Dr. Stuart Gitlow, a physician serving as president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, does not mince words: "There is no such thing at this point as medical marijuana," he said. It's a point he has made routinely for the past decade, as advocates for marijuana legalization have claimed the drug treats an array of serious illnesses, or the symptoms of illnesses, including cancer, depression, epilepsy, glaucoma and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Backing up Gitlow are the National Institute on Drug Abuse and practically every major medical association in the United States, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently reaffirmed its stance. Cannabis in its various forms is an addictive drug that is especially dangerous to the developing brain - a linchpin the country's largest medical groups give for opposing its legalization. [continues 798 words]
Critics of Colorado's medical marijuana program say it's a fraud starting with the application process to get a red card, which allows a person to buy and use marijuana. Is getting on the state's Medical Marijuana Registry as easy as everyone says? The Gazette decided to see what the process involves. Applying for a red card was a little more involved than buying cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, but not much. The requirement of a doctor's examination and approval, for example, was as simple as having a quick cup of coffee with a stranger. [continues 673 words]
Colorado made headlines worldwide when recreational marijuana went on sale to the public in January 2014. News organizations descended on the Centennial State to document, and hype, the advent of legalized retail pot. The act of applying for and opening a retail pot business became reality-TV drama. MSNBC filmed a six-part documentary titled "Pot Barons of Colorado." There was great anticipation, and long lines, as pot shops opened for business, and a multimillion-dollar industry was born overnight. By early February 2015, 334 retail shops were selling pot to the public, based on state Department of Revenue data. [continues 3051 words]
Two families with deep Colorado roots - the Johnsons of Colorado Springs and the Haseldens of Centennial - have built rival commercial construction companies, each employing hundreds of people and reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. In business, they are practically sworn enemies. But there is at least one issue where the Haseldens and the Johnsons are in agreement and encourage key members of their staffs to collaborate: construction safety. It is of paramount importance, and all of their employees must be drug-free. [continues 1523 words]
Employers aren't the only ones drug testing these days. Parents are springing tests on their kids, who are smoking more marijuana since legalization. The owner of two labs in Colorado Springs reports seeing large increases in such tests. Amy Mullins, who owns two Any Lab Test Now franchises, says the number of drug tests conducted at her location near Chapel Hills Mall was up more than 22 percent in 2014 over the prior year. It was even higher at her south-side location: Testing was up 45 percent. [continues 752 words]
In January, a group of Colorado Springs pediatricians had an unusual topic on the agenda for one of their monthly meetings: Breastfeeding and babies who test positive for THC. "When that hits the agenda, it's clearly important," said Dr. Darvi Rahaman, a pediatrician at Peak Vista. "There's so many, so many good things about breastfeeding and its positive effects. When a child is born, we and the nursing staff promote breastfeeding. The question is what happens when we know Mom was positive on a THC screen? Do you recommend you breastfeed or not? What do you do?" [continues 681 words]
Much of the latest brain development science conducted around the world shares this bottom line: Adolescent substance use is harmful and a bigger deal than researchers previously thought. "Parents don't have to accept teen drug use or the notion that drug use is just a part of growing up," said Dr. Christian Thurstone, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado, who also serves as medical director of one of Colorado's largest adolescent substance abuse treatment programs. [continues 999 words]
Nineteen-year-old Kaleb is 41 days and seven hours sober when he sits down for a long conversation about his marijuana addiction. Two more months, his treatment providers tell him, and he'll likely be able to deliver his first clean drug test in many years showing no presence of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that produces a euphoric high and can affect the mind and body for weeks after use - especially if you're like Kaleb, who was getting high every day along with about 6 percent of American high school seniors. This according to the federally funded Monitoring the Future, one of the United States' most extensive and longest-running surveys of students' drug use and attitudes toward substances. [continues 2310 words]
It's known as wax, shatter, honey oil or, simply, BHO - butane hash oil. Making it is legal in Colorado, but the process of extracting highly potent hash oil from marijuana plants using butane is highly dangerous. And it might be going on next door. Proponents of Amendment 64 said legalizing recreational sales and use of marijuana would stifle the black market in Colorado. That is not the case; crime statistics indicate we have more to learn about the long-term effects of legal pot on public safety and other concerns. [continues 725 words]
The legalization of marijuana has forced police officers to violate federal law, say a group of sheriffs who are suing Colorado over the drug. It has dramatically affected the officers who have to patrol the streets - delivering them a new set of complex problems. Proponents of Amendment 64 said legalizing recreational sales and use of marijuana would stifle the black market in Colorado. That is not the case; crime statistics indicate we have more to learn about the long-term effects of legal pot on public safety and other concerns. [continues 693 words]
Marijuana isn't just for smokers - especially under the law established by Colorado's Amendment 64. The state constitutional amendment that legalized the drug's recreational use permits possession of up to 1 ounce of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient that produces a euphoric high. Proponents of Amendment 64 said legalizing recreational sales and use of marijuana would stifle the black market in Colorado. That is not the case; crime statistics indicate we have more to learn about the long-term effects of legal pot on public safety and other concerns. [continues 384 words]
Of all the misunderstandings about marijuana's impact on the country, perhaps none is greater than the belief that America's courts, prisons and jails are clogged with people whose only offense was marijuana use. This is the perception, but statistics show few inmates are behind bars strictly for marijuana-related offenses, and legalization of the drug will do little to affect America's growing incarceration numbers. "It's this myth that won't go away and gets repeated by people who should know better. Unfortunately, no one reads public records," said Ernie Martinez, Denver-based at-large director for the National Narcotics Officers Association Coalition. "But the truth is there - and it looks a lot different than the story pushed by marijuana-legalization advocates and amplified in news media." [continues 1576 words]
A shrinking black market for marijuana was among the biggest benefits Colorado would realize from legalizing and regulating the drug, proponents of Amendment 64 promised in the months leading up to the state's historic decision to sanction pot's recreational use. However, the black market is thriving - and growing in new, unforeseen ways as marijuana, highly potent THC concentrates and THC-infused foods and drinks produced in Colorado make their way across the country. More than 40 states have reported seizures of Colorado marijuana and THC products, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The federally funded task force also reports that seizures involving Colorado marijuana bound for other states have risen nearly 400 percent, from 58 incidents in 2008 to 288 in 2013 - the year before Colorado's marijuana retail stores opened. That is consistent with Denver police records showing a nearly 1,000-percent spike in the amount of marijuana officers have seized - 937 pounds in 2011 compared to a little more than 4 tons last year. [continues 1410 words]
In Colorado, if you drive while impaired by drugs such as marijuana, you can be arrested and charged with a DUI. But the logistics of determining a driver's level of THC (marijuana's active ingredient) impairment have yet to be standardized, and there is no continuity in reporting arrest data for marijuana impairment. The state's marijuana driving impairment limits could be entirely too high. A recently released report issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is at odds with that limit. State officials also concede the toll THC takes on road safety is likely underreported and that Colorado's law enforcement agencies and the Colorado Department of Transportation aren't equipped to gather the data needed to determine a full and accurate scope of the problem. [continues 898 words]
A year ago, Colorado's governor's office had grand plans to fund programs and resources aimed at protecting public safety and health in the aftermath of legalized retail pot sales. The state anticipated a marijuana tax windfall from medical and recreational sales to pay for it all - and Gov. John Hickenlooper called for nearly $100 million for prevention and treatment programs, including a project aimed at analyzing the correlation between marijuana use during pregnancy and birth defects. "Our administration is committed to the responsible regulation of adult-use marijuana and the effective allocation of resources to protect public safety and health and to prevent underage use," reads a Feb. 18, 2014, funding request for fiscal year 2014-15 that the governor signed. "Indeed, we view our top priority as creating an environment where negative impacts on children from marijuana legalization are avoided completely." [continues 1059 words]
In one of the neatly maintained, brick buildings lining a street on the campus of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan in southwest Denver is a hive of offices where about 60 state employees focus on the prevention and treatment of mental health problems, including substance abuse and addiction. Their work in the Office of Behavioral Health is cut out for them in Colorado, home to some of the highest drug-use rates in the nation and one of the country's worst track records for public funding of mental health care, especially for youths. The state almost entirely bankrolls the office's efforts to prevent substance abuse and addiction with an $8.3 million federal grant. [continues 1512 words]
The promises of Colorado's Amendment 64 largely hinged on two words blazing from campaign signs dotting the state before the historic November 2012 vote that legalized recreational marijuana for people 21 and older: Regulation works. But how it would work was described only in general terms and sound bites before voters headed to the polls to make a decision Gov. John Hickenlooper later would call "reckless" and "a bad idea" and new Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman declared "not worth it" to dozens of state attorneys general last month. [continues 2384 words]
Advocates told the people of Colorado that legalization of marijuana would unclog prisons, help fund education, produce new revenue for the general fund and hobble drug cartels. An important part of the new plan and theme for the passage of Amendment 64 was that regulation was a better idea to mitigate marijuana's effects on our state. The state and national media have reported on the progress of Colorado's grand experiment, describing it mainly as a forward-thinking renaissance. In a nationally televised "60 Minutes" broadcast, a Colorado-based marijuana industry executive claimed that Colorado has done a "phenomenal job" regulating marijuana. [continues 576 words]
