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Published: 19 May 2026

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Back in 2020, the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University finally got around to tallying up what cannabis costs in Australia were actually doing to the country. The last time anyone had done this properly was 2007 — thirteen years earlier. The number they landed on for 2015–16? $4.5 billion. In a single year.

It barely made a ripple. And since then? Nobody in authority has bothered to update it.

That’s not an oversight. That’s a choice.

What Did $4.5 Billion Actually Buy Us?

In the 2015–16 financial year, more than 2 million Australians used cannabis. Around 150,000 were clinically dependent on it. And 3,422 adults were serving prison sentences directly attributable to cannabis.

The bill broke down like this:

• $2.4 billion — Crime. Policing ($475M), imprisonment ($1.1 billion), courts, legal aid, crime victims. More than half the total, right there.
• $714 million — Healthcare. Mental health programmes, hospital admissions, psychosis presentations.
• $560 million — Workplace. Absenteeism and lost productivity.
• $470 million — Other social costs, including child protection.
• $194 million — Road trauma.
• $106 million — The intangible cost of 23 people who didn’t come home. Over 850 years of life, gone.

Total: $4.5 billion.

Anyone still want to argue that cannabis is a harmless personal choice with no impact on anyone else? The numbers say otherwise and these are the conservative numbers from nearly a decade ago.

The Counting Stopped. Funny That.

The NDRI had been working through a series of national cost reports — methamphetamine, tobacco, opioids, then cannabis. Solid, rigorous work.

Then it stopped.

In the years since 2016, Australia’s cannabis policy environment shifted dramatically. Decriminalisation pushes. Legalisation campaigns dressed up as social justice. And most significantly — the rapid expansion of dodgy ‘medicinal’ cannabis prescriptions.

It is hard not to notice that the national cost-accounting exercise was quietly wound down at precisely the moment it became politically inconvenient. When the evidence doesn’t fit the narrative, apparently the solution is to stop producing the evidence.

The communities, families, healthcare workers and kids left dealing with the real-world fallout deserve better than that.

‘Medicinal’ Cannabis: Pull the Other One

Here are the actual numbers, because they need to be seen to be believed.

In 2017 there were 231 medicinal cannabis prescriptions in Australia. By January 2024, over one million Australians were using medicinal cannabis products — confirmed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. More than 2.7 million prescriptions have been issued since legalisation, according to TGA data.

Let’s call that what it is: a regulatory loophole that has done more to normalise cannabis use across the broader population than any legalisation campaign could have achieved directly. And — worth noting — there is very little evidence it is even effective for anxiety or chronic pain, which are among the most common conditions it is now prescribed for.

And here’s the thing: the harms don’t care what it says on the packet. The link between cannabis and psychosis was already flagged as clinically significant in the 2015–16 NDRI data — cannabis-related psychosis presentations were the most costly cannabis-related hospital admissions in the country. Nothing since suggests that has improved.

The ‘medicinal’ label does not make the social costs disappear. It just makes them easier to ignore — and harder to count, because we’ve stopped counting.

That $4.5 Billion? Just the Opening Act

The $4.5 billion figure reflects 2015–16. Here’s what has changed since:

The user population has grown. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recorded 2.5 million Australians using cannabis in the 12 months to 2022–23 — up from 2 million in the period the NDRI examined. Daily use among recent users has jumped from 14% in 2019 to 18% in 2022–23.

The prescription numbers have exploded — from 231 in 2017 to over one million patients by January 2024.

And the original $4.5 billion was already an undercount. The researchers themselves flagged that the cost of presenteeism — workers turning up impaired — hadn’t been adequately measured and needed further research. Nearly a decade later, that research still hasn’t been done.

Factor in a decade of cost inflation across health, justice, and social services — and that 2015–16 figure looks increasingly like a floor, not a ceiling.

Kids, Families, Communities: That Is Who Is Paying

Behind every dollar of that $4.5 billion is a person. A family. A young person whose developing brain was exposed to a drug that carries real, documented risks — risks that have been systematically downplayed as the normalisation machine has rolled forward.

The child protection cost alone — $470 million — doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It represents kids removed from homes, families fractured, caseworkers overwhelmed. The mental health burden lands on communities that were never resourced to carry it. The road trauma touches families who never saw it coming.

This is not abstract. It is happening in suburbs and country towns across Australia, quietly, expensively, and with no updated national reckoning to show for it.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

Cannabis costs in Australia were $4.5 billion in 2015–16. The user population has since grown to 2.5 million. Daily use is up. Medicinal prescriptions have gone from 231 to over a million. And the national cost-accounting has not been updated once.

That number has not gone down. It has gone up — and nobody in authority is measuring it.

The only honest response is to demand the evidence be updated, the true costs be counted, and policy be built around protecting communities rather than accommodating an industry that profits from permission.

The families, schools, and young people carrying the real costs of this drug already know the answer. It’s time the data caught up.

(Source: WRD News)

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Published: 11 May 2026

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More pets are turning up at veterinary emergency rooms in serious distress. The cause, increasingly, is cannabis poisoning in pets. Experts say the numbers are climbing fast and show no sign of slowing down. As more countries and US states legalise cannabis, the risk to household animals keeps growing, yet too many owners still have no idea it exists.

The Animal Poison Control Centre recorded a 300% rise in calls about marijuana toxicity in dogs and other pets between 2018 and 2023. That figure captures something important: wider drug availability brings consequences that go well beyond the humans using it.

Why Dogs Face a Higher Risk of Cannabis Poisoning

Dogs do not process tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the way humans do. Their bodies react to it far more severely, and at far lower doses. Dr Ashton Townsley, lead emergency veterinarian at Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG) in Torrance, California, puts it plainly.

“Even just a normal ingestion for what a human might take becomes a toxicity in dogs,” he said.

There is no safe threshold owners can rely on. A half-smoked joint left in the garden, an edible sitting on a coffee table, something sniffed up on a walk: any of these can send a dog into a frightening medical spiral. Owners often do not know it has happened until the symptoms are already showing.

How to Spot Marijuana Toxicity in Dogs

Dr Townsley says he can often pick out cannabis poisoning in pets from across the waiting room. The signs cluster together in a way that is hard to miss.

Watch for a lurching, unsteady gait, similar to a drunken walk. Look for dilated pupils, sharp over-reactivity to normal sounds or movements, and loss of bladder control. When those signs appear together, experienced vets treat it as highly suspicious straight away.

Diagnosis is not always straightforward. Urine tests on dogs can return false negatives. Many owners also hold back information. “It is the rare pet parent that comes in knowing their pet got into marijuana, or is willing to admit it,” said Dr Townsley. He often has to draw the history out carefully, reminding owners that a neighbour’s discarded pre-roll or something picked up on a walk could easily be the cause.

A 2022 survey of small animal vets across North America found that over 60% had treated at least one case of cannabis ingestion in the previous year, with most reporting an increase compared to five years prior. The problem is spreading quietly through waiting rooms everywhere.

How Long Does Cannabis Poisoning in Pets Last?

Milder cases of marijuana toxicity in dogs usually clear within 8 to 12 hours. More severe exposures keep animals unwell for up to 48 hours. Fatalities are uncommon, but Dr Townsley has treated cannabis-related comas, tremors and seizures. These are not outcomes to brush off. “At higher doses, there are some severe side effects,” he said.

The Double Danger of Edibles

Cannabis poisoning in pets becomes significantly more dangerous when edibles enter the picture. Chocolate edibles add their own layer of toxicity for dogs. Gummy sweets are often worse: most contain xylitol, an artificial sweetener that causes serious harm to dogs even in tiny amounts.

“We have to act very aggressively, more for the xylitol toxicity than for the marijuana ingestion itself,” said Dr Townsley.

A dog that eats a cannabis gummy is not fighting one problem. It is fighting two at the same time. Treatment becomes more complex, more urgent and harder on the animal. This is the scenario vets dread most.

What to Do If You Suspect Your Pet Has Been Exposed

Act quickly. If your pet shows signs of marijuana toxicity, get to a vet without delay. Do not wait to see if things settle. Tell the vet everything you know or suspect about what your animal consumed. That detail shapes how they treat it, and holding it back only slows things down.

No symptoms yet, but you think your pet got into cannabis? Call your vet or an out-of-hours emergency line. They will tell you whether to come in straight away or keep watch at home.

Cannabis poisoning in pets rarely enters the conversation when people debate drug policy. But for any household with animals, the stakes are real. What people bring home, leave in the garden, or even carry in on their clothing can end up harming their pets. Vets are seeing it happen every day.

(Source: WRD News)

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Published: 08 May 2026

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Millions of people with chronic knee pain have hoped that cannabis and opioids for pain might work better together. A new clinical trial published in Anesthesiology has challenged that idea. The research found no meaningful benefit from combining the two drugs. In some cases, the combination made things worse.

What the Study Found About Cannabis and Opioids for Pain

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine ran a rigorous, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. They enrolled 21 adults with diagnosed knee osteoarthritis. Each participant attended four sessions, at least seven days apart. Every session involved a different drug combination: placebo only, the opioid hydromorphone (2mg) alone, the synthetic cannabinoid dronabinol (10mg) alone, or hydromorphone and dronabinol together.

The team measured a wide range of outcomes. These included sensitivity to pressure, heat and cold, self-reported pain scores, walking and stair-climbing ability, cognitive function, and side effects.

The results were straightforward. Neither the cannabinoid and opioid combination nor either drug alone produced meaningful pain relief. Hydromorphone raised the pressure pain threshold above dronabinol’s level. It also reduced mechanical pain sensitisation compared with placebo. But participants’ own knee pain ratings did not improve significantly under any condition.

Side Effects Increased Without Pain Relief

The combined condition raised real concerns about tolerability. Participants who took cannabis and opioids for pain together reported higher nausea, stronger feelings of being “high,” and slower working memory reaction times. None of this came with added pain relief.

“Our study suggests that isn’t the case and patients may experience more side effects when the drugs are combined,” said lead author Dr Katrina R. Hamilton of Ohio University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Growing numbers of people now combine cannabis with prescription painkillers. Many believe the approach is safer or more effective. This trial found no evidence to support that belief.

Why Preclinical Findings Did Not Translate to Humans

Animal studies long suggested that cannabinoids could boost the pain-relieving power of opioids. The theory was that patients might need lower opioid doses, which would reduce addiction risk. Interest in cannabis and opioids for pain grew steadily, driven by shifting legal landscapes and an ongoing opioid crisis. In the United States alone, opioid overdoses contributed to more than 80,000 deaths in a single recent year.

Yet human trials have consistently failed to replicate those animal findings. The Johns Hopkins team ran a similar trial earlier using a 4mg dose of hydromorphone. That study also found minimal added benefit from combining the two drugs. In that version, researchers recorded adverse events in 35.1% of all sessions. The highest rates occurred when participants took hydromorphone alone or alongside dronabinol. The current study dropped the dose to 2mg to test whether tolerability improved. Adverse events fell to 28.6% of sessions. Still, no significant differences emerged between the four drug conditions.

Cognition: A Mixed Picture for the Cannabinoid and Opioid Combination

Researchers flagged one unexpected finding worth watching. Hydromorphone alone impaired working memory accuracy more than every other condition. The cannabinoid and opioid combination slowed reaction times but did not hurt accuracy as much. The authors speculate that dronabinol might partially protect cognitive function when taken with an opioid. They stressed this remains highly preliminary and needs further study.

Researchers found no significant differences across conditions for fine motor movement, physical functioning, or measures of extramedical drug use risk.

Key Limitations to Consider

The trial was small. Only 21 participants completed all four sessions. The study used a single oral dose of synthetic THC rather than inhaled or full-spectrum cannabis. Most real-world users do not take cannabis this way. Inhaled cannabis reaches peak concentration in 3 to 10 minutes. The oral route used here takes one to two hours. Natural cannabis also contains more than 500 compounds. The synthetic version used in the study contains only pure THC, which may affect outcomes in ways not yet understood.

An editorial published alongside the study noted that participants had never used cannabis before. They also received a relatively high single dose. Both factors may limit how broadly these findings apply to everyday users.

What This Means for Using Cannabis and Opioids for Pain

The study adds to a body of controlled trial evidence. It consistently shows that the cannabinoid and opioid combination does not perform as hoped when tested in real patients with chronic pain. The preclinical promise simply has not carried through to clinical settings.

Patients and clinicians in areas where medical cannabis is legal should weigh this evidence carefully. Combining cannabis and opioids for pain in knee osteoarthritis currently lacks strong clinical justification. The side effect burden is real, and the benefits are not.

Future research should test different cannabis formulations, varied routes of administration, dose-ranging designs, and longer follow-up periods. Until that work arrives, the combination remains more risk than reward for most knee arthritis patients.

(Source: WRD News)

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Published: 08 May 2026

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The Road Danger Nobody Is Talking About

For decades, the conversation around drink driving has dominated road safety campaigns. But a quieter, equally deadly threat has taken root in the background, one that nobody can afford to ignore any longer. Drug impaired driving now claims hundreds of lives each year across the United States, and the data suggests most communities have barely begun to reckon with the scale of it.

As attitudes towards cannabis shift and access expands across many parts of the country, a growing number of drivers carry the assumption that it is a “safer” intoxicant. That assumption is costing lives.

What the Numbers Say About Cannabis Behind the Wheel

The statistics coming out of Texas tell a sobering story. According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s Crash Records Information System, cannabis crashes kill an average of 120 people every year in the state. Between 2020 and 2024, that figure reached 602 fatalities. Even more striking, 78% of cannabis-related crashes produce injury or death rather than minor incidents.

These are not abstract numbers. They represent real people on real roads.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) found that 25% of seriously injured drivers tested positive for cannabis, edging ahead of alcohol at 23%. A further 20% tested positive for both substances simultaneously, a combination that dramatically compounds impairment and raises crash risk far beyond either substance alone.

Young Drivers and the Growing Toll of Marijuana Impaired Driving

No group faces greater exposure to the consequences of marijuana impaired driving than young people. Among drivers aged 25 and under, 26% of crash fatalities involved both alcohol and cannabis. This is not coincidence. It reflects a generation for whom cannabis use has become normalised, often without any real understanding of what it does to reaction time, spatial judgement, and decision-making at speed.

School survey data from Texas reveals how widespread use has become. Nearly 8% of students in grades 7 through 12 reported using cannabis in the past month, while 13.3% said they had tried it at least once. Among high school seniors specifically, more than one in four reported lifetime use. The numbers on college campuses are higher still, with nearly 33% of Texas college students having tried marijuana and close to 13% reporting use in the past month.

The adolescent and young adult brain is still developing, particularly in areas that govern judgement, impulse control, and risk assessment. Cannabis use during these years carries consequences that extend well beyond the hours after consumption. It can alter cognitive function in ways that persist, including behind the wheel.

Why Drug impaired Driving Is Harder to Catch Than Drink Driving

Part of what makes drug impaired driving so difficult to address is the absence of clear detection tools. Unlike alcohol, there is no breathalyser equivalent for cannabis. No universally agreed threshold for impairment exists in law, and crucially, many users genuinely believe they drive just as well, or even better, after consuming cannabis.

The science does not support that belief. Cannabis disrupts the parts of the brain responsible for tracking moving objects, processing multiple stimuli at once, and responding to sudden hazards. A driver who feels calm and in control may still sit behind the wheel with a significantly reduced ability to avoid a crash.

This perception gap sits at the centre of the challenge facing road safety advocates. Unlike alcohol, where the public widely understands the link between intoxication and danger, drug impaired driving has not attracted the same level of cultural scrutiny, despite producing comparable harm on the road.

Prevention Must Be Central to Tackling Drug Impaired Driving

Nicole Holt, Chief Executive of Texans for Safe and Drug Free Youth, put the stakes plainly. Adolescent and young adult brains are especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, particularly in relation to thinking, judgement, and behaviour. When that vulnerability meets driving, the consequences can be fatal.

Tackling drug impaired driving effectively demands action on multiple fronts. Tighter regulation and consistent enforcement form the foundation. Targeted public education campaigns that speak honestly about the risks of marijuana impaired driving, without minimising or overstating, play an equally important role. Youth prevention programmes that reach young people before habits form are among the most valuable investments any community can make, with research consistently showing that early intervention reduces both substance use and related risk behaviours.

Safeguards that limit access to cannabis, particularly for those under the legal age, are not peripheral concerns. They are central to keeping impaired drivers off the road.

A Crisis That Can No Longer Wait

The road safety community, public health advocates, policymakers, and educators all carry a share of responsibility here. drug impaired driving is not a future risk sitting somewhere on the horizon. It is happening now, on roads in every state, and the gap between public awareness and actual danger continues to widen.

The data is clear. The trends point in one direction. What the moment calls for is the collective will to act before more lives are lost to a risk that, unlike so many others, communities have the tools to address.

(Source: WRD News)