What's a pot smoker for 39 years? smoke everyday? all day? I don't like weed at all - dated a girl a while back that needed to get high in the morning, afternoon and night - for someone that doesnt smoke that got very annoying - she literally was like a cigarette smoker needing a cigarette all day
[ More data points to consider regarding marijuana. ]
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dean Whitlock, of Thetford, a freelance writer who has been researching the issues surrounding marijuana legalization for years. A former supporter of legalization, he is now opposed. He is a member of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM-VT)
The panel on marijuana legalization that was hosted on Sept. 18 by Burlington’s Howard Center presented some very interesting new information about the effects of legalization. The entire event has been archived on YouTube here, but viewers should know that there are four statements that need more clarification or correction than time allowed during the discussion afterward.
Targeting of Minorities
Panelist David Mickenberg, representing the Marijuana Policy Project, stated that minorities here in Vermont are still being disproportionately impacted by our marijuana laws. Mickenberg didn’t mention the fact that minorities in Colorado are also being disproportionately impacted, despite legalization. A 2016 investigation by the Denver Post found that the majority of Denver’s marijuana businesses were located in poor and minority neighborhoods. In one lower-income neighborhood, there was one marijuana business for every 47 residents.
Meanwhile, arrest statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Safety show that, in the two years after legalization, the number of Hispanic and black teens under 18 who were arrested for marijuana-related offenses rose 29 percent and 58 percent, respectively. At the same time, the number of white kids arrested for the same crimes fell by 8 percent. (For details, see Lessons Learned After 4 Years of Marijuana Legalization.)
Racism is systemic in the U.S. We won’t change that simply by singling out marijuana.
Epigenetics
One of the audience members asked the panel if there were any studies showing marijuana caused epigenetic changes in DNA. None of them could think of any.
Actually there are many. A lead researcher in the field, Dr. Henrietta Szutorisz of the Friedman Brain Institute and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has written, “… accumulating data in humans and animal models have begun to reveal aberrant epigenetic modifications in brain and the periphery linked to cannabis exposure.”
In one of Szutorisz’s studies, half of a group of adolescent rats were given THC several times but were then cut off. When they were sexually mature, with no THC in their bodies, they were mated. The offspring were raised without any exposure to THC, but when they were mature, they were allowed to self-administer heroin.
The offspring of the rats who had been given THC as adolescents showed much stronger compulsive heroin-seeking behavior than rats whose parents were never exposed to THC. They also showed stronger withdrawal symptoms when the heroin was stopped. In addition, the regions of their brains known to mediate compulsive and goal-directed behaviors had been changed, while the brains of the non-THC offspring had not.
These findings demonstrate epigenetic changes that predispose the next generation to addiction in general. More research needs to be done, but we cannot ignore these early indications.
A Self-Regulating Industry
During the question-and-answer period, Eli Harrington of Heady Vermont told the panelists that Big Marijuana didn’t exist in Vermont. Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison responded by referring him to articles in major news media that described the massive growth of the industry in states that had legalized. Just a few minutes later, Harrington and panelist Shayne Lynn, owner of the Champlain Valley medical marijuana dispensary, both claimed that Vermont’s marijuana industry wanted to be self-regulating.
The tobacco and alcohol industries were originally self-regulating, and alcohol marketing still is. Witness Joe Camel and Virginia Slims, alcopops and the alco-caffeine fruit punch named Four Loko. Now the marijuana industry has created 18 percent average THC content in their plants (up from 3 percent in the 1970s), along with the 30-to-90 percent TCH edibles and concentrates that make up nearly half of the legal market.
Perhaps these two people have the ethical stamina to avoid corporate take-overs and the culture of industrial greed, but that’s probably what most of the entrepreneurs in Colorado thought at the outset.
No One Has Died of an Overdose
This remains the most outrageous claim of the pro-legalization movement. It is not only dangerously misleading, it is a slap in the face to the families who have lost children, spouses and parents.
Everyone admits that people are dying in traffic crashes because of stoned drivers, and that some people have died in butane hash oil explosions, but too many people are turning a blind eye to the other deaths caused by what can only be called an overdose.
Tachycardia – a racing heart – is a common, well-known side effect of using marijuana. So is increased blood pressure. A growing body of evidence, here and in other countries, is revealing that marijuana has caused previously overlooked deaths through heart attack and stroke. In Colorado last fall, an 11-month-old infant brought to the ER after being exposed to marijuana died from an inflamed heart muscle (myocarditis) caused by the exposure.
Marijuana can also overwhelm the emotional centers of the brain causing paranoia, delusions, and acute psychosis. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report released last January states, “There is substantial evidence of a statistical association between cannabis use and the development of schizophrenia or other psychoses, with the highest risk among the most frequent users.” (The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Chapter Highlights NAS 2017)
Emergency rooms in Colorado reported a 44 percent increase in marijuana-related visits between 2012 and 2014. Many of these were cases of acute psychosis, particularly in young men, who had to be restrained to keep from harming themselves or others.
A growing body of evidence indicates that marijuana is not just associated with suicide but can be a causative factor. The NAS report cited above found an “Increased incidence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts with a higher incidence among heavier users” and an “Increased incidence of suicide completion.” One of the studies they listed found a seven-fold increase in risk for suicide even after controlling for a prior history of mood disorders.
In July, adding to the evidence, the journal Lancet Psychiatry published a new study involving 13,986 twins that found a 2.47-fold increase in suicidal thoughts for the twin who used regularly versus the twin who used lightly or not at all. Heavy use led to suicidal thoughts, and some of those thoughts were acted out.
In 2014, a young man in Colorado either jumped or unwittingly tumbled to his death from a fourth-floor balcony during a psychotic outburst. In July this year, a Vermont father clutching his son to his chest jumped out of a fourth-floor window shortly after smoking marijuana. He said it was God who made him jump.
When a drug drives all sense of reality from your brain, it’s an overdose. In marijuana’s case, these overdoses can and do lead to death.
Dean Whitlock: Marijuana panel left some questions hanging
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dean Whitlock, of Thetford, a freelance writer who has been researching the issues surrounding marijuana legalization for years. A former supporter of legalization, he is now opposed. He is a member of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM-VT)
The panel on marijuana legalization that was hosted on Sept. 18 by Burlington’s Howard Center presented some very interesting new information about the effects of legalization. The entire event has been archived on YouTube here, but viewers should know that there are four statements that need more clarification or correction than time allowed during the discussion afterward.
Targeting of Minorities
Panelist David Mickenberg, representing the Marijuana Policy Project, stated that minorities here in Vermont are still being disproportionately impacted by our marijuana laws. Mickenberg didn’t mention the fact that minorities in Colorado are also being disproportionately impacted, despite legalization. A 2016 investigation by the Denver Post found that the majority of Denver’s marijuana businesses were located in poor and minority neighborhoods. In one lower-income neighborhood, there was one marijuana business for every 47 residents.
Meanwhile, arrest statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Safety show that, in the two years after legalization, the number of Hispanic and black teens under 18 who were arrested for marijuana-related offenses rose 29 percent and 58 percent, respectively. At the same time, the number of white kids arrested for the same crimes fell by 8 percent. (For details, see Lessons Learned After 4 Years of Marijuana Legalization.)
Racism is systemic in the U.S. We won’t change that simply by singling out marijuana.
Epigenetics
One of the audience members asked the panel if there were any studies showing marijuana caused epigenetic changes in DNA. None of them could think of any.
Actually there are many. A lead researcher in the field, Dr. Henrietta Szutorisz of the Friedman Brain Institute and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has written, “… accumulating data in humans and animal models have begun to reveal aberrant epigenetic modifications in brain and the periphery linked to cannabis exposure.”
In one of Szutorisz’s studies, half of a group of adolescent rats were given THC several times but were then cut off. When they were sexually mature, with no THC in their bodies, they were mated. The offspring were raised without any exposure to THC, but when they were mature, they were allowed to self-administer heroin.
The offspring of the rats who had been given THC as adolescents showed much stronger compulsive heroin-seeking behavior than rats whose parents were never exposed to THC. They also showed stronger withdrawal symptoms when the heroin was stopped. In addition, the regions of their brains known to mediate compulsive and goal-directed behaviors had been changed, while the brains of the non-THC offspring had not.
These findings demonstrate epigenetic changes that predispose the next generation to addiction in general. More research needs to be done, but we cannot ignore these early indications.
A Self-Regulating Industry
During the question-and-answer period, Eli Harrington of Heady Vermont told the panelists that Big Marijuana didn’t exist in Vermont. Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison responded by referring him to articles in major news media that described the massive growth of the industry in states that had legalized. Just a few minutes later, Harrington and panelist Shayne Lynn, owner of the Champlain Valley medical marijuana dispensary, both claimed that Vermont’s marijuana industry wanted to be self-regulating.
The tobacco and alcohol industries were originally self-regulating, and alcohol marketing still is. Witness Joe Camel and Virginia Slims, alcopops and the alco-caffeine fruit punch named Four Loko. Now the marijuana industry has created 18 percent average THC content in their plants (up from 3 percent in the 1970s), along with the 30-to-90 percent TCH edibles and concentrates that make up nearly half of the legal market.
Perhaps these two people have the ethical stamina to avoid corporate take-overs and the culture of industrial greed, but that’s probably what most of the entrepreneurs in Colorado thought at the outset.
No One Has Died of an Overdose
This remains the most outrageous claim of the pro-legalization movement. It is not only dangerously misleading, it is a slap in the face to the families who have lost children, spouses and parents.
Everyone admits that people are dying in traffic crashes because of stoned drivers, and that some people have died in butane hash oil explosions, but too many people are turning a blind eye to the other deaths caused by what can only be called an overdose.
Tachycardia – a racing heart – is a common, well-known side effect of using marijuana. So is increased blood pressure. A growing body of evidence, here and in other countries, is revealing that marijuana has caused previously overlooked deaths through heart attack and stroke. In Colorado last fall, an 11-month-old infant brought to the ER after being exposed to marijuana died from an inflamed heart muscle (myocarditis) caused by the exposure.
Marijuana can also overwhelm the emotional centers of the brain causing paranoia, delusions, and acute psychosis. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report released last January states, “There is substantial evidence of a statistical association between cannabis use and the development of schizophrenia or other psychoses, with the highest risk among the most frequent users.” (The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Chapter Highlights NAS 2017)
Emergency rooms in Colorado reported a 44 percent increase in marijuana-related visits between 2012 and 2014. Many of these were cases of acute psychosis, particularly in young men, who had to be restrained to keep from harming themselves or others.
A growing body of evidence indicates that marijuana is not just associated with suicide but can be a causative factor. The NAS report cited above found an “Increased incidence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts with a higher incidence among heavier users” and an “Increased incidence of suicide completion.” One of the studies they listed found a seven-fold increase in risk for suicide even after controlling for a prior history of mood disorders.
In July, adding to the evidence, the journal Lancet Psychiatry published a new study involving 13,986 twins that found a 2.47-fold increase in suicidal thoughts for the twin who used regularly versus the twin who used lightly or not at all. Heavy use led to suicidal thoughts, and some of those thoughts were acted out.
In 2014, a young man in Colorado either jumped or unwittingly tumbled to his death from a fourth-floor balcony during a psychotic outburst. In July this year, a Vermont father clutching his son to his chest jumped out of a fourth-floor window shortly after smoking marijuana. He said it was God who made him jump.
When a drug drives all sense of reality from your brain, it’s an overdose. In marijuana’s case, these overdoses can and do lead to death.
Dean Whitlock: Marijuana panel left some questions hanging
