We are seeing new government crackdown on medical marijuana providers in California, Oregon and other states, which seems to be saying that this new entrepreneurial activity is pushing to boundaries of the law. Also we look at baby boomers and their increasing drug / alcohol use – 3 times as many it is being predicted; and alcohol and kids – alcy-soaked gummy bears and vodka jello-pops.
Transcript (edited):
HOWARD: Welcome to the CNS Podcast featuring Dr. Darryl Inaba, research director for CNS Productions, I am Howard La Mere. There are a few stories that are all kind of related – about alcohol and young people, alcohol and drugs and old people and marijuana in both cases. Marijuana has been a cultural issue since I was a teenager. Of course, its been around for much longer, but what were seeing here is a new crackdown on marijuana – specifically medical marijuana. Apparently some state governments are joining with the federal government in pressing the case that medical marijuana is a violation of federal law and thus illegal, regardless of what states have (voted on and) ruled, in particular, Oregon, California, Colorado, and about 13 others. Darryl, whats your impression of this? Weve talked about medical marijuana off and on over a number of years because it is an interesting topic. There remains an ongoing dispute about whether there is a viable medical use for it.
DARRYL: Well, what it seems is that it is a total reversal of President Obamas election stand. He came into office saying that there wasnt going to be a federal crackdown on medical marijuana production and providers as long as they stayed within their state’s law. And then – all of a sudden, right here in our county a small county in Oregon, big pot busts were headline news. The medical marijuana providers and growers were bewildered they cant understand why they were raided, why their crops were confiscated, why this big crackdown – because they claim that they were operating within the law. All over California, Oregon and in many other states the federal government began taking action joined by state and county governments – shutting down and confiscating groves of medical marijuana. Thats on the face of it, but underneath that, what the state, county and federal government are now saying is that these were not operating within the law – that the activities were actually violations of the state law as well as violations of the federal law. There is a huge profit being made by these so-called legal medical marijuana providers. Hawaii, California, Oregon every state I know of that has medical marijuana provisions currently says you cannot profit from it. In Hawaii you cant even sell it for money or gain any material wealth from it. I think in Oregon and California, there is an allowance for the cost or production, but the federal government doesnt recognize legal marijuana, so growers can’t deduct all the costs the overhead that goes into growing marijuana. First I have to say that many of the growers and users are operating within the law. The crackdowns seem to focus on coops and large operations that are operating marginally – producing the amount of marijuana that they have a license to produce, 5 or 10 plants per patient, so the patient has 5 ounces or 3 ounces at any one time, etc., etc. Many are complying – but whats clear from what the government is saying is that there is a huge amount of trafficking of marijuana, not for marijuana patients, not for medical marijuana, but just for trafficking itself. People are making huge profits and are getting away with this under the guise of medical marijuana. And that could be true. So maybe it isnt really a turn around by the Obama administration unless these are just words to confuse people. And now the federal government is saying, well, these are operations that arent operating within the state laws, so theyre fair game. I think thats the term theyre using back in Washington theyre fair game – we can crack down and make them cease and desist.
HOWARD: So once again, its the money.
DARRYL: Thats right. Its the money and its sad because, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the people who need medical marijuana are getting good medical benefits from marijuana when done correctly – that is not smoking it because that hurts the lungs and can do all sorts of other damage but taking it in medibles or edible marijuana products, using vaporization chambers so it’s not combusted. There are people in need and are using marijuana in a healthy way here in Oregon and I feel bad for them theyre upset because all of these profiteers the follow the money people are abusing the laws for their own profiteering and are threatening the right of individuals who really need medical marijuana from obtaining it. So, it really is a bummer that this has come to this situation and I wish we could eliminate greed as a motivating factor in America, but
HOWARD: Unfortunately thats difficult to do when were dealing with humans.
DARRYL: Were a capitalist system and (filmmaker) Michael Moore made that clear along with other documentary filmmakers as well as Hollywood films like “Wall Street” that capitalism is American – but the whole thing its greed its about greed. So, were not going to eliminate that.
HOWARD: In a related story, the Netherlands has moved to restrict foreigners from the marijuana-cannabis coffee shops. This just happened, just in the last couple of weeks this has been announced. However, they are allowing Germans and I think, Belgium residents access, but no one else.
DARRYL: What is the purpose? whats to gain by limiting the excess ?
HOWARD: I guess they thought they were becoming a haven for cannabis users I dont know.
DARRYL: Marijuana tourism? Is that the issue?
HOWARD: Again, an interesting kind of turnaround after decades of marijuana being pretty legal in Holland.
DARRYL: Well, I can see if there was a problem with rowdiness or people coming in just to get whacked out and not to really imbibe the culture of smoking and experience the freedom – that’s inappropriate. Here in Ashland, Oregon a popular restaurant closed that had a bar in the restaurant, they closed because the place was so rowdy they had to hire their own security – which was expensive but they thought they could still operate at a profit. But what happened was their insurance their insurance went so high that they could no longer be profitable so they closed this very popular eating spot because people who weren’t able to control their use, cost the 90% who could – the loss of certain benefits and certain privileges.
HOWARD: Which again seems to be a uniform truth which applies to this topic and most any topic. Back to marijuana, it makes me wonder why not just let people grow it for their own use grow it personally and remove the commercial aspect all together.
DARRYL: Well, medical marijuana laws were meant to be compassionate. And by compassionate, it’s not about the money, its for health, its for the benefit of those who need it. But what became apparent right away as the laws were being passed, was that some people were too ill or too inept to grow it for themselves, to cultivate marijuana with the THC potency that would be effective to treat their multiple sclerosis or glaucoma or nausea or whatever the condition. And right away there were provisions for providers. That someone can be a provider for somebody who needs medical marijuana – they could grow the same number of plants that the patient is allowed to grow, and produce the shake and produce the baggies of usable marijuana in the same amount the 3 to 5 ounces that people use. Sometimes more than 5 ounces actually which is a lot of shake for people to have in their possession. If you are a provider you dont have to need it yourself. You dont have to have a card but you must have a license or certificate that says that youre a provider and that youre growing it for somebody else. In the face of all of this, todays paper our local paper reported an arrest of people busting in and stealing from providers. Busting into plantations or mini-plantations and stealing, which gives a criminal element to all of this that perhaps justifies the state and the federal government cracking down. But above and beyond that, how things twist and turn providers believe in forming coops. Saying “Im growing this amount for Joe Blow for his illness, but then theres Sandy X who needs it for her illness and she cant grow it herself and then theres Tommy”… and pretty soon they’re allowed to grow for, I dont know, maybe 10 people. So multiply all of those amounts by 10
HOWARD: And you can see where it gets out of control.
DARRYL: Yes, very quickly! Theres no monitoring or clarity about making sure that the person you are growing for gets all of their stuff. Growers might have a few leftover ounces or pounds or whatever ….and then the rats came and ate it, or something like that! You know, it just disappeared! “We had to get rid of it because it was rotting or molding and my patients didnt need it right away” … and then it becomes very quickly available – marketing it to people who dont have medical marijuana cards and use it to abuse it.
HOWARD: There was another article – written by one of the representatives of a large treatment facility warning about increased drug use and alcoholism among seniors. Weve talked about this before but it ties in and actually what caught my eye was the significant numbers. I dont know where this comes from, but the article said that in 9 years its thought that baby boomer seniors will have a 3 fold increase in addiction to alcohol and drugs, in particular marijuana. And citing the changes that happen as we get older – retirement, more free time, stress of the economic situation over the last couple of years – and how those things impact people and increase their anxiety levels. It also noted the significant increase in the potency of marijuana in the last 10 years.
DARRYL: Yes, we have been noting and monitoring that for a while, Howard, but you know, its very clear .in 2012, actually thats next year in 2012 that marks the year that the baby boomers will all have reached senior citizens status. That population was born right after World War II and is now 65 and older and represents much of the senior and elder population of the United States. Members of that population were the biggest drug experimenters and drug users – they were the people who really led this whole change in the way we look at marijuana, the psychedelics, methamphetamine, heroin and all the other drugs. So weve known for a long time that there are different high risk ages when a person can develop dependency. And for some people because of strong genetics, or heavy trauma in early childhood and exposure to toxic drugs the first time they try pot, the first time they try alcohol, they become out of control with it. But there are others who try it and experiment and become social users or habitual users …or what we call, non-dependent users, or controlled users or responsible users of any drug, even heroin, that dont develop a problem until theres an adaptation in their brain cells and brain chemistry or maybe some increased stress in midlife when they take a look at what theyve achieved and then they develop a total loss of control. There are people in this area – in southern Oregon, who are baby boomers who are non-dependent, who have been controlled marijuana smokers pretty much their whole life. They might be addicted marijuana users, but theyre not experiencing any of the catastrophic consequences any of the social and personal medical consequences that other drugs cause. Theyve been fine with it their whole life, but as they enter their senior years, their body changes, chemistry changes life seems to be different and today’s marijuana the street marijuana on average continues to increase in potency. All of a sudden there are problems with it. So all of these factors point to the fact that were going to be dealing with the baby boomer seniors – who are going to have drug and alcohol problems even though they might have been non-dependent users or even controlled dependent users earlier in their lives…all of a sudden this group may begin to experience major problems as they get older. Im sure that is what is to come. And on the other side of that, I note this discovery in South Carolina and other states where kids, you know very young kids…8, 10 year old kids, look at alcohol and look at the potential benefits from alcohol and are soaking gummy bears and jelly beans in alcohol.
HOWARD: No .thats not a good thing to do to the gummy bears!
DARRYL: Well, apparently if you leave the candy soaking overnight enough alcohol is absorbed into the candy that when a kid eats the gummy bear, the alcohol burn and taste, it’s a nastytaste to a young person becomes palatable, so kids abuse alcohol and they get drunk on it.
HOWARD: Besides the gummy bear phenomenon, theres this business of putting alcohol into jello and freezing it – its called a Jello pop
DARRYL: A jello shot actually.
HOWARD: Theres something I hadnt heard of until just recently.
DARRYL: You make jello with vodka instead of water, the vodka gels up quite nicely and then little squares are cut – it is sold as a shot of vodka – the jello deadens the burn of alcohol. It makes it more palatable. It goes down easier and people can eat a lot more jello than they can drink a shot glass of alcohol.
HOWARD: Thats going to increase the danger of overdoing it isnt it? Just like what weve been talking about off and on the energy drinks in combination with alcohol.
DARRYL: Absolutely. And it seems like the whole purpose of it is to overdo it.
HOWARD: Of course, strawberry daiquiris will do the same thing.
DARRYL: Yes, but most people drink a strawberry daiquiri over time – most people ..maybe some do, but most don’t down a strawberry daiquiri all at once. People just, you know, savor the flavor. They savor the ambiance. They savor the talk and its over a period of time. But jello shots are just that – shots. They are a bite size square of jello and you just put it in your mouth and take it right down and the purpose is to get loaded. The local bar that was investigated by the alcohol board had more patrons arrested with a DUI after leaving that bar than any other place in town. I think they had 5 or 6 times the arrests coming out of that bar, and authorities were going to close that bar down, but the owners went into negotiations with the board and they agreed to certain conditions that would allow them to stay open since theyre such a popular place they draw in so many people. And one of those conditions was that they would quit selling jello shots, because it was too easy to get drunk and get intoxicated and the patron probably wasn’t popping the jello shots to experience the social effects of alcohol or the sharing with other people or dancing. They have one thing in mind.
HOWARD: On a quest.
DARRYL: Yes, eat as much as possible and get drunk as quickly as possible and they forget that theyve got to drive home or take care of business.
HOWARD: Well, thats all the time we have for today. Thanks Darryl, and thank you for visiting the CNS Podcast. Please check back soon for the next in the series and if you have comments or questions get in touch. email us at info@cnsproductions. com.