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Tag: marijuana consumption

  • Are Women At Higher Risk For Pot Addiction?

    Are Women At Higher Risk For Pot Addiction?

    A new study explored the gender-based differences in the way cannabis affects the body.

    Women’s hormones put them more at risk than men of becoming addicted to cannabis, a study found.

    Specifically, the sex hormone oestrogen makes them enjoy the particular high of smoking pot, according to the research.

    Men are also at risk from a hormone—in their case, testosterone—which makes them more likely to try cannabis and then use higher doses more frequently.

    The research, which focused on studies of animal behavior, revealed that while women are less likely to try pot in the first place, they are at higher risk of developing a dependence on the drug.

    Hormones are powerful levers in most of human behavior, and this includes drug use. Due to how the sex hormone oestrogen responds to marijuana, the body’s pleasure center is more powerfully affected in women than men.

    Research published in the South Burnett Times found that the differences in the impact on the endocannabinoid system in men and women were centered around testosterone, oestradiol (oestrogen) and progesterone. 

    The endocannabinoid system, or ECS, is a complex network of cannabinoid receptors expressed in cells of both the central and peripheral nervous systems. ECS helps to bring about homeostasis in all the major body systems to ensure that the body as a whole works in harmony and health.

    Study co-author Dr. Liana Fattore, of the National Research Council of Italy, told South Burnett Times, “Male sex steroids increase risk-taking behavior and suppress the brain’s reward system, which could explain why males are more likely to try drugs, including cannabis.”

    She continued to say, “Females seem to be more vulnerable, at a neurochemical level, in developing addiction to cannabis.”

    As the push to legalize marijuana continues having success all over the world, with two-thirds of Americans supporting the legalization of cannabis, it is increasingly important to conduct science-based research on the effects of marijuana.

    Understanding gender-based differences in how cannabis affects the body and the potential for addiction is going to become increasingly important as more Americans use the drug for both recreational and medicinal purposes.

    Gender-based drug addiction information and treatment could be a next step, as well as a crucial piece of the puzzle for those struggling with addiction who use marijuana as a tool to wean off harder drugs.

    Professor Fattore told the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, “Identifying factors is critical for optimizing evidence-based prevention and treatment protocols.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Utah Lawmaker Tries Pot For First Time On Facebook Live

    Utah Lawmaker Tries Pot For First Time On Facebook Live

    “I decided it was about time that at least one legislator knew a little bit about marijuana before we changed all the laws,” said the state senator.

    A Utah state senator decided to do some hands-on research before voting on the state’s marijuana policy in the upcoming November election.

    Jim Dabakis, a Democrat, took to Facebook Live to stream himself trying marijuana for the first time. He ate an edible gummy bear in Las Vegas, where recreational weed is legal.

    “I decided it was about time that at least one legislator knew a little bit about marijuana before we changed all the laws,” Dabakis said in the video. “I don’t think there’s a senator that’s used marijuana. I think maybe nobody has ever smoked marijuana and we’re going to make the laws.”

    Dabakis said “with great sacrifice” he went to Vegas on his own accord to give pot a try. However, he doesn’t like smoke, so he opted for an edible instead.

    “I wouldn’t recommend it as a sheer candy because it’s a little bit bitter,” he said.

    After trying the candy, Dabakis said that the experience wasn’t remarkable

    “It was no big deal,” Dabakis told USA Today. “It was fine. I just felt a little high.”

    In a follow-up video, Dabakis said he “wouldn’t recommend shooting up marijuana to anybody.” However, he called on everyone in Utah to just “mellow out” about marijuana.

    “The people who are terrified by it seem to be the people who have never tried it,” he said.

    In fact, he recommends that all his colleagues takes a moment to familiarize themselves with the issue at hand.

    “I think the reefer madness crowd – you guys, you need to try it. It’s not that big a deal,” he said in the video.

    He reinforced that stance when speaking with USA Today.

    “I want all my colleagues to get amnesty and go get a gummy bear or smoke a marijuana cigarette,” he said. “I think everybody is afraid of what they don’t know about.”

    Utah voters will consider legalizing a medical marijuana program in November. The issue has been fiercely debated in the state, where a heavy Mormon influence has resulted in some of the strictest alcohol laws in the nation. While the proposition to legalize medical marijuana seems to be slightly ahead by voters, the governor of Utah recently said that even if it doesn’t pass the state is headed toward legalization of medical cannabis.

    “The good news here is that whether [Prop 2] passes or fails, we’re going to arrive at the same point,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert told The Salt Lake Tribune.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • SNL’s Pete Davidson Realized “It Wasn’t The Weed” In Rehab

    SNL’s Pete Davidson Realized “It Wasn’t The Weed” In Rehab

    “I was sober for 3 months at one point and I was like this f— sucks.”

    In a recent interview, Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson expanded on his decision to return to smoking weed after a brief period of sobriety made him realize he was “never sadder.”

    The 24-year-old Staten Island native told Howard Stern on Monday (Sept. 24) that he needed rehab to gain control of his marijuana use, but ultimately, could not live without it.

    “There was no way I could stop. I was like somebody has to put me in a house where there is literally nothing. I had too much access,” Davidson said. The comedian entered a treatment program in December 2016.

    He said in 2017: “I never really did any other drugs, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna try to go to rehab. Maybe that’ll be helpful.’”

    But once he was in treatment, he said “it wasn’t the weed.”

    “I was sober for 3 months at one point and I was like this f— sucks,” he told Stern. Davidson said in a past interview with Pete Rosenberg that he was “never sadder and everything was just way worse” during this period of abstinence.

    But at first, he seemed to enjoy the immediate effects of quitting marijuana. In a since-deleted Instagram post from March 2017, he said, “I quit drugs and am happy and sober for the first time in 8 years. It wasn’t easy but I got a great girl, great friends and I consider myself a lucky man.”

    But later he would be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), an explanation for why he feels “depressed all the time.” “This whole year has been a f— nightmare,” he said in September of last year. “This has been the worst year of my life, getting diagnosed with [BPD] and trying to figure out how to learn with this and live with this.”

    Davidson has been candid about his marijuana use and how it helps him cope with BPD as well as Crohn’s disease.

    “I have Crohn’s disease, so it helps more than you can imagine,” he told Stern. “There was a point where I couldn’t get out of bed. I was 110 pounds.”

    He told High Times in a past interview: “I found that the medicines that the doctors were prescribing me, and seeing all these doctors and trying new things, weed would be the only thing that would help me eat.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Restaurant That Sedated Lobsters With Weed Under Investigation

    Restaurant That Sedated Lobsters With Weed Under Investigation

    “I feel bad that when lobsters come here there is no exit strategy,” said the owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound.

    Would you like your lobster baked or stoned?

    A beloved eatery in Maine is drawing attention—from national press as well as from state investigators—for smoking up its crustaceans with cannabis before boiling them as part of a questionably effective effort to soothe the lobsters’ last moments. 

    “I feel bad that when lobsters come here there is no exit strategy,” Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound, told the Portland Press Herald. “It’s a unique place and you get to do such unique things but at the expense of this little creature. I’ve really been trying to figure out how to make it better.”

    Of course, it’s not even clear how much lobsters can feel pain or if they can actually get high, and the whole endeavor raises some nagging legal—and scientific—questions.

    “I’m not aware of any actual studies on this and haven’t done any myself, though it sounds interesting,” Robert Bayer, director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, told the Maine paper. “When you put them in boiling water, the primitive nervous system that does exist is destroyed so quickly they’re unlikely to feel anything at all.”

    But, earlier this year, Switzerland banned boiling lobsters in light of studies suggesting the pinchy shellfish might feel some pain. New Zealand nixed the practice almost two decades ago. 

    Gill is a licensed marijuana grower, so she’s been cultivating the crustaceans’ cannabis at home, according to the New York Times. But that effort raised red flags with the state health department, prompting regulators to send her a notice politely pointing out that the marijuana is supposed to be grown for her, not for her lobsters.

    At the same time, the Maine Health Inspection Program has launched an investigation into the Southwest Harbor restaurant and its “high-end lobster,” but as of Friday they hadn’t issued any findings.

    Despite the catchy name and the smoky additive, Gill offered reassurances that the plant’s active ingredient wouldn’t actually make it through to human consumers, after the animals are cooked. 

    “THC breaks down completely by 392 degrees,” she said, “therefore we will use both steam as well as a heat process that will expose the meat to a 420 degree extended temperature, in order to ensure there is no possibility of carryover effect.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • More Than 3,000 Open Marijuana Cases To Be Dismissed In New York

    More Than 3,000 Open Marijuana Cases To Be Dismissed In New York

    The legal move stops short of expunging the pot-related cases.

    In what’s been described as an action “in the interest of justice,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has vacated more than 3,000 outstanding warrants for cannabis consumption and possession, some of which date back to 1978.

    The decision will only impact misdemeanor and violation cases where a warrant was issued because the defendant did not appear in court. Vance announced the “decline to prosecute” policy for possession and smoking cases in late July, with the goal of reducing such prosecutions to fewer than 200 per year.

    Vance dropped 3,042 open cases of marijuana possession—but as High Times noted, this stops short of expunging these cases. 

    Vance’s decision applies only to open cases where misdemeanor possession or use was the “only remaining charge,” and the defendant did not appear in court. It does not apply to sale or distribution cases, or any case in which the defendant was convicted. 

    Still, the dismissal of these cases would have several positive outcomes: it supports the implementation of new policy for the NYPD regarding misdemeanor marijuana cases, which has shifted from arrests to court summonses (or “weed tickets), which went into effect this month.

    It also seeks to address what Vance described as “decades of racial disparities behind the enforcement of marijuana in New York City.”

    According to his office, 79% of the dropped cases involve individuals of color, and nearly half of those were 25 years of age or younger at the time of their arrest.

    Additionally, it may remove some of the obstacles that individuals with open warrants may face, such as applying for jobs or housing. Background checks in both cases may reveal an open warrant and impact the individual’s chances, and may even affect applications for citizenship.

    “By vacating these warrants, we are preventing unnecessary future interactions with the criminal justice system,” said Vance at a press conference after declaring his motion. “We made the decision that it is really in the interest of justice.”

    The move is also in the interest of freeing up what Vance called the “burden” of backlogged cases that drain resources his office needs for more serious charges.

    In July, Vance said that the policy was expected to reduce marijuana prosecutions in Manhattan from approximately 5,000 per year to fewer than 200—a reduction of 96%.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Elon Musk's Apparent Pot-Smoking Sparks Backlash

    Elon Musk's Apparent Pot-Smoking Sparks Backlash

    An ex-Tesla employee who was reportedly fired after testing positive for THC says seeing Musk smoke pot was “like a slap in the face.”

    In a rambling two-hour conversation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tesla founder Elon Musk apparently toked a spliff during the live show, a move that fed concerns about his increasingly erratic behavior.

    The long-winded chat between the business magnate and the comedian covered everything from robots to web presence, but it was a short exchange about cannabis near the end of the show that drew the most attention. 

    “Is that a joint, or is it a cigar?” Musk asked when Rogan pulled out the ganja. “It’s marijuana inside of tobacco,” the host replied, before asking if Musk had ever tried it.

    “Yeah, I think I tried one once,” he said. Rogan seemed skeptical, and asked if stockholders prevented him from toking.

    “I mean, it’s legal right?” Musk asked. “It’s totally legal,” Rogan said. (The show tapes in California.) 

    To some, the move may have seemed hypocritical, since Tesla drug tests at least some of its employees, according to Market Watch.

    Crystal Guardado, a former Tesla employee, told Bloomberg News that she was fired from the company after testing positive for THC.

    “It was just like a slap in the face to me and my son,” she said. “Elon Musk is just smoking it out in the open, knowing that he uses his very vague drug policy as a way to fire people that are a threat to him.”

    But even if he didn’t have to pass a drug test, there seems to have been some consequences for the CEO. 

    One day after the show, Tesla stock went down 9%, closing at 6%, according to Vox. This may not have been just about the on-air pot use, though, as the company generally suffered a trying week. 

    That same day, two top executives announced their departures, continuing the string of turnovers. Also on Friday, reports began surfacing that the Air Force had begun looking into the alleged post use. 

    Earlier this year, Musk sparked speculation about his love for cannabis when he tweeted about taking the company private at $420 a share. Not long after, though, he specifically shot down the idea of cannabis use and dismissed any efforts to read into the number.

    “It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” he told the New York Times. “But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • World's First Marijuana "Breathalyzer" Is On The Way But Will It Work?

    World's First Marijuana "Breathalyzer" Is On The Way But Will It Work?

    The breath analysis test can reportedly detect THC and alcohol.

    A breathalyzer that can determine whether a driver has smoked marijuana might be rolling out in cities as soon as this fall, according to Newsweek.

    The Oakland, California-based company, Hound Labs, says it has developed the world’s first marijuana breath analysis test, which could be leveraged by police departments in all the same ways alcohol breathalyzers are.

    With more and more states legalizing weed, law enforcement officials have become worried about individuals driving when they’re high, Newsweek noted.

    Unfortunately, police officers don’t have an accurate roadside test to tell if a driver has consumed weed. That’s why the marijuana breathalyzer could be a game-changer, says Hound Labs CEO Mike Lynn.

    “We are trying to make the establishment of impairment around marijuana rational and to balance fairness and safety,” he noted, explaining that the device will detect THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. 

    Unlike alcohol, however, timing is crucial when it comes to measuring marijuana impairment. With alcohol, a driver is considered impaired with a blood-alcohol level of 0.8; with marijuana, it’s not so clear-cut. Many experts agree that there is a two-hour window during which the full effects of THC will show up.

    “When you find THC in breath, you can be pretty darn sure that somebody smoked pot in the last couple of hours,” Lynn said. “And we don’t want to have people driving during that time period or, frankly, at a work site in a construction zone.” (In addition to THC, the device can detect alcohol, too.)

    For many law enforcement officials, the device couldn’t come at a better time. Right now, THC can only be detected through blood tests—and even then, it remains in the system much longer than other substances.

    “Unlike alcohol, THC can remain detectable in the blood stream for days or weeks, when any impairment wears off in a matter of hours,” said Taylor West, former director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. “So [what] all those numbers really tell us is that, since legal adult-use sales began, a larger number of people are consuming cannabis and then, at some point… [are] driving a car.” The new device would help police zero in on the drivers who are truly putting themselves and others at risk.

    Some critics remain skeptical that devices like the breathalyzer or Canada’s saliva-testing device will work at all. For one, new research has revealed that THC levels “don’t line up in a straightforward way with how impaired people are,” Live Science reported.

    Toxicologist Marilyn Huestis argues that the largest problem isn’t determining how far over the line someone has gone with marijuana so much as where that line even exists.

    “I used to be someone who thought [that] if we could just get a good limit, that would work,” she said. “But [with] all the work on chronic, frequent users, we realized there’s no one number that’s going to distinguish impairment.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Marijuana Anonymous Sparking More Interest In Canada

    Marijuana Anonymous Sparking More Interest In Canada

    Marijuana Anonymous uses an adaptation of the 12 steps from Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.

    For some marijuana users, Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous don’t quite feel like a good fit. 

    That’s why in some areas, Marijuana Anonymous is being introduced as an alternative. According to Vice, the group follows similar routines and readings as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. But it was created especially for marijuana users, as some felt that they did not identify with those individuals at AA meetings, while others who’d attended NA felt their marijuana use was dismissed as not being serious enough.

    In Simcoe, Ontario, Marijuana Anonymous meetings began in March 2018. Typically attendance hovers around five members. The Simcoe meeting is one of about 12 in the country, while there are hundreds of AA and NA meetings in comparison.

    One member, David, tells Vice he discovered the meeting online. Prior to attending, he had tried other recovery groups, as he also struggles with alcohol use. But for David, those groups weren’t effective when it came to addressing marijuana.

    “I knew I had a problem,” David told the group at the meeting. “My life had become totally unmanageable. I had become totally isolated… smoked a lot of joints.” 

    Marijuana Anonymous roughly follows the same 12 steps as NA and AA. However, the group celebrates milestones with a token of their own—small rocks painted with an M and A to represent the group’s name.

    “They’re called Stones for Stoners,” David said during the meeting. “I should probably collect because I’m 21 days away from nine months without weed.”

    According to Vice, Marijuana Anonymous members are to try and stay removed from providing thoughts about topics such as legalization of recreational marijuana. But outside these groups, the conversations are happening.

    David Juurlink, an addictions expert and head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, tells Vice that marijuana use disorder is legitimate, but that the withdrawal symptoms of marijuana are much less severe so people tend to view it as safer.

    “Alcohol withdrawal kills people,” he said. “Once people drinking 40 ounces of alcohol a day stop, they can go into withdrawal and they can die. Opioid withdrawal is a big deal. Someone who is a heavy user of cannabis who stops is not going to die. They are going to have trouble sleeping, they’re going to be irritable, they might have weird dreams, they might have anxiety. And all of these things might get better when they resume their cannabis again.”

    According to the MA public information trustee, Josh, interest in the group is growing. He tells Vice that there has been a 51% increase in calls to the organization’s phone line over the past year.

    Soon, Canada may become an important destination for Marijuana Anonymous members, as the country is hosting the 2019 world convention and conference in Toronto and Vancouver, Vice notes. The conference just happens to fall around seven months after Canada will implement the legalization of recreational marijuana, which members say is a coincidence. 

    “As legalization happens and becomes more ingrained in our culture, we probably will see a rise in attendance but at the same time, we’re an anonymous corporation,” MA member Lori told Vice.

    “I was miserable and I was lonely, so eventually I ran out of excuses as to why my life was a mess,” she added. “There’s all these conjectures and this thinking that pot’s not addictive, so as an addict I latched onto that. Then I get to MA and I hear the stories and I see the recovery and I say OK, I will give this a shot. And things went much better.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Scientists On Marijuana's Health Benefits: We Need More Evidence

    Scientists On Marijuana's Health Benefits: We Need More Evidence

    “We don’t have evidence about many things marijuana is marketed for and we need to communicate that to the public,” says one doctor.

    Many Americans increasingly believe that marijuana has health benefits, even though there is little to no evidence one way or the other, Newsweek reported.

    Over 9,000 U.S. adults participated in an online survey, with 81% responding that weed had at least one medical benefit. From treating diseases like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis to providing some measure of relief from anxiety, stress or depression, the majority of Americans feel the drug is medically valuable.

    Not so fast, scientists say.

    “The public seems to have a much more favorable view [of marijuana] than is warranted by the current evidence,” the University of California San Francisco’s Dr. Salomeh Keyhani said in a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

    Interestingly, because the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) categorizes weed as a Schedule I substance (alongside heroin and MDMA), researchers are limited in being able to research it at all.

    “[People] believe things that we have no data for,” Keyhani cautioned. “We need better data. We need any data.”

    In the absence of empirical data, she suggests, Americans are coming to their own conclusions about the drug.  

    “Cannabis is useful for neuropathic pain; it might be useful for nausea and vomiting for cancer and HIV, anorexia, and it might have use in refractory epilepsy in children, but those are very narrow indications,” Keyhani told MedPage Today. “We don’t have evidence about many things marijuana is marketed for and we need to communicate that to the public.”

    A 2017 Gallup survey reported that 45% of U.S. adults have tried marijuana once, while other surveys indicated that 22% of Americans regularly use it. With weed now legal in over half of the U.S. for medicinal purposes, marketing is becoming a huge factor in public perception, Keyhani observed.

    “It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, not regulated to the extent of tobacco or alcohol,” she said. “It seems every state is developing a regulatory structure itself. The conflict between federal law and state law has left an open space commercial entities can exploit.”

    Despite widespread support for marijuana, the survey revealed that 91% of Americans believe it carries risks. (Only 9% believed the drug has no risks.) The survey yielded some surprises, too:

    • 37% of Americans thought edible marijuana could prevent health problems. 
    • 50.1% agreed that marijuana was “somewhat addictive.”  
    • 25.9% said it was “very addictive.” 

    The average age of participants was 48 (“64% were white, 12% were black, 16% were Hispanic, and 8% were of other races”).

    Mount Sinai’s Yasmin Hurd said the results aren’t surprising so much as they highlight “the fact that scientists and clinicians don’t publish their studies in newspapers, so the general public isn’t really aware of the scientific evidence that might run counter to their beliefs.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Vets Turn To Medical Pot, Despite The VA's Policy

    Vets Turn To Medical Pot, Despite The VA's Policy

    The VA remains focused on studying the drug’s “problems of use” instead of its “therapeutic potential.”

    Once a month, the veterans’ hall in Santa Cruz, California, is home to an unlikely meeting, where dozens of former service members line up to receive a voucher for free cannabis products from local distributors. 

    “I never touched the stuff in Vietnam,” William Horne, 76, a retired firefighter, told The New York Times. “It was only a few years ago I realized how useful it could be.” 

    The VA medical system does not allow providers to discuss or prescribe medical marijuana, since the drug remained banned under federal law, which governs the VA.

    However, up to a million veterans who get healthcare through the system have taken matters into their own hands, using marijuana to relieve symptoms of PTSD, pain and other medical condition associated with combat. 

    “We have a disconnect in care,” said Marcel Bonn-Miller, a psychologist who worked for years at the veterans hospital in Palo Alto, California, and now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. “The VA has funded lots of marijuana studies, but not of therapeutic potential. All the work has been related to problems of use.” 

    This means that veterans like those in Santa Cruz can end up self-medicating with cannabis without any medical oversight. 

    A bill proposed this spring would mandate that the VA study cannabis for treating PTSD and chronic pain. 

    “I talk to so many vets who claim they get benefits, but we need research,” said Representative Tim Walz, a Democrat from Minnesota, who introduced the bill along with Phil Roe, a doctor and Republican from Tennessee. “You may be a big advocate of medical marijuana, you may feel it has no value. Either way, you should want the evidence to prove it, and there is no better system to do that research than the VA.” 

    Still, VA spokesperson Curt Cashour said the bill is not enough to change the department’s policies. 

    “The opportunities for VA to conduct marijuana research are limited because of the restrictions imposed by federal law,” he said. “If Congress wants to facilitate more federal research into Schedule 1 controlled substances such as marijuana, it can always choose to eliminate these restrictions.” 

    Former Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs David J. Shulkin said that it’s time the system looked into the potential benefits of cannabis. 

    “We have an opioid crisis, a mental health crisis, and we have limited options with how to address them, so we should be looking at everything possible,” he said. Although two small studies are currently being done at the VA, Shulkin would like to see more. 

    “In a system as big as ours, that’s not much, certainly not enough,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com