U.S. blames Canada for marijuana emergencies

[Amerpie]

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Canadian production of high-potency marijuana is partly to blame for a doubling of pot-related emergency room cases in the United States, the head of U.S. drug policy said Wednesday.

MORE

Can someone explain to me how pot puts you in the emergency room? This sounds like some kind of "Reefer Madness" throwback. This is as bad as the "pot causes terrorism" campaign.

[Loonman]

1. Baloney

Walters is talking out of his ass, as usual.

[htuttle]

2. I had a marijuana emergency the other day

I finally got touch with my dealer, however...emergency over....

:evilgrin:

[Vladimir]

19. I hear you

the only marijuana emergency I ever suffered was when I got so high I nearly fell down some stairs... happy days :)

V

[bpilgrim]

31. so did *

;->

peace

[BadGimp]

60. ROFLMAO

hehehe

[SemperEadem]

65. oooh that smell... can't you smell that smell!

don't bogart that joint...

hee hee!!

[Occulus]

3. Never heard of this,

every good friend I've ever had smokes regularly, the drug's been used for thousands of years... ummm....

this has no credibility.

[Lindsay]

4. Terminal munchies?

Just guessing.

[notadmblnd]

41. that'ld be my guess

treatment of bellyaches from eating too much. lol what BS

[daleo]

5. The U.S. produce pot to spare

The U.S. government is not so much worried that Canada will export pot, as it is that Canada will export its more reasonable attitudes to pot possession and drugs in general.

"And Ottawa has said that Washington's own data shows that of all the illegal pot seized by U.S. agents only 1.5 percent came from Canada."

"A longtime critic of Canadian plans to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Walters said that while the pot the hippie generation knew contained on average 1 percent of psychoactive Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, Canada's high-potency marijuana contained 20 to 30 percent THC."

[SheepyMcSheepster]

6. *yawn* someone pass the bong.

BS. let's talk about alcohol related emergency room visits, i wonder.....? could alcohol cause more problems than marijuana? surely not!

[SOS]

64. Exactly

What is a "marijuana-related" emergency?

Here's a guess:

Guy drinks 15 beers and smokes half a joint.
Crashes car.
Toxicology shows positive for 0.28 BAC and marijuana.
Presto! A "marijuana-related" emergency.
This report is complete BS.

[Amerpie]

7. Maybe

It's mental health emergencies from folks who have anxiety because they can't get up with the Man

[qb]

8. Sounds like the result of another Karl Rove brainstorming session.

How can we slam potheads and Canada in one simple sound bite?

[thuebert]

9. bill hicks

Subject: to quote
Message:
bill hicks, "marijuana serves a thousand different puposes, all of them positive, to make marijuana illegal is like saying god made a mistake. it's like god, on the seventh day looked down at his creation and said, there is it is, my creation,..perfect and holy in all ways, now I can rest.......... ohhh my me, I left fucking pot everywhere,... shit I never should have smoked that joint on the third day,......If I leave pot everywhere, thats gonna give people the impression that they are supposed to use it. Now I have to create republicans. lol. best comedian ever.

bert

[SheepyMcSheepster]

24. i miss bill hicks,

we could sure use his wit with the current situations we are in. He tore popply bush up, i can only imagine what he would do to shrub and co.

[thuebert]

30. omg

it would be insane to listen to bill rant about politics today. all the similarities between bush I and bush II, and the war in iraq. ripping on crappy pop stars, and pop TV. I wish he was still around, I just bought his biography, "american scream", it should be a good read. I'll comment about it after I finish it. go to billhicks.com or go to ebay and bid on some of his dvd's. they are all very good.

bert

[RoyGBiv]

39. Speaking of Bill Hicks

If you need a laugh today -- and I certainly did -- follow this:

http://www.sacredcow.com/allnew/index_content.php?n=multimedia_video_bill


The Heaven in Cow's Ass skit is down the page a bit...

[NashVegas]

54. =)

..

[Merrick]

69. bill hicks meltdown

If you're a fan of Hicks, I'd really recommend trying to get your hands on a copy of the infamous tape of his famous meltdown in Chicago after a drunk redneck sounding lady blurts out, "You suck". He goes, well, totally apeshit. I got a copy of it off ebay a couple years ago. I just checked out of curiousity to see if there were any up there now, and there aren't, but keep an eye out.

[thuebert]

71. lol

yeah i've seen that on the internet. he was talking about jfk I think. he said somthing about how he was looking at jackie's ass on the zabruder film and he sort of shocked everyone by saying that. then the lady says " you suck". bill "you suck,.....get out, get the f out of here, you're everything that is wrong with america." it is so funny, he just goes off on that lady. I've never seen him so pissed off.

bert

[Citizen Daryl]

78. "I'm in comedy hell, and you have brought me here." n/t

Excellent set.

[SquireJons]

63. You give Rove too much credit

This is part of an old RNC strategy. It worked very well in the 80's. When the economy sucks and foreign policy makes people cringe - drag out the dependable villains : Drugs, Gays and Sex. It's all a diversion from events and policies that are truly important. They know that no one in the main stream will stand up against them on these issues. Anyone on the left that does stand up to them usually makes them look wise and reasonable.

The really sad thing is that it works so damn well. We have to face the facts that America is a close minded, puritanical society. They are the majority that we must be protected from.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Semi-hysterical fits of laughter

Coupled with bad metaphorical images.

[happyending]

11. 72% of Americans

are for the decriminalization of marijuana.

What in God's name does he mean by this?
"It is extremely dangerous. It is one of the reasons why we believe ... we have seen a doubling of emergency room cases involving marijuana in the last several years from 60,000 to 120,000," Walters said."

What is the definition of "emergency room cases involving marijuana"?

[dolo amber]

22. I had a pot related emergency room visit once

My 25th birthday:

Went out to dinner with friends, then to a party. I smoked nearly a metric ton of weed that night...I couldn't even see when I got home. Later that night I got up to use the bathroom, which was downstairs. Well, for some reason I thought I'd hit the last stair and stepped out onto what I assumed would be the floor...but actually I was 2 steps up. So I sorta hung there in the air for a couple seconds, *Wile E. Coyote stylee* till plummeting to the ground, twisting my ankle almost completely out of the socket.

Of course, I also drank TONS of alcohol that night, but in the light of this evidence, I'm sure it was the pot...;):smoke:

[arcane1]

32. walking down the street high, and hit by a car?

would that count as "involving marijuana"?

:shrug:

[koopie57]

66. was the person

driving the car drunk?

[leftistagitator]

53. The definition of emergency room cases involving marijuana is

You had to go to the emergency room for any reason and you tested positive for marijauna. It's total bs of course. If I break my leg riding a bike it would be "marijuana related" because I would test positive for it. The anti drug warriors always bring this crap up, because gullible people think that marijuana caused the trip to the emergency room. It's really more of an indication of how widespread use of marijuana is more than anything else.

[yardwork]

80. 120,000 visits is low by any measure.

Why don't they discuss the number of ER visits related to uncontrolled diabetes or asthma caused by lack of health insurance?

Nah. Let's just scare people with drugs.

[Alpharetta]

12. I guess if a stoner needs stitches after scooping ice cream,

and his hand slipped on the steak knife, that's a marijuana-related emergency

[frylock]

51. scooping ice cream with a steak knife?!!

you'd have to be pretty high to try that!!

[Mithras61]

13. Huh?

:wtf:

1) What's a "pot-related emergency room case"?

2) How do higher concentrations of THC in Canadian pot cause an increase in ER reports in Florida? (Most people that I know that smoke hydro grow it themselves... it's pretty damn simple).

3) The vast majority of what I smoked, when I smoked, came from local (as in domestic) sources. The biggest problem we had then was the crap that the DEA sprayed on it that caused all kinds of fun reactions. The pot itself was never the problem.

4) Last time I checked, THC, while a psycho-active drug, was not able to cause you to have visions, streamers, or seizures, but may cause you to munch out & crash on the sofa. I understand that the number of driving-while-stoned cases is up, but is still significantly below the DUI rate for alchohol. That doesn't excuse driving while stoned, but based on usage rates, seems to uphold my opinion that most people who are stoned prefer to chill, not drive...

[Design8edGrouch]

26. I think crashing on the couch may be the emergency, wait

you said on the couch not into it. Never mind!

[MaineDem]

14. Blame Canada

Anyone else have the song going through their head?

:hippie:

[Alpharetta]

20. yep! that song fits perfectly

was already humming it before you posted
:toast:

[jobycom]

27. That's what I was looking for! nt.

[kckc]

15. In my experience

as a medical laboratory scientist, the people coming into ER with pot in their system didn't have just pot in their system. It was virtually always coupled with alcohol or cocaine or something else. And when I say alcohol, I don't mean a level of .02 or.06 or some other ridiculous low level- we are talking .2 or .3 or .4, which is a much more dangerous issue than pot will ever ever be.

[Maine-i-acs]

16. Flawed data!

ER - Marijuana link is based on 'anonymous' surveys of the urine submitted by all ER admissions.

What they're saying is that a proportionaltely higher amount of ER patients have detectable THC in their urine - which unlike hard drugs can stay in the system for weeks or longer after just one use. It does not indicate toxic consuption nor does it indicate recent use!

Perhaps higher consumption of marijuana is a coping mechanism?

(edited typo)

[Snow]

29. Where'd you get the data?

It sounds like something that could use a little bashing & debunking. I noticed in the story that Walters used raw numbers rather than rates, and if your data say "higher amount of ER patients have detectable THC" then the obvious question is "higher than who?" Time trend, maybe? In which case, might there be changes in ER patient populations over the past few years? Perhaps related to insurance changes? All sorts of possibilities here.

[truthspeaker]

17. possible marijuana-related emergency room visits:

Burned fingers from a pipe or joint.

Domestic assault after spilling bongwater on the carpet.

Burned fingers from hot mozzarella cheese.

Diarrhea from eating too many jalapeno potato chips.

In seriousness, when I was in college one guy got stoned several days in a row and was found taking a shower with his clothes on. His friends took him to the ER.

[htuttle]

21. I think that guy in college had other problems...

I've been stoned for years now, and so far I usually remember to remove my clothes before showering.

I have, however, found myself in a rather uncomfortable situation where I shoved too many Fritos into my mouth at once. Ouch! They can really get sharp sometimes!

[salvorhardin]

28. Damn those Fritos!

I know what you mean. I punctured the inside of my cheek with those triangle shaped Doritos once too!

Snack-chips, the silent killer.

[Beaker]

38. same here...

the pot, not the fritos-

i can't remember the last day i didn't smoke pot...but it's been several years, anyway. and in that time, i've never once had any "emergencies", or unintentionally showered in my clothes.

[damnraddem]

48. Well, I guess it saves on laundry costs.

But be sure to take your wallet out first.

[w13rd0]

23. took him to the ER for showering clothed?

man, what's he do when his friend is too stoned to get dressed and goes out naked? do you call the morgue?

[GumboYaYa]

25. Dude, do you know how bad your system can get fried

when you eat three boxes of ho-hos and drink a half gallon of chocolate milk in one sitting? Nuff said.....

[w13rd0]

18. Marijuana related emergency room visits?

"Man, I totally had someone run over my foot with a dolly..."

"I was just zoning, watching TV, and my eyes like, got stuck and shat..."

"Doctor, doctor, I got a serious case of cottonmouth..."

[MGKrebs]

33. 15,000 growers in Toronto??

WTF??? I'm moving!

"He said Toronto authorities told him there were up to 15,000 indoor growers in that metropolitan area alone"

[truthspeaker]

44. now you understand why I don't worry about finding work if I have to flee

In response to all the talk of emigrating to Canada if Bush "wins" in November, many people have pointed out how hard it is for non-Canadians to get work permits in Canada. Let's just say I have special skills that could contribute to their economy, if you know what I mean.

[Raster]

72. bless each and every one of their lovely little hearts...

nuthin' wrong with a bit o' herb, nuthin' at all

[rinsd]

34. Dude, where's my Orwell?

Geez, let's test emergency room visitors pee. Then we can take those testing positive for marijuana and confab the purpose for their e-room visit with their drug use. Never mind that the drug itself can stay in your system for weeks. What we need is more numbers! Next year I am sure they will start hair testing so the numbers can be even larger.

[ConcernedCanuk]

35. Next headline? - "Canada's Gay/Lesbian marraiges ruin American Values"

.
.
.:shrug:

[Spazito]

36. Geez, damn Canadians!

Same-sex marriages, decriminalizing marijuana, a (gasp) Liberal government! We MUST be on the terrorist list by now! Surely we must! After all, allowing US citizens to buy prescription drugs at a reasonable cost is endangering their health, our marijuana is endangering US citizens' health not to mention increasing health care costs, this MUST be a new form of attack on the US!

[Iceburg]

37. That would explain why CDns spend only 9% of their GDP

on health care entitling every CDN citizen to unlimited health care while the US spends 14% on "limited" coverage and leaves 45 million without any health care coverage at all.

...The Canadians are too stoned to get the emerg. Think of the savings!!!!

[enki23]

40. are they driving stoned?

or what?

[notadmblnd]

42. people who got rear ended...

from stopping at green lights?

[ZenLefty]

43. It's gone from one case per year to two?

:shrug:

[ixion]

45. marijuana emergencies?

That's a bunch of hooey. Marijuana is non-lethal, and non-toxic. The worst thing that can happen is that you go to sleep.

What a bunch of paranoid hysteria propaganda garbage.

[Iceburg]

47. Marijuana emergencies in Caanda are treated at Mac's Milk

with chips, pretzels, and nachos. That's the "user-pay" component of our national health care strategy.

[ixion]

49. ROFL

treated as they should be... munchies anyone? :-)

[Danieljay]

46. Am I the only one here

that can have severe panic/anxiety attacks when smoking pot? Perhaps I just don't "have a head for ganga"..or I was smoking some potent weed back in the day. I gave it up completely..and the chronic anxiety went away. Imagine that! I don't have an issue with others using pot as their drug of choice...but it isn't for everyone.

Back in my late teens and 20's I never had an issue with it, though stopped using it except once or twice a year til my mid thirties. When I started smoking again on weekends in my mid 30's it was an entirely different story. I believe the story about the THC levels being higher in pot today..20-30 times greater it says. It would make sense in my experience. The more I paid for the pot..the higher the chance of paranoia and sever anxiety, which eventually became chronic. Like I said, I gave it up completely and the anxiety went away. I am much better off without it! I'll settle for a good red wine or Hefeweisen.

[thuebert]

55. i agree

i have no problom with people smoking dope, but when it comes to me, i can't handle it. I always get paranoid when I smoke it. I never get relaxed, I am always on edge and thinking that I will get caught. I would much rather eat some mushrooms or booze it up, than smoke some dope.

bert

[Danieljay]

56. It DID make me randier than a two peckered billy goat...

and making love a little high was fun. I'm better off avoiding it though. My emotional health is more important and I don't need pot for good love making. The power of candle light, wine, and finger foods naked is amazing in itself and you never have to worry about passing a urine test!

[truthspeaker]

68. I'm sure you're not the only one; it's a psychoactive drug

Makes some people paranoid and anxious, and can exacerbate depression. HEY WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!?!

[SheepyMcSheepster]

70. yeah, there are lots of people who don't like the effects the drug has

on them.

i am a self confessed pothead, i love weed. I smoke daily. my girlfriend however hasn't smoked weed in probably 2 or 3 years. she doesn't like how it makes her feel. to each his/her own! (more for me!)

:silly:

[eridani]

74. No anxiety here

It puts me to sleep in 30 minutes, though. Must be one of those people sensitive to the diols. There are lots of other things besides THC in the stuff, and peoples' sensitivities to these other things are pretty variable too.

[Az_lefty]

50. I've lived quite a while

and I've never heard of a Marijuana Emergency....too much Panama Red and people usually eat a lot of pizza and go to sleep.

[madrchsod]

57. panama red???

haven`t heard that in years...how about nepalese black hashish? saudi`s just seized 10000 lbs of it...

[Sabriel]

52. Must be all the Poutine OD admissions... n/t

n/t

[AndyTiedye]

58. Pot-Related ER Visits Are Mostly Hernias From Lifting Those Heavy Bales

Lift with your legs, folks.
:smoke:

[TrogL]

59. Ridiculous

I've been around pot smokers pretty much since leaving high school. (I'm a musician - sue me). I've never heard of a pot medical emergency.

What I have heard of is people being admitted for PCP-related problems because somebody dusted pot with PCP.

It's just a classical logical fallacy.

People who live life to the full sometimes go over the edge and end up at emerg.
People who live life to the full sometimes smoke canabanoids.
Therefore canabanoids cause emergency room visits.

NOT!!

[politicat]

77. Pcat Raises her hand...

I may be one of the very few legitimate medical emergencies related to marijuana.

I'm severely allergic to it, the way some people are severely allergic to tobacco, shellfish, strawberries, or peanuts.

Needless to say, I've never tried it intentionally. Not when second hand it puts me into anaphylactic shock. (This allergy was discovered when I was 7, my aunt made Toklas Brownies, and gave small ones to the kids to keep us quiet and out of her hair (not her brightest move, but she's not running on all four cylinders, okay? Two days in the hospital for me, 6 months of probation for her, and she never got to babysit again.) I've had four ER visits where I've been inadvertently exposed to the smoke (Rock Concerts suck, and I'll never get to see Jimmy Buffett or Pink Floyd live, dammit) and needed epinephrine and oxygen. I don't, however, test positive.

However, I one of 6 people in the country who have no use for it and no interest at all in it, am for limited legalization (at home, in specific clubs; penalties for public use equivalent to drinking/smoking in public; no use while driving; must be over a certain age to use). Seems safer to me than alcohol in general.

Pcat

[reprobate]

61. In the history of the entire world no one has ever died from THC

Just more Bushit. Ignore it.

[OneBlueSky]

62. Down to Seeds and Stems Again . . . a real emergency . . .

Down to Seeds and Stems Again
As performed by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen

I'm sittin alone, Saturday night, watching the Late Late Show.
A bottle of wine, some cigarettes, I got no place to go.
Well, I saw your other man today; he was wearing my brand new shoes,
And I'm down to seeds and stems again, too.

Well, I met my old friend Bob today from up in Bowling Green;
He had the prettiest little gal that I'd ever seen.
But I couldn't hide my tears at all, cause she looked just like you,
And I'm down to seeds and stems again, too.

Now everybody tells me there's other ways to get high.
They don't seem to understand I'm too far gone to try.
Now these lonely memories, they're all I can't lose,
And I'm down to seeds and stems again, too.

Well my dog died just yesterday and left me all alone.
The finance company dropped by today and repossessed my home.
That's just a drop in the bucket compared to losing you,
And I'm down to seeds and stems again, too.
Got the Down to Seeds and Stems again Blues.

[koopie57]

67. I smoked pot

back in the days of "giggle weed". I miss it, but too much to risk now trying to buy some from the neighbor kids. I wish they would legalize it cuz then I wouldn't be drinking to relax and instead of getting fired up and feeling smart from the alcohol and alert from the caffeine in the soda I could watch a little Lettermen and get some sleep.

[Rex]

73. Chronic cases of the munches!

Mixing doritos with chocolate chip cookies while stoned might taste good at the time, but can have severe gastric-intestinal repercussions (no pun intended).

Also terminal dry-mouth by those that smoke to much red-bud (aka happy weed).

[MrSlayer]

75. What a bunch of crap.

If you have to go the hospital after smoking some weed you shouldn't be smoking in the first place. Wish I could get some shit that good.

[modaya]

76. CANAD IS THE PUNCHING BAG FOR THE US.

US blames everything for for Canada.

[politicat]

79. Pcat Raises her hand...

I may be one of the very few legitimate medical emergencies related to marijuana.

I'm severely allergic to it, the way some people are severely allergic to tobacco, shellfish, strawberries, or peanuts.

Needless to say, I've never tried it intentionally. Not when second hand it puts me into anaphylactic shock. (This allergy was discovered when I was 7, my aunt made Toklas Brownies, and gave small ones to the kids to keep us quiet and out of her hair (not her brightest move, but she's not running on all four cylinders, okay? Two days in the hospital for me, 6 months of probation for her, and she never got to babysit again.) I've had four ER visits where I've been inadvertently exposed to the smoke (Rock Concerts suck, and I'll never get to see Jimmy Buffett or Pink Floyd live, dammit) and needed epinephrine and oxygen. I don't, however, test positive.

However, I, one of 6 people in the country who have no use for it and no interest at all in it, am for limited legalization (at home, in specific clubs; penalties for public use equivalent to drinking/smoking in public; no use while driving; must be over a certain age to use). Seems safer to me than alcohol in general.

Pcat

[leesa]

81. What the hell are "marijuana emergencies"???

What a joke. I am so sick of all the lies attributed to marijuana, probably the greatest and most useful plant on the planet. It's cut into all those drug profits this guy is probably making from pedding the harder stuff ot the cash he's getting from the pharmaceuticals.

[gate of the sun]

82. never heard of a marijuana emergency before

sounds like propaganda to me.