It’s not ‘just’ marijuana

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It’s not ‘just’ marijuana

That father wanted something I could not give him, beyond a hug and shared tears, and consideration for his agony. He wanted the moment back. The earlier moment. He wanted his son back.

That was almost 20 years ago. The nation had lost 14,000 kids to overdoses that year. Congress wrote and passed the Drug Free Communities Act of 1997, Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, and federal anti-drug trafficking laws, including against trafficking marijuana. And drug abuse went down — markedly.

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Countering the Threat of Legalized Marijuana: A Blueprint for Federal, Community, and Private Action

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Countering the Threat of Legalized Marijuana: A Blueprint for Federal, Community, and Private Action

Recent reporting indicates that the Federal government will be taking a more serious approach to the marijuana threat and the enforcement of our nation’s drug laws. This is a welcome and long-overdue development, as the state-level legalization of marijuana is bringing with it significant and foreseeable costs. Decades of experience have taught us the damage that accompanies drug use; embarking on a legalization course that assuredly leads to higher levels of prevalence will increase the damage greatly as use broadens and intensifies.

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White House: Feds will step up marijuana law enforcement

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White House: Feds will step up marijuana law enforcement

CALM is encouraged by the announcement by Sean Spicer that the new administration is going to take a look at the issues related to marijuana use in America. We are also encouraged by their apparent recognition that the blossoming opioid addiction crisis and drug use at large has a connection to the expansion of marijuana use.

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What the national drug crisis requires

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What the national drug crisis requires

Extraordinary times we live in — not least because supposedly responsible people are promoting drug abuse, which everyone knows cascades into addiction, drug-crime, overdoses — that are killing us. So what gives? No one wants to stand up and take responsibility for saying — stop this madness, and fix the crisis. America’s greatness depends on a lot of things — and stopping the rolling, expansive, destructive drug crisis is one

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National study finds little proof of pot’s medical benefits→

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National study finds little proof of pot’s medical benefits

Marijuana advocates tout the drug and its compounds as therapeutic for everything from treating glaucoma to stopping nightmares. But a new systematic review of more that 10,700 scientific studies conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine found verifiable benefits for only two disorders—chronic pain and the nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. 

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National Academy of Sciences report finds marijuana use compromises mental, physical health and public safety

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National Academy of Sciences report finds marijuana use compromises mental, physical health and public safety

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), in a landmark report written by top scientists, The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research, concluded after a review of over 10,000 peer-reviewed academic articles, that marijuana use is connected to, among other problems:

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When the drug crisis hits home

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When the drug crisis hits home

No one wants to read about drug addiction, abuse, overdose numbers and young death. Why should they? Why should anyone who is steady, healthy and cogent enough to be combing a newspaper, or scanning news on their iPhone care much about someone who — all the world assumes — lost their own future, made avoidable mistakes? Not my lane. Not my worry. Not my world, right? Wrong.

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Nearing the Falls in America’s Drug Crisis→

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Nearing the Falls in America’s Drug Crisis

Never before in American history has our country faced a drug abuse, drug crime, and drug overdose crisis of the magnitude now confronting our society. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced that more than 50,000 Americans last year died from drug overdoses. That is a surge of death around us.

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What Child Is This?

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What Child Is This?

How is it that we have, collectively, forgotten to keep watch over those entrusted to our watch – especially from high office?  Last year, 47,055 Americans, most of them young, were lost to drug abuse – just statistics now.  Why?   

In part, because so many Americans have heard a mixed message from their leaders – with devastating effects. Led to believe drugs are “recreation,” something not different from beer or wine, kids try and soon die.  Synthetic opioids, heroin, cocaine, high potency marijuana – and then a trip to the ER, or not even, on the way to a mortuary.  Numbers do not lie. 

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Proposition 64: New law should be cause for broad alarm

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Proposition 64: New law should be cause for broad alarm

It is clear that California is no longer the Golden State. California does poorly in education and in measures of children’s well-being. With only 12 percent of the nation’s population, California has 33 percent of those on the nation’s welfare rolls. Homelessness and drug use are skyrocketing and the two are connected. None of these issues will be improved with more pot commercialization and use. Other problems of the state will be made worse as well.

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7 things to know now that Prop 64 is law→

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7 things to know now that Prop 64 is law

Just as in the case of medical marijuana, local governments can ban commercial marijuana transactions by ordinance and if they decide to OK marijuana businesses, the local authorities can regulate them through zoning laws. Some communities in San Diego County dropped the hammer before Tuesday’s election. Poway’s city council on Nov. 1 banned the commercial sale and outdoor cultivation of marijuana, joining Santee, San Marcos, Lemon Grove and National City. But while communities can nix cultivation, they cannot ban the provision allowing up to six plants in a person’s home. “They can have regulations to prevent nuisance to neighbors and protect safety and things like that, but they can’t ban it across the board,” Todd said.

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Prop 64 Wins - Public Health, Safety and California Kids Lose

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Prop 64 Wins - Public Health, Safety and California Kids Lose

“This is the worst possible message we could send to our citizens, children and other states,” warns Scott Chipman, Southern California Chair of CALM. “For at least a generation California like Colorado will be burdening their communities and children with the scourge that is marijuana. The negative impacts of legalization and commercialization will be regular headlines in the news and in the lives of Californians.” 

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5 Former DEA Administrators urge Governor Brown to Oppose Prop 64

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5 Former DEA Administrators urge Governor Brown to Oppose Prop 64

As former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration, we write to ask you, the State’s highest level and most visible political leader, to take a position on Proposition 64 before the election next Tuesday. For the reasons set out below, we urge you to oppose Prop 64. Your voice, Governor, is critical.

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Californians Call on Governor Brown To take An Oppose Position on Prop 64

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Californians Call on Governor Brown To take An Oppose Position on Prop 64

It is curious that Governor Brown said while being interviewed by “Meet the Press,” March 2, 2014, “The problem with anything, a certain amount is OK.  But there is a tendency to go to extremes, and all of a sudden, if there is advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great State.”  Carla Lowe, Founder, Co-chair, Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana (CALM)said, “He then turned his back on Californians 4 days later and accepted over $108,000 from Sean Parker and his wife, both financial backers of Prop 64.  We believe he further put California in jeopardy, maybe forever, by allowing it to become the world’s largest producer of marijuana by not demanding enforcement of federal law.

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