Legal marijuana push gathers steam in Victoria – with powerful union urging government to raise huge amounts by taxing the drug
A powerful health union are pushing for Victoria to legalise recreation cannabis
The Health and Community Services Union want Victoria to grow and sell weed
They argue the billions in tax revenue could be spend on social services
Attention Grabbing Headline with ‘arguments’ that are not only nothing but overused ‘memes’ but that have been proven faulty and, in some instances, utter failures in the real world. But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way of ‘good sound-byte’? (https://twitter.com/LeviJParsons87)
Mantras and messages that sound ‘logical’ (especially to the time poor and pop-culture weary and majority non-weed using citizen) but have no basis in purported outcomes are all part of the Pro-pot propaganda process.
You will note in the article the classic mix-messaging with ‘decriminalisation, legalisation, commercialisation’ terms and/or ideas all thrown into the superficial narrative. Again, that is the idea – create hazy definitions and generate dubious impressions to get the uniformed thinking ‘positively’ about legalising weed as an option. And, of course, throw in the term ‘medical’ and you have people ponding the possibilities of what might be?
Yet, a simple spelunking of the already overwhelming data on just the small sample of evidence below, would inform any caring community, family, and children well-being focused individual, that this is not only a bad idea, but a failed one,
Failed promises of revenue – utterly – net deficits all round, not including blow outs in escalating health costs. (“For every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization.”).
The lack of evidence of anyone being ‘locked up’ for simply using cannabis is breathtaking(“In total, one tenth of one percent (0.1 percent) of all state prisoners were marijuana possession offenders with no prior sentences.” Bureau of Justice Stats) However, it is what the cannabis user does whilst on the drug that gets the criminal charges.
It is time the truth of the short- and long-term harms of Cannabis were as promoted as robustly as the harms of tobacco – harms that go way beyond the litany of physical harms, but also add the devastating psychological harms that profoundly, and often permanently, impact individuals, their families and the community. An already mental health crisis blown wide open.
If you want to go beyond the ‘sound-byte’, for more evidence, not theory, check out…
The Dalgarno institute has long posited the consumption principle that, accessibility, acceptability, and availability all increase consumption, and our 2014 published paper warning of such has proven accurate.
With the misanthropic experiment of cannabis use normalisation and legalisation underway in parts of the United States, Uruguay and Canada, we are now able to better measure the extent of impact. Most research in this arena is still very new and limited, as this social experiment is still in early stages.
Australian Professor John Toumbourou and his Deakin University team in the course of their decade long longitudinal studies of comparison with US and Australian youth investigated the impact of such permission models and found that, “Cannabis legalization is associated with increased risk factors – availability, perceived prevalence, acceptability – leading to increased frequency of use (along with increased potency), increased adult use and similar long term harms.”
Smart Approaches to Marijuana in their “Lessons Learned from State Marijuana Legalization”, saw not only increasing harms from increasing use, but that use amongst 8th, 10th and 12th Graders had increased approximately 40%
Further to that a recently published research in the US only confirms these emerging and public health harming realities.
Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization on College Students: A Longitudinal Study of Attitudes, Intentions, and Use Behaviors.
Purpose: As legal recreational marijuana use expands rapidly across the U.S., there is growing concern that this will lead to higher rates of use among college-aged young adults. Given the limited research addressing this issue, a longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the effects of legalizing recreational use on the attitudes, intentions, and marijuana use behaviors of college students in two different legalization contexts, Washington State and Wisconsin.
Results: Ever use, attitude, and intention-to-use scores did not change significantly more in Washington after legalization than in Wisconsin. However, among prior users, the proportion using in the last 28 days rose faster in Washington after legalization that it did in Wisconsin (p < .001).
Conclusions: The findings suggest that legalization had the greatest effects on current marijuana users, who are surrounded by a climate that is increasingly supportive of its use.
Whilst cannabis has some exceedingly small therapeutic capacities, their limit and efficacy too are small, with only really two to three approved medicines in play, which include Sativex ® and Epidiolex ®. However, that has not stopped the pro-pot, addiction for profit industry misusing medical phraseology to promote their products, regardless of detrimental impact or simple placebo pass offs.
One health peak body is publicly calling out the pro-pot industries propaganda messaging and ensuring the misleading medical meme of ‘medical marijuana’ isn't entrenched in the public psyche. The Dalgarno Institute have consistently challenged this narrative for over 5 years.
At least one national peak medical body has taken deliberate and necessary steps to address that marketing manipulation – The College of Psychiatrists Ireland.
The Department of Health recently produced guidance for doctors in which the terms “medical cannabis” and “medicinal cannabis” were appropriately and carefully avoided. However, when launching the program for the public, the Department of Health opted to call it the Medical Cannabis Access Programme which erroneously promotes the idea of cannabis as a medicine. The Department of Health has now set the precedent where politicians largely bypass the Health Product Regulatory Authority in determining what is and what is not a medicine. This is a slippery slope to legalization, as those with non-qualifying conditions, especially chronic pain, will insist that they too are added. Despite the lack of scientific evidence for efficacy, chronic pain is by far the most common reason for dispensing of cannabis-based products in other countries.
The letter outlined, again what all objective science and best practice adhering agencies embrace; that medicine cannot be ‘voted for’ alone. Robust research and thorough and exhaustive clinical trials must inform legislation and prescription around drug use, not emotionally and/or market manipulated political sentiment.
Words matter, and marketers know this – not least the addiction for profit cannabis industry. As far back as 1993, the agenda of using ‘medical marijuana’ was set in motion to ‘convince’ the public that this substance was not only ‘relatively harmless’, but potentially ‘good for you.’
Important to mention also, it is not just Irish Psychiatry that are calling for the upholding of right standards and best-practice, other international peak bodies have been challenging this fallacious narrative of the ‘medical marijuana’. The International Academy on the Science & Impact of Cannabiscontinue bring science and fact to the table, along with another international peak body and academic Think Tank, The Society for Prevention Researchhave joined a growing chorus of concerned scientists, doctors, and researchers challenging not only the over-reaching claims of the industry, but this disturbing process of community misleading manipulation.
Of course, as a significant part of the Dalgarno Institutes education, advocacy, and resourcing mission, we continue to seek to inform the public about the facts being ‘buried’ by pop-culture manipulated and relentless evidence excluding marketing. You will continue to find news and research on Cannabis as Medicine? Along with Cannabis Conundrum and Cannabis Conundrum Continues.
Yours in Better Health and Well-Being, Dalgarno Institute
Insatiable Demand for Cannabis Has Created a Massive Carbon Footprint – And Other Environmental Harms!
Colorado State University researchers provide the most detailed accounting to date of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.
By COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY MARCH 8, 2021
The life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from indoor cannabis cultivation modeled across the U.S. Credit: Hailey Summers/Colorado State University
It’s no secret that the United States’ $13 billion cannabis industry is big business. Less obvious to many is the environmental toll this booming business is taking, in the form of greenhouse gas emissions from commercial, mostly indoor production.
A new study by Colorado State University researchers provides the most detailed accounting to date of the industry’s carbon footprint, a sum around which there is only limited understanding. What is clear, though, is that consumer demand for cannabis is insatiable and shows no signs of stopping as more states sign on to legalization.
The study, published in Nature Sustainability, was led by graduate student Hailey Summers, whose advisor, Jason Quinn, is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Summers, Quinn and Evan Sproul, a research scientist in mechanical engineering, performed a life-cycle assessment of indoor cannabis operations across the U.S., analyzing the energy and materials required to grow the product, and tallying corresponding greenhouse gas emissions.
They found that greenhouse gas emissions from cannabis production are largely attributed to electricity production and natural gas consumption from indoor environmental controls, high-intensity grow lights, and supplies of carbon dioxide for accelerated plant growth.
“We knew the emissions were going to be large, but because they hadn’t been fully quantified previously, we identified this as a big research opportunity space,” Summers said. “We just wanted to run with it.”
The CSU group’s efforts update previous work by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers, which quantified small-scale grow operations in California and predated the cascade of state-by-state legalization since Colorado was first to legalize in 2012. To date, 36 states have legalized medical use of cannabis, and 15 have legalized recreational use.
Mapping variable emissions
Their research shows that U.S. indoor cannabis cultivation results in life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of between 2,283 and 5,184 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram of dried flower. Compare that to emissions from electricity use in outdoor and greenhouse cannabis growth, which is 22.7 and 326.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide, respectively, according to the New Frontier Data 2018 Cannabis Energy Report. Those outdoor and greenhouse numbers only consider electricity, while the CSU researchers’ estimate is more comprehensive, but the comparison still highlights the enormously larger footprint of indoor grow operations.
The researchers were surprised to find that heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems held the largest energy demand, with numbers fluctuating depending on the local climate — whether in Florida, which requires excessive dehumidifying, or Colorado, where heating is more important.
The high energy consumption of cannabis is due in part to how the product is regulated, Quinn said. In Colorado, many grow operations are required to be in close proximity to retail storefronts, and this has caused an explosion of energy-hungry indoor warehouses in urban areas like Denver. According to a report from the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, electricity use from cannabis cultivation and other products grew from 1% to 4% of Denver’s total electricity consumption between 2013 and 2018.
Colorado's legal cannabis farms emit more carbon than its coal mines.
Legal cannabis production in Colorado emits more greenhouse gases than the state’s coal mining industry, researchers analysing the sector’s energy use have found.
Hailey Summers and her colleagues at Colorado State University have quantified and analysed the greenhouse gas emissions produced by cannabis growers.
They found that emissions varied widely by state, from 2.3 to 5.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilogram of dried flower produced.
In Colorado, the emissions add up to around 2.6 megatonnes of CO2e, which is more than that from the state’s coal mining at 1.8 megatonnes of CO2e.
“The emissions that come from growing 1 ounce, depending on where it’s grown in the US, is about the same as burning 7 to 16 gallons of gasoline,” says Summers For complete article go to New Scientist 2021
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Of course, we haven’t even touched on, let alone measured, the impact of the exponentially burgeoning illegal grows, and their contribution to this environmental disaster – including depleting of natural resources at accelerated rate; diminishing water security; potential for growing threat to food security – But the following will give you a little snapshot of what that is beginning to look like…
Water:
To kill bugs, growers soak the plants in chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. The toxic carcinogens are ingested by the consumer or run off directly into scarce water supplies. (Robert Corey)
Fertilizers with high nitrates are of particular concern as nitrate loading contributes to cyanobacteria which kill fish and animals.
Marijuana plants consume 6 to 9 gallons of water per day during the 5-month growing season. There are over 50,000 outdoor cultivation sites, with growers depleting streams and water tables. The average number of plants grown at each site is not determined, but taking a range of 100 to 1,000 plants, the water consumption would range from 4.5 to 45 billion gallons a year. California is already in drought conditions while the illicit marijuana industry is sucking the state dry.
If that’s not enough, what about….
Soil:
Poisons, chemicals, and illegal fertilizers are commonly used in both permitted and unpermitted grows. These are left to leach into and accumulate in the soil.
Marijuana cultivation in California and other states has caused great harm to our wildlife, including endangered species such as the Spotted Owl, Pacific Fisher and Humboldt Marten and potentially irreparable damage to salmon and steelhead populations.
Use of the banned pesticide Carbofuran, so toxic that 1/8th of a teaspoon can kill a 300 lb. bear, has been found at 70% of the grow sites not licensed by the state.
Diversions of streams for marijuana cultivation effectively dewaters all downstream habitat displacing or killing any water dependent species downstream.
Research from February 2017 revealed that 93% of marijuana produced in California was laden with dangerous pesticides, yet neither the state nor federal government acted to stop the distribution. This is a threat to health and safety of Americans throughout the US as, according to State and marijuana industry sources, California supplies 60 to 70% of the entire US black market.
Marijuana (the plant, including hemp) is a bio-accumulator. (It was even used to attempt to clean up the Chernobyl site.) It accumulates heavy metals, poisons, and contaminates (even radioactivity) from the soil and concentrates those poisonous components and elements.
Marijuana corporations have been caught using the notorious Eagle-20 Fungicide on their marijuana plants. Eagle-20 is designed only for outdoor ornamental plants, i.e. outside flowers that you only look at, not plants consumed by humans, and definitely not for indoor enclosed environments. Eagle-20 contains myclobutanil, a chemical which, when heated, turns into hydrogen cyanide, a lethal gas. The effects of this gas are even more pronounced when it is concentrated and stuck into artificial plastic vape pens for heating, which are easier to carry and harder to detect, thus have become the preferred method of consumption for teens, along with glass “dab rigs” that resemble crack pipes.
All Marijuana Users Should Be Tested for Heavy Metal Toxicity
Environmentalism and Drug use are not just incompatible, they are an oxymoron – Yet that is the kicker – Under the influence of psychotropic toxins, and the ‘Stoner Logic’ that ensues, one can convince oneself that ‘everything is fine, and my Weed use really isn’t hurting too much.’
Younger age of first cannabis use or prescription drug misuse is associated with faster development of substance use disorders
A new study shows that in the time after first trying cannabis or first misusing prescription drugs, the percentages of young people who develop the corresponding substance use disorder are higher among adolescents (ages 12-17) than young adults (ages 18-25). In addition, 30% of young adults develop a heroin use disorder and 25% develop a methamphetamine use disorder a year after first using heroin or methamphetamine. These findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics, emphasize the vulnerability of young people to developing substance use disorders.
The younger the initiation to substance use - of any drug - the greater the risk of addiction! This is not news for anyone caring to spelunk the already overwhelming data of drug use impact on the emerging adult.
There is no credible voice in the literature that is denying that there is NO SAFE use of any psychotropic toxin (alcohol included) for the developing brain – up to 25-30 years of age.
Beyond any obvious harms incurred, evidence continues to mount as to the exacerbated risk of developing Substance Use Disorders (SUD). This, of course, is horrendous for anyone, but even more so for the developing brain cohort.
The 'walking back out' of this damaged space is incredibly difficult, and the lost time, potential, capacity, and agency of that drug use experimenting youth cannot really be quantified.
This is yet another vital reason not to increase permission models in relation to Drugs of Dependence. A culture that sets in motion mechanisms that increase access, availability and/or acceptability of drug use, is a 'careless' culture and the intergenerational harms this also facilitates, lands at the feet of those who promote such recklessness.
It's time we stopped this current ‘War FOR Drugs’ and focused, as we did with the anti-smoking QUIT campaign, on preventing, not promoting uptake. One Focus – Once Message – One Voice in all sectors of the community, all focusing on emphasising protective and resiliency building factors into our communities and their families, not demolishing them.
