More Scary Marijuana Science

With voters poised to legalize marijuana in Alaska, Oregon and Washington DC the Times harshes our mellow, twice.

First, some scary science:

This Is Your Brain on Drugs

By ABIGAIL SULLIVAN MOORE  OCT. 29, 2014

The gray matter of the nucleus accumbens, the walnut-shaped pleasure center of the brain, was glowing like a flame, showing a notable increase in density. “It could mean that there’s some sort of drug learning taking place,” speculated Jodi Gilman, at her computer screen at the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine. Was the brain adapting to marijuana exposure, rewiring the reward system to demand the drug?

Dr. Gilman was reviewing a composite scan of the brains of 20 pot smokers, ages 18 to 25. What she and fellow researchers at Harvard and Northwestern University found within those scans surprised them. Even in the seven participants who smoked only once or twice a week, there was evidence of structural differences in two significant regions of the brain. The more the subjects smoked, the greater the differences.

Modern pot is much more potent than stuff from the mid-90's, so a lot of research may need to be updated.

High-THC marijuana is associated with paranoia and psychosis, according to a June article in The New England Journal of Medicine. “We have seen very, very significant increases in emergency room admissions associated with marijuana use that can’t be accounted for solely on basis of changes in prevalence rates,” said Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a co-author of the THC study. “It can only be explained by the fact that current marijuana has higher potency associated with much greater risk for adverse effects.” Emergency room visits related to marijuana have nearly doubled, from 66,000 in 2004 to 129,000 in 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

And moving from the lab to the mean streets of Colorado:

New Scrutiny on Sweets With Ascent of Marijuana in Colorado

DENVER — As Halloween approached, the Denver Police Department and a marijuana-store owner teamed up to film a public service video that could exist only in this weird new world of legalized pot.

Marijuana, they cautioned parents of trick-or-treaters, does not always look like marijuana. More and more these days, it can mimic Sour Patch Kids, Jolly Ranchers and gummy bears, and the police urged parents to double-check their children’s Halloween haul for any suspicious-looking candies that might be infused with marijuana.

...

Since recreational marijuana sales began here in January, edible pot has become a top seller at dispensaries across Colorado, a sweet and tasty way for wary first-timers to sample marijuana, or for people to get high without coughing and reeking of smoke. But a spate of accidental ingestions by children and adults, and two deaths tied to edibles this year, have prompted widespread calls to clamp down on the edible corner of the marijuana market.

 I doubt the NY Times editors are reconsidering their support of legalization.

Comments

[henry]

Reefer Madness was first.

[Jack is Back!]

Don't forget Florida. Amendment 2 - Medical Marjiuana is basically legalizaiton with out prescription. Charlie Cheeeto's law firm and asshole BFF John Morgan is pushing it. I hope it loses more than Crist loses. All it is is an attempt to line Morgan's pocket.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Whoa, dude. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the last time I smoked marijuana.

[Eric in Boise]

I remember the good old days, when all we had to worry about was razor blades and fishhooks.

And almost first.

[Jack is Back!]

Hit,

Did you exhale?

[Jeff Dobbs]

JiB:
Did you exhale?

Not for a good 45 seconds.

[peter]

I can't remember the exact day I stopped, but it was around 1988, and as I recall, the pot of the eighties was noticeably stronger than the pot of the seventies, so if today's pot is that much stronger, it is practically a hallucinogen

[Captain Hate]

Whoa, dude. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the last time I smoked marijuana.

Trying to think how long it's been for me (have you ever looked at your hand?); probably a little longer.

[daddy]

How about when we pull our troops out of Liberia, instead of putting them in quarantine for 21 days we fly them to Gitmo and have them take over watching the Jihad prisoners for 21 days?

[Jane]

Anyone have a link to a livestream of the NH debate. The CNN link I have doesn't work.

[Jim Miller]

The Seattle Times runs a lot of articles from the NYT -- but I don't think these marijuana articles will be featured prominently.

Several of you asked me about Clint Didier. Here's the longish comment I wrote late last night.

[Jane]

They caught Eric Frein - in an airport hanger. He surrendered.

[Jack is Back!]

That didn't take long. Cardinals goal to go against the Seminoles.

Talking college football. Believe it or not the endorsement by Bill Snyder of Pat Roberts is a BIG DEAL in Kansas.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/30/kansas-state-football-coach-endorses-sen-roberts/

[Jim Miller]

Oh, and I should have added that, in that comment, is a request for some help from "Beasts".

[Jack is Back!]

Seminoles stop Louisville on 4th down on the 5 yd. line.

Jim Miller, saw that last night. Thanks for the info. As a Redskins fan Clint was a special player.

[Carol Herman]

Marijuana was never a threat to anyone.

I blame the big tobacco companies. And, yes, cigars and cigarettes are probably more dangerous than bullets.

Of course, the country also experimented with Prohibition. So what did Americans do? They added fruit juices to otherwise good liquor.

And, when wine became the acceptable dinner drink? Wouldn't you know it, we enriched the french.

[lyle]

I personally enriched the French last night with a bottle of '06 Albert Morot Beaune 1er Cru. It was part of Beasts Bacchanalia.

[lyle]

I would expect no less from you people on my B-day next July 22. Hint hint.

[Danube on iPad]

Cardinals score. God, would I love to see FSU go down.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane, Howie Carr mentioned that it's going to be rebroadcast on CSPAN-1 at 10.

[lyle]

I can't stand the Criminoles. Go UL!

[Danube on iPad]

Cardinals scored again. Dare we hope for what we sports scribes call a savage drubbing?

[lyle]

Wait! If FSU goes down will that mean an all SEC final four? Booo!

[Mad Jack]

Dave: Speaking of Howie Carr, Col Hunt officially jumped the shark today. I already knew he was half a moonbat but in the few minutes I listened I'm thinking he had ingested a few of TM's brownies.

[Janet]

I blame the big tobacco companies

Yeah...why not.
Anyway, we all just "need to live one day at a time & just be happy."

Live like the left wants us to live...

Give up your cars, smoke dope, have sex with everyone & everything not tied down, let strangers live on your property, give all your money to government, don't have any kids & kill the ones you do have, don't own ANYTHING made with fossil fuels, only eat food grown in a 5 mile radius from your hut, don't buy ANYTHING from an evil "big" company, only work for a nonprofit preferably as an unpaid intern,...

That's how leftists live, right? That's what they're selling to us so I assume they live that way.

[Jane on Ipad]

Thanks Dave. Stephanopolus was a bad choice because of his ties to Shaheen. I hope Scott pulled it out.

[Jane on Ipad]

Mad Jack, what did Hunt say?

[rich@gmu]

for FSU haters ... Louisville 21 Criminoles 0

[narciso]

Ok, criminoles are getting slattered, and the dropships are warming up their engines,

[rich@gmu]

Wait! If FSU goes down will that mean an all SEC final four? Booo!

Posted by: lyle | October 30, 2014 at 08:44 PM

probably not. think it will be 2 max with Pac 12 and Big 12 sneaking in. The SEC West all play one another and the SEC East is weak.

[lyle]

I know, rich. Sarcasm doesn't play well on typhuspad.

[Mad Jack]

Jane he defended St Kaci as a "hero" who "because science" shouldn't be quarantined and by the way all you yahoos hate government so you're hypocrites for supporting quarantines for Ebola. Really, that was his argument. As coherent as a teenager on dope.

[rich@gmu]

lyle,

you don't have the sarcasm font? for shame ...

/sarcasm

[Iggy]

--Give up your cars, smoke dope, have sex with everyone & everything not tied down, let strangers live on your property, give all your money to government, don't have any kids & kill the ones you do have, don't own ANYTHING made with fossil fuels, only eat food grown in a 5 mile radius from your hut, don't buy ANYTHING from an evil "big" company, only work for a nonprofit preferably as an unpaid intern,...

That's how leftists live, right?--

No. They also have sex with many people and things that are tied down.

[Janet]

Pat Condell
Laughing at the new Inquisition
"The stench of hypocrisy from the “progressive” high moral ground. “Anything but the truth” could be a “progressive” motto."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6jiNMg1PAk

[Iggy]

The Tubes prophesied the pale NYT on Marijuana forty years ago.

[jimmyk]

Better than usual Coulter column

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-10-29.html#read_more

After criticizing media hypocrisy on 'panic' after they stoked the flames of Trayvon, Ferguson, etc., I especially like this:

It's beyond idiotic for the media to keep condescendingly instructing Americans that they are more likely to die in a car accident, from food poisoning, skin cancer or heart disease, than from Ebola.

We know that. We have rationally accepted the tradeoffs in order to get places quickly, dine in restaurants, walk on the beach and eat steak. Those are risks prudently taken in exchange for something we deem more valuable.

What's the upside of bringing Ebola here? And why on earth is the Obama administration preparing to import non-citizen Ebolees? It's perfectly logical for Americans to ask, "What are we getting out of this?" But the only answer they get is: We can't build a fence around the country!

We're not seeing "panic." What we're seeing is rage that the country is having a deadly disease foist on it for no good reason.

[jimmyk]

Oops, dangling participle in my 9:26 (hangs head in shame).

[rich@gmu]

wow that was an odd sequence ... Winston threw an interception, then a fumble of the return, and Winston recovered the fumble ...

[rich@gmu]

for shame jimmyk ... for shame.

[Danube on iPad]

That's two dangling participles in a week, jimmyk. (Eye like a hawk.)

[narciso]

you remember those two CIA jackalopes, who did the 'no WMD tango' one was European division chief, one was Paris station chief, well Col, Hunt works with them, in the same consulting firm,

looks like Louisville, got some bad hasenfefer.

[rich@gmu]

for the FSU haters ... 24-7

[Jack is Back!]

If Lousiville is ranked 25th then FSU is not a top 25 team if it loses, right? Frederick hardest hit:)

Off to bed. Slaap lekker, tots morgen.

[Jane on Ipad]

Mad Jack,

Amazing! Howie should lose him.

[Miss Marple]

1. I smoked marijuana exactly once. I got heart races and that was it for me. People tried to convince me that it was a "rush" but as far as I am concerned, it was no different from the tachycardia I suffered for many years until getting it under control with medication.

2. Coulter is right, and for the life of me I am bewildered as to why they insist on risking an outbreak here. Is it because they are trying to use travelers and returning medical people as an excuse to cover for a bioterror attack which they know is ongoing? Is it that they want us to die? Is it that they think they are special and can commmand the virus to stand down? Don't know, but it is weird.

[MarkO]

Does the Dude abide?

[Iggy]

--Is it that they think they are special and can command the virus to stand down?--

Heh.
MM,
I'm sure glad Ace can be such a putz and let you go the free agent route. Not only are you wise but you have a real way with words.

[rich@gmu]

damn that was fast ... 24-21

[MarkO]

MM, it is about the border.

[jimmyk]

That's two dangling participles in a week, jimmyk. (Eye like a hawk.)

I need more chocolate.

[rich@gmu]

lu ... 0 for 6 on 3rd down ...

[lyle]

Thanks, MarkO.

[Joan]

Huh! The local Fox affiliate news team opened with breaking news. Tulsa, OK. Traveler who visited West Africa just admitted to local hospital with a fever. Don't think it will amount to anything, but sort of surprising.

[lyle]

For The Dude comment.

[jimmyk]

Coulter is right, and for the life of me I am bewildered as to why they insist on risking an outbreak here.

Miss M, I think it's more just a corollary of the general lefty hubris that they are masters of the universe and can control everything: The oceans, the climate, the distribution of income and wealth, the health care system, human nature, and on and on, and they know what's best. It also expands their power. I don't think they literally want people to die, but it's a risk they will take to increase their power and boost their ego. Just a little collateral damage.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Miss Marple:
Is it that they think they are special and can command the virus to stand down?

The man who was absolutely certain that generations from the point he defeated Hillary in the 2008 Dem primary we would be able to look back and tell our children that that was the moment that the rise of the oceans began slow and the planet began to heal surely thinks commanding a virus to stand down is child's play.

[Jane on Ipad]

I'm watching the Shaheen -Brown debate. Brown has good ole American passion, but I heard he screws up later because he has no idea where a specific county is, in his newfound state.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Heh - did anyone link that Onion piece where Cosmo was sending a bus full of models to NC State to entice students to vote by driving them from campus to polls through the overt use of sexuality?

Wait. What?

That's not The Onion. That's reality.

[Miss Marple]

Iggy, hit and run,

This is not rational thinking, you know. It is the way a megalomaniac thinks.

Well, we will see what happens. If we are lucky, the entire thing will fizzle in Liberia and here.

If we are NOT lucky, this mess that Obama has created will help spread the virus around the country and we may not see what is happening until it's too late.

When Obama's term is over, I hope he and everyoe in it become pariahs.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

FSU on top now.

I think I linked it a few days ago, hit. Late night. Or it might have been on FB.

Will the cis and ism crowd bite the weenie and board the bus to vote or will they get self righteous at the gender assumptions in Cosmo using male strippers to lure women to vote? Where are the tranny strippers? Can't gay men board the bus and party too?

[Danube on iPad]

Right now it's 28-24 FSU, and they appear to be in command.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

Louisville on top now.

[rich@gmu]

lu back up ...

[rich@gmu]

lol ...

[matt]

My last toke was @ 15 years ago. I used to use it in very small quantities as a sleeping aid. I found that when I used to shoot competitively and my friends, who were international champions used it to slow down their heart rates it just made me slow. So much for that.

I attended the California Society of Addiction Medicine conference last month, and a paper was given on marijuana usage. Between the ages of 10-20 it can be deadly. Not directly, but in suppressing the natural development of frontal lobe skills. Johnny Potsmoker loses 6-10 points on the IQ tests and a lot of coping skills are miswired along with short circuits that can trigger schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

20% of our population are predisposed to mental illness and another 20% to addiction and there is considerable overlap. Pot is a really bad thing for those individuals and there is zero doubt of the damage done from the landslide of studies released in the past few years.

The presentation was made as con-ed for doctors and other addiction professionals so there was no bullshit involved. These people work in the trenches every day with the casualties of our twisted society.

Beyond this, the damage of holding highly dense tars in ones lungs for extended periods is a very bad thing once one ages.

Some people can smoke a little reefer every now and then and deal with it, but even the stupid factor should be pretty apparent to most smokers.

It can calm the beast sometimes, but in the end is significantly more detrimental than other choices for many.

Fat, stoned and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

[RickB]

Miss Marple,

First we get to watch his reaction to Congress treating him as a nonentity. I haven't seen much, if anything, from even the GOPe using the framing of "work with the President" or anything like it. No "we'll seek input" and or "we must come together" either.

[Miss Marple]

RickB,

I assume that even the dolts inour party have gotten the message.

I also assume that they now realize he isn't simply naive or incompetent, but an actual evil force.

[Captain Hate]

I must be wired real differently in some regards from matt because pot made it more difficult for me to sleep. Other than that I agree with everything he wrote.

[Janet]

MM, it is about the border.

I agree. The Coulter link was very good.

[Miss Marple]

My son was on pot in high school, a fact I discovered after he had been on it a while.

To this day, I blame it for his difficulties in life. It is not a drug with no ill effects.

Chronic ADD, to the point that he is unable to follow a schedule.

This is a guy who had a high IQ, was reading when he was 3. It is a sadness that I always carry, because I do think he is a good person and could have been so successful.

He was very good at hiding it for a long time.

[MarkO]

This is reminding me of the Steve Martin routine where he is invited up after a show to smoke some shit. He's told it's great shit and he takes a toke. He coughs and gags and asks, "What is this?" The guy says, "It's shit, man."

And that was 1978 at the Universal Amphitheater. The opening act? An obscure duo known as The Blues Brothers.

[Mad Jack]

A number of years back I was invited by a teacher friend to give a lawyer/civics talk to his "best" students. Of course every question was about pot and how to get past the gendarmes. After about the fifth question of that ilk I responded to an appropriately sized young man with a slightly modified version of the greatest line in movie history: "Fat, stoned and stupid is no way to go through life, son". My teacher friend loved it. The kids had no idea what I was talking about. I was inordinately proud of myself for uttering that line in a public high school.

[Dave (in MA)]

Some of my FB acquaintances have been expressing their happiness at the Apple CEO announcing that he's fond of the dong.

Last week Marxia Chokely said in the WGBH debate that she's going to look at ways to bring about a graduated income tax. A day or 2 later, she backtracked on it, basically denying that she said what she said.

Shaunna O'Connell's opposition is getting a bunch of union support to go door to door asking for votes. His name is Keavin Duffy, and he was "allowed to resign" his job as a substitute teacher because a bunch of 11-year olds found him looking at naught images on his laptop in the classroom.

[Dave (in MA)]

A few of my FB acquaintances are all happy because the Apple honcho announced that he's fond of the dong. He's practically Rosa Parks.

[Dave (in MA)]

Today I found out that Marxia Chokely claims that she didn't say what she said here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee4fqtfd2wE

But Charlie Baker teared up when he recalled a sad story about a father who poorly-advised his children on their career paths, so he's unelectable.

[Dave (in MA)]

So if typopad makes you break up the comment that it failed to post, it then puts up your original post... Nice to know.

[Threadkiller]

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Two more yellow fever-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, new arrivals in San Diego County, have been found in Chula Vista, a county Department of Environmental Health said Thursday.

The distinctive mosquitoes, which are black with white stripes, were first found at Naval Base San Diego. They differ from other Southern California mosquitoes by feeding during the daytime and feeding indoors, according to the DEH.

A Chula Vista resident bitten notified the county agency, and officials found the two of the mosquitoes in his home.

The DEH is setting up traps in the area. Officials urge residents to look for and to dump any standing water in their homes, because they can be mosquito breeding grounds.

The mosquitoes can also carry the tropical diseases chikungunya and dengue fever. It is generally found on the East Coast, but has been found in California since last year, the DEH said.

http://www.kusi.com/story/27170786/two-more-yellow-fever-mosquitoes-found-in-chula-vista

My first thought was my dad's joke: "what did the monkey say when his tail got caught in the lawnmower?"

[narciso]

Maybe he should focus on less of that, and try to make sure Iphones don't bend like soggy biscuits, he's already cornered the market on idiocy, with SkyDragon wrangler, Lisa Jackson,

[Mad Jack]

Dave: Baker is hammering Marsha on the tax thing in the ads that have been running on my cable system. Hope O'Connell can hang in there.

[Buford Gooch]

I smoked pot heavily for a few years, thirty odd years ago. Dropped a lot of acid, too. It was great. Doesn't seem to have had any particularly bad effect on me. Less damaging than the moderate amount of alcohol I drink now, I think. Haven't had pot or acid for well over thirty years now, but would do pot again if it were to become completely legal.

[jimmyk]

Maybe he should focus on less of that, and try to make sure Iphones don't bend like soggy biscuits

Hah, and thank you for not using another bit of imagery that must have come to mind, given the context.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

Someone called the county because they got bit by a mosquito AND they were able to ID the perp? Damn. They need a lesson in skeeter squashing. They aren't doing it right.

Neither are your skeeters. Five bites in five seconds is the order of the day if we don't spray the backyard regularly - it's what you put up with when you have a creek in the yard.

Reminds me... I need to order some more Octenol.

[Dave (in MA)]

She fights for the taxpayer day in & day out. I wish she was the governor.

[Threadkiller]

The Carl DeMaio/Scott Peters debate may or may not be at this link at 8:30 Pacific.

http://www.kusi.com/story/25528608/kusi-live-stream

KUSI has done a for shit job of advertising the event they are hosting.

[Dave (in MA)]

not using another bit of imagery that must have come to mind

You mean there's worse?

[jimmyk]

I tried pot when I was in high school, didn't get what all the fuss was about, tried again in college, still didn't get it, and never looked back. I think I don't have the addictive gene if there is such a thing--at least not for mind-altering substances (he adds, looking back at the 25 or so posts he's made on JOM today).

[Mad Jack]

Well Dave if Baker wins he could appoint her director of DTA. That will make heads spin.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

thank you for not using another bit of imagery that must have come to mind, given the context.

Annnnnd now it has. Tanks for nuthin!

Smoke a bit of weed but never liked it much. Made me sleepy. Acid? Did a bit of that back in the Limelight days, but my last trip was definitively my last trip. Boyfriend found me outside sitting on top of the car convinced grasshoppers were going to eat me. Might have had something to do with the movie "Alien" on the TV...still can't watch those movies to this day.

[Captain Hate]

Shocking that the Crims win again.

[Threadkiller]

Apparently TMZ is far to important. The debate is at 9:00.

[Captain Hate]

I forgot that Louisville is now an official Bojangles rival. Was the ND game part of that one or two football matchups per year deal that the Tying Irish agreed to for being part of the hoops conference?

[narciso]

well I'm considerate that way, Cook has not really impressed since he took over the company, and his thoughtcrime mentality hasn't helped,

Yikes, that must have been some strong s

[narciso]

stuff,if you were curious, he already had the authority, as with the BP spill:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/both-obama-and-bush-signed-executive-orders-to-approve-quarantines-for-infectious-disease/

[Jeff Dobbs]

Stephanie:
it's what you put up with when you have a creek in the yard.

I thought it was the statue with a soggy biscuit.

[GUS]

The EBOLA fux up by Obama is classic LIBTARD/OBAMA fare. Obama had no capable people in charge of things that needed CAPABLE PEOPLE in charge. NASA, IRS, TREASURY, the fecking ENERGY Dept., CDC, on and on and on and on. The SEC of STATE for example. He put CANKLES McClusterfuck in charge of our FOREIGN SERVICE!! What could go wrong. EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, when dimbulb Marxist Political Sycophantic HACKS are put in charge. So, you see the type of INTELLECT and judgement that Obama and his HAPPY HACKS employ. Never prepared for the 1 man parade they are in charge of. And when the shit hits the fan, they lecture us, as if we are the RETARDS.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

Nah. We put pool shock in the statue pool.

Looks like Scotland is gonna cause some problems:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/11198620/Labour-faces-electoral-wipeout-in-Scotland-as-new-poll-shows-party-will-hold-just-four-seats.html

[Jeff Dobbs]

Interesting. On ESPN right now is a Koch Industries ad. Not political - just Koch saying they make all kinds of stuff and employ all kinds of people.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Stephanie:
Nah. We put pool shock in the statue pool.

Pool shock causes shrinkage.

[Jeff Dobbs]

...of mosquito populations.