"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 1, 2022
“Lazy stoner” NO MORE!
UK Researchers Find Cannabis Abstainers LESS Motivated Than Cannabis Consumers
—>This is NOT A JOKE!<—
Ms Martine Skumlien is a PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her research centers around the impact of regular cannabis use on brain and cognition, with a particular emphasis on use in adolescence, in which she utilizes behavioral data along with fMRI in her work.
Ms. Martine Skumlien, MRes, is a researcher affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK -and- Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Clinical Educational and Health Psychology Department, University College London, London, UK, and was lead researcher of a team of 16 that recently published their findings in the 14 August 2022 edition of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.
In their conclusion, the researchers wrote, “Our results suggest that cannabis use at a frequency of three to four days per week is not associated with Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, November 20, 2021
Fentanyl-laced marijuana has been found in Connecticut.
This is yet ANOTHER damn good reason to:
1.) Legalize;
2.) Tax, and;
3.) Regulate
cannabis — 100%, for Adult Recreational, and Medical Use.
It should be noted, that in Connecticut, Adult Recreational Use of cannabis (aka “marijuana”) is legal, and like in every other state where it is legal, in one form, or another (as Adult Recreational and/or Medical), is subject to rigorous testing and held to the highest standards… no pun intended.
See: https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/
The fentanyl-laced marijuana was purchased on the black market, which much like illegally-produced liquor during Prohibition, also caused death, and blindness. Now, home-based beer and wine production, along with distilling and entrepreneurship in spirituous beverage production, is legal nation-wide, and such problems are exceedingly rare.
“This is the first lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States.”
— Dr. Manisha Juthani, MD, Connecticut Department of Public Health Commissioner
The Connecticut Overdose Response Strategy (CT ORS) and the Connecticut Department of Public Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services, have recently received reports of overdose patients who have exhibited opioid overdose symptoms and required naloxone for revival. These patients denied any opioid use and claimed to have only smoked marijuana.
Recent incidents where only marijuana use was reported but naloxone was required.
• July 2021 – 11 cases
• August 2021 – 9 cases
• September 2021 – 9 cases
• October 1 – 26, 2021 – 10 cases
The reported incidents were dispersed across Connecticut. Several jurisdictions had multiple overdoses with opioid symptoms attributed to marijuana, however, no pattern was detected. In early October 2021, Plymouth, CT, had several overdose incidents where naloxone was required for revival and patients claimed to have only smoked marijuana. At one of these overdose scenes, Plymouth Police Department was able to secure a sample of the marijuana for testing at the state laboratory, which tested positive for fentanyl. https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Press-Room/Press-Releases—2021/Officials-From-The-Connecticut-Overdose-Response-Strategy-And-The-DPH-Issue-Warning
A legal marijuana crop in Uruguay.
But here’s the kicker: How long before black market fentanyl-laced marijuana makes its way down South, or to other areas of the nation?
And here’s another thought:
EVERYBODY who’s been paying attention knows how lethal fentanyl is, and the numerous deaths that are arising from its deliberate contamination in other street drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and now, cannabis. And, for a person/group in such a “business” would have to be a fool to distribute a substance that they knew would kill their clientele. It’s just bad for business to destroy your customer base. So, why would any one in their proper mind do that, eh?
I submit to you that NO narcotrafficking cartel would even stoop that low, or be that stupid, to eliminate their customers.
And so, if it’s not a narcotrafficking cartel, who could it be?
It’s just my opinion, of course, but consider the possibility that it actually –might– be America’s enemies, like North Korea, Russia, China, etc. It’d be a fantastic way to eliminate your enemy little-by-little, inch-by-inch, and in that process, demoralize their resolve, and divert resources.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, June 2, 2021
A Pew Research Center survey conducted April 5-11, 2021 among 5109 randomly sampled U.S. adults who were all members of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel – a group of over 10,000 adults randomly selected from throughout all 50 states who regularly participate in Pew’s surveys – found that most religiously affiliated Americans favor broad cannabis legalization.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, May 21, 2021
The gap between legal and illicit cannabis markets in Canada continues widening, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada, the national statistical agency.
Household spending on adult-use cannabis products in legal, regulated channels, grew to $918 million Canadian dollars (US$800 million) in the 4th quarter 2020, which was CA$204 million more than the estimated amount spent on illicit cannabis in the same period.
For the first time, in the previous quarter, spending on legal recreational cannabis in Canada exceeded the value of illegal transactions, with regulated expenditures exceeding estimated illicit sales by CA$59 million.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin has used the executive authority of the mayor’s office to issue blanket pardons for all misdemeanor marijuana-related offenses issued by the city from 1990-2020.
His actions were on April 20th, a day adopted by cannabis advocates as their celebratory day, and he Tweeted that,
“Today, I issued a pardon of 15,000 people convicted of marijuana possession in Birmingham between 1990-2020. These pardons are Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, April 14, 2021
The State of New Mexico has become the latest state to legalize cannabis for Adult Recreational Use (ARU). There are now 18 states, 1 locality (District of Columbia), and 2 protectorates (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands) that have done so, for a total of 21 governmental entities in the United States jurisdiction which have legalized ARU.
The GRAND TOTAL of people who reside in those areas is: 139,471,628.
The United States Census Bureau estimates U.S. population to be slightly above 330,200,000. That’s around 42.23% of the total estimated population. Guam is an American protectorate, and its residents, and the residents of the Northern Mariana Islands, are American citizens.
Many more states have legalized cannabis for medical use (MMJ), and/or have decriminalized possession to either a civil violation equivalent to a traffic ticket, or as a misdemeanor offense. One state – Oklahoma – has so liberalized their Medical Marijuana program that it is now viewed as a de facto legalization, which has in turn garnered the Sooner State the nickname “Tokelahoma.”
There are only 14 states in which cannabis is not legal for medical use. They are: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Cannabis or its products in any form is 100% illegal in the territory of American Samoa, while Puerto Rico has a Medical Marijuana law, as does the American Virgin Islands.
It’s very likely only a short matter of time before cannabis is legalized at the Federal level. Read the rest of this entry »
The state’s fiscal analysis stated that “Annual state and local sales tax collections on these purchases may reach $88 million in the next several years. The initiative also requires a one-time transfer from the Medical Marijuana Fund of $45 million for the Department of Health Services, a university tuition program, and an impaired driving program.”
Among other provisions, as stated in its purpose, the “Act permits limited possession, transfer, cultivation, and use of marijuana (as defined) by adults 21 years old or older; protects employer and property owner rights; bans smoking in public places; imposes a 16% excise tax on marijuana to fund public safety, community colleges, infrastructure, and public health and community programs; authorizes state and local regulations for the sale and production of marijuana by a limited number of licensees; requires impairment to the slightest degree for marijuana DUls; transfers monies from the Medical Marijuana Fund; permits expungement of some marijuana violations; and prescribes penalties for violations.”
Distribution of taxes collected upon its sale would be as follows:
• 33.0% to community colleges
• 31.4% to local law enforcement and fire departments
• 25.4% to the state and local transportation programs
• 10.0% to public health and criminal justice programs
• 0.2% to the Attorney General for enforcement
The state estimates that “based on a projected tax base of $1 billion, total state and local tax collections would be $254 million, including $166 million to the Smart and Safe Arizona Fund.”
“In its Medium-Series Population Projections, the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) estimates that Arizona’s population will have reached 7.59 million by 2023. Given the $137 estimate for per capita sales, the OEO population estimate implies Arizona would have $1.04 billion of recreational marijuana sales in 2023.”
$254,391,600
Their revenue and sales estimates are based upon western states experiences, and they wrote that, “Arizona marijuana sales may increase further after the third year. States with more than 3 years of sales data have experienced continued growth in years 4 and 5. In Colorado, Oregon, and Washington recreational marijuana sales grew by a weighted average of 20.5% in year 4. In Colorado, the only state with 5 full years of data, sales grew by another 11.2% in year 5. We do not attempt, however, to project past the third year due to the speculative nature of long-run forecasting.”
The Arizona analysis also examines the cost associated with expungement, meaning the legal elimination of any criminal record associated with whatever record is being expunged. They cited a Pew Charitable Trusts analysis in November 2017, which stated in part that, “California only had 1,506 applications for expungement its first year of legalization and Oregon saw only 1,206 petitions combined between 2015-2017. Furthermore, the 192,000 estimate includes all convictions for marijuana possession, whereas the initiative provides the expungement option only to those who were convicted of marijuana possession of 2.5 ounces or less.”
They also note as well, that “the initiative does provide a revenue source for DPS administrative costs. The initiative authorizes DPS to collect a “reasonable fee determined by the Director” for costs to “correct the petitioner’s criminal history record” unless the individual is indigent.”
Control, or rather, elimination of the illicit black market is also a strong motivator for government in the legalization, taxation, and regulation of cannabis, especially and particularly for Adult Recreational Use. To that end, Arizona’s fiscal analysts wrote that, “If the limited number of retail locations authorized under the initiative is insufficient to meet demand, then current marijuana users may be more likely to continue to purchase illegally or from medical dispensaries, potentially decreasing the size of the legal market.”
Elimination of the illicit black market was also a very strong motivating factor in Oklahoma’s recent liberalization of cannabis laws, particularly and especially for medical use. See “Oklahoma Has Become A Free Market Utopia For Weed,” published 11/2/2020 for more details. Of course as well, an “unintended consequence” for ALL states which have liberalized their cannabis laws, is an INCREASE in private enterprise, and entrepreneurship – the veritable “holy grail” of most Republicans… and Democrats, if folks would be honest about the matter.
Arizona’s fiscal analysts also acknowledge a very important, yet almost-overlooked matter: It is of local regulation. They write that, “the proposition grants Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, December 4, 2020
Despite numerous polls from various polling organizations showing an increasing desire of a majority of Americans to legalize cannabis, House Banana Republicans have run away from The People’s will and desire to continue to exact increasingly costly tolls upon taxpayers burdened by incarcerating its consumers.
Pew Research Centers latest findings on Americans’ attitudes toward cannabis show that “an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say marijuana should be legal either for medical and recreational use (59%) or that it should be legal just for medical use (32%),” and that “fewer than one-in-ten (8%) prefer to keep marijuana illegal in all circumstances.”
“The 68% of U.S. adults who currently back the measure is not statistically different from last year’s 66%; however, it is nominally Gallup’s highest reading, exceeding the 64% to 66% range seen from 2017 to 2019,” they wrote on November 9, 2020.
Cannabis, also commonly known as “marijuana,” remains illegal under U.S. federal law. H.R.3884 Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019 or the MORE Act of 2019 (“To decriminalize and deschedule cannabis, to provide for reinvestment in certain persons adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, to provide for expungement of certain cannabis offenses, and for other purposes.”) was introduced by Jerrold Nadler (D, NY-10), had 120 cosponsors, passed through 8 committees: House – Judiciary; Energy and Commerce; Agriculture; Education and Labor; Ways and Means; Small Business; Natural Resources; Oversight and Reform.
Specifically, it removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana.
The bill also makes other changes, including the following:
replaces statutory references to marijuana and marihuana with cannabis,
requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to regularly publish demographic data on cannabis business owners and employees,
establishes a trust fund to support various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs,
imposes a 5% tax on cannabis products and requires revenues to be deposited into the trust fund,
makes Small Business Administration loans and services available to entities that are cannabis-related legitimate businesses or service providers,
prohibits the denial of federal public benefits to a person on the basis of certain cannabis-related conduct or convictions,
prohibits the denial of benefits and protections under immigration laws on the basis of a cannabis-related event (e.g., conduct or a conviction),
establishes a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings related to federal cannabis offenses, and
directs the Government Accountability Office to study the societal impact of cannabis legalization.
The measure is not expected to pass into law, and, due to political skittishness, it was only voted on after the November election and more than a year after it emerged from committee. But the House took a stand at a moment of increasing momentum, with voters last month opting to liberalize marijuana laws in five states — including three that President Trump won handily.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 27, 2020
Nothing short of amazing!
Other states should take notice.
Oklahoma State Representative Scott Fetgatter (R-16)
Witness the Free Market and Free Enterprise at work collaborating with government with practically nominal regulation.
The primary difference being, is that the heavy hammer of law hangs over the heads of individuals whom violate the law, and licensing/permitting is required throughout the process – from producer to consumer – and, it is taxed.
“Anybody who wants to use marijuana is already using marijuana.
You’re not stopping that.
The goal is to eliminate the black market.”
– Oklahoma State Representative Scott Fetgatter (R-16)
“They’ve literally done what no other state has done:
Free-enterprise system, open market, wild, wild west.
It’s survival of the fittest.”
– Tom Spanier, owner of Tegridy Market
(a dispensary that takes its name from South Park)
with his wife in Oklahoma City, last year
WELLSTON, Oklahoma—One day in the early fall of 2018, while scrutinizing the finances of his thriving Colorado garden supply business, Chip Baker noticed a curious development: transportation costs had spiked fivefold. The surge, he quickly determined, was due to huge shipments of cultivation supplies—potting soil, grow lights, dehumidifiers, fertilizer, water filters—to Oklahoma.
Baker, who has been growing weed since he was 13 in Georgia, has cultivated crops in some of the world’s most notorious marijuana hotspots, from the forests of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle to the lake region ofSwitzerland to the mountains of Colorado. Oklahoma was not exactly on his radar. So one weekend in October, Baker and his wife Jessica decided to take a drive to see where all their products were ending up.
Voters in the staunchly conservative state had just four months earlier authorized a medical marijuana program and sales were just beginning. The Bakers immediately saw the potential for the fledgling market. With no limits on marijuana business licenses, scant restrictions on who can obtain a medical card, and cheap land, energy and building materials, they believed Oklahoma could become a free-market weed utopia and they wanted in.
Within two weeks, they found a house to rent in Broken Bow and by February had secured a lease on an empty Oklahoma City strip mall. Eventually they purchased a 110-acre plot of land down a red dirt road about 40 miles northeast of Oklahoma City that had previously been a breeding ground for fighting cocks and started growing high-grade strains of cannabis with names like Purple Punch, Cookies and Cream and Miracle Alien.
“This is exactly like Humboldt County was in the late 90s,” Baker says, as a trio of workers chop down marijuana plants that survived a recent ice storm. “The effect this is going to have on the cannabis nation is going to be incredible.”
Oklahoma is now the biggest medical marijuana market in the country on a per capita basis. More than 360,000 Oklahomans—nearly 10 percent of the state’s population—have acquired medical marijuana cards over the last two years. By comparison, New Mexico has the country’s second most popular program, with about 5 percent of state residents obtaining medical cards. Last month, sales since 2018 surpassed $1 billion.
To meet that demand, Oklahoma has more than 9,000 licensed marijuana businesses, including nearly 2,000 dispensaries and almost 6,000 grow operations. In comparison, Colorado—the country’s oldest recreational marijuana market, with a population almost 50 percent larger than Oklahoma—has barely half as many licensed dispensaries and less than 20 percent as many grow operations. In Ardmore, a town of 25,000 in the oil patch near the Texas border, there are 36 licensed dispensaries—roughly one for every 700 residents. In neighboring Wilson (pop. 1,695), state officials have issued 32 cultivation licenses, meaning about one out of 50 residents can legally grow weed.
What is happening in Oklahoma is almost unprecedented among the 35 states that have legalized marijuana in some form since California voters backed medical marijuana in 1996. Not only has the growth of its market outstripped other more established state programs but it is happening in a state that has long stood out for its opposition to drug use. Oklahoma imprisons more people on a per-capita basis than just about any other state in the country, many of them non-violent drug offenders sentenced to lengthy terms behind bars. But that state-sanctioned punitive streak has been overwhelmed by two other strands of American culture—a live-and-let-live attitude about drug use and an equally powerful preference for laissez-faire capitalism.
“Turns out rednecks love to smoke weed,” Baker laughs. “That’s the thing about cannabis: It really bridges socio-economic gaps. The only other thing that does it is handguns. All types of people are into firearms. All types of people are into cannabis.”
Indeed, Oklahoma has established arguably the only free-market marijuana industry in the country. Unlike almost every other state, there are no limits on how many business licenses can be issued and cities can’t ban marijuana businesses from operating within their borders. In addition, the cost of entry is far lower than in most states: a license costs just $2,500. In other words, anyone with a credit card and a dream can take a crack at becoming a marijuana millionaire.
“They’ve literally done what no other state has done: free-enterprise system, open market, wild wild west,” says Tom Spanier, who opened Tegridy Market (a dispensary that takes its name from South Park) with his wife in Oklahoma City last year. “It’s survival of the fittest.”
The hands-off model extends to patients, as well. There’s no set of qualifying conditions in order to obtain a medical card. If a patient can persuade a doctor that he needs to smoke weed in order to soothe a stubbed toe, that’s just as legitimate as a dying cancer patient seeking to mitigate pain. The cards are so easy to obtain—$60 and a five-minute consultation—that many consider Oklahoma to have a de facto recreational use program.
But lax as it might seem, Oklahoma’s program has generated a hefty amount of tax revenue while avoiding some of the pitfalls of more intensely regulated programs.Through the first 10 months of this year, the industry generated more than $105 million in state and local taxes. That’s more than the $73 million expected to be produced by the state lottery this fiscal year, though still a pittance in comparison to the overall state budget of nearly $8 billion. In addition, Oklahoma has largely escaped the biggest problems that have plagued many other state markets: Illegal sales are relatively rare and the low cost to entry has made corruption all but unnecessary.
All of which has made Oklahoma an unlikely case study for the rest of the country, which continues its incremental march toward universal legalization. Oklahoma is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, January 17, 2019
In a recently published article entitled “Grey Matter Volume Differences Associated with Extremely Low Levels of Cannabis Use in Adolescence,” in the Journal of Neuroscience, 14 January 2019 edition, pp3375-17, researchers wrote in part that “We identified extensive regions in the bilateral medial temporal lobes as well as the bilateral posterior cingulate, lingual gyri, and cerebellum that showed greater GMV in the cannabis users.”
News items related to that newly published research are focusing upon that singular line as if it’s something negative. Since when did INCREASED grey matter become something dangerous, or cause for concern? Colloquially, the term “grey matter” is used to describe the brain, and by extension, brain power. So let’s examine this matter (no pun intended) in more detail.
But before proceeding further, it bears mentioning that adolescents should NOT be consuming cannabis, neither alcohol, nor tobacco. And try as much as we want, we will not ever stop underage consumption of any adults-only substance. The BEST we can do is to educate them, and others, of potential risks involved in its use – especially and particularly underage use – and deny them opportunities to consume alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. THAT is a strategy which has PROVEN to work, because the trite “Just say ‘no'” has never worked, nor will it ever.
Dr David Robert Grimes is a physicist, cancer researcher and science writer, who was the joint recipient of the 2014 Nature / Sense About Science Maddox Prize and wrote in a brief anti-marijuana article dated 15th May 2017 entitled “The rise of the cannabis cult: don’t believe the hype about medical marijuana” that Read the rest of this entry »
First Edition of the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, published
Q: Where did the idea for marijuana brownies come from?
A: From the highly-regarded “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook” published in 1954.
“Toklas put in a section entitled ‘Recipes from Friends,’ and one of those friends was an artist – Brion Gysin, then living in North Africa, where he helped run a restaurant. He wrote Toklas a note with the recipe for a North African sweet, “Haschich (Gysin’s chosen spelling) Fudge” — mashed-up dried fruit with nuts and cannabis (despite the name, the recipe calls for cannabis rather than hashish) rolled with butter. [It was a] tasty morsel to accompany your mint tea that supposedly brings on gales of laughter.
“Toklas, in a rush, typed up the note verbatim from Gysin, slipped it into the manuscript and sent that off to the publisher without realizing cannabis, or hashish, was a controlled substance, much vilified in America.
“The book went to press in the U.K. and America. The U.K. first edition (now a collector’s item) had the recipe; the U.S. publisher (Harper & Brothers) caught and excised it. But it was already in the papers that there was a hashish fudge recipe in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. This, combined with the facts that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, May 7, 2018
Q: What all-natural food has the following nutritional analysis?
Per 100g, it contains:
8.8g H2O – water
21.5g protein
30.4g fat
34.7g total carbohydrate
18.8g fiber
100 calories
4.6g ash – any inorganic material present in food, including minerals (Called ash, because after heating, water and organic material, such as fat & protein, is removed. Ash includes compounds with essential minerals, such as calcium and potassium. Generally, any natural, i.e., unprocessed, food will be less than 5% ash in content, while processed foods can have ash content of more than 10%.)
120 mg Ca – calcium
970 mg P – phosphorus
12.0 mg Fe – iron
5 mg beta-carotene equivalent – precursor to vitamin A
0.32 mg thiamine – vitamin B1
0.17 mg riboflavin – vitamin B2
2.1 mg niacin – vitamin B3, an essential vitamin, meaning our body doesn’t make it, and therefore it must be obtained from food
3.8% Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, April 13, 2018
Researchers publishing their findings of a 25-year international research project involving over 5000 people in the 22 November 2017 in the Journal “Addiction” have concluded that periodic marijuana smoking is not associated the cardiovascular disease.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, April 12, 2018
In an article entitled “Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010” published August 25, 2014 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researcher and primary author, Dr. Marcus A. Bachhuber, MD, with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 423 Guardian Dr, 1303-A Blockley Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (marcus.bachhuber@gmail.com), and others concluded that, “The present study provides evidence that medical cannabis laws are associated withRead the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, March 3, 2018
Let there be NO MISTAKE: Based upon a preponderance of scientific evidence, logic, reason, and numerous substantiating rationales, I openly advocate for, and am a proponent of the 100% full and total legalization of marijuana (aka cannabis) for adult recreational, and medical use.
And as a triple-degree, BSN-prepared Registered Nurse, Nationally Certified EMT, State Certified Volunteer Firefighter, and First Responder, I am a long-time Licensed Healthcare Professional, and presently possess, and have possessed unblemished active licenses to practice in numerous states, and internationally.
While I have “worn other hats” in Nursing, the bulk of my professional healthcare career has been in Critical Care. Working in Critical Care is the type of stressful job in which one keeps the Grim Reaper at bay by the hour. And I have been fortunate to have worked at some of the nation’s, and world’s premiere, and leading healthcare research institutions. It is research that drives much of such care, to ensure the best possible outcomes for the individuals for whom we care. Thus, keeping abreast of current research findings on many topics within, and without Critical Care, healthcare, and public policy related to healthcare in general, is a special interest and forté of mine.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Many have heard or read about United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ ignorant remark about marijuana, and many of us have heard or read numerous claims about cannabis, ranging from “it cures cancer” to “it makes you hungry,” and almost everything between. But if you want to make an effective argument for or against anything, you need facts. And the following information from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is THE MOST authoritative, up-to-date volume on the subject of cannabis. You would be wise to cite this research when you lobby your local, state or national legislator to legalize (or not) marijuana. (I am a legalization proponent & advocate for the 100% legalization, regulation, and taxation of adult recreational & prescriptive medical use of marijuana.)
Now, with the 2017 release of “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research” by the Committee on the Health Effects of Marijuana: An Evidence Review and Research Agenda, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice Health and Medicine Division, A Report of the National Academies of Science, we have one of THE MOST to-date conclusive pieces of EVIDENCE for/against cannabis consumption, either medically, and/or recreationally. It is AUTHORITATIVE, and unbiased. Bear in mind, this is findings of SCIENTIFIC MEDICAL RESEARCH.
An independent examination of the report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and all review comments were carefully considered. A committee of experts was convened to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the health effects of using cannabis and/or its constituents that had appeared since the publication of the 1999 IOM (Institute of Medicine) report.
From their review, the committee arrived at nearly 100 different research conclusions related to cannabis or cannabinoid use and health.
Committee members formulated four recommendations to address research gaps, improve research quality, improve surveillance capacity, and address research barriers.
Categories, including subtopics, are as follows:
Therapeutic effects
• Chronic pain; cancer, chemotherapy-induced nausea/vomiting; anorexia and weight loss; irritable bowel syndrome; epilepsy; spasticity related to multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury; Tourette syndrome; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Huntington’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; dystonia; dementia; glaucoma; traumatic brain injury; addiction; anxiety; depression; sleep disorders; post-traumatic stress disorder; schizophrenia and other psychoses
Cancer
• Lung cancer; head and neck cancer; testicular cancer; esophageal cancer; other cancer
Injury and death
• All-cause mortality; occupational injury; motor vehicle crash; overdose injury and death
Prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal exposure to cannabis
• Pregnancy complications for the mother; fetal growth and development; neonatal conditions; later outcomes for the infant
Psychosocial
• Cognition (learning, memory, attention, intelligence); academic achievement and educational outcomes; employment and income; social relation- ships and other social roles
Mental health
• Schizophrenia and other psychoses; bipolar disorders, depression; suicide; anxiety; post-traumatic stress disorder
Problem cannabis use
• Cannabis use disorder
Cannabis use and abuse of other substances
• Abuse of other substances
Weight Of Evidence Categories for Conclusions are ranked High-to-Low-and-None as Substantial, Moderate, Limited Evidence, and No or Insufficient Evidence to Support the Association for therapeutic effects, and other health effects.
Here are: Conclusions—Therapeutic Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids
There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective:
• For Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, January 5, 2018
“I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana – so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful.”
–United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions, prepared remarks on “Efforts to Combat Violent Crime and Restore Public Safety Before Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement” in Richmond, VA, Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Many have heard or read about US Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ other willfully ignorant remarks about marijuana, such as his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was then-president Reagan’s first federal judicial nominee to be rejected:
“I thought those guys [the Ku Klux Klan] were OK until I learned they smoked pot.” -Jeff Sessions, nominee of then-President Ronald Reagan as Federal Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, to Senate Judiciary Committee, June 1986
The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected on June 5, 1986 the nomination of Jefferson B. Sessions, III to be a Federal District Judge in Alabama. It was the first time one of President Reagan’s judicial nominees was rejected.
In 1986, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony about Jeff Sessions from 21 witnesses over 19 hours, including from Thomas Figures, a Black Assistant U.S. Attorney who had worked with Sessions, and testified that Jeff Sessions had made that remark, and other racist comments to him while Sessions was serving as United States Attorney in Mobile, AL. Sessions denied making racial statements, but Republican and Democratic senators expressed concern over his attitude toward members of minority groups, and especially Sessions’ prosecution of three Blacks who were eventually acquitted on charges of voting fraud.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 against Jeff Sessions’ nomination in June 1986, which made him Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Portland, Oregon and Birmingham, Alabama couldn’t be further apart in many ways – geographically, and politically, particularly. However, recent research show that one attitude in particular is very similar.
Already, there’s another weed in the southeast USA that’s growing in drought conditions, up to ten feet tall, which chokes out cotton and damages the mechanical harvesters if they’re run through the field in an attempt to harvest the cotton without removing the noxious weed.
Recently, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, a hybrid marijuana plant was found that will survive herbicide applications and cutting efforts, and is so prolific that it produces 20x or more than the average marijuana plant. In fact, unless it is pulled up by the root, it will continue to grow!
Remember… where there is demand, there WILL be a supply!
Soldiers trying to seize control of one Mexico’s top drug-producing regions found the countryside teeming with a new hybrid marijuana plant that can be cultivated year-round and cannot be killed with pesticides.
Soldiers fanned out across some of the new fields Tuesday, pulling up plants by the root and burning them, as helicopter gunships clattered overhead to give them cover from a raging drug war in the western state of Michoacan. The plants’ roots survive if they are doused with herbicide, said army Gen. Manuel Garcia.
“These plants have been genetically improved,” he told a handful of journalists allowed to accompany soldiers on a daylong raid of some 70 marijuana fields. “Before we could cut the plant and destroy it, but this plant will come back to life unless it’s taken out by the roots.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, July 28, 2014
Let’s talk about drug abuse.
Abuse of any kind is improper use, or dependency. In some cases, so-called “recreational” use is “abuse,” for there is no other kind of use, since a drug may be already illegal.
For the greatest part, those drugs, which are sometimes mistakenly called ‘narcotics’ (technically, narcotics are derivatives of and synthetic chemical relatives to the opium plant) are already illegal, and include LSD and other hallucinogens, heroin, methamphetamine (as “crystal meth”), etc. And, at the Federal level, like it, or not, agree or disagree, marijuana is included in that list.
Further, alcohol must be included in the list of abused substances, simply because we know that people’s lives can be, and are destroyed by alcohol abuse, directly and indirectly.
There’s a database of information based upon hospital admissions related to drug abuse. It’s called the Treatment Episode Data Set, or TEDS, and the information is collected anonymously by each facility in a state that receives “State alcohol and/or drug agency funds (including Federal Block Grant funds) for the provision of substance abuse treatment.”
It is not an exhaustive data set by any means, and there are limitations upon it, yet it does provide some reliable degree of accuracy to the extent, scope and nature of the problem. Consequently, information in “the tables focus on treatment admissions for substance abusers.”
In other words, someone abuses a substance on the list to the extent that they need some degree of care, including hospitalization, and that anonymous information about their admission gets collected and reported. For the purposes of that report, anonymous information is age, sex, ethnicity/race and drug(s) which led to the need for treatment.
![[Tokelahoma] lead image](https://static.politico.com/dims4/default/676933e/2147483647/resize/1160x%3E/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2F2f%2Fd6%2F8a1ac0c5448294d73e67664f69d7%2Fsectionbreak6-new.jpg "[Tokelahoma] lead image")
Warm Southern Breeze 