Knock, knock, who’s there? Rocky! Rocky who?
Rocky Mountain High!

The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) report of August 2014 should be required reading for legislators, officials, and other Georgians considering marijuana as a medical treatment. Within its 166 pages are enough warnings of harmful results to put a permanent pause on the possibility of changing the Drug Enforcement Administration classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug (a) with a high potential for abuse, (b) no accepted medical treatment in the U.S., and (c) insufficient safety under medical supervision.

After the return of CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta from his year-long global fact-finding tour, he began work on a documentary entitled, “Weed,” a collection of interviews with medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. Simultaneously, he published his article, “Why I changed my mind on weed,” which was updated August 8, 2013.

At the end of that report, Dr. Gupta said, “Citizens in 20 states and the District of Columbia have now voted to approve marijuana for medical applications, and more states will be making that choice soon. As for Dr. Roger Engeberg1, who wrote that letter in 1970, he passed away 16 years ago. I wonder what he would think if he were alive today.” Indeed!

News Flash! Findings from the Weed Report should be compared to RMHIDTA facts reported in the “The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado, The Impact.” See selected excerpts below.

Timeline: 2006-2008 was Colorado’s early medical marijuana era; in 2009 it expanded into the commercialization of medical marijuana; and recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013.

• From 1995-2013 marijuana THC potency rose to an average or 12.33 percent, up from 3.96.
• In 2012, of Colorado youths age 12-17, 10.47 percent were considered current users, compared to 7.55 percent nationally, which is 39 percent higher than the national average.
• In 2012, of college age students 18-25 years of age, 26.81 percent were current marijuana users compared to 18.89 percent nationally, which is 42 percent higher than the national.
• In 2012, of adults age 26 and over, 7.63 percent were considered current marijuana users, compared to 5.05 percent nationally, which is 51 percent higher than the national average.
• In 2013, of Denver adults arrested, 48.4 percent tested positive for marijuana, a 16 percent increase from 2008.
• Hospitalizations related to marijuana increased 82 percent from 2008 to 2013.
• The number of pets poisoned from eating marijuana increased four-fold in the past 6 years.
• Over the last nine years, the top three drugs involved in treatment admissions were alcohol, marijuana and amphetamines.

————————————————————————–

¹ The August 14, 1970 letter of Dr. Roger O. Engeberg, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health, recommended that the marijuana plant be classified as a Schedule 1 substance. Dr. Gupta attempted to render that classification outdated.

• To read the rest of this newsletter in PDF format, please click here.