Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Drugs taken by millions in US can cause ‘deviant’ sexual behavior including pedophilia — but patients aren’t warned by doctors

A class of drugs commonly used to treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome is pushing people into risky sexual behavior. 

Patients taking dopamine agonists say the drugs have triggered uncontrollable impulses, including flashing, sex addiction and even pedophilia — leaving them struggling with feelings of shame and confusion.

Reports reviewed by the BBC suggest drugmaker GSK has known about the risk of so-called “deviant” sexual behavior since 2003, yet patients claim their doctors continue to fail to warn them about these potentially devastating side effects.

Dopamine agonists mimic dopamine, a key brain chemical that controls movement and is activated by pleasure. However, these drugs can overstimulate feelings of pleasure while dulling the brain’s ability to recognize the consequences of our actions.

This can lead to impulse control disorders, with studies showing 13% to 24% of Parkinson’s patients on dopamine agonists develop them. While a warning about these risky behaviors is listed alongside common side effects like nausea and insomnia, research suggests they often go unnoticed or undiagnosed.

In the US, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends the drugs only be used for short-term treatment, such as end-of-life care.

Keep reading

There’s Plenty Of Evidence Medical Marijuana Can Treat Female Orgasm Difficulty, So Why Are Some States Saying No?

While numerous studies have consistently shown that cannabis can treat female orgasm difficulty/disorder, also known as FOD, so far only a few states have recognized it as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Others appear to be holding it to a higher standard than other conditions, revealing a potential bias against women.

This bias may be the result of misinformation or lack of education about FOD, a serious public health condition that affects the health of up to 41 percent of women worldwide. The bias may also reflect an unwillingness to acknowledge FOD, despite testimony from women who successfully treated the condition with cannabis, letters of support from doctors who recommend cannabis for it, evidence of its serious health impacts and scientific studies showing cannabis can treat it.

In 2024, advocates—myself included—petitioned 11 U.S. states to add FOD as a qualifying condition. While some petitions are still pending, so far two states have officially approved the requests: Connecticut and Illinois.

Illinois Director of Public Health Dr. Sameer Vodra stated the following in his order approving FOD as a qualifying condition:

“After fully considering the matters raised in the petition, as well as reviewing research pertinent to the condition termed Female Orgasmic Disorder, a condition where a (natal) female has difficulty reaching orgasm. There are multiple types and causes,) there is sufficient evidence to confidently evaluate the effect of cannabis as a treatment for Female Orgasmic Disorder. Literature review and survey data support that cannabis can offer benefits to women who have “female orgasm difficulties or dysfunction.”

In New Mexico, the state’s Medical Cannabis Advisory Board approved adding FOD as a qualifying condition last fall, with the reform set to take effect upon official approval from the secretary of health.

The states of Colorado, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, meanwhile, have acknowledged receipt of the petitions to add FOD as a qualifying condition, and public hearing dates are now pending.

Yet despite scientific evidence and approvals in some jurisdictions, five states denied adding FOD as a qualifying condition with medical cannabis: Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio and Oregon.

Keep reading

Federal Memo From National Cancer Institute Lists Marijuana As ‘Controversial ‘Topic That Needs Special Approval Before Publication

“Marijuana” is one of nearly two dozen “controversial or high-profile topics” that staff and researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are required to clear with higher-ups before writing about, according to a newly leaked memo from within the federal agency.

The government directive puts marijuana and opioids on a list along with vaccines, COVID-19, fluoride, measles, abortion, autism, diversity and gender ideology and other issues that are believed to be personal priorities of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump.

NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which itself is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Prior to publishing anything on the specified topics, NCI staff are required to send the materials to an agency clearance team, says the new memo, first reported by ProPublica.

“Depending on the nature of the information, additional review and clearance by the NCI director, deputy directors, NIH, and HHS may be required,” it advises staff. “In some cases, the material will not need further review, but the NCI Clearance Team will share it with NCI leadership, NIH, and/or HHS for their awareness.”

It notes that staff “do not need to share content describing the routine conduct of science if it will not get major media attention, is not controversial or sensitive, and does not touch on an administration priority,” according to the ProPublica report.

The investigative news outlet says the directive “was circulated by the institute’s communications team, and the content was not discussed at the leadership level,” adding that “it is not clear in which exact office the directive originated.”

Experts said the policy could have a chilling effect, slowing publication of important findings and pushing researchers to censor their work.

Keep reading

New Mexico House And Senate Lawmakers Approve Bills To Strengthen Employment Protections For Medical Marijuana Patients

Another New Mexico House committee has passed a bill that would further protect medical marijuana patients in the state from being penalized at work for off-duty use of cannabis. And a Senate companion version of the legislation also moved through a panel in that chamber.

On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee approved the proposal from House Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski (D) in a 7-3 vote. This comes almost a month after an earlier committee advanced the proposal.

Meanwhile, the Senate companion bill—sponsored by Sens. Linda López (D) and Shannon Pinto (D)—separately passed the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee by a tally of 6-3.

Under the legislation, employees could not be considered “impaired” by cannabis if a test is based solely on the presence of THC metabolites.

The measures would further prohibit random drug testing for marijuana, though patients could be screened if there’s reasonable suspicion that cannabis was used on the clock resulting in “significant damage to property.”

At the prior House committee meeting, members adopted a minor amendment that replaces a line in the bill that had said a “drug test for cannabis shall be reviewed by a medical review officer who shall determine if the reason for a positive test has a legitimate medical explanation.”

Under the new language, the bill now says that an employer “shall follow the cannabis impairment guidelines when testing for cannabis impairment.”

The legislation was further amended in the House Judiciary Committee to prevent the use of a positive cannabis test as evidence in civil cases “exposing the employer to liability arising out of the employee’s on-duty conduct.”

The measures also stipulate that the state Department of Health must “assist the workforce solutions department in developing cannabis impairment guidelines that are based on the most reliable research- or evidence-based cannabis impairment indicators, including the evaluation of physical symptoms and psychomotor and cognitive performance.”

“The workforce solutions department shall inform private employers of this section and provide information related to the most recent advances in testing protocols for determining cannabis impairment,” they say. “The department of finance and administration shall disseminate the cannabis impairment guidelines to state agencies and political subdivisions of the state.”

Keep reading

Ohio Bill Seeks To Regulate Intoxicating Hemp And Limit Sales To Marijuana Dispensaries

A pair of Ohio Republican state senators want intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use dispensaries—not convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations.

Ohio state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) and Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) introduced Senate Bill 86, which would also impose a 15 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products sold at dispensaries and ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products to anyone under 21.

“Currently, intoxicating hemp products are untested, unregulated psychoactive products that can be just as intoxicating, if not more intoxicating, than marijuana,” Wilkin said in his sponsor testimony to the Senate General Government Committee on Tuesday.

The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC.

Ohio is one of about 20 states that does not have any regulations around intoxicating hemp products, according to an Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center study from November 2024. Fifteen states ban these products. Seven states, including Michigan, regulate it like cannabis, while seven other states regulate it like consumer goods, according to the study.

“Given the lack of regulations, the intoxicating hemp industry has been able to confuse Ohio consumers and law enforcement by marketing themselves as ‘dispensaries’ with ‘recreational marijuana,’” Huffman said in his testimony.

Under the bill, intoxicating hemp products would only be sold at dispensaries if the products have been tested and comply with standards for packaging, labeling and advertising. The bill would only apply to products that can be ingested or inhaled.

“To suppress the illicit market, this bill prohibits hemp products that are not sold in dispensaries from marketing the products as marijuana, using any terms associated with the sale of the product that would cause a consumer to infer the product is marijuana or that the entity selling the product is a marijuana dispensary,” Huffman said in his testimony.

He had a bill in the last General Assembly that would have banned the sale of all intoxicating hemp products, but it wasn’t able to make it out of committee. Hemp business owners testified against the bill since it would end their livelihood, but they spoke in favor of regulations.

SB 86 would also regulate drinkable cannabinoid products.

Keep reading

Marijuana Offers Hope For Treating Chronic Pain And Reducing Use Of Other Medications, New Study Shows

Marijuana and its cannabinoid components may be useful treatments for various types of chronic pain, in some cases helping to reduce the use of other medications, according to a newly published scientific review. The paper also says select mixtures of cannabinoids could help minimize undesirable effects of cannabis, such as the psychoactivity of THC.

Published last month in the journal Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids and authored by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, the paper reviews “the most recent evidence supporting the use of cannabis in the treatment of chronic pain disorders including chronic neuropathic pain, cancer-induced neuropathic pain, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and chronic headaches and migraines.”

The report concludes that a selection of cannabis compounds, with various effects on chemical receptors in the body, can have a pain-relieving effect. It also recommends further research into the possible analgesic properties of less-common cannabinoids such as cannabichromene (CBC) and cannabigerol (CBG).

All told, more than 180 different cannabinoids have now been isolated from the cannabis plant, the report notes, often interacting with different parts of the body. CBD and THC, for example, “have a wide potential for therapeutic effects based on their multiple molecular targets including ion channels, receptors, transporters and enzymes.”

“The two most abundant and studied cannabinoids, THC and CBD, along with an understudied cannabinoid, cannabigerol (CBG), have been shown, in our laboratories, to reduce neuropathic pain in animal models,” authors wrote, recommending that further study “into cannabinoids like THC, CBD and CBG should focus on the optimal therapeutic doses and the effects these cannabinoids can have on the management of chronic neuropathic pain in humans.”

Chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans, the review says, and is one of the most common reasons adults seek medical care.

Keep reading

Kentucky Senate Passes Hemp Drinks Bill With Amendment Regulating, Instead Of Banning, Them

The Kentucky Senate advanced a bill Friday that would regulate intoxicating hemp-derived beverages but without banning their sales as first proposed.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, amended Senate Bill 202 after Republicans and Democrats alike expressed skepticism about the ban when the measure was approved by a committee earlier this week.

Adams’s floor amendment removed the temporary sales ban and would instead impose a cap of 5 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, on cannabis-derived drinks. The bill adds regulation of the intoxicating beverages to state laws that regulate alcoholic beverages, giving the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control the authority to oversee their distribution and sale.

Raque Adams said her floor amendment provided a “really solid starting point to put guardrails around this product so it doesn’t get in the hands of our children, guardrails for public health and guardrails for safety while maintaining the small business interests that we have seen across the commonwealth.”

“We are treating cannabis-infused beverages exactly like we’re treating alcohol,” Adams said.

As canned hemp-derived beverages containing THC have been gaining popularity across the country and popping up in convenience stores, state governments have increasingly sought to regulate them.

SB 202 passed the Senate by a vote of 29-6 with the minority of Democrats opposing the legislation, arguing that, while they agreed with regulating the beverages, the legislation was rushed and that senators and the public were not given enough time to understand the changes.

Keep reading

Georgia Senate Passes Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access And Limit THC In Hemp Beverages

Three bills changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis have cleared the Senate ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the bills are some of the only ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly along party lines, with Senate Republicans divided over expanding medical access to cannabis and members of both parties split over new regulations on recreational hemp products.

Medical cannabis

Senate Bill 220, also known as the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” passed in a contentious 39–17 vote after more than an hour of debate in the Senate. Like its counterpart in the other chamber, House Bill 227, the bill replaces the term “low-THC oil” with “medical cannabis” in Georgia code, removes requirements that certain medical diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage” and adds lupus to the list of qualifying health conditions.

Unlike the House version, SB 220 removes an existing prohibition against vaping cannabis oil and raises the percentage of THC that medical cannabis products may contain from 5 percent to 50 percent.

The bill was amended on the floor to include a provision allowing caregivers to pick up medical cannabis from pharmacies. Three other amendments aimed at reducing the amount of THC allowed in medical cannabis, removing the provision that allows for vaping, and removing PTSD and intractable pain from the list of approved diagnoses failed during a series of floor votes.

Hemp bills

Two bills aimed at strengthening hemp regulations in Georgia passed the Senate in decisive votes on Crossover Day, seeking to limit recreational use of marijuana as the chamber simultaneously eased restrictions for medical use.

Marietta Republican Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick’s SB 33 subjects chemical compounds like delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) and other cannabinoids to testing and labeling regulations that were added last year under SB 494. It passed in a 50–6 vote.

In her speech from the well, Kirkpatrick said her bill is aimed at cutting down on unregulated hemp products from China and other countries.

“This bill is not a ban,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s a consumer protection bill that is not intended to impact processors that are already testing and labeling their products appropriately. It’s intended to make sure that consumers buying these products are clear on what they’re buying.”

Keep reading

DOJ Identifies Chinese Nationals and Companies Directly Aiding Mexican Drug Cartels and Supplying Fentanyl Precursors to Mexico

The Department of Justice has identified Chinese nationals and companies that have been directly aiding the Mexican drug cartels. This raises troubling questions, especially if the cartels are designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

One of the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 is called “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” This order was a presidential direction to add the Mexican drug cartels to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The scourge of fentanyl can be traced directly to the cartels and is killing thousands of Americans per month. Combined drug overdoses in the United States leave about 120,000 people dead per year. At this rate, if no action is taken to address it, the number of overdoses will surpass the number of Americans killed in World War II—407,000—within a couple of years.

In the executive order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was given the lead to develop the final list of groups to be designated as terrorist groups. The State Department is reported to have created a tentative list of eight groups to be placed on the formal terrorist organization list.

On “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast on Jan. 30, Rubio said Mexico has significant amounts of ungoverned territory.

“They’re controlled by drug cartels,” he said. “They are the most powerful force on the ground, and they are plowing into the United States. … They’re facilitating illegal migration, but they are also bringing in fentanyl and deadly drugs to our country.

“That’s a national security threat, and that needs to stop.”

Keep reading

New Hampshire Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Psilocybin Decriminalization Bill

A House committee in New Hampshire has advanced a bill that would decriminalize use and possession of psilocybin.

Members of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted unanimously, 16–0, to pass the bill, HB 528, from Rep. Kevin Verville (R).

Prior to moving the bill forward, the committee first adopted an amendment to temper the proposed reform. As originally introduced, it would have completely removed all penalties around obtaining, purchasing, transporting, possessing or using psilocybin, effectively legalizing it on a noncommercial basis.

The amended version of the legislation imposes penalties, but they’re significantly lower than the state’s current felony-level prohibition.

Under the new amendment, a first psilocybin offense would be a violation, subject to a fine of $100 or less. Second and third offenses would be class B misdemeanors, carrying fines of up to $500 and $1,000, respectively, but also with no risk of jail time.

Fourth and subsequent offenses would still be classified as felonies.

Notably, language of the proposal does not include any specific limit to the amount of psilocybin a person could possess.

The committee’s chair, Rep. Terry Roy (R), said that while he opposes full legalization of psilocybin, he believes the drug has medical value and ought not be punished as a felony.

“I’d like to see it done through proper scientific channels, through university studies and the [Department of Veterans Affairs],” Roy explained. “But having said that, I support this bill lowering it from a felony. We don’t need more intoxicated people, but we also don’t need more felons.”

Keep reading