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Published: 11 January 2023

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The latest study involved nearly 340,000 reports to poison centers involving all drugs over 20 years. Researchers looked solely at those involving children aged six to 18. They found cases involving marijuana rose the quickest of any substance, replacing alcohol in 2014 and rising fastest between 2017 and 2020 — when weed began to be decriminalized at the federal level – The sharpest surge in marijuana use was between 2017 to 2020, rising by about 40 percent in three years.

• Researchers in Oregon looked at 338,000 cases of intentional abuse or misuse
• Found marijuana has been leading cause of poisoning for children since 2018
• Researchers warned it was linked to legalization making drug more accessible
• Marijuana is considered particularly dangerous for young, developing brains and maypermanently change their structure leading to a loss of IQ.

Dr Adrienne Hughes, an emergency medicine expert at Oregon Health and Science University who led the study, said: 'These findings may reflect the impact of rapidly evolving cannabis legalization on this vulnerable population.
'Along with increasing cannabis legalization, we are also seeing the emergence of alternative modes of consumption, especially non-combustible products such as edibles and vaping devices. 'These edible products and vaping products are often marketed in ways that are attractive to youth, can be used with more discretion, and are more convenient. 'A focus group study with teenagers found that edibles were attractive to those concerned about smoking or the smell associated with smoking marijuana.'
(Source: Child marijuana use has soared 250% in last 20 years - replacing alcohol )

See Also, Women in States that Legalize Cannabis are Five times More Likely to Use Cannabis While Pregnant

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Published: 11 January 2023

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by Prabhjot Sohal, University of Western Ontario
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry researchers have shown that chronic exposure during adolescence to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of cannabis, may induce long-lasting memory impairments and increased anxiety levels.
The study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology,NeuropsychopharmacologyThe study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, uses a rodent model to pinpoint two different parts of the brain—the dorsal and the ventral regions in the hippocampus—and shows evidence of different sets of abnormalities in each region following THC exposure.
The researchers identified several key molecular and neuronal anomalies in specific regions of the hippocampus that might be independently responsible for the cognitive and emotional side effects. The study confirms previous work from their lab that shows THC exposure during adolescence can induce long-lasting disturbances.
"Following the legalization of cannabis, there is evidence of a reduction in perceived risks associated with cannabis use. There is a need to expand knowledge on the potential negative consequences of cannabis exposure during adolescence and this study addresses some of those gaps," said Marta De Felice, who emphasized the need to have crucial scientific evidence to inform public health policy
"Adolescents consuming cannabis may not be thinking of the negative long-term impacts. Our findings suggest adolescent cannabis use may affect cognitive and emotional functions through different brain pathways," said Laviolette. "The detailed anatomical findings of the study give us a chance to use more targeted interventions that might reverse the long-lasting impairments and symptoms following cannabis exposure during adolescence."

For Complete Article

• Research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-022-01496-x

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Published: 11 January 2023

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Published: 20 December 2022

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How ‘cool’ is vaping the ‘harmless’ weed? Hmmmm?

Vaping can transform the Cannabinoid known as CBD – a typically non-intoxicating substance into THC – the psychotropic compound in cannabis that gets you ‘high’. If that’s not enough to warrant a significant level of precaution, vaping cannabis can lead to creating a respiratory poisoning gas called  Ketene, which can fill your lungs with fluid and kill you.
The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of temperature on the composition of pyrolysis products of CBD. The experiments were performed in the typical operating temperature range of e-cigarettes (250–400 °C) and at 500 °C under both inert and oxidative conditions, and the pyrolysis products were identified and quantified by GC–MS. Depending on the temperature and atmosphere, 25–52% of CBD was transformed into other chemical substances: Ä9-THC, Ä8-THC, cannabinol and cannabichromene were the predominant pyrolysates in both conditions, all formed by cyclization reaction. THC was the main pyrolysis product at all temperatures under both oxidative and inert conditions. Our results point out that CBD in e-cigarettes can be considered as a precursor of THC, thus it bears all the dangers related to this psychoactive compound. Our findings are fundamental contributions to the safety profile of CBD-based e-cigarettes. (Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-88389-z )

Vaping Cannabinoid Acetates Leads to Ketene Formation Ä8-THC acetate is a relatively new psychoactive cannabis product that is available online and in vape shops across the US since it is currently unregulated. Because it contains a similar substructure to vitamin E acetate, which has been shown to form the poison gas ketene during vaping, we investigated potential ketene formation from Ä8-THC acetate, as well as other cannabinoids acetates, CBN acetate and CBD acetate, under vaping conditions. Ketene was consistently observed in vaped condensates from all three acetates as well as from a commercial delta-8 THC acetate product purchased online.   (Source: Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.2c00170 )