Tag: marijuana

Marijuana Enhances Enjoyment Of Music, New Study Finds, Confirming What Every Stoner Already Knows

Underscoring an anecdotal observation common among cannabis consumers, a group of researchers in Canada have released a new study indicating that marijuana can make music more enjoyable, concluding that “the impact of cannabis on the auditory experience may be overall enhanced” compared to sober listening.

Authors, from Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote in a preprint that the research “highlights the profound yet idiosyncratic effects of cannabis on auditory experiences among experienced recreational cannabis users.”

“This study provides a framework to understand the complex interactions between cannabis, hearing, and musical experience,” the report says.

Participants were recruited through the university as well via flyers at 38 marijuana retailers in and around Toronto. A total of 104 people completed an online questionnaire, 15 of which were interviewed further on hourlong individual Zoom calls.

According to their self-reported experiences, participants showed “significantly higher levels of state music absorption while high…compared to sober.”

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More Than 200,000 People Were Arrested Over Marijuana Last Year In The U.S., The Vast Majority For Possession, New FBI Report Shows

Even as more states continue to legalize marijuana, new FBI data shows that at least 200,000 people were arrested over cannabis in 2023—and simple possession again made up the vast majority of those cases. Those figures are likely understated, however, given inconsistencies in the federal data and ongoing questions about the agency’s methodology.

At a time when the public and both major party presidential nominees find themselves aligned in their opposition to criminalizing people over low-level marijuana offenses, advocates say the federal data released on Monday further underscores the need to urgently change course.

The 2023 data, according to FBI, comes from more than 14 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which is submitted by over 16,000 state, local and tribal agencies whose jurisdictions comprise more than 94 percent of the country’s population. That’s slightly more data coverage compared to the FBI’s crime report from the prior year.

Because not all agencies provide data for the complete reporting periods, FBI has explained that the bureau calculates estimated crime numbers, essentially extrapolating “by following a standard estimation procedure using the data provided.” In terms of total reported arrests for “drug/narcotic,” for example, FBI said there were 879,118 arrests.

Those numbers, however, aren’t consistent throughout the FBI report. In a section on arrests by region, FBI said there were 746,292 total drug arrests in 2023. In a separate analysis of  historical trends, meanwhile, FBI reported just 635,066 drug arrests last year. Another section on racial breakdowns says there were 726,623 drug abuse violations.

The agency further reported that there were 1,544,907 crimes involving a person’s suspected use of drugs other than alcohol in 2023.

Using the agency’s estimated numbers, the 870,874 arrests for drug abuse violations account for about 12 percent of the approximately 7.5 million estimated arrests nationwide in 2023, according to one section of the report.

Of all total drug-related arrests in the new report, FBI said, 23 percent were for marijuana possession—more than for possession of any other listed substance. Arrests for selling or manufacturing cannabis, meanwhile, made up 2 percent of total drug arrests.

According to the data, 200,306 estimated arrests occurred for marijuana possession and another 16,844 estimated arrests were for cannabis sales or manufacturing in 2023. The numbers are down from 2022, but advocates say the continued criminalization at the current scale remains unacceptable, especially in the face of growing public consensus in favor of legalization.

At the same time, frustrations over FBI’s inconsistent data reporting on cannabis and other drug arrest trends have persisted.

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Using Marijuana Increases ‘Positive Parenting’ Behaviors, New Federally Funded Study Indicates

A new federally funded study on cannabis use and parenting finds that parents typically don’t consume marijuana while their kids are present. Those who used cannabis, however, were also significantly likely to report positive parenting behaviors in the same timeframe that they consumed the drug.

But the relationship between marijuana and parenting is a nuanced one, wrote authors from the University of Tennessee, Ohio State University and San Jose State University, and appears to also rely heavily on who else is present at the time.

Overall, the findings “reveal a complicated relationship between cannabis use and parenting among a sample of cannabis users,” authors wrote. But the results nevertheless provide “some information on ways parents can engage in harm reduction to support positive parenting.”

The study, funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant and published this month in the journal Parenting: Science and Practice, analyzed survey responses from 77 parents recruited by research assistants at Sacramento area cannabis retailers. On average, participants were 32 years old, and nearly three quarters (72 percent) were mothers. About half (50.6 percent) were either married or “living in a marriage-like relationship,” while the remaining half were single, widowed or divorced.

Participants were asked to complete a baseline survey and then five brief surveys per day for a 14-day period, followed by a final survey on day 15. They were asked “a battery of questions,” the study says, “pertaining to parenting behaviors, stress, cannabis use, alcohol use, and context.” Participants received small financial incentives for filling out the surveys, with a total possible incentive for each participant of $190.

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Nixon Admitted Marijuana Is ‘Not Particularly Dangerous’ In Newly Discovered Recording

Former President Richard Nixon, despite declaring the war on drugs and rejecting a federal commission’s recommendation to decriminalize marijuana, admitted in a newly unearthed recording that he knew cannabis is “not particularly dangerous.”

“Let me say, I know nothing about marijuana,” Nixon said in a March 1973 White House meeting. “I know that it’s not particularly dangerous, in other words, and most of the kids are for legalizing it. But on the other hand, it’s the wrong signal at this time.”

“The penalties should be commensurate with the crime,” Nixon said, arguing that a 30-year sentence in a cannabis case he recently heard about was “ridiculous.”

“I have no problem that there should be an evaluation of penalties on it, and there should not be penalties that, you know, like in Texas that people get 10 years for marijuana. That’s wrong,” the president said.

The comments, first reported by the New York Times, come as the federal government is reconsidering marijuana’s status as a restricted Schedule I drug.

The Department of Health and Human Services, after conducting a review initiated by President Joe Biden, recommended last year that cannabis should be moved to Schedule III. The Department of Justice agreed, publishing a proposed rescheduling rule in the Federal Register in May.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), however, has expressed hesitation about enacting the reform, however, and has scheduled a public hearing on the cannabis rescheduling matter for December 2, after the upcoming presidential election.

Nixon’s admission in the newly revealed tapes that marijuana is “not particularly dangerous” runs in contrast to his image as a drug warrior and undermines his and subsequent administrations’ decisions to classify it in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which is supposed to be reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value.

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Illegal Weed Growing Operation Found In House Owned By Oakland Police Officer

A illegal weed growing operation was found – of all places – in a home owned by an Oakland police officer this spring. 

State Department of Cannabis Control officers discovered about $1 million worth of illegal marijuana in a Bay Area neighborhood in Antioch. One of the three raided houses was owned by Oakland Police Officer Samson Liu, 38, who was placed on administrative leave on April 30.

The Oakland Police Department, citing an ongoing investigation, did not disclose the officer’s name, but CNN identified him. Records show Liu bought a 2,800-square-foot house in Antioch in 2020 for $608,000.

The department said it “is aware of the allegations made against one of our members and is cooperating with outside law enforcement agencies on the case”, according to the LA Times.

The LA Times report says that the raid underscores the scale of illegal marijuana operations in California and the involvement of Chinese organized crime since legalization in 2016, according to the cannabis control agency.

Law enforcement described these operations as sophisticated and linked to “Chinese criminal syndicates” but provided no further details due to ongoing investigations. 

A Los Angeles Times investigation recently revealed that contraband pesticide use has spread across California’s cannabis farms, both illegal and licensed, over the past three years.

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People Who Use Marijuana Are Less Likely To Have Severe COVID Infections, Study Shows

A new study shows that cannabis users have lower rates of severe COVID-19 infections and experience fewer serious consequences such as death or lengthy hospital stays when they get the virus.

“Cannabis users had better outcomes and mortality compared with non-users,” says the report, authored by researchers at Northwell Health in New York. “The beneficial effect of cannabis use,” it adds, “may be attributed to its immunomodulatory effects.”

The study, published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, looked at data from the National Inpatient Sample Database, which tracks hospital admissions. Patients admitted for a COVID diagnosis were divided into cannabis user and non-user groups, and they were also matched in an effort to account for differences in age, race, gender and other comorbidities.

“On initial analysis, cannabis users had significantly lower rates of severe COVID-19 infection, intubation, ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome], acute respiratory failure, severe sepsis with multiorgan failure, mortality, and shorter length of hospital stay,” the paper says. “After 1:1 matching, cannabis use was associated with lower rates of severe COVID-19 infection, intubation, ARDS, acute respiratory failure, severe sepsis with multiorgan failure, mortality, and shorter length of hospital stay.”

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Marijuana Compound Has ‘Anti-Aging Effect On The Brain,’ Study Of Mice Dosed With THC Finds

Authors of a new study on the neurological impacts of long-term THC administration say their findings “could be the basis for an effective antiaging and pro-cognitive medication,” noting increased energy and synaptic protein production in mice that received low doses of the chief psychoactive substance in marijuana.

“Long-term low-dose Δ9-THC had an antiaging effect on the brain by restoring cognitive abilities and synapse densities in old mice,” says the new research, published this month in the American Chemical Society journal Pharmacology and Translational Science, adding that the “results suggest that Δ9-THC-induced consecutive bidirectional changes [in the brain] may play a significant role in the positive effect of Δ9-THC treatment against brain aging.”

The study, which was supported by an organization funded by the German government as that country launches its new marijuana legalization policy, also sheds some light on the mechanisms that could underlie the beneficial effects of the cannabis component, though it acknowledges the cause remains “an open question.”

Researchers took older and younger age groups of male mice—four months old and 18 months old—and gave them either THC or a placebo for a period for about a month. Measurements included brain function as well as levels of proteins associated with things like metabolism, memory and aging. One of the main proteins analyzed was mTOR, which influences cognitive performance and a variety of aging-related cell functions across the body, such as growth and metabolism.

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JD Vance Claims There’s ‘Fentanyl In Our Marijuana Bags That Our Teenagers Are Using’

Former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is claiming that “marijuana bags” are being laced with fentanyl, and he says the Biden administration’s border policies are making it so that youth, including his own kids, can’t experiment with cannabis or other drugs without risking fatal overdoses.

During a campaign event with the Milwaukee Police Association in Wisconsin on Friday, Vance said he spoke to a police officer who told him that “we’ve got fentanyl in our marijuana bags that our teenagers are using,” echoing a claim about laced cannabis that’s been routinely contested by advocates and certain state regulators.

“Look, I’m the parent of three young kids… A seven-year-old, a four-year-old and a two-year-old,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about this yet, but I’m certain—because kids are kids—that one day, one of my kids is going to take something or do something that I don’t want them to take. But I don’t want that mistake to ruin their life.”

“I want them to learn from it. I want their parents to be able to punish them. I don’t want our kids to make mistakes on American streets and have it take their lives away from them,” he said, suggesting that he recognizes when his children grow up they may experiment with certain substances such as marijuana, but he’s more concerned with potentially lethal contamination.

Advocates would argue that’s a key reason to enact a regulatory framework for marijuana or other drugs that includes testing requirements and other safeguards to mitigate the risk of dangerous contaminants, but the GOP candidate did not draw that connection and continues to maintain an opposition to cannabis legalization.

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Marijuana Users Have Better Outcomes Following Heart Attacks, New Study Finds, Pointing To ‘Cannabis Paradox’

Findings of a newly published study show what authors describe as a “cannabis paradox”: Despite concerns that marijuana use may be associated with some heart problems, adults admitted to the hospital after suffering heart attacks actually seemed to fare better if they were cannabis consumers.

“The findings of our study reveal a paradox,” researchers wrote. “Among patients aged 18–80 years admitted to hospital with [acute myocardial infarction] between 2001 and 2020 in the United States, cannabis use was associated with lower risks of complications, such as, cardiogenic shock, acute ischaemic stroke, cardiac arrest, and [percutaneous coronary intervention] use, as well as lower in-hospital mortality despite correcting for several confounding factors.”

“This highlights how cannabis remains a poorly understood substance,” they added, “despite a relentless rise in consumption and social acceptance.”

The report, published in the journal Archives of Medical Science – Atherosclerotic Diseases, examined data from the National Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital discharge records across the United States that authors said “represents more than 97% of the US population.”

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Utility company’s proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns

Operators of illegal marijuana grow enterprises hidden inside rural homes in Maine don’t have to worry much about prying neighbors. But their staggering electric bills may give rise to a new snitch.

An electric utility made an unusual proposal to help law enforcement target these illicit operations, which are being investigated for ties to transnational crime. Critics, however, worry the move would violate customers’ privacy.

More than a dozen states that legalized marijuana have seen a spike in illegal marijuana grow operations that utilize massive amounts of electricity. And Maine’s Versant Power has been receiving subpoenas — sometimes for 50 locations at a time — from law enforcement, said Arrian Myrick-Stockdell, corporate counsel. It’d be far more efficient, he suggested to utility regulators, to flip the script and allow electric utilities to report their suspicions to law enforcement.

“Versant has a very high success rate in being able to identify these locations, but we have no ability to communicate with law enforcement proactively,” Myrick-Stockdell told commissioners.

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