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THE LAWS THEY ARE-A-CHANGING

Marijuana Policy and the Community

Ohio - Marijuana News

Ohio Rights Group

Responsible Ohio

Responsible Ohioans

Ohioans to End Prohibition

Marijuana Status (CBD) - 11 States

! Alabama ! Florida ! Georgia !  Iowa ! Kentucky ! Mississippi ! Missouri !  South Carolina ! Tennessee ! Utah ! Wisconsin

Cannabidiol Medications

!  Children with Seizure Issues !  Charlotte’s Web (Charlotte Figi) – Stanley Brothers !  Epidiolex (GW Pharmaceuticals) !  Mixed Success !  Epilepsy Foundation – Need for more testing

1.   DO WE WANT THIS FOR OUR COMMUNITY?

2.IF THIS HAPPENS, WHAT

DOES IT TO LOOK LIKE?

Two Policy Considerations

LEGALIZATION AND EMPLOYERS

Business Impact

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Employer Concerns

! Liability for injuries or damages caused by impaired employees

! Compliance with state and federal workplace policies – OSHA, DOT, “safety sensitive” positions

! Worker’s Compensation and drug free workplace ! Hiring, disciplining and firing employees ○  Discrimination language?

! Guidelines for accommodations and leave requests

Colorado Employer Concerns

Courts have upheld rights to maintain a drug-free workplace • Main problem in Colorado – confusion over the law • Colorado Staffing Association’s ED Jan Haire – “legalization is “a horrible dilemma for our members, because there’s no way to know if someone’s impaired.” • Colorado Motor Carrier’s Association – 15 of 100 tested positive for pot.

-Lee Bowman, Scripps 3/23/14

Quest Diagnostics Employee Drug Testing (November, 2014) • Positive results increased by 6.2% since 2012 • Double digit increases in Colorado and Washington • 415,000 estimated pot users in the workforce • Marijuana most frequently for positive tests

Discrimination

•  Michigan – Joseph Casias sued his employer – Case dismissed by Sixth Circuit Court

of Appeals •  Maine – Brittany Thomas sues Adecco

– ACLU is taking this case up •  Colorado – Brandon Coats sued Dish Network

– Court ruled wasn't illegal firing because marijuana is an illegal drug federally

•  WSJ article - "Medical Marijuana Poses Litigation Risk to Employers." (August 15, 2013) – Cost employers between $69,000 and $107,000 in costs, not including any award.

•  New Mexico – Employer must pay for pot? Link to story included

LEGALIZATION AND COLLEGE CAMPUS

College and University Impact

Youth Marijuana Use

Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico & Vermont

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Youth Marijuana Use Northwestern University

Northwestern Medicine at Northwestern University 1. December, 2013 – Brain Abnormalities with Chronic Use ○  “The younger drug abuse starts, the more abnormal the brain.” ○  Of schizophrenia patients surveyed, 90% used before schizophrenia

set in 2.

April, 2014 – Casual Marijuana Use Linked to Brain Abnormalities

○  Changed the volume, shape and density of gray matter in brain – effects on decision making

○  “I’ve developed a severe worry about whether we should be allowing anybody under age 30 to use pot unless they have a terminal illness and need it for pain.”

Impact on Colleges

! Federally schedule I drug ! Conflict with state law ! Federal funding ! Federal financial aid ! NCAA Considerations ! Off-campus use

Grades and Retention

Maryland School of Public Health (June, 2013) •  Study followed 1200 college students over 10 years •  College students skipped more classes, earned lower

grades and dropped out more often •  Unemployment rates higher after college •  15 times or more per month – twice as likely to have

experience “discontinuous enrollment”

LEGALIZATION AND COMMUNITY CONCERNS

Impact on the Community Rocky Mountain HIDTA Report – Fatalities

!  2007-2012 – Traffic fatalities decreased 14% !  2007-2012 – Traffic fatalities involving drivers

testing positive for marijuana increased 100% !  In 2007, Colorado traffic fatalities involving

operators testing positive for marijuana represented 7.04 percent of the total traffic fatalities. By 2012, that number more than doubled to 16.53 percent

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Teen drivers

Liberty Mutual/SADD survey (USA Today Reporting) !  19% admitted to driving after smoking marijuana !  36% - marijuana smoking no distraction while

driving !  34% who admitted to smoking while high said it

made them a better driver

Homeless Influx Into Denver?

!  Homeless shelters say increase because of medicinal and legal pot.

!  Older – medicinal; younger – recreational !  Up to estimated 30% relocated for marijuana (Denver’s Salvation

Army Crossroads Shelter) !  Denver’s Saint Francis Center – “300 new faces per month” –

many were drawn because of legal marijuana !  Urban Peak – youth-oriented homeless program – up 328

homeless young adults. ○  1/3 cite legal marijuana for moving to Denver

Marijuana Taxes

! Colorado’s Governor’s Office - $100 million in taxes ! Colorado economists - $67 million estimated ○  Revised to $58.7 million

! Tourists account for 90% in resort towns !  50% of all sales in Denver !  16,000 people licensed to work in Colorado’s

marijuana industry ! However, estimated 40% of marijuana sold on black

market

Marijuana and Public Safety

ER Admissions •  374,000 ER visits due solely to marijuana – ER visits

increase nationally more than 50% from 2004 to 2011. •  Children’s Hospital of Colorado – 2.3% of all poisonings of

children under 12 were marijuana-related. •  Colorado - Hospitalizations related to marijuana have

increased 82 percent from 2008 to 2013.

! Rocky Mountain HIDTA Report

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome

!  Identified in 2009 !  Cannabis use for years and on a weekly basis !  Began young Symptoms !  Severe nausea and vomiting !  Vomiting in cycle over a few months !  Colicky abdominal pain Short Term Fix !  Immersion in hot water Long Term Fix !  Quit cannabis use

Not Just Smoking…

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Dabbing, Waxing and JuJuJoints

What Is It? ! Vaporize marijuana ! Marijuana “labs” ! Butane cooks oil !  Smoke in a vape pen ! Four to five times stronger than

marijuana !  JuJuJoints – 100 mg THC/150

puffs

Marijuana Edibles

Up to 70% THC More potent than smoking (12% THC) THC Levels are inconsistent, even with packaging March 9, 2014 Denver Post – testing showed that labels didn’t match actual THC level

Meet Claude…

Black Cherry Gummy Bear THC Infused 100 milligrams of THC per bear Colorado law – 10 mg per serving Foot = one serving

Wyoming College Student

• Levy Thamba Pongi – Northwest College

• Ate one marijuana cookie – recommended serving size was 1/6 of a cookie.

• Jumped out of window

• Autopsy – marijuana intoxication was a “significant contributing factor.” Kristine Kirk

• Husband ate a marijuana candy • Started hallucinating • Told wife to shoot him • On phone with 911, he killed her

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Marijuana Wax

What is Marijuana Wax? ! Highest potency of marijuana on

the market and quicker high ! Created by using butane to

extract "hash oil" or "butane hash oil (BHO) from marijuana plant

! Marijuana put in long tube and then heated with butane.

Waxing Creation Issues

•  Wax is to marijuana as freebasing is to cocaine

•  Vapors fill room and ignite with a spark

•  Risk of burns and homes blowing up

•  Learn how to cook wax on YouTube

•  FEMA issued bulletin in February to identify BHO production

•  32 hash oil explosions in Colorado in 2014 with 12 in 2013 and 0 in 2012

•  Closed Wax System – more expensive

Marijuana Transformation: The High

• B L O G S H A V E C A L L E D I T T H E “ F U T U R E O F C A N N A B I S ” • C A N E X C E E D 8 0 % T H C • H A L L U C I N A T I O N S • I M M E D I A T E H I G H – S M O K I N G T A K E S A B O U T 2 0 M I N U T E S • D E S C R I B E D A S A N I N T E N S E E X P E R I E N C E , E V E N F O R S E A S O N E D M A R I J U A N A U S E R S

Dabbing and VapingAllen St. Pierre – NORML

Executive Director

" B E T W E E N T H E F A C T T H A T Y O U C A N P O T E N T I A L L Y P A S S O U T W I T H A S I N G L E I N H A L A T I O N , O R Y O U C A N H A V E S U C H P R O P E R T Y D A M A G E A N D P O T E N T I A L B O D I L Y H A R M J U S T P R O D U C I N G I T . . . T H E S E [ I S S U E S O F T H E V A P E P E N ] D E F I N I T E L Y N E E D T O B E A D D R E S S E D . T H I S I S A S C R E A M I N G C A L L F O R R E G U L A T I O N I F T H E R E E V E R W A S O N E . “ – N P R ( A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 4 )

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I bought a vape recently (ascent by da vinci) tried it last night and was bad! First time I've ever had a bad experience with weed. I filled up the chamber toked away till there was no more vapor and felt like f--- its not doing anything then 5minutes later boom it crept up on me and I felt good giggily high but also really energised and on edge which was weird as never felt like that 15 minutes later. got another wave but was mad intense I felt my heart beating real fast i was shaking kind of spasming lol and I felt warm which was real weird as I was cold before this. tested my heart rate on phone app was at 130bpm (felt like I'd done coke or some s--- lol, never have done btw but that's what I thought it would feel like lol) anyway I listened to some music and watched some TV for about 20 or so minutes but couldn't f------ sit still or concentrate kept fidgeting then got another wave like a hot flush and became well to aware if my body and how hot I was and s--- and then thought f--- it I got to try slow my heart rate down and stop shaking (never uncontrollably moved before on weed) so checked my heart rate one more time before lying down in my bed was at 150!

User Testimony Lancet Psychiatry Journal Study

 Higher potency weed may be linked to increase in likelihood of psychotic episode.  Weekly user of high potency weed (15% THC) content were 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic episode.  Daily use – 5 times  Weekly use of low potency weed (less than 5% THC) and psychotic disorders – no correlation

Legalization = Commercialization

• With legalization comes market for stronger, more intense high • Very little research done on higher potency weed • Little to no regulation on high-concentrate pot products

Contact Information

!Tony Coder!

Drug Free Action Alliance!6155 Huntley Road, Suite H!

Columbus, OH 43229!tcoder@DrugFreeActionAlliance.org!

614-540-9985!www.DrugFreeActionAlliance.org/marijuana