Influential cannabis users

Top

See also: Portal: Influential black cannabis users

Links:

• Thousands stage massive 4/20 smoke-ins to protest Canada's pot laws. [8] By Peter Henderson. April 20, 2012 article. Victoria Times Colonist. Associated article: Photos: Famous people who smoke pot. April 19, 2012.
• friendsofcannabis.com Famous Friends Of Cannabis - Pot Stars - Celebrity Stoners - Hemp Heroes - News.
• "The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet… Cool Enough to Admit It".
• VeryImportantPotheads.com
• Stiletto Stoners. By Yael Kohen in the October 2009 issue of Marie Claire. Many other articles about it, too. YouTube link.
• Women's Alliance - NORML.

Bill Maher

Return to top.

Incarceration rates for adult males in U.S. jails and prisons by race and ethnicity. At midyear 2009, an estimated 4.7% of black non-Hispanic men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.8% of Hispanic men of any race, and 0.7% of white non-Hispanic men. Sources. More info: Race, ethnicity, and the drug war. See template.

See: Bill Maher, Top CelebStoner.

"The only thing bad about marijuana is it makes you eat cookie dough."

"Prescription drugs are the real killer in this country," Maher says. "When you hear a lobby called Partnership for a Drug-Free America, just remember - they do not want a drug-free America. They want an America free of the drugs that are their competition: Marijuana, which never killed anybody. So I guess the lesson is: Kids, stick with marijuana!"

See also: Race, ethnicity, and the drug war.

May 2, 2010 video and article: "I would never say and I have never said, because it's not true that Republicans, all Republicans are racists. That would be silly and wrong. But nowadays, if you are racist, you're probably a Republican. And that is quite different." More info

October 8, 2011 video and article. “Overtly racist bullshit thinly painted over. Honestly, could anyone have written a better metaphor for the modern Republican party?” More info.

John Lennon

Return to top.

I Met the Walrus. In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. He talks about marijuana around 3 minutes 14 seconds in. YouTube link.

From Wikipedia: John Lennon: Following the impact of "Give Peace a Chance" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", both strongly associated with the anti–Vietnam War movement, the Nixon administration, hearing rumours of Lennon's involvement in a concert to be held in San Diego at the same time as the Republican National Convention, tried to have him deported. ... the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began deportation proceedings, arguing that his 1968 misdemeanor conviction for cannabis possession in London had made him ineligible for admission to the United States. Lennon spent the next three and a half years in and out of deportation hearings until on 8 October 1975, when a court of appeals barred the deportation attempt, stating " ... the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds." Template:John Lennon and John Sinclair

Image info.

Cannabis is safer

Return to top.

Share link: safer

Full site / Mobile. Weed War. 2023. 2024. Years. Home. Republican states. Canada. Portugal. End.

Share links: safer - safer cannabis - safercannabis. This article was written by Timeshifter. See: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: Republican-led drug war. And: Register and vote.

Click the images below to enlarge them, and for info.

10 marijuana myths exposed.

Marijuana access is associated with decreased use of alcohol, tobacco and other prescription drugs. 5 Feb 2019.

Cannabis is safer and cheaper. Especially if people grow it themselves, as is legal in some places.

Wikipedia: Alcohol and cancer. [1].

Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example."

Marijuana Legalization in Washington State: One-Year Status Report. July 6, 2015. By Drug Policy Alliance. "New Report Finds Major Fiscal Benefits, Decrease in Violent Crime, No Increase in Youth Marijuana Use or Traffic Fatalities – And Massive Drop in Marijuana Arrests."

• House Republicans say no to allowing federal studies of medical marijuana. [9]. July 9, 2015.

• Video. The Difference Between Getting Drunk and Getting High. [10]. ATTN.
• See also: Marijuana Is Safer.org.
• Facebook: Marijuana is Safer.

See: Map and detailed list and info about US states that have legalized medical and recreational cannabis.

Fentanyl. 2 mg. A lethal dose in most people. 50 times smaller than a lethal dose of heroin. Carfentanil and other Fentanyl analogs are even more lethal. Diameter of a US penny is 19.05 mm, or 0.75 inches.

Alcohol: 1 in 20 deaths globally

Return to top.

One in 20 of all deaths worldwide due to alcohol, says World Health Organization. 20 Sep 2018. The Guardian. [11].

Tobacco: 1 in 9 deaths globally

Return to top.

6.4 million deaths attributed to smoking tobacco in 2015. [12]. Out of 56.6 million deaths worldwide in 2015. [13][14]. That is one out of nine deaths actually, not one out of ten.

• The number of deaths from smoking has gotten worse instead of better. By Quentin Fottrell. June 3, 2017. MarketWatch. From the article (emphasis added):

A recent study in the medical journal The Lancet found that, in 2015, 11.5% of global deaths (approximately 6.4 million people) were attributable to smoking worldwide, of which 52.2% took place in four countries: China, India, Russia and the U.S. The study used over 2,818 pieces of research identified through several sources, including the Global Health Data Exchange, World Health Organization, and International Smoking Statistics Database.

50-year UK study: 1 of every 2 regular smokers will die of a tobacco related disease. 2. 3. Tobacco kills 6.4 million people worldwide each year. 2. Smoking tobacco causes one in ten deaths globally, major new study reveals. By Sarah Boseley. 5 April 2017. The Guardian. "There were nearly one billion smokers in 2015, in spite of tobacco control policies having been adopted by many countries. That number is expected to rise as the world’s population expands. One in every four men is a smoker and one in 20 women. Their lives are likely to be cut short – smoking is the second biggest risk factor for early death and disability after high blood pressure."

• The Lancet: The war on tobacco: Latest estimates show need for 'renewed and sustained' efforts on control policies. April 5, 2017. EurekAlert! Science News.
• Smoking prevalence and attributable disease burden in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. April 2017. The Lancet.

Tobacco: 1 in 6 deaths in USA

Return to top.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has this data: 480,000 deaths attributed to tobacco smoking in the USA yearly. Out of 2.8 million deaths yearly in the USA. That is around one in six deaths in the USA.

Deep Breath. Nurse shares horrifying video showing what smoking is REALLY doing to your lungs. By Lizzie Parry, May 4, 2018. The Sun. "The footage shows a healthy pair of lungs next to a disease-riddled set from someone who smoked a pack of fags a day".

E-cigarettes lower cancer rates

Return to top.

See e-cigarettes and the many subarticles on Wikipedia. Harm reduction taking hold concerning tobacco.

Smoking numbers hit new low as Britons turn to vaping to help quit cigarettes. By Sarah Boseley. 7 March 2017. The Guardian. And: E-cigarettes should be offered to smokers, say doctors - BBC News. [15]. By Michelle Roberts. 28 April 2016. BBC News.

Public Health U-Turn on E-Cigs. 95% to 100% safer than tobacco smoking. And: USA. Smoking Is down among adults and teens. E-cigs are helping. 2.

US cancer death rate sees largest-ever single-year drop, report says. By Audrey McNamara, Jan 8, 2020. CBS News. Article quote with emphasis added:

new report from the American Cancer Society. ... "This steady progress is largely due to reductions in smoking [tobacco with hundreds of additives, many proven to cause cancer] and subsequent declines in lung cancer mortality, which have accelerated in recent years," reads the report. ... The American Cancer Society has said e-cigarettes are "likely to be significantly less harmful for adults than smoking regular cigarettes,"

Cannabis vs opioids & Big Pharma drugs

Return to top.

19 Mar 2019: Eli Lilly’s Hazy Memory – Indianapolis Monthly. "At a farm in Greenfield, it grew 156 acres of marijuana during the early decades of the 20th century."

22 Feb 2018. Do medical marijuana laws reduce opioid overdoses? A new study adds a layer of nuance. By John Ingold. The Denver Post. "First, it confirms the results of a groundbreaking 2014 study that found states with medical marijuana laws have lower rates of fatal opioid overdoses. The connection was most dramatic, the new study concludes, in states that allowed dispensaries. ... And, a study last year using preliminary data found that Colorado experienced a 'reversal' [6% decline] in opioid overdoses after legal [recreational] sales began."

Science Calls Out Jeff Sessions on Medical Marijuana and the "Historic Drug Epidemic". 23. Scientific American. June 14, 2017. And: Medical Marijuana Legalization Associated With Fewer Opioid Hospitalizations. By Steve Elliott, March 9, 2017. And: Big Pharma Shaking in Their Boots as 80% of Cannabis Users Give Up Prescriptions Pills for Pot. Jan. 8, 2016. And: Medical marijuana users are using fewer prescription drugs or outright replacing them with medical pot. A comical meme sums up why. 2. July 7, 2016. See also the sections farther down on pot versus pills and opioids.

Cannabis saves Medicaid money

Return to top.

18 Apr 2022: Legalizing marijuana lowers demand for prescription drugs, study finds. "The reductions in drug utilization that we find could lead to significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs."

Tobacco versus cannabis

Return to top.

Cannabis does not have the hundreds of synthetic additives found in cigarettes.

• 

• 

  Thailand cigarette box warning

New Study: Cigarettes Tied To Increased Stroke Risk But Not Marijuana. January 2, 2017. And: Cannabis is less harmful than tobacco and the world is waking up to it. June 27, 2016 article. "A report from Bloomberg.com published in June 2015 stated that 29 percent of U.S. life insurers with official policies in place for cannabis users now class them as non-smokers."

Worth repeating: marijuana decreases risk of lung cancer. By David Downs on June 9, 2015. And it does not cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Cigarette Ingredients - Chemicals in Cigarettes. Tri-County Cessation Center: "The list of 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes is something every smoker should see. Submitted by the five major American cigarette companies to the Dept. of Health and Human Services in April of 1994, this list of ingredients had long been kept a secret. ... While these ingredients are approved as additives for foods, they were not tested by burning them, and it is the burning of many of these substances which changes their properties, often for the worse. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette – 69 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer." See: Wikipedia: Tobacco harm reduction. See Marijuana habit not linked to lung cancer : IMNG Oncology Report: "The difference in risk is likely related to chemical additives in commercial cigarettes that aren’t present in most methods of inhaling marijuana smoke." See: Wikipedia: List of additives in cigarettes. See: Health problems associated with tobacco smoking. See also: Pot Smoking Not Linked To Breathing Problems; May Help Lungs. By Steve Elliott on March 6, 2013.

"In October 2008 the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) became the first medical organization in the U.S. to officially endorse tobacco harm reduction as a viable strategy to reduce the death toll related to cigarette smoking." [16] [17] Joel Nitzkin: "So if we can figure that the nicotine in the e-cigarettes is basically a generic version of the same nicotine that is in prescription products, we have every reason to believe that the hazard posed by e-cigarettes would be much lower than one percent, probably lower than one tenth of one percent of the hazard posed by regular cigarettes." [18] [19] |}

Do not combine tobacco and cannabis

Return to top.

Marijuana smoke harms lungs in tobacco smokers, study finds. CNN. Nov 15, 2022. They didn't test cannabis alone. Dumbasses. Someone rolling cannabis and tobacco into their joints is going to be holding in the combined tobacco/cannabis smoke a lot longer than a tobacco only smoker. All the tobacco smoke and additives will be able to cause more harm when held in longer.

On the other hand see a more recent study:
Study: Neither Current nor Lifetime Cannabis Use Linked with COPD. From NORML. May 24, 2023.

Fact Sheet. Cannabis Exposure and Lung Health. From NORML.

Fake cannabis. Synthetic cannabis analogs

Return to top.

Don't use them. They are not found in nature, and some have bad side effects in the short or long term. See:

• Wikipedia: Synthetic cannabis.

As opposed to cannabis constituents found in nature:

• Wikipedia: Cannabinoids.

• Wikipedia: delta-8-Tetrahydrocannabinol.

• Hemp-Derived Delta-8 Skirts Marijuana Laws and Raises Health Concerns. Sep 23, 2022 article by Eric Berger. Excerpts: A study published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology last year found lead, mercury, and silicon in delta-8 electronic cigarettes. ... If it were regulated like Massachusetts’ medical and recreational marijuana programs, he said, harmful contaminants could be flagged or removed. ... Christopher Hudalla, chief scientific officer at ProVerde Laboratories, a Massachusetts marijuana and hemp testing company, said he has examined thousands of delta-8 products and all contained contaminants that could be harmful to consumers’ health. ... An analysis of 3Chi delta-8 oil conducted by Hudalla’s firm last year and posted on 3Chi’s website found multiple unidentified compounds that “do not occur naturally” and thus “would not be recommended for human consumption.” Delta-8 oil is still sold on 3Chi’s site. ... To address concerns about delta-8, the federal government should regulate it and make accessing cannabis easier for consumers, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Diet and cannabis

Return to top.

• 

  Denver, Colorado. October 2006 billboard.

• 

Cannabis Users Are Less Overweight Than Non-Users: A Study. Aug. 6, 2018. And: Study: Marijuana Use Linked to Lower BMI. 8 Sept 2016. And: Mediterranean diet rich in 'good' fats 'is the BEST way to lose weight'. By Daily Mail Online, 6 June 2016. The Doobie Diet: Cannabis Keeps You Thin. About a 31 Dec 2014 study. [20][21]. And: Study: Why Pot Smokers Are Skinnier. By The Atlantic, 15 May 2013. Ending the War on Fat [22][23]. By Time magazine, 12 June 2014. Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill. Book by Udo Erasmus (dangers of refined, high-temperature, solvent-extracted oils [24], trans fats, etc). See also: cold-pressed oil. And: Cutting Back On Carbs, Not Fat, May Lead To More Weight Loss. In NPR's All Things Considered, 1 Sept 2014. A Call for a Low-Carb Diet That Embraces Fat. By The New York Times, 1 Sept 2014. Healthy Fats in Mediterranean Diet Won't Boost Weight. By U.S. News & World Report, 6 June 2016. And: Woman Who Ate ‘Carbs All Day Every Day’ Drops 100 Lbs. After Eliminating Bread from Her Diet.

Diet soda is bad too: What happens one hour after drinking a can of Diet coke revealed. By the Daily Mail, 4 August 2015. See infographic [25]. And: Souring on Artificial Sweeteners: Substances May Boost Appetite. By Sara G. Miller, 13 July 2016, LiveScience.

This chart shows the annual death rate from sugary drinks per million adults in selected countries.

Sugary Drinks Kill 24,000 Mexicans Every Year. By Niall McCarthy, Jul 15, 2015.

Sex and cannabis

Return to top.

5 Oct 2018: Dagga (cannabis) makes sex feel better for women (The Journal of Sexual Medicine).
10 Sep 2018: New Studies Show That Marijuana Enhances And Increases Sex. Forbes.

World Health Organization report on CBD

Return to top.

Wikipedia: Cannabidiol (CBD).

Some articles covering the 2017 report:

• World Health Group: Pot's CBD Has Health Benefits. By Kathleen Doheny. Dec. 15, 2017. WebMD. "The experts produced the report in November, while the WHO announced its conclusions this week. In May, the committee will study cannabis and cannabis-related substances more fully."
• Medical Marijuana's Main Ingredient Isn't Dangerous or Addictive, World Health Organization Report Says. By Melina Delkic. Dec. 14, 2017. Newsweek.
• CBD Has No Health Risks Claims World Health Organization. By Terry Hacienda. Dec 16, 2017. The Fresh Toast.

The full report:

• CANNABIDIOL (CBD) Pre-Review Report. Agenda Item 5.2. Expert Committee on Drug Dependence. Thirty-ninth Meeting. Geneva, 6-10 November 2017. World Health Organization.

Store cannabis in rubber-sealed jars

Return to top.

As with any herb any rubber-sealed jar will work. Store in a cool location out of the light. The sealed jar maintains the humidity level. It also prevents the essential oils from evaporating away.

• What Happens to Marijuana After Five Years of Storage? By Allie Beckett on July 28th, 2017. Marijuana.com
• How To Store Cannabis So It Lasts Longer. HERB | Cannabis News, Culture And Information.
• Best Way to Store Your Medical Cannabis. Harborside: California Medical Cannabis Dispensary.

Make your cannabis last longer

Return to top.

Put a flat lighter on top of your small pipe bowl after taking a puff. Let no smoke be wasted.
Buy a flat lighter, not a round one. Use a small pipe that you can sit down without it rolling over. Put in a very small amount of cannabis. Puff without letting any smoke escape at all. Take in some side air while you do it so you don't cough and waste smoke. Immediately put the lighter on top of the bowl to stop any smoke from escaping. It quickly stops the burning due to no oxygen, and no smoke escapes. Lighter will heat up very little due to how fast the fire goes out in the bowl.

Hold in the smoke as long as possible. No need to take in more than a few puffs if good pot. And be patient. Wait 5 minutes for it to kick in before deciding if you need more. Set the pipe aside since it will no longer be lit, and since you don't have to worry about it tipping over. This method will easily cut your cannabis use in half. Usually much more if absolutely no smoke escapes.

Don't breathe out the smoke all at once. Breathe out a little, and then breathe in some more air to allow you to hold in the remaining smoke even longer. Keep letting out only a little air, and breathing in air to replenish the oxygen in your lungs. People who try to cough and blow out huge clouds of smoke usually do so to impress their friends. They are ignorant, and/or have too much money to burn. Literally, money going up in smoke.

Other ideas:

• 14 Life Hacks To Make Your Weed Last Longer. By Steve Elliott.

Low dosing

Return to top.

• Marijuana for Moms. By The Atlantic. Mar 2, 2018. From the article:

one new product in particular is spreading fast in mom circles: sublingual spray, a convenient, THC-infused ingestible liquid. ... it’s difficult to take too much sublingual spray. Since you can feel the effects immediately, it’s easy to tell when you’ve had enough. “The worst thing that can happen is you may feel overwhelmed,” she says. “Nausea, vomiting, paranoia, anxiety. These are symptoms of overconsumption. You cannot die.”

Using too much cannabis

Return to top.

See article link and quote in the previous section. Vomiting is no fun, but you can not die from cannabis. See also:

• 8 Ways to Counteract a Too-Intense Cannabis High. By Lisa Rough. Leafly.

Beginners should take it slow. Get used to low doses before increasing gradually to higher doses on another day. It takes around 10 minutes to reach the full high from smoking or vaping. It is very easy to do too much and get higher than you may want. Each stash of your cannabis can be wildly different in potency and effect. Experience with a particular stash is your best teacher. Go slow with the first try of a particular stash.

Cannabis tends to enhance whatever emotions you are feeling. So, to relieve anxiety or paranoia do something fun such as listening to happy music with headphones, or playing fun computer games. Get away from crowds until you are comfortable with a particular stash. Lie down. Keep a small trash can nearby in case you need to throw up. You may not have time to get to the bathroom.

Hyperemesis syndrome. Vomiting

Return to top.

Wikipedia: Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Some people can not use cannabis without vomiting. There are many medical conditions listed in the Wikipedia article that need to be ruled out. See the talk page for info on neem oil contamination:

• Wikipedia: Talk: Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome

Info is also needed on whether total abstinence is required, or what frequency of use is safe. Once a week, 2 weeks, monthly?

Neem oil or Azadirachtin

Return to top.

One major culprit is Neem oil, or its active ingredient azadirachtin. The reader comments at the end of the following articles are especially informative.

• 2018: "Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome" (CHS) is actually Azadirachtin (neem) poisoning! — Steemit. From the article (emphasis added):

As much as HALF of all cannabis, including in dispensaries, is contaminated to some degree with azadirachtin!

• Azadirachtin, Hyperemesis and Herxing? | Hemp Edification. Many quality references listed at the end of the article.
• 2016, updated 18 Jan 2019: Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome(CHS) is Azadirachtin Poisoning (@tralawar's post reminded me to post this. Ty tralawar) — Steemit.
• 9 Aug 2017: Could Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome Really Be Pesticide Poisoning? | PotGuide.com. From the article (emphasis added):

To control pests on cannabis plants, many home and industrial growers use neem oil, an organic oil excreted from neem (evergreen) trees to protect them from pest and mold infestation. ... Neem oil can be used as a pesticide/fungicide on cannabis plants, too, but only during the vegetative stage of growth. Once flowers start budding, all pesticide use should be ceased lest the product absorb into the flower which cannot be washed clean without washing away valuable trichomes, too.

Contaminants in pipes

Return to top.

Don't smoke out of wooden pipes. Some have stains applied to the wood. Some have wood preservatives, water treatments, etc.. Some have been painted with lacquers, clear sealants, etc.. All of which will burn and go in your lungs. You may throw up, and in addition be sick and feel bad for hours.

Don't smoke out of plastic pipes either. Even with a screen there is enough heat to cause volatile chemicals to evaporate from the plastic. Even with silicone. Some silicone can handle oven baking temperatures. But not burning cannabis temperatures which are much higher. You may throw up, and in addition be sick and feel bad for hours.

Long-term damages could be anything. Look at the dangerous additives in cigarettes:

• Wikipedia: List of additives in cigarettes

Contaminants in cannabis products

Return to top.

Contamination of legal and illegal cannabis products.

4 Aug 2020: VAPI anniversary: Killer chemicals still on the streets. By David Downs. Leafly. From article:

The new Oregon rule would prohibit any “inhalable cannabinoid product” from containing non-cannabis-derived substances, including flavors, non-cannabis terpenes, and/or chemicals that alter a legal THC product’s “consistency, texture, or viscosity.” The non-cannabis ingredient ban seems likely to pass later this month. ... While flavors are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for eating, it’s “false and misleading” to suggest they’re safe to inhale, according to a July 24, 2020, statement by the Flavor and Extract Makers Association.

8 Nov 2019: CDC makes 'breakthrough' on vaping crisis, names vitamin E oil as potential culprit.
6 Sep 2019: Vape Cart Additive Makers Pull Products as Others Go Dark. By David Downs, Leafly.
30 Aug 2019: Vape Pen Lung Disease Has Insiders Eyeing Misuse of New Additives. By David Downs, Leafly. From the article, another reason to get high-quality temperature-controlled vape carts:

“The thing about some vape carts is the temperature can run considerably higher than burning flower, and you could be forming new chemicals that you would have never gotten before,” he told Leafly.

16 Aug 2019: Illicit Cannabis Vape Carts Hospitalized 7 in California, Doctors Say. By David Downs, Leafly. From the end of the article (emphasis added): "David Downs directs news and lifestyle coverage as the California Bureau Chief for Leafly.com. He's written for WIRED, Rolling Stone and Billboard, and is the former cannabis editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the author of several cannabis books including 'Marijuana Harvest' by Ed Rosenthal and David Downs." From Leafly Wikipedia article: "Leafly is the largest cannabis website in the world, with over 15 million monthly visitors and 40 million page views across its website and mobile applications." From the article (emphasis added):

California leads legalization states in requiring all products sold at licensed stores to be tested for dozens of contaminants—most notably pesticides, residual solvents like hexane, and heavy metals like lead. But with untested products, said Wurzer, a wide variety of allergens, irritants, and toxins could lurk inside. After lab testing became mandatory in California in 2018, hundreds of products were flagged. To date, more than 5,169 batches have failed state lab testing for labeling or impurity standards. After inaccurate labeling, pesticides have been the biggest culprit. Lead has also popped up in cartridges.

You may wonder if someone added something to the pot. In the past pesticides (such as paraquat, glyphosate and 2,4-D) have been sprayed by the US and Mexican governments on fields of marijuana in Mexico and the USA.

Snopes.com says "There have been no confirmed incidents in which fentanyl has ever been conclusively detected in marijuana samples." 26 Sep 2017 article. This info may be out of date. I have read some stories of fentanyl being confirmed as being in some marijuana. Very rare though. And very questionable:

29 Mar 2019: The White House And Federal Scientists Are Pushing The Myth That Marijuana Is Laced With Fentanyl. By Dan Vergano. BuzzFeed. From the article:

But fentanyl hasn’t shown up in any marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency’s Jill Head, a senior chemist, confirmed earlier this month at a National Drug Early Warning System briefing. ... The mistaken police reports might have come from weed that tested positive for fentanyl on ultrasensitive test strips that can detect the drug at concentrations as low as one-billionth of a gram. Weed handled by dealers and people who might use all sorts of drugs will likely have trace amounts of fentanyl, similar to the way that studies have found US currency widely contaminated by cocaine. “The positive samples are from levels of contamination that are not clinically meaningful,” Ciccarone said. "They are not felt by the person." The other evidence of cross contamination comes from toxicology tests on people who died of an overdose. That isn’t a sign of drug dealers purposefully adding fentanyl to marijuana, but rather that many drug users take all kinds of drugs.

If you seriously believe the cannabis is contaminated, or if you have done some dangerous drugs in addition to the cannabis, then call 911, or have someone take you to the emergency room or urgent care. You will not be arrested there.

Dangerous chemicals in e-cigs and vapes

Return to top.

• Do You Know What’s in Your “Legal” CBD or THC Vape? Dec 3, 2021. By Chris Roberts. Cannabis Now. Article excerpts:

According to research published last month in the journal Frontiers in Chemistry, scientists found a slew of additives ... “these chemicals can create injury to the lung tissue,” wrote the study’s authors, researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University. ... The study’s authors analyzed 241 vaporizer products, including THC and CBD vaporizers as well as tobacco pods from manufacturers like JUUL and refillable e-juices. In these, they found 350 chemicals.

• Wikipedia: Template:Electronic cigarettes - see the many subarticles to the overall topic of Electronic cigarettes. Together they discuss the many chemicals added to e-cigs, and the toxic effects of many of them.

Vaping injuries and vitamin E acetate

Vaping-associated lung injuries can be attributed to vitamin E acetate, CDC says. By Nicole Wetsman. Dec 20, 2019. The Verge. "She stressed, though, that there may be more than one chemical causing these injuries. Not every patient with EVALI reported using THC-containing products, and not every tested product associated with an injury contained vitamin E acetate."

Template:Electronic cigarettes - see the many subarticles. Together they discuss the many chemicals added to e-cigs, and the toxic effects of many of them.

By the way, Vitamin E acetate is not found in nature. As always, one needs to dig down to the references used in the articles below. Various concerns and side effects are listed in the articles.

• Ingredient Watch List: Tocopheryl Acetate, the Potentially Irritating Form of Vitamin E. "This ingredient is basically a form of vitamin E created in the laboratory. Manufacturers take natural vitamin E and add acetic acid to it."

• Chemical of the Day - Q&A - Tocopherol vs. Tocopheryl Acetate. 26 April 2011. From the article (emphasis and link added):

the finished products can contain traces of hydroquinone. ... The best form of vitamin E when considering contamination concerns, is vacuum-distilled. ... researchers found that tocopherol acetate alone caused tumors to form when injected, but tocopherol alone did not.

See the "depigmentation" section of the hydroquinone article for its toxic effects.

Finding toxic-metal-free vape pens

Return to top.

Get vapes with ceramic heating elements, not metal:

4 Dec 2019: Toxic metal, leached from e-cigarette coil, permanently scars woman's lung. From the article: "Jones and his co-authors hypothesize that the metals found in the e-liquid leached from the heating coil in the vape pen."
23 Apr 2019: Michigan Officials Advise Testing Vape Cartridges for Heavy Metals. From the article: "Michigan regulators noted that no vape cartridges with ceramic heating elements had been found to be tainted with lead."
25 Jan 2019: California Cannabis Labs Are Finding Toxic Metal in Vape Carts. Leafly. From the article:

All vape carts made for the licensed, adult-use market in California after Jan. 1, 2019 should be lab-tested and contain less than 0.5 ppm lead. Look for “manufactured on” dates on the label. If you want to inhale 100% lead-free vapor, you should abstain from using cartridges until carts with lead-free metal start hitting California shores later this winter.

19 Feb 2019: Cannabis Cartridges Have a Heavy Metal Problem & It Is Worse Than Reported. From the article (emphasis added):

Robinson and colleagues conducted a lot of research “on different materials that didn’t flake under heat cycling.” ... a product that doesn’t always vaporize and generally smolders or combusts the oil around the heating element, which can produce carcinogens and potentially other contaminants. Some higher quality disposable devices, such as the dosist pen, include a microprocessor to control the temperature,

Cannabis fights depression

Return to top.

Study called "Cannabis-induced oceanic boundlessness". 30 July 2021 article:

Recent Study Finds Cannabis Aids Treatment-Resistant Depression And Alcohol Dependency. From article (emphasis added):

The study found that high doses of cannabis resulted in 17-19% of people with treatment-resistant depression and distress reporting experiencing “breakthroughs” for the better in their mental health. Psilocybin was still reported as offering more positive mental “breakthroughs” for people with treatment-resistant depression, 59% of respondents. ... The study defines this breakthrough or feeling of “oceanic boundlessness” as mystical experiences, which often proceed a change in mental health. These mystical-type experiences are measured by “unity, spirituality, and insightfulness on the 11-Dimension Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire or comparable self-report scales,” its authors say. ... In today’s regulations for every medical marijuana legal state, not one of them lists depression as a qualifying condition for a medical card.

1 in 6 US adults binge drinks 4 times a month

Return to top.

• CDC - Fact Sheets-Binge Drinking - Alcohol. From Centers for Disease Control. "One in six US adults binge drinks about four times a month, consuming about eight drinks per binge."
• 'It's a public health crisis': 1 in 8 Americans are now alcoholics amid a huge rise in binge-drinking among women, elderly people and ethnic minorities. By Abigail Miller. 9 August 2017. Daily Mail Online.

Alcohol versus cannabis. US info

Return to top.

It has not been proven that anybody has died solely from the health effects of cannabis use. See: Wikipedia: Cannabis (drug).

• What's Worse for Your Brain — Alcohol or Marijuana? By Stephanie Pappas. Feb. 16, 2018. Live Science. "Hutchison said: Heavier alcohol use led to greater declines in gray matter and declines in the quality of connections in white matter. ... In contrast, 'we don't see any statistically significant effects of cannabis on gray matter or white matter,' Hutchison said."

Right side, in clockwise order: Carl Sagan, Michael Phelps, Stephen King, Steve Jobs, Montel Williams.

1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

Return to top.

USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related. (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, and more). 87,798 per year from 2006 to 2010. [26][27][28][29][30].

• Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows. By Radley Balko, August 5, 2014. The Washington Post. [31][32].
• Americans are drinking themselves to death at record rates. By Christopher Ingraham, December 22, 2015. Washington Post. Chart below is from the article.

Multiply by 10 to get deaths per million people

From the Washington Post article linked just above the chart: "Last year [2014], more than 30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes, including alcohol poisoning and cirrhosis, which is primarily caused by alcohol use. ... This tally of alcohol-induced fatalities excludes deaths from drunk driving, other accidents, and homicides committed under the influence of alcohol. If those numbers were included the annual toll of deaths directly or indirectly caused by alcohol would be closer to 90,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Secondhand drinking hurts 53 million

Return to top.

• 1 Jul 2019: Effects of ‘secondhand drinking’ hurt 53 million Americans: study. [33]. By Kirsten Fleming. From the article:

One fifth of adults — or an estimated 53 million people in the United States — suffer from other people’s boozing annually, making this “a significant public health issue,” according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Cannabis lowers college binge drinking

Return to top.

26 Jan 2020: Legalization may mean more cannabis and less alcohol in colleges.

Domestic violence drops after pot decrim

Return to top.

16 May 2019: Serious Injuries From Domestic Violence Dropped After Marijuana Decriminalization, Study Finds. By Kimberly Lawson.

Teen drivers have 3 times more fatal crashes

Return to top.

Teen Drivers: Get the Facts | Motor Vehicle Safety | CDC Injury Center. From the article: "Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. ... teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash."

Graduated driver licensing has been shown to greatly reduce teen accidents. [34][35][36][37]. Maybe we should consider graduated drinking licenses for alcohol modeled on customs in France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc.. [38][39].

Texting and Driving Accident Statistics - Distracted Driving. From the article:

21 percent of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by their cell phones. Teen drivers are 4x more likely than adults to get into car crashes or near-crashes when talking or texting on a cell phone. A teen driver with only one additional passenger doubles the risk of getting into a fatal car accident. With two or more passengers, they are 5x as likely.

Why Pedestrian Deaths Are At A 30-Year High. March 28, 2019. Morning Edition. From the article (emphasis added): "Florida is considering legislation that would allow police to ticket drivers for any type of distracted driving, including petting your dog or yelling at your kids. That type of law exists in five out of the six New England states, which saw, overall, a 36 percent drop in [pedestrian] fatalities last year. Rhode Island alone dropped from 10 fatalities in 2017 to just four last year, a 60 percent decrease."

Oct. 2014 article: In California full marijuana decriminalization went into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, the report finds that "marijuana decriminalization in California has not resulted in harmful consequences for teenagers, such as increased crime, drug overdose, driving under the influence, or school dropout. In fact, California teenagers showed improvements in all risk areas after reform."

Texting. 6 times more accidents than alcohol

Return to top.

Texting and Driving Accident Statistics - Distracted Driving. From the article:

Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk. 1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving. Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.

Teens and cannabis

Return to top.

• Meta-analysis: Cannabis Exposure Not Associated With Residual Adverse Impact On Cognitive Performance. By NORML. April 18, 2018. From article:

Cannabis exposure in adolescents and young adults is not associated with any significant long-term detrimental effects on cognitive performance, according to a systematic literature review published today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

• No, Medical-Marijuana Legalization Doesn't Make Teens Smoke More Pot. By Rachael Rettner. Feb. 22, 2018. Live Science.

Following marijuana legalization, teen drug use is down in Colorado. By Christopher Ingraham, 11 December 2017, Washington Post. And: No, legal weed is not ‘dumbing down’ the nation’s teens. By Christopher Ingraham, 29 May 2016. Washington Post. Twins study finds no evidence that marijuana lowers IQ in teens. By Emily Underwood, 18 January 2016, in Science magazine. And: Reefer madness debunked as major UK study finds marijuana does not reduce IQ in teens. By Eric W. Dolan, 14 January 2016. And: Study finds that teen marijuana use is not linked to issues of mental health. By Myron Castilloon, 5 August 2015. And: Teen cannabis use 'NOT linked to depression or lung cancer in later life'. By Madlen Davies, 4 August 2015, Daily Mail. And: No Link Between Early Marijuana Use And Health Problems Later In Life. By Angelique Johnson, 5 August 2015.

Marijuana and cigarette use by 12th graders

Return to top.

Chart below is from a NIDA article. Text at the top was added later. Chart is for regular marijuana and cigarette use by 12th graders in the USA in the past 30 days. For cigarettes actual daily use is measured. For marijuana it is for use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days.

Green line is for marijuana. Dark blue/purple line is for cigarettes.

References: Miech, R. A., Schulenberg, J. E., Johnston, L. D., Bachman, J. G., O'Malley, P. M., & Patrick, M. E. (December 17, 2018). "National Adolescent Drug Trends in 2018." Monitoring the Future: Ann Arbor, MI. Stats source is linked from the charts index. From footnotes: "Daily use is defined as use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days except for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, for which actual daily use is measured." This particular footnote is for more than one chart. Smokeless tobacco is not measured in the marijuana and cigarettes chart. That NIDA chart is found in this NIDA article.

• See Wikipedia: Monitoring the Future.

Legal states have no increase in fatal car crashes

Return to top.

Guessing that it could possibly be due to the fact that some people are substituting marijuana for alcohol, and drinking less alcohol. So, though both can cause fatal car crashes, cannabis (by itself) causes far fewer than alcohol.

• 22 Apr 2019: Marijuana Legalization Not Linked To Increased Traffic Deaths, Study Finds | Marijuana Moment. By Kyle Jaeger.
• 23 Jun 2017: Marijuana legalization doesn't lead to more fatal car crashes, finds Texas doctor. By Fernando Ramirez. Houston Chronicle. From the article:

The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, ... The study concluded that "three years after recreational marijuana legalization, changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates for Washington and Colorado were not statistically different from those in similar states without recreational marijuana legalization."

Alcohol 10 times deadlier than cannabis on road

Return to top.

• Study Finds Alcohol 10 Times More Deadly Than Cannabis on the Road. By Bruce Barcott. November 17, 2017. Leafly. From the article:

"In a study published earlier this month in the journal PLOS-One, scientists at the University of Lyon [France] ... found that 'drivers under the influence of alcohol are 17.8 times more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident,' when compared to completely sober drivers. Drivers under the influence of cannabis, by contrast, are 1.65 times more likely to be responsible for causing a fatal accident. ... National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ... study found that drivers with a blood alcohol level of .08, the legal limit in most states, were 293% more likely to be involved in a crash. Texting drivers were 310% more likely to crash."

• AlcoDroid Alcohol Tracker - Android Apps on Google Play. Free app. "AlcoDroid is an alcohol consumption tracker, drinks diary and blood alcohol content calculator. ... provides an estimate of your blood alcohol content (BAC) based on the drinks you've logged". Graphs BAC over time.
• Google search: AlcoDroid.
• The Best Alcoholism Apps of the Year.

Mandatory technology to prevent drunk driving

Return to top.

31 Dec 2021: What if cars could stop you from driving drunk? A peek at the latest tech. From NPR. Excerpt:

"The recent infrastructure law included a provision mandating that, starting in a few years, all new cars must include some sort of technology to detect and prevent drunk driving."

Workplace impairment testing vs drug testing

Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues. Sept. 16, 2022 article.

Workplace Cognitive Impairment Testing: Fatigue, Cannabis/Marijuana, and More. Excerpts from article: cognitive impairment tests have become a lot more accessible, flexible, and affordable. ... This resulted in a number of computer-based cognitive tests designed to measure impaired performance and cognition. ... The AlertMeter®, for example, combines perception, decision-making, accuracy, speed, shape recognition, hand-eye coordination, and memory all in one 60-second test. ... Today, workplace impairment tests take various forms: apps, eye tracking devices, and wearable technologies. ... Simple, game-like format that can be taken by any person. ... “Most people who have accidents on the job are not drug users, and drugs have nothing to do with [most] accidents. Most accidents are caused by fatigue or alcohol” (Maltby). ... Impairment testing focuses on workplace rather than leisure behavior. ... Impairment Tests: Daily, as often as needed (before shifts, after lunch, before critical tasks, etc.) ... For example, one manufacturing company located in Colorado ... replacing all random drug tests with daily AlertMeter® use. At the same time, their safety metrics improved substantially. They reduced worker’s compensation claims by 70% across 2 years of AlertMeter® use. They also improved productivity by 11% and reduced employee turnover by 35%. ... Impairment testing has been successfully implemented in wide range of safety-sensitive industries such as: aviation, transportation, manufacturing, construction, mining, oil and gas, utilities, healthcare, and more. ... Impairment tests have been successfully implemented everywhere from the gold mines of Siberia, to the coal mines in South Africa, to hospitals in England, and the truck stops of Midwestern United States. ... in the case of AlertMeter®, an easy to use game-like shapes test that doesn’t require specific language skills. ... Impairment tests are a great safety boost for shift-workers. ... Since impairment tests put the focus on worker well-being rather than catching wrong-doing, they are usually welcomed by unions.

Canadian legalization did not lead to more accidents

Return to top.

• 12 Nov 2021: Marijuana Legalization In Canada Did Not Result In Increased Traffic Injuries, Study Finds.

Not from the article: It is not difficult to figure out why. Cannabis is much less impairing than alcohol. At high doses THC is most impairing the first hour after use. So just wait awhile if you really absolutely must drive. Then you drop down to borderline legal equivalent impairment to alcohol. Plan better, and don't drive for hours. Call a cab or Uber if you are too high and must get somewhere.

Suicide rates rise sharply across US

Return to top.

• Suicide rates rise sharply across the United States, new report shows. By Amy Ellis Nutt, June 7, 2018. Washington Post.
• CDC: U.S. Suicide Rates Have Climbed Dramatically. By Nell Greenfieldboyce. June 7, 2018. All Things Considered.
• How Suicide Quietly Morphed Into a Public Health Crisis. By Benedict Carey. June 8, 2018. New York Times.

---

• State by state rates: Supplementary Table. Trends in Suicide Rates among Persons ≥ 10 Years of Age, by State and Sex, National Vital Statistics System, 1999 – 2016. June 8, 2018. CDC Stacks. Source: Vital Signs: Trends in Suicide Rates and Circumstances Contributing to Suicide — United States, 1999–2016 and 27 States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67(22):617-624.
• Suicide rates rising across the U.S. CDC Online Newsroom. June 7, 2018. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Wikipedia: Suicide in the United States. Has state by state rates list.
• Wikipedia: List of countries by suicide rate.

1 In 3 Takes Meds Linked To Depression

Return to top.

• 1 In 3 Adults In The U.S. Takes Medications Linked To Depression. Depression Is Possible Side Effect Of Many Common Drugs. By Allison Aubrey. June 12, 2018. All Things Considered.
• Common Drugs May Be Contributing to Depression. By Roni Caryn Rabin. June 13, 2018. New York Times.
• Depression Risk Linked to Many Common Drugs Used by Older Adults. By Nancy Kerr, AARP, June 14, 2018.

Other drugs versus cannabis

Return to top. The number of drug deaths has greatly increased since the graphic to the right was created.

USA. Tobacco deaths are now 480,000 a year. [40][41][42][43][44]. CDC: "In 2012, of the 41,502 drug overdose deaths in the United States, 22,114 (53%) were related to pharmaceuticals. In 2012, 33,175 (79.9%) of the 41,502 drug overdose deaths in the United States were unintentional, 5,465 (13.2%) were of suicidal intent, 80 (0.2%) were homicides, and 2,782 (6.7%) were of undetermined intent." [45][46]. 16,238 homicides in 2011. [47]. Aspirin number is actually for NSAIDs [48] (take with milk or antacid [49][50]). Peanut allergy deaths is more like 10. [51] Stat sources (all deaths): [52][53][54].

• 100 Die From Tylenol Overdose Each Year. Marijuana = Zero. By Steve Elliott. February 15, 2012. #1 story on Digg.

Charts above and below are from Overdose Death Rates. By National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).]]

Chart below: "Drugs Involved in U.S. Overdose Deaths* - Among the more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017*, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids) with nearly 30,000 overdose deaths."

Note the huge increases from 2014 to 2017.

Above chart found in these two articles:

• These Are the Drugs That Cause the Most Overdose Deaths. January 1, 2017.
• Fentanyl Rises as Cause of Drug Overdose Deaths. Dec. 20, 2016.

Pot versus pills

Return to top.

• How medical marijuana could help curb the opioid crisis. January 13, 2017. CBC Radio. "using marijuana as a replacement for other substances — including alcohol and both illicit and prescription drugs."
• Could pot help solve the U.S. opioid epidemic? By Greg Miller. Nov. 3, 2016. Science Magazine. "they found a significant difference in the number of prescriptions for several conditions, including anxiety and nausea, in states with medical marijuana."

Chart below is from: One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana. By Christopher Ingraham. July 13, 2016. Washington Post.

Cannabis versus opioids

Return to top.

See previous sections too.

• Free cannabis offered at B.C. clinic to help illicit drug users detox. By CTVNews.ca Staff. August 30, 2018. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Where Marijuana Is Legal, Opioid Prescriptions Fall. April 2, 2018. Scientific American. [55][56].

• Urge Your Lawmakers to Acknowledge The Role of Cannabis in Combating the Prescription Drug Overdose Epidemic. NORML.
• Fact sheet. Relationship Between Marijuana and Opioids. NORML.
• Opioid Use Lower In States That Eased Marijuana Laws. April 2, 2018. All Things Considered.
• ATTN: Video (March 2018) - This former Republican official nails why more states should legalize marijuana. His liver failed 4 times in 5 years while using opiates for his condition. He now uses medical cannabis.
• Medical Pot Is Our Best Hope to Fight the Opioid Epidemic. By Amanda Chicago Lewis. Dec. 8, 2017. Rolling Stone.
• UNM Study: Medical Marijuana an Alternative for Opioids. November 28, 2017. The Associated Press. "The results indicate a strong correlation between enrollment in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program and cessation or reduction of opioid use."
• Addiction Specialists Ponder a Potential Aid: Pot. By Matt Richtel, March 27, 2017, New York Times.
• Best Way To Kick Opiates: Use Cannabis!, Says Addiction Expert. By Steve Elliott, Jan 2, 2017.
• The Surprising Way Aging Pain Patients Can Get Off Opiates. By Phillip Smith, AlterNet, November 3, 2016.
• Pot Vs. Pills: Can Marijuana Help Cure The Opiate Crisis? By Aaron Payne, Ohio Valley ReSource, July 18, 2016.

• More current and former Canadian cops are using medical marijuana. Veterans too. By Rachel Browne. July 13, 2016. Vice News.
• 'Pot Over Pills’ Protesters Camp Out For Veterans Day. By Philip Lewis. Nov 12, 2015. Huffington Post.
• See also: Wikipedia: United States military veteran suicide.

Is Weed the Secret to Beating Opiate Addiction?1234. "I still use cannabis every day". Marijuana may be helping to overcome painkiller abuse in America. Suicides among men aged 20 through 39 years fell after medical marijuana legalization compared with those in states that did not legalize.

Opioid overdose epidemic

Return to top. See also: Wikipedia: Opioid overdose. And: Wikipedia: Opioid epidemic.

Drug spoon at Purdue Pharma.

• Gallery Owner Arrested After Dropping Sculpture Of Giant Drug Spoon At Purdue Pharma. June 26, 2018. By Susan Dunne. Hartford Courant.
• Fueled by drug crisis, U.S. life expectancy declines for a second straight year. By Lenny Bernstein and Christopher Ingraham. December 21, 2017. Washington Post.
• How Big Tobacco-style marketing propels U.S. opioid crisis — and powers $400 billion pharma industry. June 24, 2017. From the article:

"Their efforts helped make opioids more American than apple pie: The U.S. — with 4% of the world's population — ingests 80% of its opioids, according to one of the lawsuits."

• Drug firms poured 780 million painkillers into West Virginia amid rise of overdoses. Dec 17, 2016. Charleston Gazette-Mail.

See gallery below, and more charts in this article: Wikipedia: Opioid overdose.

• 

  Number of yearly U.S. overdose deaths from all opioid drugs. Source.

• 

  US yearly deaths involving prescription opioids. Non-methadone synthetics is a category dominated by illegally acquired fentanyl, and has been excluded. Source.

Chart source: "The chart above is based on updated data on drug overdose deaths in Europe from the European Drug Report 2017."

• How Europe's heroin capital solved its overdose crisis. By Chris Brown. Apr 25, 2017. CBC.ca. "Goulao says 90 per cent of public money spent fighting drugs in Portugal is channeled toward those health-care goals — just 10 per cent is spent on police enforcement." [57][58][59][60].]]

Chart below: Yearly US accidental overdose deaths per 100,000 population. Multiple by 10 to get deaths per million.

Heroin fentanyl carfentanil. Lethal doses

Return to top. Wikipedia: Fentanyl. Wikipedia: Carfentanil.

There were around 112,100 US drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending August 31, 2023, at a rate of 307 deaths per day. 335 deaths per million US population. Only around 10 to 72 total deaths per year in Portugal, a country with universal healthcare, and where all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001.

Source for first image below:

• Opioid Epidemic Part 2: Stronger and deadlier than ever. By Mason Callejas. Aug 29, 2017.

Source for image below:

• "Fentanyl Is Now The Leading Cause Of US Overdose Deaths. Deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids killed more than 20,000 people in 2016, doubling the previous year's rate, CDC data show." - October 12, 2017 article from BuzzFeed. By Dan Vergano.

13 July 2018: Notes from the Field: Overdose Deaths with Carfentanil and Other Fentanyl Analogs Detected — 10 States, July 2016–June 2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

26 October 2018: Postmortem Toxicology of New Synthetic Opioids. - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2018.01210 - Frontiers in Pharmacology. From conclusion: "Postmortem concentrations seemed to correlate with their potency, although the presence of other CNS depressants, such as ethanol and benzodiazepines has to be taken into account."

US maps of drug overdose deaths

Return to top.

See Wikipedia: Opioid epidemic. And see: Drug Overdose Deaths, a page at the Centers for Disease Control. See maps for various years. And see state by state list of data below each yearly map. You can also run your mouse cursor there over any state to get the numbers.

Drug withdrawal in jail is very dangerous

Return to top.

Call the doctor right away!

Kelly Coltrain

Cold turkey stopping of all opioids and other drugs at once is often deadly. And flat out overdosing requires immediate medical assistance. And some drugs like bath salts are often just various random poisons packaged as "bath salts". But apparently many jails and prisons have a license to kill through medical negligence. Even when there are hospital doctors right across the street:

3 Sep 2018: Woman lay dead in Nevada jail cell for hours after deputy found her unresponsive. By Anjeanette Damon, Reno Gazette Journal.

Why can't jail and prison staff give a user gradually decreasing doses of an opioid? A doctor could have walked over from the hospital across the street and prescribed it for her. Isn't this how hip surgery patients recovering in hospitals, nursing homes, and at home do it? And what about prisoners with broken bones recovering in jails? Not being a doctor, and not ever being a recreational user of opioids I do not know if this would have helped her not. Guards and many nurses are equally clueless. Especially if multiple drugs are involved. But no one gave a damn. No one called in the doctors. She even told the jail staff that she previously suffered from seizures during withdrawal.

Withdrawal, overdose, poisoning deaths in jails:

6 Oct 2018: Deputies Made Jokes About a Veteran Thrashing in His Cell Before He Died. New York Times.

Raw video Deputies mock man suffering from drug overdose (WARNING Disturbing)

4 Sep 2018: New Orleans jail staffers ignored dying man’s cries for help, lawsuit charges. By Matt Sledge, The New Orleans Advocate.

Opioids are deadly when combined with other drugs

Return to top.

See Wikipedia: Drug overdose. See the "Causes" section for a list of the various drugs. More than one drug is often involved in an overdose death.

• See also Wikipedia: Opioid overdose.

US. Opioid involvement in cocaine overdose deaths. See: synthetic opioids. [2].

US timeline. Opioid involvement in benzodiazepine overdose. [3].

US timeline. Drug overdose deaths involving antidepressants, by opioid involvement. [4].

Fentanyl kills with cocaine and meth

Return to top.

13 May 2019: As the Opioid Crisis Peaks, Meth and Cocaine Deaths Explode | The Pew Charitable Trusts. [61]. Quote (emphasis added):

Three years into what epidemiologists are calling the third wave of the opioid epidemic — in which fentanyl has been involved in the vast majority of opioid overdose deaths — the lethal drug is now showing up in the bodies of nearly as many people who used cocaine and meth as those who used heroin.

Overdose deaths. Product of prohibition

Return to top. See Wikipedia: Harm reduction for alternatives worldwide.

• Overdose deaths are the product of drug prohibition April 11, 2018. By Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune. Article quote (emphasis added):

During Prohibition, drinkers never knew what they would get when they set out to slake their thirst. Bootleggers often sold products adulterated with industrial alcohol and other toxins. Some 10,000 people were fatally poisoned before America gave up this grand experiment in suppressing vice.

Potency varies greatly day to day

Return to top.

16 Jul 2019: Scotland records huge rise in drug-related deaths. The Guardian. From the article: “The major problem for Glasgow is heroin and illicit benzos like etizolam or street valium, which have never been cheaper or more available. People buy it online, in huge quantities, and unknown quality. You could take 10 one day and be fine, and the next day take the same amount and overdose.”

Dealers don't know what is in the mix

Return to top.

• Finding a Fix. By Julie Lurie. Dec. 19, 2017 online. Mother Jones. From the article (emphasis added):

But the turning point in Harford—and much of the country—came in 2015 after fentanyl, an opioid up to 50 times more powerful than heroin that is typically manufactured in illicit labs in China, started making its way into the heroin supply. Complicating matters is the fact that, by the time drugs get to Baltimore or Harford County, they have likely changed hands so many times—and mixed with fentanyl and other additives along the way—that dealers often don’t know what they are dealing. Indeed, the customary drug in Baltimore is 'scramble': an amalgamation of heroin and other drugs, sold in gel capsules.

• How much fentanyl will kill you? - Harm Reduction Ohio.

Overdose Deaths Involving Opioids, United States. Deaths per 100,000 population. Multiply by 10 to get deaths per million people. Source.

Regional carfentanil overdose deaths

Return to top.

Harm Reduction Ohio:

• 6 Aug 2018: Ohio’s carfentanil death rate 21 times higher — yes, 2000%! — than in other states.
• 24 May 2019: Carfentanil unexpectedly returns to Ohio drug supply; overdose deaths surge.
• 8 Jul 2019: NEWS ALERT: Carfentanil returns to Ohio — take precautions!

Fentanyl can not be mixed evenly

Return to top.

19 Mar 2018: How much fentanyl will kill you?. Harm Reduction Ohio. From the article:

The invisible killer: “Hot spots” Doses vary widely in illegal drugs. Even the same mixture can have inconsistent potency and include potentially fatal “hot spots.” A “hot spot” is part of a mixture that has an unexpectedly greater amount of fentanyl. “Hot spots” are invisible and unavoidable in street drugs containing fentanyl. “Hot spots” exist because of the chemical nature of fentanyl molecules: fentanyl cannot be mixed into or “cut” into an existing powder without leaving dangerous, unseen clumps of fentanyl. No matter how much you grind or stir or shake the fentanyl mixture, potentially deadly “hot spots” will remain. Why is this? Brief science lesson: A 50 microgram dose of fentanyl contains about 90,000,000,000,000,000 fentanyl molecules. Molecules are sticky and tend to clump together, like magnets do. To equally mix 90 quadrillion fentanyl molecules with molecules of another powder requires an extra step — putting all the powder into a liquid, shaking up the liquid and then re-evaporating everything back into a powder. Shaking in a liquid is required to separate fentanyl molecules and eliminate hot spots. This step is not done in illegal drug markets, so “hot spots” remain a serious problem.

Profits create more dealers nonstop

Return to top.

• Finding a Fix. By Julie Lurie. Dec. 19, 2017 online. Mother Jones. From the article:

"The average fatal overdose takes more than 40 man-hours for the county’s narcotics team to investigate, ... the process can seem futile. 'I feel like we’re just playing whack-a-mole,' he said, sounding exhausted. 'Sometimes you feel like you’re just banging your head against a wall—because somebody else is going to pop up and take that business.'

Internet pills. Mail-order death

Return to top.

23 Dec 2021: Killed by a pill bought on social media: the counterfeit drugs poisoning US teens. Article: a flood of fentanyl-filled counterfeit pills being sold on social media and sometimes delivered straight to kids’ homes. ... it is being pressed into millions of pills that look exactly like traditional pharmaceuticals. ... tests conducted on the pills showed that two out of five of the counterfeits contained enough fentanyl to kill, ... social media, enabling young people to buy what they think are Xanax, Percocet or Oxycodone tablets from the privacy of their bedrooms. ... “Every drug you try now is a game of Russian roulette.”

FDA-approved drugs later banned

Return to top.

• 35 FDA-Approved Prescription Drugs Later Pulled from the Market.

Big Pharma and academic journals

Return to top.

• This Is The Sickening Amount Pharmaceutical Companies Pay Top Journal Editors. Scientific publishing is totally broken. By Fiona MacDonald. 12 Apr 2018. From the article:

A paper published last year in the British Medical Journal examined how much money editors of the world's most influential medical journals were taking from industry sources. Of the journals that could be assessed, 50.6 percent of editors were receiving money from the pharmaceutical industry - in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars. ... Worst on that list is the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), where 19 of its editors received, on average, US$475,072 personally and another US$119,407 for 'research'. ... "The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research," said the late Arnold Relman, a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2002. He passed away in 2014. "The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it's disgraceful." ... There's also a push to get organisations to publish all valid results, even if they're negative.

Read the article for more info. and more links to reliable sources.

• FTC Halts the Deceptive Practices of Academic Journal Publishers. November 22, 2017. Federal Trade Commission.

From Salt Lake City Telegram, May 20, 1949.

• Big Pharma Is America’s New Mafia. By Daniela Drake. Feb. 15, 2105. The Daily Beast. From the article (emphasis added):

In fact, the heavy influence of pharmaceutical dollars inspired the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, to conclude, “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.”

• Marcia Angell (January 15, 2009). Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption . The New York Review of Books. From the article (emphasis added)::

Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

• See also: WP:MEDRS is based on a sham. WP:MEDRS stands for Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine).

Cannabis is cheaper

Drug company price fixing

Return to top.

12 May 2019: Sweeping lawsuit accuses top generic drug companies, executives of fixing prices. On 60 Minutes. CBS news. From article: "But 1,215 generics, many of them the most prescribed drugs, jumped on average more than 400 percent in a single year. ... 90 percent of all prescriptions filled in this country are filled with generic drugs."

Beer, booze, cops, cigarettes, and Big Pharma. [5]

Drug prices. Canada versus USA

Return to top.

Source and comments.

Billie Holiday on insulin

Return to top. See: Billie Holiday history, and drug use.

It's uncanny what she said. Insulin is practically a black market drug due to massive increases in prices by mafia-like price-rigging by the mafia bosses in the drug companies.

Full quote:
"Imagine if the government chased sick people with diabetes, put a tax on insulin and drove it into the black market, told doctors they couldn’t treat them, and then caught them, prosecuted them for not paying their taxes, and then sent them to jail. If we did that, everyone would know we were crazy. Yet we do practically the same thing every day in the week to sick people hooked on drugs. The jails are full and the problem is getting worse every day." -- Billie Holiday, from chapter 17 of her 1956 autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.

Cannabis is an exit drug

Return to top.

2 May 2019: Marijuana access is associated with decreased use of alcohol, tobacco and other prescription drugs. By Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML. The Hill.

Crack cocaine and cannabis

Return to top.

• Cannabis may help wean people off crack, study finds. By Mike Hager. The Globe and Mail. May 16, 2017.

Scientific American:

Return to top.

1898. "One of the Most Valuable of Drugs"

Return to top.

• Cannabis ‘One of the Most Valuable of Drugs’ 1898, Scientific American. Warmland Cannabis Centre.

2020. "Marijuana May Not Lower Your IQ"

Return to top.

7 May 2020: Marijuana May Not Lower Your IQ. Scientific American. Article quote (emphasis added):

in Jackson and Iacono’s analysis [of the twin study], marijuana use and IQ were completely uncorrelated, and IQ measures fell equally in both the users and abstainers. Subsequent twin studies, including one performed with U.K. data by the Dunedin team, corroborated these findings of no relationship between marijuana use and a falling IQ.

1999. Institute of Medicine

Return to top.

See image info.

Quotes in the image to the left (and in the text below) are from the U.S. government's landmark 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. The full text of the report is available for free online at the above link, and is searchable. The table of contents by chapter is on the sidebar. The report is also available as a free PDF download. Quotes below are followed by their references. Emphasis added.

Page 109: "Indeed, epidemiological data indicate that in the general population marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality. 138"

- 138. Sidney S, Beck JE, Tekawa IS, Quesenberry CP Jr, Friedman GD. 1997a. Marijuana use and mortality. American Journal of Public Health 87:585—590.

Page 107: "When heavy marijuana use accompanies these symptoms [amotivation], the drug is often cited as the cause, but no convincing data demonstrate a causal relationship between marijuana smoking and these behavior characteristics. 23"

- 23. Chait LD, Pierri J. 1992. Effects of smoked marijuana on human performance: A critical review. In: L Murphy and A Bartke, Editors, Marijuana/Cannabinoids: Neurobiology and Neurophysiology. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Pp. 387—424.

Page 119: "There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including cancers usually related to tobacco use."

300 joints per month from US government

Return to top.

• The US Government Has Sent This Guy 300 Joints Each Month for 34 Years. VICE. Sep 9 2016. By Daniel Oberhaus.

Cannabis. Peer-reviewed studies, etc.

Return to top.

• Is Marijuana the World’s Most Effective Treatment for Autism? By Debra Kamin. Feb. 15, 2018. Newsweek.
• THE LIST – Granny Storm Crow's List. Jan. 2018.
• A new study has unexpectedly shown an ingredient in cannabis could be useful for treating psychosis. By Philip Mcguire. 28 December 2017. The Independent.
• The Top CBD Cannabis Studies of 2017. By Josh Kaplan. Dec. 28, 2017. Leafly.
• WHO Report: No Evidence of CBD-Related Public Health Problems. By TG Branfalt. Dec. 13, 2017.
• Health Effects of Marijuana and Cannabis-Derived Products Presented in New Report. Jan. 12, 2017. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It is free to read it online. There is also a free PDF download.
• 60 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana. Medical Studies Involving Cannabis and Cannabis Extracts (1990 - 2014). Article by ProCon.org.
• Review Identifies 140 Controlled Clinical Trials Related to Cannabis. By Paul Armentano. June 4, 2017. From the article: "A pair of German researchers identified 140 clinical trials involving an estimated 8,000 participants. ... A 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that new drugs typically gain FDA approval on the basis of one or two pivotal clinical trials."
• 700 Medicinal Uses of Cannabis Sorted By Disease - Medical Cannabis Report. March 4, 2015.
• Cannabidiol as potential anticancer drug. Published online April 17, 2012. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
• 700 medical cannabis studies sorted by disease. 20 January 2011.

Entourage effect

Return to top.

13 Aug 2020: Is the cannabis entourage effect real? By Emma Stone. Leafly. From article: Additionally, this study of CBD by itself vs. an extract with the whole plant and CBD, showed that the whole-plant extract was just as effective at treating severe epilepsy, but with a 20% smaller dose, said Russo.

Which to choose: Pure CBD extracts or cannabis-derived CBD with some THC? By Mary Schumacher, The Fresh Toast. July 27, 2020. Chicago Tribune. From article:

But while CBD is the major player in treating an illness like severe seizures, it’s really an entourage effect that makes the CBD work. The entourage effect, for those unfamiliar, is that individual cannabinoids, like CBD, increase their efficacy when working in conjunction with other cannabinoids, like THC or CBN. This is true even when the presence of those other cannabinoids is minimal. ... In a study titled "Potential Clinical Benefits of CBD-Rich Cannabis Extracts Over Purified CBD in Treatment-Resistant Epilepsy", the conclusion reads that, "There was a higher number of patients reporting improvement after using CBD-rich Cannabis extracts (318/447, 71%) than those treated with purified CBD (81/223, 36%), with valid statistical significance."

Cannabis and athletic performance

Return to top.

• Tanner Hall and the Athlete’s Case for Cannabis. By Charles Bethea. March 18, 2016. New Yorker.
• Maryland: Baltimore Ravens Tackle Gives $10K To Marijuana Research, Asks Players To Contribute. By Derrick Stanley. March 15, 2016. Hemp News.

Microdosing and cannabis

Return to top.

Why Microdosing Is Taking Over Medical Marijuana. April 20, 2017. Rolling Stone. From the article:

"You repeat this process over the next few days," he says, "increasing the dose by small increments. When you reach a point where you feel a difference after consuming, you've found your minimal effective dose." At this point, he asks patients to continue raising the dose by tiny amounts. At some point, he says, there will be no further benefit from a higher dose. "You've established your therapeutic range, and can take the minimum dose."

Cannabis stores mean safer neighborhoods

Return to top.

Philly420: Bombastic opposition to Mt. Airy cannabis dispensary is unjustified. By Chris Goldstein. August 22, 2017. From the article:

• A 2011 study by UCLA found that more than 1,000 semi-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles were not associated with an increased density of violent crime or property crime in their neighborhoods.
• A June 2017 article in the Harvard Business Review reviewed a massive set of data addressing dispensaries in “mixed-use” areas. Marijuana dispensaries and restaurants appear to help keep crime down when they are open for business.

Devastating Effects of Marijuana Legalization

Return to top.

Reefer Madness

Return to top.

• Why Is Marijuana Banned? The Real Reasons Are Worse Than You Think. By Johann Hari. 11 Feb 2016. Many of the comments are informative too.

SAFER. Marijuana is safer than alcohol

Return to top.

Image info.

• Category: Cannabis is safer.
• Category: Marijuana is safer than alcohol.
• Category: Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER).
• MarijuanaIsSafer.org

Right-click images below for image info and larger sizes.

• Facebook: Marijuana is Safer. Book by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert.

2005. Denver legalizes cannabis

Return to top.

See:

• Denver, Colorado [62]. 2005 section about Denver legalizing cannabis.

Featured group:

Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER)

Return to top.

• saferchoice.org
• Denver, Colorado, USA.
• Facebook: Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER)
• Facebook: Causes on Facebook. SAFER
• saferdenver.saferchoice.org
• twitter.com/SAFERchoice
• myspace.com/saferchoice
• think.mtv.com/profile/SAFER
• youtube.com/user/SaferChoice
• Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation - Wikipedia.

Denver, Colorado. April 2012. See: Cannabis is safer.

Denver, Colorado. October 2006 billboard.

• Rethinking Marijuana. It’s less harmful than alcohol and time to treat it that way. Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

Much safer than tobacco smoking

Return to top.

See:

• Wikipedia: Tobacco packaging warning messages.
• Wikipedia: List of additives in cigarettes.
• Wikipedia: Health effects of tobacco.
• Wikipedia: Tobacco harm reduction.
• Commons: Category:Cigarette packet warning signs.

• 

  Front of a Classic Mild pack, sold in India, displaying the new pictorial warning.

• 

  The front of a 20 pack of Marlboro red cigarettes sold in New Zealand.

• 

  Graphic tobacco packaging warning messages at present.

• 

  Cigarette pack of L&M Blue in Singapore, a photo of heart surgery and a warning message were printed.

• 

  Brazil's third and current batch of graphic images, mandatory on all cigarette packs.

Presidents' views concerning cannabis

Return to top.

See: Reagan's war on cannabis. And: Vote out most Republicans and their cannabis war.

Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example."

Share link: Obama.
Obama correctly said that cannabis is safer than alcohol. See: Cannabis is safer. He also said marijuana should be treated more as a public health issue than a criminal one. And: Obama signals support for legalizing medical marijuana. [63]. See video.

USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, etc). 87,798 per year, 2006 to 2010. [64][65][66][67][68]. See longer article: Cannabis is safer.

Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.

Obama on marijuana legalization. [69]. "My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this". The Washington Post. Jan. 22, 2015.

Above quote is from Sanjay Gupta interview of Obama on April 15, 2015. Interview aired on CNN on April 19, 2015. [70][71][72].

Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [73]. December 2015.

Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.

Holder's Legacy: Steering Away From the Drug War and Mass Incarceration. [74]. Attorney General Eric Holder (2009-2015) under President Obama. 25 Sep 2014.

Presidents alone can not reschedule it

Return to top.

See main article: Presidents alone can not reschedule marijuana.

Neither the president nor the Attorney General can reschedule marijuana by themselves. [75] [76][77]. The two of them together also can not do so. See Wikipedia: Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. See "Process" section.

Since HHS (Health and Human Services) and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) have again declined to reschedule or deschedule cannabis, then only Congress can do so. But Congress removed help for veterans:
Oct 2016: Republicans in Congress Won’t Let Veterans Access Medical Marijuana After All. [78][79]. And Congressional Republican committee leaders refuse hearings on CARERS bill to reschedule cannabis. See: Medical Marijuana Advocates Rally to Loosen Restrictions. By Alicia Ault. 23 Mar 2016. Medscape.

• Wikipedia: Drug Enforcement Administration. See "Criticism" section.
• DEA Removes Marijuana Misinformation From Website After Months of Pressure. By Steve Elliott. Feb 13, 2017.
• DEA Pulls Back From Calling Marijuana One Of The 'Most Dangerous Drugs'. By Cody Fenwick. August 16, 2016. Patch Media
• The Science behind the DEA's Long War on Marijuana. 19 April 2016. Scientific American. Unless Congress acts, the DEA has final say on rescheduling or descheduling marijuana.
• Pot Matters: For Legalization, Set Your Sights on the Senate. 23 Mar 2016. By Jon Gettman. "it will be helpful, and indeed crucial, for advancing legalization for Democrats to take control of the Senate." Maybe in 2018?
• FDA Weighs in on Rescheduling Cannabis. By Ben Adlin. 28 Dec 2015. Leafly.

Vote out most Republicans

Return to top.

See: History of US Republican war on cannabis, and their lies about it.

Categories

Return to top.

Drug war and incarceration rates worldwide

Return to top.

Full site / Mobile. Weed War. 2023. 2024. Years. Home. Republican states. Canada. Portugal. End.

Share link: compare. This article was written by Timeshifter. See many drug war charts and maps. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead. And: Drug War, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns. And: The number of people incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008.

Charts and maps

Return to top.

See list of incarceration rates by country (b c). Compare the rates. Due to the Drug War and long mandatory sentences the USA had the highest incarceration rate in the world for awhile. See cost of U.S. drug war: 1.5 trillion dollars!

The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. It peaked in 2008. Obama's Democrat landslide in 2008 turned the incarceration rate around. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link.

"Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people & 25% of the world's prisoners." Most are incarcerated due to the drug war. See: image info, larger banner. And: Number incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008. USA and territories. 2,424,279 inmates in 2008. ... In 2008 with less than 5% of world population the USA had 2.4 million of 9.8 million world prisoners (b). See latest numbers and World Prison Population List. The majority of inmates in the USA are in due to the drug war. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. It peaked in 2008.

• USA: Peak of 7.3 million people in 2007 under adult correctional supervision: On probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. More info here. See template.

• Timeline of U.S. incarceration in prisons and jails as a percentage of Americans of all ages. Peaked in 2008. See template. Image source and data.

USA. Adult and juvenile inmate stats. Share link.

• Source: Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013. See Appendix Table 2 in PDF. From U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Incarceration rate is per 100,000. See template. See juvenile detention numbers.

• See sources. See template.

Obama helping turn around Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration:

Source: Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013. See Appendix Table 5 in PDF.

• Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.

• Incarceration rates for adult males in U.S. jails and prisons by race and ethnicity. At midyear 2009, an estimated 4.7% of black non-Hispanic men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.8% of Hispanic men of any race, and 0.7% of white non-Hispanic men. Sources. More info: Race, ethnicity, and the drug war. See template.

Cannabis is safer

Return to top. Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. Note: This section and the following ones are at: Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation.

See articles: Cannabis is safer. And:
History of US Republican-led war on cannabis, and their lies about its health effects.

See 2024 GMM-420 on Fandom and on Shoutwiki. See 2024 talk page (no need to log in) to leave event links, and especially compilations.

Source and comments.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Portugal's decrim

Return to top. See: Portugal. Cannabis-related links and decriminalization. See the utter failure of the US Republican-led drug war and mass incarceration: It is killing Americans at the rate of one Vietnam War every 6 months.

There were around 112,100 US drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending August 31, 2023, at a rate of 307 deaths per day. 335 deaths per million US population. Only around 10 to 72 total deaths per year in Portugal, a country with universal healthcare, and where all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001. See timeline table of yearly overdose deaths by European country.

63 in 2020. Sources: [6][7].

Chart from: December 15, 2020 article: Scotland's drug death crisis in six charts. BBC News.

Harm reduction

Return to top. End the expensive, incarceration-heavy US drug war with Portuguese and Canadian single-payer universal healthcare, and Portuguese decriminalization.

Government debt

Return to top. Share link: Debt ceiling. See: Wikipedia: US debt ceiling.

Save $1.5 trillion:

Per year in the US:

Single-payer

Return to top. Republicans oppose single-payer universal healthcare. US would save 1.5 trillion dollars per year if it instituted Canadian universal healthcare. That is 5.4% of US GDP.

Canada spent 11.2 percent of its GDP for total healthcare costs in 2022. US spent 16.6 percent in 2022. Former US Lawmaker Finally Enjoys Social Policies He Fought for—In Europe.

Medical bankruptcies

Return to top. See: Health Care Costs Number One Cause of Bankruptcy for American Families. And: Americans have high personal medical debt, unlike Canadians. [80][81][82]. High student debt is another problem Americans have due to Republican politicians. Unlike Canadians. Changing the age of adulthood to 17 would free up a year of education money.

Source and comments.

US household debt at all time high. By quarters. 1st quarter 2003 to recent times. Chart.

US is Broke, not Woke. Healthcare spending and debt ceiling.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Richer Canadians

Return to top. Many sleepy Americans can't do the math concerning healthcare costs and medical debt. Also, incarceration and family debt due to the GOP-led war on drugs. Also US student debt, and US household debt due to GOP's low minimum wages, etc...

Source and comments.

Canadians are richer on average than Americans, and they have more energy because Canadians don't have to take 3 jobs, go bankrupt, or sell their homes, due to medical and student debt. See Wikipedia: List of countries by total health expenditure per capita. See: Student debt balance is forgiven after 15 years payment in Canada.

USA. Two Leading Economists Say Medicare for All Would Give 'Biggest Take-Home Pay Raise in a Generation'.

Medicare spends 1.4% on bureaucracy. Insurance companies spend 16-20%. See chart. We need Medicare for All.

Nearly a third of our health care dollars (mostly outside Medicare and Medicaid) go to something other than health care.

Healthier Canadians

Return to top. See: End drug war with universal healthcare and decriminalization. Cannabis is legal across Canada. See Wikipedia: Cannabis in Canada.

Canadians are richer, healthier, safer than Americans. Their universal healthcare. Their far lower murder rate due to much lower percentage with handguns. 2. Country Median wealth per adult. US dollars. Healthcare cost per person. US dollars PPP. Canada $151,248 (2022) $6,319 (2022) USA $93,271 (2022) $12,555 (2022) Country Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births. Life expectancy. 2021 Canada 11 (2020) 82.6 years USA 33 (2021) 76.3 years Country Under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. 2020 Murder rate per 100,000. 2021 Canada 5.0 2.1 USA 6.3 6.8

US Republicans Voted Often to Kill Coverage of Pre-Existing Conditions. [83][84][85].

Health spending

Return to top. Republicans are responsible for the large US government deficit. Because they support the wasteful US healthcare system over the much cheaper single-payer universal healthcare in Canada and elsewhere. See: Canadian single-payer universal healthcare versus US healthcare.

See more countries.

Wikipedia: Health spending by country. Percent of GDP. See Gross domestic product. 11.2% for Canada in 2022. 16.6% for the US in 2022.

See Wikimedia chart source.

Wikipedia: Health spending per capita. OECD countries. US dollars, using economy-wide PPPs. Public, private, and total expenditures. $6,319 for Canada in 2022. $12,555 for the US in 2022.

See Wikimedia chart source.

Poor and sick:

Return to top. Canadians are healthier on average, and their preventive healthcare is much cheaper! Versus US Emergency Room care. See Wikipedia: Health spending as a percent of GDP by country (gross domestic product). And: Wikipedia: List of countries with universal health care.

"The Easy-to-Digest Republican Party Platform" from Michael Moore has this image: "Keep 'em poor and sick".

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Republican states;

Prohibition plus;

Return to top. See Wikipedia: Republican states.

See article: US Republican states. It's not just cannabis prohibition. Many maps. It's also their low minimum wages, high Covid death rates, poor healthcare, high household debt, high gun death rates, high homicide rates, high incarceration rates, etc.. See: Drug war and other excessive uses of force. They are autocratic gerrymandered states that have long avoided federal oversight due to the Republican filibuster. See Wikipedia: Filibuster in the United States Senate.

The US Republican Party wants to concentrate wealth at the top. So they want most people to be Broke, not Woke: Trickle-down economics. See: Beyond drug war and conservatism.

The federal minimum wage would be $13.46 in 2022 dollars if its real value had remained at the 1968 level. Even more in 2023 dollars. See graph below.

Note the low minimum wages in the Republican south:

See Wikimedia SVG map. See PNG map [86] (for Facebook, etc.).

History of the US federal minimum wage. $13.46 inflation-adjusted peak in 1968. $7.25 an hour now due to Republican filibusters in the US Senate. See Wikimedia GIF chart.

• See Wikipedia: Republican states.
• Wikipedia: List of US states by minimum wage.
• Wikipedia: List of European countries by minimum wage.

Voter suppression;

Return to top. Vote out the many Republicans supporting backward cannabis laws. It is purposely made more difficult by the lack of no-excuse postal voting. Just one example of Republican voter suppression in GOP states. Such as many states in the south.

See Wikipedia: Postal voting in the United States.

Lies of GOP radio

Return to top. Google image search: Top right wing radio hosts.

How Fox News and the Right-Wing Media Machine Made My Dad Crazy. Republicans dominate talk radio. Especially in the Republican south with its backward cannabis laws.

See Wikipedia: Conservative talk radio. A percentage of people in many states do not have access to broadband internet, and desktop or laptop computers. Cell phones are a poor substitute for many people. So they are left with Republican misinformation radio.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Senate filibuster

Return to top. A minority of Senators should not be able to block cannabis laws supported by the majority of Americans.

The War on Cannabis. It accelerated in the US, and that's where it will end. US Congress could legalize, reschedule, or remove cannabis from the federal schedule if the Republican filibuster were gone. Vote in US Senators who will abolish it. [87][88][89][90]. Senators Manchin or Sinema could abolish it now.

Electoral college

Return to top. Presidents should not be elected who do not receive the highest number of votes.

Abolish the electoral college. Imagine the US without the 12 years of the Bush and Trump presidencies and their backward cannabis policies.

Ranked voting

Return to top.

See Wikipedia: Ranked voting.

Presidential veto

Return to top. Presidents should not be able to block cannabis laws supported by the majority of Americans.

See Wikipedia: Veto power in the United States.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

End war powers

Return to top. Nixon, Reagan, and Bush are responsible for the US War on Drugs, and the lie that massive incarceration is a solution. See more lies in
Reagan's frequent demonization of cannabis.

Presidents have too much power. Wars later determined to be started based on lies of Presidents, or done in secret:
Vietnam War: President Johnson and the lie of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Cambodia: Nixon and Kissinger's secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign that helped create the unrest that led to Pol Pot's genocidal regime. And Kent State shootings in US.
Iraq War: President Bush and the lie of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Trump and Biden

Return to top. Institute a mandatory retirement age for US Congress members and the President. [91]. Mandatory retirement exists for many US judges. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are too old to be President. And Trump is just too dumb: Video: Robert De Niro on Trump Being “So F**king Stupid”. See Robert Reich: Seriously, again, how dumb is Trump? And: Trump’s Brain Is Not Okay. An expert’s view of Trump’s mental slide into dementia.

Generic Democrats

Return to top. Biden and Trump both underperform generic opponents, poll finds. A Plea to Biden: If You Truly Want to Prevent Trump Authoritarianism, Please Withdraw. Trump was not good for cannabis reform the last time around. We need more cannabis reform. That does not come from the Republican Party. Generic ballot : 2024 Polls | FiveThirtyEight. Biden needs to drop out. March 09, 2024 Newsweek report on poll: Joe Biden Voters Tell Him to Drop Out.

Source. Text added later. More "flying hair" photos.

Gaza. Canada vs US

Return to top. Compare genocidal American politicians to Canada's politicians stopping military aid to genocidal Israel. Read EXCERPT: Bernie Sanders: "This bill also provides another $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid for Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue this barbaric war. The Netanyahu government should not receive another penny from U.S. taxpayers."

Gallup Poll chart below showing US change from majority approval (Nov. 2023) to majority disapproval (March 2024) of Israeli military action in Gaza. Source: Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza. March 27, 2024 by Jeffrey M Jones. Gallup Poll.

Tax cuts for rich

Return to top.

April 15, 2024. Biden: "If Congress enacted President Biden’s tax plan, tens of millions of workers and families would have their taxes cut, nobody making less than $400,000 would pay a penny more in taxes, and the wealthy and big corporations would finally pay their fair share—which would fully pay for the President’s tax cuts and investment agenda."

Democrats who attack the rich do better in elections. The party should take notice. Republican dynasties created by regressive taxation: See: The poster child for the perils of dynastic wealth. By Robert Reich.

US Republicans have led cannabis and drug wars worldwide. All to create 2nd class citizens who are blocked from many educational, job, and voting opportunities. Part of the conservative plan to concentrate wealth in fewer hands worldwide.

Trump's 2017 tax cuts for the rich.

On average, taxpayers in the income groups highlighted in yellow will incur a net cost (shown as a positive figure as this reduces the budget deficit), due in part to reduced healthcare subsidies. Higher income taxpayers receive a benefit via tax cuts (shown as a negative number as this increases the budget deficit). The percent of taxpayers in each income group is also shown for the 2023 period. "Taxpayer" in the chart refers to a tax return, meaning it could represent one person or a married couple filing jointly, among other options. [92][93]. Commons source.

Wealth inequality

Return to top. See: Wikipedia: Progressive tax. Mar 19, 2024: Sanders, UAW president press harder for shorter workweek. "Today, American workers are more than 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, despite this fact, millions of our people are working longer hours for lower wages," they wrote. "In fact, 28.5 million Americans now work over 60 hours a week and more than half of full-time employees work more than 40 hours a week." After adjusting for inflation, American workers make almost $50 less a week than they did 50 years ago, they said.

Jan 24, 2024 article: $8.5 Trillion in Untaxed Assets: Data Shows Why 'We Need a Billionaire Income Tax'. EXCERPTS: analysis found that the wealth of America's billionaires and centimillionaires has exploded in recent years as Republicans have enacted massive tax cuts for the rich ... "The cumulative $8.5 trillion of unrealized capital gains held by America's billionaires and centi-millionaires in 2022 has jumped by more than half–or $3.2 trillion–just since the last Fed survey year of 2019," END.

USA. The sorry state of the nation.

Robert Reich. Source and comments.

See Wikimedia Commons PNG image.

US federal income tax rate on billionaires averages only 8.2%. Click image to enlarge.

"Most taxpayers, including firefighters and teachers, average a federal income tax rate of approximately 13.3%."

Minimum wage

Return to top. Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation. Simultaneous with the Republican-led drug war the GOP used the Senate filibuster to undemocratically severely restrict increases in the minimum wage at the federal level, and in GOP states.

US minimum wage would be $23 an hour in 2021 if it had kept up with productivity.

Source article. [94].

Your greed is hurting the economy!

• A $15 minimum wage would cost jobs, right? Probably not, economists say.
• There’s More Evidence That Raising the Minimum Wage Won’t Cost Jobs.
• The U.S. has one of the stingiest minimum wage policies of any wealthy nation. Washington Post.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Global warming

Return to top. World Population Clock: 8 Billion People (LIVE). We need more trees and less people. More oxygen, less carbon dioxide. To slow down global warming. "Assuming no net migration and unchanged mortality, a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures a broadly stable population." - Fertility rates. OECD Data. See country graphs. Also, inflation comes from an increasing population sharing one planet's resources.

Many US Republican leaders oppose birth control and abortion rights (even early abortion). Another reason besides their backward cannabis laws to vote them out. Birth control and abortion (especially early abortion) is legal (even free) in many countries. That needs to expand further.

We need the lowest curve below, by lowering the birth rate.

See page 30 of source.

Immigration

Return to top. The US and Europe can't import all the overpopulation of the world. Europe, especially, is already too densely populated. US Democrats and progressives in Europe need to limit immigration, or they will lose power, and cannabis policies will stagnate under right wing rule. Taxes on the rich will be cut yet more, which by definition means middle class taxes will go up, or stay up, to pay for it. Wikipedia: List of countries and dependencies by population density.

See source.

To Top. Or End. Or Articles.

Roswell. Warming

Return to top.

Share link: Roswell UFO. Much UFO technology has been back engineered, and its carbon-free energy could end global warming. See Stephen Greer playlist. [95][96][97][98][99] [100][101][102][103] [104][105]. Wildest: [106][107]. See also the David Grusch disclosures at July 26, 2023 House hearing about US possession of aliens, alien bodies, alien craft, and back engineering: [108][109][110][111] [112][113][114][115][116] [117][118][119][120]. See History channel: [121][122][123][124]. National Geographic: [125][126].

See the July 8, 1947 Roswell Daily Record below. Image info. Click image to enlarge. Full-size is readable. See full text of saucer article. [127]. U.S. Army officer Walter Haut issued the initial "flying disc" press release. His 2002 notarized affidavit said there were 2 crash sites, and that he had seen a craft, alien bodies, and handled wreckage material. (see page 14 of pdf). It was released in a 2007 book after his death in 2005.

Walter Haut in 1947

Affidavit is on pages 239-242 of the 2022 edition: Witness to Roswell, 75th Anniversary Edition: Unmasking the Government's Biggest Cover-up (more eyewitnesses). 36 pages previewed in Google Books. Click "preview" button and scroll down to pages 239-240. Search within the book. There is an inexpensive Kindle ebook. Moonwalker Dr. Edgar Mitchell wrote the foreword. The 20 paragraph affidavit is online here: [128] (page 14). [129][130].

Haut's daughter, Julie Shuster, in 2002, 3 years before his death, "verbally discussed each and every sentence" of the affidavit with him. She said it was not a deathbed confession. See Sept 2007 MUFON UFO Journal. Issue 473. Page 15. And this article from Special Broadcasting Service. Archived. See Julie Shuster on IMDb.

Google search: Walter Haut 2002 Roswell affidavit. Articles about Haut:

30 June 2007: Roswell officer's amazing deathbed admission raises possibility that aliens DID visit. By Nick Pope. Same article also published here and here. Archived here and here.

5 June 2022: Roswell officer's deathbed confession about theory of alien cover up. By Declan Carey. Archived here.

14 May 2021: Ex-Army officer ADMITS he saw ‘alien the size of a 10-year-old child’ after famous Roswell UFO crash in incredible video. By Emma Parry. Archived here. This article has a short excerpt of the video.

May 2021: Roswell Officer Speaks From the Grave: Video Released, Confesses that Alien was "the size of a 10 year old". By Anthony Bragalia. Archived here. From article (emphasis added): "This video clip is part of a memoir video / oral history over two hours in length that covers many personal and professional aspects of Haut's life. The video was taken at the Roswell Museum in 2000 with friends Dennis Balthaser and Wendy Connors."

Galactic Pot March

Return to top.

420 and Global Cannabis March event lists by year.

2024 GMM-420. And Mirror.

---

---

---

Site navigation

Return to top. See 2024 GMM-420 on Fandom and on Shoutwiki. Note: See the sections at the bottom of many pages: Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation.

2024 talk page (no need to log in) for event links, and especially compilations.

To Top. Or Articles. Categories.

Full site / Mobile. Weed War. 2023. 2024. Years. Home. Republican states. Canada. Portugal. End.

Categories

Return to top.

Categories

Return to top.

Breaking the Taboo

Return to top.

Home Page (BreakingTheTaboo.info). More info [131]. See TabooBreakers on Twitter. See Global Commission on Drug Policy and Facebook page. Quotes from video clips on the trailer: President Richard Nixon: "total war against public enemy number one". President Ronald Wilson Reagan: "When we say no to drugs it will be clear that we mean absolutely none". President George H.W. Bush: "Some think there won't be room for them in jail. We'll make room". Morgan Freeman: "Since 1971 2.5 trillion dollars have been spent on the War on Drugs". Look who's breaking the taboo: Richard Branson, Kate Winslet, Sam Branson, Morgan Freeman, and many more. See also: MarijuanaMajority.com. Share link. Full version in English is no longer available online. Hey Richard Branson, George Soros, or whoever, please buy it and put it back online!

Cost of drug war

Return to top.

Cost of U.S. drug war:

Cost of U.S. drug war. Even $1.5 trillion dollars is conservative since many crimes are committed in order to get money for drugs. State prisons averaged $31,268 per inmate in 2010. See: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. See: Economics - Drug War Facts. See: 32 Reasons Why We Need To End The War On Drugs - Business Insider. See: The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition.

A Chart That Says the War on Drugs Isn't Working. By Serena Dai. The Atlantic Wire. 12 Oct 2012. "The numbers on this chart alone don't add up to $1.5 trillion, which represents a more inclusive count of drug control spending, with prison costs and state level costs determined by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, but instead to $800 billion." See: Cost of U.S. drug war. Share link.

Categories

Return to top.