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Intentional, suspected suicidal cannabis exposures reported to US poison centers increased from 2009 to 2021. Increases during and after the pandemic were notable and greatest among children and females. Most involved other substances; due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, we could not identify a causal association between cannabis use and a suicide attempt. Associations between cannabis use and mental health, especially among younger users, have been reported. Our findings suggest that deleterious medical outcomes occur frequently among older adults. Explanations could include interactions between age-related conditions and medications.
(Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2803952
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As pot usage surges, sensible regulation is lagging behind
Cannabis-related traffic fatalities are a threat to public safety. Governments need to get serious.
Marijuana legalization is killing a lot of people. Not slowly — though some studies suggest that it may be doing that, too — but quickly, in car crashes. It’s one more symptom of the disastrous rush by lawmakers to capitalize on cannabis sales without doing the hard work needed to keep the public safe.
In Canada, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, one study found a 475% increase in emergency-room visits for cannabis-related crashes in Ontario between 2010 and 2021. Many more cases likely went undetected, owing to a dearth of reliable testing for driving while high.
In the US, the proportion of motor-vehicle fatalities involving cannabis use soared to 21.5% in 2018, up from 9% in 2000. One analysis found a 10% increase in vehicular deaths, on average, following legalization by states. In California, the increase was 14%; in Oregon, it was 22%.
This suggests that more than 1,000 Americans could be dying annually because of marijuana-related accidents — and that’s just in states where legalization has occurred. Given the ease of transporting the drug across state lines, the real number could be far higher.
The cause of these deaths isn’t just the drug itself. It’s ignorance. A recent study found that about half of marijuana users thought they were OK to drive 90 minutes after inhaling or ingesting the drug, yet their driving performance in a simulated vehicle was as bad as it had been after 30 minutes. The best available evidence suggests that people should wait a minimum of four hours before getting behind the wheel; some experts recommend eight to 12 hours.
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CBD is now a widely sold supplement in oils, vapes, weed gummies, and drinks at local supermarkets
Trendy cannabidiol products such as CBD gummies and oils are a waste of money and even potentially harmful, according to Oxford scientists.
Researchers analysed 16 clinical trials and found that in 15 of them, the use of CBD was no better than a placebo at alleviating pain.
CBD is one of the chemicals found in the cannabis plant and is now a widely sold supplement in oils, vapes, weed gummies, and drinks at local supermarkets.
A highly-critical meta-analysis of existing studies around CBD by experts from the universities of Bath, Oxford, and Alberta, Canada, found there was “no evidence” the supplement worked, regardless of the dosage, how often it was taken or the route it was administered.
The report says: “For people living with pain, the evidence for CBD or hemp extract shows it is expensive, does not work, and is possibly harmful.”
The report found differing levels of CBD in products than what had been advertised, with none present in some cases.
Chemicals other than CBD were also present in some products, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the main psychoactive part of the plant that is used recreationally and is illegal in the UK and other countries.
Experts also linked the use of CBD to increased rates of serious harm to users, including liver toxicity and hepatitis.
The products are not regulated by a medical body, and are freely available in the UK, promote health benefits including alleviating pain.
Dr Andrew Moore, co-author and former senior pain researcher at the University of Oxford, said: “For too many people with chronic pain, there’s no medicine that manages their pain. Chronic pain can be awful, so they are very motivated to find pain relief by any means. This makes them vulnerable to the wild promises made about CBD.”
He said there were “no consumer protections” and that without regulation of CBD sellers and products, it was “unlikely that the false promises being made about the analgesic effects of CBD will slow down in the years ahead”. (for complete article got to TELEGRAPH)
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When you have ‘formulations’ not pharmaceuticals being peddled as medicine, then recreational cannabis use is easy to ‘hide’. In fact it was a key strategy of pro-cannabis lobby to get legalisation for recreational use of the highly engineer drug. (Source: SBS Story here)
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Many Think Marijuana Causes Little to No Harm, Study Finds
"In Colorado, the whole campaign to legalize was that marijuana is not as harmful as alcohol," Roffman noted. He said it's possible that, as a result, many people could "come to the conclusion that if attitudes change and laws change maybe there is nothing to worry about."
The changing public perception doesn't always align with medical opinion.
"That was a controversy from the very beginning," Dr. Patrick Fehling, an addiction psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Hospital Center for Dependency Addiction and Rehabilitation told ABC News. "Marijuana became legalized before a lot of its effect were fully understood."
Research on the drug has been limited and is now expanding, in part thanks to legalization and the tax dollars selling it has raised. But, so far, much of the research is actually "indicating potential for harm" from marijuana use, according to Fehling.
"There is a very big difference between recreational use and 'addictional' use," Fehling said. The "signs of addiction include tolerance and withdrawal, loss of control around your use, and consequences and problems in your life around your use."
"The use of medical marijuana is still highly controversial," he added, explaining that much of the research is still "anecdotal," based on what people self-report.
The number of American adults in the surveys who reported using marijuana increased from 10.4 percent to 13.3 percent over the 12-year period. The study, however, largely reflects self-reported data and may not account for how legalization has changed the way people report their marijuana use.
Also see Think it's harmless? Now nine in ten teens at drug clinics are being treated for marijuana use