"Radical" Russ Belville's List: Reefer Madness

• John Redman, Executive Director of Californians for Drug-Free Youth and Director of Demand Reduction for California's High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, spoke to parents and families in Tampa Bay, August 22 – 27th,
• These two pictures tell the tale and show what Floridians can expect if Amendment 2 is passed. Medical Marijuana dispensaries or "pot shops" are everywhere and per an NPR story, October 2009, "…in some neighborhoods that are more medical marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks."
• an unregulated pot shop system that translates into thousands of shops opening at the beaches and throughout Florida neighborhoods next to schools and churches, within easy walking distance of children.
• Amendment 2 permits our children to be classified as 'qualifying patients' which comes with the constitutional right to obtain medical marijuana without their parents' consent or knowledge. In addition to no parental consent requirements, there are no age limits or limits on the amount of dope and edibles someone can get. This means our kids can get pot without our consent, it can be edible so we'll never smell it and we will never know if they don't tell us, we don't find their stash or we don't catch them using
• "Health hazards are much greater for people who begin use before age 21, because the brain is still developing during the teen years. Evidence suggests that effects on the brain from marijuana use by adolescents and teens can be permanent." The risks discussed in her article include: addiction, withdrawal symptoms, gateway drug concerns, abnormal brain development, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, diminished lifetime achievement, motor vehicle accidents, and chronic bronchitis.

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• The myths of smoking pot
• From her perch as head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Nora Volkow watches anxiously as the country embarks on what she sees as a risky social experiment in legalizing marijuana.

• Legal drugs are the main problem that we have in our country as it relates to morbidity and mortality. By far. Many more people die of tobacco than all of the drugs together. Many more people die of alcohol than all of the illicit drugs together.

   

  “And it’s not because they are more dangerous or addictive. Not at all — they are less dangerous. It’s because they are legal.
• The legalization process generates a much greater exposure of people and hence of negative consequences that will emerge. And that’s why I always say, ‘Can we as a country afford to have a third legal drug? Can we?’ We know the costs already on health care, we know the costs on accidents, on lost productivity. I let the numbers speak for themselves.”
• Volkow says, the notion that legalization represents a modest, cost-free move is dangerously overblown. The evidence on the supposed safety of marijuana — particularly marijuana in its modern, far more potent form — is far from clear enough to take this leap.
• “When you are intoxicated, your memory and learning are going to go down. When you are intoxicated, your motor coordination is going to go down. When you are repeatedly using marijuana, there is an increased risk for addiction. And if you are an adolescent and you are taking marijuana, there is a higher increased risk for addiction and there is also a higher risk for long-lasting decreases in cognitive capacity — that is, lowering of IQ.”
• “Wait a second. . . . Nicotine does not interfere with cognitive ability. So if you are an adolescent and you are smoking marijuana and going to school, it’s going to interfere with your capacity to learn. So what is worse, as an adolescent right now? To have basically something that is jeopardizing your development educationally or to smoke a cigarette that, when you are 60 years of age, is going to lead to impaired pulmonary function and perhaps cancer? . . . I would argue that you do not want to mess with your cognitive capacity, that that is a very large price to pay.”
• two contradictory arguments: that marijuana is already readily available to teenagers who want it, and that the new laws impose strict controls on sales to minors.
• “Our kids are sensitive to norms, so if they feel that marijuana is harmful, their consumption goes down,” Volkow said. Legalization sends the opposite message.

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• Colo. Marijuana Businesses Embrace New Drug at Center of DEA Crackdown in Calif.
• Wax, the ultimate distillation of marijuana, is so potent that it is said a single hit will keep a person high for more than a day.
• “There is no weed out there that possesses the punching power that the wax does,” an undercover DEA informant who asked to remain anonymous told ABC News’ “Nightline.” “And it’s like smoking 20 joints of the best grade of weed that you have into one hit of the wax.”

• law enforcement says the process of making wax is not the only thing dangerous about it. 

   “We have seen people have an onset of psychosis and even brain damage from that exposure to that high concentration of THC,” said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge at the DEA's San Diego office. “Our concern is that this is going to spread before we get it under control.”

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• Welfare Money Goes to Pot In Colorado

• Experts warn parents of new drug ’10 times’ more potent than marijuana

• Pittsburgh-area drug and rehabilitation experts say a new drug is beginning to spread around the area and it’s made out of common household items.

  It’s called butane honey oil, BHO or dab.
• "It's like 10 times more potent than your average marijuana for many people," said Dr. Neil Capretto, medical director at Gateway Rehab.

• "To put it into perspective, the potency of it, the marijuana of the 70s and Woodstock era was around 1 percent, maybe 2 percent THC. In the 80s 3 percent.  Now [it’s] at 10 percent," Capretto said.  

  "I didn't know how dangerous it was,” said one patient being treated for dab addiction at Gateway.

  It’s dangerous and explosive because of the way it’s made. Highly flammable butane is used to extract TGH, leaving behind a goo that looks like honey.

• The side effects can be just as dangerous.  Using butane honey oil just one time can lead to extreme paranoia.

  Capretto said one teen he treated was hospitalized in Western Psych for nearly a month.

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• Asking the Right Questions about Pot

• He was in high school and quite brilliant. The kind of kid who didn't pick up a book all year and aced all of his honors and AP tests -- in complex subjects like Physics. He was also musically gifted. But he couldn't stop smoking weed. The school and his parents did all they could; he even took up sports so he wouldn't go home after school and smoke.

   

  The more he smoked, the more he slacked off, the less frequently he attended class, did his work, and participated in class. They finally expelled him.

   

  He was last seen walking on 101 in the wee hours of the morning on meth, punching and flailing at the police who pulled over to see if he was okay.
• People say pot isn't addictive. Then they'll qualify that statement and claim it isn't physically addictive. But those of us who have witnessed loved ones "go to pot" see it differently. When dopeheads wake up in the morning completely down and depressed and grab a bong to get high, they do it to feel good again. Does it matter whether the need is psychological, physical, or a little of both? Perhaps the treatment will differ but fighting addiction is an uphill battle whether one's needs are physical or emotional.
• The habitual pot smokers I've known are usually in denial about the effects pot has had on their lives.
• How will the cartels respond to competition from pot producers in this country? Will black markets arise to meet demands for stronger or cheaper (unregulated) dope and won't law enforcement have to spend resources dealing with that? Will the legalization of grass pave the way for the legalization of all drugs -- a world libertarians crave but most of us fear?
• I see a rampant decline in our culture and society, especially among the youth, and I wonder if drug use in general and pot use in particular do not play a more prevalent role in that decline than we have been led to believe. For example, could it be that so many in the baby boom generation had difficulty conceiving because of their weed indulgences at young ages in high school and college? After all, smoking weed at a young age over a sustained period of time does lower sperm count. Could this have also directly affected their offspring, leading to the current surge in learning disabilities, behavioral, and emotional problems? Could this be a contributing factor to why our children are scoring lower on tests and performing worse in school than we did when drug use was taboo and drugs were hard to come by, classes were bigger, and resources fewer?
• Since so many crimes are committed under the influence of drugs like pot and so many car accidents are the result of drugged driving, how will crime and auto fatalities be affected when smoking and ingesting pot are perfectly legal and socially acceptable?
• Since it is no longer an illegal substance, could students sell brownies laced with pot at a school bake sale? How about the bakery or the supermarket? Would they need to disclose it as an ingredient any more than they'd have to disclose the sugar and chocolate?
• So many people are already addicted to drugs such as prescription meds and alcohol and, unbeknownst to us, make our streets less safe driving cars, make our workplaces less safe when they operate machinery, and make our children less safe when they care for them in day cares and schools. Do we really need to throw gasoline onto the flames?

• I loathe cigarettes but do not believe they should be outlawed any more than butter, salt, coffee, and large sugary drinks should be.

   

  Cigarettes do not get you high or alter your state of mind. They do not affect your ability to think or reason. They do not affect your ability to drive a car safely or operate machinery. They do not affect your ability to hold a job or care for your family or attend school. They do not negatively affect one's motivation, tenacity, or ambition. They do not affect sex drive or ability to reproduce.
• Like others, Marcus vilifies tobacco above all other inebriants. I'm not sure what "socially redeeming value" she is referring to that pot and booze have over cigarettes. All three can be done with friends and to relax. Or is she talking about the medical benefits of pot? Some claim weed lessens their nausea from chemo. But alcohol can take the edge off for high-strung people and lessen the risk of heart attack from stress; studies show red wine may keep one's cholesterol from climbing. And many swear that cigarette smoking keeps their weight down.
• There will always be those individuals who smoke cigarettes or pot and defy the odds. Some people can smoke grass and still perform their jobs, be responsible citizens, father many healthy children, and not develop any health problems. Similarly, not everyone who smokes cigarettes will die from smoke-related illnesses. One family friend was a chain smoker since she was 16 and died of lung cancer in her mid-70s.

• Meanwhile, we have no problem sending mixed messages -- and false ones at that -- to our children: smoking a cigarette is the most lethal and socially loathsome thing any human being can do and the people who smoke them are flawed addicts of the most horrible sort.

   

  I hate cigarettes but I despise this bloated rhetoric even more -- rhetoric we spend millions on each year in schools and ad campaigns. Many of us have wonderful friends and family members who smoke cigarettes, yet our children are taught that they are social miscreants. On the other hand, smoking marijuana is so benign and non-addictive (it even has medicinal value!), that it's legal and okay to smoke.
• But smoking cigarettes is not a mind-altering event. Individuals can smoke cigarettes for their entire life expectancy and continue to function and be valuable members of society and their families. That is not so in most cases of people who start smoking pot at a young age and continue to do so for many years.
• The main purpose of smoking pot is to get high, which, by definition, is to alter one's reality.
• THC -- the main ingredient in pot -- stays in the body for weeks even after the direct effects fade.
• Pot must be inhaled and held in one's lungs for as long as possible in order to get the most out of it -- this is not good for your lungs.
• Initially, cannabis revs up your libido but long-term use results in decreased sex drive and performance, including lowering one's sperm count. Pot kills brain cells (i.e, makes you dumber and makes you talk like you are a dunce). The longer you smoke pot and the younger you start, the slower will be your thought processes and reflexes, the less motivated you will be, the less reliable you will be at work, in school, and to your friends and family.
• Pot is deceptive. At first you can smoke it and function (unlike booze, where if you get nasty drunk, you can't walk, talk, or think or do much of anything). But the more you smoke, the more you want to smoke to stay high and avoid the downer, and thus the cycle begins. The more you smoke, the less capable you are of performing (at least reliably and consistently) at much of anything. The picture we all have in mind of stoner youths listening to music, smiling, heads bobbing up and down to what they think they hear, sitting on the couch, munching on Doritos in front of the TV, standing up friends and forgetting to go to work -- is not an just an exaggeration for laughs; it's reality.
• How many methheads or cokeheads or heroin addicts started out as potheads? We all know it is a gateway drug but because so many can smoke it and leave it, we forget that for troubled kids or highly addictive personalities, it is the beginning of a long road to hell.
• Yet the messaging is that hedonism and consumerism are okay with respect to sex, drugs, and entertainment even though a significant percentage of crimes are committed under the influence, too many girls lose their virginity under the influence, and a great deal of unwanted and unprotected sexual intercourse takes place because of blurred signals between intoxicated (and unsupervised) boys and girls.

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• Speaker cites dangers of today's marijuana to youth
• told a large audience Friday at The Music Man Square.
• Kevin Sabet, former senior adviser with the National Office of Drug Control Policy,
• He said the marijuana being used today is not the marijuana of the 1960s.
• Sabet said the potency of marijuana has tripled in the last 15 years and is five times stronger than the hashish and weed of the 1960s.
• "For kids, it's about as addictive as alcohol," he said. "We know marijuana produces withdrawal intolerance."

• Whereas one in 10 adults become addicted to marijuana, one in six teens become addicted, Sabet said.

  The adolescent brain is more susceptible because the adolescent brain is still forming, up to age 25, Sabet said. Marijuana affects the part of the brain responsible for memory and studies have shown it reduces the IQ six to eight points, Sabet said.
• Marijuana-based pills are available for the patients who genuinely need marijuana for medicinal purposes, he said.
• "We lived through the nightmare of Big Tobacco," he said. "This is about reliving the nightmare."

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• Myth: Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive

• Two minutes after taking a five-second hit from a vaporizer, Josh felt the effects of the ear wax marijuana rushing over him.

  "I felt like I was gonna die," the 17-year-old recalled. "The movie we were watching started to look 3-D. I kept seeing lights."

  What the others in the group Josh was with had failed to tell him when they offered the drug to him, was that ear wax marijuana can include up to 90 percent THC.

  In short, it's highly hallucinogenic. And, knowledgeable sources say, it can be very dangerous to certain people.
• The night Josh was under the drug's influence, someone telephoned Rhonda, Josh's grandmother. She picked him up and drove him to the hospital -- where his hands were handcuffed to the bed rails and he was later arrested.

• The effects of the drug didn't end with Josh's arrest. The ear wax was so intense that Josh's high lasted three days, all of which he spent in juvenile hall.

  A year of probation and $7,000 in fines later, Josh is just beginning to get over the experience.

• And what's worse, say some experts, the cannabis plant itself, whether as an ear wax variety or other type, is now bred to be increasingly potent.

  Christie DeClue, a Solano County Alcohol and Drug Advisory board member, said marijuana has come a long way from the days of hippies and disco.

  "In the 1970s, (people) were primarily smoking the leaves of the plant," DeClue said "Now users are smoking (the more potent) buds of the plant."

  DeClue is also concerned that the starting age for many marijuana smokers also has changed.

  Where most in the 1960s might have started while in college, today, children as young as 12 are experimenting, which can result in long-term damage.
• Andy Williamson, a substance abuse administrator in Solano County, said using marijuana before age 25 can lower a person's IQ by up to 8 points since a young individual's brain is still developing.
• What disturbed Rhonda the most was not that the ear wax exists -- but that the recipes are so easy to find -- and not one video explains the high THC content or potential risks.

• On June 17, CBS Detroit reported two people have been sent to the hospital in Detroit after using ear wax.

  In the article, reporter Sandra McNeill wrote the two 36-year-olds -- both medical marijuana patients -- suffered episodes of psychosis.

  Director Susan Smolinske, of the Children's Hospital of Michigan Regional Poison Control Center, told McNeill the two, "needed to be sedated because they were so agitated that they could not be controlled."

  Josh can relate.After an intense year of fines, probation, weekly meetings and anger management, Josh said he thinks back to his decision and wishes it were different.

• In August, Josh will turn 18 and his advice to others is to take marijuana more seriously.

  "What people are telling me is that (marijuana) is not a drug, that it's just an herb," Josh said. "That's bullsh--! If it gets you high, it's a drug, so don't do it."

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• today the private, personal use of marijuana is rarely pursued by law enforcement.
• The argument that legalization would improve civil liberties rests on the notion that if marijuana was legal, there would be less of a need for the criminal justice system intruding on the lives of otherwise peaceful marijuana smokers.
• only about two-tenths of 1 percent of all prison inmates appear to be incarcerated in prison simply for marijuana use.
• “Survey of Inmates in Federal and Correctional Facilities” finds that the “number of marijuana users in prison [only] for their use is perhaps 800-2,300 individuals or on the order of 0.1-0.2 percent of all prison inmates.
• About 700,000 arrests are made yearly for marijuana possession. Some of those arrests result in jailing. Put in context of overall use, however, the chance for arrest is one in every 11,000 to 12,000 joints smoked. The probability of being arrested during a year of monthly consumption rises to about 3 percent for adults and 6 percent for adolescents
• Over 2.3 million arrests are made annually for alcohol regulation violations (e.g., public use or selling to minors) — far more arrests than for all illegal drugs combined. That is because so many more people use substances when they are legal, widely available, accepted, and normalized.
• legalization might decrease civil liberties, especially for vulnerable populations like children. Marijuana smoking during pregnancy has been shown to decrease birth weight, most likely due to the effects of carbon monoxide on the developing fetus.
• Marijuana addicts 1 out of every 6 children who ever try the drug.
• • [DSM-III-R is not currently used but has historical utility.] At least three of the following are necessary; some of the symptoms of the disturbance must have persisted for at least one month or have occurred repeatedly over a longer period of time:
    
    
    
    
    1.    Substance is often taken in larger amounts or over longer period than intended
    
    
    
    
    2.    Persistent desire or one or more unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use
    
    
    
    
    3.    A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to get the substance (e.g., theft), taking the substance (e.g., chain smoking), or recovering from its effects
    
    
    
    
    4.    Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced because of substance abuse
    
    
    
    
    5.    Continued substance use despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent social, psychological, or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated by use of the substance
    
    
    
    
    6.    Marked tolerance: need for markedly increased amounts of the substance (> 500/ increase) in order to achieve intoxication or desired effect, or markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount
    
    
    
    
    7.    Characteristic withdrawal symptoms
    
    
    
    
    8.    Substance often taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
    
    
    
    
    9.    Frequent intoxication or withdrawal symptoms when expected to fulfill major role obligations or when use is physically hazardous
• heavy young users had on average 6-8 lower IQ points by age 38 relative to non-users (even if heavy use stopped in adulthood)
• people who use marijuana are more likely to drop out of school, and subsequently face unemployment, be dependent on social welfare, and experience a lower self-reported quality of life than people who don’t use marijuana.
• marijuana use is consistently associated with reduced grades and a lower chance of graduating from school.
• Marijuana intoxication at least doubles the risk of getting into a car accident
• marijuana addiction costs the state money for treatment
• costs from marijuana-related hospital stays are substantial
• John Stuart Mill famously wrote that “… over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” Mill argued that “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of the community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”  Since marijuana can cause addiction, forcing people to lose control over their own self and in the process inflict harms onto others, its use can decrease overall civil liberties. And since legalization would undoubtedly increase marijuana use in society, we might expect a reduction, not increase, in civil liberties if marijuana was legalized.
• Comparative epidemiology of dependence on tobacco, alcohol, controlled substances, and inhalants: Basic findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

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• We live off our under-two-ounce misdemeanor guys. They pay the rent.”
• • EMPHASIZE!

• Last week, I joined the board of a new organization to oppose marijuana legalization: Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The group is headed by former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and includes Kevin Sabet, a veteran of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Obama.
• The new group rejects the "war on drugs" model. It agrees that we don't want to lock people up for casual marijuana use -- or even stigmatize them with an arrest record. But what we do want to do is send a clear message: Marijuana use is a bad choice.

• There are many excellent reasons to avoid marijuana. Marijuana use damages brain development in young people. Heavy users become socially isolated and perform worse in school and at work. Marijuana smoke harms the lungs. A growing body of evidence suggests that marijuana can trigger psychotic symptoms that otherwise would have remained latent.

   

  It's possible to imagine a marijuana rule that tries to respond precisely to such risk factors as happen to be known by the current state of science. Such a rule might say: "You shouldn't use marijuana until you are over 25, or after your brain has ceased to develop, whichever comes first. You shouldn't use marijuana if you are predisposed to certain mental illnesses (most of which we can't yet diagnose in advance). Be aware that about one-sixth of users will become chronically dependent on marijuana, and as a result will suffer a serious degradation of life outcomes. As yet, we have no sure idea at what dosage marijuana will impair your ability to drive safely, or how long the impairment will last. Be as careful as you can, within the limits of our present knowledge!"

   

  Yet as a parent of three, two exiting adolescence and one entering, I've found that the argument that makes the biggest impression is: "Marijuana is illegal. Stay away." I think many other parents have found the same thing.

   

  When we write social rules, we always need to consider: Who are we writing rules for? Some people can cope with complexity. Others need clarity. Some people will snap back from an early mistake. Others will never recover.
• "Just say no" is an easy rule to follow. "It depends on individual risk factors, many of them unknowable in advance" -- that rule is not so easy.

• But we need to recognize that modern life is becoming steadily more dangerous for people prone to make bad choices.

   

  At a time when they need more help than ever to climb the ladder, marijuana legalization kicks them back down the ladder. The goal of public policy should not be to punish vulnerable kids for making life-wrecking mistakes. The goal of public policy should be to protect (to the extent we can) the vulnerable from making life-wrecking mistakes in the first place.
• There's a trade-off, yes, and it takes the form of denying less vulnerable people easy access to a pleasure they believe they can safely use. But they are likely deluding themselves about how well they are managing their drug use. And even if they are not deluded -- if they really are so capable and effective -- then surely they can see that society has already been massively re-engineered for their benefit already. Surely, enough is enough?

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• However, these impairments appear to be most significant 20 to 40 minutes after using marijuana, then decline after an hour or so, Armentano says.

• In a recent study, Yale University researchers looked at the effects of both marijuana and alcohol on driving. Both impair driving-related skills. But they found the impairment effects of marijuana, compared to those of alcohol, vary more among people.

   

  That is thought to be due to differences in tolerance, smoking technique, and the potency of the marijuana.

   

  While studies are conflicting about whether marijuana use alone leads to more accidents, combining it with alcohol definitely raises crash risks, experts say.

   

  Health Effects of Marijuana: Mental Health
• Numerous studies have linked marijuana use with schizophrenia.

• However, Lamarine suspects the relationship may be reversed. "What I suspect is, people who are going to develop full-blown schizophrenia must feel bad beforehand," he says. They may be attracted to marijuana as a mood-altering drug to self-medicate.

   

  If this link were cause and effect, Armentano says, the rates of schizophrenia would have climbed, as marijuana use has increased.

   

  Marijuana use can be linked with anxiety, Lamarine and Armentano agree.

   

  Several published studies, Lamarine says, have found a link between marijuana use and anxiety, but not necessarily full-blown anxiety disorders.

   

  Studies have also found a link between regular marijuana use and panic attacks.

   

  Some marijuana users do have panic attacks, especially if they are new to the drug, Armentano says.

   

  As for the anxiety-marijuana link, he says, it could be that some anxious people try marijuana to self-medicate.

   

  Those who have known psychotic problems should proceed with caution when thinking about marijuana use, Armentano says.

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• WebMD turned to two experts, recently published studies, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to draw up a scorecard of possible major health effects.

   

  Health Effects of Marijuana: Lungs
• "Putting smoke in your lungs is not good for the lungs," says Roland Lamarine, HSD, professor of public health at California State University, Chico. He reviewed published studies on the health effects of marijuana earlier this year for the Journal of Drug Education.
• Smoking marijuana produces a nearly threefold increase of inhaled tar compared with tobacco, according to some studies. Other research suggests that marijuana smokers, compared to cigarette smokers, inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer.
• Marijuana smoke contains cancer-causing substances, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Some research shows that marijuana smoke has up to 70% more cancer-causing substances than tobacco smoke, it says.

• Those who keep marijuana use light do not appear to lose lung function, according to a 2012 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

   

  Researchers compared tobacco and marijuana users. Tobacco use was associated with lower lung function, and the function got worse as smoking levels increased.

   

  For the study, low levels of lifetime exposure to marijuana, defined as one joint a day for seven years, did not show evidence of adverse effects on lung function. The study does not confirm these findings with heavy users.
• Health Effects of Marijuana: Brain Impairment
• Long-term, heavy use of marijuana can lead to impaired thinking skills and memory problems, Lamarine says, citing published studies.

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• I fear that many people who voted "yes" on Amendment 64 believe that the drug available today is the same one they remember from the 1970s. In fact, concentrations of the most active component in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannibol (THC), are now up to 27 times higher than they were a few decades ago. If you have friends or acquaintances who smoke pot, this list of warnings about the drug will ring true:

   

  Marijuana damages human brains. It impairs executive function, perception, judgment, memory, attention, learning and motor coordination. Marijuana users have difficulty synthesizing and classifying information and understanding subtle shades of meaning.

   

  Unlike other drugs, the active components in marijuana are fat-soluble; THC and other cannabinoids stay stored in the body's fat cells for weeks, even months. Days after using the drug, an individual may experience anxiety, hallucinations, persecutory delusions and panic reactions.

   

  The effects of marijuana use are cumulative. Over time, the drug erodes personality and results in apathy, passivity, shortened attention span and a decreased ability or desire to communicate or problem-solve.

   

  Cannabis use is correlated with an increase in risk of the development of psychotic disorders.

   

  I hope that if Colorado's Amendment 64 makes its way past federal and other hurdles, policy makers will at least follow the Netherlands in classifying any marijuana containing more than 15 percent THC (including skunk, which is available now on the streets and in medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado) as a hard drug like cocaine.

• For cannabis it is the "tobacco moment". The long-suspected link between consuming cannabis and developing schizophrenia has been repeatedly confirmed by recent studies. Observers say that for cannabis the present moment is similar to that half a century ago when scientific proof of a connection between smoking tobacco and cancer became so strong that no serious doctor or scientist could deny it.
• Sir Robin Murray, Professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, says that studies show that "if the risk of schizophrenia for the general population is about one per cent, the evidence is that, if you take ordinary cannabis, it is two per cent; if you smoke regularly you might push it up to four per cent; and if you smoke 'skunk' every day you push it up to eight per cent".
• This includes those taking "skunk", which today contains at least three times more THC, the major psychoactive ingredient in the cannabis plant, than it did in the 1960s. A survey of cannabis confiscated by the police in 2008 showed that ordinary cannabis had about 4-5 per cent THC and "skunk" about 16 per cent.
• For cannabis smokers diagnosed years later with schizophrenia the outcome is a lifetime battling with psychosis, including symptoms such as paranoid delusions, hostile voices and unexplained waves of terror and guilt. Many sufferers end up isolated, jobless, impoverished and with their lives ruined.
• Pro- and anti-cannabis campaigners have furiously disputed the dangers of taking cannabis. Proponents of decriminalisation claim it is no more risky to health than junk food. But doctors and nurses treating the mentally ill in Britain have long noticed that a very high proportion of their patients are serious users of the drug, often starting to take it at a young age. Dr Humphrey Needham-Bennett, medical director and consultant psychiatrist of Cygnet Hospital, Godden Green in London, says that among his patients "cannabis use is so common that I assume that people use or used it. It's quite surprising when people say 'no, I don't use drugs'."
• Cannabis consumption has been falling in Britain as well as the rest of northern Europe since 2004

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