"Harmless pot" a big lie

• Why more Canadians are landing in emergency departments with cannabis-induced vomiting
• Regular cannabis use linked to rise in schizophrenia, ICES report says (video)
• Weed Use Tied To Increase in Schizophrenia
• 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/