Business
Over-The-Counter Overdoses Largely Affect Women, the Young
New research out of Japan found that overdoses stemming from over-the-counter drugs are overwhelmingly affecting women and the young.
The Japan Times reported this week on data published by the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, an agency under the national Ministry of Health, that illuminated how excessive “use of such over-the-counter drugs has grown more popular in recent years, with the number of cases of addiction involving them increasing sixfold between 2012 and 2020.”
But the outlet also touched on a “more recent study conducted by Saitama Medical University’s Clinical Toxicology Center found that among eight surveyed medical institutions, a total of 124 patients were taken to the hospital for overdosing on over-the-counter drugs between May 2021 and December 2022.”
According to the Japan Times, the “average age of patients was 22, and nearly 80% of them were female.”
“The majority of patients are young women in their 20s or younger,” said Ryoko Kyan, an instructor at the center and one of the lead researchers on the project, as quoted by the Japan Times. “As for the motive behind their overdose, around 70% of respondents said their intent was suicide or self-harm.”
“I think what we found in this research was that it’s not necessarily people that are alone and isolated,” added Kyan. “It’s a lot of people who are integrated into society, whether it be through family, school or work, but they nonetheless have worries that they cannot disclose to people around them and are finding it hard to live.”
The outlet NHK World-Japan said that roughly “34% of the people surveyed were school or university students, while 26.2% were full-time workers,” while more “than 80% were living with their families or partners at the time.”
“The survey also found that more than half of the people who overdosed required intensive care in hospital,” the outlet reported. “One 15-year-old girl in Tokyo told NHK she consumed as many as 30 cold pills after becoming upset about problems in a personal relationship.”
According to the Japan Times, “in over 60% of the cases [the drugs] were bought in a normal pharmacy or store,” while in other cases “respondents said they either found medicines at home that their family had already bought or that they purchased them over the internet.”
Health officials in Japan have recently discussed proposals to legalize medical cannabis in the country. Reuters reported last fall that a panel organized by the country’s health ministry “recommended revising the nation’s drug laws to allow for the importation and use of medicinal marijuana products.”
“The recommendation was based on meeting medical needs and to harmonise Japan with international standards, the committee said in a report. The revision would apply to marijuana products whose safety and efficacy were confirmed under laws governing pharmaceuticals and medical devices,” Reuters reported at the time, noting that the country has “has very strict laws banning the importation, production, and use of illicit substances,” and that the health ministry committee’s report said “that only 1.4% of people in Japan had ever used marijuana, compared to 20-40% in Western countries.”
Japan’s strict prohibition on cannabis was enshrined in the 1948 Cannabis Control Act, a post-World War II law that was based largely on the United States’ own ban on pot. Importing marijuana into Japan can carry a punishment of as many as seven years in prison. (High Times published a handy guide in July for any would-be tokers who are traveling abroad in Japan. Spoiler alert: you are probably safer doing opium.)
In its report this week, the Japan Times cited Yoshito Kamijo, the head of the center and lead researcher on the project, who suggested that “it may come as no surprise that many turn to over-the-counter medicines that are both legal and easily accessible” given the strict prohibition on drugs.
Kamijo also noted the isolation induced by the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor in the trend.
“Traditionally, young people could go to school and talk about their worries and problems in life with their friends,” said Kamijo, as quoted by the Japan Times. “But when that becomes difficult, many turn to social media or the internet to discuss their issues and end up being exposed to information on how they can escape from it all using drugs.”
The Japan Times noted that Kyan, meanwhile, pointed out “that recently, it has become easier for young people to stumble upon information related to overdosing on over-the-counter drugs while searching the internet, and that there are online communities that support such behavior.”
“It’s not an issue that can be solved just by medical institutions,” said Kyan, as quoted by the outlet. “By having people become more aware that there are a lot of young people feeling isolated within society and their families, hopefully there will be more people both at home and in school keeping an eye on how their children are doing.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/women/over-the-counter-overdoses-largely-affect-women-the-young/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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