While legislators debate the details of NJ marijuana legalization, the black market is bigger than ever. we spent a night at a marijuana "pop-up" and saw chocolate bars and brownies, oils and vape cartridges and huge jars of illegal weed.
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10 Things We Know (As In, Actually Have Published Evidence For) About Cannabis And Health→
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Ten years ago, when you referred to cannabis, you were talking about dried plant material that people smoked,” says Ryan Vandrey, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
“Now, cannabis — which refers to marijuana and hemp — is a blanket term that could also mean hemp oil, topical creams, CBD products, high-THC concentrates that are smoked, vaporized or orally ingested and more.”
And confusion abounds.
Read MoreCBD Is Everywhere, but Scientists Still Don’t Know Much About It
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“It might be available at the local 7-11 in Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Lee “but any product you get on the market is not federally regulated by the F.D.A, so the purity and safety and quality are questionable.”
Indeed, a recent study that evaluated dozens of CBD products ordered online found that nearly 70 percent were not labeled accurately and had either higher or lower concentrations of the ingredient than indicated on the label. Some also contained THC.
Dr. Hurd, who has been studying CBD for nearly 10 years, warns that the expectations around the substance are unrealistic. “People are making it out to be a nirvana kind of drug, and that’s a problem,” she said. “One compound cannot cure everything.”
Read MoreOregon marijuana regulators fail to meet even basic standards, state audit finds
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Auditors concluded that regulators have failed to meet even basic promises. It found, for instance, that just 3 percent of recreational marijuana retailers had been inspected and only about a third of growers. It said the state’s medical marijuana program, long a source of black market diversion both in the state and nationally, has “structural weaknesses” that “greatly increase the risk of diversion.”
Read MoreIf Weed Is Medicine, So Is Budweiser
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Claims that marijuana relieves pain may be true. But the clinical studies that have been done compare it with a placebo, not even a pain reliever like ibuprofen. That’s not the type of rigorous evaluation we pursue for medications. What’s more, every intoxicant would pass that sort of test because you don’t experience pain as acutely when you are high. If weed is a pain reliever, so is Budweiser.
Read MoreMarijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence
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Almost everything you think you know about the health effects of cannabis, almost everything advocates and the media have told you for a generation, is wrong.
They’ve told you marijuana has many different medical uses. In reality marijuana and THC, its active ingredient, have been shown to work only in a few narrow conditions. They are most commonly prescribed for pain relief. But they are rarely tested against other pain relief drugs like ibuprofen—and in July, a large four-year study of patients with chronic pain in Australia showed cannabis use was associated with greater pain over time.
Read MoreGLAUCOMA AND THE MARIJUANA MYTH→
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Some myths die hard—like the one about marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma patients.
Read MorePromises about legal weed benefits are false→
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In California, voters were sold the line that the state could collect upwards of $1 billion in revenue. The reality is the state has failed to bring in anywhere close to that mark — it fell 75 percent short of it through September. All this prompted outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown to say, “I have not counted on any revenue from marijuana. Who’s counting on the marijuana revenue? People said that to make it more plausible for voters.”
So what’s the issue? It appears the black market is nimbler than anyone thought. In fact, it's growing stronger. One in five marijuana users in the state continue to purchase the drug off the street as opposed to buying it from retail stores. The situation is so bad that foreign cartels and criminal gangs are turning whole neighborhoods into pot-growing operations and even growing the drug on national lands.
And yet Big Marijuana — whose components now include Big Alcohol and Big Tobacco — keep claiming they can end the illicit trade of the drug through “regulation.”
Read MorePrenatal Exposure to Cannabis Affects the Developing Brain→
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Children born to moms who smoked or ingested marijuana during pregnancy suffer higher rates of depression, hyperactivity, and inattention.
Read MoreMarijuana Is More Dangerous Than You Think→
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As legalization spreads, more Americans are becoming heavy users of cannabis, despite its links to violence and mental illness
Read MoreWhat Advocates of Legalizing Pot Don’t Want You to Know→
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With large studies in peer-reviewed journals showing that marijuana increases the risk of psychosis and schizophrenia, the scientific literature around the drug is far more negative than it was 20 years ago.
Read More‘Dead Skunk’ Stench From Marijuana Farms Outrages Californians
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Marijuana Stinks and neighbors have had enough
Carpinteria High School, in particular, is flanked by cannabis greenhouses that have sent odors wafting in. In the past two years, students have complained of headaches, parents have grown angry and the high school has had to warn visiting sports teams that they might encounter the odor.
Read MoreFor every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization→
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The costs associated with commercial marijuana are only going to go up as the long-term health consequences have not been fully determined. Like tobacco, commercial marijuana is likely to have health consequences that we won’t be able to determine for decades. Those costs are not configured in this report.
Read MoreLegalized marijuana linked to a sharp rise in car crashes→
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With so many more states set to permit the use of the drug, Harkey said regulators, law enforcement, and medical authorities need to address “the challenge” and come up with better ways of determining when a driver might be operating under the influence of marijuana.
Read MoreGovernor lauds a pretend "experiment" with pot→
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“The Gazette has been trying all year to report on the impact of marijuana on Colorado five years after it was legalized. Time and again, our reporters have been frustrated by an infuriating lack of reliable data measuring that impact, despite state laws that require it,” explained Gazette Editor Vince Bzdek in an article titled “When it comes to data on pot’s impact, the state is driving with its eyes closed.”
Read MoreAmerica’s Invisible Pot Addicts→
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More and more Americans are reporting near-constant cannabis use, as legalization forges ahead.
Read MoreAmericans' view of marijuana is rosy, and unscientific
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A nationally representative online survey of 16,280 U.S. adults found that many ascribe health benefits to marijuana that haven’t been proven, researchers report in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Read MoreMany cannabis dispensaries recommend pot to pregnant women→
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More than two-thirds of cannabis dispensaries recommend that pregnant women use marijuana to treat morning sickness even though doctors advise against it because of safety concerns, a U.S. study suggests.
Read MoreArguments for Marijuana Legalization are Lies
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Lies were used to fool voters in states where marijuana “medicalization” or legalization was on the ballot and the lies continue to be foisted on the public for political power and money. Let me identify and answer a few of the lies.
Read MoreStudy Finds No Strong Evidence Cannabis Reduces Chronic Pain→
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A new study reports cannabis may not be as helpful in treating chronic pain as believed. Researchers say they have found no clear evidence that cannabis can reduce pain severity or pain interference in those with chronic non cancer pain.
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