Thoughts from the void: May 2019

Friday 24 May 2019

Cannabis and HIV

- UNAIDS.ORG

- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020

- LANCET

World wide, as per the WHO, 'AIDS - HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 32 million lives so far. Due to gaps in HIV services, 770 000 people died from HIV-related causes in 2018 and 1.7 million people were newly infected. - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids'. Many are in poor Asian and African nations with limited access to expensive HIV medication.

One of the great harms of cannabis prohibition has been an increase in the number of persons who inject drugs (PWID), primarily through the extensive use of opioids, including heroin and methamphetamine. As a result of this, PWID account for a significant percentage of persons infected with HIV. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2020 states that - 'Injecting drug use is estimated to account for approximately 10 per cent of HIV infections worldwide and 30 per cent of all HIV cases outside Africa, while in the eastern countries of the WHO European Region more than 80 per cent of all HIV infections occur among PWID [persons who inject drugs]. PWID are estimated to be 22 times more likely than people in the general population to be living with HIV.'

Needle sharing is rampant in poor communities where drug taking is prevalent. In addition to the direct exposure to HIV through reused needles, there is also frequent same sex and heterosexual contact within these populations and with outsiders, often in exchange for money or more inject-able drugs. This vicious cycle has led to problems in controlling HIV in spite of growing efforts at needle exchange programs, education and distribution of contraceptives. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in its World Drug Report 2020, reports that - 'Harmful patterns deriving from drug shortages include an increase in injecting drug use and the sharing of injecting equipment and other drug paraphernalia, all of which carry the risk of spreading blood-borne diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, as well as COVID-19. Risks resulting from drug overdose may also increase among people who inject drugs and who are infected with COVID-19.'

Once a person has contracted HIV, the situation changes drastically for the individual. Often shunned by society, susceptible to many diseases (any of which could prove fatal), with low levels of nourishment, and the constant effort to fuel addictions that may exist, these individuals are regularly driven to despair and deep depression. Many of them stay under the radar, making it nearly impossible to estimate accurate numbers of persons who are infected or vulnerable. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, says 'Owing to the criminalization of drug use, punitive laws, stigma and discrimination against people who use or inject drugs in many parts of the world, conventional survey methods have been found to underestimate the actual population size because of the hidden nature of PWID [persons who inject drugs]; therefore, only indirect methods have been shown to reflect the situation of PWID with greater accuracy. Overall, new or updated estimates of PWID were available for 40 countries in 2018.' Persons who are able to access pharmaceutical medication for HIV often through social service organizations are not very much better off. The medications are known to be powerful with their own harmful side effects and are expensive in addition to being moderately effective. Most of these medications are not even accessible in many parts of the world where it is much easier to access inject-able opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine.

The countries that have the most stringent anti-cannabis laws, such as China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, appear to be among the most affected by HIV through injecting drugs. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, states that - 'The largest number of PWID [persons who inject drugs] living with HIV reside in Eastern Europe, East and South-East Asia and South-West Asia, which together account for 67 per cent of the global total. Although the prevalence of HIV among PWID (9.3 per cent) is below the global average, a fifth of the global number of PWID living with HIV reside in East and South-East Asia. A small number of countries continue to account for a large proportion of the total global number of PWID living with HIV. In 2018, for example, PWID living with HIV in China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation accounted for almost half of the global total (49 per cent), while PWID in those three countries comprise only a third of all PWID worldwide.' Iran and Afghanistan, traditional producers of opium and cannabis, have seen alarming shifts in recent times towards methamphetamine.

Whether cannabis consumption boosts the immune system or not in the fight against HIV is something that probably needs more study. THC does not reduce immunity says a study. But what is indisputable are the indirect, but most significant, ways in which cannabis can help fight and reduce HIV. Many of these way are more preventive than reactive.

Having a wholesome, healthy, medicinal, tried and tested natural plant such as cannabis available would prevent many persons from taking up inject-able drugs such as heroin, morphine, etc. Not only is cannabis not addictive, it has not been known to cause any deaths from overdose unlike opioids. Many are the persons who have been pushed to the toxic inject-able synthetic drugs by a society that has banned the natural cannabis. There are numerous instances where what started as prescribed medicine by medical professionals has ended up being so addictive that the patient has deteriorated moving from one drug to another of increasing potency and toxicity just in order to be functional.

Cannabis is a supreme harm reduction mechanism, whereby individuals use cannabis to wean themselves out of a hard drug injection habit, thus reducing the risk of needle sharing on the one hand, and kicking the injection habit on the other. A change in the nature of recreational drug consumed, and its method of delivery, could reduce one of the main pathways of the spread of HIV.

Cannabis can be grown by anybody, anywhere, making it accessible and affordable, unlike the hard drugs responsible for the spread of HIV through infected needles and other shared drug paraphernalia, as well as the current medications being pursued for the treatment of the disease. It can be consumed in a number of ways, and none of this involves the use of a needle. Not only does the user not have to sell everything, beg, borrow and steal to feed the habit or pay for the treatment, all the user needs is some rolling paper to smoke the herb. Many people just chew the herb. It can be grown in the remotest places, among the poorest communities and safely administered to all ages.

In addition to reducing the consumption of harmful synthetic drugs, and cutting down the likely spread of HIV through needle sharing, cannabis is a known mood regulator and can help the infected individual to deal with stress, anxiety and depression. Cannabis helps build appetite, enabling the individual to eat better and more nourishing food, thus building up immunity. It enables an individual to sleep better.

Cannabis is also known, in some studies, to work well with HIV medication, such as anti-retroviral therapy (ART), assisting in its increased absorption in a patient's body. Cannabis's pain management properties are widely evident, and it can be a healthy substitute for opioid based painkillers which are themselves highly addictive and one of the primary paths to inject-able opioid addiction.

Cannabis is prohibited world wide. Legalizing cannabis, so that individuals with HIV can grow the plant at home, and access this plant medicine will be hugely beneficial, and go a long way in tackling the trauma of HIV. More importantly, the legalization of cannabis reduces the likelihood of an individual seeking inject-able and highly addictive drugs, such as heroin and methamphetamine, in the first place, thus reducing the amount of needle sharing that happens among addicts. The WHO and UN need to focus on this, as do all the nations, and public and private health entities involved in the fight against HIV. Every nation needs to acknowledge the suffering of their poorest populations and legalize the plant. The world needs to break the shackles of injected drugs, opioid and methamphetamine trade - both legal and illegal - and the system that keeps pharmaceutical based inject-able drugs within easy public access while banning natural cannabis. The cannabis plant needs no elaborate, expensive international aid programs and NGO funding. Just a change in laws will enable each person who needs it to personally grow and access it. It is a simple solution, one which persons and organizations sincerely looking to handle the disease should be able to recognize. Of course it will mean a change in the way things work, the flow of funds and the profits to be made. It will essentially empower each individual to fight the battle against HIV independently and sustainably. Does society have the will to make the change is always the question.

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article

'Timely introduction and full-scale implementation of accessible harm reduction programmes can prevent HIV infections, as well as many cases of viral hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and drug overdose. The United Nations system is united in promoting harm reduction services and decriminalization of personal possession of drugs, based on the evidence that harm reduction and decriminalization provide substantial public and personal health benefits and do not increase the number of people with drug dependency. Despite this position, reflected in the United Nations system common position supporting the implementation of the international drug control policy through effective inter-agency collaboration, in reality less than 1% of people who inject drugs live in countries with the United Nations-recommended levels of coverage of needles, syringes and opioid substitution therapy, and the funding gap for harm reduction in low- and middle-income countries sits at a dismal 95%.

Even where harm reduction services are available, they are not necessarily accessible. Punitive drug control laws, policies and law enforcement practices have been shown to be among the largest obstacles to health care in many countries. Criminalization of drug use and harsh punishments (such as incarceration, high fines or removal of children from their parents) discourage the uptake of HIV services, drive people underground and lead to unsafe injecting practices, and increase the risk of overdose. Women who use drugs face higher rates of conviction and incarceration than men who use drugs, contributing to the increased levels of stigma and discrimination they face in health-care settings. In effect, criminalization of drug use and possession for personal use significantly and negatively impact the realization of the right to health.'

https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2021/november/20211101_international-drug-users-day

'Conclusions:
Current daily cannabis use was associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory chemokines implicated in HIV pathogenesis and these chemokines were linked to the cognitive domain of learning which is commonly impaired in PWH. Cannabinoid-related reductions of MCP-1 and IP-10, if confirmed, suggest a role for medicinal cannabis in the mitigation of persistent inflammation and cognitive impacts of HIV.'

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-neuropsychological-society/article/abs/daily-cannabis-use-is-associated-with-lower-cns-inflammation-in-people-with-hiv/9A2960B21749A35F7490C06958B9A2B6

'In 2019, as shown in the new UNAIDS report Global Commitments, Local Action, 10% of new infections worldwide were in those who inject drugs. Many of these infections could have been prevented if the war on drugs had not contributed to an environment hostile (both politically and socially) to injection drug users. Some regions are hit harder than others: in eastern and central Asia 48% of new HIV infections are linked to injection drug use. A Feature in this issue of The Lancet HIV from Ed Holt explores the role softening drug laws in this region could have on HIV. A linked Profile highlights the work of Positive Movement, a Belarusian organisation, in providing advocacy, support, and treatment to people living with HIV who inject drugs in Belarus.'

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(21)00130-2/fulltext

'The available preclinical results suggest that targeting the ECS for prevention and treatment of HIV-NP is a plausible therapeutic option. Clinical evidence shows that smoked cannabis alleviates HIV-NP. Further research is needed to find out if non-psychoactive drugs that target the ECS and are delivered by other routes than smoking could be useful as treatment options for HIV-NP.'

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667242121000051?via%3Dihub

'People living with HIV infection (PWH) disclose that cannabis is an effective strategy for alleviating symptoms associated with HIV disease. However, some medical providers feel ill-informed to engage in evidence-based conversations. HIV leads to alterations in the gut microbiome, gut–brain axis signaling, and chronic inflammation. The endocannabinoid system regulates homeostasis of multiple organ systems. When deficient, dysregulation of the gut–brain axis can result in chronic inflammation and neuroinflammation. Cannabis along with the naturally occurring endocannabinoids has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can support healing and restoration as an adjunctive therapy. The purpose of this literature review is to report the physiologic mechanisms that occur in the pathology of HIV and discuss potential benefits of cannabinoids in supporting health and reducing the negative effects of comorbidities in PWH.'

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2020.0037

'Ten preclinical studies found that the endocannabinoids (2-AG and AEA), synthetic mixed CB1R/CB2R agonist WIN 55,212-2, a CB2R-selective phytocannabinoid ß-caryophyllene, synthetic CB2R-selective agonists (AM1710, JWH015, JWH133 and Gp1a, but not HU308); FAAH inhibitors (palmitoylallylamide, URB597 and PF-3845) and a drug combination of indomethacin plus minocycline, which produces its effects in a CBR-dependent manner, either prevented the development of and/or attenuated established HIV-NP. Two clinical trials demonstrated greater efficacy of smoked cannabis over placebo in alleviating HIV-NP, whereas another clinical trial demonstrated that cannabidivarin, a cannabinoid that does not activate CBRs, did not reduce HIV-NP. The available preclinical results suggest that targeting the ECS for prevention and treatment of HIV-NP is a plausible therapeutic option. Clinical evidence shows that smoked cannabis alleviates HIV-NP. Further research is needed to find out if non-psychoactive drugs that target the ECS and are delivered by other routes than smoking could be useful as treatment options for HIV-NP.'

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667242121000051

'One-way ANCOVAs were conducted to examine effects of a past cannabis use disorder (CUD+) on tests of attention/working memory, processing speed, executive functioning, verbal fluency, learning, memory, and motor ability. Compared to the past CUD- group, the past CUD+ group performed significantly better on tests of processing speed, visual learning and memory, and motor ability (p’s?<?.05). Findings suggest PLWH with past cannabis use have similar or better neurocognition across domains compared to PLWH without past use.'

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540121.2020.1822504?journalCode=caic20

'In this pilot study, seventeen (11 HIV+, 6 HIV-) adults aged 50–70 who consumed cannabis completed four daily smartphone-based surveys for 14 days, in which they reported their cannabis use (yes/no) since the last survey. Participants also wore actigraphy watches during the 14-day period to objectively assess sleep quality (i.e., efficiency, total sleep time, and sleep fragmentation). In linear mixed-effects models, cannabis use was significantly associated with greater subsequent total sleep time (ß = 0.56; p = 0.046). Cannabis use was not related to a change in sleep efficiency (ß = 1.50; p = 0.46) nor sleep fragmentation (ß = 0.846, p = 0.756) on days with cannabis use versus days without cannabis use. These preliminary results indicate cannabis use may have a positive effect on sleep duration in middle-aged and older adults'

https://publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/index.php/Cannabis/article/view/59

'Results. Between 2005 and 2018, at-least-daily cannabis use was associated with swifter rates of injection cessation (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]=1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.03, 1.30). A subanalysis revealed that this association was only significant for opioid injection cessation (AHR=1.26; 95% CI=1.12, 1.41). At-least-daily cannabis use was not significantly associated with injection relapse (AHR=1.08; 95% CI=0.95, 1.23).

Conclusions. We observed that at-least-daily cannabis use was associated with a 16% increase in the hazard rate of injection cessation, and this effect was restricted to the cessation of injection opioids. This finding is encouraging given the uncertainty surrounding the impact of cannabis policies on PWID during the ongoing opioid overdose crisis in many settings in the United States and Canada.'

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305825

'The study’s authors concluded: “These observations are encouraging given the uncertainty surrounding the impact of cannabis legalization policies during the ongoing opioid overdose crisis in many settings in the United States and Canada, particularly among PWID [people who inject drugs] who are at increased risk for drug-related harm. The accumulating evidence from preclinical and epidemiological studies linking cannabis use to opioid use behaviors further supports the evaluation of the therapeutic benefits of cannabis and specific cannabinoids (e.g., CBD and THC) for people living with opioid use disorder.”'

https://norml.org/news/2020/08/27/study-cannabis-associated-with-increased-cessation-of-iv-opioid-use

'Disparities remain in HIV viral load (VL) suppression between people living with HIV (PLWH) who use cocaine and those who do not. It is not known how cannabis use affects VL suppression in PLWH who use cocaine. We evaluated the relationship between cannabis use and VL suppression among PLWH who use cocaine. We conducted a secondary data analysis of 119 baseline interviews from a randomized controlled trial in the Bronx, NY (6/2012 to 1/2017). Participants were adult PLWH prescribed antiretrovirals for =16 weeks, who endorsed imperfect antiretroviral adherence and used cocaine in the past 30-days. In bivariate and multivariable regression analyses, we examined how cannabis use, is associated with VL suppression among PLWH who use cocaine. Participants were a mean age of 50 years; most were male (64%) and non-Hispanic black (55%). Participants with VL suppression used cocaine less frequently than those with no VL suppression (p<0.01); cannabis use was not significantly different. In regression analysis, compared with no use, daily/near-daily cannabis use was associated with VL suppression (aOR=4.2, 95% CI: 1.1–16.6, p<0.05). Less-frequent cannabis use was not associated with VL suppression. Further investigation is needed to understand how cannabis use impacts HIV outcomes among PLWH who use cocaine.'

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540121.2020.1799922?journalCode=caic20

'Some 11.3 million people are estimated to have injected drugs in 2018, a practice that accounts for roughly 10 per cent of HIV infections worldwide. More than 1 million people who inject drugs are living with HIV and 5.5 million are living with hepatitis C. Of the roughly 585,000 deaths attributed to drug use in 2017, half were due to liver diseases caused by hepatitis C, which continues to mostly go untreated among people who inject drugs. Opioid shortages caused by COVID-19 restrictions could lead to users substituting with more readily available substances such as alcohol or benzodiazepines, or to mixing with synthetic drugs. More harmful patterns of use may emerge as some users switch to injecting, or to more frequent injecting' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_1.pdf

'Harmful patterns deriving from drug shortages include an increase in injecting drug use and the sharing of injecting equipment and other drug paraphernalia, all of which carry the risk of spreading blood-borne diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, as well as COVID-19. Risks resulting from drug overdose may also increase among people who inject drugs and who are infected with COVID-19.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_1.pdf

'The health consequences of drug use can include a range of negative outcomes such as drug use disorders, mental health disorders, HIV infection, hepatitis-related liver cancer and cirrhosis, overdose and premature death. The greatest harms to health are those associated with the use of opioids and with injecting drug use, owing to the risk of acquiring HIV or hepatitis C through unsafe injecting practices.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'Injecting drug use is a significant public health concern and causes morbidity and mortality owing to the risk of overdose and blood-borne infections (mainly HIV and hepatitis B and C), transmitted through the sharing of contaminated needles and syringes and other drug paraphernalia or risky sexual behaviour in some groups and subsequent severe immunosuppression, cirrhosis, neoplastic disease and inflammation sequelae. Social and physical effects can further aggravate potential underlying mental health conditions.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'Owing to the criminalization of drug use, punitive laws, stigma and discrimination against people who use or inject drugs in many parts of the world, conventional survey methods have been found to underestimate the actual population size because of the hidden nature of PWID [persons who inject drugs]; therefore, only indirect methods have been shown to reflect the situation of PWID with greater accuracy. Overall, new or updated estimates of PWID were available for 40 countries in 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'The prevalence of PWID [persons who inject drugs] aged 15–64 in 2018 continues to be the highest in Eastern Europe (1.26 per cent) and Central Asia and Transcaucasia (0.63 per cent). Those percentages are, respectively, 5.5 and 2.8 times higher than the global average. More than a quarter of all PWID reside in East and South-East Asia, although the prevalence itself is relatively low (0.19 per cent). The three subregions with the largest numbers of PWID (East and South-East Asia, North America and Eastern Europe) together account for over half (58 per cent) of the global number of PWID. It is noteworthy that, as in previous years, while three countries – China, the Russian Federation and the United States – account for just 27 per cent of the global population aged 15–64, they are home to almost half (43 per cent) of all PWID.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'Injecting drug use is estimated to account for approximately 10 per cent of HIV infections worldwide and 30 per cent of all HIV cases outside Africa, while in the eastern countries of the WHO European Region more than 80 per cent of all HIV infections occur among PWID [persons who inject drugs]. PWID are estimated to be 22 times more likely than people in the general population to be living with HIV.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'The largest number of PWID [persons who inject drugs] living with HIV reside in Eastern Europe, East and South-East Asia and South-West Asia, which together account for 67 per cent of the global total. Although the prevalence of HIV among PWID (9.3 per cent) is below the global average, a fifth of the global number of PWID living with HIV reside in East and South-East Asia. A small number of countries continue to account for a large proportion of the total global number of PWID living with HIV. In 2018, for example, PWID living with HIV in China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation accounted for almost half of the global total (49 per cent), while PWID in those three countries comprise only a third of all PWID worldwide.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'UNODC, WHO, UNAIDS and the World Bank jointly estimated the prevalence of hepatitis C among PWID [persons who inject drugs] worldwide in 2018 to be 48.5 per cent, or 5.5 million (range: 4 million to 7.8 million) people aged 15–64. This estimate is based on estimates in 108 countries, covering 94 per cent of the estimated global number of PWID.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'Although data coverage was low in the Caribbean, the highest prevalence of hepatitis C among PWID [persons who inject drugs] was found in that subregion, at 76 per cent, followed by East and South-East Asia, Western and Central Europe, North America, and Central Asia and Transcaucasia, where it ranged between 61 and 54 per cent. In North Africa, a hepatitis C prevalence of 25 per cent was found among PWID, compared with a combined prevalence in the general population (>15 years) in North Africa and the Middle East estimated at 3.1 per cent. In Central Asia, a hepatitis C prevalence of 54 per cent was found among PWID, compared with a range of 0.5 to 13.1 per cent among the general population' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'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

'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

'I have never regretted my experience with drugs. I think I am at better health now as a result of using junk at intervals than I would be if I had never been an addict. When you stop growing you start dying. An addict never stops growing. Most users periodically kick the habit, which involves shrinking of the organism and replacement of the junk-dependent cells. A user is in continual state of shrinking and growing in his daily cycle of shot-need for shot completed.' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'In 1937, weed was placed under the Harrison Narcotics Act. Narcotics authorities claim it is a habit-forming drug, that its use is injurious to mind and body, and that it causes the people who use it to commit crimes. Here are the facts: Weed is positively not habit forming. You can smoke weed for years and you will experience no discomfort if your supply is cut off. I have seen tea heads in jail and none of them showed withdrawal symptoms. I have smoked weed myself off and on for fifteen years, and never missed it when I ran out. There is less habit to weed than there is to tobacco. Weed does not harm the general health. In fact. most users claim it gives you an appetite and acts as a tonic to the system. I do not know of any other agent that gives as definite a boot to the appetite. I can smoke a stick of tea and enjoy a glass of California sherry and a hash house meal.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'I once kicked a junk habit with weed. The second day off junk I sat down and ate a full meal. Ordinarily, I can't eat for eight days after kicking a habit.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'It has also been submitted that while enacting the NDPS Act, the government failed to consider the medicinal benefits of the drug, including its effect as an analgesic, its role in fighting cancer, reducing nausea, and increasing appetite in HIV patients.'
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/delhi-high-court-seeks-centres-take-on-use-of-cannabis-after-a-petition-challenges-ndps-act

'Cannabis may have a beneficial impact on HIV-associated BBB [blood-brain barrier] injury. Since BBB disruption may permit increased entry of toxins such as microbial antigens and inflammatory mediators, with consequent CNS injury, these results support a potential therapeutic role of cannabis among PWH [persons with HIV] and may have important treatment implications for ART effectiveness and toxicity.'
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa437/5820626

'Voters approved a constitutional amendment in November allowing medical marijuana in Missouri.

The measure allows patients with cancer, HIV, epilepsy and other conditions access to marijuana. It also permits use by veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/missouri-to-start-taking-medical-marijuana-business-application-fees-jan-5/

The 21 qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in Ohio includes AIDS and HIV-positive status

'The Enquirer set out to determine how many Ohioans could be eligible for medical marijuana under the 21 qualifying conditions from the Ohio Department of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private nonprofits that raise money for medical research. For many diseases, the numbers of patients are estimates, since the government does not track patient counts for every ailment. The conclusion: About 3.5 million Ohioans deal with at least one of the qualifying conditions. Ohio's population is 11.66 million'
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/07/18/3-10-ohioans-eligible-medical-marijuana-card/784017002/

Minnesota's list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana includes HIV/AIDS

Pennsylvania's list of medical conditions qualifying for medical marijuana includes HIV/AIDS

' In particular, I would really love to see anxiety, depression and ADHD added,” Spaar said. '
https://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/14367032-74/pennsylvania-to-consider-more-conditions-that-should-qualify-for-medical-marijuana

“These include patients on chemotherapy with nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, asthma, anorexia and weight loss in AIDS, cancers, anorexia nervosa, chronic and neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders and some neuropsychiatric disorders” she outlined.'
https://jis.gov.jm/health-ministry-supports-conditional-use-of-cannabis-for-research-and-meidicinal-purposes/

'When we reviewed its medical uses in 1993 after examining many patients and case histories, we were able to list the following: nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy, the weight loss syndrome of AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, muscle spasms and chronic pain in multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia and other spastic disorders, migraine, severe pruritus, depression, and other mood disorders. Since then we have identified more than a dozen others, including asthma, insomnia, dystonia, scleroderma, Crohn’s disease, diabetic gastroparesis, and terminal illness. The list is not exhaustive.'
http://rxmarijuana.com/old_medicine.htm

'Results
After adjusting for demographic and HIV-related covariates, THC-positive patients had significantly higher CD4+ and CD8+ counts than their THC-negative counterparts.

Conclusion
These results extend previous HIV-related immunity findings in an underrepresented group, and suggest that THC use does not reduce immune function as measured by CD count. Further research is warranted on the overall effects of THC on immune function in HIV positive patients.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871618308287?via%3Dihub

'Where data are available, they show a steady decline in the use of NPS in Europe, but such substances have established themselves in some marginalized groups in society, such as the homeless or people in prison, among whom the smoking of synthetic cannabinoids has been identified as a problem. In Europe, the use of NPS in prisons was reported by 22 countries, with synthetic cannabinoids identified as posing the main challenge and health risks (16 countries), whereas the use of synthetic cathinones in prisons was reported by 10 countries, NPS with opioid effects by six, and new benzodiazepines by four countries. In Latvia, the use of synthetic opioids in prisons has also been linked to an increase in overdose cases and in injecting drugs and sharing needles among prisoners who use drugs.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

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

Wednesday 8 May 2019

The Recreational Cannabis Consumer

'The socialists, communists, and anarchists, with their bombs, riots, and revolutions, are not nearly so much dreaded by governments as the scattered individuals in various countries all justifying their refusals on the ground of one and the same familiar doctrine. Every government knows how and with what to defend itself against revolutionaries, and has the means of doing so, and therefore does not dread these external foes. But what are governments to do against these people who show the uselessness, superfluity, and harmfulness of all governments, and instead of contending with them merely show that they do not need them, that they can get along without them and are therefore unwilling to take part in them' - Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

There are many, mostly negative, stereotypes surrounding the recreational cannabis user. Most of these stereotypes are fueled by propaganda and misinformation from entities that are opposed to cannabis, including the media and film industry, who have little or no knowledge of cannabis but whose prejudices against certain demographics of people surface as a prejudice against cannabis. The type of stereotype depends a lot on where you are and the what the insecurities are of the people in that place.

Some of the negative stereotypes are as follows.

A common stereotype, if you are in the west, is that the cannabis user is a long haired or dread-locked hippie stoner who spends his day doing absolutely nothing other than listening to rock, reggae or hip hop music and smoking cannabis . If you are in the east, he wanders about and wastes his time sitting in secluded spots with eyes closed because he's stoned out of his head. He appears to forget what to say and can't seem to remember what he needs to do. This is typically a stereotype created by conservative religious people all over the world who view the long haired or dread-locked as a low class person and forms of music such as rock, reggae and hip hop music as the devil's music and the only worthwhile thing that a person should be doing as having a steady 9 to 5 job and earning a salary. This stereotype typically enables parents to keep their children and wives to keep their husbands under control. The greatest fears of the persons perpetrating this stereotype is that the cannabis user will get out of mainstream society and out of their control. The perpetrators of the stereotype typically cannot tell the difference between the nature of cannabis and synthetic drugs and club all users under the heading 'dope'.

Another stereotype is that of a dark or brown skinned man who uses cannabis to seduce women and make them his victims, a womanizing, smooth operator type of stoner. This stereotype is typically created by people opposed to minorities, foreigners, immigrants and sections of society that they term as inferior classes and themselves as superior classes mainly based on the amount of money they possess. The persons creating these stereotypes are typically fair skinned and wealthy and their drugs of choice are alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, heroin or any other expensive drug that they have heard is being consumed by the wealthiest people and the celebrities. This stereotype serves to keep selected sections of society under a tight leash and to drive home the alleged superiority of certain racial and economic classes. Quite often these stereotypes are placed on persons who are not basically from the place in question but have come from other places or if the persons belong to a minority group such as an ethnic, racial, linguistic or religious minority. In many parts of the world the working classes used cannabis to relieve the fatigue after a day's work or used cannabis to withstand pain, hunger and extremes of temperature. Many persons who wanted to pursue the path of spirituality and who wanted to distance themselves from the excesses of food, wealth and other things which they felt were distractions for their focus on meditation and deeper understanding of the world, chose cannabis as their support and aid. Disregarding the needs and the relationship with cannabis that these vast numbers of people have, the so-called elite classes, obsessed with wealth and material power, chose to prohibit the cannabis plant and to label all cannabis users as low class people to be suppressed and kept on a tight leash.

A third stereotype, a truly hilarious one, which was made popular by the notorious American propaganda film Reefer Madness, is of a person who, once he consumes cannabis, becomes mentally unstable and goes on a rampage of rage, violence, indiscriminate rape, murder and crime. This stereotype, I believe, was created by law enforcement and propagated by law enforcement bodies everywhere with the help of media. It appears to be a part of basic training in law enforcement given the extent to which it can be found among law enforcement personnel all over the world. This stereotype gives law enforcement the impetus to target cannabis users everywhere and to imprison them, or put them in asylums and treatment centers, most notably the poor, minorities, indigenous people and youth, citing that they are a threat to law and order, arresting them being seen as a part of the law enforcement body's major steps taken to address crime in society and to keep society safe. In fact the incorrect link between cannabis and insanity has been one of the oldest stereotypes used to create a negative image of cannabis and the recreational user. This helps to distract people's attention from the real crimes that are happening in society such as that of violence against women, the aged, minorities as well as financial fraud and environmental crime that is perpetrated by the politicians and wealthy persons of society who law enforcement consider as their bosses. There is not a day that passes when there is not a report about some cannabis-crazed user committing acts of crime. Nobody pays close attention to the real causes behind the incident. The superficial focus tends to harden the misconception further and law enforcement and the media are happy with a job poorly done.

Another interesting negative stereotype regarding women and cannabis is that a woman who smokes cannabis is likely to suddenly turn into a nymphomaniac and a loose character according to society. Many men are known to have tried to sexually assault a woman just because she has been seen consuming cannabis. In most parts of the world this misplaced thinking still holds true, especially in societies where men try to dominate and suppress women fearing their independence. This stereotype is one of the reasons why women are especially discreet about their cannabis consumption and will not speak about it openly in general. The regressive nature of a patriarchal society are still to be found far and wide even though we may all claim to be living in a modern age of equality.

It is common to hear of the cannabis consumer being referred to as an addict. It is sufficient for a person to have consumed cannabis just once for him or her to be labelled lifelong as an addict. Cannabis is as addictive as tea and possibly less addictive than coffee. It is nowhere as addictive as alcohol or tobacco but you seldom hear of an alcohol or tobacco consumer being referred to as an addict. There is vast evidence that shows that even heavy cannabis users can easily go without the herb whereas an opioid user is likely to even die if he or she does not receive a dose of the drug when heavy dependency has developed. In some parts of India, before cannabis prohibition and during its regulation, 50 grams of was the daily sale of the herb permitted to an individual. Today, society has no qualms in labeling a cannabis consumer as an addict without the slightest clue about what his or her cannabis consumption rate is. It is not uncommon for a one time user to be forcibly subjected to de-addiction treatment, involving dangerous and highly addictive ad dangerous synthetic pharmaceutical medicines, under threat of imprisonment. This often serves to truly set the person on a course of addiction, especially to opioids and benzodiazepines, that many never recover from.

These and more negative stereotypes have been fueled by 100 odd years of cannabis prohibition world wide. They have been used to keep the plant illegal and show it in a bad light and they have been used to legitimize illegal and incorrect actions by law enforcement agencies, governments and big businesses against many people mostly the poor, minorities and indigenous persons. They are often used to quell dissidence, imprison and strike fear in the hearts of potentially troublesome people.

But what is the truth? The truth is that there are a known 260 million plus people world wide who consume cannabis and potentially a much greater unknown number of users. Many people fear coming out in the open about their cannabis usage for fear of social stigmatization and law enforcement action due to its current illegal status. The fact of the matter is that people of all backgrounds, demographics, economic statuses, race, color, religion, occupation, age group, gender, nationality, etc, etc consume cannabis. With legalization what is emerging is the extent of cannabis usage and how wrong the stereotypes have been. It has been found in the US where legalization is proceeding at a rapid pace that the elderly are the fastest growing age demographic taking up cannabis consumption. Advocates, judges, police personnel, politicians, army veterans, sports persons, musicians, scientists, CXOs, chefs, film celebrities, patients, you name it, there is no demographic that does not have persons who love and use the plant. All this is, in fact, a return to the equilibrium that existed before cannabis prohibition came about. Before prohibition, cannabis had been used for thousands of years, in fact, as long back as man can remember, in all cultures. The plant is 28 million years old. The human body and the bodies of many other animals, have endocannabinoid receptor systems that have possibly evolved due to the association of man and other animals with the cannabis plant over hundreds of thousands of years.

Many businesses are now trying to classify the recreational user by different methods so that they can create targeted marketing campaigns for their products in places where cannabis legalization has happened. Others are trying to erase the stereotypes to highlight the discrimination that cannabis users have faced and still face in many areas. Hopefully with increasing information, legalization and global communication technology, we can shed further light on the negative stereotyping that the recreational cannabis user has faced and hope that world wide cannabis legalization and the end of long term discrimination against the cannabis user is at hand.

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article

'Almost 500 participants said they endorse using marijuana one hour before, or up to four hours after, exercising. And based on data from the questionnaire, those who did use cannabis in that timeframe worked out longer than consumers who didn’t pair the activities. Specifically, those who engaged in co-use worked out an average of 43 minutes longer for aerobic exercise and 30 minutes longer for anaerobic exercise.

What’s behind the trend?'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/study-finds-marijuana-motivates-people-to-exercise-smashing-lazy-stoner-stereotype/

'For years, the popular image of cannabis growers has been scruffy hippies getting high on their own supply in a disorganized underground economy, rather than shiny white industrial agriculture facilities. Even larger-scale operations involved minimal quality control or lacked formal record keeping.

But as legal medical — and increasingly, recreational — cannabis becomes more widespread, the cannabis industry is becoming more professional. By adopting the methods and rigour of plant science and analytical chemistry, it is ensuring that it can produce safe, consistent and high-quality products for a fast-growing and lucrative market.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02527-2

'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

'For many adults, researchers say, moderate use is probably fine. “I compare it to alcohol,” says Earl Miller, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory in Cambridge. “Too much or the wrong situation can be bad, but in other situations it can be beneficial. I think we’re going to find the same thing with cannabis.”'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02530-7

'The study, published in the journal Justice Quarterly and funded by the federal National Institute of Justice, found that violent and property crimes rates were not affected in a statistically significant way in the years after Colorado and Washington State became the first in the nation to legalize marijuana for adult use.

“Our results suggest that marijuana legalization and sales have had minimal to no effect on major crimes in Colorado or Washington,” the paper concluded. “We observed no statistically significant long-term effects of recreational cannabis laws or the initiation of retail sales on violent or property crime rates in these states.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/marijuana-legalization-doesnt-cause-increased-crime-federally-funded-study-finds/

'Hong Kong police, it's said, fear local youth might discover the pleasures of grass, and what is currently a minor problem might mushroom. They quickly grabbed the "killer drug" image of cannabis and tied it to Lee as an anti-drug message. Lee's image, of course, suffered for it.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'In Hong Kong however, where there is almost no marijuana use, the drug conjures up images of harder drugs, much as "grass" used to be considered the "devil weed" in the United States before its usage spread in the late 1960s. Police in Hong Kong, even now, tend to pay more attention to hash or grass, it seems, than heroin or opium, simply because the substances are less familiar and have come to be associated with the dreaded "hippie tourist Europeans" (anyone in Hong Kong who is not Chinese, and who has white skin, is called a European, just as all Japanese and Chinese are lumped together in America with Vietnamese and others as Orientals).' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'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

'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

'I have never regretted my experience with drugs. I think I am at better health now as a result of using junk at intervals than I would be if I had never been an addict. When you stop growing you start dying. An addict never stops growing. Most users periodically kick the habit, which involves shrinking of the organism and replacement of the junk-dependent cells. A user is in continual state of shrinking and growing in his daily cycle of shot-need for shot completed.' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'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

'I have learned the junk equation. Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.' - Prologue, Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'Morphine hits the backs of the legs first, the the back of the neck, a spreading wave of relaxation slackening the muscles away from the bones so that you seem to float without outlines, like lying in warm salt water. As this relaxing wave spread through my tissues, I experienced a strong feeling of fear. I had the feeling that some horrible image was just beyond the field of vision, moving, as I turned my head, so that I quite never saw it. I felt nauseous. I lay down and closed my eyes. A series of pictures passed, like watching a movie. A huge, neon-lighted cocktail bar that got larger and larger until streets, traffic, and street repairs were included in it; a waitress carrying a skull on a tray; stars in a clear sky. The physical impact of the fear of death; the shutting off of breath; the stopping of blood.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

Increased use brings increased tolerance...microdosing and giving tolerance breaks gives you better value for the ganja consumed...

'Findings

Respondents who reported using daily (i.e., 30 days in the past month) consumed almost twice as much per day of use on average as did those reporting less than daily. We find only modest increases in intensity among those using less than daily, but then a substantial increase (p< 0.001) for those who use daily. Most respondents report that on heavy or light use days their consumption differs from a typical day of use by a factor of 2 or more, but only about 25% of days were described as heavy or light.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395920300815

In India, the movie will, even today, become the center of public awareness campaigns and the medical education curriculum..and not as a parody..we are still deep in the throes of reefer madness...

'Stroup realized that he had something unintentionally hilarious on his hands. He purchased a print for $297 and began screening it on college campuses. The watch parties functioned as fundraisers for his campaign to legalize marijuana, and they were a hit. Reefer Madness was not only reclaimed by the legalization movement, but recast as a beloved cult comedy—another “so bad it’s good” movie to be appreciated ironically.

Reefer Madness still enjoys that status today. It’s appeared in Mötley Crüe music videos and in other movies, even if only as a shot of the famous poster on a college dorm room wall. Showtime aired a musical spoof in 2005, starring Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming, following a successful stage musical version in Los Angeles. Although Reefer Madness was designed to exploit the taboo topics of its day, it has stayed a feature of the cultural conversation for a surprisingly long time—thanks in part to Stroup, and in part to the timelessness of marijuana panic.'
https://daily.jstor.org/marijuana-panic-wont-die-but-reefer-madness-will-live-forever/

'Among CBD consumers, about 1 in 5 (21%) use it daily, while 40% do so weekly.
One quarter (25%) of CBD consumers reported having tried it only once or twice.
Men reported being likelier than women to consume CBD on a daily and weekly basis, as did older consumers (i.e., ages 55+) rather than younger consumers (i.e., ages 18-34).
More recent adoption of CBD correlates with more habitual consumption of it'

https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/frequency-of-use-among-u-s-cbd-consumers/

'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

'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 concerned. 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

'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

'Tea heads are not like junkies. A junkie hands you the money, takes his junk and cuts. But tea heads don't do things that way. They expect the peddler to light them up and sit around talking for half an hour to sell two dollars worth of weed. If you come right to the point, they say you are a "bring down." In fact, a peddler should not come right out and say he is a peddler. No, he just scores for a few good "cats and "chicks" because he is viperish. Everyone knows that he himself is the connection, but it is bad form to say so. God knows why. To me, tea heads are unfathomable.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'There are lots of secrets in the tea business, and tea heads guard these supposed secrets with imbecile slyness. For example, tea must be cured, or it is green and rasps the throat. But ask a tea head how to cure weed and he will give you a sly, stupid look and come-on with some double-talk. Perhaps weed does affect the brain with constant use, or maybe tea heads are naturally silly.
The tea I had was green so I put it in a double boiler and set the boiler in the oven until the tea got the greenish-brown look it should have. This is the secret of curing tea, or at least one way to do it.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'Tea heads are gregarious, they are sensitive, and they are paranoiac. If you get to be known as a 'drag" or a "bring down", you can't do business with them. I soon found out I couldn't get along with these characters and I was glad to find someone to take the tea off my hands at cost. I decided right then I would never push any more tea.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

The American strategy of the 60s is now global strategy to suppress dissent. Today, include Covid (pharma drug abuse wearing a virus mask) as a new strategy to disrupt opposition......was it Trump's advisers who came up with the new idea or Xi's or Modi's or Putin's? Heroin can no longer be associated with blacks because everyone now knows how much the whites like the white powder...Marijuana can still be associated with whichever group you are opposed to - blacks, hippies, anti-war activists, minorities, students...hence another reason to keep it illegal. Covid can also be associated with anybody anywhere globally...what a beauty...the public scream "more testing, more testing"...

'"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt these communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."

"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did," he concluded, according to Baum.'
https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/top-nixon-adviser-reveals-the-racist-reason-he-started-the-war-on-drugs-decades-ago/articleshow/70473035.cms

'Authors reported: “Results of this analysis indicated that compared to older adult non-users, older adult cannabis users had lower BMI at the beginning of an exercise intervention study, engaged in more weekly exercise days during the intervention, and were engaging in more exercise-related activities at the conclusion of the intervention. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that it may be easier for older adults who endorse using cannabis to increase and maintain their exercise behavior, potentially because cannabis users have lower body weight than their non-using peers. At minimum, the evidence suggests that cannabis use does not hinder older adults’ ability to engage in physical activity, to participate in a supervised exercise program, or to increase their fitness as a result of physical activity.”'
https://norml.org/news/2020/07/09/study-history-of-cannabis-use-associated-with-lower-bmi-greater-exercise-frequency-in-those-age-60-and-older

'“Compared to older adult nonusers,” says the study, out of the University of Colorado at Boulder, “older adult cannabis users had lower [body mass index] at the beginning of an exercise intervention study, engaged in more weekly exercise days during the intervention, and were engaging in more exercise-related activities at the conclusion of the intervention.”

In other words, not only were adults over 60 who used marijuana generally in better shape than their peers who abstained from cannabis, they were also more responsive to an assigned four-month “exercise intervention trial”—essentially a regimen of physical activity prescribed by a clinician.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/lazy-stoner-stereotype-smashed-by-study-finding-marijuana-consumers-exercise-more/

'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

'Narcotics agents operate largely with the aid of informers. The usual routine is to grab someone with junk on him, and let him stew in jail until he is good and sick. Then comes the spiel:
"We can get you five years for possession. On the other hand, you can walk out of here right now. The decision is up to you. If you work with us, we can give you a good deal. For one thing, plenty of junk and pocket money. That is, if you deliver. Take a few minutes to think it over." - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'According to the Blue Grass Law of Kentucky, any "known user of narcotic drugs can be sentenced to the county jail for one year, with the alternative of taking the cure in Lexington."' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'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

'Cole did not have a habit at this time and he wanted to connect for some weed. He was a real tea head. He told me he could not enjoy himself without weed. I have seen people like that. For them, tea occupies the place usually filled by liquor. They don't have to have it in any physical sense, but they cannot have a really good time without it.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'A junkie runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. All he can do is hang on and wait for non-junk time to start. A sick junkie has no escape from external time, no place to go. He can only wait.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'It is possible to detach yourself from most pain - injury to teeth, eyes, and genitals present special difficulties - so that the pain is experienced as neutral excitation. From junk sickness there seems to be no escape. Junk sickness is the reverse side of junk kick. The kick of junk is that you have to have it. Junkies run on junk time and junk metabolism. They are subject to junk climate. They are warmed and chilled by junk. the kick of junk is living under junk conditions. You cannot escape from junk sickness any more than you can escape from junk kick after a shot.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953

'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

'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

'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

'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

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

Officially sponsored myth 6 - '"Addicts want to get others on the stuff." This silly idea seems to be universal. Every time I take a fall the law says to my wife: "It's a wonder he didn't get you on the junk." Why in hell should I? I have enough trouble keeping up my own habit. Of course, a peddling addict wants to get other people on the stuff so he will have more customers.'

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

Officially sponsored myth 10 - '"There is a connection between addiction and crime. Marijuana, especially, is supposed to cause people to commit crimes."
There is no direct connection between crime and drug intoxication that I have ever seen or heard of. The people who talk about drugs causing crime never seem to follow through and take into account the vast number of crimes committed by drunks. Alcohol is a crime-producing drug that outclasses all others. Of course, a lot of junkies steal to keep up their habit. It isn't easy to get up $10-15 per day, which is what the addict has to pay out for a day's supply of junk in the US.'

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

'Any anti-narcotic legislation is considered a good thing by the public. For this reason the field of narcotic legislation has become a testing ground for a type of law new to this country but familiar in police states. In the states of Louisiana and Kentucky it is a crime punishable by imprisonment (La., two to five years; Ky., one year) to be an addict. This is police-state legislation penalizing a condition or state of being. In the Louisiana law, no time or place is specified, nor is the term "addict" defined.'

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

'Lexington and Forth Worth are the only two public institutions in the U.S. that give reduction cures. Both are usually full. According to bureaucratic regulations, anyone seeking admission to either hospital must send an application (in triplicate, of course) to Washington and wait several months to be admitted. Then he must stay at least six months. In Louisiana a man could be arrested as a drug addict if he applied for the cure.'

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

So governments, the pharmaceutical industry and the medical industry cut off the supply of natural intoxicants like cannabis, opium, coca and palm toddy. They create refined and much more potent extracts from these natural materials. They control the supply and stock of these chemical drugs. They use the doctor-pharmacist route to administer these drugs to the public legally and the peddler-narcotics agent-rehabilitation center route to administer these drugs illegally. The individual is not allowed to grow or procure these intoxicants from nature. He must rely on the system to get his intoxicant and pay the maximum price for it. To realize more and more profits the system creates more and more potent chemical intoxicants moving further and further away from natural territory into synthetic chemically constructed territory. As the toxicity and addictive power of these drugs increase, the public gets addicted to an even greater extent and pays even more for any available intoxicant. Profits rise and fuel the growth of the system tremendously. The individual pays for the system, pays for the synthetic drug, pays for the treatment which is further synthetic drugs and eventually pays with his life for the synthetic intoxicant. Legalize all natural drugs - opium, coca, cannabis and toddy to name a few. Most importantly, legalize cannabis, the universal drug of the world...

'Jennifer Aniston Gives JD Advice Before He Smokes Weed for the First Time'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxTytvUrQ4c

'Marijuana activist and poet John Sinclair, although older now at 78, is no less the rebel he was in 1969.

“I knew they were going to be after me, but you can’t let them determine your life,” he said of his 1971 release from prison for possession of two joints.

About 9:49 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 1, at Arbors Wellness in Ann Arbor with a happy line of hundreds wrapped around the block, Sinclair made what was likely the first-ever licensed recreational retail marijuana sale in Michigan.'
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2019/12/activist-and-poet-john-sinclair-among-first-to-purchase-legal-recreational-marijuana-in-michigan-50-years-after-his-historic-arrest.html

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/nba-insider-tom-haberstroh/marijuana-and-nba-erasing-stigma-and-healing-league

'When it comes to withdrawal, Armentano said research has found symptoms to be mild and short-lived.

“Like with most matters specific to cannabis,” he said, the new findings “need to be placed in appropriate context.”

He compared cannabis withdrawal to withdrawal symptoms when someone stops using tobacco or alcohol.

“The profound physical withdrawal effects associated with tobacco are so severe that many subjects who strongly desire to quit end up reinitiating their use. In the case of alcohol, the abrupt ceasing of use in heavy users can be so severe that it can lead to death,” Armentano said.

“Simply withdrawing from caffeine can lead to a number of adverse side effects, like rebound headaches,” he added. “But we do not arrest 600,000 Americans annually for their use of caffeine.”'
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/marijuana-withdrawal-symptoms-are-real-for-regular-users

'If only the hearts of individual men would not be troubled by the temptations which assail them every hour, and would not be frightened by the imaginary terrors that alarm them; if only men recognized in what their mighty and all conquering power lies, that peace which they have always desired - not the peace obtained by diplomatic negotiations, by visits of emperors and kings from one town to another, by banquets, speeches, fortresses, artillery, dynamite and melinite, by exhausting the people by taxation or tearing the flower of the nation from toil and corrupting it, but the peace which is secured by the free advocacy of the truth by each individual man - would long since have been established among us.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'But yet in these apparently unimportant actions - in our indicating to the extent of our powers the unreasonableness of what we clearly see to be irrational and refraining from taking part in it - lies our great and irresistible power: the power which constitutes that unconquerable force which makes up real genuine public opinion - that opinion which with its own advance moves all humanity. Governments know this. They tremble before that force and strive in every possible way to counteract and overcome it.

They know that strength lies not in force but in the action of the mind and in the clear expression. And they fear that expression of independent thought more than an army. So they establish censorship, bribe newspapers, and seize control of the Churches and schools. But the spiritual force which moves the world eludes them. It is not in a book or a newspaper: it cannot be trapped but is always free, for it lies in the depth's of man's consciousness. This most powerful, elusive, and free force shows itself in a man's soul when he is alone and reflects on the phenomena of the world and then involuntarily expresses his thoughts to his wife, his brother, his friend, and to all whom he accounts it a sin to conceal what he considers to be the truth. No milliards of rubles, or millions of troops, or any institutions, or wars, or revolutions, can or will produce what a free man can produce by the simple expression of what he considers right, independently of what exists and what is impressed upon him.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'No feats of heroism are needed to bring about the greatest and most important changes in the life of humanity; neither the arming of millions of men, nor the construction of new railways and machines, nor the organization of exhibitions or trade unions, nor revolutions, nor barricades, nor dynamite outrages, nor the perfection of aerial navigation, and so forth. All that is necessary is a change of public opinion.

And for that change no effort of thought is demanded, no refutation of any existing thing, and no planning of anything new and extraordinary. All that is necessary is to cease acquiescing in the public opinion of the past, now false and already defunct and only artificially induced by governments. It is only necessary for each individual to say what he really thinks and feels or at least refrain from saying what he does not think.

If only men - even a few - would do that, the out-worn public opinion would at once and of itself fall away and a new, real, and vital opinion would manifest itself. And with this change of public opinion all that inner fabric of men's lives which oppresses and torments them would change of its own accord. One is ashamed to say how little is needed to deliver all men from the calamities which now oppress them. It is only necessary to give up lying! Only let men reject the lie which is imposed upon them; only let them stop saying what they neither think nor feel, and at once such a change of the whole structure of our life will be accomplished as the revolutionaries would not achieve in centuries even if all the power were in their hands.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'The working people are too much taken up with the task of earning a living for themselves and their families to be able to interest themselves in the political questions that figure as the chief motives of patriotism. The question of Russia's influence in the East, the unification of Germany, the return of France's lost provinces, of the cession of this or that part of one State to another, and so on, does not interest them - not only because they hardly ever know the conditions under which these questions arise, but because the interests of their life are quite apart from national and political interests.

To a man of the people it is always a matter of complete indifference where a frontier is drawn, to whom Constantinople may belong, whether Saxony or Brunswick shall, or shall not, be a member of the German Union, whether Australia or Matabeleland shall belong to England - or even to what government he has to pay his taxes and into which army he must send his sons. The important thing for him is to know how much tax he will have to pay, whether the army service will be a long one, whether he will have to pay for the land over many years, and whether he will get much for his work - all questions quite apart from national and political interests. That is why - despite the intensive efforts made by governments to instill a patriotism into people that is not innate in them, and to suppress the ideas of socialism that are developing in them - socialism is penetrating more and more into the masses of the people, while patriotism, with which they are so carefully inoculated by the government, not only fails to spread, but is disappearing more and more and is only maintained by the upper classes to whom it is profitable.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'The sight of these two men, so different from one another - the well-fed elegant Frenchman, in a top-hat and a long overcoat that was then very fashionable, radiant with freshness and self-confidence, with his white hand, unused to work, energetically showing how the Germans must be squeezed; and the shaggy figure of Prokofy, shriveled up by constant labour, always tired but always at work despite his enormous rupture, with fingers swollen by toil, with wisps of hay in his hair, with slack home-made breeches and down-trodden bark shoes, striding along with an enormous fork of hay on his shoulder, with that step, not lazy but economical in movement, with which a working man always moves - the strong contrast presented by those two men made much clear to me then, and now, after the Toulon-Paris festivities, vividly occurs. One of them personified all those who, fed by the people's toil, afterwards use those same people for cannon-fodder, while the other personified that very cannon-fodder which feeds and protects the others who afterwards so dispose of it.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'CBD consumers partake for a variety of reasons. Older consumers reported being more likely to seek pain management. Similarly, medical consumers were the most likely group to consume CBD on a daily basis, while those looking to unwind or use CBD for general wellness were less consistent in their use'
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/appealing-to-cbd-consumers-interests-in-the-cannabinoid/

'By using the mass media as his forum (receiving much support from publisher William Randolph Hearst), Anslinger was the main person behind the creating of an anti-marijuana sentiment during those years. The anti-marijuana propaganda film Reefer Madness from 1936 is a good example of his work.

There were two component in his strategy. First, the message that weed is evil. Second, racism, according to him only latinos and black people were smoking 'marihuana' and made them 'forget their place in society'.

Here below you can read 15 of his most ridiculous quotes about cannabis. You have been warned...'
https://www.cannaconnection.com/blog/7217-harry-j-anslinger-15-ridiculous-quotes-about-marihuana

'According to a recap of the case’s closing arguments in the Pioneer Press, “Had it not been for Castile’s decision to ‘get stoned’ on marijuana before operating a vehicle while armed with a gun, and further his decision to ‘ignore’ Yanez’s commands not to reach for his firearm, ‘none of this would have happened, [defense attorney Earl] Gray told jurors.”

Yanez was ultimately acquitted.'
https://www.twincities.com/2017/06/21/philando-castile-yanez-smell-of-marijuana-made-him-fear-for-his-life-jeronimo/

'The victim is always and ever the deceived, foolish, working folk - those who with blistered hands have built all those ships, fortresses, arsenals, barracks, cannon, harbours, steamers, and moles, and all these palaces, halls, platforms, and triumphal arches; who have set up and printed all these newspapers and pamphlets, and have procured and brought all these pheasants and ortolans, oysters, and wines that are consumed by the men who are fed, brought up, and kept by them, and who are deceiving them and preparing the most fearful calamities for them. It is always the same kindly, foolish folk, who stand open-mouthed like children, showing their healthy white teeth, naively delighted by dressed-up admirals and presidents with flags waving above them, and by fireworks and bands of music; and for whom, before they have time to look around, there will be neither admirals nor presidents nor flags nor bands, but only a desolate battlefield, cold, hunger, and anguish - before them murderous enemies and behind them relentless officers preventing their escape - blood, wounds, suffering, putrefying corpses, and a senseless unnecessary death.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'A terrible weight of evil hangs over the people of the world and presses them down. And men standing beneath that weight, and more and more oppressed by it, seek means of release. They know that by their collective strength they could lift that weight and throw it off, but they cannot agree to do so, and each of them bends lower and lower, letting it lie on other shoulders. And the weight presses on people more and more and would long ago have crushed them had there not been some men among them who were guided in their actions not by the consideration of external consequences but by a desire to make them agree with the voice of conscience. There have been and are such people - Christians, for the essence of Christianity lies in substituting an inward aim (to attain which no one else's consent is necessary) in place of external aims (to attain which everyone's agreement is necessary). And therefore salvation from the slavery men are enduring - impossible for men of the social life-perception - has been and is achieved by Christianity - simply by substituting the Christian in place of the social conception of life.

The aim of universal life cannot be fully known to you, says the Christian teaching to each man, and presents itself to you only as a nearer and nearer approach to the infinite welfare of the world - to the establishment of the Kingdom of God. But the aim of the personal life is certainly known to you, and consists in realizing in yourself the infinite perfecting of love, essential for the realization of the Kingdom of God. And that aim is always known to you and always attainable.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'A judge, a policeman, a governor, or an officer, can keep his position just the same under Boulanger, Pugachev, Catherine, or a republic. But should the existing order which secures him his advantageous position collapse, he would certainly lose that position. And so these people are none of them alarmed as to who will be at the head of the organization of violence - they can adapt themselves to anyone. They only fear the abolition of the organization itself, and that is the reason - though sometimes an unconscious one - why they maintain it.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'All the injustice and cruelties customary in present-day life have become habitual only because there are men always ready to carry out these injustices and cruelties. If it were not for them there would not only be no one to wreak violence on those immense masses of oppressed people, but those who issued the orders would never venture to do so, and would not even dare to dream of the sentences they now confidently pass.

Were it not for these men ready to torture or kill anyone they are commanded to, no one would dare to claim what is confidently claimed by all the non-working landowners, namely that land surrounded by men who are suffering for lack of land, is the property of a man who does not work on it, or that stores of grain collected by trickery ought to be preserved untouched in the midst of a population dying of hunger, because the merchant wants to make a profit. But for the existence of these people, ready at the will of the authorities to torture and kill anyone they are told to, it could never enter the head of a landowner to deprive the peasants of a wood they had grown, or of the officials to consider it proper to receive salaries taken from the famishing people for oppressing them, not to mention executing, imprisoning, or evicting people for exposing falsehood and preaching the truth. In fact all this is demanded and done only because the authorities are all fully convinced that they have always at hand servile people ready to carry out all their demands by means of tortures and killings.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Those who do violence (that is, those who take part in government) and those who profit by violence (that is, the rich) no longer represent as used to be the case the flower of our society and the ideal of all human well-being and grandeur towards which all the violated used formerly to strive. Now very often the oppressed do not strive to gain the position of the oppressors or try to imitate them. On the contrary, users of violence often voluntarily renounce the advantages of their position, choose the condition of the oppressed, and try to resemble them in the simplicity of their life.

Not to speak of the now openly despised duties and occupations - such as those of spies, agents of the secret police, usurers, and publicans - a large number of professions held by users of violence, which used to be considered honourable (such as those of police officials, courtiers, officers of the law, administrative functionaries, the clergy, the military, the monopolists and bankers) are no longer accounted honourable by everyone, but are even condemned by a certain much respected section of people. There are already people who voluntarily abandon these positions which were once accounted irreproachable, and prefer less advantageous positions not connected with violence.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Quite independently of any man's opinion as to whether chicks are mature enough for him to drive the mother-hen away from the nest and let them come out of their shells, the question will be indisputably settled by the birds themselves when, unable any longer to find room enough in the shells, they begin to peck with their beaks and come out of their own accord.

It is the same in regard to whether the time has or has not come to do away with governmental authority and substitute a new type of society. If, through the growth of a higher consciousness, men no longer comply with the demands of the State, if they no longer find sufficient room in it and at the same time no longer need its protection, then the question whether they have matured sufficiently to discard the State form of life is decided from quite a different side - just as in the case of chicks that break out of their shells into which no power on earth can make them return - by the men themselves who have outgrown the State and whom no power on earth can replace in it.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'A Christian is independent of human authority because he only acknowledges the authority of God, whose law revealed by Christ he recognizes in himself and voluntarily obeys.

And this liberation is gained not by means of struggle, not by the destruction of existing forms, but only by a change in the understanding of life. A Christian recognizes the law of love revealed to him by his teacher, as perfectly sufficient for all human relations, and therefore regards all use of violence as unnecessary and wrong. He also, with his different conception of life, regards those deprivations, sufferings, or threats of deprivation and suffering, by which a man with the social conception of life is reduced to the necessity of obedience, merely as inevitable conditions of existence (like sickness, hunger, and all sorts of calamities), which he patiently endures without forcible resistance, but not as anything that can serve as a guide to his actions. The only guide for a Christian's actions is to be found in the divine principle that dwells within him, which cannot be checked or governed by anything else.'

Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Trump’s remarks about the causal relationship between weed and IQ are disputed by one of his own governmental agencies, the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

“Recent results from two prospective longitudinal twin studies did not support a causal relationship between marijuana use and IQ loss,” NIDA says on its website. “No predictable difference was found between twins when one used marijuana and one did not.”'
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bmxj/trump-says-weed-makes-you-dumb-leaked-audio-reveals

'A study conducted in India in the Chandigarh area, that city being the capital of the two neighbouring States of Punjab and Haryana, also suggested there are higher levels of drug use in urban slum areas than in rural areas. If this information were to be validated across all countries, the rapid urbanization of the past decade could be an element that explains, at least partially, the growth in the global drug market. In this context, urbanization becomes a crucial element when considering future dynamics in drug markets, in particular in developing countries, where growth in urbanization is more pronounced than in other countries.'- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'Data on the annual prevalence of drug use among adults in Australia, the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, show there is much higher drug use in urban areas than in rural areas, with the divide being even more pronounced among frequent users in the United States, where, in 2018, past-month prevalence of drug use was almost 80 per cent higher in large metropolitan areas than in rural areas.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'As to what we call the masses, and common men - there are no common men. All men are at last of a size; and true art is only possible on the conviction that every talent has its apotheosis somewhere. Fair play and an open field and freshest laurels to all who have won them! But heaven reserves an equal scope for every creature. Each is uneasy until he has produced his private ray unto the concave sphere and beheld his talent also in its last nobility and exaltation.' - Uses of Great Men, Emerson, The Basic Writings of America's Sage

'Grant all this, as we must, yet I suppose none of my auditors will deny that we ought to seek to establish ourselves in such disciplines and courses as will deserve that guidance and clearer communication with the spiritual nature. And further, I will not dissemble my hope that each person whom I address has felt his own call to cast aside all evil customs, timidities, and limitations, and to be in his place a free and helpful man, a reformer, a benefactor, not content to slip along through the world like a footman or spy, escaping by his nimbleness and apologies as many knocks as he can but a brave and upright man, who must find or cut a straight road for everything excellent in the earth, and not only go honorably himself, but make it easier for all who follow him to go in honor and with benefit.' - Man the Reformer, Emerson, The Basic Writings of America's Sage

'Contemplatives are not likely to become gamblers, or procurers, or drunkards; they do not as a rule preach intolerance, or make war; do not find it necessary to rob, swindle or grind the faces of the poor. And to these enormous negative virtues we may add another which, though hard to define, is both positive and important. The arhat and the quietist may not practice contemplation in its fullness; but if they practise it at all, they may bring back enlightening reports of another, a transcendent country of the mind; and if they practise it in the height, they will become conduits through which some beneficient influence can flow out of that other country into a world of darkened selves, chronically dying from lack of it.' - The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley, 1954.

'"Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Clothes him in front, but leaves him bare behind"

But actually it is we, the rich and highly educated whites, who have left ourselves bare behind. We cover our anterior nakedness with some philosophy - Christian, Marxian, Freudo-Physicalist - but abaft we remain uncovered, at the mercy of all the winds of circumstance. The poor Indian, on the other hand, has had the wit to protect his rear by supplementing the fig-leaf of a theology with the breech-clout of transcendental experience.' - The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley, 1954.

'Verbalists are suspicious of the non-verbal; rationalists fear the given, non-rational fact; intellectuals feel that 'what we perceive by the eye (or in any other way) is foreign to us as such and need not impress us deeply.' Besides, this matter of education in the non-verbal Humanities will not fit into any of the established pigeon-holes. It is not religion, not neurology, not gymnastics, not morality or civics, not even experimental psychology. This being so, the subject is, for academic and ecclesiastical purposes, non-existent and may be safely ignored altogether or left, with a patronizing smile, to those whom the Pharisees of verbal orthodoxy call cranks, quacks, charlatans and unqualified amateurs.' - The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley, 1954.

'In the Western world visionaries and mystics are a good deal less common than they used to be. There are two principal reasons for this state of affairs - a philosophical reason and a chemical reason. In the currently fashionable picture of the universe there is no place for valid transcendental experience. Consequently those who have had what they regard as valid transcendental experiences are looked upon with suspicion, as being either lunatics or swindlers. To be a mystic or a visionary is no longer credible.

But it is not only our mental climate that is unfavourable to the visionary and the mystic, it is also our chemical environment - an environment profoundly different from that in which our forefathers passed their lives.'- Heaven and Hell, Aldous Huxley, 1956

The urban legend of 420..
https://thedcapage.blog/2020/04/21/california-dreamin-or-the-tale-of-420/

Hey junkie, this dope is not against you. Of course he believes that his dope is a much better intoxicant, more versatile medicine and more useful to the planet than your junk but that doesn't mean he intends to ban your junk in retribution for you helping to get his dope banned. What he does want, however, is that you start growing your own plant at home like him. In this way, you source your junk directly from the plant instead of putting money in the pockets of chemists who increasingly make more and more toxic stuff that destroy you, me and the planet. Your money is making the chemist pay the government to arm itself and protect him while pushing you and me closer to death. Growing your own plant will give you organic healthy junk in the best possible way, directly from the plant, like how it used to be for thousands of years, making you sustainable and the planet sustainable..yes, you can go green too..don't remain snowblind..we need your eyes too, to steer the planet away from man-made chemical disaster...

'Demographic archetypes of CBD consumers identify their frequency and intensity of use, and preferences in applications and products.
Most (54% to 98%) among consumers — regardless of archetype — claimed that CBD has positively affected their quality of life.
The most frequent consumers are identified as Exuberant & Intense, generally consuming CBD at least once daily, in a wide variety of forms, with overwhelmingly positive feelings about it.
Integrative & Consistent consumers are also frequent consumers, using CBD for many reasons; they have an exclusively positive impression of CBD, and staunch believe in its medical efficacy.
Skeptical & Limited consumers use CBD with moderate frequency, yet are also the consumers most likely to be unsure of its medical efficacy and least likely to support its availability to the general public.
Though they have very positive feelings about CBD, strongly believe in its medical efficacy, and support its broad availability, Receptive & Reserved consumers are more private and less likely than the other archetypes to have friends or who use CBD.
Ambivalent & Experimental consumers are the only ones not to have purchased a CBD product; being the least frequent consumers, many have discontinued use after brief experimentation, though most nevertheless have a positive impression of CBD and believe in its medical applications.'

https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/introducing-eu-cbd-consumer-archetypes/

So all you boys and girls unable to freely access your alcohol, tobacco and prescription medicine trips are getting a taste of what it is like most of the time for a cannabis lover, eh? Please support cannabis legalization for recreational use and its home growing. It might be the only anchor in the turbulence of the next storm that will hit us...
Apr 3, 2020, 2:54 PM

The ganja plant has to be made man in some Siva before the general mind can come to entertain its powers..that may have been the truth expressed symbolically as the taming, through the matted locks, of the purifying streams crashing down from the heavens and threatening to flood the world of the human mind...
Apr 3, 2020, 2:44 PM

'This suggests that while people with higher socioeconomic status may have a greater propensity to experiment, it is among the lower socioeconomic classes that the most negative impact of the onset of recreational drug use is found, with a higher proportion of people becoming dependent. This suggests that poverty is associated with drug use disorders. Indeed, poor people living on the margins of society tend to be more vulnerable to slipping from recreational drug use into full-scale drug abuse and drug dependence because treatment facilities for intervening at an early stage in a drug career are often unavailable or unaffordable for such population groups. In this context, drug use itself may exacerbate poverty and marginalization, thus creating the potential for a vicious cycle' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'There is evidence that the number of polydrug users has increased in the United States and in the United Kingdom because in both countries the ratio of the aggregated number of users of individual drugs compared with the total number of drug users has followed an upward trend. It is still difficult, however, to assess the actual impact of this trend in terms of health consequences.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

New Frontier Data’s latest release examines nine distinct consumer types based on particular consumer habits, preferences and experiences.
The categories are classified by respective rates of usage: heavy consumers, moderate consumers, and light consumers.
Consumer types include: Traditional Lifestylers, Modern Lifestylers, and Functional Dependents; Medical Purists, Weekend Enthusiasts, and Discreet Unwinders; and Social Opportunists, Silver Dabblers, and Infrequent Conservatives.
The categories are further distinguished by market share, ranging from 17% to 5% of the industry’s consumers.
At 10%, Modern Lifestylers represent ideal clientele by purchasing from businesses (instead of private sources) and consuming the widest variety of product types.
At 17%, Social Opportunists are the largest consumer group, yet are the least likely to purchase their own cannabis.

Weekly CannaBit from New Frontier Data:

More than 3,000 self-identifying cannabis consumers nationwide participated in New Frontier Data’s 2018 Cannabis Consumer Survey.

Nearly 1/3 (32%) of participants described themselves as medical consumers, while more than 2/3 (68%) called themselves recreational consumers.
Overall, 1/3 (33%) of cannabis consumers reported using it only recreationally, while 10% said they used it exclusively for medical purposes
Among medical consumers, nearly 2/3 (66%) used cannabis to manage pain, with 38% describing pain management as their primary reason for using it; almost half (48%) had used it in place of a prescription pain medication, while 41% did to replace an over-the-counter pain medication.
Pain management was commonly cited among recreational consumers, too — 30% listed it as a reason to use cannabis.