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{{/_source.additionalInfo}}The UK Mail on Sunday PUBLISHED: 25 March 2018
Britain could set off a schizophrenia timebomb if it ignores the dangers of super-strength ‘skunk’ cannabis, one of the UK’s most eminent psychiatrists warns today.
Strong evidence now shows that smoking potent forms of the Class B drug increases the chance of psychosis, paranoid delusions and schizophrenia.
But too many people – from teenagers to top officials – have little idea of the terrible toll it can take on the mind, says Professor Sir Robin Murray.
Prof Murray, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said: ‘I don’t think any serious researcher or psychiatrist would now dispute that cannabis consumption is a component cause of psychosis.’
He warned that:
MRI scans reveal that long-term use of skunk shrinks the hippocampus – the part of the brain essential for regulating emotions and long-term memory – by 11 per cent
March 19, 2018
The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco.
"People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana.".
He started thinking: San Franciscans would never tolerate those levels of cigarette smoke in a public place anymore. So why were they OK with smoke from burning pot? Did people just assume that cannabis smoke isn't harmful the way tobacco smoke is?
So far, Springer and his colleagues have published research demonstrating that second-hand smoke makes it harder for the rats' arteries to expand and allow a healthy flow of blood.
With tobacco products, this effect lasts about 30 minutes, and then the arteries recover their normal function. But if it happens over and over — as when a person is smoking cigarette after cigarette, for example — the arterial walls can become permanently damaged, and that damage can cause blood clots, heart attack or stroke.
Springer demonstrated that, at least in rats, the same physiological effect occurs after inhaling second-hand smoke from marijuana. And, the arteries take 90 minutes to recover compared to the 30 minutes with cigarette smoke. Springer's discovery about the effect on blood vessels describes just one harmful impact for non-smokers who are exposed to marijuana. State-wide sampling surveys of cannabis products sold in marijuana dispensaries have shown that cannabis products may contain dangerous bacteria or mould, or residues from pesticides and solvents.
But even if the cannabis tests clean, Springer says, smoke itself is bad for the lungs, heart and blood vessels. Other researchers are exploring the possible relationship between marijuana smoke and long-term cancer risk.
Certainly, living with a smoker is worse for your health than just going to a smoky concert hall. But, Springer says, the less you inhale any kind of smoke, the better.
"We in the public health community have been telling them for decades to avoid inhaling second-hand smoke from tobacco," Springer says. "We have not been telling them to avoid inhaling second-hand smoke from marijuana, and that's not because it's not bad for you — it's because we just haven't known. The experiments haven't been done."
Antismoking campaigners say we can't afford to wait until the research is complete. Recreational pot is already a reality.
Cynthia Hallett is the president of Americans for Non-smokers’ Rights, based in Berkeley, Calif. The organization was established in 1976, before there was a lot known about the health effects of second-hand smoke from tobacco..
Hallett says some of the arguments being made in support of cannabis remind her of the arguments made on behalf of tobacco decades ago.
"I'm seeing a parallel between this argument that, 'Gee, we just don't have a lot of science and so, therefore, let's wait and see,' " Hallett says. "The tobacco companies used to say the same thing about tobacco cigarettes."
In California, smoking cannabis is prohibited anywhere tobacco smoking is prohibited — including schools, airplanes and most workplaces. Hallett is worried that the legalization of pot could be used to erode those rules.
It starts with the premise of decriminalization, she says, and then, over time, there's "a chipping away at strong policies."
"This is the first time that I have heard second-hand smoke in reference to cannabis," admits Lee Crow, a patient-services clerk at Magnolia. "I've tried to be courteous — just common courtesy, like with anything."
The dispensary's director of clinical services, Barbara Blaser, admits she thinks a lot about second-hand smoke from cigarettes, but not pot.
"Both of my parents died of lung cancer!" she says. "I will stop a stranger and say, 'You shouldn't be smoking. My dad died of that!' "
California's Proposition 64, approved by state voters in 2016, requires that some of the state tax revenue from the sale of marijuana to be distributed to cannabis researchers. In addition, the state's Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is examining workplace hazards that are specific to the cannabis industry.
This story is part of NPR's reporting partnership, local member stations and Kaiser Health News.
13/2/18Bottom of Form Mixing Alcohol and Marijuana Amplifies THC in the System
Three news stories exemplify the tragic results of mixing alcohol and marijuana before getting behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. Most recently, a suspected-DUI driver crashed into a California Highway patrolman in a parked vehicle on Christmas Eve. Andrew Camilleri, 33, died instantly. He left behind a wife and three children.
A driver who drank alcohol and smoked marijuana killed CHP Officer Andrew Camilleri, on Chrstmas Eve.
A New York teen admitted that he used both marijuana and beer before the crash that killed his 16-year-old friend on August 31. Another 14 year-old in the vehicle was injured. Authorities have charged the teen with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. Yet, the teen claimed that he didn’t feel that he was ‘messed up.’ He said that he had taken 3 or 4 hits of a joint, and drank from two partial cans of beer. But when driving, he “encountered a deer on the road and swerved to avoid it,” leading to the crash.
Associated Press Published: February 12, 2018
This July 7, 2017, photo taken the FBI and released via the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle shows the aftermath of a cabin on Delta Flight 129 from Seattle to Beijing, after authorities say flight attendants struggled with a passenger who lunged for an exit door. A Florida man who brawled with flight attendants and passengers when he tried to open the exit door of a Delta Air Lines flight bound from Seattle to China has pleaded guilty to four felony charges. The Seattle Times reports 24-year-old Joseph Daniel Hudek IV, of Tampa, pleaded guilty Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, in U.S. District Court in Seattle to one count of interfering with a flight-crew member and three counts of assault on an aircraft with a potential deadly weapon.
SEATTLE — A Tampa man who authorities say wielded a wine bottle in a brawl with flight attendants and passengers as he tried to open the door of a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to China has pleaded guilty to four felony charges.
Joseph Hudek IV, 24, entered the plea Friday in federal court in Seattle to one count of interfering with a member of a flight crew and three counts of assault on an aircraft with a potential deadly weapon, The Seattle Times reported.
The plea came after Hudek filed an affidavit with the court stating that he bought and ingested "edible marijuana" in Seattle just before his flight.
"Later, while on the airplane and after I had consumed the marijuana, I began to feel dramatically different," Hudek said in the document…