On Tuesday morning police were called to an elementary school in Meriden, Connecticut, after a four-year old special needs student brought nine bags of marijuana to school with him.

The boy, who attends the grade school in a pre-kindergarten class, took out nine individually wrapped bags for marijuana from his pocket at snack time to share with the other kids, telling them he brought everybody snacks.

In response to the incident, the Meriden Schools Superintendent, Mark Benigni, held a press conference at 4:30pm, saying that the teacher noticed the incident right away, and it was handled quickly by staff and police. It is obvious that the child did not know what he was bringing to school.

Police said that the bags looked like they were portioned out for sale, and as of this afternoon said that they did not know where the child got the marijuana. Both the Department of Children and Families, and the Meriden Police have both opened an investigation.

External Links:
http://easthaddam.patch.com/articles/four-year-old-found-with-marijuana-at-meriden-school

"Don't do something stupid, dude!"

We continue our 2011 Year-End Retrospective with a look at The Top Ten “Stupid Stoner Stories” of 2011.  (Yesterday we looked at The Top Ten Cannabis Science Stories of 2011 and we began on Tuesday with The Top Ten “Reefer Madness” Stories of 2011.  We end tomorrow with The Top Ten People in Marijuana of 2011.)  It’s a segment I’ve done for years now and it still bothers some people.  I always remind listeners that “smoking marijuana does not make one stupid; however, some stupid people do smoke marijuana”.  The point is to learn from the misfortune of others and to teach valuable lessons to the audience (like not wrapping your weed in aluminum foil to take through the airport, or speeding at 3am while smoking blunts in a car with expired tags and no insurance, and so on.)

Stupid exists in all sectors of society.  I want to make clear that the vast majority of cannabis consumers are not these people, any more than most everyone is not a Darwin Award winner.  In many of these stories, the stupid is someone simply wanting police help and wouldn’t even merit a ticket if pot weren’t illegal… so don’t forget that the biggest stupid is prohibiting adult use of marijuana in the first place.

The Top Ten “Stupid Stoner Stories” of 2011 (audio mp3)

10. Man’s dog throws out hash stash for cops

It’s almost unfair of me to classify poor Joel Dobrin as “stupid” for this story.  Except that I always counsel tokers to store their weed in the trunk when they’re on the road, which might have prevented this unfortunate traffic stop.

(The Dalles Chronicle) Joel Dobrin, 32, of San Diego, Calif., …was stopped at around 11 a.m. Feb. 9. Sherman County [Oregon] Sgt. John Terrel, while pulling Dobrin over on a routine traffic stop, reportedly spotted a sock being thrown from Dobrin’s 1998 GMC pickup. According to a sheriff’s office report, the traffic stop yielded some marijuana and hashish.

During the traffic stop Dobrin explained that when Terrel was stopping him, Dobrin attempted to stash his controlled substance. While doing this, Dobrin’s large dog grabbed the sock the controlled substance was stored in and began playing tug-a-war with the drug laden sock. Dobrin and the dog struggled for the sock, but the dog won and ultimately tossed the sock full of drugs out the window. Found in the sock was a user amount of marijuana and some hashish.

9. Note to marijuana smugglers: Make sure your trailer tags are current!

If I had an ounce for every time I’ve read a story about someone getting busted with weed because they were driving a car with expired tags (or a busted taillight, or were speeding), I could replace the weed that was seized in this traffic stop.  Is there not enough profit in smuggling to afford registration renewals?

(Brownsville Herald) An expired license plate caught the attention of a Cameron County sheriff’s deputy, who ended up making one of the largest drug busts so far this year for the sheriff’s department.

The deputy pulled over a tractor-trailer rig Saturday evening on Expressway 77 near Combes. During the routine traffic stop, authorities found 3,103 pounds of marijuana hidden under loads of papayas, Sheriff Omar Lucio said Monday.

The marijuana has an estimated street value of $2.5 million.

8. Locksmiths don’t check warrants or care about your marijuana… but cops do!

Trust me. My brother was a locksmith. They aren’t interested in your “failure to appear” bench warrants and your nickle bag of weed. When you lock your keys in the car, locksmiths are more worried you will freak out at the cost of your careless mistake.

A North Charleston woman called police for help but ended up in jail after being arrested for failure to appear in court and marijuana possession last week.

North Charleston police say 20-year-old Clarissa Johnson called them on Thursday afternoon at 5:20 p.m. after locking her keys in her car in the 3300 block of Goldenrod Road.

When police arrived to help, they discovered that the woman had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court.  After arresting Johnson, police then discovered that she was carrying 1.5 grams of marijuana.

7. Man fails drug test for cocaine, offers pot bribe to test taker to ignore it

Perhaps this is better classified as a “Crazy Cokehead” story…

(Orlando Sentinel) A Deltona man who failed a drug test at a pain-management clinic Thursday tried to bribe a medical assistant with marijuana to keep his cocaine-positive test results under wraps, authorities said.

Jeffrey Hoydic, 40, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell after the Central Florida Pain Management clinic in DeBary contacted the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office about his alleged pot bribe, reports show.

At the clinic, Hoydic was told he tested positive for cocaine and had failed his drug test. After he was told he wasn’t allowed to take any drugs other than what was prescribed to him by the clinic, he allegedly asked the female medical assistant if she smoked and he pulled out five bags, each with a small amount of marijuana.

6. Don’t call 911, trust NORML: Growing pot will get you busted

I am just stunned that this guy didn’t get the memo that growing pot is illegal.  Just so none of you feel the urge to call 911 for grow crime information…

Connecticut Marijuana Laws:  Growing one marijuana plant = Felony, 7 years prison, $25,000 fine.

Federal Marijuana Laws: Growing one marijuana plant = Felony, 5 years prison, $250,000 fine.

(MSNBC) FARMINGTON, Conn. — Police say a Connecticut man called 911 to ask a dispatcher how much trouble he could get into by growing one marijuana plant, then was arrested.

Officers went to [Robert] Michelson’s house and seized a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Michelson has admitted he bought seeds and equipment for growing.

5. Dad Tells Cops 14-Year-Old Stole Weed From His Son

The “stupid stoners” that bother me the most are the parents who involve their kids with marijuana.  It is the worst possible portrayal of our community and “What About the Children?!?” is one of the few powerful propaganda messages that prohibitionists have left.  So remember, this only exists because marijuana is illegal (and therefore insanely profitable) and not bought and sold in regulated stores that check ID.

(The Arizona Republic) An Arizona man was arrested after he told police a 14-year-old neighbor took $400 worth of marijuana from his 16-year-old son and refused to pay for it.

Police in Surprise, Arizona (yes, that’s really the name of the place) found Sean Corwin, 35, beating on the front door of a residence, reports Taylor Hill at The Arizona Republic. He told the cops that an occupant of the home had taken marijuana from his son, according to Sgt. Mark Ortega.

Police said they suspected Corwin had used his son to sell marijuana to the 14-year-old at a nearby park. Cops believe the 14-year-old boy grabbed the cannabis and ran home without paying, leading Corwin to drive to the home to demand payment.

Police found marijuana at the 14-year-old’s home, as well as two more bags of pot at Corwin’s home on West Central Street, Ortega said.

4. Parents arrested for video of 2-year-old smoking marijuana

Remember that this time of year, parents all across North America will consume beer and wine and spirits, often leaving their bottles and glasses in easy reach of the children.  Many pictures will be taken and videos will be filmed – and you won’t read any headlines about those parents going to court.

(Digital Journal) Hesperia – A California couple were arrested after San Bernadino County Sheriff’s department received a tip from an individual who had a video of the parents allegedly allowing their 23-month-old child to smoke from a marijuana pipe.

“(The video) depicts the child placing the (pipe) up to his mouth and he sucks on it, pulls it away, sucks on it, pulls it way. And it’s done about three times,” said Deputy Lisa Guerra of the Hesperia station. “And the pipe does have some marijuana residue in it,” according to the Victorville Daily Press.

Sheriff’s Department Deputy Lisa Guerra, of the Hesperia division, received a tip Saturday that 20-year-old Melanie Soliz and 24-year-old Blake James Hightower were abusive to their child and had given the toddler marijuana. The police were able to confirm the allegations that the child was indeed smoking what appeared to be drug pipe after viewing the video and were then able to locate the pipe after a search of the residence, reports the Daily Press.

I’m having difficulty pinning the stupid in this story – do I mock the stupid that leads a young couple to get their 2-year-old a pipeful of pot to smoke or do I mock the stupid that leads them to video record it or do I mock the stupid that has them giving this video recording to a third party who narcs them out?  It’s like a triple scoop of stupid on this sundae.

3. Wandering toddler on road with bag of weed gets national coverage

LOCH SHELDRAKE, N.Y. — Authorities have charged a 30-year-old New York woman with endangering the welfare of a child after police say her toddler wandered into an upstate road clutching a bag of marijuana.

Police in the Sullivan County hamlet of Loch Sheldrake say Lakeisha Owens was sleeping in her apartment around 5 p.m. Saturday when her 3-year-old daughter was nearly struck by a motorist on Route 52.

Officials say the motorist pulled over, removed the child from the road and called police. Authorities say the child was holding a bag containing 15 grams of marijuana.

Now, if this were just a toddler-wanders-into-road story, it would just be local Hudson Valley news.  It’s the bag of weed that spreads the story across the country, the implication being that here’s a no-good slacker stoner mom who can’t take care of her kids.  Certainly, leaving the half-ounce bag within reach of the child while you’re napping isn’t the most responsible act.  But we are talking about a toddler; it’s not as if there’s any danger of the kid whipping out some Zig Zags and twisting up a spliff. The danger to the kid was in wandering unsupervised on the road.  The kid could have been carrying a bag of potato chips and it would have been just as germane to the story.

2. Rhode Island lawmaker who ripped pot smokers busted for marijuana possession

Rep. Robert Watson, the leader of the Rhode Island House Republicans, drew fire in February when in the General Assembly he said, “I suppose if you’re a gay man from Guatemala who gambles and smokes pot, you probably think that we’re onto some good ideas here.” Watson refused demands to apologize.  Karma’s a bitch, dude.

nydailynews Republican House Minority Leader Robert Watson was arrested in East Haven, Conn., on Friday at a police checkpoint and was also charged with driving under the influence.

“Trace evidence of marijuana was discovered and I was charged with operating under the influence, a charge I vehemently deny,” Watson told the Providence Journal.

The 50-year-old smelled like alcohol and pot, he slurred his words, and his eyes “were extremely glassy and bloodshot,” according to the police report. Authorities found a “small plastic sandwich bag containing a green leafy plantlike substance and a small wooden marijuana pipe.”

His blood-alcohol level was 0.05%, which is below the state’s 0.08 limit.

1. Hotel explosion exposes danger of solvent-based marijuana hashish extraction

Butane hash oil, or BHO, is made through a process of forcing liquid butane through a tube filled with cannabis.  The butane strips the cannabinoids and oils from the plant material, where it collects in a container.  The butane evaporates away and the remaining oil is a very potent, very profitable, easily smuggled preparation of hashish.

Unfortunately, it is not always trained professionals following common-sense safety procedures who are making this BHO.  Sometimes it is a “stupid stoner” who doesn’t understand evaporated butane is a heavier-than-air gas that pools on the floor near pilot lights, switches, and electric heaters.

NEWBERG, OR (KPTV) - Police said a man suffered severe burns early Thursday morning in an explosion involving drugs inside a Newberg hotel room.

Investigators said Newberg-Dundee police officers were called before 3 a.m. to the Best Western Newberg Inn at 2211 Portland Road.

Police said officers found 29-year-old Christopher Thomas Heidt, of McMinnville, inside the hotel with serious burns. Heidt told authorities he was cooking hashish in the room just before the explosion, officers say.

The force of the explosion blew out the windows of at least one hotel room.

Andrea Marie Goe, 26, of McMinnville, and a 2-year-old girl were sleeping inside the room at the time of the blast, investigators said.

Science continues to explain me.

The “Just Say No” generation was often told by parents and teachers that intelligent people didn’t use drugs. Turns out, the adults may have been wrong.A new British study finds children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults than people who score low on IQ tests as children. The data come from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which has been following thousands of people over decades. The kids’ IQs were tested at the ages of 5, 10 and 16. The study also asked about drug use and looked at education and other socioeconomic factors. Then when participants turned 30, they were asked whether they had used drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin in the past year.

Researchers discovered men with high childhood IQs were up to two times more likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-scoring counterparts. Girls with high IQs were up to three times more likely to use drugs as adults. A high IQ is defined as a score between 107 and 158. An average IQ is 100. The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Read more: http://www.kitv.com/family/29768928/detail.html#ixzz1dpZNWWd2

The researchers hypothesize that intelligent kids are more likely to try drugs because they’re more likely to seek new experiences (ding!), feel bored in school (ding!), or cope with feeling different (ding!).  But I think there is another obvious explanation at work: intelligent kids make intelligent decisions.

All our lives we are saturated with cultural messages extolling the virtues of drink.  Every day we are bombarded with commercials for the next magic pill.  So if we take it for granted that (a) humans have a natural innate desire to alter consciousness and (b) our culture promotes the use of drugs and alcohol to alter consciousness, then it follows that (c) a person making an informed choice as to how they’ll alter their consciousness will pick the safer drugs.

The confound in this hypothesis is the report here says “more likely to use illegal drugs… such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin.”    Since most “drugs” being used are “marijuana”, I’m assuming the smarter kids make the smarter choice to smoke weed, but I can’t tease out the IQ vs. cocaine and heroin alone, so it is hard to tell.

I can only go from my own experience.  I was one of those “gifted and talented” kids.  I was kicked ahead a grade in school, placed the 2nd-highest on the citywide Iowa skills test, always made honor roll and took college courses beginning my junior year.  That was the same time I began drinking alcohol.  From age 16 to age 22 my academic performance plummeted and I eventually flunked out of college with a GPA of 1.88 and a BAC of 0.24.

Then at age 22 I smoked my first joint.  My initial thought was “THIS is drugs?!?”  I was so amazed that the herb didn’t give me a hangover, didn’t make me puke, didn’t turn me belligerent, and left me feeling great the next day and yet, the alcohol I’d been chugging was the legal drug.  My drinking tapered off to almost nothing as I became friendlier with the ganja.

Unfortunately, having been lied to about marijuana I figured that I had been lied to about cocaine and methamphetamine as well.  As a curious and thrill-seeking young man, I tried them both.  Meth damn near killed me and as I recovered from an emergency surgery to save my life I pledged to stay away from the hard drugs.  That included the oxycontin and vicodin the doctors prescribed post-surgery; I treated my pain with cannabis, which also beat back the withdrawals from the meth.  Cannabis saved my life from yet another hard drug, first alcohol, then meth… if anything, it was my gateway away from hard drugs.

So I think the study isn’t whether smart kids are more likely to do drugs… it’s that smart kids are as likely to do drugs as anyone else, they just pick the safer ones.

(Digital Journal) Hesperia – A California couple were arrested after San Bernadino County Sheriff’s department received a tip from an individual who had a video of the parents allegedly allowing their 23-month-old child to smoke from a marijuana pipe.

“(The video) depicts the child placing the (pipe) up to his mouth and he sucks on it, pulls it away, sucks on it, pulls it way. And it’s done about three times,” said Deputy Lisa Guerra of the Hesperia station. “And the pipe does have some marijuana residue in it,” according to the Victorville Daily Press.

Sheriff’s Department Deputy Lisa Guerra, of the Hesperia division, received a tip Saturday that 20-year-old Melanie Soliz and 24-year-old Blake James Hightower were abusive to their child and had given the toddler marijuana. The police were able to confirm the allegations that the child was indeed smoking what appeared to be drug pipe after viewing the video and were then able to locate the pipe after a search of the residence, reports the Daily Press.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/302704#ixzz1BV4qUpts

I’m having difficulty pinning the stupid in this story – do I mock the stupid that leads a young couple to get their 2-year-old a pipeful of pot to smoke or do I mock the stupid that leads them to video record it or do I mock the stupid that has them giving this video recording to a third party who narcs them out?  It’s like a triple scoop of stupid on this sundae.

Child abuse? Don't be absurd. This is just a "Funny Beer Drinking Baby". Click her... there are a million or more of us!

These parents will likely be charged with some form of child abuse / endangerment / cruelty and may have to serve time.  Their child will be taken from them for a time.  Prohibitionists will seize the moment to demonstrate why the herb should remain illegal (with a hint of irony, considering prohibition didn’t stop this moment from happening).

Meanwhile, parents all across North America will consume beer and wine and spirits, often leaving their bottles and glasses in easy reach of the children.  Many pictures will be taken and videos will be filmed – like the one below – and you won’t read any headlines about those parents going to court.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m not saying parents should be giving their young child cannabis or alcohol without a good medical reason.  I’m just saying there is a inexcusable double standard at work.

No, no, we said marijuana consumption by pregnant women! You need to chill for about 21 years, mini-Cheech!

A recent article by Storm Crow sheds light on a study that demonstrates a dramatic decrease in infant mortality rates for babies born testing positive for cannabinoids:

A total of 2,964 babies were drug-tested at birth to see if they were positive for drugs – cocaine, opioids or cannabis were studied. 44% of the infants tested positive for all varieties of drugs, including the 3 being studied. During the first two years of their lives, 44 babies from the original group died. Since statistics are a drag to slog through, I’ll cut right to the chase – the deaths per thousand live births – the numbers tell the story.

“No drugs at birth” deaths……. 15.7 deaths per 1000 live births

“Cocaine positive” deaths…….17.7 deaths per 1000 live births

“Opiate positive” deaths…….18.4 deaths per 1000 live births

“Cannabis positive” deaths…. 8.9 deaths per 1000 live births [5]

The cocaine and opiate babies have a higher death rate than the “No drugs” babies – that was to be expected. But look at the “cannabis” babies! Having extra cannabinoids in their bodies at birth (and likely later, from 2nd-hand exposure, or breast milk) seems to have some sort of a protective effect. The “cannabis” infants have a mortality rate almost half of what the “No drugs” infants have!

The study raises many interesting questions.  As I read, these are some of the first questions that came to mind, along with my current research on the topics.  I would have waited to post this until I could find more concrete information, but unfortunately, prohibition interferes with sound science on these issues, so I am just going to share my own thoughts and research with the hopes that it encourages more public outcry for further scientific study.  Much of this is conjecture and guesses, but it is worth asking these questions and evaluating the information currently available and pursuing further research:

1.  What further verification of this study can I find?  Much as I like the info, I know I need to find a credible source for verification and so that others will believe the information.

A credible source was found to document the truth of the data presented by Storm Crow:

Pediatrics:  Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published July 1, 1997;

The above source only contained the summary of the study, and I wanted to see more of the data.  I have learned that statistics and percentages can be very misleading.  Before long, I found the complete study using student access to PSU , and found even more surprising numbers than the above quote by Storm Crow reveals.  The following table itemizes each category of test result; for instance, a positive test for cannabis could also include a positive test for opiates and/or cocaine, so this table further breaks out the categories into cannabis only, morphine (opiate) only, cocaine only and the “total” of all positive cannabis, morphine and cocaine tests (click links to view table and chart):

Infant Mortality Chart

The most interesting thing that stands out to me is that the drug-negative babies were technically MORE likely to die in the first two years of life.  This illustration helps shed light on why the study concludes that there is no significant difference between babies that test positive and those that test negative for maternal drug use, as there isn’t much of a difference between the 13.7 and 15.7 deaths per 1000 live births.

However, in this view of the information, the stark difference between the two cannabis categories and “morphine only” category as compared to the remaining categories is notable.  As a mother who is familiar with at least some of the drugs given at birth, I suspect that the “morphine only” category are those mothers that received some sort of drug during childbirth and/or pregnancy.  The presence of this drug only would most likely indicate proper drug use and not illicit drug use, since this drug is administered by a licensed physician – which could be why the mortality rate of these children is much lower than the other categories.

And the cannabis positive children are definitely in that same range with the morphine only infants.  However, when the two categories of cannabis-positive infants are divided into “cannabis only” and “cannabis positive” (indicating either opiates or cocaine were also present with the cannabis), the information is astonishing.  Of 338 infants born with cannabis in their systems at birth, only 3 total died in the first two years.  All three of those infants had either opiates or cocaine in their system as well, and not a single death was found in the two years after birth in the 157 infants that tested positive for ONLY cannabis!  These deaths include homicide, SIDS, illness, etc.  Not ONE death!

2.  Are infants born to cannabis-consuming mothers less likely to die in the first two years of life, or are the results of this study an anomaly?

I wish I could answer this question conclusively, but this information definitely indicates the need for further study!  I sought out more research on this subject, and could not find much.  I did find an article on the importance of endocannabinoids on pediatric development and disease, the critical role of the endogenous cannabinoids system on mouse pup suckling and growth, and a study on cannabis and breastfeeding that seems to use some good data to make some bad points.

3. Are pregnant mothers less likely to continue their use of marijuana when becoming pregnant, compared to other drugs?

I also noticed that a substantial difference is noted in the positive test results, compared to the usage rates suggested in a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  According to their data for 2002-2009, marijuana has much higher usage rates than all other drugs (ie in 2008, 41% of the study used marijuana in their lifetime, and 10.3% had used it in the past year; contrast that with the total for all drug use (including marijuana) of 47% in their lifetime, and 14.2% in the past year.  Cocaine use was 14.7% in their lifetime and 2.1% in the last year and all other drugs, excluding marijuana, was 30.3% in their lifetime and 8.0% in the last year).  For comparison’s sake, I merged that data into the earlier table side by side with the comparable number (although it is worth noting that the SAMHSA data is both male and female, whereas the Meconium Drug Screen data is only pregnant females, so any gender variances would not be taken into account, as well as other confounding factors).  However, this data is still rather enlightening:

It is complete conjecture, but it appears that pregnant mothers are more likely to give up marijuana than cocaine.  The total positive and negative percentages of drug use, however, were quite comparable.  But cocaine was far more dominant in pregnant mothers than marijuana – unlike the overall usage statistics which seem to show the inverse (a much higher usage rate for marijuana than cocaine).

While this is just conjecture based on these data, it could be concluded that marijuana was not as addictive and mothers were likely to significantly reduce their use and/or quit smoking marijuana all together, as compared to cocaine.  I presume the higher percentage of cocaine positive tests in the pregnant mothers’ results as compared to the general population is probably linked to more risky behaviors resulting in pregnancy among cocaine-addicted women – resulting in a larger percentage of pregnant cocaine users than the general population of cocaine users – but again this is pure conjecture.

4. What is the overlap in concurrent drug use, ie how many cocaine-using mothers were also using opiates and/or cannabinoids?

The first table above gives two categories for each drug, ie cannabis positive and cannabis only.  The cannabis only number is included into the cannabis positive category.  For an easier interpretation of the data, I created another chart using the same mortality rate data, but with more information from the student access of the study.  Some of these numbers are calculated based on the percentages noted in the study, so the “exact” numbers given here may not be as precise as it appears (for instance, the total participants in the study was 2964, but these numbers add to 2961 – these are just rounding errors):

5.  For babies born to cannabis-using mothers, who did not use any other drugs, what is the mortality rate?

I was amazed that I was finally able to access this data, and even more astonished that my initial conjecture that there would be zero deaths among the cannabis only infants is correct.  Not a single death in the first two years of life for the babies that tested positive for cannabis.  Using the data for the drug-negative babies, it would be reasonable to see 3 deaths among this group.  It is possible that this is just coincidence, but it could also indicate a protective effect of cannabis, particularly when considering some of the other studies mentioned above.

6. Should cannabis be included in such a study to evaluate mortality rate in the first two years of life of “drug exposure?”  Or does cannabis skew the results?

Cannabis appears to seriously skew the results of the above study.  Clearly cannabis is starkly different than the other drug categories tested for, and while I wouldn’t throw cannabis out of the studies, I would certainly be looking at cannabis from a different perspective, inquiring about the potential BENEFITS for mothers.  Indeed, cannabis was used for centuries for morning sickness, cramping, and birthing pain – and with the above study in mind – it is definitely worth considering the potential benefits of cannabis in light of scientific advances and understanding.

Monday we brought you the latest figures from the Monitoring the Future survey which showed that for the first time in the 8th, 10th, & 12th grade, more kids are smoking marijuana than cigarettes.  This is due to a dramatic drop in teen use of tobacco, coupled with a slight increase in teen use of marijuana.  Teen use of other drugs has fallen for every illegal substance surveyed but marijuana, so naturally the reefer mad prohibitionists are spinning the data as evidence that the marijuana law reform debate is seducing our children!

(WHSV Virginia) A recently released survey suggests teenagers are smoking more marijuana. Some experts believe that could be because of the increased use of medical marijuana or the fact that it’s readily available.

Like cigarettes, marijuana, commonly referred to as weed or pot, is a gateway drug.

Now I can point you to the surveys showing that teen use of marijuana declined following passage of medical marijuana in each state that did so, at a rate greater than the national average.  The slight uptick over the past two years still doesn’t counter the fact the teen use is far lower now than before California passed Prop 215 in 1996.

But it may be easier to just use their own reefer madness against them.  You say marijuana is a “gateway drug”, yet teen use of all drugs except marijuana has gone down.  So how, exactly, is that gateway working?  Seems to me that some may be switching to marijuana instead of other harmful drugs.

(Injury Board Blog, Lansing, MI) In the survey of 47,097 students, the researchers found that cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and methamphetamine use are down. However, the news on increased marijuana use is discouraging. Furthermore, despite the fact that marijuana is the most popular drug amongst teenagers, the researchers still found an increase in prescription drug abuse in the students, particularly Vicodin and Oxycontin.

So, then, is marijuana use the gateway to legal drugs like Vicodin and Oxycontin?  I doubt it, since teens are informed enough to know that those drugs flush through your system quickly and won’t endanger their spot on the football team, chess club, or student loan application from a random drug test, unlike marijuana.  I think the gateway to prescription drug abuse is parents that don’t strictly control the access to their prescriptions.  Parents that will lock the liquor cabinet in the kitchen to protect their kids often don’t consider locking the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.

White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, attributes the increase in marijuana use to a lack of education about the dangers of smoking pot. He believes that the alarming trend emphasizes the greater need for parents and authorities to increase anti-marijuana campaigns.

Well, of course he does.  Here’s the problem: the last anti-marijuana campaigns you guys tried backfired and caused more teens to want to try marijuana!  Here’s another problem: smoking pot just isn’t all that dangerous.  It’s not harmless – no mind-altering substance is – but you’re not going to overdose, you’re not going to have major withdrawal, you’re not going to get sick and puke, you’re not going to steal to feed your habit, you’re not going to become belligerent and harm others, you’re not going to fry your brain, you’re not going to be poisoning your liver, and you’re not going to get cancer.

If you want to reduce teen marijuana use, as we do, you can’t rely on lies and scaremongering in the age of “the Google”.  Tell a kid that the joint you found in his pocket means a one-way ticket to being an unemployed cancer-ridden heroin junkie and three clicks on a computer will make you a liar.  Then when you need to tell him or her about the real dangers of other drugs you have no credibility.

(Marietta Times) Warren High School sophomore Tylar Kinkade, 16, said she has encountered teen drug and alcohol use since she started high school. The national study indicates about a third of all high school students have used marijuana within the past year.

Kinkade said on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most dangerous, alcohol would be about a three, marijuana a five and prescription drugs would score a nine.

“We’re taught that all drugs are bad, but when it comes to danger, I think most of us think some are more dangerous than others,” she said.

And based on what you’ve been taught, Tylar, it seems you’d feel safer drinking at a house party than smoking a joint.  Teens just like you die every year from binge drinking at parties, but never from smoking a joint, and the “all drugs are bad” education you’ve received is going to lead you to more dangerous choices.  (By the way, I’d give marijuana a 2, prescription drugs a 7, and alcohol an 8.)

(The Californian) A 70-year-old Harden Middle School substitute teacher has been placed on administrative leave while district officials and police investigate whether he had a prescription for the marijuana he brought to school, district officials said.

Harry Williams was cited Tuesday morning on suspicion of possessing marijuana on school grounds.

Police said they questioned Williams, and he admitted the marijuana belonged to him.

He told police he had a note from his doctor allowing him to have the drug for medical reasons. Williams said he forgot it was in his bag when he came to school, police said.

Williams, a retired teacher, has been working as a substitute teacher for the district for at least five years, [said Alejandro Hogan, the Salinas Union High School District's associate superintendent of human resources.]

Hogan continued, “I was wondering why the kids didn’t seem to pick on Mr. Williams like they do the other substitutes.”  Just kidding!

So let me get this straight: if the 70-year-old teacher keeping the bag of weed in his backpack around a bunch of schoolchildren has a doctor’s note, then it’s no big deal.  But if he doesn’t have a doctor’s note, then we must bring the hammer down on him because… why, exactly?  With a note he’s a good teacher but without it he’s not?  With a note he’s keeping his weed to himself but without it he’s a dealer?  With a note he’s an elderly man treating his medical conditions but without it he’s some sort of addict?  With a note he’s a molder of young minds but without it he’s sending a bad message to the children?

I wonder how many Harden Middle School teachers have a pack of cigarettes in their desk or purse right now?

(Washington Post) The shift is widely described as generational. A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana — a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, “the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years.”

A 53 percent majority already does so in the West, according to the survey. The finding heartens advocates collecting signatures to put the question of legalization before California voters in a 2010 initiative.

Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he was astonished recently to be invited to contribute thoughts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.  “I’ve been thrown out of the ONDCP many times,” St. Pierre said. “Never invited to actually participate.”

Anti-drug advocates counter with surveys showing high school students nationwide already are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco — and that the five states with the highest rate of adolescent pot use permit medical marijuana.

Really?  That’s the best you can do?  Let’s take a look at the actual numbers from the government’s own surveys:

National Survey on Drug Use & Health, 12-17 age group, 2001-2008 (see SAMHDA)

Indeed, it is impressive that we went from one-third (33.4%) of all minor teenagers having tried a cigarette to now less than one-fourth (22.7%) in just seven years.  How did we accomplish that?

Did we arrest those teenagers caught with cigarettes and subject them to a criminal proceeding?

Did we institute random searches of kids’ lockers at school to find cigarettes?

Did we require that any kid who wants to play sports or be involved with extra-curricular activities submit to a urine screening for nicotine and its metabolites?

Did we arrest and incarcerate adults that we caught with tobacco, because doing otherwise would “send the wrong message to the children”?

No.  We’ve engaged in terrific anti-smoking campaigns aimed at kids (like thetruth.com), vigorously enforced a law that allows adults to smoke while strictly carding teens, and fostered research and development of stop-smoking aids for those who wish to quit.

Now, another look at the chart shows that, despite the hysteria, the youth who have tried marijuana has steadily declined.  Not at the rate of the tobacco decline, but we’ve still gone from around one-in-five (20.2%) to around one-in-six (16.5%) in just seven years.  This is while we went from eight medical marijuana states to thirteen and while lifetime use by ages 12 and older increased from 83 million total and 36.9% of the population to 102 million total and 41% of the population.

As for the likelihood that teens prefer marijuana to cigarettes, the government surveys don’t bear that out, either.  In the past year, 15% of teens smoked a cigarette versus 13% that have smoked a joint.  In the past month, 8.9% have used tobacco versus 6.6% that have used cannabis.  So with lower usage rates than tobacco, shouldn’t these anti-drug advocates be arguing for the prohibition of tobacco like marijuana?  No, of course not!  If anything, their citation of the drastic reduction of tobacco use rates among teens is an argument for treating marijuana more like tobacco.

My son J has autism. He’s also had two serious surgeries for a spinal cord tumor and has an inflammatory bowel condition, all of which may be causing him pain, if he could tell us.

We made the cookies with the marijuana olive oil, starting J off with half a small cookie, eaten after dinner. J normally goes to bed around 7:30 p.m.; by 6:30 he declared he was tired and conked out. We checked on him hourly. As we anxiously peeked in, half-expecting some red-eyed ogre from Reefer Madness to come leaping out at us, we saw instead that he was sleeping peacefully. Usually, his sleep is shallow and restless. J also woke up happy.

[S]ince we started him on his “special tea,” J’s little face, which is sometimes a mask of pain, has softened. He smiles more.

[My mother] remarked that J seems calmer. As we were preparing for a trip to the park, J disappeared, and we wondered if he was going to throw one of his tantrums. Instead, he returned with Grandma’s shoes, laying them in front of her, even carefully adjusting them so that they were parallel and easy to step into. He looked into her face, and smiled.

Pre-pot, J. ate things that weren’t food. There’s a name for this: pica. … His pica become so uncontrollable we couldn’t let him sleep with a pajama top (it would be gone by morning) or a pillow (ditto the case and the stuffing)…. The worst part was watching him scream in pain on the toilet, when what went in had to come out. I had nightmares about long threads knotting in digestive organs. (TMI? Welcome to our life!)

Almost immediately after we started the cannabis, the pica stopped. Just stopped. J. now sleeps with his organic wool-and-cotton, hypoallergenic, temptingly chewable comforter. He pulls it up to his chin at night and declares, “I’m cozy!”

Next, we started seeing changes in J.’s school reports. … At one parent meeting in August (J. is on an extended school year), his teacher excitedly presented his June-July “aggression” chart. An aggression is defined as any attempt or instance of hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person. For the past year, he’d consistently had 30 to 50 aggressions in a school day, with a one-time high of 300. The charts for June through July, by contrast, showed he was actually having days—sometimes one after another—with zero aggressions.

When J. was in his dark phase, we spent our time out of sight, out of mind, inside our house with a screeching, violent, food-and-dish-flinging J. The sounds were contained by double-paned windows (when they weren’t broken). Now, within our family, we’ve reached a lovely homeostasis: household goods unbroken, our arms and J.’s face unscratched.

Fortunately for Marie, she lives in Rhode Island, one of the thirteen states that allow parents to use this non-toxic therapeutically active herb for their severely ill child.  Marie also tells of her life with J. prior to cannabis and how doctors were quick to prescribe Risperdal (“Thorazine for kids”, she calls it,) a drug that has never been studied for long-term safety in children and has a list of nasty side effects.  Almost a quarter million children under age 12 were prescribed Risperdal last year and from 2000-2004, 45 children died from it and five other popular “atypical antipsychotics”.  Fortunately for J., his mother and his doctor chose a much safer and more effective alternative in cannabis.