Marijuana Overdoses and Fentanyl Vapors
The Associated Press and other news organizations have published two stories this month alleging that middle school students in Southern California have overdosed on marijuana. Ten students in Van Nuys and another four in Moreno Valley were treated after reporting that they felt ill after consuming marijuana edibles.
Kids being kids, I’m not surprised that some got sick after consuming gummies. The active ingredients in pot can lead to anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, and rapid changes in blood pressure–likely brought on by panic over experiencing any of the first three symptoms.
I’m taking issue with the use of the word “overdose” as correctly defined as taking enough of a drug to cause fatal or life threatening effects. Marijuana, by itself, does not cause overdoses. And authoritative sources saying so is problematic because once the lie is discovered, other warnings concerning substance abuse are discounted, especially by young people.
Just as an acquaintance of mine in high school (Point Loma) blew chunks after hitting daddy’s liquor cabinet during an off campus lunch break, getting sick from consuming substances isn’t overdosing.
For decades the government and health authorities repeated falsehoods about drug abuse, especially pot, resulting in increased curiosity, self-satisfied church lady types, and larger budgets for incarceration. If self-harm or harm to society was the real motivation, then both beer and butts would have made it on to the no-no list.
This “war on drugs” was a huge success… at social control of undesirable or rebellious segments of the population.
As Liz Granderson correctly put it in the Los Angeles Times, the War on Drugs amounts to state-sanctioned racism masquerading as good policy:
We know Nixon’s own domestic policy advisor, John Ehrlichman, said that drug laws gave a pretext to “arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.” He even said: “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
And we know in 1971, the same year Nixon launched his drug war, he was recorded sharing laughs with California Gov. Ronald Reagan as they call Africans “monkeys” and “cannibals.” Later, as president, Reagan put Nixon’s drug war and mass incarceration on steroids.
Nowadays, we get annual scare stories about drugs being handed out at Halloween, and police officers who get a case of the vapors when fentanyl is in the air. Agencies that ought to know better…
Drugs are too expensive to just hand out + there’s no possible rate of return from such ‘free’ samples
Law enforcement agencies –including the San Diego Sheriff– have pushed the ‘contact high’ myth despite plenty of evidence that it’s just not possible.
…have promoted these stories. I’m assuming they see value in keeping people afraid for political and budgetary reasons.
The use of the word “overdose” for both pot and fatal doses of incapacitating potions serves to obscure the real issues surrounding the urge to consume intoxicants.
Fentanyl, which really is dangerous, is being used as a political talking point by the racist right as an excuse for keeping brown people from crossing our borders. The reality is that drug smugglers usually bring their stuff across the border disguised as legit commerce at legal ports of entry.
California and eighteen other states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, which –without a scientific basis– is considered a class one drug by the federal government. Only four states have yet to recognize pot’s medicinal use and/or decriminalize it.
Fentanyl (and meth) have flooded the illegal drug markets in the US (Europeans are still using cocaine and heroin) largely because they’re cheaper to produce, more profitable, and easier to smuggle than plant-based substances. The raw materials for their manufacture are brought into our neighbors to the south in container ships from Asia.
I have long maintained that the nations of the First World could severely limit the illegal drug trade if they so desired. I don’t think the motivation is there. Too many people, from the drug lords to the law enforcement community, are as addicted to the cash flow as users are to what’s being sold.
Coming back around to the hubbub over marijuana-laced products, I think there’s cash to be made in pot panics. News organizations get clicks, police budgets are protected, and school districts get DARE programs. And kids who are already inclined toward substance use/abuse get a reminder that the stuff is out there.
As fentanyl has come to dominate the news about dangerous drugs, stories about pot laced with the substance have been published. The fact that it would be near-impossible for such a combo to work from a physics point of view hasn’t occurred to the editors of the Washington Post and other mainstream outlets as they pass along yet another deception.
There will always be people who seek to adjust or escape from reality. The real abuse going on is as much the misinformation being conveyed as it is people who harm themselves.
Just like in dealing with an addiction, the first step is admitting the problem exists. Our societal approach to intoxicants is so intertwined with social controls that approaching the subject from mental and physical health points of view is impossible.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com