Marijuana-Flavored Candy Sold In Tri-State Stores - :: Cincinnati news story :: LOCAL 12 WKRC-TV in Cincinnati
Marijuana-flavored candy is making its way into some [Cincinnati Area] stores and raising some eyebrows.

Chronic Candy has hemp oil in it, and you can find the novelty lollipops in some smoke shops.

Weed-flavored candy is popping up in some smoke shops in the Tri-State. But, good luck trying to find someone who has ever heard of lollipops that taste like marijuana.

“I was intrigued (when first hearing about marijuana flavored candy),” said Kathleen Szabo, never heard of Chronic Candy. “But it was the first I’d ever heard of it.”

“It kind of smelled like dirt,” said Michelle Taylor, never heard of Chronic Candy.

The lollipops are called Chronic Candy and have names such as OG and Train Wreck.

But, how high can you get off Chronic Candy? Turns out, you can’t.

They’re flavored with hemp oil from marijuana plants, but they don’t have any traces of THC, which causes the high people get from pot.

So, if you’re looking to get a buzz, you’ll have to get it somewhere else.

“If people want to eat candy that tastes like marijuana that’s cool, but if it doesn’t get you high, what’s the point?” asked Gene Fine, [who] never hear[d] of Chronic Candy.

The point for the makers of Chronic Candy is making cash.

On their website, they point out the candy is perfectly legal.

While some worry the candy sends the wrong message to kids, others say as long as it’s legal, they don’t see a problem.

“I guess it shouldn’t be marketed to children,” said Szabo. “But it should exist because people have the right to choose things like that if they want to.”

The company’s website says the lollipops are made for adults and sold only in age 18 and over stores.

What I don’t understand in all of this is why lollipops are a bad message specifically for kids, as if adults don’t eat candy.  The candy makers aren’t putting these on the low shelves in a 7-Eleven along with the Snickers and gummi bears - they’re selling it in over-18 smoke shops!

And again, we’re back to the idea of whether a taste should be permitted.  I don’t understand how the non-drug hemp-oil is an acceptable product when it is in a hand lotion or a vitamin capsule.  I’ve seen hemp products like those for sale at the local Target store and nobody was carding minors if they tried to purchase them.  Plus, it’s not as if there are a whole lot of kids eating marijuana; it is usually smoked and that taste is completely different than the taste of the eaten plant.

Finally, as a commenter on our earlier story about the ban on pot-flavored candy in Georgia said, “I remember buying tequila-flavored lollipops that even had the worm in them” as a kid.  How is it that didn’t turn him into a raging alcoholic?

Teen Marijuana Use Linked to Later Illness - washingtonpost.com
Teenagers who smoke marijuana put themselves at risk for future mental illness and higher rates of depression, according to a report to be released today by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Although fewer teens overall are smoking marijuana, the report said, there is growing concern that those who do, particularly those who view the drug as a way to cope with depression, do not understand its consequences. It also is not clear whether their parents, who might have indulged when they were younger, understand the risks, experts say.

The report, whose release coincides with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, said studies show links between marijuana use and risk of mental illness later in life, and that use could increase the risk by as much as 40 percent.

Teenage girls who smoke marijuana are particularly at risk, the report said. It found that teen girls who smoke marijuana daily are more likely to develop depression than those who do not.

The report also found that teenagers who smoke marijuana at least once a month are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users. It said that even though the percentage of teens who are depressed is equal to the percentage of adults who say they are depressed, teenagers are more likely to seek solace in marijuana or other illicit drugs.

“Significant numbers of teenagers are self-medicating,” said John P. Walters, director of the White House office. “They’re turning to marijuana to reduce [symptoms of depression], and [the depression] is getting worse.”

Walters said advances in technology allow researchers to better understand the effect drugs such as marijuana have on brain function. The research being done today “is breaking new ground in showing the role marijuana use is playing in depression,” he said.

[T]he report’s conclusions mirror many of the findings of a 2005 survey of Fairfax County youth. According to that study, Hispanic, Asian and African American teens reported higher percentages of depression than their white counterparts.

Contributing to the risk is the higher potency of marijuana being distributed today compared with what was available in the 1970s, when federal officials began analyzing the drug. A study done last year by researchers at the University of Mississippi found that, since the 1980s, the potency has doubled.

Walters said that despite a drop in usage among teenagers, those who are using are becoming more dependent on it. About 60 percent of first-time users are under the age of 18.

“We forget because we think of marijuana as something that’s the least dangerous of illicit drugs, but far more teens are in treatment for dependency on marijuana than alcohol,” Walters said.

If you smoke the reefers, it’ll make you insane!  Who would have thought we’d get a whole new round of marijuana scaremongering just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month?

I’ll let Dr. Earleywine tear into this new report next Wednesday, but initially, I would have to ask these few questions about the study:

This “report” ignores so many of the factors that lead to teen depression.  Suppose a kid is depressed and he smokes some pot.  Then he’s subject to the stigma of being a “pothead”.  Maybe he gets busted and loses college money, or a job, or gets grounded, or gets sent to jail or rehab - doesn’t that all sound pretty depressing to you?  In other words, did anyone think to control for the effects of the prohibition of pot on someone’s depression?

As for the “40% more likely to develop mental illness” point - could it be that people at higher risk for mental illness tend to use marijuana?  And could you show me, please, where rates of mental illness have risen and fallen along with the rates of marijuana use?  Clearly there should’ve been some massive spike in mental illness after the Summer of Love, right?  No, the rates of mental illness do not seem to fluctuate with the rates of marijuana use.

Minority kids are more depressed than white kids?  While I believe it, what does that have to do with marijuana?

At least they said that marijuana is only twice as potent, and not thirty times more potent like they say in the UK.  But again, they misunderstand the effect of potency on the experience.  More potent marijuana doesn’t cause a more harmful high, it just gets you to the same high by smoking less of it.

Finally, more kids are in treatment for marijuana than ever before because when we catch them with marijuana, we force them into treatment.  When you factor out the people forced by the criminal justice system to attend rehab for marijuana, the numbers of self-referred treatment-seeking marijuana abusers is quite small.

FOXNews.com - Georgia Governor Bans Sale of Pot-Flavored Candy to Kids - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
ATLANTA — Georgia retailers soon will be banned from selling candy flavored to taste like marijuana to children.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Wednesday that bans the sale of “marijuana flavored products” to minors — anyone under 18 — and calls for a fine of up to $500 for each offense.

The measure takes effect July 1st.

It targets businesses that sell the candies with drug-inspired names such as “Kronic Kandy” and “Pot Suckers.”

The law says the candies promote drug use.

Vote Hemp, a national organization that promotes the use of hemp products and tracks legislation, says the measure would make Georgia the first state to ban the sale of the candy to minors.

The reefer madness has gone so far that now lawmakers feel they have to criminalize a taste?  How exactly do you enforce a law like that?  Taste is a subjective experience - a child and I may taste the same piece of black licorice, but she might like it and I think it’s the candy of Satan.  There’s a flavor that should be illegal!

Will Georgia have a state-certified tastologist to verify the sticky-ickiness of the lollipops on a case-by-case basis?  Have scientists in Atlanta come up with a Dynometric Tastometer?  What if we call the lollipop “Ganja Grape”, “Bonghittin’ Banana”, or “Cinnamon Sativa”, but they actually taste like grape, banana, or cinnamon?

How ganja-like must a confection taste before it is criminal?  Certainly the flavor of killer freshly-harvested BC Bud lollipops would be a crime, but can we lower the fine if it tastes like Mexican brick ditchweed overcooked in a poorly-made chocolate brownie?  And is there some epidemic of kids craving the mere taste of weed?  Last I checked, sour was really popular, as is chocolate.

I suppose Root Beer will still be legal, though.  That doesn’t promote any drug use by kids, does it?

Seriously, this is a little like the thought police, isn’t it?

American Civil Liberties Union : Making Sense of Student Drug Testing: Why Educators Are Saying No

WASHINGTON – The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is conducting the latest in a series of regional summits designed to convince local educators to begin drug testing students randomly and without cause – a policy unsupported by the available science and opposed by leading experts in adolescent health, including the Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association, the Association of Addiction Professionals and the National Association of Social Workers.

“Subjecting students to unsubstantiated searches flies in the face of the values taught in our nation’s classrooms,” said ACLU Legislative Counsel Jesselyn McCurdy. “Random drug testing is not only ineffective in preventing teen drug use, it’s counter-productive. We know that the threat of random drug testing can discourage students from participating in the very activities proven to reduce drug use, such as high school sports. It marginalizes already at-risk teens and undermines trust between students and educators.”

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that random drug testing of students involved in extracurricular activities does not violate the Constitution, many state constitutions provide stronger privacy protections, disallowing such testing schemes. For example, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found random drug testing of students unconstitutional under state law in 2003, and the Washington Supreme Court most recently declared it unconstitutional in March of this year.

In addition to exposing schools to costly litigation, studies have found that suspicionless drug testing is ineffective in deterring student drug use. The first large-scale national study on student drug testing in 2003 found no difference in rates of student drug use between schools that have drug testing programs and those that do not. In addition, the results of a two-year trial published last November in the Journal of Adolescent Health concluded random drug testing targeting student athletes did not reliably reduce past month drug use and, in fact, produced attitudinal changes among students that indicate new risk factors for future substance use.

NORML.ORG US: Appeals Court Rejects Challenge To Law Denying Student Aid To Drug Offenders
Opponents of a law that prevents students who are convicted of drug offenses from receiving federal financial aid were handed another legal defeat today.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, upholding a 2006 decision by a U.S. District Court, has refused to reinstate a lawsuit that sought to strike down the law.

In its ruling the appeals court rejected arguments by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation, which filed the appeal, that the federal law is unconstitutional.

The group argued, in part, that denial of financial aid by the Education Department to students who have already served a court-imposed sentence violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy, criminally punishing someone twice for the same offense. But the appeals court said that the federal law’s sanctions cannot be considered criminally punitive, especially in the double-jeopardy context.

So refusing to grant federal aid for students caught smoking pot isn’t a criminal punishment, therefore, it is not double jeopardy.  OK, I guess technically speaking, that is true.  The student isn’t being fined, imprisoned, or put under probation.

But being told you lose your financial aid for school certainly is a punishment, after all, it is called the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty.  A penalty that is not meted out to any other type of criminal - murderers, rapists, arsonists, thieves, con artists, brawlers, embezzlers, traitors, and spies can all receive financial aid, but a pot smoker cannot.

Full Story

End the Drug War Draft!

The Advocate - www.newarkadvocate.com - Newark, Ohio
PATASKALA — A video showing a infant being forced to smoke marijuana by two Pataskala teenagers has been released by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The child, now age 2 but about 18 months old at the time, according to a federal complaint, can be seen squirming on a couch to avoid a marijuana pipe being held in front of her face.

Melvin L. Blevins, 18, and Angel Dailey, 16, have both been charged for the incident — Blevins in federal court and Dailey in the Juvenile Division of the Licking County Court of Common Pleas.

Dailey is the daughter of Don Dailey, 39, and the niece of Tim Dailey, 38, who were allegedly found to have more than a ton of marijuana and millions of dollars in their Harrison Township homes during the March raids.

The Dailey brothers and Blevins were charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, according to a federal indictment released Thursday.

The tape was discovered after Blevins sold a camcorder containing the tape to a Columbus pawn shop on Feb. 18, the federal criminal complaint alleges.

I reported this awful case last week, but I had to follow-up on this since the DEA has now released the video. Remember that the only semi-successful plank in the prohibitionist’s argument is “What about the children?” This video will go a long way toward reinforcing some people’s negative attitudes about marijuana, so it is important that we address the issue and point out that we are as offended by the misuse and abuse of marijuana as they are. Videos like this are why we support responsible regulation of marijuana - we want to make it tougher for those teens to acquire marijuana in the first place.

Fla. Teens Believe Drinking Bleach Will Prevent HIV - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida teens who believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy have prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.Another myth is that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant.

State lawmakers said the myths are spreading because of Florida’s abstinence-only sex education.

They are proposing a bill that would require a more comprehensive approach, the report said.

It would still require teaching abstinence but students would also learn about condoms and other methods of birth control and disease prevention.

The bill just passed its first vote in a committee.

This is the natural consequence of not providing teens with responsible factual information about sex and drugs.

Abstinence-only sex education is the “Just Say No” approach to teen sexual health, and we all know how well “Just Say No” got everyone to stop using drugs. It’s like a prohibition of biological facts. And for years we’ve told kids reefer madness lies like smoking pot will cause infertility (which, of course, is why there are no Rastafarian babies, right?  One of my good friends and member of Oregon NORML sent this photo of the results he and his wife achieved last week after years of extensive, er, research into marijuana/fertility argument.)  So when we tell them lies about marijuana and withhold the truth about birth control, is the belief that smoking pot prevents pregnancy that surprising?

Some parents will complain that sex education belongs at home.  That’s a laudable goal, but completely unrealistic.  Not every child benefits from a loving, stable home with forthright parents ready to dish about the birds and the bees.  So it is more realistic to teach teens about the biological facts about sex and the proper ways to remain healthy.  Yes, sexual abstinence at a young age is morally preferable for some and definitely the safest way to prevent pregnancy and STDs, but should a teen who does decide to act on those powerful adolescent hormones deserve an unwanted pregnancy or a death sentence due to ignorance?

Similarly, while we all agree that we’d prefer teens to not smoke marijuana, the fact is that some will, whether it is illegal or not.  So should we provide them with the facts, or should we allow their drug ignorance to spill over into sexual ignorance?

Both issues come down to frightened adults not wanting to “send the wrong message” to young people.  They fear if we tell kids about condoms and birth control and that marijuana use isn’t so awful and can be medicinal that we will encourage such behaviors by kids.  Instead, the message we send through abstinence and prohibition is that pregnancy and STDs and marijuana use and abuse are so dreadful that if you have sex and smoke pot, you deserve whatever bad consequence results from your ignorant actions.

Teen charged with giving toddler marijuana - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
NEWARK, Ohio - A central Ohio teenager has been charged with giving a toddler marijuana.Sixteen-year-old Angel Dailey was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to charges of corrupting and endangering the child, according to police.

Prosecutors said they were tipped after a videotape was found in recorder traded in at a Columbus pawn shop. A juvenile complaint said Dailey “participated in the administration and holding the child while causing her to ingest marijuana and/or illegal drugs.”

Prosecutors said they are not clear about Daily’s relationship with the toddler.

I’m seeing more and more stories like this, where young adults or teenagers are charged with forcing or allowing kids as young as four years old to use marijuana. This is certainly not what we mean by “responsible adult use of marijuana”. Forcing anyone to use any drug against their will is a crime.

The prohibitionists are going to paint this as the inevitable consequence of people’s use of drugs. The “what about the children” argument is one of the few roadblocks that remain in re-legalizing marijuana. So it is important that we acknowledge these stories, and then point out that some young adults and teenagers may force or allow children to use alcohol, but it doesn’t logically follow that we should prohibit alcohol again. Or that some people are irresponsible gun owners and leave their weapons in places where children can find them, but it doesn’t logically follow that we ban all guns. The logical response is to tightly control and regulate alcohol, firearms, and drugs, and the complete prohibition of drugs is the opposite of tight control and regulation. Prohibition is the abdication of the control of drugs to a criminal underground.

We should remind people that legal or not, a tiny minority will misuse marijuana in an irresponsible way. But if marijuana were legal, we’d have tighter controls on teenagers having access to marijuana and no prohibition profit to motivate underground dealers. Teen use of marijuana in the Netherlands, where marijuana is tolerated, is half that of the US.

OMAHA, NEBRASKA - A 4-year-old girl being questioned about alleged child abuse volunteered the information that her mother and her mother’s boyfriend had taught her to smoke marijuana.Omaha Police Officer Sarah Spizzirri testified in Douglas County Court on Wednesday that the girl began talking about “smoking joints” with her mother, Lisa Schuchard, 25, and Christopher Gladden, 23, during an interview Feb. 13.

The 4-year-old told the Project Harmony worker that Schuchard and Gladden smoke joints “and that she also smokes joints,” Spizzirri said. “She described that she also smokes from a bong.”

Spizzirri, who observed the interview, asked the interviewer to take a break so they could decide how to make sure the little girl was not just talking about watching her mother smoke marijuana.

When the interview resumed, the girl said “that she breathes the smoke in and breathes it out and then coughs,” Spizzirri said. “Then, she said, everybody would laugh.”

The girl also demonstrated how to use a bong by cupping her hand “in a circle” and “tilting the bong toward her while lighting it,” Spizzirri said.

Spizzirri’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing on whether Schuchard should stand trial on a charge of felony child abuse. Schuchard faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Doug Johnson, Schuchard’s public defender, asked Spizzirri if she was aware that the child had tested negative for marijuana. Spizzirri said she had been told of the test results.

Johnson argued that smoking marijuana in front of children, while not smart, is not a crime and that a more appropriate charge would be misdemeanor child abuse.

Judge John Huber disagreed and referred Schuchard’s case to Douglas County District Court, where she will face the felony charge. He also kept Schuchard’s bail amount at $25,000. She must pay 10 percent, or $2,500, to be released from jail.

There is so much wrong with this story, which I brought to you back in February. While everyone focuses on the mom who allegedly taught her four-year-old how to smoke pot, not much is made of the fact that the child protective services were called because the girl showed signs of physical abuse - a bruise to her cheek and bruises on her backside and upper thighs. The boyfriend, Gladden, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor child abuse counts for hitting her with a belt and slamming a door into her cheek.

But the boyfriend only got six months, because he immediately pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors. The mom held out, since she says she never hit her kids. In the meantime the child tells the bong smoking story, so now the mom is facing a felony count and five years. The boyfriend can’t be tried for that because it would amount to double jeopardy.

Also lost in the noise is the police report that the kids had easy access to the guns that were in the house. Now there should be where a felony child abuse case should be made. The gun could kill the kid, the marijuana could not.

Furthermore, the child tested negative for marijuana metabolites, and we all know how long those stay in the system. Can the state even prove that the child smoked marijuana, or is it possible the child saw marijuana smoking and is imitating it, like children do?

Regardless, even if the child did smoke marijuana, it’s not a crime that should be punished more severely than beating the kid with a belt and hitting the kid with a door. I could understand a felony charge for giving the kid cocaine, heroin, or meth, because any dosage of those could kill the kid. But no dosage of marijuana will kill the kid, and it would take repeated heavy doses (the kind that would show up on a metabolite screen) to inflict any serious damage.

I don’t at all advocate allowing anyone under eighteen to smoke marijuana without strong medical need and supervision. But I place allegedly making the four-year-old smoke marijuana as worse than letting her drink sugary caffeinated sodas and fat-laden drive-thru meals, but better than letting her smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.

And no, this is not another April Fools joke (and sorry if you were offended by the “marijuana is now legal” story - someday it will be a real news story, I promise!)

11Alive.com - Sen. Stoner Targets Stoner Pops
ATLANTA — A Georgia state senator with the last name “Stoner” has put his name on a bill to ban the sale of so-called “Stoner Pops” to minors. The legal lollipops taste like illegal marijuana and critics say they help hook youngsters on the real thing.

Students from Osborne High School were among those lobbying for passage of the bill. They argued that the chronic candy is sold on the street in a style that resembles the sale of real drugs. The message to children is that marijuana is cool.

The bill, which which make the sale of pot lollipops punishable by a short prison stay and fine up to $1,000, has failed to gain momentum in the Senate for three years in a row. The students say that Georgia senators are missing their real-life experience and that using chronic candy leads to the use of the real thing.

“I know several people who’s addicted to marijuana and other drugs like heroin and cocaine and I’m just tired of seeing my fellow youths suffering from stuff like this,” said Percy Broussard.

“It’s an issue I don’t think people are aware of so if by having my last name is a way to bring attention to it, by me carrying the bill, I’m more than happy to do that,” said Sen. Doug Stoner.

The measure is 36th in a line of 36 bills scheduled for a vote Tuesday. If a vote is not made before the end of the day, it will move back into committee. Sen. Stoner said he will work to push the bill back on the Senate floor Wednesday, hoping for a vote before the Legislature adjourns on Friday.

The comedian Bill Hicks once said, “Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit… unnatural?” It’s really quite surreal to me when I watch music videos and they blur out the marijuana leaf on some rapper’s hat. It’s so dangerous we can’t even be shown the leaf! Now we want to make a taste illegal?

It reminds me of when they banned candy cigarettes… remember those? That little chalky piece of sugar, with a bit of powder on it so when you breathed it made little puffs of “smoke”; I used to get those all the time. Then one time, as a child of ten, I snuck out some of my dad’s cigarettes and tried the real thing. I gagged and puked and to this day, I think I’ve smoked seven cigarettes in my lifetime.

Marijuana and cigarettes don’t really need any sort of candy advertisement to make them look cooler to kids. We’ve seen that it’s education and strict regulation that has reduced the numbers of teen cigarette smokers. I’m not sure I understand how the taste of marijuana is supposed to lead kids to smoking it; people who are smoking it now aren’t smoking it for the taste. People who use marijuana don’t take it in a lollipop form and when you’re craving a lollipop, hemp is not the tastiest flavor that comes to mind (that would be sour apple Jolly Ranchers… but I digress).

Is it the name, “Stoner Pops”? What if they were called “Cannabis-flavored confections”? What if we make marijuana-flavored bagels, will those be forbidden to sell? What if they are sold as lollipops, but they only slightly taste like marijuana and we call them “Nature Pops”?

This is how Senator Stoner wants to spend valuable Georgia taxpayer time and money, criminalizing lollipops that contain no illegal drugs? The War on Marijuana gotten so surreal that we’re banning sights and tastes.

New Hampshire’s House passing a decrim measure has sent shockwaves through the state. While the editors at the Union-Leader newspaper tremble at the notion, over at the Nashua Telegraph a man uses the debate over the bill as a teachable moment for his daughters.

Nashuatelegraph.com: Pot bill an education for this man’s daughter
Although the House of Representatives has taken the bold step of passing the measure, it is already being called dead on arrival in the Senate. If it passes that hurdle, the governor will surely uncap his veto pen because he feels that relaxing penalties for simple possession of marijuana “sends absolutely the wrong message to New Hampshire’s young people about the very real dangers of drug use.”

My older daughter raises a brow. Her confusion is understandable, since as home-schoolers, they get their messages not from the government but from responsible parents and mentors.

Marijuana is but one of many temptations she and her sister will face along the way – temptations that warrant their staunch rejection, at the very least, until they have physically matured. Once they reach adulthood, they will be free to make reasoned decisions about what substances they may put in their bodies. Or will they? As adults in America, they will be free to get themselves hopelessly addicted to tobacco, and they will be free to poison themselves with alcohol.

But as an adult citizen, if they use cannabis tincture to quell premenstrual discomfort the way Queen Victoria did, they will risk losing their rights and freedoms.

My daughters know that last year we spent over $40 billion fighting the war on cannabis and that over 800,000 Americans were arrested for the victimless crime of simple possession. They also know that although no one has died from an overdose, cannabis is not a substance children should experiment with.

AMNews: Editorial - March 24/31, 2008. Question for patients: What’s in your medicine chest? … American Medical News
Prescription meds have become drugs of choice for abusers, young and old. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly one in 10 high school seniors admits to abusing pain medicines.

Moreover, Office of National Drug Control Policy data indicate that each day an estimated 2,500 young people ages 12 to 17 abuse such medications for the first time. More teens abuse prescription drugs than any illicit drug, except marijuana. They report mixing these meds together or with over-the-counter pills, cough syrups or alcohol. The result can be respiratory failure or even death. Related emergency department visits, for instance, increased 21% from 2004 to 2005. Still, 40% of teens and an almost equal number of parents think abusing prescription pain killers is safer than abusing street drugs.

But the problem reaches well beyond the teen years.An estimated 7 million Americans by the DEA’s count abused prescription drugs in 2005 — more than the number abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined. That number was just 3.8 million in 2000. Misuse of painkillers represents the biggest slice.

Among the reasons the problem is so pervasive is that access to the drugs is so easy. Although some abusers go to lengths such as doctor shopping or pharmacy theft to gain a fix, many abusers report that they get the meds from friends or relatives, or from raiding unused pills left forgotten in their homes.

This is a natural extension of giving mixed messages to our children about drugs in our society. We bombard them with ad campaigns to “Just Say No”; meanwhile they are also bombarded with beer and liquor and pharmaceutical advertisements. We tell them there is one class of drugs that are the bad drugs and another class that are the good drugs when some of the good ones are much more harmful than the bad ones. We need to inform our children that every drug - legal or illegal - can be abused and can be harmful, and to provide our kids with factual information about the risks of each.

This news release just in from MPP:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Drug Czar John Walters’ scheduled appearance at a press conference this morning to announce a new SAMHSA report on the dangers of teen inhalant abuse flies in the face of his office’s misplaced priorities, officials of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. said today. MPP noted that Walters’ just-released National Drug Control Strategy virtually ignores deadly inhalants while continuing Walters’ obsessive focus on marijuana, the least dangerous of illicit drugs.

“It’s long been known that inhalants kill, but John Walters has ignored the problem since he became drug czar, while maintaining an obsessive focus on marijuana,” said Aaron Houston, MPP’s director of government relations. “The 2008 National Drug Control Strategy mentions inhalants exactly twice, once in a graph and once in the acknowledgments section — but it mentions marijuana 116 times, 28 in the introduction alone.

“As a parent, I’m appalled at the drug czar’s priorities,” Houston continued. “As the media advisory for Walters’ press conference points out, inhalants can kill the very first time you use them, and their use often comes before marijuana or other drugs. We absolutely think kids shouldn’t smoke marijuana, but marijuana has never caused a fatal overdose, and it doesn’t cause the sort of permanent damage to the brain, liver and other organs that inhalants like solvents and paint thinner can. The lives of our children are being sacrificed to John Walters’ obsessive crusade against marijuana, and one window-dressing press conference isn’t enough to change that.”

Walters is scheduled to appear with SAMHSA officials and others at a 9:30 a.m. National Press Club news conference today to discuss the new inhalants report.

Ah, but see, there is no major industry that tests for inhalant use. There isn’t a massive prison/industrial complex dependent on increasing arrests of inhalant users. There isn’t a groundswell of popular opinion to legalize medical use of inhalants. And there isn’t any threat to the budget or the salary of the Drug Czar from the decriminalization of inhalants.

You’re fooling yourself if you believe that this has anything to do with keeping your kids safe. John Walters’ marijuana obsession has a whole lot to do with keeping drug warriors’ jobs safe.

We’re beginning a new feature on the Stash - a weekly contest! I want the Daily Audio Stash and Stash Blog to be more interactive, and that means soliciting comments and questions from all of you.

Here’s how you can win: Just submit your questions to Dr. Earleywine at 420research ‘at’ gmail.com or send them directly to me at stash ‘at’ norml.org. The topic for this contest’s questions goes out to parents:

As a parent, what is your greatest concern about raising your children in the middle of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs? Student drug testing, loss of financial aid, health issues, how to talk to kids about marijuana, whatever your question regarding parenting and marijuana, please send it in.

Three questions will be selected by Dr. Earleywine for response on next Wednesday’s Daily Audio Stash. You will remain anonymous and you will WIN a copy of Dr. Earleywine’s new book, “Parents’ Guide to Marijuana”.

Mom booked, baby born with marijuana in system - NewsFlash - NOLA.com
MONROE, La. (AP) — A newborn was hospitalized after doctors discovered marijuana in his system shortly after his birth and Ouachita Parish sheriff’s investigators arrested the mother.Renita D. Simmons, 18, of West Monroe was booked Wednesday on charges of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile.

Investigators said a caseworker with Glenwood Regional Medical Center called the Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 4 to report a newborn with marijuana in his system.

The caseworker told deputies Simmons gave birth on Feb. 3 and a urine analysis was conducted on the child, according to an incident report.

On Wednesday, the teenage mother admitted to investigators that she used marijuana several times during her pregnancy and used the drug approximately two or three weeks before giving birth, the report stated.

Simmons also admitted to deputies that she knew the drugs could harm her unborn child.

Detectives said that the infant was premature and remained hospitalized as of Thursday.

First of all, does anyone want to take the bet that Renita Simmons is African-American? Studies quoted in the New England Journal of Medicine show that regardless of similar or equal levels of illicit drug use during pregnancy, black women are 10 times more likely than white women to be reported to child welfare agencies for prenatal drug use.

Secondly, use of cannabis by pregnant women has proven to be very effective in relieving the symptoms of morning sickness.

Finally, no one can show that there truly is any significant harm to the fetus or the child resulting from a mother’s use of marijuana.

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