NYT columnist says she was ‘curled up in a hallucinatory state’ for eight hours

Maureen Dowd of The New York Times has attracted attention with her column about eating a marijuana candy bar and remaining in “a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours,” as she began “panting” and becoming “paranoid.” Some commentators are laughing about it. Not so funny are the reports of deaths from ingesting marijuana that Dowd cites in her column about marijuana legalization in Colorado.

“In March,” she noted, “a 19-year-old Wyoming college student jumped off a Denver hotel balcony after eating a pot cookie with 65 milligrams of THC. In April, a Denver man ate pot-infused Karma Kandy and began talking like it was the end of the world, scaring his wife and three kids. Then he retrieved a handgun from a safe and killed his wife while she was on the phone with an emergency dispatcher.”

The Wyoming college student, 19-year-old Levy Thamba Pongi, was an exchange student from Congo. Richard Kirk is the Denver man who killed his wife, Khristine Kirk, with a gunshot to her head.

“Two Denver deaths tied to recreational marijuana use” was the headline over an Associated Press story. It didn’t take long for the claim that marijuana never killed anybody to be debunked.

Regarding her own experience with the drug, Dowd said, “As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.”

I discussed both of the deaths cited in the Dowd column in my May 1^st column, “Colombians Move into Colorado Marijuana Business.” On March 27th, we ran the column, “Media Continue Cover-up of Marijuana-induced Mental Illness.”

Nevertheless, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted 219-189 to block Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on so-called “medical marijuana” businesses. The Marijuana Policy Project reports that U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), its “longtime ally,” led the charge to protect the marijuana businesses in Colorado and other states. It passed mostly with liberal Democratic votes.

“Already in Colorado, there is evidence of Colombian cartel involvement in the legal medical marijuana industry,” notes the group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana, whose co-founder, drug policy expert Kevin A. Sabet, recently authored the book, Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.

But now that liberal columnist Maureen Dowd has tackled the subject in a serious manner, connecting the dots between marijuana and mental problems, others in the media may follow suit and the rush to legalize the drug may encounter difficulties.

Most of the media reaction to Dowd, at least so far, has been amusement. On the NBC Today Show, the hosts joked and laughed about marijuana’s effects as the words, “All the pot fit to eat,” were featured on the TV screen. It was a play on words from the Times’ slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print.”

Dr. Christine Miller, who has written about the relationship between marijuana and mental illness, says, “What’s so funny about it? She [Dowd] was out of her mind.”

“I was saddened to see Matt Lauer and The Today Show crew make light of Maureen Dowd’s experience, particularly in view of the fact that the symptoms she experienced were not dissimilar to those that prompted the young college student to jump off a Denver hotel balcony after eating a pot-laced brownie,” Miller told AIM. “Matt or his co-hosts really should interview the Congolese family of that student, who must be devastated that their efforts to offer their young man a more promising future were dashed in such a manner. That would be a story worthy of our national attention.”

A powerful new book, A Voice out of Nowhere, takes the controversy to another level and may change some minds about marijuana being a so-called “soft” drug. It tells the true story of Bruce Blackman, a 22-year-old man who murdered six members of his family while under the influence of marijuana. Psychiatrists said Blackman’s marijuana addiction was a contributing factor in his psychotic break from reality and mass murder spree.

The author, Janice Holly Booth, predicts violence will increase as a result of legalization. “Once legally available, the temptation to try it is no longer tempered by concerns about breaking the law,” she says. “I think we’ll see an increase in the number of young people with as-yet undiagnosed mental illness using and abusing marijuana, and—unfortunately—a subsequent rise in violent crimes committed by them.”

Jack Healy, the Rocky Mountain correspondent for The New York Times, wrote a June 1 piece, “After 5 Months of Sales, Colorado Sees the Downside of a Legal High,” that looked at several problems caused by legalization.

But he also reported that violent crime was down. He said, “Marijuana supporters note that violent crimes in Denver—where the bulk of Colorado’s pot retailers are—are down so far this year. The number of robberies from January through April fell by 4.8 percent from the same time in 2013, and assaults were down by 3.7 percent. Over-all, crime in Denver is down by about 10 percent, though it is impossible to say whether changes to marijuana laws played any role in that decline.”

Miller believes the city of Denver is giving out misleading statistics to many news outlets, including the Times. She says there is a discrepancy in the data reported by the city and what is online from the police department.

Miller speculates that the city of Denver “wants to put its best foot forward now that the summer tourist season is just taking off.” Miller, who lives in Baltimore, Maryland, added, “It reminds me of how a certain mayor of Baltimore, Martin O’Malley, restructured the categories for reporting of murder rates here, showing a nice decline after he took office.” O’Malley went on to become governor.

“In fact,” Miller says about Denver, “overall crime has gone up. You will also see that crimes against persons have gone up 26.6 percent (particularly note the disorderly conduct arrests, up 10-fold and trespassing charges up 5-fold!). It is important to keep in mind that legalization of recreational marijuana possession and use was enacted on January 1, 2013, and murder rates jumped 50 percent during the first quarter of that year. Legalization of recreational sales was enacted January 1, 2014. If the murder rate and other violent crimes have fallen in the first quarter of 2014, they were falling from a higher point. Only more time will tell what the real trends will prove to be.”

The drug legalization movement has been mostly funded by “dark money” leftist billionaires such as George Soros. However, the libertarian Cato Institute has emerged as a big part of the campaign.

Jeffrey Miron of the Cato Institute thinks that marijuana is harmless and dismisses Kevin Sabet’s claim that people can become addicted to marijuana bysaying, “…who cares? Addiction is not, per se, a problem for society or an individual; just think about how many people are addicted to caffeine.”

The 2012 annual report of the Cato Institute (page 19) continues to show financial support from the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations, as well as the Marijuana Policy Project, BB&T, Facebook, Google and Whole Foods.

Interestingly, Cato once published a pro-drug legalization report by Glenn Greenwald, the columnist who would later became a mouthpiece for NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Cato has also distributed a podcast with Greenwald about his anti-NSA campaign.

Some of Cato’s more conservative funders may not be aware of how the organization got into bed with the Soros-funded left.

This article was originally posted at the Accuracy in Media website.

When Barack Obama said he would “fundamentally transform” the United States, few anticipated that the plan involved destroying the minds of young people through addictive substances. But after the expenditure of $250 million by Obama backer George Soros on behalf of the marijuana legalization movement, we are seeing the results, especially in Colorado. The new website www.legalizationviolations.org is documenting the fallout and the damage.

In addition to what is reported on this site, such as kids using, and even selling, marijuana, we have some other sensational cases in Colorado, such as a husband and father, Richard Kirk, who began hallucinating after eating a marijuana cookie, and shot and killed his wife.

In another case, a 19-year-old student jumped off a Denver hotel balcony to his death after eating a marijuana cookie. USA Today reported that Levi Thamba Pongi, a native of the Republic of Congo, ate the cookie and “exhibited hostile behavior” that included pulling things off walls and speaking erratically.

In addition to these deaths, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver has filed an indictment “alleging money laundering related to marijuana cultivation and distribution” in Colorado. The case involves money transfers from a Colombian bank, as well as violations of federal firearms laws.

In the face of the human deaths and destruction being wrought by marijuana legalization in Colorado, and the movement of the Colombian groups into the state, the Heritage Foundation took a stand this week in favor of “Reefer Sanity,” the name of a new book by drug policy expert Kevin A. Sabet.

Heritage featured Sabet giving a speech exposing the “seven great myths about marijuana” that have driven this unfolding disaster. Sabet co-founded SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) with former Democratic U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (RI), in order to focus public attention on the harmful consequences of marijuana use and counteract the impact of the drug-friendly media. Writer David Frum is a member of the board.

One of Sabet’s slides advised people to “Follow the Money,” and named George Soros as the key money bags behind the growing number of states accepting legal marijuana. Sabet’s website included the figure of $250 million invested by Soros in the drug legalization movement. In addition, Peter Lewis gave $50 to $70 million to this movement, and John Sperling gave over $50 million.

As far back as 2004, in our article, “The Hidden Soros Agenda: Drugs, Money, the Media, and Political Power,” we noted the billionaire hedge-fund operator’s investment in a Colombian bank accused of drug-money laundering.

Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation described Soros as an “extremely evil person” because of his campaign to legalize dangerous mind-altering drugs.

Over a year ago, in our column, “A Kennedy Shocks the Pro-Dope Liberal Media,” we noted the potential impact that SAM could have on the “debate” over marijuana, such as it is in the liberal media.

Sabet, in his Heritage Foundation speech, did not directly address President Obama’s personal role in the unfolding debacle confronting our youth, except to say that using marijuana is clearly not a solution to a deteriorating economy that produces few jobs for young people.

Yet, the facts are that Obama was a member of the “Choom Gang,” a group of heavy marijuana smokers, when he was growing up in Hawaii. His childhood mentor, Communist Party operative Frank Marshall Davis, was also a pothead.

Although Sabet is pursuing a non-partisan approach to the disaster in order to appeal to Democrats, in an attempt to stop the deadly and dangerous drug legalization experiment, he is nevertheless giving the Soros-funded activists a case of nerves. His book features a quote from Ryan Grimm of the far-left Huffington Post, saying that backers of pot legalization should find Sabet “dangerous” because of his effectiveness.

The new website www.legalizationviolations.org is also a SAM project and is performing a useful function in publicizing cases in Colorado that are not getting national media attention.

Some headlines on the site from Colorado include:

• Denver emergency room doctor seeing more patients for marijuana edibles
• 4th Grader Tries To Sell Pot On Playground
• Kids caught distributing pot in school
• Colorado kids getting into parents’ pot-laced goodies
• 4 With Ties To Colorado Pot Accused Of Laundering

In regard to the latter, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has released its own statement on the case involving money being wired from bank accounts in Colombia to bank accounts in Colorado for the purchase of a “marijuana grow” facility.

The charges are big news in Colorado (see “Feds: Four men diverted Colombian cash to Colorado marijuana business” in the Denver Post). But it is truly a national story, showing that the Colombian drug traffickers are moving into Colorado to take advantage of the “legal” side of the marijuana business.

One of the myths Sabet addressed in his Heritage speech was the idea that marijuana is harmless. He noted its link to lower IQ and mental illness.

In a case out of Tennessee that did make some national news, a woman named Stephanie Hamman smoked the drug and drove her car into a church, where she stabbed her husband because he liked NASCAR. “I love to smoke it,” she said of marijuana. “Sometimes when I do, I start seeing things that others don’t. Isn’t God good? He told me this would happen, and just look, I am okay.”

“In court,” the local TV station reported, “guards walked Hamman in, her eyes were closed and she appeared to be talking to herself.” She is charged with attempted first-degree murder and felony vandalism.

This article was originally published at the Accuracy in Media website.

Written by Becky Yeh

An anti-drug advocate laments that billionaire George Soros continues to fund deadly and destructive marijuana legalization efforts across the country.

A new report shows that billionaire George Soros has funneled at least $80 million towards marijuana legalization since 1994. A Washington Times report shows that Soros’ support for legalization has placed initiatives on ballots around the world. The Times notes that the billionaire’s funds helped legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington.

James Lambert of MarijuanaHarmsFamilies.com says the impact of someone like Soros is huge.

“Soros is basically funding these movements almost single-handedly,” he says. “People like Harry Reid complain about the Koch brothers donating money. Well, this guy is negatively influencing our culture and society by trying to legalize drugs.”

Soros was also involved in an initiative to legalize pot in Uruguay. Soros and pro-marijuana activists are pushing for marijuana legalization in Alaska, Florida and Oregon in 2014. In 2016, Soros and friends are considering working for legalization in California, Maine, Arizona, Nevada, Montana and Massachusetts.

“When you have people like George Soros, who has infected our society by the legalization of pot, we can see what it has done,” he tells OneNewsNow. “All we have to do is look at the state of Colorado. The number of people who are addicted to pot has significantly increased in that state.”

Late Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis came in second with at least $40 million donated towards marijuana legalization efforts.

This article was originally posted at the OneNewsNow.com website.

A new report from the RAND Corporation commissioned by the White House Office of Drug Control Policy has some disturbing longitudinal findings since 2000. The office asked RAND to look at total expenditures and consumption of four illicit drugs: cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
 
One of the most remarkable findings was that from 2000 to 2010 the number of chronic marijuana users (those who smoke pot four or more days each week) has jumped by 84.3 percent with 13 million chronic users in America today.  
 
Expenditures for marijuana (which many unscrupulous politicians eye as a means for more tax revenue for their own agenda), have doubled in those ten years with the amount consumed increasing by 89.6 percent to 5,734 metric tons in 2010 equating to nearly $41 billion in 2010 compared to half that amount spent in 2000 ($21.6 billion).
 
This study comes on the heels of one from Columbia University finding that the number of traffic fatalities involving pot having tripled since 1999.  Currently 40 percent of all traffic fatalities are due to alcohol, but marijuana and other drugs now account for 28 percent of auto fatalities, up from 19 percent in 1999.  Marijuana is the main drug involved in drug related auto fatalities accounting for 12 percent up from just 4 percent in 1999.  If a driver is under the influence of both alcohol and pot they are 24 times more likely than a sober driver to cause a fatal crash.

When The Baltimore Sun ran an editorial about the Maryland mall shooter, who killed two people and then himself, the newspaper said that mental health problems need to be identified sooner. But it failed to breathe a word about killer Darion Aguilar’s admitted marijuana use. Dr. Christine Miller, a semi-retired molecular neuroscientist living in Maryland, was not too surprised by the omission. She says the liberal media tend to ignore the relationship between marijuana and mental illness.

“I know that the editors are aware of the marijuana-psychosis connection because I have corresponded in the past with one of their journalists who was unable to get them interested in a story on the topic,” she told Accuracy in Media. “They did publish one letter I wrote to their local Towson Times affiliate.”

Miller has researched the cause of schizophrenia for many years, and is working to stave off marijuana legalization in Maryland. “Though none of my work involved the study of marijuana use, I became aware of the growing body of literature showing its association with the onset of schizophrenia, and I now regard those numerous reports as the most well-replicated finding in schizophrenia research,” she says.

In a case in Colorado, where marijuana has been legalized, the national news media recently aired a video of a man stealing an SUV with a 4-year-old boy inside, but did not emphasize his history of drug abuse, including marijuana. The Denver Post reported that a pickup truck he had stolen earlier was found with drug paraphernalia, including empty syringes, five pipes containing residues believed to be of methamphetamine and marijuana, as well as 2.1 grams of pot.

In another sensational case, in Tennessee, a woman who said she smoked marijuana all day and all night drove her car into a church and stabbed her husband. Church Hill Police Department Chief Mark Johnson told The Kingsport Times News that the woman stated that God had told her to stab her husband for “worshipping” NASCAR. The woman said, “I smoke a bunch of weed. I love to smoke it. Sometimes when I do, I start seeing things that others don’t. Isn’t God good? He told me that this would happen, and just look, I am okay.”

In the Washington, D.C. area, The Baltimore Sun isn’t the only paper reluctant to examine the marijuana link to mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and psychosis. After Dr. Miller testified to the Maryland House Judiciary Committee about the marijuana-psychosis connection, she was contacted by Frederick Krunkel of The Washington Post, asking for a phone interview. She said, “I replied, along with my phone number and a time to call, but they never called.”

“It turns out that 15 percent of marijuana users experience psychosis, half of whom will go on to become schizophrenic if they don’t stop using,” she told AIM. “Fortunately, many do stop if they aren’t addicted already, because paranoia is no fun.” She says some people are under the misimpression that if someone is psychotic due to marijuana, it comes from what the marijuana is laced with. “In fact,” she says, “the converse is true—a large study out of Finland last year shows that in acute substance-induced psychosis cases, the cannabis users convert to schizophrenia spectrum disorder at the highest rate.”

Incredibly, however, the Maryland House of Delegates passed Del. Cheryl Glenn and Del. Dan Morhaim’s medical marijuana bill in a 127-9 vote. The dope lobby, known as the Marijuana Policy Project, is saying, “Maryland may finally become the 21st state with an effective medical marijuana law!”

In attempting to explain the media’s failure to cover both sides of this debate, Miller said, “I think we are losing our journalistic standards.” She believes that papers like the Post no longer have the “depth of talent” from reporters who understand how to cover scientific evidence in controversies like this.

Another factor, she said, is that there’s a “giddy rush” by the media to jump on the “progressive bandwagon,” which views the marijuana movement as fashionable. In this regard, she singled out CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has been promoting “medical marijuana” without taking into account the serious mental health problems associated with its use. She said liberal reporters are also influenced by the perception that too many members of minority groups are being punished for drug use.

Despite the rush to legalize marijuana for various purposes, Miller said the media will eventually be forced to cover the link between marijuana use and mental illness because of the growing number and severity of violent incidents involving schizophrenic individuals using the drug. Those whose schizophrenia manifests in the context of drug use are much more likely to be violent. She also says that in the wake of its legalization in Colorado, data is coming out of that state about impaired driving associated with the increasing use of marijuana.

This article was originally published at the AccuracyinMedia.org blog.

The George Soros-funded marijuana movement has achieved enormous “progress” in the various states, especially Colorado, and the results are now starting to get some media attention.

“Pot problems in Colorado schools increase with legalization” is the headline over a Denver Post story by Nancy Lofholm. She reports, “…school resource officers, counselors, nurses, staff and officials with Colorado school safety and disciplinary programs are anecdotally reporting an increase in marijuana-related incidents in middle and high schools.”

President Obama’s Department of Justice has decided to let Colorado and Washington’s new marijuana legalization initiatives go into effect without a challenge, even though they undermine global drug control treaties signed and ratified by the U.S.

In an email alert to its supporters, the Soros-funded Center for American Progress said, “This Is What Progress Looks Like,” citing four cities voting on November 5 to remove penalties for marijuana possession.

Calvina L. Fay, Executive Director of the Drug Free America Foundation and Save Our Society From Drugs (S.O.S.), told Accuracy in Media the trend “is very troubling to all of us in prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.”

In Colorado, the situation is out of control, perhaps by design. As I noted after a visit to Colorado in April, a Colorado resident can get two ounces of marijuana a day (at an average of $150 an ounce), and “self-medicate” for almost any reason. Even a heavy marijuana user goes through only a quarter of an ounce a day. State “regulation” of the industry has been a tragic joke.

The group Smart Colorado now reports that 700 medical marijuana licenses have already been issued in Denver and that legalization means each of these license holders will now be eligible to apply for a recreational license as well. “To put that number into context,” the group reports, “there are approximately 201 liquor establishments and 123 pharmacies located in the city of Denver.”

Tina Trent, a blogger on crime and justice issues, says “the reality of legalization” will be a wake-up call to people in Colorado and other places. The reality will include “people smoking pot in public and every third storefront in the tourist district turning into a head shop,” she says. “How do you address bus drivers legally smoking pot before their shifts start, and all sorts of people smoking ‘medicinal’ pot all day long, then getting behind the wheels of their cars?”

Trent, the author of a major report on the drug legalization movement in California, urges the public to get involved and counter the propaganda from the “professional pro-drug groups funded by George Soros.” She adds, “Legislators need to seriously consider the facts about marijuana abuse by young people.”

Janelle Krueger, program manager for Expelled and At-Risk Student Services for the Colorado Department of Education, tells the Denver Post, “We have seen a sharp rise in drug-related disciplinary actions which, anecdotally, from credible sources, is being attributed to the changing social norms surrounding marijuana.” The paper said Krueger believes the jump is linked to the message that comes from legalization of the drug—that marijuana is a medicine and a safe and accepted recreational activity. In addition, she says, legalization has increased the availability of the drug.

Following up on the Denver Post article, Lindsey Sablan of the local ABC television station reports that new state education statistics “show marijuana is the number one reason students are being kicked out of Colorado public schools—and pot expulsions dwarf all other causes, like alcohol, disobedience and weapons violations.”

But now that Colorado and Washington State have legalized the drug, the Soros-funded movement to legalize marijuana and other drugs is going global.

Speaking in Denver in October at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, Ethan Nadelmann of the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance said it’s “because of what Colorado and Washington did and what Uruguay is going to do “that the world has hit a “tipping point on marijuana.” He was referring to Uruguay’s decision to legalize marijuana cultivation and distribution. The president of Uruguay is a former Marxist-Leninist guerrilla named Jose Mujica.

Calvina Fay says people can respond in several ways:

• Educate themselves more about the problems with marijuana and what has worked in the past to reduce its use such as societal disapproval, showing youth that it is harmful, and strong laws against its use that are actually enforced.
• Start speaking up by letting their city, county, state, and federal public officials know about their concerns. When people remain silent, the advocates on the other side of the issue are able to create an illusion that this is what the majority want. Demand fair but tough laws that are consistently enforced.
• Start holding drug users accountable for harms they cause. If a person is harmed in any way and it can be determined that the person who did the harm was on pot, legal action should strongly be considered.
• Support efforts in the schools to teach kids to reject drugs.
• Support drug-free workplace programs that both deter and detect drug use and implement interventions on drug users.
• Engage in advocacy, participate in town hall meetings, and get involved in the issue.
• Donate generously to groups that are battling drug legalization on a daily basis. This is an important battle, but it takes money to sustain it and we need more donors. 

Dr. Paul R. Chabot, President of the Coalition for a Drug Free California, said, “We need a parent revolution in America. Drugs destroy families and the progressive agenda is doing just that. We need real leadership in America and at this point, our best hope is years away with a new president, attorney general and secretary of health and human services. We hope this matter becomes the central point for the presidential campaign.”

Lawmakers in the Illinois House, most if not all knowing little or nothing about medicine or disease, may be voting to legalize so-called marijuana as “medicine” in Illinois on Wednesday.

This bill allows a “qualified” patient to have 2.5 ounces of marijuana every 14 days (183 joints, 13 per day).  Even the most experienced user smokes an average of three or four joints a day, potentially allowing the surplus to be sold on the streets. Moreover, “medical” marijuana laws normalize marijuana use, which significantly decreases the perception of harm especially among adolescents and teens.

“The key to it is medical access, because once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana under medical supervision the whole scam is going to be bought. Once there’s medical access…then we will get full legalization.” ~Richard Cowan, former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send your state representative an email or a fax to tell him/her that you do not want marijuana sold in your neighborhood for any purpose.  You can also contact your lawmakers through the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000.

Andrea G. Barthwell, MD, FASAM, recently spoke to a large assembled group at Moraine Valley Community College at a conference on the consequences of marijuana as medicine.  She made it perfectly clear, smoked marijuana does not meet the standards of modern medicine. There is no scientific research on marijuana’s effectiveness as a medicine, interactions with other drugs, and impact on pre-existing conditions. There are no studies on marijuana that can be used to establish safe dosing levels, frequency and duration of administration, route, or method of administration for any medical condition.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug because it has no accepted medical value and has a high potential for addiction. There is no scientifically documented benefit for the use of crude marijuana for any medical purpose. In fact, crude smoked marijuana has been rejected by major reputable national medical associations in the country including the American Medical Association, the American Ophthalmic Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the American Cancer Society.

Take a moment now to let your state representative know that you want him/her to vote NO to HB 1, the “medical” pot bill.

Read more:

Why Marijuana Legalization Would Compromise Public Health and Public Safety

Medical Marijuana Poses Critical Concerns to Prevention

Doctors Supporting FDA Process for Medical Marijuana

Christian Medical & Dental Association Letter to Lawmakers on HB 1

 Click HERE to make a donation to the Illinois Family Institute.