Marijuana, Ecstasy Use Increases Among US Teens

medicalnewstoday.com  Article Date: 14 Dec 2010 - 11:00 PST
The use of illicit drugs like marijuana and ecstasy among US teens has increased according to a government-sponsored survey, raising concerns about whether the current debates on drug legalization may be sending the wrong message to young Americans.

The survey found that due mostly to an increase in marijuana use, the proportion of eighth-graders (children around 13 and 14 years of age) who said they had used an illicit drug in the past year has risen from 14.5 per cent in 2009 to 16 per cent in 2010.

Pot grow-ops and related crimes flourish under pot liberalism

Cannabis 'scratch and sniff cards' issued to Dutch citizens
by Coralie Ramon Coralie Ramon, Nov 8, 2010

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AFP) In a novel bid to combat illegal cannabis cultivation, Dutch authorities started handing out 30,000 cards with a marijuana odour Monday to alert citizens to what their neighbours may be up to.

"Citizens must be alerted to the dangers they face as a result of these plantations, and if they become aware of any suspect situations they must report them," Arnie Loos, spokesman for a government-appointed working group on cannabis cultivation, told journalists in the port city of Rotterdam.

Though it remains technically illegal, the Netherlands decriminalised the consumption and possession of under five grammes (0.18 ounces) of cannabis in 1976 under a "tolerance" policy.

Authorities turn a blind eye to citizens growing no more than five plants for personal use. Bulk cannabis cultivation and retail remain illegal and are in the hands of criminal organisations in a black-market business worth some two billion euros (2.8 billion dollars) annually.

Alzheimer's risk doubles in heavy smokers

(Is there any logic to conclude that pot will not cause the same dementia late in life? None. All smokes (fumes from fire) are toxic and harmful)
Alzheimer's risk doubles in heavy smokers 
Oct 25, 2010, SASKATCHEWAN (CBC) - People who smoke heavily in middle age seem to more than double their risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia late in life, research suggests.

Smoking is a well-established risk factor for stroke, but the link between smoking and risk of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia has been less clear since heavy smokers often die from other ailments before smoking's toll on the brain is evident...

Mental problems twice as likely for cannabis users: Dutch report

Oct. 4, 2010 (APF) THE HAGUE — Cannabis users suffer mental health problems twice as often as non-users, a study published Monday by Statistics Netherlands said.

"The percentage of people with a less good mental health is two times higher among cannabis users than non-users," CBS said in a statement.

The study, which was carried out between 2007 to 2009 and involved some 18,500 people, found that "20 percent of male cannabis users complained of mental problems, compared to 10 percent among non-users".

George Michael gets 8 weeks jail for drug driving

By JILL LAWLESS (AP)
LONDON -- George Michael was sentenced to eight weeks in jail and lost his license for five years Tuesday for driving under the influence of drugs when he crashed his car into a London photo shop.

A British judge told the wayward star his addiction to marijuana put him and the public at risk.

The former Wham! singer pleaded guilty last month to driving under the influence and possession of cannabis following a July 4 collision between his Range Rover and a Snappy Snaps store in north London.

District Judge John Perkins told the singer he had taken a "dangerous and unpredictable mix" of prescription drugs and marijuana.

"It does not appear that you took proper steps to deal with what is clearly an addiction to cannabis," the judge said. "That's a mistake which puts you and, on this occasion, the public at risk."  

Drug cocktail causes fridge explosion

Sep 11, 2010 - VANCOUVER (CBC) - Emergency crews were called to an apartment building in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside after a tenant's refrigerator exploded Friday night.

Police Insp. Eric Grummisch said a drug cocktail in the fridge caused the explosion at a rooming house in the 100 block of Main Street at about 7:30 p.m. PT.

"A tenant had treated a small amount of marijuana with a solvent and placed it in his refrigerator where it reacted to the light of the refrigerator bulb," he said.

"Apparently, that [light] remained on because the door was not fully closed, and that resulted in the refrigerator exploding."

Grummisch said there was severe damage to the room but no one was injured. He said no charges have been laid.

A Calgary man was sent to hospital earlier this year after his fridge exploded under similar circumstances. In that case, police said volatile substances used to make hashish oil were to blame.

No level of smoking, or exposure to second-hand smoke, safe: researcher

(This report might as well be about pot, not tobacco---makes no difference. Smoke is smoke is toxic fume---there's no such thing as "harmless" toxic fume. Disagree? Then let your children smoke all the pot they want --poster )   
By Neil Haesler, Postmedia News, August 21, 2010
Casual smokers may think a few puffs a week are nothing to worry about, but new research in the United States claims having even an infrequent cigarette, or being exposed to second-hand smoke, could be doing more harm than people believe.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, exposure to low levels of cigarette smoke may put people at risk for lung disease in the future.

"Even at the lowest detectable levels of exposure, we found direct effects on the functioning of genes within the cells lining the airways," said Dr. Ronald Crystal, senior author of the study and chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at New York-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell and chairman of the department of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Pot grow-ops damage homes and lives

Seniors who bought grow-op home lose in court
Keith Fraser, Postmedia News, July 30, 2010
A retired couple who discovered what they believed was evidence of a former marijuana grow-op in their new home -- then sued the former owners and their real-estate agents -- have had their case tossed out of court.

Pauline Stone and Joe Brown bought the rural property in Quesnel, about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver, in September 2006 for $239,000.

They then found what they say was evidence of a grow-op. They claimed their health was adversely affected by residual chemical pollution and excessive mould and moisture, and said they'd suffered mental and emotional distress.

Fires after fires caused by marijuana grow-ops, legalized or not

Medical marijuana house up in smoke
Firefighters discover grow-op at East Van fire
Vancouver grow-op goes up in smoke
Grow-op sparks massive blaze at Citadel

Another Mission Grow-Op Fire

Missisauga man faces charges after fire

Firefighters responding to Bellevue fire find marijuana grow operation

Grow-op found in 3-alarm Kensington Market blaze

Grow-op sparks T.O. apartment building fire
Drug cocktail causes fridge explosion

Prediction of legalized pot anarchies coming true in California (see earlier post)

Another evidence of an Empire's fall
(While kids in developing countries are busy staying sober and busy studying hard to make their economies stronger, American kids, led by their adult enablers, are busy getting stoned on pot (and other drugs), and busy working hard to legalize mind-destructive drugs. Way to go, America!  Big Tobaccos are already celebrating big future profits)
 
Oakland votes to permit large marijuana farms
By Evelyn Nieves, Associated Press Writer, Jul 21, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO - Oakland has moved closer to becoming the first city in the nation to authorize wholesale pot cultivation.

The Oakland City Council voted 5-2 with one abstention late Tuesday in favor of a plan to license four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed.

The vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with speakers divided between those who opposed the measure largely on the grounds that it would put small medical marijuana growers out of business and those who said it would generate millions of dollars for Oakland in taxes and sales and create hundreds of jobs.

Marijuana can send a brain to pot

Drug use can trigger psychosis in vulnerable people, experts say

Nancy J. White, Living reporter, thestar.com, Jul 09 2010
At age 17, sitting in the basement with friends smoking pot, Don Corbeil first noticed all the cameras spying on him. Then he became convinced a radioactive chip had been planted in his head. “I thought I was being monitored like a lab rat,” he explains.

It never occurred to him that marijuana could be messing with his brain. Corbeil had been smoking pot since he was 14, a habit that escalated to about 10 joints a day.

He started hearing voices and, at one point, Corbeil thought he was the Messiah. Police found him one day talking incoherently, and brought him to hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.  

Potheads and supporters give Great Big Hope to Big Tobaccos

Are potheads and their supporters stooges of Big Tobaccos?  With more and more people quitting smoking or not starting, Big Tobaccos' smoke profits have been gradually going up in smoke. But now guess who are coming to the Big rescue? Potheads and their supporters, in clamoring for legalization.    

   BT: "Just in time to throw a lifeline to we, Big Tobaccos!  Thank you, guardian angels!  Maybe in the future, when we BT dominate and monopolize the pot industries (again), we'll give you some discount coupons to hook you to our products even more!  Thank you once again. -- Best wishes from BT, your big, friendly cigarette/potarette makers."

The anarchy of a legalized pot world

Forget about buying "potarettes" from government/convenience stores.  Anyone and his dog could easily set up a mini or maxi pot grow-op in their house/condo/yard (impractical with tobacco) to make their own cheaper, more powerful joints, and sell the excess for profits. Grow-ops damage houses, breed molds, cause fire hazards, and which criminals would exploit big time after legalization.

Besides above, read the following articles (or any cigarette article) and substitue the word "cigarettes" or "tobacco" with the word "pot"--revealing an anarchic, legalized pot world inevitably many times worst in many areas:

China tobacco firms accused of targeting children 

Big Tobacco's Next Target: Women and Children in Poorer Countries...

Tobacco companies target young women  

Passive Smoking (secondhand Smoke) Linked To Psychiatric Distress And Illness

Illegal tobacco market growing

Supreme Court to hear tobacco liability appeals

U.S. gene study reveals toll of heavy smoking

Tobacco troubles: Law enforcement has not kept up with the illegal trade in cheap cigarettes 

Up in smoke: Indonesian child-teen smokers rising 

Dr. says MDs should not encourage pot use

(Below is a letter Dr. Meldon Kahan sent to the National Post newspaper on March 2, 2010)...

" Re: How To Get Your Medicinal Pot, letter to the editor, Feb. 27.

Dr. David Saul implies that if patients request a Health Canada cannabis authorization form, physicians are obliged by the provincial medical college to sign the form or refer them to a physician who will. This is incorrect and it is reckless to promote cannabis as a harmless medicine. I have seen patients whose lives have been destroyed by cannabis addiction or cannabis-induced psychosis. Smoked cannabis has been shown to cause precancerous changes in various tissues. Also, THC serum levels rise rapidly when smoked, creating a risk for motor vehicle accidents. The oral and inhaled versions of cannabis are far safer.

I would discourage physicians from authorizing smoked cannabis. They should prescribe oral or inhaled cannabis only for patients with a medical condition for which cannabis has been shown to be effective, and who are at low risk for cannabis-related harms.

Dr. Meldon Kahan, medical director,

Addiction Medicine Service, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto "

Prolonged Cannabis Use Linked To Psychosis

An Australian study found that prolonged use of cannabis or marijuana by young adults was linked to a higher risk of developing psychosis, with the highest risk affecting those who started using the substance in their teens, and continued using it for 6 years or more into adulthood: the risk of developing psychosis among these users was more than double that of never users. Read more at website or click below...

Read More>

Criminals exploit Dutch liberal pot laws big time; Government retreats from drug liberalism

Dutch court fines coffee (pot) shop owner 10 mln euros
The government mooted plans last year to transform coffee shops near the Belgian border into private clubs, to address what critics describe as the nuisance created by millions of drug tourists a year.

THE HAGUE, March 25, 2010 (AFP) - A Dutch court fined the owner of the Netherlands' biggest cannabis-vending coffee shop 10 million euros on Thursday after police seized more than 200 kilogrammes of the drug on its premises.

The 13-million-dollar penalty would have been larger, the district court of southwestern Middelburg said in a statement, had it not been for the authorities' apparently contradictory approach to soft drug vending and use.

While finding that coffee shop Checkpoint was a criminal organisation that had transgressed the Opium Act, the court said "the role of the authorities weighed heavily in the determination of the sentence".

This included the "facilitating role of the municipality, of which the prosecution service had been aware, and years of non-enforcement of the law", according to the judgment.

Cannabis brain damage worse in teens than thought: study

New study suggests cannabis use by teens damages brain worse than suspected

Thu Dec 17, 5:58 PM, By Bernard Barbeau, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - The effects of daily cannabis use on teenage brains is worse than originally thought and the long-term effects appear to be irreversible, new research from McGill University suggests.

The study, by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, suggests that daily cannabis consumption can lead to depression and anxiety.

Active ingredients in marijuana found to spread and prolong pain

Click Read More below for full story...

Growing Evidence Of Marijuana Smoke's Potential Dangers

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) - In a finding that challenges the increasingly popular belief that smoking marijuana is less harmful to health than smoking tobacco, researchers in Canada are reporting that smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, has toxic effects on cells. Read more at website  or click below:

Cannabis "can cause psychosis in healthy people"

A potent form of cannabis can cause healthy people to develop psychotic illnesses, a new British study has proved.
Article website at...
http://tinyurl.com/l9s59t
Or click Read More below...

Read More>

Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals

ScienceDaily (June 15, 2009)

Using a highly sensitive new test, scientists in Europe are reporting "convincing evidence" that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.

Read more at website or click below...

Read More>

Pot & drugs fueled destructive behaviors

(This was at a time in the 60's-70's when pot was still the mild stuff)
CHICAGO - Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said Wednesday that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with her father, pop superstar John Phillips, who also taught her how to roll joints and injected her with cocaine. 

Pot linked to testicular cancer and psychosis

testicular cancer:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5181BP20090209
psychosis:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE52T6I820090330

Marijuana Worsens COPD Symptoms In Current Cigarette Smokers

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2007) Marijuana worsens breathing problems in current smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study.

The study found that among people 40 and older, smokers were two-and-a-half times as likely as nonsmokers to develop COPD, while smoking cigarettes and marijuana together boosted the odds of developing COPD to three-and-a-half times the risk of someone who did not smoke either cigarettes or marijuana--in other words, adding marijuana smoking to cigarette smoking increased the risk by one-third, says Wan Tan, M.D., of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The odds of cigarette smokers having any respiratory symptoms was 2.36 times that of nonsmokers, while the odds of someone who smoked both cigarettes and marijuana having respiratory symptoms was 18 times that of someone who smoked neither--an eightfold jump in risk, Dr. Tan says.