Pediatric cannabis exposures have increased by nearly 300 percent in Ontario Canada since 2016. Canada legalized marijuana (raw flower only) in 2018. This was expanded in 2020 to include sales of cannabis infused edible products. In turn, Emergency Department (ED) health care providers in Ontario have seen an increase in child[Read More…]
Tag: THC
Fatal Crashes: Marijuana’s involvement doubles from 2000 – 2018
The rate of fatal motor vehicle crashes, involving only marijuana or marijuana with alcohol has doubled from 2000 to 2018. During this same time, many states legalized marijuana, first for medical use and later for commercial adult use. In a recent peer reviewed study published in the American Journal of[Read More…]
Cannabis and Pregnancy: Effects on Woman’s Health
In the October 11th, 2021 edition of Contemporary OB/GYN, authors (Lo, Hanna & Hedges) offer guidance to medical providers working with women who use marijuana and specific concerns for those patients that are perinatal or prenatal. The authors cite concerns over the increased levels of THC potency in recent years.[Read More…]
THC Levels in Med & Rec States: Pain Management
Pain is the leading reason cited why people use medical marijuana in the United States. Marijuana with low potency levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), i.e. under 5-10%, has shown some efficacy in pain management. However, that’s in stark contrast to the advertised high THC potency levels of marijuana products sold both[Read More…]
Prenatal Cannabis Use & Risks: A New Study
A study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “The Associations between prenatal cannabis use disorder and neonatal outcomes” (Y. Shi et.al) examines potential health issues of newborns of mothers with a cannabis use disorder (CUD) at the time of delivery. Researchers reviewed over 4.8 million California birth[Read More…]
Cannabis Policy: Recommendations from the United States Senate Caucus
The United States Senate Caucus recently issued a report titled, “Cannabis Policy, Public Health and Safety, Issues and Recommendations”. The report focused on five (5) key areas: (1) Barriers to Researching Cannabis, (2) Impacts of Increased Cannabis Potency, (3) Cannabis Use on the Developing Brain, (4) Unregulated Products and (5) Cannabis[Read More…]
THC & Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Adults Age 50+ (Feb 2021)
In the February 2, 2021 edition of Jama Network Open, a study titled, “Evaluation of THC-Related Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Among Adults Aged 50 Years and Older, A Systematic Review and Metaregression Analysis” (Velayudhan et.al.) was released. While there are numerous studies that examine youth / young adults, marijuana use and adverse[Read More…]
Drug Threats in America: DEA 2020
March 2021 – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has just released their National Drug Threat Assessment of drugs in American for 2020. This unclassified publication is based in law enforcement intelligence and data from the public health sector. It provides a broad overview of the drugs (illicit and legal) in[Read More…]
Impaired Driving in Colorado: 2016 – 2018 (Nov 2020)
In 2017, Colorado passed House Bill 17-1315 which requires the Colorado Department of Public Safety to annually produce a report regarding data associated with impaired driving in the state. One of the requirements was to include data not only for alcohol, but on other drugs to include marijuana. As with[Read More…]
Vaping or Smoking: An Early Look at Impairment
Currently, there is scant policy or guidance when it comes to either smoking or vaping cannabis. Similarly there is no uniform policy as to the potency levels of products available in today’s public market; nor a complete understanding how the two administration methods (smoking v. vaping) can affect the user. [Read More…]