“Currently, the [Food and Drug Administration] estimates that a drug
takes a minimum of seven years to move from initial studies to FDA
approval,” Hatch told the Deseret News. “The regulatory hoops
researchers have to jump through significantly delay the production of
potentially life-changing medications that Americans need.”
"One of the world’s most famous scientists says that the U.S. government’s classification of marijuana has absolutely nothing to do with science." ...
Grandmother, 70, who has thrown away 'all her pills', claims smoking
cannabis for FIVE decades is the secret to her good health and allowed
her to manage her ailments
"An epidemic of opioid abuse is ravaging the United States and, as we
look for ways to respond to it, some see cannabis as part of the
solution, while others see it as part of the problem. This is just one
area in which unbiased scientific research is necessary, but outdated
federal legislation, having concluded almost 50 years ago that there is
no medical value to cannabis, is blocking all meaningful efforts to
understand the real benefits and risks of the plant." ...
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Is More CBD Better? The Science Behind CBD Dosing for Anxiety and Other Conditions
... “If cannabis can serve as an alternative to
prescription opioids for at least some patients, legislators and the
medical community may want to consider medical cannabis programs as a
potential tool for combating the current opioid epidemic, wrote the scientists."...
Trump Is Continuing the War on Drugs That Kept Me Addicted - I’m a former heroin addict. I know all too well where Trump’s opioid plan goes wrong
... We created the opioid epidemic not by focusing too little on drug supply
and sales, but by focusing on them too much, instead of fighting the
stigma that leaves addicted populations feeling hopeless, helpless and
afraid. We won’t end it until we change that. Unfortunately, our
president doesn’t seem up to the task.
The Justice Department's New Opioid ‘Tools’ Are All About Escalating the Drug War - Expect more raids and more arrests
Department of Justice's current approach and attitude toward fighting
opioid overdoses is incoherent and bound to make the problems worse.
These are "tools" to cause more harm and pain to people's families, not
to ease them.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Study Finds Cannabis Use May Benefit Heart Failure Patients
..."Lead study author Dr. Oluwole Adegbala said the results of the study
were surprising because researchers hypothesized the opposite
conclusion, or that cannabis use would result in greater risks for heart
failure patients." ...
... " Study results showed that occasional cannabis users were 18 percent
were less likely to experience arterial fibrillation, and the same was
true for 31 percent of patients that used cannabis regularly.
The study found also that 46 percent of nondependent cannabis-using
heart failure patients were less likely to die in the hospital, while
among those patients that used cannabis regularly, 58 percent were less
likely to die while hospitalized." ...
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Funding Big Pharma to Help with Millions of Addicts They Created - Lining corporate pockets, one way or another
... "When Big Tobacco was busted for lying to consumers that its products
were neither addictive or deadly, it was forced to pay $206 billion in
the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Provisions include paying
states, in perpetuity, for some of the medical costs of people with
smoking-related illnesses.
When Big Pharma caused a similar scourge it
paid nothing. Worse, it is now receiving millions to "fix" the crisis it
started by selling even more drugs."
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart: People Are Dying in Opioid Crisis Because of Politicians’ Ignorance
Friday, October 27, 2017
Marijuana legalization is around corner, says former Republican party chairman
… “2018 may be a tipping point — the moment when the momentum of pot makes it impossible for state lawmakers to avoid.” … “Brian Vincente, an attorney who has been a leader in Colorado’s
decades-long fight over legalization, thinks otherwise. “I think we’ve
probably cleared the tipping point,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I
think when California and Massachusetts came on board and legalized — I
mean, California’s such a massively recognized global economy and
Massachusetts, this puritanical, historic state — I think those two for
me signaled that it’s the beginning of the end for prohibition.” ...
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Who Profits From the Opioid Crisis? Meet the Secretive Sackler Family Making Billions From OxyContin
... "It is certainly possible to die from an overdose of an opioid alone, but
this accounts for a minority of the thousands of opioid-related deaths.
Many are caused when people combine an opioid with another sedative
(such as alcohol), an antihistamine (such as promethazine) or a
benzodiazepine (such as Xanax or Klonopin). People are not dying because
of opioids; they are dying because of ignorance." ...
29 states have legal pot. Jeff Sessions wants to stamp it out, and he's closer than you think
by Evan Halper at LATIMES “It was revolutionary when it passed,” Dayton said of the ban. People were skeptical at first, he said, asking whether it would really halt prosecutions. “For the most part, it has,” he said.
The impact if it were to vanish?
“Chilling.”
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
New study shows aggressive policing link to major crime
... "The researchers conclude that certain policing tactics may result in
serious criminal activity. They also speculate that proactive policing
reform may decrease rates of major crime and increase well-being in
heavily policed communities." ...
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Tens Of Thousands Of Lives Could Be Saved By Nationwide Cannabis Legalization: Study
Nationwide medical marijuana legalization could save roughly 47,500
American lives every year, according to a new study from the University
of Indiana (IU)
Monday, September 11, 2017
Rohrabacher-Blumenauer medical marijuana protections extended by debt limit deal By Alicia Wallace
“We have at least three months of certainty now, but the fight isn’t over.”
Friday, September 8, 2017
Congress gives medical marijuana users a good reason to be paranoid
"Senator Patrick
Leahy introduced a similar amendment that could still uphold protections
granted to patients and medical marijuana providers in states where it
is legal"
... "The amendment was voted “out of order,” and is now dead. Rohrabacher and
Blumenauer said in a statement on Thursday that blocking the vote puts
millions of patients relying on medical marijuana treatment at risk, and
that the decision goes against the will of the American people." ...
Monday, September 4, 2017
The Claim That the Border Wall Will Stop Drug Smuggling Is Just More Trump Bullsh*t
... "This week, Trump claimed that "building the wall will stop much of the
drugs coming into the country." That claim is yet another example of
what CNN contributor Fareed Zakaria pungently referred to as Trump's
primary political product: bullshit." ...
... "There are many steps Congress can take to undo and repair the damage
done by decades of harsh drug laws. A good first start would be
eliminating all the Jim Crow-style collateral sanctions. A drug
conviction should not result in the denial of housing, employment,
education, voting or other rights and obligations ultimately
policymakers have to move beyond using law enforcement to address
complicated social issues and treat drugs as health and regulatory
issue."
... "FDA officials put out a call for comments in this morning’s Federal
Register, seeking information about CBD and how the UN’s World Health
Organization (WHO) should designate it under the 1971 Convention on
Psychotropic Substances. In doing so, the FDA acknowledged the
‘beneficial’ effects CBD has shown in patients with neurological
disorders." ...
Could cannabis PROTECT you from a stroke? People who
smoke marijuana every day have better blood flow and oxygen to the
brain, controversial study claims
... "However, a study by the University of Texas at Dallas has found the drug can improve oxygen and blood flow to the brain, reducing the risk of clots that cause a brain attack." ...
... "The NCI listing all these helpful applications and studies
showing the effectiveness of medical marijuana seems a little weird. The
NCI is a governmental agency, and federal law says that marijuana is
Schedule I narcotic, which means the government says it offers no
medical benefit and is highly addictive. Putting together a list of all
the ways marijuana can have medical benefits completely contradicts the
position of the federal government." "Apparently government employees who aren't paid to arrest drug dealers have pragmatic views about marijuana."
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
The Wrong Path: Involuntary Treatment and the Opioid Crisis
... "Mandated evaluation of overdose data
in Massachusetts has found that people who were involuntarily committed
were more than twice as likely to experience a fatal overdose as those
who completed voluntary treatment. (See page 48-49 in this preliminary analysis.)" ...
... "Though involuntary commitment represents an attractively decisive policy option, it is in fact the wrong solution to the crisis." ...
... "Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act is remarkable in its scope. Not only
would it remove marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) from Schedule I
classification, it would remove the federal criminal prohibition on the
import and export of cannabis. It would also withhold federal money for
the construction of prisons or jails from any state that has
discriminatory (race or income) arrest and incarceration rates for
cannabis offenses. Such states would also see up to a 10 percent
reduction in federal funding for a broad array of crime fighting
efforts. These funds would instead be directed into a community
reinvestment fund that would go towards communities devastated by the
drug war."
"Finally, and perhaps most ambitiously, it would expunge
all old cannabis convictions, and anyone currently imprisoned on
federal cannabis charges would have the right to a new sentencing
hearing. The hearing judge would have authority to impose a modified
sentence as if the Marijuana Justice Act was in effect on the date of
the crime." ...
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘No reason’ for marijuana to be illegal
... "Tyson's argument against prohibition is on fairly sound scientific footing:
Public health experts generally agree that relative to alcohol,
marijuana is less-habit forming, less toxic to the human body, less of
an impairment to driving and much less linked to violent behavior."
... "An August Quinnipiac poll
found that more than 61 percent of Americans now say marijuana should
be legal, 94 percent support the medical use of marijuana, and fully
three-quarters oppose the federal government enforcing marijuana laws in
states that have legalized it."
A nonprofit group of former players and doctors calling itself
Doctors for Cannabis Regulation (DFCR) has been actively lobbying the
NFL to change its rules on the drug. Currently, it’s against league
policy for players to use any form of marijuana. The DFCR, which counts former stars including Kyle Turley, Jim
McMahon and Ricky Williams among its ranks, is trying to convince the
league of two things: 1. Cannabis is a safer form of pain relief than the currently pervasive use of opioids. 2. Cannabis can help prevent brain damage, as well as treat the condition.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
FBI Data Shows Marijuana Legalization Reduces Violent Crime
Senators OK State Medical Marijuana Protections, Rejecting Sessions By Tom Angell
"A powerful Congressional committee delivered a strong rebuke to U.S.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, rejecting his request to
delete a provision that protects state medical marijuana laws from
federal interference."
"With a voice vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee added the rider
to legislation funding the Department of Justice for Fiscal Year 2018.
The policy has been in effect in every annual spending bill enacted
since late 2014." ...
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Jeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens
... "neither a criminal conviction nor even a criminal charge is necessary
— under forfeiture laws in most states and at the federal level, mere
suspicion of wrongdoing is enough to allow police to seize items
permanently."
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Meet the Doctor Who Refuses to Stop Prescribing Opioids to Pain Patients
... "the American Medical Association has even begun to advise physicians to abandon the pain rating scale when assessing patients.
"I
take the Hippocratic oath seriously, that my job is to relieve pain and
suffering," says Dr. Forest Tennant. "So when I see the AMA decide that
they're not going to assess pain, I'm not with them."
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Tylenol and aspirin far more dangerous than medical marijuana
"Dr. Christopher Prince said that physicians are at least partly culpable for what he sees as misconceptions about medical marijuana and the opioid abuse epidemic crippling the nation." ...
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
4 Reasons Why The US Needs To Decriminalize Drugs – And Why We’re Closer Than You Think
"In another win for marijuana research, a study has found that the active
compounds in cannabis are more effective at reducing the frequency of
acute migraine pain than prescription migraine meds, and with fewer side
effects" ...
Thursday, June 29, 2017
What Is Schedule I and Why Is Marijuana on the List, Anyway?
In 1970, the federal government declared marijuana more dangerous than
cocaine, meth, oxycodone and fentanyl. It's never changed its mind.
... "Officially, the prohibition against marijuana was supposed to be
considered after debate on its medicinal possibilities. However, the
secret tapes that Nixon made during part of his time in the White House make it clear he strongly opposed marijuana legalization.
Nixon
asked for a "strong statement on marijuana” against legalization. He
also said, “By God, we are going to hit the marijuana thing, and I want
to hit it right square in the puss…I want to hit it, against
legalization and all that sort of thing.”
Schedule I
Against
that backdrop, the drug schedule was created. Drugs can be rescheduled
by petitioning the DEA but the agency has ignored repeated petitions to
remove marijuana from Schedule I for decades" ...
... "Fatal accident rates have fallen significantly over the past two decades — during the same time that a majority of US states have legalized marijuana for either medical or social use. In 1996, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that there were an estimated 37,500 fatal car crashes on US roadways. This total fell to under 30,000 by 2014."
Fatal
accident rates have fallen significantly over the past two decades —
during the same time that a majority of US states have legalized
marijuana for either medical or social use. In 1996, the US National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that there were an
estimated 37,500 fatal car crashes on US roadways. This total fell to
under 30,000 by 2014.
Study: Adult Use Marijuana Laws Do Not Adversely Impact Traffic Fatality Rates
Study: Adult Use Marijuana Laws Do Not Adversely Impact Traffic Fatality Rates
• repeal the Controlled Substances Act of 1970; • direct the administration not to interfere with the implementation of state initiatives that allow for the recreational or medical use of marijuana; • repeal the federal mandatory minimum sentences; and • shut down the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Federal bill would protect medical marijuana states, provide access to vets
