Category: Addiction News

"No Evidence" That Medical Marijuana Works For Chronic Pain, Study Finds

The study also found “no evidence” that marijuana use reduced prescription opioid use.

For those experiencing non-cancer chronic pain, medical marijuana may not be as effective as initially thought, according to a new study.

According to Medical Xpress, researchers at UNSW Sydney, who led one of the longest community studies of its kind, discovered no obvious role when it comes to cannabis for the treatment of non-cancer chronic pain.

The Pain and Opioids In Treatment (POINT) study, which took place over four years, discovered that participants who used marijuana for chronic pain reported they were “experiencing greater pain and anxiety, were coping less well with their pain, and reported that pain was interfering more in their life,” when compared to those not using medical marijuana.

“At four-year follow-up, compared with people with no cannabis use, we found that participants who used cannabis had a greater pain severity score, for less frequent cannabis use, greater pain interference score, lower pain self-efficacy scores and greater generalized anxiety disorder severity scores,” authors wrote. “We found no evidence of a temporal relationship between cannabis use and pain severity or pain interference, and no evidence that cannabis use reduced prescribed opioid use or increased rates of opioid discontinuation.”

Researchers did not find any clear evidence that medical marijuana reduced severity of pain or had participants decrease opioid use or dosage. When it comes to medical marijuana, chronic non-cancer pain is the most common reason for use.

The length of this study sets it apart from others, Medical Xpress points out. The POINT study recruited participants through community pharmacies, then completed an overall assessment of their level of pain, physical and mental health, and medication and marijuana use each year.

Of the 1,514 participants, about 80% completed all the assessments, Medical Xpress states. The median number of years of chronic pain was about 10 and the number of years having taken opioids for the pain was about four. Rates of physical and mental health issues among participants were high, Medical Xpress says.

The results of the study were published in Lancet Public Health and imply there may not be as many benefits to medical marijuana as previously thought.

“Chronic non-cancer pain is a complex problem,” said lead author Dr. Gabrielle Campbell. “For most people, there is unlikely to be a single effective treatment… In our study of people living with chronic non-cancer pain who were prescribed pharmaceutical opioids, despite reporting perceived benefits from cannabis use, we found no strong evidence that cannabis use reduced participants’ pain or opioid use over time.”

This study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and led by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW Sydney.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 July 2018
2 States Become First To Require Mental Health Education In Schools

Mental health advocates believe early intervention is key to lowering the suicide rate and effectively addressing mental health.

Mental health education is now required in two U.S. states, New York and Virginia, from as young as the elementary school level. The respective laws were enacted on Sunday, July 1.

The goal is to counter the growing suicide rate and give support to young people who may be vulnerable to mental illness early on. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-24, according to the CDC.

Since 1999, the suicide rate has increased by 30% in the United States, the agency reported in June.

Mental health advocates believe that early intervention is key to lowering the suicide rate and effectively addressing mental health. The New York law states that “90% of youth who die by suicide suffer from depression or another diagnosable and treatable mental illness at the time of their death.”

Lack of mental health support can result in fatal consequences. Virginia state Senator Creigh Deeds saw this for himself, with the suicide death of his 24-year-old son Austin “Gus” Deeds in 2013.

In the aftermath, Deeds said “the system failed my son” when it could not provide a psychiatric bed less than 24 hours before his son’s death.

Deeds created the Virginia law with the help of Albemarle County high school students who had presented a proposal to address mental health issues in schools to the state senator in 2017.

“I was impressed by their thoughtfulness, because a lot of these young people had seen bullying. They had seen depression,” said Deeds, according to CNN. “They had seen classmates that had died by suicide. It’s part of tearing down the stigma and providing some equality with those that struggle with mental health.”

Virginia’s law adds mental health education to the physical education and health curriculum for 9th and 10th graders.

In New York, mental health is now included in the health curriculum in elementary, middle, and high schools. “[Mental health] is an integral part of our overall health and should be an integral part of health education in New York schools,” the law states.

Half of lifetime mental health issues develop before age 14, but on average, most will wait 10 years before seeking help, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

View the original article at thefix.com

6 July 2018
Garbage's Shirley Manson Pens Essay About Self-Harm

“Today I try to remain vigilant against these old thought patterns. I vow to hold my ground. I attempt to be kind, not only to myself but also to other people.”

Shirley Manson has written a vulnerable op-ed for The New York Times, revealing that she began cutting herself as a teenager.

Manson writes that as a rage-filled teenager who had been bullied, had no direction in life, and felt “crushing depression” and the beginnings of alcoholism, she had no outlet for her emotions.

“I didn’t know I was a cutter until the first time I chose to cut. I didn’t even know it was a ‘thing,’” Manson wrote.

After an argument with a boyfriend, Manson took a small, silver knife she had tied to her shoelace and spontaneously cut her arm. She experienced feelings of relief and release from rage.

Manson wrote, “The problem of course with any practice of self-harm is that once you choose to indulge in it, you get better, more efficient, at it. I started to hurt myself more regularly. The cuts got deeper. I hid the scars under my stockings and never breathed a word about it to anyone.”

After a long reprieve from cutting, Manson returned to self-harm when again under incredible stress, this time as a famous musician. She was finally able to work free from the self-destructive act with time, emotional growth, and recognition of what was leading her to cut.

Manson reflects, “Today I try to remain vigilant against these old thought patterns. I vow to hold my ground. I choose to speak up. I attempt to be kind, not only to myself but also to other people. I surround myself with those who treat me well. I strive to be creative and determine to do things that make me happy. I believe it is not what we look like that is important, but who we are. It is how we choose to move through this bewildering world of ours that truly matters.”

Shirley Manson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She became famous as the vocalist for the alt-rock band Garbage. Garbage released their self-titled debut album in 1995 which went double platinum, with hits like “Only Happy When It Rains” and “Stupid Girl.”

Manson told Consequence of Sound that Garbage will release a new album in 2019.

On the band’s future U.S. concert schedule, Manson said, “It will be a very limited run. This year is supposed to be us writing our new record, so we loathe to take off too much time. But we understand there’s been a frenzy demand from the fans, so we’re going to try to put on a few dates [in the U.S.].”

View the original article at thefix.com

6 July 2018
How Facebook Helped Me Overcome My Anxiety

More than the actual anxiety was the anxiety about the anxiety. I felt tremendous shame for having negative feelings at all.

It was 3pm on a Tuesday, and I was sitting at my desk with my head on my keyboard; I was too revved up to sit still, much less concentrate on work. I was in the midst of a resurgence of my lifelong anxiety and couldn’t talk to anyone or even focus on anything. Months later, I would finally be diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

The diagnosis was a relief. It made sense of overwhelming feelings I’d had my whole life that had mostly been regarded as a character flaw. I grew up in an alcoholic home, and I’d been going to therapy for years to face the trauma of my childhood. For the first time I was feeling my emotions instead of mashing them down, and expressing anger before it turned into resentment. My anxiety had decreased throughout this process, but then I decided to get married. My fiance did nothing wrong, mind you, but somehow the thought of marriage made me feel trapped and put me mentally back in my childhood home. I grew incredibly anxious — and yet completely unaware of it.

I’d had trouble sleeping for months but I wasn’t upset or stressed about anything — at least not anything conscious. My stomach felt like it’d been glued shut. I couldn’t eat. Soon enough my weight starting dropping enough for other people to comment on it. Compliments at first that slowly morphed into expressions of concern. I felt nervous all the time and I was hyper-vigilant, no matter who I encountered or where I was. If I was in a car, I’d flinch at the sight of another vehicle pulling out of a parking space as though it was about to hit me — even if it was well outside my physical range. I was sleeping two hours a night and not even feeling tired the next day. Sitting still felt like torture, and I was constantly second guessing myself as if I couldn’t trust my perceptions. I’d had episodes like this off and on for most of my life but I’d always pushed it down. But now, after a lot of therapy and ACOA recovery work, when the anxiety attacks returned, I had to acknowledge them. My overwhelming anxiety was there and I couldn’t hide it no matter how badly I wanted to.

But that was the problem: I really really wanted to.

More than the actual anxiety was the anxiety about the anxiety. I felt tremendous shame for having negative feelings at all. (All you ACOAs out there know what I’m talking about, right?) Growing up in my house, negative feelings had been treated like a disease that had to be banished. This didn’t just come from family but from the entire culture where I was raised. I explained to my therapist that even as an adult I felt like a streak of tar ran through me that marked me as broken, and I lived in constant fear of people seeing it. So when my anxiety revisited me, I tried to hide it, but piling that shame on top of it only made it worse. I wanted simultaneously to jump out of my own skin and hide inside my house forever.

Then I remembered what Brene Brown said in her book on shame: that silence fed shame while a sense of common humanity combatted it. That meant talking about what I was feeling. Reaching out to tell someone was a major part of fighting shame because it made you feel less alone. Then it occurred to me: what if I just preempted this terror of someone discovering my anxious state and just told them? If I owned how I felt in advance, perhaps I’d feel less shame because I wouldn’t be so desperate to hide it. Problem was, any time I tried to talk about it in person, I completely fell to bits and I didn’t exactly want to put myself through that over and over again.

So instead I opted to put it on Facebook.

Of course, Facebook is the capital of oversharing and I normally kept my digital shouting box strictly to jokes. But I just didn’t see a better way to inform people of what I was going through or that my behavior might be different than my usual. In fairness to Brene Brown, she clarifies that reaching out to others in order to combat shame needs to be aimed at people who are receptive to hearing your pain. She definitely doesn’t suggest blasting it all over your social media. But that’s what I did.

I wrote a long explanation of my mental state asking for compassion rather than advice and hit “post” before I could change my mind. Now, I should be clear that I didn’t exactly blast this to everyone I knew on Facebook. I used customized security settings so only those in the same city as me and my oldest, closest friends could see it, and I blocked my whole family as well as loose acquaintances. I hit post and immediately shut my laptop, vowing not to log into Facebook for at least a couple hours. I’d purposely planned my post to coincide with a concert I was attending because I knew it would prevent me from checking my phone constantly. I figured if anyone was judgemental or shaming, the bite might sting less if several hours had gone by — or possibly I wouldn’t even notice it in a flood of other tiny red notifications.

When I finally gathered the courage to open Facebook again, I had a torrent of messages and notifications. Most of them carried the same sentiment: I have anxiety, too. While I’d certainly blasted my personal world with my emotional state hoping to get some level empathy, I didn’t anticipate which corners of my social circles would be delivering it. Close friends of mine, people I used to share every secret with, messaged to tell me they’d recently gone through something similar and not talked about it. Acquaintances wrote with ideas and (indeed) some advice. Much of the advice wasn’t especially helpful, but knowing that I wasn’t alone made a world of difference. For months afterward, casual acquaintances told me that sharing my experience actually helped them feel less alone, which I hadn’t even thought about.

I can’t pretend like simply talking about my anxiety made it go away or even lessen much. It still took another year of focus, self care, and work before I truly felt like myself again. Sharing my anxiety online allowed me to deal with it without shame and without feeling like I was broken. In other words, it meant one less roadblock to contend with, and — given my emotional state at the time — I might not have made it through the anxiety without it.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 July 2018
Tougher Laws, Stricter Prescription Limits For Opioids In Tennessee

The state’s TN Together opioid plan is a multi-faceted initiative with three areas of focus: prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.

In Tennessee, Governor Bill Haslam has put together a new plan to fight the opioid epidemic, called TN Together.

New laws just passed in Tennessee include policies from Governor Haslam’s plan, intended to both decrease access to opioids and to incentivize treatment for those suffering from dependence, according to WSMV News.

Beginning July 1, the laws include Henry’s Law, created by the family of Henry Granju, a teenage boy who died in east Tennessee from an opioid overdose.

Henry’s Law requires that a person convicted of second-degree murder resulting from unlawful distribution of Schedule I or II drugs where the victim is a minor be punished from within one range higher than they would normally be charged. Henry’s Law creates tougher laws for people convicted of second-degree murder by distributing drugs to minors.

Henry’s mother, Katie Granju, told The Fix, “I’m a harm reduction supporter who also believes that drug-induced homicide prosecutions are vital in addressing the opioid epidemic.”

Katie Granju’s son Henry was being supplied opioids at age 18 by adult dealers before his fatal overdose.

Tennessee will begin limiting a first opioid prescription to a five-day supply with daily dosage limits of 40 MME.

Exceptions will be made for major surgical procedures, cancer and hospice treatment, as well as treatment in certain licensed facilities.

The TN Together plan also intends to provide every Tennessee state trooper with naloxone for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose.

The Tennessee Municipal League states that the TN Together plan is a multi-faceted initiative with three areas of focus: prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. Haslam said the initiative will include legislation, executive actions, and task forces.

The $37.5 billion Tennessee state budget sets aside more than $16 million to fight the opioid epidemic through additional services.

On June 29, Haslam tweeted about the bill, “My final bill signing ceremony today was an important one: the @TNTogether legislation is critical to fighting the opioid crisis in Tennessee. Thank you to the many partners across the state who will work together through this initiative to address opioid abuse.”

According to The TN Municipal League, the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the U.S. has quadrupled since 1999; Tennessee remains one of the top 15 of all states in drug overdose deaths.

Tennesseans are more likely to die of an opioid-related overdose than in a vehicle crash. Three people die of overdose in Tennessee each day.

“It is an epidemic. It has reached this state,” Brian Sullivan with Addiction Campuses in Nashville told WSMN News. “We believe this is a step in the right direction.”

View the original article at thefix.com

6 July 2018
Fentanyl Use Rising Across The US

The potent synthetic opioid has been showing up more on its own, rather than mixed with other drugs.

The use of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid said to be 50 times as potent as heroin, is growing on both a local and national level, according to new research.

A new analysis, conducted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers, found that fentanyl was present in nearly 50% of overdose deaths in Marion County, Indiana in 2017. This is a significant increase compared to less than a decade prior, when fentanyl was present in fewer than 15% of overdose deaths.

“We found fentanyl present in 47% of cases,” said Brad Ray, assistant professor at IUPUI’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “That’s nearly half of every single person that dies of a drug overdose. That’s far outpaced heroin.”

These numbers mirror national statistics. In May, the Journal of the American Medical Association published research that showed that of the 42,249 opioid-related deaths in the United States in 2016, almost 46% involved fentanyl. Six years prior—similar to the IUPUI research—fentanyl was involved in just 14% of opioid-related deaths.

The IUPUI research also found that over time, the potent opioid has been showing up more on its own, rather than mixed with other drugs, according to the Indy Star. When fentanyl first emerged as a threat to public health, it was said primarily to be used to boost the potency of heroin and other drugs.

A previous study by IUPUI’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs from 2017 reported an association between tighter opioid restrictions and an increase in opioid-related deaths.

Researchers looked at prescription data from Indiana’s prescription drug monitoring program and analyzed that alongside toxicology data from the Marion County Coroner’s office, which tracks the specific substances involved in each drug-related death. With that, they found an “alarming trend”: the prescription drug crackdown occurred alongside a “considerable” rise in heroin and fentanyl overdoses.

“As people move away from pills, they do move on to heroin,” explained Ray, who was the lead author of that study. “It’s a cheaper substance to purchase but it’s much more dangerous because you don’t know what’s in it, you don’t know how much to take.”

Ray went on to say that a lack of treatment options in Indiana exacerbates the issue.

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018
Country Music's Complicated Relationship With Alcohol

From songs about drowning heartache with whiskey to ones about partying with rum, country music’s link to alcohol is almost as old as the genre itself.

Country music has been associated with drinking practically since its incarnation, but in the age of recovery some think the relationship between the popular music genre and alcohol has become more complicated.

The Washington Post recently chronicled the long-running relationship between alcohol and country music.

Country musicians have a long tradition of writing songs about drinking and drowning your sorrows in alcohol, to the point where Nashville has even been jokingly called “a drinking town with a music problem.”

It’s also been a big part of the music’s culture since the days of Hank Williams, a hard-partying country star who was a bad influence on a lot of his peers. After a long battle with alcoholism and pill addiction, Williams died from a heart attack at the age of 29.

Songwriter Bobby Bare, who recently wrote a song called “I Drink,” told the Post, “Everybody I know wanted to be like Hank Williams. And everyone I know bought into the drinking. You figure if Hank did it, it must be OK.”

Late country icon Waylon Jennings called it “Hank Williams syndrome,” according to the Post.

In a 1988 interview, rising country star Keith Whitley said, “I thought everybody had to drink to be in this business. Lefty Frizzell drank, Hank drank, George Jones was still drinking, and I had to. That’s just the way it was. You couldn’t put that soul in your singing if you weren’t about three sheets in the wind.”

Whitley died at 33 years old from alcohol poisoning in 1989.

But the modern country music scene has refocused its relationship with alcohol. Now, there are more songs about drinking and having a good time, á la Jimmy Buffett, and a lot of modern country musicians often have to keep up their party image, even when they’re sober.

It’s an image that’s being projected to a much younger audience. The Country Music Association reports that the 18-to-24 age group of country fans has increased by 54% in the last decade.

As the president of Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Nashville told the Post, “For the younger country consumer, alcohol in a celebratory manner is very relatable.”

Brad Paisley, who is sober, had a big hit with the song “Alcohol,” and he brings out a bar onstage when he performs the tune, even though the drinks on tap are usually non–alcoholic.

Dierks Bentley told the Post that at his gigs, “People are coming out to blow off steam and have a great time. I’m kind of like the lead bartender: Jumping up on the bar table, drinking shots with you and singing ballads with you like at an old Irish pub somewhere.”

In today’s country music climate, some artists have been afraid to be openly sober. Ray Scott is one country artist in recovery who was concerned that fans would turn against him because he stopped partying.

He told Variety, “Some fans can kind of build you up to be this thing that they think you are, and a couple of these songs sort of painted a picture of who I was. I’ve been pleased that people take it for what it is. It’s just fun music; I don’t have to live the part.”

Today’s country scene is also strongly connected with alcohol companies who make a lot of money when artists namecheck their brands. Kenny Chesney launched a successful rum company that sponsors his tours, and the company’s sales have nearly tripled in the last three years.

The country group Smithfield has even pointed out the paradox of singing a sad drinking ballad, “Hey Whiskey,” while they have an endorsement with Rebecca Creek Distillery.

As Smithfield singer Jennifer Fiedler confessed, “It’s kind of weird, because if you listen to the song, we always wonder, ‘Why do we have a whiskey endorsement?’ Because it’s like, the whole song is about how whiskey ruins [a] girl’s relationship—but hey, we’re handing out whiskey.”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018
Celebrity Names Used By Ecstasy Ring To Order Drugs

The use of the celebrity names drew the attention of customs agents and led to the eventual takedown of a drug ring.

A Michigan father and son convicted for their alleged roles in a large-scale ecstasy distribution and manufacturing ring took what may have seemed—at least, to them—a unique approach to disguising their identities in order to reportedly purchase drugs and related paraphernalia for their alleged operation. Federal officials claim that they used the names of celebrities like Tim Allen and Tracy Morgan as aliases.

Sylvester Boston Sr., and Sylvester Boston Jr., were sentenced to eight and nine years, respectively, in federal prison for their alleged participation in the drug ring, which they are accused of operating from a computer store on Detroit’s west side.

The Bostons reportedly used the comedians’ names to order a pill press from China, but claimed that the aliases and burner phones used to place the orders were used for privacy reasons. Sylvester Boston, Jr., has denied the charges, claiming that he and his father sold energy-boosting pills, not illegal narcotics.

The investigation, which was led by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), began in 2013 when Customs and Border Protection officers seized an industrial pill press from China with fraudulent labels for shipment—specifically, Tracy Morgan’s name was written on the receipt.

But the Bostons’ alleged use of celebrity names only drew the attention of customs agents, who opened a package addressed to Tim Allen and found BZP, a Schedule I drug and component in some ecstasy tablets which reportedly produces similar stimulation or hallucinogenic effects as MDMA.

HSI agents, with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Michigan State Police and the Detroit Police Department began observing the Bostons’ business, S&B Computer Repairs, and used wiretaps to record the father and son reportedly placing orders for drugs and related paraphernalia on disposable cell phones.

According to the investigation, the Bostons reportedly manufactured the pills using the press and hid them in potato chip bags, which were intercepted by federal agents.

A raid was conducted on the Bostons’ store in 2014, and agents confiscated drugs, the pill press, multiple weapons and a bulletproof vest. In addition to the Bostons, seven other individuals were convicted for their role in the pill operation, and six received sentences ranging from two to seven-and-a-quarter years, with one individual sentenced as time served.

In an interview with Detroit’s WDIV Local 4 station, Boston Jr., denied the charges levied against him, claiming that the pills he sold were legal, “caffeine-based” supplements, and blamed his conviction on several factors, including another individual whom he claimed was “part of the Iraq mafia,” an informant who confused his father whom Boston said suffered from schizophrenia; and his own attorney, whom he said forced him to agree to the plea deal that resulted in his nine-year sentence.

“They pretty much ignore facts,” said Boston Jr.

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018
Underoath's Spencer Chamberlain On Sobriety: "I'm A Million Times Happier"

“People find different ways to fill those voids, and for a lot of artists, it’s drugs or alcohol. I just had to reprogram my life and find things that were productive.”

In a series of videos for Revolver magazine’s Lyric Dissector series, Underoath singer Spencer Chamberlain discussed not only the inspiration for the band’s current single, “Rapture,” but also his long struggle with drugs and alcohol, from which he has been sober for more than a year.

The 2015 reunion of Underoath, which broke up two years early, and the release of their latest album, Erase Me, in 2018, bookended Chamberlain’s recovery. “Being back together definitely helped,” he said. “It’s the first step in pulling yourself out of those places.”

Chamberlain said that he began his journey of “not using any more” during the writing process of Erase Me, and found that tackling the problem in the band’s music could be cathartic.

“My thought is writing lyrics that are very honest and brutal and sometimes suck to talk about, hopefully that can help,” he explained.

In “Rapture,” which is credited to the band and Nashville songwriter Johnny Andrews, Chamberlain likened the pull of dependency to “a mistress—like that person you’ve always been warned about. That, for me, was the other woman. I tried to portray it like sex.”

But just as toxic relationships become detrimental to both parties, drugs and alcohol shed their numbing properties and bloom into wholly new problems for dependants like Chamberlain.

“When drugs stop being fun, they start to suck,” he said. “You have that self-loathing all the time—you just beat yourself up, or at least, I did. Which was a huge step in not wanting to have that as part of my life anymore.”

Chamberlain said that the decision to stop using was anchored to a simple thought—”I’m going to see how far I can go,” he explained—but the process of achieving that goal required a concentrated effort in his part. That included a physical move from his home in Florida to New York City, which he said helped him to “learn a lot about myself.”

“[New York] is the busiest place in the world, but you’re always alone,” he said. “You have to go out to try and meet people. So you’re always reflecting on yourself.”

Chamberlain used his time there as a lesson in “learning how to love myself again” before returning to Florida, where he began to refashion his life in sobriety. He deleted contact information for anyone he associated with “partying or anything like that,” including close friends that “probably hate me right now.”

Chamberlain also began a regime of exercise and healthy eating with the help of his girlfriend, a personal trainer. He found that these new pursuits provided an outlet for him that delivered the same results as being on stage.

“When I was on tour, it was way easier to control myself because I got that release all the time,” he noted. “People find different ways to fill those voids, and for a lot of artists, it’s drugs or alcohol. I just had to reprogram my life and find things that were productive—I like to be up early and exercise, do outdoor things and stay motivated.”

These efforts have allowed Chamberlain to remain sober for over a year and a half. He admits that he’s not perfect, and that sobriety requires constant vigilance, but he also said that he feels a “million times healthier and happier than [he] was even two or three years ago.”

He’s also hoping that his struggles can help others, whether they’re in another band (“there’s at least one guy, or nine times out of ten, [where] it’s probably gone too far”) or among Underoath’s listeners. In helping to write songs like “Rapture,” Chamberlain hopes there will be “other people who will say, ‘Yeah, me too.’”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018
New Pot Regulations Force California Retailers To Unload Millions In Stock

After July 1st, cannabis retailers in the state are no longer allowed to sell untested cannabis goods.

New regulations for California’s legal cannabis industry went into effect on Sunday, July 1. The new rules require that all cannabis products sold in California be tested for chemicals, pesticides and foreign materials.

In addition, all cannabis products must be in child-proof packaging. Edibles may not exceed 10 mg of THC per serving or 100 mg per package. And non-edibles may not exceed 1,000 mg of THC per package for the adult-use market, or 2,000 mg per package for the medical-use market.

“These regulations are very necessary for consumer protections, environmental protection and public safety protections, so they are good and we support them,” said Kimberly Cargile, executive director of A Therapeutic Alternative medical cannabis dispensary in Sacramento.

“However,” she added, “it’s more difficult to operate within a regulated market and more difficult than we anticipated.”

The July 1st deadline meant that all “untested cannabis goods [can no longer] be sold by a retailer and must be destroyed,” according to the state Bureau of Cannabis Control—leaving some retailers left to wonder if their businesses could survive the “weed apocalypse.”

Some business owners estimated huge losses for California’s legal cannabis industry—about $90 million of product lost, according to a survey by the United Cannabis Business Association.

The association organized 128 cannabis businesses and advocacy groups to petition Governor Jerry Brown on Friday to “indefinitely extend” the period for selling untested cannabis products.

The group argued for the extension saying that without it, the new regulations will “financially cripple the majority of retailers,” by forcing them to “destroy everything in their inventory and repurchase new products.”

They also argue that there are not enough testing facilities approved by the state to handle the demand and volume of cannabis products that need to be tested.

However, the state maintains that retailers were given enough time to comply with the regulations.

“We issued our emergency regulations back in November, and at that time, we were pretty clear about the fact that there would be a six-month transition period for retailers to use up their existing supply,” said a spokesperson for the Bureau of Cannabis Control. “We felt that was a sufficient amount of time to deplete stock on hand and adapt to California’s new rules.”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018