Category: Marijuana

Marijuana Businesses “Growing Like a Weed”

Our friends at Focus On The Family in Colorado Springs have put together some compelling information on marijuana and what legalization means for our communities. In case you have any doubts, the news is not good.

In one of their latest emails, Focus writes,

When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, a Pandora’s Box of problems was opened.

Washington State, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia have already followed Colorado’s lead. And, similar efforts to legalize the drug are picking up steam in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine—and now the U.S. Senate.

Marijuana leads to a host of social problems and health-related risks, including increases in drug addition, mental illness, homelessness and crime, along with permanent damage to memory, lung function and brain development—especially in teens. Yet, even with this evidence, states are lining up to legalize this drug for recreational use.

On March 10, an historic and sweeping Senate bill was introduced to essentially end the federal ban on marijuana. The bipartisan CARERS Act—short for Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States—would remove any fear of federal prosecution. While patients and doctors are highlighted as the “compassionate” recipients of this legislation, the biggest benefactor would be the growing marijuana industry.

Meanwhile, another law—the Law of Unintended Consequences—seems to go unnoticed in what Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper calls, “the greatest social experiment of the 21st century.”

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CO Hotel Employees Receive Marijuana Training After Overdoses

Colorado, is known for its mountain resorts, but hotel employees are receiving additional training following accidental marijuana overdoses among employees and their families.

According to Summit Daily, departing guests often leave unused food and beverages as tips for housekeeping staff at hotels in Breckenridge. However, with the legalization of marijuana–and marijuana-infused foods–in Colorado, some guests are leaving marijuana edibles behind.

Oftentimes, marijuana-infused food is packaged similarly to popular snacks and candy bars, meaning hotel staff may not realize what they are eating contains marijuana until they begin feeling the effects of the drug.

The Summit Daily writes,

“The edibles-as-tips cases tend to follow a pattern: A hotel employee finds the leftover edibles in an empty guest room and eats them like any other sweets. But recreational products contain up to 100 milligrams of THC, which is roughly the potency of 64 joints made with pre-legalization marijuana, [authorities say]. Without knowing the dosage — first-time users shouldn’t eat more than 5 to 10 milligrams at a time — the employee can take upwards of 10 times the recommended amount of THC.”

According to The Aspen Times, a seven-year-old girl was taken to the hospital last summer after eating marijuana-laced candy her mother brought home from work at an area hotel.

Earlier this week an explosion occurred at an Arizona apartment complex. Witnesses indicated one of the people involved in the explosion was attempting to extract hash oil from marijuana using flammable chemicals–a trend we have written about before.

Stories like these and others from Colorado and elsewhere around the country underscore why so many citizens are leery of efforts to make marijuana more available in our communities.

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AAP Opposes Marijuana; Children Increasingly Poisoned by It

Last week the American Academy of Pediatrics came out against marijuana legalization.

The AAP writes,

“[S]tudies have shown that adolescents who report regular marijuana use perform more poorly on tests of working memory, visual scanning, cognitive flexibility, and learning. Furthermore, the number of episodes of lifetime marijuana use reported by subjects correlated with overall lower cognitive functioning.”

In its statement on marijuana, the AAP took to task the notion that marijuana is somehow safer than alcohol or tobacco, writing,

“One argument in support of marijuana legalization is that alcohol and tobacco cause more harm to society, in terms of financial and health costs, than marijuana. This argument is based on their belief that tight controls on the use, possession, and sale of what some consider a benign substance, such as marijuana, are inconsistent with policies that permit the legal use of substances such as alcohol and tobacco, which cause far more harm to individuals and society. Few would argue that the use of tobacco and underage or excessive use of alcohol are not harmful. However, the harmful effects of marijuana are rarely included in discussions about legalization of recreational and medical marijuana use, despite the emerging and convincing data on the neurodevelopmental consequences of marijuana and its potential to for [sic] addiction. ….

“At this time, there is no published research to suggest benefit of marijuana use by children and adolescents. In the context of limited but clear evidence showing harm or potential harm from marijuana use by adolescents, formal recommendations for ‘medical marijuana’ use by adolescents are contrary to current evidence.”

The AAP supports ongoing research on marijuana and its uses and side-effects.

This announcement from the AAP comes as more news stories surface about the negative effects of marijuana–especially on children.

In Colorado and Washington, the Associated Press reports marijuana-related calls to poison control have spiked.

The AP writes,

“New year-end data being presented to Colorado’s legislature this week show that the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center received 151 calls for marijuana exposure last year, the first year of retail recreational pot sales. That was up from 88 calls in 2013 and 61 in 2012, the year voters legalized pot.

“Calls to the Washington Poison Center for marijuana exposures jumped by more than half, from 158 in 2013 to 246 last year.

“Public health experts say they are especially concerned about young children accidentally eating marijuana edibles. Calls involving children nearly doubled in both states: to 48 in Washington involving children 12 or under, and to 45 in Colorado involving children 8 or under.”

In Oklahoma last week, police reported a man gave his girlfriend’s 10-month-old baby synthetic marijuana to “get rid of it.” Paramedics rushed the child to the hospital after she was found unresponsive.

As we keep saying, marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

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