"Harmless pot" a big lie

• Johnson: Canada's cannabis use has become a serious problem

• Marijuana and heart attack risk (video)
• Cannabis legalization coincided with uptick in ER visits from seniors: study
• Driver said he smoked pot oil, took medication before Florida crash that killed 8 Mexican workers
• Overuse of marijuana linked to surgery complications and death, study says
• Boston hospital warning of serious cannabis side effect
• Cannabis-smoking teenager who stabbed grandmother to death in bath cleared of murder
• Teen Marijuana Poisonings Have Skyrocketed. How to Keep Your Child Safe
• Psychosis, Addiction, Chronic Vomiting: As Weed Becomes More Potent, Teens Are Getting Sick
• Driver who killed woman and three daughters in Brampton, Ont., sentenced to 17 years
• Marijuana wars: Violent Mexican drug cartels turn Northern California into ‘The Wild West’
• Marijuana legalization was a mistake. Highly concentrated pot is destroying my son's life
• Illegal marijuana farms take West's water in 'blatant theft'
• Bizarre illness dubbed ‘scromiting’ linked to the rise of more potent cannabis in US
• High potency weed linked to psychotic episodes, mysterious vomiting illness in young users
• Rare marijuana side effects, from uncontrollable vomiting to lung damage
• A 27-year-old woman developed a mysterious cannabis-related syndrome that left her vomiting and caused her to fall asleep while showering
• Army gunner charged with feeding cannabis-laced cupcakes to artillery unit during live-fire exercise, leaving them 'paranoid, tired and confused'
• Risk of autism doubles if mother smokes cannabis during pregnancy, study finds
• National pediatric group urges doctors to discuss cannabis use with teenagers
• Fatal crashes invloving marijuana have doubled in Washington state (video)
• Cannabis edibles pose serious risks to our kids
• Study: Marijuana linked to increased heart problem (video)
• Is Smoking Weed as Bad for Your Heart as Cigarettes?   
• Cannabis use rising faster among depressed
• Vaping is having a deadly impact on people’s lungs
• He loved weed. Then the vomiting began. Months later, he died
• Pot, alcohol most common cause of youth substance-use hospitalizations: report
• Teen who killed two men claims cannabis does not impair driving, tells judge to  'Google it'
• CannTrust is the fruit of a reckless, rushed Liberal cannabis policy
• Pot's legal. But we may come to regret that
• MDs: The science isn't hazy (about pot's harms)
• Grow-op nightmares -- Could they get worse with legal pot?
• My son is becoming a pothead. What should I do? 
• Cannabis use may increase teens’ risk of depression and suicide, research review suggests
• Think cannabis is harmless? So did I. But I know better now
• Daphne Bramham: What is the truth about the risks of marijuana?

Grow-op exploded house

• Just one joint can harm teenage brain structure

• Pot grow-op explodes house in Whitby

• Heavy cannabis use tied to strokes, researchers say
• Cannabis-induced psychosis on the rise in N.W.T. prior to legalization, says health dept.
• Cannabis is far from harmless
• Doctors warn pregnant women of cannabis risks
• Top Calgary ER doctor sees spike in cannabis 'poisoning'
• Marijuana-induced psychosis behind Toronto lawyer’s bat attack: judge
• Study warns of car crashes during pot celebration
• Horrible Side Effects of Marijuana That People Never Talk About
• Marijuana smokers three times more likely to die of high blood pressure: study
• Why pregnancy and marijuana are a bad mix

VIDEOS: 

►Boston hospital warning of serious cannabis side effect
►Overdoses from marijuana edibles rise in children
►Second Death Linked To Vaping Reported By Health Officials|NBC Nightly News
►marijuana vaping illnesses
►Milwaukee warns: Stop vaping immediately
►2 young men say they almost died from vaping
►Dayton, Ohio mass killer was heavy pot user like Columbine killers
►Weed (pot) killing pedestrians
►Medical Journal Warns of Pot Risk to Youth  
►"Drugged Driving" (pot-DUI) deaths and injuries escalating 
►Marijuana-linked traffic fatalities on the rise
►Sickness from marijuana
►Psychosis & rampages in pot-fuelled Colorado 

More sources on same news of teen pot use linked to depression & suicide

• Cannabis smoking in teenage years linked to adulthood depression
 • Smoking cannabis as teenager increases risk of depression by 40 per cent, Oxford study finds
• Cannabis use in teens linked to risk of depression in young adults
• Cannabis smoking in teenage years linked to adulthood depression

Smoke from legal pot poses new risk to children

Smoke from legal pot poses new risk to children
PAMELA MCCOLL, The Province, 14 Oct 2018
When cannabis becomes legal across Canada on Wednesday, there will be no rules in place to protect children from being exposed to second-hand smoke from joints unless they are fortunate enough to live in housing where smoking is banned.

No amount of second-hand smoke is safe. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to develop lung diseases and other health problems. Second-hand smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The fact that one in six infants and toddlers admitted to a Colorado hospital with symptoms of bronchiolitis tested positive for marijuana exposure should be of grave concern to Canadians as they move to legalization.

The dangers of second-hand, carcinogenic and psychoactive chemically-laden marijuana smoke were ignored by the Trudeau government in its push to legalize pot. This government in fact sanctioned the smoking of marijuana in the presence of children. ...click "Read More" below to continue...

Bad trip from smoking pot? It could be a sign of mental illness

By MICHAEL MUI, StarMetro Vancouver, July 21, 2018
VANCOUVER—It took years for doctors to figure out why she was hearing voices in her head. It started innocently at first. The voices were distant. Sometimes they came from her television. In this alternate reality, she was the belle of Hollywood’s A-list, sought after by the directors and actors of Beverly Hills.

Before age 25, Anita Smith had never touched marijuana. She had an otherwise unremarkable, sheltered upbringing with no family history of mental illnesses. Following high school, she spent three years in the Canadian Forces before deciding to enrol in film school. Her group of friends in college introduced her to pot.

That was back in the mid ’90s, when the psychoactive component in cannabis, THC, was mild compared to today’s standards. For more than two years, Smith was a daily user. So was everyone else in her peer group. But only she heard the voices.  ....Click "Read More" below to continue....

Marijuana-related ER visits among kids quadruples at Colorado hospital: Study

Postmedia Network, May 8, 2017
A new study that analyzed adolescent emergency room visits could cause the idea pot legalization is safe for youth to go up in smoke.

Researchers studied the critical care records of kids between the ages of 13 and 21 at Children's Hospital Colorado over a 10-year period and found ER visits related to pot use are on the rise.

According to a study presented by Dr. George Sam Wang, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado, there were 639 pot-related visits to the hospital in 2014 – more than four-times the 146 similar visits in 2005. In total, researchers found there were 3,443 marijuana-related visits during the period in which the data was collected.

Mental illness symptoms related to marijuana use made up the vast majority (66%) of those hospital visits.

Colorado has been at the forefront of marijuana legalization in North America, having enacted pot use for medicinal purposes in 2010 and recreational purposes in 2014.

"The state-level effect of marijuana legalization on adolescent use has only begun to be evaluated," Dr. Wang said, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. "As our results suggest, targeted marijuana education and prevention strategies are necessary to reduce the significant public health impact the drug can have on adolescent populations, particularly on mental health."

Following the Trudeau Liberals’ introduction of the proposed Cannabis Act C-45 in the House of Commons last month, some Canadian health care professionals, such as the Canadian Psychiatric Association, have expressed concern that any legalization of marijuana in Canada “must protect mental health of young Canadians.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/05/08/marijuana-related-er-visits-among-kids-quadruples-at-colorado-hospital-study
Related news:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/er-visits-kids-rise-significantly-after-pot-legalized-colorado-n754781

Cannabis use harms minds of young people

Legal age for cannabis use should be higher, not lower
Dr. Gail Beck, The Province,  21 Apr 2017
  Every day in the youth program at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, my colleagues and I see young people whose illnesses are complicated by the use and abuse of cannabis or a dependence on this drug. We provide these youths and their families with information on the effect of pot on the developing brain. We are often able to convince young people to decrease their marijuana consumption or, in many cases, to stop using it.

Unfortunately, legislators may not be as aware of the risks of cannabis on the developing brain as mental health professionals are. ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Fake reasons for pot legalization

What was Justin smoking?   
by Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail, Apr. 17, 2017
Legalizing pot is trickier than it looks, and the Prime Minister might soon be wondering if the hassle is worth the price. ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Pot shots at pot legalization

Letters to The Globe and Mail, April 18, 2017:
Fifteen years from now, there will be a class-action lawsuit against the federal government for legalizing marijuana (Liberals Table Historic Marijuana Legislation, April 14). It will be brought about by all the people who will be hurt by smoking marijuana. It can harm your health and is linked to depression.

If you want to get a good perspective on legalizing marijuana, visit the rehabilitation centres and interview the drug addicts who are trying to get free of drug addiction. They say it is not a good idea.  – Vincent Heffernan, Toronto

While I do understand the reasoning behind legalizing marijuana, I believe that the public health risks outweigh the legislative benefits. It is an intoxicant and causes effects similar to alcohol, and can cause impairment of both perception and motor skills. These faculties need to be functional to ensure safe driving, for example.

Legalizing marijuana may lead to greater incidents of accidents – and possible deaths – because of intoxication. We are already working toward mitigating road deaths related to alcohol. Adding marijuana to the mix poses an additional liability to public safety. – Sohail Temoor, Kitchener, Ont.  ....click "Read More" below for more....

Health risks of smoking medical pot in spotlight

Smoking medical pot ‘a really dangerous thing for your lungs’
By Geordon Omand, The Canadian Press, 3/5/2017
VANCOUVER — Not all medicinal marijuana is created equal. That’s what some experts are saying as they warn about the health risks and curtailed effectiveness associated with smoking medicine.

As medical pot becomes increasingly mainstream and Canada moves toward legalizing the substance, health experts are emphasizing the need for doctors and patients to consider the sometimes serious side effects linked to the various ways of consuming the drug. ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Doctors warn against teen pot use amid looser marijuana laws

The Canadian Press, Feb. 27, 2017
CHICAGO — An influential doctors group is beefing up warnings about marijuana's potential harms for teens amid increasingly lax laws and attitudes on pot use.

Many parents use the drug and think it's OK for their kids, but "we would rather not mess around with the developing brain," said Dr. Seth Ammerman.

The advice comes in a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, published Monday in Pediatrics. The group opposes medical and recreational marijuana use for kids. It says emphasizing that message is important because most states have legalized medical use for adults, and many have decriminalized or legalized adults' recreational use.  ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Cannabis is the new tobacco

Little research on marijuana’s dangers
by Lawrie McFarlane / Times Colonist, Dec. 30, 2016
The greatest public-health disaster our species ever brought upon itself began in Europe 400 years ago — the introduction and use of tobacco.

In the 20th century alone, 100 million people died from cigarette smoking worldwide. And while the incidence rate has fallen in western countries, it remains high in Third World nations. Six million tobacco users still die each year.

The cause of smoking deaths is not, primarily, the active ingredient in tobacco — nicotine. Rather it is the chemicals that comprise tobacco smoke — among them various tars, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde.

Collectively, these chemicals cause a host of fatal maladies, including cancer, heart disease and emphysema. In short, a perfect horror show.

Now at this point, you’re probably saying: Tell me something I didn’t know. Well, here it is.

Many of those same chemicals form marijuana smoke, and we are about to legalize the consumption of this drug. .....click "Read More" below to continue....

Sickness from marijuana

                     -------------------------------------------------

Medical marijuana user warns about cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome
CBC, November 16, 2016
A Halifax woman says she threw up "all day long" for eight months straight — and her medical marijuana is to blame.

It wasn't until a specialist diagnosed Dawn Rae Downton with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and she stopped taking marijuana entirely, that she says the vomiting finally ended.

"Vomiting and just a complete malaise, I was bedridden most of the time," she said of the period she took marijuana.

The condition, which was first documented in 2004 and has not been widely researched, is characterized by cyclical bouts of nausea, vomiting and gastrointestinal discomfort, said Toronto family doctor Peter Lin.

If it occurs often enough, it can lead to things like weight loss, dehydration, and vomiting blood, said Lin, who is also a health columnist for CBC. .....click "Read More" below to continue....

Pot-induced murder (ditto Columbine, etc.)

More study needed on the link between pot and psychosis
Gordon Clark, Vancouver Province, Nov. 9, 2016
Canadians, especially lawmakers, gleefully rushing headlong to legalize marijuana should pause to consider the horrifying, heartbreaking stabbing death of 13-year-old Letisha Reimer, as innocent a crime victim as one can imagine.

Gabriel Brandon Klein, the 21-year-old homeless man from Alberta charged with second-degree murder in the death of the Abbotsford Senior Secondary School student, and aggravated assault in the non-fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old girl in the Nov. 1 attack, was a heavy pot smoker who recently “became manic, paranoid and frightened,” some of his friends told CBC. ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Fatal car crashes triple among drivers high on marijuana after legalization in Colorado; double in Washington state

By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun, October 31, 2016
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to legalize marijuana should take into account “sobering” U.S. experiences where the first states to legalize the drug have seen big increases in fatal car crashes among cannabis-impaired drivers, according to a B.C. doctors’ group.

Washington State and Colorado started taxing and regulating cannabis in 2012 and the Council on Health Promotion, a section of Doctors of B.C., said vehicle fatality statistics, post-legalization, are “sobering.”

“In Washington State, fatal crashes among drivers who tested positive for marijuana doubled from eight per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2014. In Colorado, the number of drivers in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana without other drugs in their system tripled between 2005 and 2014 from 3.4 per cent to 12.1 per cent,” Nanaimo General Hospital emergency room Dr. Chris Rumball said in an opinion piece in the B.C. Medical Journal, which he wrote on behalf of the council. .....click on "Read More" below to continue....

"Harmless pot" propaganda gone to pot

WEED GONE BAD
By Reid Southwick, National Post, 10/17/2016
 Longtime marijuana user Cody Morin was shocked to learn the bouts of severe illness he suffered were due to pot use, not ulcers doctors thuoght he had.
Cold sweats, dizziness, nausea — and those are just the ill effects suffered by some adult pot users.

When he arrived at a southern Ontario hospital emergency room, Cody Morin was badly dehydrated and vomiting blood. He was rushed into quarantine as doctors worried he was infected with the Ebola virus. His father wasn’t allowed at his bedside without wearing a haz-mat suit.

Hours before, Morin was at his fiancée’s Whitby, Ont., home after work, where he smoked a bowl of pot, a daily routine for the drywaller, accustomed to smoking at least four joints a day. Not long afterward, he was overwhelmed by cold sweats, dizziness and nausea. He vomited uncontrollably for about two hours before his fiancée drove him to hospital in nearby Oshawa.

The agony was familiar. Morin had been in and out of hospital for several years with similar bouts, which lasted for six hours at times.  ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Misc. News

• Marijuana grow-op cost $135,000 in damages: B.C. property owner
• There is already madness brewing in the oilpatch over Ottawa’s reefer legalization
• CMA: Pot is not a health product
• Should Canadian pharmacies sell natural health products?

Psychosis & rampages in pot-fuelled Colorado

Yeah, it was sure a great idea to legalize pot after Columbine and Aurora. Imagine this happening across the whole country.




Click this link to view in bigger screen:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xph-bGD2nz0

The Big Lie: Pot legalization reduces harms & usages

(Letter published in The Province newspaper, July 8, 2016)
More Grade 12 students in Colorado trying legalized pot

New data shows that there are regions in post-marijuana-legalization Colorado that are in big trouble.

Regions that refused to allow pot shops experienced a decrease in use or it stayed flat. Where commercial marijuana is plentiful, there has been a great increase in use among students. The data showed that the proportion of Grade 12 students who had used marijuana in the past month was, on average, more than 50 per cent higher than the value reported for their age group nationally.

For example: Students in Boulder and Broomfield area were 98 per cent above the national average; Garfield, Pitkin, Eagle, Summit, Grand (79 per cent higher); Pueblo (70 per cent); and Denver (56 per cent). --Pamela McColl, SAM Canada, Vancouver

*(Editor's note: Not to mention deaths/injuries from pot-DUI)

You Can't Deny Marijuana Is Dangerous For Developing Minds

R. Hutchings via Getty Images

You Can't Deny Marijuana Is Dangerous For Developing Minds
by Dr. Diane McIntosh, 04/08/2016, huffingtonpost.ca
I have many patients with psychotic illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Many were vulnerable because of their family history, but some share another important life experience: they smoked pot from an early age.

Physicians have not effectively confronted pot-related myths, nor have we adequately educated our patients. When I tell parents about marijuana's risks, they often express shock. Many believe it's like oregano... a safe "natural product" that adds a little spice to life.

But pot is not benign and there's a mountain of scientific evidence, compiled over nearly 30 years, to prove it poses serious risks, particularly for developing brains......click on "Read More" below to continue.....

Driving while high on marijuana causing spike in fatal accident

by Tom Costello, Today.com
Any time Mary Gaston drives by the intersection where a driver high on marijuana plowed into her son's motorcycle two and a half years ago, the loud bang of the impact replays in her head.

Blake had hugged her before he left the suburban Seattle restaurant's parking lot — it was the last time she would ever feel his embrace.

"I heard it and I knew instantly," Gaston remembers. "I said 'that's Blake' and I just ran. It was not even 50 feet away. And he was lying in the intersection bleeding out."

Though doctors tried to save his life, 23-year-old Blake Gaston didn't make it.

His story is becoming frighteningly more common. A new report by the American Auto Association (AAA) has found that the percentage of drivers who are high on pot during fatal accidents in Washington State more than doubled between 2013 and 2014.

In Washington, only looking at crashes in which at least one driver tested positive for active THC, there were 40 fatalities in 2010, compared to 85 in 2014, according to AAA estimates. However, a large number of drivers were not tested for THC or did not have available blood test results, so THC-related fatalities could be much higher, the report notes.

The AAA report focused only on Washington state, while legalized the sale and possession of marijuana in 2012. It did not track driving while high fatality trends in Colorado, which also legalized pot that in 2012.

But with marijuana on the ballot to become legal in more states, AAA researchers fear that the numbers will rise more sharply.

 The problem is, many people don't realize that "driving under the influence" isn't just about drunk driving. It also means driving when you're high.

"Driving is already a tough task," says Jake Nelson, director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research at AAA. "When you add a drug that impairs our ability to manage that task, it's a recipe for disaster."

Currently 20 states allow medicinal marijuana use, while four states and Washington, D.C., allow recreational use. 
     Related: Pot fuels surge in drunk driving deaths
After the accident, Mary Gaston learned that the driver of the car that hit her son's motorcycle, 33-year-old Caleb Floyd, admitted he had been smoking pot. He was eventually convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to three years in prison.

That's little comfort to Mary, who wonders where her bright, talented son would be now if he not been hit by a stoned driver.

 A computer whiz who developed websites, Blake was also an accomplished musician.

By 23, he'd already mastered numerous musical instruments, including piano, guitar and drums. He didn't just play music, though, he also wrote songs too.

"Blake was going to change the world," Gaston says. "Blake had an energy about him. He affected people's lives in such a positive way. It makes me happy to think about him. Even in 23 years he lived a hell of a life. His life was way too short. But he lived a hell of a life."
http://www.today.com/health/driving-while-high-marijuana-causing-spike-fatal-accidents-t91746
Related News:
Marijuana-related deaths, suspensions & problems spike in Colorado – report
https://www.rt.com/usa/316148-marijuana-related-deaths-injuries-study/

Pot harms unborn babies / Dopamine levels may go up in dope smoke

Hopes of moms-to-be can go up in pot smoke
Drs. Oz and Roizen HEALTH TIPS FROM MEHMET OZ, M.D. AND MICHAEL ROIZEN, M.D.
The Province, 9 May, 2016
Up In Smoke (a Cheech & Chong movie,1978) may have floated the hazy notion that smoking marijuana was harmless fun, but new research shows that a woman’s chance for delivering a healthy baby is actually what goes up in smoke if she lets smoke into her brain and lungs while pregnant.

Researchers from the University of Arizona looked at 24 studies of pregnancy and marijuana smoking. They discovered pregnant women who smoke cannabis were more likely to be anemic and babies more likely to end up in neonatal intensive care with a low birth weight.

Low birth weight is associated with intestinal and respiratory woes, brain bleeds, and heart and vision problems.

This study comes at the same time that researchers in Leipzig’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research discovered that tobacco smoking during pregnancy causes epigenetic disruption that dysregulates several genes at once and can trigger a roster of health problems for a newborn and throughout life.

Plus, various studies indicate that cannabis smoke is almost as toxic as tobacco smoke and can reduce levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, impairing memory and making it hard to stop smoking without feeling depressed.

These studies together should be more than enough to convince every young woman that if she smokes marijuana, tobacco or both, her dreams of a healthy baby may just go up in smoke.
http://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-province/20160509/281719793795001
More pot news by Drs. Oz and Roizen:
Dopamine levels may go up in dope smoke

Potheads rescue Big Tobacco

(Memo to potheads: All fumes from all fires are harmful and carcinogenic -- there's no such thing as a harmless or healthy fume from a fire, any fire)

Is It Inevitable That Big Tobacco Will Shift To Big Marijuana?
 By Chris Morran, Consumerist.com, Apr 20, 2016

Four states and Washington, D.C., have already legalized recreational marijuana use, while medical

marijuana use is currently legal (or about to become legal) in around 20 states — not to mention the many states that have decriminalized the drug. At the same time, tobacco use continues to decline and the few remaining cigarette giants can only merge with each other so many times. So is Big Tobacco destined to become Big Marijuana?

The tobacco industry, for all its feigned ignorance about the health hazards of its products, is not stupid and has been thinking about dabbling in marijuana since at least the 1960s. ....click "Read More" below to continue....

Free At Last From Pot

Anna Pike, who until recently smoked marijuana daily for more than two decades, is amazed at how her life has improved since she quit and fears how liberal pot laws will harm others.

‘Get out of the smoky fog and get living’
By Anna Pike, The Province, April 17, 2016
My name is Anna.

I smoked marijuana solidly for 22 years. When I smoked my first joint at 18 years of age, I thought I had found the path to endless happiness. In my 20s, using the drug was wonderful and manageable. But in my 30s, it became a problem, as any addiction does as you age.

I have not smoked marijuana for the past three months.

As the smoke has cleared, I am the happiest I have been in my life. I am about to turn 40 and am excited for this turning point, particularly because I don’t have my old friend/enemy living with me and controlling so many of my choices.....click "Read More" below to continue.....

Revised medical marijuana manual lists many adverse effects

Health Canada is about to issue a newly revised medical marijuana manual, called "Information for Health Professionals," with many new warnings about adverse effects. CBC News obtained a draft copy.

By Dean Beeby, CBC News , Apr 11, 2016
Health Canada has significantly expanded its medical marijuana manual for health-care professionals, adding major new sections about the potential adverse effects on the teenaged brain and driving safety.

The document is much larger than the previous 2013 edition, and responds to doctors' complaints about having too little information on the medical science even as they're being asked to authorize marijuana for a growing number of patients.

The heavily revised manual arrives as the Liberals sort out how to legalize recreational marijuana as promised in the federal election – and the document's fresh litany of cautions may provide ammunition to opponents.

CBC News obtained a draft copy of the 158-page manual, dated Dec. 23, 2015, and due to be published this spring, under the Access to Information Act.

The document replaces a three-year-old, 94-page document, and features an "adverse effects" section that is more than 50 per cent longer than its predecessor. The section reviews in greater depth whether cannabis may affect the onset of schizophrenia or psychosis, among many other medical issues. .....click "Read More" below to continue.....

Drugstores had sold alcohol, then cigarettes, and now pot?

Public-health specialists worried that Shoppers Drug Mart will sell pot
By CARLY WEEKS, The Globe and Mail, Feb. 25, 2016
Leading public-health and addiction specialists are condemning plans by Canada’s largest drugstore chain to investigate the idea of selling marijuana, calling it a profit-motivated move that would have devastating effects.

The Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday that Shoppers Drug Mart is exploring the possibility of selling marijuana in its stores. According to people involved in the discussions, the company has held meetings with licensed medical-marijuana producers. It also has not ruled out a move into selling marijuana for recreational purposes. Currently, pharmacies are not permitted to sell medical marijuana, but the federal government has promised to legalize the drug, which could open the market.

“This is corporate greed,” said Meldon Kahan, medical director of the substance use service at Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital. He said it would be “destructive and dishonest” if Shoppers and other health-care facilities were to present their plans as a medical service.

Dr. Kahan compared the sale of marijuana in drugstores to the Prohibition era, when pharmacists could fill prescriptions for alcohol. There is little convincing scientific evidence that either substance can treat medical conditions, and pharmacies are not the appropriate venue for the sale, he said.

Ian Culbert, executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association, said there is “insufficient evidence to call [cannabis] medicine,” and warns opening the market to pharmacies could lead to increased use and serious side-effects. ....click "Read More" below to continue.....

Vaping Not Safe

Dr. Oz's Daily Tips: Escape the vape
by: Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen, February 25, 2016 
Ant Man (Paul Rudd) may have been 2015's most endearing super bug, but there's nothing to like about the antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA and other hard-to-defeat pathogens.

In fact, you want to do everything you can to stay clear of them.

And now that includes just saying "No" to vaping!

Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine recently did a lab-based test on the effects of e-liquids from seven manufacturers.

Their study published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine found that daily inhalation of e-cig vapors triggers inflammation, kills off cells in your airways and lungs, and boosts the virulence of bacteria.

For example, vaping makes staph infections (Staphylococcus aureus) able to resist antimicrobials -- not a good thing, since runaway staph infections can be lethal.

Plus, while one group of lab mice all recovered from infection with the antibiotic-resistant superbug S. aureus (MRSA), 25 percent of another group died when they were infected with MRSA that had been pre-exposed to the vapors from e-cigs. Egad!

If this isn't enough to convince you to put down the vape, maybe it will convince regulators that vaping poses a huge public health risk by cultivating super, superbugs.

For help recovering from nicotine addiction or habituation to vaping non-nicotine liquids, go to sharcare.com or clevelandclinic.org -- search for Dr. Mike's "smoke-free plan for successful quitters."
It takes commitment, time and the ability to try and try again if you slide backward, but with support, the right plan and determination you can escape the vape!
https://www.baytoday.ca/columns/dr-ozs-daily-tips/dr-ozs-daily-tips-escape-the-vape-200296

How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain and Behavior? Here's What Recent Studies Say

By Jessica Eggert, News.Mic, Dec. 29, 2015
Stoners have a reputation for being exceptionally mellow, but a recent study of the effects of marijuana use on daily behavior may suggest otherwise. According to researchers from Yale University of Medicine and the Pennsylvania State University, the study found a positive short-term correlation between marijuana use and hostile and impulsive behavior.

"Marijuana use is associated with changes in impulse control and hostility in daily life," according to the study, published in March. Researchers found that participants were more aggressive on days they used marijuana, and the following day, than on days they didn't get high.

The study analyzed 43 participants' marijuana, alcohol, tobacco use and hostile and impulsive behavior daily for 14 days using random effects models. Scientists found that marijuana use alone, without the alcohol and tobacco combination, increased impulsive and hostile behavior on the day participants used the drug and the day after.

The study was brief, but due to the results and increased recreational marijuana use, researchers believe the topic warrants further research.

The study analyzed 43 participants' marijuana, alcohol, tobacco use and hostile and impulsive behavior daily for 14 days using random effects models. Scientists found that marijuana use alone, without the alcohol and tobacco combination, increased impulsive and hostile behavior on the day participants used the drug and the day after.

The study was brief, but due to the results and increased recreational marijuana use, researchers believe the topic warrants further research.
https://news.yahoo.com/does-marijuana-affect-brain-behavior-190502531.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

A brain-rotting addiction

A reluctant pothead’s 10-year habit and her thoughts as Canada moves to legalize marijuana
By Elianna Lev, Daily Brew, Dec. 22, 2015
I am a reluctant pothead.

Despite getting stoned on most days for the last 10 years, it is not a habit I approach with Marc Emery levels of defiance. I’ve come to begrudgingly accept that I have no willpower when it comes to weed — if I know there’s a stash in the vicinity, it will be on my mind until it gets into my lungs. Edibles don’t hold the same appeal and neither does vaping. For me, it’s the rolling and the smoke that’s a huge part of the allure and satisfaction.

It started in July 2005 when I was struggling to emotionally move on from an unresolved breakup with my common-law boyfriend. My hostile thoughts were on a constant loop and crying on a daily basis had become routine. So when a roommate gifted me with a joint, I smoked it without hesitation. For the first time in months, things immediately felt better. The bad thoughts I had about my ex dissipated as quickly as the smoke I exhaled.

From there on in, marijuana became my crutch. I’d leave parties early so I could go home and get stoned alone. At my 30th birthday bash, I couldn’t fully relax and enjoy myself until I’d taken a bong hit. When I took an evening poetry class, I intended to attend sober, but didn’t. As a freelance writer, I’m constantly in my head. When I’m done my work, I rely on pot to shift things so I feel differently than I have all day.

I’ve certainly worked up a tolerance with it, too. While it used to inspire a flood of ideas and good feelings, now, it’s mostly just a customary shift in consciousness. My thoughts will go deeper, but rarely do they lead to anything inspiring. Within an hour or so, I will turn into a burnt out and blurry version of myself..... click "Read More" below to continue.....

Worse than cigarettes

(A published letter in the National Post, 10/20/2015)...

High cost of pot  
Re: Misleading The Public On The Benefits Of Legalization, Ed Gogek, Oct. 15.
Those who support the legalization of marijuana frequently ignore the serious and harmful consequences to users. The cannabis plant contains more than 421 chemicals, of which 61 are cannabinoids. More than 2,000 compounds are produced by pyrolysis during smoking of cannabis, including carcinogens.

The potency of marijuana is steadily increasing and the user is consuming an ill-defined mixture of substances. In 2009, marijuana was involved in 376,467 emergency-room visits in the U.S -- about 1,000 a day. Marijuana is found in the blood or urine of 33 per cent of drivers involved in fatal car crashes. It also leads to nine per cent addiction by users and in young users, alters brain development, lowers IQs, results in poorer educational outcomes and diminished lifetime achievements.

Marijuana exacts heavy costs on the user particularly and society generally.

Morris Givner, Halifax.
http://www.pressreader.com/canada/national-post-latest-edition/20151020/281994671337896/TextView

Another letter:
Pot advocates refuse to see how drug will harm society

More validations for old film "Reefer Madness"

Chilling details of Colorado teen’s death cited as CDC offers new warning about risks of edible pot   
By Lisa Rein, Federal Eye, Washington Post, July 27, 2015
'Huge' rise in childhood pot poisonings
By Patrick Colvin, 24 Hrs, July 27, 2015

The rotting of Colorado by pot

Think pot is benign? It’s not what Colorado has learned
By Gordon Clark, The Province, 29 Jun 2015
The nonsense and outright lies that the cannabis quacks profess in using the red herring of “medical” marijuana as a wedge issue toward their ultimate goal of fully legal weed can be divided into two groups of assertions.

In one are their various claims that marijuana is an all-natural wonder drug that can treat and cure a long list of ailments. Scientists and doctors tell us that’s crap. With very few exceptions, studies show that marijuana is useless to treat disease and in most cases where it works, there are other better treatments.

The second group of arguments the pot lobby used to justify giving them freer access to marijuana is to claim that liberal cannabis laws do not harm society — in fact, they claim, it makes the world a better place.

Don’t try telling that to Thomas Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a U.S. federal drug-enforcement program that co-ordinates local, state and federal police in enforcing drug laws.

In a presentation to a recent conference on drug and alcohol abuse in Idaho attended by Doug Rogers, a substance-abuse prevention counsellor with the Vernon School District, Gorman listed a long list of social woes that have exploded in Colorado since that state first allowed medical marijuana in 2000, saw its use grow exponentially in 2009 after a court ruling and then legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.

As a result, Gorman said, Colorado now has 866 medical-marijuana centres and recreational pot shops compared with 405 Starbucks outlets. Denver alone has 198 medicalmarijuana centres compared with 117 real pharmacies.

Here are some other fun facts from Colorado for the next time someone tells you that massively expanding access to marijuana has no negative consequences on society:

The percentage of fatal motorvehicle accidents in Colorado where the driver tested positive for marijuana rose to 16.5 per cent in 2012 from 6.9 per cent in 2006, according to the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

Homeless shelters experienced a 25- to 500-per-cent increase in clients after pot was legalized, Gorman said. As well, the number of crimes in Denver climbed by 12.3 per cent from 2012 to 2014 after pot became legal.

Despite rules that limit pot sales to those 21 and older, kids in Colorado have also been adversely affected. In Colorado, 11.2 per cent of 12- to 17-year-olds reported having used pot in the past month in 2013, compared with 8.3 per cent in 2006-08 and also compared with the 2013 national average of 7.2 per cent.

And don’t think that easier access to pot in Colorado didn’t hurt kids.

Gorman noted that, according to the Colorado Department of Education, the state experienced a 34-per-cent increase in drug-related suspensions and expulsions from school from the years before pot laws were liberalized compared with after. The percentage of drug-related school suspensions, which was a constant three per cent of all suspensions after pot commercialization was allowed in 2009, has grown every year since, hitting 6.4 per cent in the 2013-14 school year.

The same was true for school expulsions involving drugs. Before 2009, the percentage of expulsions involving drugs was about 25 per cent, but it climbed immediately after pot laws were relaxed and hit 42 per cent of all school expulsions in 2013-14.

So much for the claim that we can keep pot out of the hands of teenagers by making it legal.

Gorman’s agency listed other consequences in another report in August about mile-high Colorado:

From 2011 through 2013, there was a 57-per-cent increase in potrelated emergency-room visits.

Marijuana-related exposures for children five years old and less on average increased 268 per cent from 2006-09 to 2010-13.

The number of pets poisoned from ingesting marijuana increased fourfold from 2008 to 2014.

As I’ve said many times, I don’t care if adults want to smoke dope and I don’t want people going to jail for simple possession. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking pot is benign or the fabulous lifestyle choice some people claim.

It’s telling that having experienced the most liberal state pot laws in the U.S., that the majority of counties and cities in Colorado have banned recreational marijuana businesses. They may know something it will take us a couple of years to learn.
Gordon Clark is the editorial pages editor and a columnist.

Pot endangers children

Vancouver's top doctor defends edible pot ban
By Laura Kane, The Canadian Press, June 25, 2015
VANCOUVER – Vancouver’s top doctor is defending the city’s decision to ban edible pot products such as brownies and cookies, pointing to data that shows child poisonings have skyrocketed by 600 per cent in U.S. states where marijuana is legal.

Lawmakers south of the border have grappled with how to regulate the products. In Washington, nearly half of marijuana poisoning calls last year involved children, while Colorado only recently introduced stricter requirements for packaging, potency and contents.

Dr. Patricia Daly, Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical officer, said the city looked closely at the experiences of U.S. states before banning edible marijuana from stores.

“The concern is the marketing and retail sale of products that look exactly like candies and baked goods, and the poisonings that we know might occur in children,” she said. “This is a really early warning signal in the United States. We don’t want to see that happen here.”

Vancouver city council voted on Wednesday to impose regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries, institute a licence fee and enforce strict location requirements. Edible pot products will now be banned from stores, sparking criticism from advocates who say the move violates a recent Supreme Court decision.

Daly pointed to a recent study in Clinical Pediatrics, which found that the rate of marijuana poisonings among children five years of age and younger has increased by 610 per cent between 2006 and 2013 in states that legalized medical marijuana before 2000.

She said childproof containers and labelling has not prevented such poisonings, which can cause kids to stop breathing, suffer seizures and even become comatose.

In Washington, labels on pot products can’t use cartoon characters or bright colours, and each standardized 10-milligram serving of THC must be marked on the package. Edibles are limited to products that have a long shelf life, such as brownies, cookies and candies.

Still, Dr. Alexander Garrard of the Washington Poison Centre said calls about marijuana poisonings caused by edibles have tripled in the last decade. There were 245 calls last year, of which 108 were children, he said.

“I think what Vancouver has done is very forward. Some people would say it’s maybe a little bit radical. But that’s what we’re seeing — the majority of our cases are on edibles.”

In Colorado, two suicides and a murder committed by people who consumed edible pot products have grabbed headlines in the past two years. New regulations introduced in February require more explicit warnings and THC contents on labels, and provide incentives for companies to produce lower-potency products.
http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1407834/vancouvers-top-doctor-defends-edible-pot-ban/

In some teens, pot will ‘kill your dreams,’ counsellor says

(The following letter was published in The Province on 6/26/2015)... 

"Gordon Clark wrote an excellent column in Monday’s paper. The pro-marijuana-side argument is full of partial truths and, in some cases, untruths.

I work in five secondary schools and have seen first-hand the trouble regular marijuana use causes our youth. Pot may not kill you, but it will kill your dreams.

Last month, I attended a conference on drug and alcohol abuse in Boise, Idaho. Leaders from both the state and school system in Colorado, which legalized marijuana in 2012, presented, and the impact from legal, recreational marijuana has been significant on kids, especially kids in school.

Thanks for publishing the column; I’m sure the pushback has been significant."
-- Doug Rogers, School District 22, Vernon

(see Gordon Clark's column below)

Science versus pot religion

Medical pot proponents are blowing smoke
By Gordon Clark, The Province, June 24, 2015 • Section: Opinion
With the exception of “moderate-quality” evidence that pot controls pain and spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis, the meta-analysis of 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that there is little evidence that marijuana is effective for a host of ailments pot proponents often claim it can treat....

Those included “nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV infection, sleep disorders and Tourette syndrome.” You may as well take a sugar tablet.

The report also found that using marijuana caused a host of adverse events, including “dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance and hallucination.”.....click "Read More" below to continue.....

Scientific proofs not required for "Medical Marijuana" claims

(The following letter was published in The Province, June 24, 2015)...
Vancouver failing to consider harms of using marijuana
There was such a public outcry over yoga on a bridge that the premier was “compelled” to cancel it and yet Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem’s plan to license illegal pot shops goes unchallenged by our provincial leaders.

The travesty taking place at Vancouver City Hall should have every parent, educator, business owner, non-pot user, physician, law-enforcement officer and addictions councillor up in arms, as well as the premier and the education minister.

Why the lack of response? There has been a consorted effort to lull the public with rhetoric of “regulate” and “patients’ interests” and a sorry lack of discussion over the impact of commercialization of a substance that has been proven not safe for human consumption. What is missing is the evidence of science.

The gross omission of the risks of harms associated with the use of marijuana for anyone at any age is the offence that should cost Ballem her job, along with her admission that proximity guidelines for daycares were not included in her licensing plan to ease the burden on the marijuana sector in adhering to the rules. The facts:

In September 2009, marijuana smoke was added to the list of compounds known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity by the California Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Health Hazard Office.

There are over 300 studies about the cell damage done by marijuana. Second-hand marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually.

Enough said. Write MayorandCouncil@Vancouver.ca today.

Pamela McColl, Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada, Vancouver

Pot businesses magnet to crimes

Ram raiders hit two Vancouver pot dispensaries in weekend looting spree
By Nick Eagland, The Province May 30, 2015
A wave of thefts has hit Vancouver pot businesses over the past two weeks, including two apparent ram-raiding attempts on medical marijuana dispensaries early Saturday.....click "Read More" below to continue.....

Out-of-control medical pot claims

Pot adverts contravene Criminal Code, foes say
LETTER TO OTTAWA: Group says false advertising threat to safety
GORDON McINTYRE , The Province, 14 May 2015

Pamela McColl thinks she’s found a way to nail the scores of marijuana dispensaries that have opened in Vancouver, if only she could find an agency to go along.

The issue is a hot potato, with regulatory bodies, federal departments, police forces and city halls only too happy to pass it along.

Health Canada made it clear to The Province earlier this week that such dispensaries are illegal under the Food and Drugs Act, as is their advertising on radio and in print.

But Health Canada said it can only enforce advertising rules, not shut down the dispensaries.

“(But) I was told by Health Canada they do not look after illegal operations, only the licensees,” McColl said.

In frustration, McColl, a director with Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada, has turned to federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay, whose department oversees the Competition Bureau.

“It is our organization’s view that recent advertising of illegal marijuana retail operations have been running in Vancouver newspapers and radio stations contravening Canada’s Criminal Code, under which advertising regulations are governed,” she wrote MacKay.

By law, only licensed industrial growers — there are six in B.C. — can sell medicinal marijuana, and promotion of their products is strictly limited to name, strength and price.

Yet mosey into many street-front dispensaries and you’d be informed cannabis can apparently heal more ills than snake oil and echinacea combined.

“Claims are being made in regards to marijuana as a medicine that cannot be substantiated and which amount to false, misleading and deceptive advertising,” McColl said. “Such advertising and claims pose a serious threat to public safety.”

With marijuana retail stores popping up like Starbucks coffee houses, McColl said there are now 91 dispensaries in Vancouver.

There are many concerns, not the least being the lack of child-proofing pot packages and marketing pot to teens, as some tobacco companies have done, she said.

“And our concern is, if selling marijuana becomes normal and commercial, Big Pot would get control, just like Big Tobacco. If the big guys get in, we’ll never get rid of them.”

Galore of harms of pot

‘Medicinal’ pot shops multiply in Vancouver despite health concerns
MARK HUME, The Globe and Mail, May. 03 2015
The effectiveness of marijuana in suppressing chronic pain, reducing nausea in chemotherapy patients and controlling muscle spasms, among other things, has allowed proponents to label the narcotic as a medicine.

That branding is now paying dividends for drug retailers in Vancouver, where a growing number of pot shops are opening, billing themselves as “medical marijuana dispensaries.”

But marijuana is not a medicine, it is not approved by Health Canada and the way research is trending, it will never get that coveted designation.

Across Canada, doctors may prescribe it for cancer patients and others with pain when conventional therapeutic options fail. But medical professional organizations such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. are struggling with how to regulate it, because doctors know that marijuana use comes with health risks.

While medical professionals are carefully reflecting on the health implications of more liberal marijuana laws, however, dope retail stores are opening up in Vancouver like saloons in a gold-rush town. A few months ago there were 20; now there are more than 80.

The City of Vancouver is about to hold public hearings into the regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries, but Mayor Gregor Robertson makes it sound as though the big concern is just coming up with a new class of business licence to control where the outlets are located.

“As a city, we just can’t let these shops be everywhere all over town,” he said recently. “And certainly we don’t want them close to schools.”

No, we certainly don’t, and here’s why: Medical research is increasingly indicating marijuana use can be damaging to your health, especially if you are young.

A study published April 16 in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that even moderate use of marijuana can lead to changes in the brain. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brains of 18- to 25-year-olds.

“The nucleus accumbens – a brain region known to be involved in reward processing – was larger and altered in its shape and structure in the marijuana users compared [with] non-users,” EurekAlert!, an online science news service, reported in describing the study.

In 2013, Northwestern Medicine published a study in Schizophrenia Bulletin stating that teens who were heavy marijuana users (smoking daily for three years) showed brain abnormalities in which structures related to memory shrank and collapsed.

A 2009 study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that being a marijuana smoker was associated with a 70-per-cent increased risk of testicular cancer and “the elevated risk … was associated with marijuana use prior to age 18.” It was suspected that boys who smoked during puberty were especially at risk.

In April, a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association reported that marijuana use was associated with “cardiovascular complications” among young and middle-aged adults in France. We’re talking here about 34-year-olds having heart attacks.

“The general public thinks marijuana is harmless, but information revealing the potential health dangers of marijuana use needs to be disseminated to the public, policymakers and health-care providers,” Dr. Emilie Jouanjus, lead author of the study, said in a statement.

In 2009, the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology published a study that said marijuana smoke caused more damage to cells and DNA than tobacco smoke. And last November, preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions stated that breathing second-hand marijuana smoke can be just as damaging to your heart and blood vessels as second-hand cigarette smoke.

Marijuana has beneficial uses, as patients who use it to treat chronic pain can attest, but there are big health risks, too, and that fact shouldn’t be obscured by a storefront sign that claims a drug shop is a medical dispensary.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/medicinal-pot-shops-multiply-in-vancouver-despite-health-concerns/article24235255/

Pot smokers more prone to false memories: Study

MRI scans showed weed smokers had lower levels of activation in portions of the brain linked to memory and recall.
By Brooks Hays | April 21, 2015, UPI.com
BARCELONA, Spain, April 21 (UPI) -- Stoners don't make for good eye witnesses. According to new research, their accounts are more likely to be plagued by false memories.

Previous research has shown that long-term cannabis use can impair a person's short- and long-term memory. But the latest study -- published in the Journal of Molecular Biology -- proves pot smokers are more likely to supplement their faulty memory with false ones. Researchers proved as much using word games to test smokers' memory skills.

Study participants were first shown lists of words and asked to memorize them. After a few minutes, the participants were shown the original words, as well as new words (some semantically related, others not), and asked to identify which belonged to the original list.

Chronic cannabis users were more likely than their pot-free peers to falsely identify semantically related new words as belonging to the original list.

Researchers also coupled their semantic word quiz with real-time brain scans. The imaging showed weed smokers had lower levels of activation in portions of the brain linked to memory and recall.

"These findings indicate that cannabis users have an increased susceptibility to memory distortions even when abstinent and drug-free, suggesting a long-lasting compromise of memory and cognitive control mechanisms involved in reality monitoring," researchers wrote in their newly published paper.

A study published earlier this year by researchers at Northwestern Medicine showed adults who had smoked weed regularly in their teens were more likely to have abnormal hippocampus and exhibit memory problems.

"The memory processes that appear to be affected by cannabis are ones that we use every day to solve common problems and to sustain our relationships with friends and family," said Dr. John Csernansky, a behavioral scientist at Northwestern.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/04/21/Marijuana-smokers-more-prone-to-false-memories/5091429636241/

Teens who smoke pot early and often risk lowering their IQs, Substance Abuse Centre says

Elizabeth Payne, Postmedia News | April 20, 2015
Teens who start smoking marijuana early and do so frequently risk lowering their IQ scores, according to research from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, which found evidence that early and frequent cannabis use can alter the structure of the developing brain.

The research, part of a larger study due out in June, was released Monday — on April 20 — a day that has become a counterculture holiday to celebrate marijuana, as part of a bid to raise awareness about the negative effects of marijuana use among adolescents.

In past years, thousands of people, the majority teenagers and young adults, have flocked to Parliament Hill on April 20 to smoke marijuana. Similar rallies take place around the world.

While use of marijuana among Canadian teens and adults has decreased in recent years, it remains the most commonly used illegal drug among Canadian youth — at about three times the rate of adults. And Canadian youth are the top users of cannabis in the developed world, according to a 2013 UNICEF report......click "Read More" below to continue.....

Medical marijuana dispensaries lull teens, parents into thinking it’s harmless, say expert

By Erin Ellis, Vancouver Sun,  April 13, 2015
Medical marijuana shops popping up all over Metro Vancouver are giving parents and their children the wrong impression about weed, says an addictions specialist.

“Using the term ‘medical’ is giving a false impression to people — parents and kids,” says Dr. Siavash Jafari, who works out of several Vancouver Coastal Health clinics in Vancouver and also the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

Photo by: Mark van Manen

“To say ‘medical’ means it is supported by the medical community. It is not. That’s a misconception among the public.” he says.

“Parents feel that it’s not dangerous so they don’t talk to their kids about it.”

The scientific evidence is simply not there for most health claims made by dispensaries, he says, with the exception of its use for patients in palliative care.

Jafari says he routinely talks to patients with health problems who don’t even think to mention how much marijuana they smoke — or how often — because they have been convinced that it’s a natural, harmless herb.

“They don’t even consider the health issues. It affects them from brain to toe.”

Far less addictive than heroin or tobacco, notes Jafari, studies show 10 per cent of people who use it regularly will become dependent on it. Problems increase with the amount consumed over time, he added, with little risk to someone who smokes weed once or twice a year, for instance.

Confusion over what’s safe and what’s not is the topic of a public forum being held Tuesday for parents and teenagers. It is sponsored by the Vancouver school board, Vancouver Coastal Health and SACY, the school board’s substance use prevention initiative.

The forum was prompted by the lack of information for parents and because one of the largest celebrations of cannabis culture in North America takes place outside the Vancouver Art Gallery every April 20: the 4/20 “smoke out.”

Panelist Joy Johnson, vice-president of research at Simon Fraser University, says teenagers want to hear factual information about marijuana but often have a hard time finding it. First off, it’s still illegal — a fact that gets lost as dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries have opened across the city in the last year.

“I’ll be frank, we’ve lost our credibility because young people go home and see their parents smoking it,” says Johnson.

The ‘just-say-no’ approach doesn’t work, she says, and should be replaced with a rational conversation about the effect cannabis can have on the human brain, which continues to develop into the early 20s.

“We’ve had pretty good public health messaging in terms of alcohol consumption. We tell kids not to drink and drive, to not binge drink, to watch the amount they’re drinking. I don’t think we’ve had very good messaging about marijuana, in part because we don’t have a lot of great evidence. But one of the things we do know is that you should delay use because of brain development.”

A study by researchers from Harvard Medical School published this month concluded that participants who started smoking marijuana regularly before the age of 16 had lower scores on a test used to determine brain damage than subjects who started later and people who had never smoked.

Teens and Cannabis, a free public forum, will be held Tuesday from 7-9 p.m. in the auditorium of Vancouver Technical Secondary School at 2600 East Broadway.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Medical+marijuana+dispensaries+lull+teens+parents+into+thinking+harmless+experts/10966443/story.html
Related topic...

The over-selling of ‘medical’ marijuana