Dalgarno Institute Website - Cannabis Conundrum

Details: 05 August 2022; 69

By Isaac Teo, August 3, 2022

(We do not want this is Australia! However, it will be an inevitability if we continue to give cannabis a free pass, specifically in the ‘medicinal’ context.)

Cases of drug-impaired driving continued to rise for the fourth consecutive year since the Liberal government legalized marijuana in October 2018, according to police data collated by Statistics Canada.

Released on Aug. 2, the study, titled “Police-Reported Crime Statistics In Canada 2021,” found that there were 7,690 cases of drug-impaired driving violations in 2021 compared to 7,621 in 2020.

In 2019, 6,453 such incidents were reported—a 43 percent increase over 2018, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, a department at Statistics Canada, said in its 2019 study released last July.

The latest study, first reported on by Blacklock’s Reporter on Aug. 3, also noted that other marijuana crimes increased last year.

“Drug-impaired driving is a major contributor to fatal road crashes, and young people continue to be the largest group of drivers who die in crashes and test positive for drugs,” said the report, titled “Public Opinion Research On Drug-Impaired Driving.”

“Among those who have operated a vehicle while under the influence of cannabis, most said they did not recognize their behaviour as risky, with two in five (39 percent) reporting they did not feel impaired and one in five (23 percent) believing they could (still) drive carefully.”

The report noted 26 percent of cannabis users have “operated a vehicle while under the influence.”

Cases of Drug-Impaired Driving up for Fourth Straight Year: Statistics Canada

Details: 04 August 2022; 78

Research on pot and sperm quality, gene expression, and child development.

July 28, 2022

KEY POINTS

Paternal consumption of marijuana prior to conception has been found in rodent studies to alter offspring brain development.
Children whose fathers consumed marijuana during their partner's pregnancy may be at higher risk of psychotic symptoms.
Pot consumption can trigger epigenetic changes in gene expression, which fathers can pass along to their children.
Not all human studies of pot's effects on male fertility are consistent. A dose-dependent relationship between pot and male fertility may exist.

Accumulating evidence suggests that a man’s lifetime cannabis consumption can influence his fertility as well as the health and development of his future children. While occasional use may not have terrible consequences, prospective fathers (and their partners) should be mindful of how marijuana use, especially in the months leading up to conception, can affect sperm—and the expression of genes those sperm pass on to offspring.

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Details: 02 August 2022; 69

Cannabis and Limblessness – Here we go again Thalidomide 2.0?

This disturbing evidence has significant ramifications for #publichealth for the entire community. Cannabis as a predictor of limb anomalies was more potent than tobacco or alcohol. Cannabinoid access should be restricted to protect public health and the community genome/epigenome transgenerationally.

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Details: 29 July 2022; 66

Cannabis Harms: An Overview of the Known Neurotoxicity and Thalidomide-like Genotoxicity of Cannabis.

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Details: 27 July 2022; 103

by University of Bath

Researchers from the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath (UK) have systematically analyzed the relationship between the types of cannabis people use and their addiction and mental health problems. Their work draws on 20 studies involving almost 120,000 people.

After alcohol and nicotine, cannabis is the most widely used drug globally. The latest estimates from the UK suggest that over the last year, around one in five individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 had used cannabis.

The new study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, suggests that people who use high-potency cannabis are more likely to experience addiction than those using low-potency products. It also suggests that people using high-potency cannabis are more likely to experience a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia.

These findings may help to explain why more people have received treatment for cannabis problems over recent years. Data from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction show a 76% increase in people entering treatment for cannabis addiction in the past decade.

Lead author Kat Petrilli, from the University of Bath's Department of Psychology, explained, "Our systematic review found that people who use higher-potency cannabis could be at increased risk of addiction as well as psychosis when compared to people who use cannabis products with lower potencies.

"These results are important in the context of harm reduction, which aims to minimize the negative consequences associated with drug use. While the safest level of use for cannabis is of course 'no use,' it is important to acknowledge that a significant number of people across the world use cannabis regularly, and to ensure they can make informed decisions that could reduce any possible harms associated with it."

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