Tag: marijuana use

Utah Medical Marijuana Vote Creates Rift Among Mormons

As the vote nears, Church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

When Brian Stoll fractured his back in college, he was put on opioid painkillers to manage his discomfort. The pills helped, but Stoll was wary of becoming addicted. He wanted a more natural pain relief method, and he found it in marijuana.

“Marijuana is a gift from God,” Stoll told the Los Angeles Times.

However, when Stoll wanted to get married he had to make a choice: continue using cannabis to treat his pain, or get married in the church where he and his fiancée wanted to wed.

As Mormons, the couple needed to be in good standing with the church in order to be married in the temple, and because marijuana was an illegal drug, Stoll’s use of it was against church teaching.

“This was devastating… I had to choose between my health and my fiancée,” Stoll said. “It seemed asinine that if I lived in another state, I wouldn’t have to make such a difficult decision.”

Stoll stopped smoking pot and began taking Tramadol—an opioid painkiller—every day. It helps with his pain, but leaves him feeling drowsy. Even his wife Rachael, said that Stoll was better off when he could use cannabis. Because of that, husband and wife are both advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana in Utah.

“As a family, we need this to become law,” Rachael said. “We pray for this.”

Voters in Utah are consider legalizing medical marijuana in November. As the vote nears, church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

According to polling, two-thirds of voters are in favor of medical marijuana, but the leadership of the Mormon church has taken a less enthusiastic stance.

In April, the church praised the Utah Medical Association for “cautioning that the proposed Utah marijuana initiative would compromise the health and safety of Utah communities.”

Utah was among the first states to ban marijuana in the early 1900s, reportedly after Mormon missionaries tried the drug in Mexico.

The state’s governor, Gary Herbert, a Republican and a member of the Mormon church, has said that he has reservations about legalizing medical cannabis.

“I am concerned about this initiative because of the lack of medical science on the safety, efficacy and proper dosage for compounds found in cannabis,” Herbert said in an email to the LA Times. “We should have clinical studies—just like we do for any other FDA-approved medicine. We need to isolate what helps and heals from what harms.”

People like Stoll, however, wholeheartedly hope that the measure passes, legalizing marijuana and making its use acceptable in the eyes of the church.

“This is something that if I drive east or west—to Colorado or Nevada—is 100% legal and helpful to my situation,” Stoll said. “We’re not talking about recreational. This is simply for medical.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2018
Employment Rights For Legal Marijuana Users Addressed In New Bill

Under the proposed legislation, federal employees living in pot-friendly states won’t be penalized for their cannabis use.

New legislation proposed in the House of Representatives would protect federal employees from getting fired for using cannabis.

The bipartisan bill—the Fairness in Federal Drug Testing Under State Laws Act—was introduced by Rep. Charlie Crist and Rep. Drew Ferguson last Thursday (July 26) and referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to Marijuana Moment.

The legislation would shield federal employees “whose residence is in a State where that individual’s private use of marijuana is not prohibited” from being denied employment or being “subject to any other adverse personnel action” as a result of a positive cannabis test, according to the bill’s text, obtained by Marijuana Moment.

The bill applies to employees of the federal government “across departments and agencies,” but not those involving “top secret clearance or access to a highly sensitive program.”

However, if there is “probable cause to believe that the individual is under the influence of marijuana” in the workplace, they may be terminated.

Tom Angell of Marijuana Moment notes that Rep. Crist previously proposed a measure to protect military veterans from being fired for cannabis use that is legal under state law.

However, the measure became one of nearly three dozen amendments having to do with cannabis policy that Republican leadership in the House has blocked from being voted on, as Angell reported in early July.

As more states approve cannabis for either medical or adult use, the rules around it when it comes to things like jobs or housing can get hazy.

NORML—the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws—provides a Model Workplace Policy for Cannabis on its website to help employers navigate this new territory. This guide gives a comprehensive background of cannabis and its effects.

The difficult thing about enforcing DUI laws or anti-drug policies in the workplace with cannabis is the fact that its compounds may remain in a person’s system for days or even weeks after its use.

As a result, a positive test result from a standard urinalysis test would not “provide an employer with any indication as to whether the substance may have been ingested while their employee was on the job,” the guide explains.

This complicates an employer’s ability to determine whether an employee has violated policy by using on the job.

There has yet to be a standard test for cannabis impairment, which presents a challenge for law enforcement as well.

As NPR reported last summer, “Despite the increasingly legal use of cannabis in many states, cops still don’t have the equivalent of a reliable alcohol breathalyzer or blood test—a chemically based way of estimating what the drug is doing in the brain.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 July 2018
Widow Denied Benefits Because Husband Used Pot

“I am frustrated with the system that is saying because he smoked a legal substance, we are going to take away your benefits from you and your kids.”

The widow of a Colorado worker killed in a ski lift accident is being denied half of the workers’ compensation benefits that she would normally be entitled to because her husband had THC in his system, despite the fact that recreational marijuana use is legal in the state.

“I’m scared, and I have no idea how we are going to make it,” Erika Lee told The Denver Channel. “We don’t know if we will get any money, so I’m just looking now at how to survive.”

Lee’s husband Adam was working as an electrician at a ski area when he was killed on the job in December. A toxicology report showed that Adam had high levels of THC in his system. However, current testing is not able to say whether he was impaired at the time, or had just used marijuana recently.

Still, Colorado state law allows employers to cut benefits by half if toxicology reports show drugs in a worker’s system at the time of death. This is true even for marijuana, which is legal to use for medical and recreational purposes in Colorado. Lee says that this means her family—including the couple’s children—will receive $800 less per month than they were expecting.

“I am frustrated with the system that is saying because he smoked a legal substance, we are going to take away your benefits from you and your kids,” Lee said.

Even in states like Colorado where marijuana use is legalized, there continue to be grey areas in the policies around cannabis. This is especially true for workers, who have to follow their employer’s policy as well as state law.

In fact, workers can still be legally fired for using cannabis, even though it is legal in the state.

“This is heartbreaking, and I think this should be a message to marijuana consumers in Colorado,” said Brian Vicente, a Colorado attorney who helped legalize marijuana in the state back in 2012. “We voters spoke loudly and said marijuana should not be illegal for adults. Yet we still have some parts of the Colorado revised statutes that appear to penalize people who are using this substance.”

Lee plans to appeal the reduction to her benefits. However, experts say that the ruling is currently in line with state law.

“As it stands now, with a positive test result, an employer has the right to reduce those benefits,” said John Sandberg, an administrative law judge with Colorado’s Department of Labor.

Lee hopes that by sharing her story other people who use cannabis will be more aware of the potential risks.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 July 2018
Canada Legalizes Marijuana In Historic Vote

Residents are expected to be able to purchase marijuana from licensed producers as early as mid-September 2018.

Canada became the second country in the world to legalize marijuana after the passage of its Cannabis Act in a 52-59 vote on Tuesday, June 19.

Canadian adults will be allowed to carry and share up to 30 grams of legal marijuana in public and cultivate up to four plants in their homes. The country’s provinces and territories will be allowed to draft their own rules for sales, which have been projected to echo the billion-dollar windfall enjoyed by the marijuana industry in the United States.

The government is giving its provinces 8 to 12 weeks to set up their own regulations on sales and more, and residents are expected to be able to purchase marijuana from licensed producers as early as mid-September 2018.

Prior to the passage of Bill C-45, Uruguay was the only country on the planet to legalize marijuana for sale and use. In the U.S., 29 states and Washington, D.C. allow the medical use of marijuana, while nine and D.C. also allow recreational use. Canada introduced the Cannabis Act in 2017, which passed the House of Commons in November of that year before reaching the Senate for final approval.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed the intention of C-45 in a June 19 Twitter post which read, “It’s been too easy for our kids to get marijuana – and for criminals to reap the profits,” he wrote. “Today, we change that.”

Once the bill receives Royal Assent—a ceremony in which Canada’s governor general, Julie Payette, will officially approve the measure—only adults ages 18 or 19 years or older (depending on the province or territory) will be allowed to legally purchase “cannabis, dried cannabis, cannabis oil, cannabis seeds or cannabis plants” from licensed retailers, both at brick-and-mortar locations and online.

According to the BBC, edibles will not be available for purchase by the proposed September launch date, but are expected to reach markets within a year’s time to allow the government to establish regulations for such projects.

They can also grow up to four plants per household—not per person—for personal use as long as the seeds are bought from a licensed supplier, and make cannabis-related products in their home as long as the plants do not use dangerous organic solvents.

C-45 will also establish a new offense of up to 14 years in prison for selling cannabis to minors, as well as “significant” penalties for individuals who involve minors in cannabis-related offenses or drive under the influence of cannabis, and will impose restrictions on how marijuana is promoted to young people, such as through the use of celebrity or animal/cartoon character images.

Provinces will also decide where cannabis will be sold to the public. As CNN noted, Alberta will make it available at more than 200 private retailers, while buyers in Ontario will only find it in state-run stores, and Newfoundland/Labrador residents will be able to purchase cannabis along with their groceries at the Loblaw supermarket chain.

With Canadian sales of marijuana in 2015 estimated at about $4.5 billion—nearly the same amount spent on wine—cannabis industry observers have suggested that the country may see annual revenue as high as $5 billion.

Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau said that the excise tax revenue will be split 75/25 between provincial government and the federal government for the first two years after legalization.

View the original article at thefix.com

22 June 2018
Marijuana's Unknown Health Impact Leaves Experts Concerned

The drug’s Schedule I designation has limited research on the effects of cannabis and one expert says this is cause for major concern.

Sixty-one percent of Americans now believe that marijuana should be legalized, but one expert says that among growing acceptance of the drug, people need to remain aware that cannabis can cause real health concerns.

“It’s a giant experiment,” Christian Hopfer, a professor of psychiatry at University of Colorado School of Medicine, told The New York Post.

Hopfer, who voted against recreational cannabis legalization in Colorado, is co-leading a $5.5 million study of 5,000 sets of twins funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study will examine the impact that legalization of cannabis has on mental health and substance use, as well as giving information on how using marijuana affects health.

Despite the fact that research on the effects of cannabis has been limited by the drug’s Schedule I designation, Hopfer says that some health consequences have been well-established.

“Smoke a couple times a day and marijuana will knock off your memory. That is pretty certain,” he said.

He rebuked the claim that people will use marijuana whether it is legal or not.

“There is no question that legalization has a normalizing effect on something that used to be against the law,” he said. “By age 21, 98% of the population has had a drink. But only 10% of the population has tried cocaine, and 50% [have] tried marijuana.”

Hopfer is particularly concerned about the fact that teens could become exposed to marijuana more frequently, despite the fact that other research has shown no increase in teen marijuana use when the drug is legalized. Though a recent study found that while teens are abstaining from drug use, when they do decide to use, they are choosing marijuana as their first drug.

However, teens who do use the drug face severe consequences, said Hopfer.

“If you start smoking pot as a teenager, you have a four times higher likelihood of getting addicted,” he said. “The brain of a teenager is more sensitive to the effects than the brain of an adult would be. [Marijuana] is likely to have a more detrimental effect on kids.”

Despite claims that marijuana is not addictive, an estimated three million Americans have marijuana use disorder, he added.

“You can’t stop and you give up other things to keep using,” Hopfer says. “People go to work stoned and are stoned with their loved ones. Performance in life and on the job both get negatively impacted.”

Another public health risk associated with marijuana occurs on the road. In Colorado, marijuana-involved traffic fatalities have doubled since the drug was legalized, according to the Denver Post. In general, states with legal marijuana have about 3% more traffic accidents reported to insurance companies than states where cannabis is prohibited.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 June 2018
How US Public Schools Are Taking Action Against The Opioid Crisis

From drug searches to peer-support groups, schools across the nation are taking a number of approaches to combat the opioid epidemic.

Some high schools aren’t wasting time and are confronting the opioid crisis head-on.

According to CBS 6 News, Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, New York is one such school. At the high school, drug searches with police K-9s take place about twice per month, says Saratoga County Deputy Sheriff Ken Cooper, who serves as the school resource and emergency liaison officer.

“Kids start out with marijuana use, they don’t think that the next thing is heroin or another drug, but it is,” Cooper told CBS.

During the searches, trained K-9s locate any illegal items in a student’s locker. If the dog finds something, it scratches at a locker or barks. According to Cooper, students have reacted mostly positively to the searches.

“I think overall students, parents are OK with us coming in and searching. They don’t want drugs on campus,” he tells CBS.

Another step being taken at the high school is stationing school resource officers throughout, with the hope that students will feel comfortable talking to them if they have friends who may be using drugs.

“We want them to give us the good information, so we can actually help,” Cooper told CBS.

Additionally, CBS reports, the school has trained teachers, school nurses and other staff members about the signs of substance use disorders. The school also advertises a help hotline and students are even learning about opioids in their health classes.

Shenendehowa High School isn’t alone in taking an early approach to the crisis.

In Lakewood, Ohio, a peer-to-peer approach is being taken. High school students have partnered with a nonprofit called Recovery Resources of Cleveland and have created the Casey’s Kids program, according to Cleveland.com. In the program, high schoolers chosen by health teachers and counselors work to educate middle school students about substance use disorders.

“There’s a lot of research that says kids sort of have better outcomes in this program when it’s delivered by other kids. They’re more apt to listen and trust information that’s delivered by other kids,” said Lakewood City Schools’ Teaching and Learning Director Christine Palumbo.

Some states are even passing laws requiring schools to educate students about the opioid crisis, according to Education World.

In 2014, New York passed a law requiring schools to update their health curriculums to teach students about the opioid crisis.

Recently, Maryland followed suit and passed the Start Talking Maryland Act, which mandates that public schools educate students about the dangers of opioid use, beginning in the third grade. The bill also mandates that nursing staff be trained to administer the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone.

“It’s a crisis that we need to identify and make educators as well as parents aware of it, and provide the resources to deal with it,” Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D), the bill’s lead sponsor, told The Baltimore Sun.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 June 2018