Tag: the war on (some) drugs

House Committee Approves Farm Bill Amendment To Ban Most Hemp-Derived Cannabinoid Products Like Delta-8 THC

A key House committee has amended a large-scale agriculture bill in a way that would impose a general ban on hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC—with some industry stakeholders saying it could even federally criminalize many CBD products because the measure’s scope covers all ingestible hemp products with any level of THC.

If enacted into law, cannabinoids that are “synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant” would no longer meet the definition of legal hemp.

At the same time, the legislation that is set to advance through the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday also contains provisions that would reduce regulatory barriers for certain hemp farmers and scale-back a ban on industry participation by people with prior drug felony convictions.

Members adopted the cannabinoid ban amendment from Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) as part of an en bloc package with other unrelated changes in voice vote. The overarching bill is expected to clear the committee later in the day before moving to the floor.

The move comes following a push from prohibitionists and certain marijuana companies who argued in favor of restricting the cannabinoid products, describing it as a fix to a “loophole” that was created under the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp.

The ban’s adoption by the panel likely sets the stage for a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate, which has yet to release the full text of its version of the Farm Bill.

“My amendment will close the loophole created in the 2018 Farm Bill that allows intoxicating hemp products like delta-8 to be sold,” Miller said ahead of the vote. “These products are being marketed to children and sending hundreds of them to the hospital. We must stop teenagers and young children from being exposed to addictive and harmful drugs.”

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Ted Cruz Suggests Marijuana Rescheduling Might Lead To More People Dying In Car Crashes From Impaired Driving

U.S. Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized the Biden administration’s planned move of cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) during comments Wednesday at a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing, citing increases in vehicle injury and fatality rates that he attributed to the legalization of adult-use marijuana.

Delivering remarks to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight and Ports, Cruz brought up a number of transportation-related concerns before pivoting to marijuana legalization and federal rescheduling.

“Another notable issue is drugged driving,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “A 2022 research paper found that from 2009 to 2019, legalization of recreational marijuana was ‘associated with a 6.5 percent increase in injury crash rates and a 2.3 percent increase in fatal crash rates.’”

“And yet the Biden administration, rather than working to keep our families safe on the roadways, has instead decreed that it will reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I substance to Schedule III,” he continued. “The American Trucking Association quickly followed this news with a letter highlighting that rescheduling marijuana without an explicit allowance for a test for its use would create confusion and result in ‘serious safety impacts to safety-sensitive industries.’”

Though little else of the hearing involved marijuana, a representative of the American Automobile Association (AAA) testified that a small proportion of drivers appeared to have increased their dangerous driving behavior during the past few years, including driving after recently consuming cannabis.

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Daily marijuana use is now more common than daily alcohol use in the U.S., new study finds

Daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of drinking in the U.S., according to an analysis of national survey data over four decades.

Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook high-frequency drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University

“A good 40 percent of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol use,” Caulkins said.

The research, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, was published Wednesday in the journal Addiction. The survey is a highly regarded source of estimates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use in the United States.

In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people used marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according to the study. From 1992 to 2022, the per capita rate of reporting daily or near-daily marijuana use increased 15-fold.

The trend reflects changes in public policy. Most states now allow medical or recreational marijuana, though it remains illegal at the federal level. In November, Florida voters will decide on a constitutional amendment allowing recreational cannabis, and the federal government is moving to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

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Cannabis Use Before Bedtime Does Not Cause Next-Day Impairment Of Cognitive Ability Or Driving Performance, Study Shows

A new study suggests that using marijuana before sleep has minimal if any effect on a range of performance measures the next day, including simulated driving, cognitive and psychomotor function tasks, subjective effects and mood.

The report, which drew data from a larger study investigating the effects of THC and CBD on insomnia, looked at outcomes from 20 adults with physician-diagnosed insomnia who infrequently used marijuana.

“The results of this study indicate that a single oral dose of 10 mg THC (in combination with 200 mg CBD) does not notably impair ‘next day’ cognitive function or driving performance relative to placebo in adults with insomnia who infrequently use marijuana,” says the paper, from researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney, the University of Sydney, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Gold Coast-based Griffith University and Johns Hopkins University.

“The use of cannabis by night as a sleep aid is highly prevalent and there are legitimate concerns that this may lead to impaired daytime (‘next day’) function, particularly on safety sensitive tasks such as driving,” the 11-author team wrote in the report published last week in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Results, however, showed “no differences in ‘next day’ performance in 27 out of 28 tests of cognitive and psychomotor function and simulated driving tests relative to placebo.”

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White House Refuses to Confirm or Deny If Biden Plans to Use Drugs to Enhance Performance in Debates

The White House has refused to confirm or deny whether or not Joe Biden plans to use drugs to enhance his debate performance.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Biden to be drug tested before each debate, claiming that he was “high” during the State of the Union.

“I am going to demand a drug test, I really am. I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union,” Trump said during a speech in Minnesota on Friday. “He was high as a kite. I said, ‘Is that Joe up there, that beautiful room? And by the end of the evening, he’s like” — Trump made a guttural sound — “He was exhausted, right? No, we’re going to demand a drug test.”

“He can’t talk, he can’t walk, can’t find his way off a stage. Can’t put two sentences together,” Trump continued. “Although he has agreed to debate, so I don’t know, maybe they know something. He’s going to be so jacked up for those debates, you watch.”

Politico asked the White House about whether or not Biden intends to use drugs as part of his debate prep.

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What’s the Difference Between Big Tobacco and Big Pharma?

The psychiatric drug industry and big tobacco share striking similarities in their tactics, particularly when it comes to downplaying the risks associated with their products and targeting vulnerable populations like youth. The psychiatric community has gotten away with pretending it is based in science and medicine to sell its snake oil, while the tobacco industry wasn’t so lucky.

A key difference lies in the government’s stance – while tobacco companies face increasing regulations and warnings, the psychiatric drug industry enjoys substantial government support and promotion despite the existence of black box warnings on many of their medications. Both industries have a history of misleading marketing practices and minimizing potential harms.

Big tobacco companies notoriously concealed evidence linking smoking to lung cancer and other diseases for decades. Similarly, psychiatric drug manufacturers have been accused of selectively publishing favorable trial data and underreporting adverse effects.

Despite black box warnings – the FDA’s strongest safety alert – on many psychiatric medications, big pharma’s marketing often portrays an overly rosy picture. A prime example is antidepressants carrying a black box warning about increased suicidality risk in youth. Yet, these drugs continue to be heavily promoted, with limited emphasis on this severe side effect. Worse yet, antidepressants are not approved for under 18’s and still they are prescribed off-label to the age group in increasing numbers. Atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel and Zyprexa also bear a black box warning about increased mortality risk in elderly dementia patients, but their use in this vulnerable population remains widespread.

Moreover, both industries have targeted youth, securing future customers through early exposure and addiction. Big tobacco’s calculated efforts to market to adolescents are well-documented. Many of us remember getting boxes of candy cigarettes as children. The tips of the candy cigarettes were even painted red to simulate they were lit. Likewise, the psychiatric drug industry has been criticized for driving the dramatic rise in childhood psychiatric diagnoses and medication use, despite limited long-term safety data.

However, a crucial difference emerges in the government’s approach. Tobacco companies face intense scrutiny, with advertising restrictions, graphic health warnings on packaging, and mounting litigation. In contrast, the psychiatric drug industry enjoys considerable government financial support, 10.8 billion in the 2024 budget, and lack of stringent oversight.

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Biden’s Spin on Marijuana’s Rescheduling Exaggerates Its Practical Impact

President Joe Biden describes the Drug Enforcement Administration’s proposal to reclassify marijuana under federal law as “monumental.” How so? “It’s an important move toward reversing longstanding inequities,” Biden claims in a video posted on Thursday. “Today’s announcement builds on the work we’ve already done to pardon a record number of federal offenses for simple possession of marijuana, and it adds to the action we’ve taken to lift barriers to housing, employment, small business loans, and so much more for tens of thousands of Americans.”

Even allowing for 60 days of public comment and review of a final rule by Congress and the Office of Management and Budget, marijuana’s rescheduling could be finalized before the presidential election. And even if it does not take effect before then, Biden is hoping the move will help motivate younger voters whose turnout could be crucial to his re-election. But he also had better hope those voters are not paying much attention to the practical consequences of rescheduling marijuana, which are much more modest than his rhetoric implies.

“Look, folks,” Biden says in the video, “no one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana. Period. Far too many lives have been upended because of [our] failed approach to marijuana, and I’m committed to righting those wrongs.” Yet rescheduling marijuana will not decriminalize marijuana use, even for medical purposes. It will not legalize state-licensed marijuana businesses or resolve the growing conflict between federal prohibition and state laws that authorize those businesses. It will not stop the war on weed or do much to ameliorate the injustice it inflicts.

In accordance with a recommendation that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made last August, the DEA plans to move marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a list of completely prohibited drugs, to Schedule III, which includes prescription medications such as ketamine, Tylenol with codeine, and anabolic steroids. Schedule I supposedly is reserved for drugs with a high abuse potential and no accepted medical applications that cannot be used safely even under a doctor’s supervision.

When Biden directed HHS to review marijuana’s legal status in October 2022, he noted that “we classify marijuana at the same level as heroin” and treat it as “more serious than fentanyl,” which “makes no sense.” On Thursday, he likewise noted that “marijuana has a higher-level classification than fentanyl and methamphetamine—the two drugs driving America’s overdose epidemic.”

Biden is right that marijuana’s current classification makes no sense, as critics have been pointing out for half a century and as HHS belatedly acknowledged in explaining the rationale for rescheduling. HHS found “credible scientific support” for marijuana’s use in the treatment of pain, nausea and vomiting, and “anorexia related to a medical condition.” It also noted that “the risks to the public health posed by marijuana are low compared to other drugs of abuse,” such as heroin (Schedule I), cocaine (Schedule II), benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax (Schedule IV), and alcohol (unscheduled).

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Kamala Harris Implausibly Claims Biden’s Marijuana Pardons Number in the ‘Tens of Thousands’

“We have pardoned tens of thousands of people with federal convictions for simple marijuana possession,” Vice President Kamala Harris bragged on Thursday. It was not the first time she had offered that estimate, which she also cited during an appearance in South Carolina last February and at a “roundtable conversation about marijuana reform” the following month.

Where did Harris get that number? From thin air, it seems. “While Harris said ‘tens of thousands’ have been pardoned under President Joe Biden’s October 2022 and December 2023 clemency proclamations,” Marijuana Moment noted in February, “the Justice Department estimates that roughly 13,000 people have been granted relief under the executive action.” And only a tiny percentage of those people have bothered (or managed) to obtain evidence of their pardons: This week the Justice Department reported that “the Office of the Pardon Attorney has issued 205 certificates of pardon” to people covered by Biden’s proclamations.

In October 2022, President Joe Biden announced pardons for people who had possessed marijuana in violation of 21 USC 844 or Section 48–904.01(d)(1) of the D.C. Code. That proclamation applied to “all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents” who had “committed the offense of simple possession of marijuana” on or before October 6.

According to a count by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), about 7,500 citizens and 1,200 “resident/legal alien offenders” (only some of whom would be eligible for pardons) were convicted of marijuana possession under 21 USC 844 from FY 1992 through FY 2021. Those numbers include some people who also were convicted of other offenses.

That count did not include D.C. Code violations. “We estimate that over 6,500 people with prior federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana and thousands of such convictions under D.C. law could benefit from this relief,” a White House official said during a press background call on the day Biden announced the pardons.

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Rep. Greg Murphy Says He Has ‘Some Evidence’ Biden Was ‘Jacked Up’ on Drugs For His Bizarre State of the Union Address

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) says that Joe Biden was “jacked up” on drugs during his State of the Union Address earlier this year and that he has the evidence to prove it.

In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Murphy, also a practicing urologist, said that Biden must have taken drugs in order to sustain himself through the speech.

The conversation went as follows:

MURPHY: I’ll just be very plain and simple. I was in the State of the Union address, and Joe Biden must’ve been jacked up on something that day. I absolutely believe that from a medical viewpoint, and actually have a little bit of good knowledge that that happened. He can’t stand it. He can’t stand under the lights for that long, and I don’t think he can keep a concept in his brain that long.

It is going to be important that President Trump stays presidential, he did that during the last debate, he did not do that during the first debate. That he stays on track, that he shows the American people how much worse they are from four years ago and what this president has done to destroy this country. He just has to stay in his lane and act presidential, sometimes he can get off on a wheel, we all know that and love that about him. But Biden will falter and falter if he doesn’t have things right in front of him telling him what to do.

BARTIROMO: What do you mean when you say he was jacked up at the State of the Union?

MURPHY: I believe they gave him something to help him sustain the lights and sustain the vigor that he had. That was not Joe Biden. I was in there. He screamed for two hours. He screamed for two hours. And maybe we can talk offline and I’ll show you something that I think that proves that.”

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Hemp Industry Pushes Back Against Marijuana Companies Advocating For Intoxicating Cannabinoid Ban In Farm Bill

Hemp businesses, marijuana companies, state regulators, prohibitionists and congressional lawmakers are all vying to have their cannabis priorities represented in the forthcoming Farm Bill. But while there are shared interests among certain stakeholders, some competing proposals have created tension in unexpected ways.

The hemp industry, for example, is at odds with select marijuana companies that are aligned with prohibitionists—with the strange bedfellows in agreement on proposed restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.

“Policy challenges related to hemp are complex, and several steps are required to fully address them,” U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) Executive Director Edward Conklin said in a letter to congressional leaders last month. “However, the most important and time-sensitive of those steps is within your control and well within the authority of the Farm Bill: Close the loophole created by the current definition of hemp established by the 2018 Farm Bill and create a regulatory pathway for non-intoxicating products.”

The language recommended by USCC, which represents major cannabis companies, would remove intoxicating cannabinoid products intended for consumption from the definition of federally legal hemp and reclassify them as federally illegal marijuana products.

Likewise, the prohibitionist Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) sent out an alert to supporters last week saying they “strongly recommend that the loophole caused by the 2018 Farm Bill definition of hemp be closed by adding clarifying language to the 2024 Farm Bill definition of hemp to explicitly exclude intoxicating semi-synthetic cannabinoids derived from hemp.”

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