6 times greater chance for Black people being arrested for marijuana usage. So, if a newly elected Republican executive branch of government starts enforcing the law, they can significantly reduce the number of Black people who get to vote. Al Gore would have won Florida if convicted marijuana felons’ votes had been counted. We can’t let this happen again.

These same people who are taking away a woman’s legal right to abortion will now have the right and power to use the DEA to start arresting Black people, young Americans, and anyone else they feel would not vote for their agenda simply because they possess and smoke marijuana. The only thing that can stop them is for to for the law to be amended so that marijuana is no longer considered the most dangerous drug in the Controlled Substance Act. This must be done as soon as possible.

Plato said that “just” or “right” means nothing but what is in the interest of the strongest party. We must change this act before Republicans use it to try and steal the presidency.

https://www.independent.com/2022/06/29/smoking-gun/

**tod evans** · 07-26-2022, 08:21 PM

Highly potent weed creating marijuana addicts worldwide, study says

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/25/healt...ess/index.html

Higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC -- the part of the marijuana plant that makes you high -- are causing more people to become addicted in many parts of the world, a new review of studies found.

The bags look like well-known chips or candies, but what's inside could harm children
The bags look like well-known chips or candies, but what's inside could harm children
Compared with people who use lower-potency products (typically 5 to 10 milligrams per gram of THC), those who use higher-potency cannabis are more likely to experience addiction and mental health outcomes, according to the study published Monday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.
Scientists have established a "standard THC unit" of 5 milligrams of THC for research. That amount is said to produce a mild intoxication for nonregular users.
"One of the highest quality studies included in our publication found that use of high potency cannabis, compared to low potency cannabis, was linked to a four-fold increased risk of addiction," said study coauthor Tom Freeman, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology and director of the addiction and mental health group at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, in an email.
In the United States, about 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana addiction, according to the US Centers for Disease and Prevention.
Weed users nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization
Weed users nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found a 76% rise in people entering treatment for cannabis addiction over the past decade, "while cannabis potency continued to rise during the same time," Freeman said.
In addition, "a report by the United Nations found that in the past two decades, the proportion of people seeking treatment for cannabis addiction has risen in all world regions apart from Africa," he said.
A yearly rise in potency
In a gram of herbal cannabis, the dried and harvested tops of female marijuana plants that are typically smoked, THC concentrations increased by approximately 2.9 milligrams each year, according to a 2020 study by Freeman and his team at the University of Bath.
The potency of marijuana has been increasing every year since the 1970s, studies have found.
The potency of marijuana has been increasing every year since the 1970s, studies have found.
In cannabis resin, the sticky brown sap on the plant from which extracts and concentrations are made, THC levels increased by approximately 5.7 milligrams each year from 1975 to 2017, the study found. Concentrated products can reach extremely high levels of THC.
This yearly rise in potency may not be clear to consumers, experts fear. While looking at a product label might tell a person the "precise potency" of THC in a store where marijuana is legally sold, "people buying cannabis illegally may not be able to access reliable information about the potency of the product they are using," Freeman said.
"However, certain types of cannabis are typically more potent than others -- cannabis extracts are typically more potent than cannabis flower," he added.
While people do try to adjust their consumption when the potency of their cannabis varies, "such as by adding less cannabis to their joint or inhaling less deeply," these efforts fail to completely work, Freeman said. That means "higher potency products still deliver a larger dose of THC to consumers than lower potency products," he said.
Mental health affected
As marijuana became more potent, cases of marijuana-associated psychosis rose, the review found. Psychosis is a "loss of contact with reality" that can be characterized by hearing voices and having delusions, Freeman said.
Using marijuana may affect your ability to think and plan, study says
Using marijuana may affect your ability to think and plan, study says
"The evidence linking cannabis potency to addiction and psychosis was very clear," he said.
High-potency weed users appear to have a significant increase in the likelihood of developing generalized anxiety disorder than those who smoke less robust strains of marijuana, a 2020 study had found.
However, the new review of studies found a "more varied" connection between the increase in marijuana potency and depression and anxiety, "meaning that the impact is unclear for these other mental health outcomes," Freeman said.

**acptulsa** · 07-26-2022, 08:45 PM

"meaning that the impact is unclear for these other mental health outcomes,"

The impact of experimental mRNA therapy was unclear, too, but that didn't slow them down any.

**acptulsa** · 07-26-2022, 08:46 PM

DP

**pcosmar** · 07-26-2022, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by tod evans

Highly potent weed creating marijuana addicts worldwide, study says

That Could be funny,, Like Reefer Madness.

except for the source.

**pcosmar** · 07-28-2022, 12:48 AM

BTW

Today's shopping trip,,Month supply..
(still have some shake)
$54,
Half Oz of bud,,Half Sativa,half Indica
4 grams of Concentrate 80% range

$54 after the 37% "don't phuck with me Tax".

**Occam's Banana** · 09-13-2022, 07:39 PM

Boogity-boogity Evil Weed legalization propaganda

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1569747998095343617

**jct74** · 05-13-2023, 10:27 AM

Charlie Kirk deserves a place in this thread for these idiotic comments and others he has made regarding legalization. He does not seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

Charlie Kirk: Legalizing marijuana "makes us less free", enriches cartels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H34SP7pIpHo