Tag: the war on (some) drugs

State Cannabis Legalization and Psychosis-Related Health Care Utilization

Key Points

Question  Is state cannabis legalization or commercialization associated with increased rates of psychosis-related health care claims?

Findings  In this cohort study of claims data from 63 680 589 beneficiaries from 2003 to 2017, there was no statistically significant difference in the rates of psychosis-related diagnoses or prescribed antipsychotics in states with medical or recreational cannabis policies compared with states with no such policy.

Meaning  The findings of this study do not support an association between state policies legalizing cannabis and psychosis-related outcomes; further research into this topic may be informative.

Abstract

Importance  Psychosis is a hypothesized consequence of cannabis use. Legalization of cannabis could therefore be associated with an increase in rates of health care utilization for psychosis.

Objective  To evaluate the association of state medical and recreational cannabis laws and commercialization with rates of psychosis-related health care utilization.

Design, Setting, and Participants  Retrospective cohort design using state-level panel fixed effects to model within-state changes in monthly rates of psychosis-related health care claims as a function of state cannabis policy level, adjusting for time-varying state-level characteristics and state, year, and month fixed effects. Commercial and Medicare Advantage claims data for beneficiaries aged 16 years and older in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, 2003 to 2017 were used. Data were analyzed from April 2021 to October 2022.

Exposure  State cannabis legalization policies were measured for each state and month based on law type (medical or recreational) and degree of commercialization (presence or absence of retail outlets).

Main Outcomes and Measures  Outcomes were rates of psychosis-related diagnoses and prescribed antipsychotics.

Results  This study included 63 680 589 beneficiaries followed for 2 015 189 706 person-months. Women accounted for 51.8% of follow-up time with the majority of person-months recorded for those aged 65 years and older (77.3%) and among White beneficiaries (64.6%). Results from fully-adjusted models showed that, compared with no legalization policy, states with legalization policies experienced no statistically significant increase in rates of psychosis-related diagnoses (medical, no retail outlets: rate ratio [RR], 1.13; 95% CI, 0.97-1.36; medical, retail outlets: RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.96-1.61; recreational, no retail outlets: RR, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.93-2.04; recreational, retail outlets: RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 0.98-1.97) or prescribed antipsychotics (medical, no retail outlets RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.88-1.13; medical, retail outlets: RR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.87-1.19; recreational, no retail outlets: RR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.84-1.51; recreational, retail outlets: RR, 1.14; 95% CI, 0.89-1.45). In exploratory secondary analyses, rates of psychosis-related diagnoses increased significantly among men, people aged 55 to 64 years, and Asian beneficiaries in states with recreational policies compared with no policy.

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New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program Sees Steep Drop In Registered Patients

New Jersey’s steep decline in medical marijuana patients continued with another 20 percent drop since the beginning of 2025.

Between January and December, roughly 14,000 people let their medical marijuana registration lapse, a trend that has continued since the recreational market launched in April 2022.

As of mid-December, 51,776 people are registered medical marijuana patients, according to the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission. In June 2022, that figure was nearly 130,000.

Medical marijuana cardholders get some benefits.

Dispensaries hold patient-only hours, give patients special parking, and let them skip ahead of recreational users in line. Patients also avoid paying cannabis taxes and can purchase up to 3 ounces of cannabis per month.

Before the recreational market opened, patients were the only New Jerseyans who could legally buy marijuana.

In recent years, officials have attempted to attract people back to the medical program by dropping the price of a registration card from $200 to $10 (there’s also a free digital option). People must also obtain a card from doctors who qualify to write medical cannabis prescriptions for treatment of conditions like epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, cancer and more.

The drop in enrollment has reflected the trends other states have seen when launching adult-use weed. But most other states allow people to grow their own marijuana at home, particularly medical marijuana users, while New Jersey still fully bans it.

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Aargh! Letters of marque would unleash Blackbeard on the cartels

Just saying the words, “Letters of Marque” is to conjure the myth and romance of the pirate: Namely, that species of corsair also known as Blackbeard or Long John Silver, stalking the fabled Spanish Main, memorialized in glorious Technicolor by Robert Newton, hallooing the unwary with “Aye, me hearties!”

Perhaps it is no surprise that the legendary patois has been resurrected today in Congress. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has introduced the Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act on the Senate floor, thundering that it “will revive this historic practice to defend our shores and seize cartel assets.” If enacted into law, Congress, in accordance with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, would license private American citizens “to employ all reasonably necessary means to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and property of any cartel or conspirator of a cartel or cartel-linked organization.”

Although still enshrined in Constitutional canon, the fact that American citizens can be empowered to make war in a wholly private capacity skirts centuries-long understanding over “the laws of war.” At best, a letter of marque is to be issued only in the circumstance of a legally issued state declaration of war. Hence, a licensed corsair or privateer is akin to a sheriff’s deputy, who even as a private armed person is sworn to abide by the order and laws of the state.

History, however, does not support this best case. The plain truth — again, over centuries — tells the story of private naval enterprise practically unfettered. These are no Old West deputies under direct command of a U.S. Marshal. These are licensed raiders, serving autonomously, as flag-waving freebooters.

A letter of marque, the King’s signature notwithstanding, is simply licensed predation at sea — and this is under the most favorable aegis, when said letter is actually granted to a private person when the nation is at war. Yet most often, for the last 700 years, a letter of marque is really no more or less legal piracy.

But why would states want to create such a legal justification for attacking rivals and competitors, pesky inconvenient minor states, or in this case, drug traffickers?

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Is There Already a Cure for Alzheimer’s?

Therapies administered to treat Alzheimer’s disease could be doing more harm than good, while modern medicine ignores known effective treatments. This is according to a recent post by “A Midwestern Doctor” on The Forgotten Side of Medicine Substack.

Alzheimer’s is a runaway epidemic in many developed countries, and is increasingly prevalent in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that accounts for a majority of dementia cases worldwide, and is one of the top-ranked causes of death in the United States. It involves the buildup of amyloid (protein) plaques in the brain, which causes memory, reasoning, and behavior problems.

Treating the Symptom

Modern therapies focus on removing those plaques, but according to the Substack Reversing Alzheimer’s: The Forgotten Causes and Cures Big Pharma Buried, amyloids build up because of a “mechanism the brain uses to protect itself from stressors that endanger brain tissue.” So attempting to treat Alzheimer’s by eliminating them is “doomed to fail.” In other words, mainstream treatment doesn’t work because it’s treating a symptom, not the source. However, “the money behind this juggernaut has caused research into the real causes of Alzheimer’s to be suppressed.”

The blog cites three peer-reviewed studies revealing new information that deserves attention:

  1. “Reversal of Cognitive Decline: 100 Patients,” published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Parkinsonism in 2018;
  2. “Precision Medicine Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease: Successful Pilot Project,” published in 2022 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease; and
  3. The 2024 case series “Sustained Cognitive Improvement in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Following a Precision Medicine Protocol,” published in the journal Biomedicines.

Bredesen’s Studies & Treatments

A researcher who took part in each of these studies is Dale E. Bredesen, who teaches at UCLA’s medical school in Los Angeles, California. His eponymous protocol involves applying individually targeted therapies to different cases of Alzheimer’s based on their cause.

For Bredesen, plaques are merely a symptom. He identifies six triggers that, over time, play a key role in disease development. They are inflammation, insulin resistance (chronically elevated blood sugar), nutrient and hormonal deficiencies, toxins, blood flow restrictions, and severe or chronic head trauma.

Bredesen’s recommended treatments vary based on these causes, but A Midwestern Doctor mentions a few. “China recently developed a surgery to increase the lymphatic drainage from the brain,” he writes, citing studies that show such drainage necessary “to eliminate amyloid from the brain.” Doctors have also witnessed impressive results with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a compound that is commonly used topically for pain and inflammation relief.

Doctors in more than 125 countries prescribe it for a plethora of other conditions, but the U.S. Food & Drug Administration limits its use. DMSO.org attributes that reticence to the death of a woman in Ireland in 1965. She had taken DMSO with several other drugs and suffered a severe allergic reaction. Though the causative agent was never determined, popular opinion attributed the death to DMSO, and the FDA shut down clinical trials. Since then, no other deaths attributable to DMSO have occurred.

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Dutch scientists discover ancient cannabis enzyme with pain-relief potential

Researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) reported a discovery that an ancient ancestor of the cannabis plant produced a compound with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, opening potential new avenues for medical use.

The team investigated how compounds like THC, CBD, and CBC emerged in cannabis. To do this, they reconstructed extinct enzymes that were active millions of years ago in the plant’s ancestors. These enzymes are crucial in producing cannabinoid compounds.

“In modern cannabis plants, specific enzymes produce cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, and CBC,” WUR researcher Robin van Velzen told NU.nl. “But the ancestral enzymes could produce multiple cannabinoids simultaneously.”

These “ancestral enzymes” are simpler to produce in microorganisms, such as yeast, compared with their modern counterparts, making them easier to harness.

“These ancestral enzymes are more robust and flexible than their descendants, making them very attractive starting points for biotechnology and medicine,” Velzen said.

One enzyme of particular interest produces a high level of CBC, a cannabinoid known for anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects. “Currently, no cannabis plant produces high levels of CBC, so introducing this enzyme into a plant could lead to innovative medicinal varieties,” Van Velzen said.

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Florida Marijuana Campaign Sues State Over Invalidation Of 71,000 Signatures With Turn-In Deadline Weeks Away

A Florida campaign seeking to put marijuana legalization on the state’s 2026 ballot has filed a new lawsuit against state officials, alleging that they improperly directed the invalidation of about 71,000 signatures as a turn-in deadline quickly approaches.

Smart & Safe Florida has been fighting several legal battles this cycle to ensure that its initiative is able to qualify for ballot placement.

The latest lawsuit, filed in the Leon County circuit court on Monday, claims Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) directed county election officials to invalidate about 42,000 signatures from so-called “inactive” voters and roughly 29,000 signatures collected by out-of-state petitioners.

This comes after another court upheld a previous decision to strike about 200,000 signatures that the state said were invalid because the petitions didn’t include the full text of the proposed initiative. The campaign contested the legal interpretation, but it declined to appeal the decision based on their confidence they’d collected enough signatures to make up the difference.

Now, with a February 1 deadline to submit 880,062 valid signatures just about a month away, Smart & Safe Florida is signaling that the additional invalidations could jeopardize their chances of making the ballot. Currently, the state has validated 675,307 signatures.

“Time is of the essence,” the new lawsuit says, according to The News Service of Florida. “The Florida secretary of state has issued two unlawful directives that, unless stopped, will invalidate the citizen initiative petitions signed by more than 70,000 registered voters.”

With respect to the “inactive” voters, the term refers to those who are registered but for whom mail is marked as undeliverable, resulting in their addresses being considered unconfirmed. This group can become unregistered if they don’t vote in two consecutive general elections.

“The absurd result of the secretary’s directive is that ‘inactive’ voters can vote for the proposed amendment but cannot have their petitions counted to place the proposed amendment on the ballot to vote for it,” the lawsuit says.

The out-of-state petitioner issue, meanwhile, is about the enforcement of a law passed earlier this year barring non-Florida residents from collecting signatures. Amid legal challenges, a federal court issued an injunction blocking its enforcement for about two months before that injunction was stayed by another judge.

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Marijuana Users Are Being Unjustly Jailed For Allegedly Driving Under The Influence, Government-Funded Study Shows

Laws aimed at preventing marijuana-impaired driving in almost 20 states are causing innocent people who show no signs of impairment to be criminalized and imprisoned for allegedly operating vehicles while under the influence, a new government-funded study shows.

Lawmakers and regulators aiming to reduce drug-impaired driving have long sought to apply a familiar strategy from alcohol enforcement: setting a numerical limit of THC in the bloodstream beyond which a driver is presumed to be impaired, commonly referred to as a “per se” amount.

But the new study suggests that approach may be badly misaligned with the science related to impairment from cannabis, the components and metabolites of which can remain in the body day or weeks after use—when impairment is no longer an issue.

“Many regular users of cannabis exceed zero tolerance and per se THC cutpoint concentrations days after their last use, risking legal consequences despite no evidence of impairment,” the study, which was published in the scientific journal Clinical Chemistry and partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the State of California, found.

The findings echo earlier research showing weak or inconsistent links between THC blood levels and crash risk. Large epidemiological studies have found that while marijuana use may slightly increase collision risk, the effect is far smaller than that of alcohol use.

“One of the primary problems with using THC concentrations in per se legislation is that the pharmacokinetics of THC are much different from ethanol,” the researchers wrote.

The authors noted that alcohol generally cannot be detected 1 to 2 days after last ingestion, whereas THC can be measured up to 30 days after last use because of its lipophilic nature.

To generate the data, researchers studied 190 heavy consumers who were instructed to abstain for 48 hours. Following that several day period, the participants’ blood THC concentrations were measured both before and after cannabis consumption to establish baselines. They were also observed using a driving simulator.

“Current cannabis blood concentrations used to identify impaired drivers could land innocent people in jail,” the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine, which publishes the journal that the study appeared in, said in a press release.

“Cannabis blood limit laws lack scientific credibility and are not an accurate determinant of when drivers should face criminal charges or not.”

The authors of the study concluded that “more work needs to be done to address how to best identify drivers who are under the influence of cannabis and are unsafe to drive.”

“Despite evidence showing no correlation between the detection of THC in the blood and driving impairment, 6 states in the United States have per se laws using 2 or 5 ng/mL of THC as the cut-off point for driving under the influence of cannabis, while 12 have a zero-tolerance law,” the journal’s press release says.

The authors, affiliated with the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research cautioned that additional research is needed, saying “at present, the best protocol is a combination of observations in the field and toxicology testing.”

A separate study last year found “no support that marijuana legalization increased tolerant behaviors and attitudes toward driving after marijuana use.” Authored by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ohio State University, the study used data from a national traffic safety survey.

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US Reaches 30th Strike In Boat Bombing Campaign Ahead Of New Year

As the world gets ready to usher in a new year, the US military campaign against Venezuela has reached another grim milestone. American forces carried out their latest airstrike on a vessel accused of drug trafficking in Latin American waters on Monday.

The operation announced by US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) represents the 30th strike since the campaign began on September 2

The official US announcement indicated the boat was struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean – so the ‘other side’ opposite the Caribbean, which is certainly not the first in this area.

Officials claimed the strike resulted in the deaths of two individuals labeled as “narco-terrorists” – which has been used of the Trump administration to defend lethal actions at sea carried out without judicial proceedings, or so much as a warning.

Analysts have tallied that the number people killed by US military actions at sea connected to the Venezuela campaign has risen to 107 with this latest strike.

Meanwhile the NY Times has begun documenting the “Grim Evidence of Trump’s Airstrikes” which has “Washed Ashore a Colombian Peninsula”:

A thunderous boom rang out through the windless late-afternoon air. Seconds later, smoke began rising out of the sea as if the horizon were on fire.

Watching from the shore on Nov. 6, Erika Palacio Fernández whipped out her phone, she said, unwittingly recording the only verified and independent video known to date of the aftermath of an airstrike in the Trump administration’s campaign against what it calls “narco-terrorists.”

Two days later, on that same shore, a scorched 30-foot-long boat itself would wash up. Then, two mangled bodies. Then charred jerrycans, life jackets and dozens of packets that were observed by The New York Times and were similar to others that have been found after anti-narcotics operations in the region. Most packets were empty, though traces of a substance that looked and smelled like marijuana were found in the lining of a few.

A $30 million Reaper drone launched from a $1 billion navy frigate… all to take out a little wooden boat lined with marijuana packets?

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Ohio Activists Submit Signatures For Referendum To Block Lawmakers’ Move To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization And Restrict Hemp

Ohio activists announced on Monday that they’ve met an initial signature requirement to launch a campaign aimed at repealing key components of a bill the governor recently signed to scale back the state’s voter-approved marijuana law and ban the sale of consumable hemp products outside of licensed cannabis dispensaries.

Ohioans for Cannabis Choice said they’ve submitted a batch of 1,000 signatures to get the referendum process started. If the signatures are certified by the secretary of state, the campaign will then need to submit a total of about 250,000 signatures to make the ballot.

The proposed referendum would repeal the first three core sections of SB 56, a controversial bill that Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed into law earlier this month that he says is intended to crack down on the unregulated intoxicating hemp market. But the legislation would do more than restrict the sale of cannabinoid products to dispensaries.

The law also recriminalizes certain marijuana activity that was legalized under the ballot initiative voters approved in 2023, and it’d additionally remove anti-discrimination protections for cannabis consumers that were enacted under that law.

The governor additionally used his line-item veto powers to cancel a section of the bill that would have delayed the implementation of the ban on hemp beverages.

“We’re saying no to SB 56 because it recriminalizes the cannabis industry,” Wesley Bryant, a petitioner with the referendum campaign who owns the cannabis company 420 Craft Beverages, said. “SB 56 is a slap in the face to voters who overwhelmingly voted to legalize cannabis in 2023.”

Advocates and stakeholders strongly protested the now-enacted legislation, arguing that it undermines the will of voters who approved cannabis legalization and would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, as there are low expectations that adults will opt for hemp-based products over marijuana when they visit a dispensary.

The pushback inspired the newly filed referendum—but the path to successfully blocking the law is narrow.

If activists reach the signature threshold by the deadline three months from now, which coincides with the same day the restrictive law is to take effect, SB 56 would not be implemented until voters got a chance to decide on the issue at the ballot.

“In filing our petitions today, we are taking a stand for Ohioans against politicians in Columbus and saying no to the government overreach of SB 56,” Bryant said.

A summary of the referendum states that “Sections 1, 2, and 3 of Am. Sub. S. B. No. 56 enact new provisions and amend and repeal existing provisions of the Ohio Revised Code that relate to the regulation, criminalization, and taxation of cannabis products, such as the sale, use, possession, cultivation, license, classification, transport, and manufacture of marijuana and certain hemp products.”

“If a majority of the voters vote to not approve Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Act, then the enacted changes will not take effect and the prior version of the affected laws will remain in effect,” it says.

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Arizona Ballot Measure Seeks To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization

A newly filed ballot initiative in Arizona would repeal of key provisions of the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law by eliminating commercial sales, while still permitting possession and personal cultivation.

The “Sensible Marijuana Policy Act for Arizona” is being spearheaded by Sean Noble, president of the political strategy firm American Encore. Paperwork to register the initiative was filed with the secretary of state’s office this month.

This year has seen a series of attempts to roll back adult-use legalization laws, with anti-cannabis activists in Maine recently approved for signature gathering for a similar ballot initiative and a Massachusetts campaign clearing an initial signature threshold for their version that will first put the issue to lawmakers before it potentially heads to the ballot.

The Arizona measure is distinct from those proposals in at least one significant policy area: It would not take away the rights of adults to grow up to six cannabis plants for personal use.

Also, it explicitly preserves components of the law aimed at expunging prior marijuana records.

Like the anti-cannabis proposals in other states, possession would remain lawful if voters chose to enact the initiative—and Arizona’s medical marijuana program would remain intact—but the commercial market for recreational cannabis that’s evolved since voters approved an adult-use legalization measure in 2020 would be quashed.

“For adults that want to consume cannabis, they will be able to do that,” Noble told the Arizona Daily Star.

But the GOP operative—who has worked with Republican legislators on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and played a role opposing a failed attempt to legalize for adult use in 2016—said declining revenue and advertising rules he perceives as insufficient to deterring youth use puts the campaign at an advantage among voters.

A findings section on the latest initiative states that “the proliferation of marijuana establishments and recreational marijuana sales in this state have produced unintended consequences and negative effects relating to the public health, safety, and welfare of Arizonans, including increased marijuana use among children, environmental concerns, increased demands for water resources, public nuisances, market instability, and illicit market activities.”

“Arizona’s legal marijuana sales have declined for two consecutive years, resulting in less tax revenue for this state, while some patients have relied on recreational use of marijuana instead of utilizing the benefits of this state’s medical marijuana program,” it says.

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