Tag Archives: Dr. Bertha Madras

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Stop Ignoring the Science about Today’s Turbo-Charged Marijuana

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Today’s Turbo-Charged Marijuana is Putting Children in Danger 

Why is it so difficult to accept the fact that 21st century marijuana and its derivatives are insidiously altering the brain chemistry of some teens/ young adults?
 
There’s a group of Moms who’ve banded together to expose the devastation potent pot is causing some of our kids who naively believe today’s high octane strains of pot are “benign,” “medicinal”  and “harmless.” However, one of the saddest videos on this topic I’ve just discovered goes back to 2005 under the ONDCP Director John Walters of President George W Bush’s Administration. This presentation never became a true Public Service Announcement or warning as was intended (uploaded Nov ’07). It didn’t get the circulation to parents and kids because of the politics and the lobbying power of marijuana which was so strong even then.

Pity it could have warned kids and parents just how DANGEROUS 21st century marijuana IS.

Kids are growing up in this “culture of pot,” yet have no clue they are playing Russian roulette with their precious brains. And tragically, for some, it’s too late by the time one of the hideous psychiatric disorders is triggered (in spite of the truth most kids have NO family history of any severe mental illness).

It has not been easy for myself or my family. Never in a billion years could I have imagined the hell we endured from the negative effects from our son’s naive use of today’s potent pot. He never used until moving away from home at age 19, but within a short time, at age 23, he went into this sudden, overnight descent into “THC-induced-psychosis.” The mental health facility misdiagnosed Shane even though he admitted to and tested (+) for THC on his toxicology test but in 2009 this diagnosis was not forthcoming.

It’s a long, horrific tale, but I assure you, I am not tragically misinformed. I’m already well educated in the sciences with two degrees, plus 30 years working in health care.

I don’t intend to let the public continue to deny the science.

Please consider educating yourselves, like we parents have had to do. It’s time we stop with the politics & greed involved in marijuana legalization (and yes the black market is still thriving in Colorado and Washington). Unless a reader has equal or higher education & expertise than the leading scientists like Dr. Bertha Madras, a Harvard psychiatry professor, or  Sir Professor Robin Murray, a leading researcher in schizophrenia at Kings College, London, let the science speak for itself.
 
The website Moms Strong recently launched and profiles a REAL story of marijuana harms each week. Please don’t insult the parents who write honest, heartbreaking stories.
 
Read about the eminent neuroscientist/pharmacologist, Christine Miller, PhD, who anchors the website as the Honorary Adviser from a scientific perspective. Her information includes three PDFs: marijuana & psychosis, marijuana & violence and marijuana & psychiatric disorders.
 
These tragedies are happening in every town across the U.S.

Perhaps, when it happens to your “child”, the viewers who deny potent pot tweaks some young brains, especially thru at least age 25 when the neural pruning process occurs, you will finally appreciate why politics must stop trumping science!

By Lori Robinson, co-founder of Moms Strong, a support group partnering to inform and educate those harmed by marijuana. Moms Strong is not funded by industry or the government, they’re parents hoping to spread awareness and prevent marijuana related tragedies.

California, Medical Marijuana, News Articles

Judge Mueller Upholds Schedule I Status

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On April 15, 2015, Judge Kimberly Mueller of the US Court in Sacramento upheld the constitutionality of marijuana’s Schedule I designation.   Schedule I drugs are not deemed medically applicable and must have a high potential for abuse.

At the same time the judge decided not to dismiss the case against a dozen defendants of marijuana cultivation charges in a national forest.   It was an unprecedented situation to use criminal charges to try and pull off constitutional changes.  The status on that case is expected to be updated on May 6.

Judge Mueller’s ruling should not have been a surprise. It was a long shot to believe that a judge would single-handedly reverse the separation of powers built into the federal government,  overruling the legislative branch while usurping power from the executive branch.   The marijuana proponents had many testimonies on their behalf, while the federal government needed a single expert witness, Dr. Bertha Madras of Harvard University.

The last time the marijuana activists asked for a rescheduling was in 2012.  On January 22, 2013, a three-panel federal appeals court ruled against rescheduling marijuana. Judge Merrick Garland, now chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, admitted that it was the court’s responsibility to defer to the scientific expertise of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).  The DEA had reached its conclusions with the input of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

While that earlier case questioned questioned whether the intentions of the DEA were arbitrary and capricious, the recent case questioned the intentions of Congress while setting down the 5-tier classification system back in 1970.

Schedule I drugs must have a high potential for abuse,  and are not deemed safe for medical application even under medical supervision.  The huge difficulty for confirming efficacy and proper dosing in “medical” marijuana substantiates this lack of safety.

Those asking for a rescheduling of marijuana claim that researchers don’t have the ability to study it.  However, there are currently 396 studies listed for clinical trials on derivatives of the marijuana plant, 273 for cannabidiol and 123 for THC.