Drug WarRant

I get inundated by emails from people wanting to write an article for my site (with just a couple of text links to their company), or offering “wonderful” infographics for me to share with you, which are also linked to a particular website.

These are just blatant attempts to use the good google ranking of Drug WarRant to push up their ranking so they can scam more families of drug addicts to use their referral service, or whatever.

I ignore most of them.

However, this latest was from Grace at “Teens4Safety.”

Hi Pete,

I wanted to see if you’re interested in sharing this resource on the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana: [infographic link at an auto insurance broker site]

Driving with marijuana in your system increases the likelihood of crashing by 300%. Please help us make the road a little safer for everyone.

Thank you!
Grace

Teens4Safety

OK, clearly this was an attempt to get me to link to the auto insurance broker, and I should have ignored it, but the 300% figure got me, and I had to look at the infographic to see what their “science” was.

Here’s the entire paragraph where they mention the 300%:

Naturally, because of the impact of marijuana on the brain, driving functions are also inhibited by marijuana usage. Although studies into this are relatively limited, particularly when it comes to longitudinal studies, legislation has been based on the following assumptions, which are extrapolated from studies into the general usage of THC as well as expanding existing legislation pertaining to the use of alcohol when driving. For example, driving under the influence of cannabis increases the likelihood of crashing by 300%.

Wow. I’m speechless.

I gave Grace an “F” and sent back her paper to be re-written.

Some good advice from Shaleen Title, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commissioner:

Top Ten Equity Must-Haves in Any Legalization Bill

1. Homegrow. Allow consumers to grow a limited number of their own plants at home (in MA, it’s 6 per adult with max of 12 per residence, see law for details) and gift a limited amount to other adults (in MA, it’s one ounce). This serves as a check on monopolies, delays, and more.
2. Automatic expungement for cannabis convictions, in the same law at the same time as legalization. Period.
3. Ensure as a non-negotiable, never-expiring statutory requirement that people from disproportionately harmed communities are represented at the very top of the regulating agency. (Yes, there are plenty who are qualified.)
4. Ensure that the regulating agency is diverse, independent, subject to full transparency, and appointed by different people. This is something I’m incredibly proud of in MA and I recommend adopting it. Brand new agencies take time/resources to start up, but it’s worth it.
5. Dedicate tax revenue to be reinvested into disproportionately harmed communities. Give it teeth; do not allow that revenue to be “subject to appropriation” and do not require bureaucratic application processes that only privileged communities will be able to tap into. Sidenote: the Minority Cannabis Business Association model state bill, which I worked on before becoming a commissioner, creates an Office of Justice Reinvestment to fairly distribute such revenue.
6. Separate from that reinvestment, invest a specific percentage of tax revenue into technical assistance, hiring programs and interest-free loans for disproportionately affected communities with a funding mechanism for initial programming and outreach as soon as the law passes. It is very important that you specify the agency(ies) in charge with specified deadlines and consequences for missing the deadlines. I think every existing equity program thus far, including the one I designed, underestimated the need for IMMEDIATE outreach and education.
7. Require state regulators and localities to ensure diversity in the industry at ownership and employee levels, and to enforce limits, with goals, measurement, and accountability for the regulators (it may be best for them to design their own goals rather than specifying them).
8. Institute a statutory requirement that tax revenue only flows to municipalities that have honored these mandates. Leave it up to the municipalities to figure out how to make their local laws and processes inclusive to disproportionately harmed communities BEFORE receiving any local taxes. Sidenote: my recommendation to anyone seeking an equitable cannabis program would be to not compromise an inch on this one. It could easily undermine all the rest. There are good and bad local examples throughout MA and CA.
9. Require every business to contribute to these goals in addition to (*BUT NOT INSTEAD OF*) the government’s role. One option is to require diversity plans and positive impact plans as requirements for licensure and renewal, as in MA, but there are many ways to accomplish this.
10. Lastly, require the regulating agency to collect data on each of these items, report the data regularly, and take remedial measures when the data is not satisfactory. Give the regulating agency broad flexibility and authority to accomplish this.

Marijuana Use Before Sex Leads To More Satisfying Orgasms, Study Finds

Remember when Bill Clinton admitted to having tried marijuana, but had to modify it by claiming he hadn’t inhaled? And even then, he had to be a big drug warrior in order to counter the “druggie” image.

In contrast, the 2020 candidates seem to be (finally) proudly admitting how much they enjoyed it.

U.S. Prosecutors Sue To Stop Nation’s First Supervised Injection Site For Opioids

After months of threats, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia launched a legal challenge on Wednesday against the nonprofit Safehouse, which is hoping to open what could be the nation’s first site where people with opioid addiction can use drugs under medical supervision.

According to a noted physician who had traveled back in time, “What is this? The Dark Ages?” – Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy

Kansas lawmaker makes racist comments about African Americans, marijuana

Republican Rep. Steve Alford of Ulysses:

“What you really need to do is go back in the ’30s when they outlawed all types of drugs in Kansas (and) across the United States, what was the reason they did that?” Alford said at the event. “One of the reasons why, I hate to say it, the African-Americans, they were basically users and they basically responded the worst off those drugs just because (of) their character makeup, their genetics, and that.”

Alford later said: “I’m about as far from being a racist as I can get.”

We haven’t had many of these in a while — but they used to be pretty common fare, until the public stopped falling for them.

In the New York Times: What Advocates of Legalizing Pot Don’t Want You to Know by Alex Berenson

Federal surveys also show that rates of serious mental illness are rising nationally, with the sharpest increase among people 18 to 25, who are also the most likely to use cannabis. The surveys and hospital data cannot prove that marijuana has caused a population-wide increase in psychosis, but they do offer intriguing evidence. […]

Many people are arrested for marijuana possession, but very few end up imprisoned. […] But advocacy groups don’t view decriminalization as an acceptable compromise. […]

Worse — because marijuana can cause paranoia and psychosis, and those conditions are closely linked to violence — it appears to lead to an increase in violent crime. Before recreational legalization began in 2014, advocates promised that it would reduce violent crime. But the first four states to legalize — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have seen sharp increases in murders and aggravated assaults since 2014, according to reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police reports and news articles show a clear link to cannabis in many cases. […]

As Americans consider making marijuana a legal drug, it would be wise to remember the choices that fueled the devastating opioid epidemic. Decades ago, many of the same people pressing for marijuana legalization argued that the risks of opioid addiction could be easily managed.

A half-million deaths later, we have learned how wrong they were.

Marijuana’s risks are different from opioids’, but they are no less real. Let’s remember that hard truth as we listen to promises that allowing the use of this drug will do no harm.

Wow.

Am I getting out of touch? I don’t remember hearing about this guy, and yet apparently he’s writing a book: “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.”

Congress just passed an $867 billion farm bill. Here’s what’s in it.

Wow, that took a long time.

This article in Forbes explains it all for the completely oblivious masses that haven’t been aware (like we have) that the prohibition of hemp was one of the stupidest things imaginable.

How Hemp And The Farm Bill May Change Life As You Know It

I tip my hat to those who have worked so hard on this for so many years.