Learning Sustainability

As humans, are we on a sustainable path on this planet? 

 

The air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat and the green nature that sustains us, are all polluted and already unfit to sustain, not just us, but large numbers of other life forms. An incredible number of species of plants, animals, insects and birds have gone extinct in the last 50 years, signalling the collapse of the planet's web of life. There is no part of the planet that has not been inflicted with damage by humans. Something that appeared as invincible and stable as the climate, is now changing so unpredictably, and dangerously, that no expert can rule out the possibility of the most catastrophic events happening at any given time, not just catastrophic in scale, but also in terms of number of events and simultaneity. Climate change, till recently debated and refuted, is now recognized as reality by many people.So the answer to the above question is an emphatic NO. 

 

If this is not enough cause for concern, there is also the fact that a lot of people are still not even conscious of this alarming state of affairs. People have been sold the idea that the most important things in life are man made, such as a big concrete house, the latest technology, cars, air conditioned rooms furnished with synthetic materials and the latest appliances. People have also been sold the idea that the only greenery worth anything is well manicured lawns, or a few pots of plants. For man people, the view of the ideal world is scarily devoid of air, water, greenery, natural food and natural materials and resembles more an outpost on a desolate planet rather than the green and blue planet that we currently inhabit. This distorted view of reality used to be largely an urban phenomenon but is rapidly becoming the view of even rural folk. I cannot forget the Marvel movie Black Panther, where in the middle of pristine nature in the African continent, is what is perceived by the creators of the story, and an increasing number of people, as the ideal environment to aspire for - a so-called advanced city filled with glass, concrete and technology that sticks out like a cancer in the middle of the continent's magnificent natural surroundings. As more and more people have this synthetic, man made image of the world, and as the world moves to resemble this image, people think that this is the most natural thing. As we brainwash and hypnotize ourselves, what we don't realize is that much before we make this synthetic view of the world a reality, most of us, including a majority of the plants, birds and animals in the world today, will be long gone. For the few survivors, life will be extreme hell, painful beyond anything that they have imagined so far. I am not talking fiction here, but a reality towards which we are moving at such a rapid pace that even now it may be too late to change course. 

 
If trying to change course is an option that we want to pursue, then starting at the school level is most important, so that we can try and teach the younger generations to remember what we have been taught to forget. The sense of urgency needs to be so much greater for the coming generations, considering that the current generations are still complacent, reassured by the self-centered, irrational thinking that the planet will at least outlast their lifetimes. Remodeling education around sustainability is one of the key strategies in what could be our last chance. The school is the mini-world in which children learn how to interact with, and to live in, the much larger world. The lessons learnt in school are applied to the outside world as adults.

If possible, in every school in the world, we need to center the curriculum around sustainability. Not only must this topic be introduced, it needs to take center-stage, more than any other subject that is currently being taught i.e. the languages, science, mathematics, social sciences, etc. This is because without first learning how to live in a sustainable manner on our planet, or learning how to save and sustain a fast collapsing planet, having knowledge of any of the other subjects is futile. The current subjects may have had great significance, as standalone ways, to understand the world and to gain economic wealth in the past but that is no longer viable. How can we expect today's children to grow into responsible stewards of the planet when we are teaching them to make the same mistakes that we have made? The curriculum needs a complete overhaul from the lower grades to the higher grades. We can interweave the existing subjects i.e. languages, mathematics, sciences, arts, social sciences, etc keeping sustainability, rather than economic success, as the central objective. Our best minds across the world need to get together, create a curriculum for sustainability and how it can be taught, with increasing levels of complexity, to match the need for higher learning, as the student progresses to higher grades. To ground this curriculum in reality, it must be implementable at the school as a mini-world level. It must also be implementable by the students themselves, and not the school administrators or staff, as has been seen in a few cases where such initiatives have been known.

 

For developing a curriculum based on sustainability, there must first be a vision of what a sustainable school is and what a sustainable planet is. A major part of the activity at the school level by students should center around achieving and maintaining the vision of the sustainable school. I suspect that the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN themselves can be tailored to the school level to make the vision clear, effective and implementable. It is quite strange that we aspire to achieve these goals at the adult level as nations when there is almost no link between these and what is taught in schools to the future generations!

The sustainability vision of the school should definitely cover the key aspects of water, air, natural green cover, waste management, natural foods, energy, materials, transportation, etc.

• Water management should involve rain water harvesting, drinking water management, preventing water contamination from man made chemicals and toxins, as well as management of water for all other needs of the school through processes like conservation, recycling, etc.
• Air management should involve methods of measuring air quality, creating good quality air, rejuvenating it and maintaining it.
• Natural green cover management should involve the growing and management of sufficient green cover in schools so that various types of locally suited trees, shrubs, etc.  are grown. Growing of greenery that is useful for humans, as well as other animals and birds, should be pursued. Forest management and horticulture principles need to be practiced, as well as the study of the various types of life forms that cohabit the school environment. Sources of soil damage, such as chemical insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and disinfectants, and the alternatives for these, should be explored. In schools where space is limited, options such as terrace gardening, etc should be explored.
  
• Waste management should cover management of sewage, wet waste, dry waste, e-waste, etc and their recycling so as to ensure that the school has a zero waste system. Recycling of wet waste to generate compost for gardens and green cover, solid waste for useful materials, etc should be explored. Generation of waste itself should be minimized so that the school can have a zero carbon footprint.
  
• Natural food management should involve agriculture, gardening and horticulture to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc that can be useful for the school and its inhabitants. This can form a part of the natural sciences based education curriculum.
• Energy management  to meet of the energy needs of the school through sustainable means, such as renewable energy sources like solar, wind, etc, with minimum dependency on the fossil fuel based generation of electricity must be in place. This can form a part of the science based education curriculum.
• Materials management should challenge the students and staff of the school to use sustainable renewable materials for the school's material requirements including furniture, building materials, school equipment, etc. The management of this aspect can vitalize vocational training and craftsmanship.
• The use of sustainable modes of transport and conveyance such as walking, bicycles and mass transport must be explored and promoted.
• Natural ways to improve the physical and mental health of students through the use of lifestyle changes and diet interventions that promote both.
• Effective communication among all stakeholders is essential. As important as the above aspects, or even more important, is, as adults, confronting the truth that the planet is in dire straits needing urgent action from all. Once we have confronted this truth ourselves, we must speak about it to the children. Pushing the problem under the carpet and hoping that it will go away by itself is no longer working.
• Besides these, the goals of equity, zero poverty, policy making for sustainability, etc need to be included.
  

If people involved in, and dedicated to, the field of education worldwide - the experts, got together, they could create a much more beautiful, integrated and sustainable way to try and save the planet from destruction. I suspect that a lot of work has already been done in the above discussed areas but in various pockets. It may be just a question of putting it all together in a meaningful, and workable fashion and arriving at a consensus globally. Various school boards could then adopt this as a pilot and spread the learnings and best practices across the world.

As we put in place this model of education, and by in place, I mean in all schools, private, public, government or non-government, we can, in parallel, apply the same concepts to all our other mini-worlds that constitute the larger world i.e. our colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning, our workplaces, communities, etc. Just by going through the exercise of trying to implement sustainability in schools itself, we will see the necessary changes and adjustments for the better in our own adult lives. I do not think that we have enough time to wait for the framing and implementation of sustainability in schools, and then the application of what has been learnt in schools back into the world. We need to do many things in parallel if we are to even try and pull things back from the brink where we are currently standing, on the edge of the gaping mouth of large scale death for life on the planet. The reward is the green and blue planet, abundant in natural beauty, containing all the things important for the sustenance of all life for at least a little longer. There is no failure in attempting to make this happen. Even if we only succeed partially, that partial success will mean that a part of the natural system has healed and corrected itself, raising by that much more the chances of a recovery . There is only failure in not doing anything but continuing, like sleepwalkers, towards the rapid doom that the current trajectory entails.

Cannabis and Youth

Talk about legalization of cannabis, and most people will immediately tell you that it is not to be encouraged, as the youth will become addicted to it. They will also look at you like as if you eat kids for lunch and, possibly, warn their acquaintances to steer clear of you. You may also, following this conversation, start having doubts about your pro-cannabis thoughts, thinking that maybe it is not good, it is better off remaining illegal, after all, so that the youth can be saved. Now, is this really the case?

If you can step back, focus your attention from the infinite things demanding it at any given point these days, and look at the situation more carefully, a number of things should come to your notice. Some of them are as follows:

• Youth are always experimenting with things that they are told by their parents not to try out. That includes recreational drugs. Parents most often, naively, cannot think beyond cannabis, cigarettes and alcohol, so they will tell their children to lay off the same. The youth, in the meantime, are checking out crystal meth, heroin, powerful opioid prescription drugs, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, cocaine, cough syrups, sniffing glues, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances and other dangerous chemical drug cocktails. Parents, who spend their day popping 10-20 pills in front of their kids for their blood pressure, diabetes, flatulence, nausea, insomnia, head-ache, indigestion, pain, erections, etc. may see their children indulging in these pharmaceutical and chemical compounds, and may even look at their children as medical geniuses. Some parents, and even some children, may offer advice to each other in terms of what is most suitable for self-treatment at home.

• With cannabis illegal in India, most adults do not have access to it, either because they do not know whom to contact if they need some cannabis or because through years of not using the herb they have completely lost interest and connection with it. The youth, however, are in constant contact with persons who use it and sell it. They know when and where some cannabis is being sold and for how long it will be available. They are nimble and networked enough to make the purchase and leave before an adult realizes what is happening. The drug peddler also approaches the youth as the youth is an easy target. The objective of the drug peddler is not to heal the youth or provide the youth with enlightenment by selling the youth cannabis, but to make as much money as possible. To do this, the peddler will try to hook the youth onto more deadly drugs, by up-selling once the youth has become a familiar customer. The peddler will also try to get the youth to bring his friends and even work with the peddler, as his accomplice, when the youth runs out of money.

• Every youth who has used cannabis, starts off by using tobacco and alcohol, usually in that order. Most youth who try cannabis eventually switch back to alcohol or tobacco, with only a few continuing the association with the herb. Adults often see this and even encourage this, being completely ignorant of the fact that these commonly available legal drugs are much more unhealthy and dangerous than cannabis. Tobacco and alcohol each kill millions of persons worldwide, every year, as against the extremely safe dosage profile of cannabis, besides its medicinal properties. Alcohol is a leading contributor to mental illness, violence and crime. Tobacco is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The predominant view, among adults however, is that cannabis is much worse than either of these two, thanks to the very successful defamation of cannabis, in which campaign the alcohol and tobacco industries have played no small part. If you ask a parent to give examples of what a drug is, they will most likely list cannabis, whereas tobacco, alcohol and prescription medications are never even considered, let alone named.
  

•  In parts of the world where cannabis is legal for recreational use, the number of youth taking up cannabis consumption has not increased significantly, as often feared and regularly cited by the anti-cannabis lobby. In fact, consumption rates for youth have remained more of less constant pre- and post-cannabis legalization. The number of adults in their middle age or old age, however, has increased very significantly for the simple reasons that these people are now starting to understand the benefits of cannabis, cannabis is accessible to them and they are seeing the harms of all the other alternatives currently available. This means that prohibition is actually keeping cannabis out of the hands of the adult human population and serving it up to the very age demographic, i..e the youth, whom we are supposedly trying to safeguard.

• Another common argument we hear against legalization is that the herb will adversely affect the health of the youth. This may be the case but please remember that our ancient medical texts, that speak of the benefits of the herb, do not state anywhere that it should be kept out of reach of youth and children. In fact, some of the common patients using medical cannabis today are babies and young children suffering from debilitating epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer and autism disorders. Until the end of the 19th century cannabis was freely available and it did not wipe out the world's child and youth population or else none of us would be here today to speak about it. It was a normal part of human life and there was no brouhaha or hysteria associated with its presence. Grandmothers probably consumed hashish while they rocked their grandchildren to sleep and because of its free availability the youth were least interested in consuming it.

• With cannabis prohibition and the availability of the internet, we are currently in a situation where adults are misinformed about the plant whereas the youth are getting their information online. Parents rarely, if at all, have conversations with their children about cannabis and even if they do, their lack of knowledge on the subject leaves the child thinking that he or she knows more about the plant than the adult. This is similar to the approach of parents to sex education for the youth. Many parents don't even know the difference between cannabis and dangerous opium based drugs like heroin. They club everything under the one heading 'drug' not understanding the harm profiles of each of the various available options in the world today. Parents pick up this wrong information from sources that spread propaganda for their own selfish reasons. With legalization and more authentic information becoming available, adults can educate themselves first and then provide the necessary fact based counseling that a child will listen to, opening up the doors for more effective conversations.

• With cannabis prohibition, the cannabis that is making its way into the hands of predominantly youth has a high risk of being contaminated and adulterated posing potentially serous health risks to the youth. This is similar to the situation of illicit liquor brewed in places where alcohol is prohibited and where there is no control over unscrupulous elements adding harmful substances to the liquor to increase its potency and sale-ability. In a legal environment, at least the risk of adulteration or contamination can be mitigated to a certain extent, with farmers taking up organic cultivation, and regulatory bodies doing at least the occasional purity checks on the plant

•  Many youth found using cannabis by their parents and elders are forcibly sent to drug rehabilitation centers, where they are subjected to cruelty, housed with hardened drug addicts and made to consume powerful and dangerous pharmaceutical drugs, in the name of treatment. Many of these rehabilitation centers are run for profit by their unscrupulous owners, who look at an inmate mainly as a source of income and not out of any genuine concern for the inmate's well being. Youth who come out of these rehabilitation centers are very often psychologically and physically damaged, and may end up becoming life long addicts to chemical drugs, or even die young, if they are not able to bounce back from the traumatic experiences of drug rehabilitation.

• The youth are the easiest targets of law enforcement and the first to be picked up by the law and imprisoned for possession or sale of even the smallest amount of cannabis. Economically well off youth manage to get out of the prison system relatively easily without any criminal records as their parents or guardians bail them out. The economically backward youth however end up spending a long time in prison waiting for the judicial process to reach its conclusion. By this time, in association with hardened criminals, they become affiliated to various criminal gangs and pick up dangerous criminal skills. Finding it difficult to get back into mainstream society after these experiences, these youth may end up in a life of crime. 

•  Legalizing cannabis can help to regulate the sale of cannabis to the youth, like it currently happens with tobacco and alcohol, where retailers ensure that the buyer is above a certain age before the product is sold. Currently, the unscrupulous drug peddler cares only for sale of his product, irrespective of the age of the consumer, which is why we find most cannabis sales happening in the vicinity of schools and colleges in the prohibited environment. Law enforcement and regulators can approach the legal cannabis retailers, conduct spot checks and inspections to try and enforce the age limit which in the current scenario is impossible because the retailer is a ghost who appears, makes the sale to almost an entirely underage population and then disappears before any adult is aware of it.

•  Some of the main reasons for the youth getting addicted to drugs of various kinds is the non-optimal environment that they face at home i.e parents too busy with trying to get rich and not spending the necessary time with their children or parents who indulge in all kinds of dangerous addictions in front of their children and then expect the child to behave better. Blaming cannabis for a child's errant behavior instead of their own bad parenting is a common approach used by parents everywhere

All said, cannabis prohibition is doing the exact opposite of what it is intended to do. It is harming youth in many more ways than most people would care to think. It is actually delivering cannabis into the hands of the youth instead of taking it out of their hands. It is forcing youth to adopt dangerous behavior. It is one of the most detrimental policies that exist in human society in the world today. Legalize cannabis and support the legalization process if you really care about the youth and the future of human society, even if ignorant people look at you like you are the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Wake up and become aware. Get out of your addiction created sloth and pseudo-concern for the youth and do something real about it. Grow up, behave like an adult if you claim yourself to be one and safeguard the youth of the world.

Below are links to articles that appeared in various media related to the above. Words in italics are the thoughts of the author at the time of reading the article.

 'The question is frequently asked: Why does a man become a drug addict?

The answer is that he usually does not intend to become an addict. You don't wake up one morning and decide to become a drug addict. It takes at least three months' shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don't really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it is no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'For nature wishes every thing to remain itself; and whilst every individual strives to grow and exclude and exclude and grow, to the extremities of the universe, and to impose the laws of its being on every other creature, Nature steadily aims to protect each against every other. Each is self-defended. Nothing is more marked than the power by which individuals are guarded from individuals, in a world where every benefactor becomes so easily a malefactor only by continuation of his activity into places where it is not due; where children seem so much at the mercy of their foolish parents, and where almost all men are too social and interfering. We rightly speak of the guardian angels of children. How superior in their security from the infusions of evil persons, from vulgarity and second thought! They shed their own abundant views on the objects they behold. Therefore they are not at the mercy of such poor educators as we adults. If we huff and chide them they soon come not to mind it and get a self-reliance; and if we indulge them to folly, they learn their limitation elsewhere.' - Uses of Great Men, Emerson, The Basic Writings of America's Sage


'The stereotypical image of a cannabis smoker is someone who sprawls on the sofa for hours surrounded by a haze of smoke and half-eaten snacks. The scene is played up for laughs in films, but social psychologist Angela Bryan thought it could be cause for concern. After all, cannabis is known to increase appetite and aid relaxation, which might put people at risk of health conditions such as obesity, says Bryan, who is at the University of Colorado Boulder.

But digging into health trends revealed the opposite. Nationwide US studies report that, compared to non-users, cannabis users actually have a lower prevalence of obesity.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02529-0


'In addition to the continued and “dramatic” capital inflow into the cannabis industry, Kagia noted a “dramatic reassessment of cannabis's place in society and the escalation of the legalization debate in capitals and local communities across the country.” Although legislative roadblocks still hobble some states, such as New York and New Jersey, from moving ahead with legalization, public support and pressure notwithstanding, right now, the issue has assumed great importance in the political landscape. Nearly every Democratic presidential candidate “has affirmed support for some measure of federal cannabis policy reform, adding to the likelihood of a substantial policy debate during the 2020 election cycle," added Kagia. With a majority of Americans supporting legalization, according to the latest Gallup poll, and “support among younger voters being dramatically higher than that of older voters, the trend toward a more accepting view of cannabis will be generational.”'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbian/2019/09/24/new-cannabis-report-predicts-legal-sales-to-reach-nearly-30-billion-by-2025/

 

 

'The question, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in any other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity. I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I ended up hooked. Most addicts I have talked to report a similar experience. They did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. They just drifted along until they got hooked. If you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict's special need. You don't decide to be an addict. One morning you wake up sick and you're an addict.' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'After discussing the data limitations of the study, the authors concluded that “it indeed seems to be the case that legalizing the recreational use of marijuana results in fewer marijuana related arrests and court cases” and that while law enforcement sources voiced various concerns, several “indicated that methamphetamine and heroin were much larger problems for their agencies than was marijuana.”

The team “saw no evidence that marijuana legalization had an impact on indicators in border states,” adding that they “found no indications of increases in arrests related to transportation/trafficking offenses.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/study-funded-by-feds-debunks-myths-about-marijuana-legalizations-alleged-harms/


'Safety First: Real Drug Education for Teens is the nation’s first harm reduction-based drug education curriculum for high school teachers. The free curriculum consists of 15 lessons that can be completed in a 45- to 50-minute class period.

Each lesson is designed to engage students through interactive activities such as discussions and role-playing. The curriculum is aligned with National Health Education Standards as well as Common Core State Standards so it can be easily integrated into Health classes. '
http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/safety-first-real-drug-education-teens


'More than half of the studies, however, have shown that cannabis and alcohol are substitutes, meaning that the increased use of one substance reduces the use of the other. Other researchers have also suggested that cannabis, especially cannabis for medical use, may serve as a substitute for alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, including prescription drugs.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'In Washington state, the past-month use of cannabis among high-school students of different grades has generally remained stable, although it increases by grade, with the highest past-month prevalence found among twelfth grade students, as in Colorado. The perception of risk relating to cannabis use among high-school students has also declined since the nonmedical use of cannabis was legalized, with nearly three quarters of twelfth grade students seeing no or low risk in trying cannabis a few times and less than half perceiving no or low risk in the regular use of cannabis in 2018. Similarly, some 38 per cent of twelfth grade students considered that it was fairly easy to get cannabis.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'While the daily or near-daily use of cannabis among high-school students in Colorado has declined, the prevalence of occasional users, that is, those who report having used cannabis one or two times in the past month, has increased since legalization. Nevertheless, 4.7 per cent of high-school students reported using cannabis daily or nearly daily (20 or more times in the past 30 days) in 2017. Moreover, although the share of high-school students smoking cannabis declined from 92 per cent in 2015 to 84 per cent in 2017, there was an increase in the share of those who reported using edibles with high THC content (from 28 per cent in 2015 to 36 per cent in 2017) or “dabbing” cannabis extracts and concentrates (from 28 per cent in 2015 to 34 per cent in 2017) in the past month.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

 

 

'Junk is a cellular equation that teaches the user facts of general validity. I have learned a  great deal from using junk: I have seen life measured out in eyedroppers of morphine solution. I experienced the agonizing deprivation of junk sickness, and the pleasure of relief when junk-thirsty cells drank from the needle. Perhaps all pleasure is relief. I have learned the cellular stoicism that junk teaches the user. I have seen a cell full of sick junkies silent and immobile in separate misery. They knew the pointlessness of complaining or moving. They knew that basically no one can help anyone else. There is no key, no secret someone else has that he can give you.' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'One concern about legalizing the non-medical use of cannabis for adults (21 years and older) is that its use could also increase access to cannabis and its use among adolescents. Based on national data, cannabis use among high-school students remained stable overall, whereas the risk perception of the occasional use of cannabis declined in the United States over the period 2012–2018. In Colorado, although there has been a decline in daily or near-daily use of cannabis among high-school students, they are now consuming and exposed to cannabis products with far higher THC content than was available or used earlier. In 2017, about 20 per cent of high-school students in Colorado reported non-medical use of cannabis in the past month; that rate is comparable to the national average among high-school students.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'In 2019, young people aged 15–24 were more likely than those in older age groups to obtain cannabis from illegal sources, whereas a larger share of older cannabis users relied solely on legal sources; 41 per cent of cannabis users aged 65 or older reported using only legal sources to obtain cannabis, compared with roughly one quarter of the other age groups.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The transition from the illegal market to legal sources of cannabis has been a gradual one. The proportion of cannabis users sourcing their products from the legal market increased from around 25 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2018 to about 50 per cent one year later, and in 2019 nearly 30 per cent relied solely on the legal market for their cannabis (compared with 10 per cent in 2018). Many users relied on multiple sources to obtain their cannabis, with about 40 per cent of cannabis users still getting their product from illegal sources.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

 

 

'As I began using stuff every day, or often several times a day, I stopped drinking and going out at night. When you use junk you don't drink. Seemingly, the body that has a quantity of junk in its cells will not absorb alcohol. The liquor stays in the stomach, slowly building up nausea, discomfort, and dizziness, and there is no kick. Using junk would be a sure cure for alcoholics. I also stopped bathing. When you use junk the feel of water on the skin is unpleasant for some reason, and junkies are reluctant to take a bath.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'Along with the increase in prevalence, the frequency of cannabis use also increased marginally. At the beginning of 2018, some 5 per cent of the population aged 15 and older were daily users of cannabis products; by the third quarter of 2019, this proportion had increased to 6 per cent. Increases in the proportion of daily users of cannabis were observed mainly among males, young people aged 18–24 and those aged 65 and older. Daily or near-daily use of cannabis is more frequent in younger users than in older ones. Nearly 8 per cent of people aged 15–24 and 9 per cent of those aged 25–44 were daily or near-daily users of cannabis, compared with 4 per cent of people aged 45–64 and nearly 3 per cent of those aged 65 and older. Men were twice as likely as women to be daily or near-daily cannabis users. A commonly observed pattern of use is that regular and frequent users of cannabis, such as daily or near-daily users, represent a small proportion of all cannabis users, but they account for the bulk of cannabis products consumed. It is estimated that in 2018, for example, around half a million people in Canada consumed some 810 tons of cannabis, of which half (426 tons) were consumed by daily or near-daily users and another 355 tons by those who reportedly used cannabis at least once a week.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'There is a considerable level of overlap between the medical and non-medical use of cannabis products in Canada, although the proportion varies by age group. In the second and third quarters of 2019, 52 per cent of cannabis users aged 65 and older reported using cannabis for medical purposes (with or without proper documentation for such use). On the other hand, nearly 60 per cent of cannabis users aged 15–24 reported the use of cannabis products for non-medical purposes, and one third of respondents in that age group reported using those products for both medical and non-medical reasons.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

 

 

'We were having trouble filling the scripts. Most drugstores will only fill a morphine script once or twice, many not at all. There was one drugstore that would fill all our scripts anytime, and we took them all there..' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'At the baseline, in the first quarter of 2018, nearly 14 per cent of Canadians (12.2 per cent of women and 15.8 per cent of men) reported that they had used cannabis, including cannabis products for medical purposes, in the past three months. The highest prevalence rates were reported among those aged 25–34 (26 per cent) and 15–24 (23 per cent). By the beginning of 2019, the prevalence of use in the past three months had increased to 17.5 per cent, and it remained close to that level until the third quarter of 2019 (17.1 per cent). While the prevalence of cannabis use in the past three months rose in most age groups in 2019, the most marked increase was observed in the oldest age group (65 and older), for which the prevalence nearly doubled in comparison with 2018. There also seems to be a larger proportion of new users among older adults than in other age groups: while 10 per cent of new cannabis users were aged 25–44 in the second and third quarters of 2019, more than one quarter were aged 65 and older.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The objectives of the current cannabis legislation in Canada are to keep cannabis away from young people (under 18 years of age), to prevent criminals from profiting from the distribution and sale of cannabis and to safeguard public health and safety by allowing adults (aged 18 and older) legal access to cannabis. Under the constitutional division of powers in Canada, the federal Government and provincial governments have different responsibilities. As the provinces historically developed their own systems to regulate the sale of alcohol, a similar approach has been applied to regulate the non-medical use of cannabis products.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The oral administration of cannabis-based products is associated with improvements in autistic patients with self-injurious behaviors and co-morbid epilepsy, according to data published in the journal Seminars in Pediatric Neurology.

 A pair of investigators affiliated with the Tufts University School of Medicine described their clinical experience working with children and young adults with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) who had consumed either cannabis or hemp-based products. Among subjects with ASD-associated aggression, 60 percent reported improvements following treatment. Among subjects diagnosed with both ASD and epilepsy, 91 percent reported some improvement in seizure control.'
https://norml.org/news/2020/07/16/study-cannabis-based-products-may-ease-symptoms-in-autistic-patients

 

 

'A lot of nonsense has been written about the changes people undergo as they get a habit. All of a sudden the addict looks in the mirror and does not recognise himself. The actual changes are difficult to specify and they do not show up in the mirror. That is, the addict himself has a special blind spot so far as the progress of the habit is concenrned. He generally does not realize that he is getting a habit at all. He says there is no need to get a habit if you are careful and observe a few rules, like shooting every other day. Actually, he does not observe these rules, but every extra shot is regarded as exceptional. I have talked to many addicts and they all say they were surprised when they discovered they actually had the first habit. Many of them attributed their symptoms to some other cause.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953



'Data on the United States also indicate a marked decline in the use of NPS. In particular, the prevalence of synthetic cannabinoid use among twelfth-grade students fell from 11.4 per cent in 2011 to 3.3 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the use of ketamine fell from 1.7 to 0.7 per cent over the same period, and the use of “bath salts” (synthetic cathinones) dropped from 1.3 per cent in 2012 to 0.6 per cent in 2018, the most recent year for which data are available. This happened in the context of a deterioration in the reputation of many of those substances among young people, in parallel to several waves of controls of synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones at the national level during the 2010–2012 period and later at the global level, as well as the control of ketamine at the national level in 1999. Over the 2000–2019 period, the annual prevalence of ketamine non-medical use among twelfth-grade high-school students fell drastically, from 2.5 per cent to 0.7 per cent' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The 2019 drug use survey in India estimated that nearly 1 per cent of the population aged 10–75 had misused pharmaceutical opioids in the past year and that an estimated 0.2 per cent of the population (2.5 million people) were suffering from drug use disorders related to pharmaceutical opioids. Although the breakdown by type of pharmaceutical opioids misused in India is not available, buprenorphine, morphine, pentazocine and tramadol are the most common opioids misused in the country.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The non-medical use of tramadol among other pharmaceutical drugs is reported by several countries in South Asia: Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In 2017, 130,316 capsules containing tramadol and marketed under the trade name “Spasmo Proxyvon Plus (‘SP+’)” were seized in Bhutan. In Sri Lanka, about 0.2 per cent of the population aged 14 and older are estimated to have misused pharmaceutical drugs in the past year. Among them, the non-medical use of tramadol is the most common, although misuse of morphine, diazepam, flunitrazepam and pregabalin have also been reported in the country. The misuse of more than one pharmaceutical drug (including tramadol) is also a common pattern among heroin users who may use them to potentiate the effects of heroin or compensate for its low level of availability. Recent seizures of tramadol suggest the existence of a market for the drug: in April and September 2018, 200,000 and 1.5 million tablets of tramadol were respectively seized by customs in Sri Lanka.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

 

 

'As a habit takes hold, other interests lose importance to the user. Life telescopes down to junk, one fix and looking forward to the next, "stashes" and "scripts," "spikes" and "droppers." The addict himself often feels that he is leading a normal life and that junk is incidental. He does not realize that he is just going through the motions in his non-junk activities. It is not until his supply is cut off that he realizes what junk means to him.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953  


'In North Africa, tramadol is reported as the main opioid used non-medically in Egypt, where scientific literature about tramadol misuse is more available than elsewhere in the subregion. An estimated 3 per cent of the adult population misused tramadol in 2016, the latest year for which data are available, while 2.2 per cent were diagnosed with tramadol dependence. In drug treatment, tramadol was also the main drug, accounting for 68 per cent of all people treated for drug use disorders in 2017. A cross-sectional study conducted over the period 2012–2013 among 1,135 undergraduate college students in Egypt showed that 20.2 per cent of male and 2.4 per cent of female students had misused tramadol at least once during their lifetime, resulting in an overall lifetime prevalence of 12.3 per cent The average age of initiation of non-medical use of tramadol was around 17 years. Polydrug use was also quite common, with the majority of respondents (85 per cent) reporting use of either tobacco, alcohol or cannabis with tramadol. Among those who had misused tramadol, 30 per cent were assessed to be tramadol dependent.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'The non-medical use of tramadol is of particular concern among young people in many countries in that subregion. For example, a cross-sectional study among 300 young people in western Ghana found that while the majority (85 per cent) of respondents knew someone who misused tramadol, more than half of the young people interviewed had used tramadol themselves for non-medical purposes, and one third of the users reported misusing 9–10 doses of tramadol per day. Another qualitative study from Ghana reported curiosity, peer pressure and iatrogenic addiction as the three main factors for initiation and continuing non-medical use of tramadol, while perceived euphoria, attentiveness, relief from pain, physical energy and aphrodisiac effects were mentioned as some of the reasons for continuing non-medical use of tramadol.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020,
https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf


'Safety First: Real Drug Education for Teens is the nation’s first harm reduction-based drug education curriculum for high school teachers. The free curriculum consists of 15 lessons that can be completed in a 45- to 50-minute class period.

Each lesson is designed to engage students through interactive activities such as discussions and role-playing. The curriculum is aligned with National Health Education Standards as well as Common Core State Standards so it can be easily integrated into Health classes. '
http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/safety-first-real-drug-education-teens

 

 

'When you're sick, music is a great help. Once, in Texas, I kicked a habit on weed, a pint of paregoric and a few Louis Armstrong records.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953 - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'Does legalizing marijuana for adults lead to a tidal wave of teens going to treatment? Not according to a new study out of Temple University, where researchers in fact found decreases in youth admission rates for problem cannabis use in two legal states.

 The findings, published this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, run counter to speculation from legalization opponents, law enforcement and some public health experts, who have warned that relaxing cannabis laws could lead to an explosion in cannabis use disorders among children. If that’s happening, the study found, treatment admissions data so far show no sign of it.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/youth-marijuana-treatment-admissions-fell-after-legalization-study-finds/


'An international team of investigators from Uruguay, the United States, and Chile assessed the impact of legalization policies on youth use patterns. Uruguay initially approved legislation regulating the use of cannabis by adults in 2013, although retail sales in licensed pharmacies did not begin until 2017.

Authors found "no evidence" to indicate that legalization was associated with any impact on young people's "cannabis use or perceived risk of use."'
https://norml.org/news/2020/05/14/uruguay-teen-cannabis-use-not-adversely-impacted-by-adult-use-legalization


'Results
 We found different MLAs [minimum legal age] for different outcomes: 21 for educational attainment, 19 for cigarette smoking and mental health and 18 for general health. Assuming equal weight for these individual outcomes, the ‘overall’ MLA for cannabis use was estimated to be 19 years. Our results were robust to various robustness checks.'
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-08639-z

 

 

'About this time an anti-narcotics drive hit the town. The chief of police said, "This drive is going to continue as long as there is a single violator left in the city." The State legislators drew up a law making it a crime to be a drug addict. They did not specify where or when or what they meant by drug addict.
The cops began stopping addicts on the street and examining arms for needle marks. If they found marks, they pressured the addict to sign a statement admitting his condition so he could be charged under the "drug addicts law." The addicts were promised a suspended sentence if they would plead guilty and get the new law started. Addicts ransacked their persons looking for places to shoot in outside the arm area. If the law could find no marks on a man they usually let him go. If they found marks they would hold him for seventy-two hours and try to make him sign a statement.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'They concluded: “To our knowledge, this is the first study examining the effect of recreational legalization of marijuana in the US on adolescent treatment admissions for marijuana use. Our results indicate that RML in Colorado and Washington was not associated with an increase in treatment admissions. Rather, we observe a substantial decline in admissions rates across US states, with evidence suggesting a greater decline in Colorado/Washington following RML as compared to non-RML states. … While we are encouraged that rates of new treatment admissions for marijuana use among adolescents exhibited a general decline in the states we examined, it is unclear whether this finding reflects trends in the prevalence of CUD (cannabis use disorder) or, rather, changes in treatment seeking behaviors due to changing perceptions of risk and public attitudes towards marijuana use.'
https://blog.norml.org/2020/05/20/study-adult-use-legalization-associated-with-decline-in-youth-treatment-admissions/


'Student substance use rates, at least once during the month before COVID-19, were 31.1% tobacco, 58.2% alcohol, 1.7% cannabis, 1.5% Ritalin or similar substances, 13.8% pain relievers, and 6.5% sedatives. Males more than females use tobacco (i.e., cigarettes) (47.6% vs. 27.2%; p < 0.001) and cannabis, which are prohibited in both countries (4.6% vs. 1.0%; p = 0.002). Females more than males use pain relievers (15.9% vs. 5.2%; p = 0.001). Secular more than religious students use cigarettes (40.8% vs. 24.4%; p < 0.001), alcohol (62.9% vs. 54.8%; p < 0.017), cannabis (4.0% vs. 0.2%, p < 0.001), and sedatives (9.4% vs. 4.3%; p =0.003). Russian students, compared to those from Belarus, use more tobacco (33.9% vs. 21.0%; p = 0.001) and pain relievers (16.0% vs. 5.6%; p < 0.001). Those who reported last month substance use before COVID 19 report their use increased as a COVID-19 consequence. Among substance users, the following increases were reported: 35.6% tobacco, 29.6% alcohol, 27.3% cannabis, 16.7% Ritalin or similar substance, 18.2% pain relievers, and 23.5% sedatives. Russian and Belarusian students under quarantine/strict self-isolation conditions had a significantly higher rate of alcohol use than those not restricted (34.3% vs. 24.6%; p = 0.017)'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7241583/

 

 

'There was a raw ache in my lungs. People vary in the way junk sickness affects them. Some suffer mostly from vomitting and diarrhea. The asthmatic type, with narrow and deep chest, is liable to violent fits of sneezing, watering at eyes and nose, in some cases spasms of the bronchial tubes that shut off the breathing. In my case, the worst thing is lowering of blood pressure with consequent loss of body fluid, and extreme weakness, as in shock. It is a feeling as if the life energy has been shut off so that all the cells in the body are suffocating. As I lay there on the bench, I felt like as if I was subsiding into a pile of bones.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'Conclusions
The present study, although with some limitations, shows a good safety profile of medical cannabis in children and young patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and encourages the possibility of further studies with oral cannabis-based drugs. The correlations between THC-CBD plasma concentrations and their administered dosages underline the need of a therapeutic drug monitoring for cannabinoids therapy.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0965229919316012?via%3Dihub


'Dubiel and another officer approached the teens hanging outside a Parker Ave. home on June 4, claiming they got a call about someone smoking marijuana, according to ABC 6 News.

“Officer walked up talking about ‘we have a call for marijuana,’ but nobody had marijuana on them,'” James Horn, 16, told the television station.

 Shaky cellphone video posted on Woodlynne.net shows Dubiel pulling out the pepper spray and firing it directly at one of the teens, who is sitting on the brick railing of the porch. No one appeared to have approached the cop before he fired the chemical.

“So this is what y’all do now to innocent people?” a woman is heard saying in the video.'
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-woodlynne-pepper-spray-police-20200611-igpfc7lfebelzg7krizffavrlq-story.html

 

 

'I was too weak to get out of bed. I could not lie still. In junk sickness, any conceivable line of action or inaction seems intolerable. A man might simply die because he could not stand to stay in his body.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


Cannabis is not some new pharma product that you can blindly stick standard antidrug drivel onto..its been around for tens of thousands of years all over the world and yes, many children have been using it for this period of time, mostly as natural medicine. In today's world it is increasingly being used to treat children with epilepsy, autism and cancer. If IQ in the world has any connection with cannabis, then it is quite obvious that it has dropped drastically since the plant has been banned, leading to two world wars, petrochemical based climate change and pharmaceutical pandemics..and of course, the increased appearance of people like this...

'It's unequivocal – the drug makes those of our teenagers who use it, the next generation, less intelligent and turns them into people more likely to waste their lives. Israel has been blessed with human treasure, wonderful young people who reach international achievements in every field.

We must not harm them by legitimizing cannabis, a plant that damages motivation, IQ, poses a risk of addiction to soft and hard drugs, and facilitates the onset of psychosis.

You've been warned!'
https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/say-no-to-legalization/


'Adolescents and young adults account for the largest share of those using drugs. While that age group grew by 16 per cent in developing countries over the period 2000–2018, it declined by 10 per cent in developed countries.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_1.pdf


'Cannabis is the most widely used drug among young people. Globally, it is estimated that there were 13 million past-year users of any drug among students aged 15–16 in 2018, with an estimated 11.6 million past-year users of cannabis. This corresponds to an annual prevalence of cannabis use of 4.7 per cent among this age group – a rate that is higher than the rate among the general population aged 15–64 (3.9 per cent). Past-year use of cannabis among young people aged 15–16 is high in Oceania (17.8 per cent), the Americas (12.1 per cent) and Europe (11.7 per cent).' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

 

 

'He asked the question they all ask. "Why do you feel that you need narcotics, Mr Lee?"
When you hear this question you can be sure that the man who asks it knows nothing about junk.
"I need it to get out of bed in the morning, to shave and eat breakfast."
"I mean physically."
I shrugged. Might as well give him his diagnosis so he will go. "It's a good kick."
Junk is not a "good kick." The point of junk to a user is that it forms a habit. No one knows what junk is until he is junk sick.
The doctor nodded. Psychopathic personality.'
- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'The increase in treatment demand related to cannabis use disorders in some regions warrants special attention. There is great variability in the definition and practice of what constitutes treatment of cannabis use disorders. Treatment at present consists of behavioural or psychosocial interventions, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (in which irrational, negative thinking styles are challenged and the development of alternative coping skills is promoted) and motivational interviewing (in which a user’s personal motivation to change their own behaviour is facilitated and engaged). These interventions may vary from one-time online contact or screening and brief intervention in an outpatient setting, to a more comprehensive treatment plan including treatment of other comorbidities in an outpatient or inpatient setting. Some of the factors that may influence the number of people in treatment for cannabis use disorders include changes in the number of people who actually need treatment; changes in the treatment referral system; changes in awareness of potential problems associated with cannabis use disorders; and changes in the availability of and access to treatment for cannabis use disorders.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf


'Treatment for the use of amphetamine-type stimulants is more common in Asia (predominantly for the use of methamphetamine) and Oceania (based on data from Australia and New Zealand) than in other regions. As is the case with cannabis users, people who are in treatment for disorders related to the use of amphetamines tend to be younger – in their mid-twenties – than users of opioids in treatment, and the majority of them also tend to be first-time entrants. People receiving treatment for the use of methamphetamine account for more than three quarters of those in treatment in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

 

 

'After a junk cure is complete, you generally feel fine for a few days. You can drink, you can feel hunger and pleasure in food, and your sex drive comes back on you. Everything looks different, sharper. Then you hit a sag. It is an effort to dress, get out of a chair, pick up a fork. You don't want to do anything or go anywhere. You don't even want junk. The junk craving is gone, but there isn't anything else. You have to sit this period out. Or work it out. Farm work is the best cure.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'Parents sought medical cannabis as a treatment because of a perceived unmet need stemming from the failure of antiepileptic drugs to control their children's seizures. Medical cannabis was viewed as an acceptable treatment, especially compared with adding additional antiepileptic drugs. After learning about medical cannabis from the media, friends and family, or other parents, participants sought authorization for medical use. However, most encountered resistance from their child's neurologist to discuss and/or authorize medical cannabis, and many parents experienced difficulty in obtaining authorization from a member of the child's existing care team, leading them to seek authorization from a cannabis clinic. Participants described spending up to $2000 per month on medical cannabis, and most were frustrated that it was not eligible for reimbursement through public or private insurance programs.'
https://www.epilepsybehavior.com/article/S1525-5050(20)30299-7/pdf


'A ballot issue passed in 2015 by Pueblo County voters stipulates that the first 50 percent of marijuana excise tax dollars are required to go toward scholarships. The second half can be used for capital infrastructure projects.

“This is tremendously impactful for local students who receive this award,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz.

Ortiz said the goal always was to increase the amount of the scholarships.'
https://www.chieftain.com/news/20200626/2m-plus-in-marijuana-scholarships-to-be-given-to-pueblo-students


'More than 90% of respondents to that survey said recreational marijuana should be legal in the state. The NewsHouse survey also found widespread use of cannabis products, including CBD, on New York college campuses.

Students are far more concerned about the effects of alcohol and cigarettes on health than they are about marijuana, the survey found.

Many of the survey respondents indicated they would like to take courses on marijuana and the cannabis industry, something several Empire State colleges and universities have already experimented with.'
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/06/29/poll-why-ny-college-students-support-legalizing-marijuana-and-use-cbd/5307514002/

 

 

'When a junkie off junk gets drunk to a certain point, his thoughts turn to junk.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'While Grinspoon’s accolades and leadership positions in medicine played a major role in how important his voice was to the cause, it was also the voice of a father who had deeply personal experiences with medical cannabis. As his son Danny battled terminal cancer, Grinspoon witnessed the benefits of medical cannabis to someone going through an aggressive chemotherapy regime.

Danny lost his life to leukemia, but the lessons his father learned in helping him live a better quality of life would go on to help millions. As cannabis rose to prominence in the last 20 years, it’s undeniable the tale of a Harvard Medical School professor and his son went a long way to calming nerves around what was still a very illicit substance in the eyes of so many.'
https://www.laweekly.com/the-cannabis-world-mourns-dr-lester-grinspoon/


'While the annual prevalence of methamphetamine use more than doubled from 0.3 to 0.7 per cent of the population aged 12 and older in the United States over the period 2008–2018, the number of psychostimulants involved in drug poisoning deaths in the United States rose from 1,302 to 12,676 deaths over the same period, equivalent to an almost 10-fold increase. This increase may have been inflated by an increasing number of contaminations of psychostimulants with opioids (such as fentanyl and its analogues); however, psychostimulant-related deaths excluding any involvement of opioids still showed an eightfold increase, from 807 deaths in 2008 to 6,271 deaths in 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf


'If the bill is passed and assented by the President, cannabis plantation will generate income far more than oil as cannabis now has various benefits and value chain in pharmaceutical industries for drugs and cosmetic manufacturing as well as other research purposes for institutions, saying by so doing it will create employment for the teeming youths in Nigeria.'
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/the-bill-to-legalise-medical-use-of-marijuana/


'Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial, pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder defined by the core symptoms of significant impairment in social interaction and communication as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. In addition to these core behaviors, persons with ASD frequently have associated non-core behavioral disturbance (i.e. self-injury, aggression), as well as several medical comorbidities. Currently, no effective treatment exists for the core symptoms of ASD. This review reports the available pre-clinical and clinical data regarding the use of cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) in the treatment of core symptoms, non-core symptoms and comorbidities associated with ASD. Additionally, we describe our clinical experience working with children and young adults with ASD who have used cannabis or CBD. At present, pre-clinical and clinical data suggest a potential for therapeutic benefit amongst some persons with ASD and that it is overall well tolerated. Further research is required to better identify patients who may benefit from treatment without adverse effects.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1071909120300449


'As a further factor, in most countries the highest prevalence of drug use is found among adolescents and young adults, in particular those aged 18–25. Over the period 2000–2018, the population in that age group grew significantly in developing countries – by 18 per cent, thus raising the overall vulnerability to drug use in those countries. In developed countries, by contrast, the population in that young age group decreased by 10 per cent over the same period.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

 

 

'An addict may be ten years off the junk, but he can get a new habit in less than a week; whereas someone who has never been addicted would have to take two shots per day for two months to get any habit at all. I took a shot daily for four months before I could notice withdrawal symptoms. You can list the symptoms of junk sickness, but the feel of it is like no other feeling and you can not put it into words. I did not experience this junk sick feeling until my second habit.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'The lack of disaggregated data makes it impossible to obtain a global overview of drug use as distributed between urban and rural areas and to analyse interacting global trends in urbanization and drug markets. From the information available, it seems that drug use is more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas, in both developed and developing countries, with the exception of some major rural drug-producing areas. Urbanization has also been found to be a general risk factor for drug use; for example, data from school surveys in Colombia and Mexico show the prevalence of use of some drugs being up to 60 per cent higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Data on drug law offences including possession and trafficking of drugs in Germany and Austria confirm the same patterns with main cities showing higher per capita offences than the national average (typically around 50 per cent higher in 2018)'- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'Results provided no evidence that policy change influenced heavy-using adolescents’ rates of use nor the proposed risk factors associated with problematic use patterns.'

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1178221818815491


'“Rates of marijuana use by teens have been of great interest to researchers over the past decade, given major social and legislative shifts around the drug; it is now legal for adult recreational use in 10 states plus the District of Columbia, and it is available medicinally in many more,” reads a press release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Fortunately, even as teens’ attitudes toward marijuana’s harms continue to relax, they are not showing corresponding increases in marijuana use.”'

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/teen-marijuana-use-remains-lower-than-pre-legalization-levels-federally-funded-survey-finds/

 

 

'I knew that I did not want to go on taking junk. If I could have made a single decision, I would have decided no more junk ever. But when it came to the process of quitting, I did not have the drive. It gave me a terrible feeling of helplessness to watch myself break every schedule I set up as though I did not have control over my actions.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'The results are contrary to often-expressed fears from prohibition supporters who argued that the move would lead to skyrocketing youth cannabis consumption rates.

But in fact, past-month cannabis use actually declined among 8th and 10th grade students from 2010-2012 to 2014-2016, the new research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics found. There were no statistically significant changes in cannabis consumption for 12th grade students during the time period studied.'

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/teen-marijuana-use-actually-declined-in-washington-state-after-legalization-study-finds/


'“It was well known at just about any high school you would choose to go over the past decade, which kid you could go to to get marijuana,” Trudeau said

He told the audience he pushed for the legalization of the substance because if it was treated like alcohol, anyone who wants it would need to go to an official store and show an ID to demonstrate that person is the age of majority. There are some hiccups in terms of how transitioning into a country where the recreational use of cannabis is allowed, but the federal government is working on it, he said.

Trudeau told the crowd that legalizing cannabis “doesn’t 100 per cent prevent it” from ending up in the hands of youths, but “it makes it slightly more difficult.”'

https://forterieobserver.ca/2019/01/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-talks-about-hot-button-issues-at-brock-town-hall/

 

 

'Safe in Mexico, I watched the anti-junk campaign. I read about child addicts and Senators demanding the death penalty for dope peddlers. It didn't sound right to me. Who wants kids for customers? They never have enough money and they always spill under questioning. Parents find out the kid is on junk and go to the law. I figured that either Stateside peddlers have gone simple-minded or the whole child-addict set-up is a propaganda routine to stir up anti-junk sentiment and pass some new laws.
Refugee hipsters trickled into Mexico. "Six months for needle marks under the vag-addict law in California." "Eight years for a dropper in Washington." "Two to ten for selling in New York."' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

  
'In truth, the program is a lot like marijuana laws in America – a work in progress. But so far it’s hitting the key goal it set, persuading more and more kids to give pot a pass. '

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/11/08/campaign-educates-teens-marijuana-risks/


Whether you are an adolescent, youth or adult, marijuana is most likely a coping mechanism for underlying problems rather than the cause it is often made out to be...if we seriously want to help the adolescents and youth then it is more important to identify and address these underlying issues rather than blame marijuana which may be helping them handle these issues at some level...

'“The present findings showed that conduct problems predicted cannabis use but not vice versa, particularly during mid–late adolescence,” the researchers wrote.

“Thus… we were able to demonstrate for the first time that increases in conduct problems precede increases in cannabis use within individuals.”'

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/using-marijuana-doesnt-cause-youth-behavioral-problems-study-finds/



Legalize ganja for people aged 21 years and above to reduce drug peddling...regulate ganja like alcohol so that schools and educational institutions are not targeted by drug peddlers selling ganja...legalizing ganja will also address the other major problem i.e. reduce consumption of pharmaceutical drugs by by not just teenagers, but also youth, adults and the aged.

'One of the reasons for its popularity is the fact that it is considered harmless and less addictive as compared to cocaine or heroin. However, there is a growing problem of the drug being sold near schools and educational institutions. Teenagers are being lured into trying it. It is easily available and cheaper when compared to other narcotics,” said a senior police officer.

“The other major problem is the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs,” added the officer.'

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/Ganja-is-the-top-choice/article16972147.ece

 

 

'When you give up junk, you give up a way of life. I have seen junkies kick and hit the lush and wind up dead in a few years. Suicide is frequent among ex-junkies. Why does a junkie quit junk of his own will? You never know the answer to that question. No conscious tabulation of the disadvantages and horrors of junk gives you the emotional drive to kick. The decision to quit junk is a cellular decision, and once you have decided to quit you cannot go back to junk permanently any more than you could stay away from it before. Like a man who has been away a long time, you see things different when you return from junk.'

- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


'“Students whose medical condition requires the use of medical marijuana are allowed to access and utilize marijuana in accordance with state law,” the policy states.

Officials say school personnel are not legally allowed to administer medical marijuana to students, but the district will provide a private location for a caregiver to administer medical marijuana to students at school.'

https://kfor.com/2019/01/15/oklahoma-city-public-school-board-approves-medical-marijuana-policy/


'Northern Michigan’s programme combines chemistry, biology, botany, horticulture, marketing and finance to offer a four-year degree. Officials say the programme fills a need because 29 States have legalised medical marijuana'

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/northern-michigan-university-offers-marijuana-degree/article19864275.ece


'“Some people have argued that decriminalizing or legalizing medical marijuana could increase cannabis use amongst young people, either by making it easier for them to access, or by making it seem less harmful,” Coley said. “However, we saw the opposite effect.”

“We were not able to determine why this is, but other research has suggested that after the enactment of medical marijuana laws, youths’ perceptions of the potential harm of marijuana use actually increased. Alternatively, another theory is that as marijuana laws are becoming more lenient, parents may be increasing their supervision of their children, or changing how they talk to them about drug use.”'

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/states-with-legal-medical-marijuana-have-lower-teen-use-rates-large-scale-study-finds/

 

 

'It would seem that junk is the only habit-forming drug. Cats cannot be addicted to morphine, as they react to an injection of morphine with acute delirium. Cats have a relatively small quantity of histamine in the blood stream. It would seem that histamine is the defense against morphine, and that cats, lacking this defense, cannot tolerate morphine. Perhaps the mechanism of withdrawal is this: Histamine is produced by the body as a defense against morphine during the period of addiction. When the drug is withdrawn, the body continues to produce histamine.'

- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


Legalize it for 21 years and above.

'The accused was reportedly a wholesale dealer in the drug racket that mostly targeted school and college students in the city. He was identified on the basis of information obtained by the District Anti-Narcotic Special Force (DANSAF), which was constituted to counter drug abuse with the assistance of school authorities.'

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/tn-native-arrested-with-17-kg-of-ganja/article24498651.ece


Legalize ganja so that students do not indulge in peddling and police do not crack the whip on students.

'Police said of these seven were engineering students and one was a student of physiotherapy. All of them originally hail from Kerala and were staying in Mangaluru for education.

Based on information from credible sources that the accused were selling and consuming ganja at a ground near Morgans Gate here, the police cracked the whip on them.'

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangaluru/8-college-students-caught-red-handed-while-selling-ganja/articleshow/67517053.cms

 

 

Officially sponsored myth 1 -'"All drugs are more or less similar and all are habit forming."
 
This myth lumps cocaine, marijuana and junk together. Marijuana is not at all habit forming and its action is almost the direct opposite from junk action. There is no habit to cocaine. You can develop a tremendous craving for cocaine, but you won't be sick if you can't get it. When you have a junk habit, on the other hand, you live in a state of chronic poisoning for which junk itself is the specific antidote. If you don't get the antidote at eight-hour intervals, and enough of it, you develop symptoms of allergic poisoning: yawning, sneezing, watering of the eyes and nose, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea, hot and cold flushes, loss of appetite, insomnia, restlessness and weakness, in some cases circulatory collapse and death from allergic shock....When I say "habit-forming drug" I mean a drug that alters the endocrinal balance of the body in such a way that the body requires that drug in order to function. So far as I know, junk is the only habit forming drug according to this definition.'

- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


By prohibiting natural cannabis flower, we have opened the illegal market for concentrates with high percentages of one or two compounds. The natural flower with its balanced compounds have given way to extremely high potency extracts. People who want the extra high, especially youth, have been left exposed to this due to lack of information, lack of regulation, misinformation that concentrates are cool and lack of access to natural cannabis. This is similar to how prohibition of alcohol leads to the manufacture of illicit alcohol using dangerous methods to increase potency. The victims are often the adventurous misinformed. The perpetrators are the ones who have imposed prohibition and the ones trying to make a quick buck using the situation. Legalize ganja in its natural forms to prevent the proliferation of potentially dangerous practices and to protect the youth and the vulnerable.

'City youths have started consuming the latest forms of marijuana — Weed Wax and Shatter — which are a rage among teenagers in Western countries. And the youths are willing to shell out 50 times more than the normal price for a weed pack.'

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-youths-hooked-to-new-forms-of-marijuana/articleshow/67330899.cms


'RESULTS:There were 95,695 patient calls that were coded for intentional abuse between 2004 and 2013 for adolescents aged 13 to 19 years. The most common agent reportedly ingested in intentional-abuse cases was antihistamine and/or decongestant with dextromethorphan, and this agent remained the most common throughout the 10-year study period. The next 4 most common agents remained similar across the study period as well and included ethanol, benzodiazepines, dextromethorphan alone, and marijuana. These 5 agents remained the most commonly reported across the study period for all US regions (West, Midwest, South Northeast, and US territories). CONCLUSIONS:Over a recent 10-year period, common cough preparations remain the most commonly reported intentional abuse ingestion among all years and regions for adolescents.'

https://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/27749797

 

 

Officially sponsored myth 2 - '"A drug habit is formed instantly, on first use, or at most, after three or four shots."
 
From this notion derive the stories of people becoming addicts after using a few "headache pills" given them by the Sympathetic Stranger. Actually, a non-user would have to take a shot every day for at least a month to get any kind of habit. The Stranger would go broke handing out samples. But a cured addict, even if he has not used it for years, can get a new habit in a few days. He is allergic to junk.'

- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953


Parents teaching their kids bad habits. It's safer to use marijuana than to use dangerous non-medical prescription opioids which are typically gateways to heroin or fentanyl.

'RESULTS:Controlling for other factors, parental NMPO[non-medical prescription opioid] use was associated with adolescent NMPO use (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.30; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.56). Mothers' use had a stronger association with adolescent use than fathers' use (aOR 1.62 [95% CI 1.28-2.056] versus aOR 0.98 [95% CI 0.74-1.24]). Associations between parental and adolescent NMPO use did not differ by adolescent sex or race and/or ethnicity. Parental lifetime smoking, low monitoring, and parent-adolescent conflict were uniquely associated with adolescent NMPO use (aOR 1.19-1.24) as were adolescent smoking, marijuana use, depression, delinquency, and perceived schoolmates' drug use (aOR 1.25-1.71). Perceived risk of drug use and religiosity were associated with lower rates of adolescent NMPO use (aOR 0.77-0.93). Use among older adolescents was higher than among younger adolescents (aOR 1.27; 95% CI 1.21-1.34). CONCLUSIONS:Parent-based interventions targeted at adolescent NMPO use should address parental NMPO use and smoking and promote positive parenting.'

https://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/30804077


In the largest longitudinal examination of marijuana use and IQ change, using two samples to replicate results and a genetically informative design, we find little evidence to suggest that adolescent marijuana use has a direct effect on intellectual decline. Although marijuana users showed greater decline than nonusers in areas of Gc, the presence of baseline differences before marijuana involvement, the lack of a dose–response relationship, and an absence of meaningful differences between discordant siblings lead us to conclude that the deficits observed in marijuana users are attributable to confounding factors that influence both substance initiation and IQ rather than a neurotoxic effect of marijuana.
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/5/E500


'Dr. Tan explains that the teenage brain is still developing, making it more susceptible to, and affected by, substance abuse.

"In a teenage brain, impulse control functions are not fully developed yet," he says. "This can lead to an increased risk of substance use and abuse, which can damage the brain structure, leading to psychological issues later, on," he says.'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/community/chi-ugc-article-is-marijuana-causing-mental-issues-in-teens-2018-06-21-story.html

 

 

Officially sponsored myth 5 - '"Addicts never get enough. They have to keep raising the dosage. They need more and more. Finally, I quote from a recent movie called Johnny Stool Pigeon - They tear the clothes off their skinny bodies and die screaming - for more junk."
 
This is preposterous. Addicts get enough and they do not have to raise the dosage. I know addicts who have used the same dose for years. Of course, addicts do occasionally die if they are cut off the junk cold. They don't die because they need more and more. They die because they can't get any.'

- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953  


'AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) urges that marijuana be dropped to Schedule II—a category of drugs used to treat patients that also must be handled carefully, because they have a “high potential for abuse,” according to DEA. Schedule II drugs include many narcotics, such as morphine and oxycodone, as well as stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.'
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/01/us-should-make-it-easier-study-marijuana-pediatrics-group-says


Minimum age of 21 for recreational cannabis...

'In summary, the current study provides direct evidence that exposure to THC during adolescence alters the trajectory of developing mPFC circuitry. Adolescent THC exposure, by reshaping PFC pyramidal neurons on a molecular and morphological level, may alter psychiatric vulnerability particularly in individuals with overlapping genetic disturbances within THC-sensitive gene networks linked to cytoskeletal architecture and synaptic plasticity.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-018-0243-x 


Many people try recreational marijuana in their teens when they ideally shouldn't and are overwhelmed by the experience. They then shun the herb as adults or worse still, oppose the herb and other adults who use the herb. This is like having a non-optimal sexual experience as a teen, then avoiding sex altogether as an adult and worse still, advocating a ban on sex and imprisonment for other adults who engage in sex.


'In her view, "it's really important to talk about both sides so they understand what the medicinal piece means, and that recreational use is different than that. Plus, recreational is only legal for those over 21, just like alcohol, and recreational can be appropriate or not. It's problematic when people drink and then get into a car and drive, and it's the same if they use marijuana and then get into a car and drive. But other people might use marijuana in their home, and that's okay, because it's legal for adults."'
http://www.westword.com/news/how-a-marijuana-researcher-talks-to-her-kids-about-pot-10320082


'"Cannabis specifically has become the substance of choice for young people, who are unable to purchase alcohol because of its strict regulation," he said.

"Therefore the criminalisation of the drug has had the exact opposite effect to the deterrence it was meant to induce. We ought to consider a more mature approach to drugs policy, which is based in health rather than criminality."'
https://news.sky.com/story/cannabis-easier-for-kids-to-buy-than-alcohol-report-claims-11495618

 

 

Officially sponsored myth 8 - '"Peddlers try to get high school children on junk, or marijuana. A recent magazine article depicts peddlers slipping laudanum into the Coca-Cola of teenagers."
 
This is utterly ridiculous. No peddler wants kids for customers. They never have enough money, they talk too much and they cannot stand up under police questioning. The best customers are the old-timers. They know all the angles and generally have some source of revenue.'
- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953  


Smoking marijuana may make you lose your money making drive and that's not good for business...

'The swift expulsion of three students allegedly caught smoking marijuana in their hostel rooms at Indian Institute of Management, Indore, this past week has led Delhi’s student and teaching fraternity to believe that the Institute acted in undue haste and failed in its moral duty towards the students.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/undue-haste-shown-in-expelling-iim-students-caught-smoking-marijuana/article18726376.ece


'In wave 7 (when participants were aged 20/21 years old) lifetime use of substances were as follows: alcohol (94 per cent), tobacco (70 per cent), cannabis (45 per cent)...The study also focused on cocaine use: results revealed increasing frequency of reported lifetime use of cocaine in the final years of post-primary education (age 13 to 16): cocaine use was associated with social deprivation and being from disrupted families. Analyses also revealed a positive association between the amount of money young people received and higher rates of drug use. While illegal drug use has, largely, been declining in the UK over the past decade, this period has witnessed the emergence of a range of new, mostly synthetic substances that mimic many of the effects of “traditional” drugs. These are known as “legal highs”, or new or novel psychoactive substances (NPS).'
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195192


'"If we eliminate the segment of the population between 18 to 19 and 21 years, which is a population often in university, often in areas where they'll try to consume, we're keeping an important segment of potential consumers for the black market," he told reporters in Yerevan.'
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trudeau-says-quebec-cannabis-plan-093446060.html


'“Women should definitely be counseled that it’s not a good idea to use marijuana while pregnant. If you’re breastfeeding, we would encourage you to cut back or quit,” said Seth Ammerman, a co-author of the report and professor of pediatrics at Stanford.'
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/marijuana-found-in-breast-milk-6-days-after-use/


'All 25 marijuana dispensaries in Oregon passed the latest round of state minor decoy operations. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC), which regulates the marijuana industry, periodically sends minors to try to buy marijuana from retail outlets. The latest operations targeted dispensaries in Portland, Bend and Salem, all of which had a compliance rate of 100 percent.'


Legalize ganja for 21 years and above to eliminate the black market and so that Narcotics Cell can focus on illegal prescription drugs and more harmful drugs. Implement drug awareness education at student level. These are measures being implemented successfully in many places worldwide.

'One trend, which the Narcotics Cell officers say is catching up fast among school and college students, is to visit hospitals, take an OP ticket, and then without seeing the doctor, use the ticket to make fake prescriptions and purchase prescription drugs, among which a tablet, Nitrosun-10, which contains nitrazepam, was quite popular.'

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/citys-drug-trends-worry-cops/article7732921.ece


Legalize marijuana for 21 years and above to remove the incentive for traffickers adult or youth...

'According to the official, investigations have pointed to the operation of rackets that lure school students to try the narcotic or get involved in the supply chain. “The network of suppliers is very well connected to these youths and this way of selling marijuana at a personal level is making it difficult to trace the source,” he adds.'
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/youngsters-on-a-slippery-slope-of-marijuana-abuse/article8036160.ece


Legalize it for 21 years and above. Have education programs in schools like for sex, tobacco and alcohol highlighting pros and cons. Parents and teachers have mature conversations with children about using it like with alcohol. Take the herb out of the black market so that it can be normalized and not sold illegally to students by peddlers. Students have wide access to information and knowledge so parents and teachers need to get educated as well. You can't stop the plant but you can learn how to live with it like it was before the ban.

'The police said that some sections of students displaying such a nonchalant attitude towards a serious problem such as drug abuse, it was high time that the parent-teacher community rose to address the issue in a responsible manner.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/ganja-arrest-sends-shock-waves-on-kerala-campuses/article25975607.ece


'Marijuana use among junior high and high school students is down across all age levels in California, according to the first survey of teen drug consumption conducted in the state since voters legalized recreational cannabis.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/teen-marijuana-use-is-down-in-california-following-legalization-state-funded-study-shows/


“The drug conviction question, which remains on the FAFSA, serves solely as a deterrent to higher education from the students who might benefit from it most: particularly, students of color whose communities have been overpoliced and marginalized by the drug war,” Betty Aldworth, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, told Marijuana Moment.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/cory-booker-bill-would-let-students-with-drug-convictions-keep-financial-aid/


'A supposed negative impact on children is one of the most common arguments deployed by prohibitionist activists and anti-legalization groups. And it is one for which there is little evidence.

The new study is the latest in a string of reports that have found that marijuana legalization, be it for medical or recreational use, is having a negligible impact on whether juveniles will use the drug.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/yet-another-study-legal-marijuana-doesnt-lead-to-increased-youth-use/


For teenagers, smoking marijuana is often an act of rebellion against adults and society..if society in general has an open attitude to marijuana then for teenagers this ceases to be as attractive and many will move on to something else through which they can try and assert their independence...channelizing this rebellious energy of a teenager into something positive is the challenge for all of us..

'"For now, there appears to be no basis for the argument that legalizing medical marijuana has increased teens' use of the drug," senior study author Deborah Hasin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement. '
https://www.livescience.com/61829-medical-marijuana-does-not-increase-teen-use.html


'Roughly half of survey respondents identified law enforcement as the main opposition group, specifically the Texas Sheriff’s Association (TSA). In testimony before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, members of the TSA argued that legalizing marijuana would “send the wrong message” to youth about the harms of drug use and that legalization in other states has led to increased use among teens. The focus on risks of marijuana reform for youth is a common framing choice among prohibition supporters (see Ferraiolo 2014). Whereas prohibition was once justified by beliefs that marijuana itself was evil and marijuana use immoral, such arguments increasingly strain credibility. Realizing this, marijuana opponents have sought more realistic frames. The message that marijuana is a gateway to further delinquency for youth that harms their health and achievement has resonated with a larger audience than past arguments based solely on morality claims....The TSA represents an organized interest that favors the status quo, and it intends to fight to preserve that status quo'
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0043820017716683


'However, the growing body of research that includes this study suggests that medical marijuana laws do not increase adolescent use, and future decisions that states make about whether or not to enact medical marijuana laws should be at least partly guided by this evidence.'
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(15)00267-9/fulltext


'Given the importance of youth marijuana prevention, policies to prevent youth access to influential marijuana messages on social media are a critical consideration for lawmakers, prevention scientists and child advocates.'
https://substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13011-018-0152-7


Brother, that's precisely why marijuana needs to be legalized. Just like there is no control over bootleg alcohol during prohibition, there is no control over marijuana potency when it is prohibited federally. Legalization federally will help bring back natural varieties with balanced compounds and raise awareness of all the pros and cons.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted, "There’s evidence that much of the marijuana available today has substantially higher THC content than in years/ decades past, & that may present a unique risk to certain subgroups (eg young people, developing fetuses, and those w mental health concerns). Further, young people especially are consuming in ways (eg via edibles, e-cigarettes, and 'dabbing,'- if you’re a parent and you don’t know what dabbing is, look it up!) that can further increase the concentration of THC (the part of MJ that gets one 'high') reaching the brain."
https://twitter.com/Surgeon_General/status/1108476130745614337


Increasing normalization and decreasing intolerance augurs well for the future...

'The researchers didn’t speculate about possible factors driving this trend, but it seems to reflect broader shifts in attitudes toward cannabis that have been observed in numerous surveys. A majority of the country (62 percent) now supports marijuana legalization, for example, and 65 percent say smoking cannabis is “morally acceptable,” according to 2018 polls.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/high-schoolers-are-growing-more-tolerant-of-peers-who-use-marijuana-study-shows/


'In this 2015 cross-sectional survey of Los Angeles 10th-grade students, use of cannabis via alternative administration methods was of appreciable prevalence, predominantly observed in conjunction with polyuse of other cannabis products, and unequally distributed across sociodemographic strata. Surveillance, regulatory restrictions, and prevention of adolescent use across the increasingly diverse spectrum of cannabis products might be warranted to manage the cannabis-related pediatric public health burden.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2703946


'Concern over societal discrimination was common among youths in Los Angeles in 2016 and was associated with behavioral health problems 1 year later. Adolescents’ behavioral responses to recent societal expressions of discrimination may warrant public health attention.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2696519


'In any case, the main takeaways from the meta-analysis are pretty cut and dry: adolescents really aren’t using marijuana more frequently in states that have legalized, adults who were current users before a state legalized ended up consuming more post-legalization and cannabis use disorder doesn’t seem to be increasing even as more states opt to liberalize their marijuana laws.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/youth-marijuana-use-isnt-increasing-after-states-legalize-meta-analysis-of-55-studies-concludes/


'Developing support systems within schools for gender-nonconforming students may be an important avenue to improving mental health and reducing substance use in this population. Providing safe spaces and school staff contacts who are knowledgeable and supportive of gender-nonconforming youths may also help to buffer stresses of the school environment. School staff may benefit from professional development on gender diversity to support students who are gender nonconforming more competently. Health education that is inclusive of discussions about gender and the variety of ways that it is expressed may be useful to decrease stigma for gender-nonconforming youths.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2703480


'This trial offers potential advancement for the implementation science field, specifically in its thorough examination of a data-driven technical assistance method to support long-term implementation of a marijuana-focused MET (Motivational Enhancement Therapy) intervention in schools. If shown to be clinically useful and affordable, the concept of a fidelity drift alarm could be readily translated—alone or in future conjunction with emerging methods to automate MI (Motivational Interviewing)/MET fidelity-monitoring—for use with other empirically supported therapies and in other settings. The described trial adds to other recent efforts in furthering momentum for the adoption and effective implementation of efficacious therapies for youth populations through a focus on methods of purveyor technical assistance to assure quality in therapy delivery.'
https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13012-017-0633-5


This is starting to look like healthy balanced growth now that the curbs are being removed..

'The data showed that marijuana use was increasing in males and females in many age groups, although it was increasing a little faster in young adults, ages 18 to 29, and in males, said Deborah Hasin, one of the study authors and a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. The rates of use were also increasing among middle-age and older adults, she said. But the trends in increasing use appear to be limited to adults: Marijuana use is not increasing among teenagers, Hasin said. Two major studies have shown that marijuana use has been relatively stable in adolescents over the last few years, she said.'
https://www.livescience.com/60094-marijuana-popularity.html


'School substance-misuse policies have a near universal coverage in Welsh secondary schools. National government recommendations on the involvement of students in policy development were not associated with student drug use. While nearly all schools had a referral process for drug-using students, few recommend methods of harm minimisation. Future prospective research on the impact of harm minimisation in school substance-misuse policies, and student involvement in policy development and awareness of content may help strengthen this limited evidence base'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6009502/


'This study was developed to explore the association of Internet addiction with the use of new technologies, relationship with parents (both mothers and fathers), emotion regulation (in its two dimensions: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), and callous-unemotional traits (in its three dimensions: callousness, uncaring, and unemotional) among Italian adolescents.'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5989287/


'Findings highlight the value in providing tailored summaries to schools participating in longitudinal school health research, as schools actually used these findings to make changes. Partnerships between schools, researchers, and public health were formed, leading to benefits for all groups. Knowledge brokering provided feedback to researchers to enhance the study, contributed to low school attrition, and increased researchers’ understanding of school environments. Knowledge exchange may provide a mechanism to help schools achieve the components needed for implementing a health-promoting schools approach, increasing implementation fidelity. '
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5851156/


'Focusing on participants in the eighth (n=570), 10th (n=582), and 12th (n=508) grades, the OYOF survey revealed that American Indian students, compared with their Monitoring the Future counterparts, reported significantly higher use of virtually all substances except amphetamines and tranquilizers. These differences are greatest at eighth grade and continue, albeit slightly attenuated, into the 12th grade. Of special concern is that such disparities appear to be growing at an alarming rate. Swaim and Stanley note that, in reference to their previous 2014 survey, the relative risk of American Indian students using alcohol and marijuana in 2016-2017 did not change. However, the likely use of other drugs by Native youths increased substantially between these 2 periods.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2682592


Relatively better I am tempted to say..however the best option would be to legalize marijuana across the board so that illegal sales to youth is curbed and age restrictions of 21 years and above are set for marijuana, tobacco and alcohol..

'The number of 12 to 21-year olds who used marijuana before any other drug (including cigarettes and alcohol) nearly doubled from 4.8% in 2004 to 8% in 2014, Newsweek reports about the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study. Over the same period, the number of smokers in that age group has significantly declined from 21% to only 9%.'
http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/more-young-people-are-using-marijuana-before-cigarettes-or-alcohol/

 
 'Anita Rao, director of medical services at T.T. Ranganathan Clinical Research Foundation - TTK Hospital, said, “Pharmaceuticals provide easy access to everyone, and we see children aged between 12 and 17 abusing sleeping tablets, painkillers and cough syrups.” They combine them with alcohol as well, she added.

With such easy availability of prescription drugs, abusers of other drugs have moved on to this as a ‘safer’ option. “I no longer have to meet with dealers for marijuana. I prefer prescription drugs as it is easy to get them,” said Prasad.

According to M. Ponnuswamy, additional director general of the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics, pub culture has fostered the abuse of drugs.'

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/prescription-drug-abuse-soars/article6172289.ece


Additional links
https://norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets/item/maternal-marijuana-use-and-childhood-outcomes
https://norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets/item/marijuana-regulation-and-teen-use-rates
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-pot-really-does-to-the-teen-brain/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161205091216.htm

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/why-educated-youngsters-end-up-peddling-ganja/article25542735.ece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1yUKfvnqRQ

https://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/30861391
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/youth-marijuana-use-isnt-increasing-after-states-legalize-meta-analysis-of-55-studies-concludes/



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https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-biology.html

Cannabis and the FDA
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-and-fda.html

Cannabis Opposition
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-opposition.html

Cannabis Laws
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-laws.html

Cannabis and Crime
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-crime.html

Cannabis Advocacy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-advocacy.html

Cannabis convictions and imprisonment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-convictions-and-imprisonment.html

Cannabis and the DEA
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-dea.html

Cannabis and the Black Market
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-black-market.html

Cannabis and Driving
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-driving.html

Cannabis and Law Enforcement
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-law-enforcement.html

Cannabis and Pharma Companies
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-pharma-companies.html

Cannabis as Universal Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-as-universal-medicine.html

Cannabis and the Brain
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-brain.html

Cannabis and Autism
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-autism.html

Cannabis and Cancer
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cancer.html

Cannabis and Epilepsy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-epilepsy.html



Multiple Sclerosis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-multiple-sclerosis.html

Cannabis and Obesity
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-obesity.html

Cannabis and Cancer Patients
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cancer-patients.html

Cannabis Patients
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-patients.html

Cannabis and Alcohol
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-alcohol.html

Cannabis and Tobacco
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-tobacco.html

Cannabis and Methamphetamine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-methamphetamine.html

Cannabis and Opioids
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-opioids.html

Cannabis and Harm Reduction
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-harm-reduction.html

Cannabis and Synthetic Cannabinoids
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-synthetic-cannabinoids.html

The Recreational Cannabis Consumer
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-recreational-cannabis-consumer.html

The History of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis and Social Consumption Areas
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-social-consumption-areas.html

Cannabis and Politicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-politicians.html

Cannabis and the Film Industry
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-film-industry.html

Cannabis and Musicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-musicians.html

Cannabis and Sports Persons
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-sportspersons.html

Cannabis Tourism
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-tourism.html

Cannabis and Scientists
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-scientists.html

Cannabis and Cooking
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cooking.html

Cannabis Events
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-public-events.html

Cannabis in the Workplace
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-in-workplace.html

Thoughts on draft legal cannabis policy for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/thoughts-on-draft-legal-marijuana-policy.html

Cannabis and the Environment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-environment.html

Cannabis as an Agricultural Crop
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-agricultural-crop.html

Cannabis as Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-medicine.html

Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-for-recreational-purposes.html

Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-social-usage-of-cannabis.html

No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

 

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html  

Cannabis usage in 19th century treatment of infectious diseases
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century.html

19th Century usage of cannabis as medicine by Indian physicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/19th-century-usage-of-cannabis-as.html

Cannabis and Sickle Cell Disease
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-sickle-cell-disease.html

Cannabis and Nausea
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-nausea.html

Cannabis and Insanity
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-insanity.html

References to medicinal cannabis in ancient texts
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/references-to-medicinal-cannabis-in.html

Cannabis and the Digestive System
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/cannabis-and-digestive-system.html

Cannabis and Cocaine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-cocaine.html

Cannabis and Benzodiazepines
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-benzodiazepines.html