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"title": "Even Where Weed Is Legal, Product Safety Isn't Guaranteed",
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"content": "\u003cp>Justin Singer makes edible cannabis products in Colorado under the names Ripple and Ript, and over the years, he has become increasingly concerned about the state’s lack of enforcement of the industry and what that means for the safety of the marijuana supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty states allow the sale of some form of cannabis for medical or recreational use. But cannabis remains illegal under federal law. That means agencies like the Food and Drug Administration don’t regulate the growing or testing of the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breaking point came when Singer released a much cheaper product to the market and increased sales by 500%, a spike he expected would certainly trigger an inspection from the state Marijuana Enforcement Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They never showed up,” Singer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ripple Cannabis Co. co-founder Justin Singer stands in a clean production room in his Commerce City headquarters in December 2024. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What kind of guy wants an inspection from the state?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kind of guy who wants an honest playing field,” Singer said. “Professional sports would not be fun if there were no referees and one team was allowed to cheat, while one team tried to follow the rules. It would be very not fun to watch, to participate in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he had people buy 15 different marijuana products from dispensary shelves and tested them at a lab. The testing data, \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n4evjMmJ1u1SKZEvepcscIvmgeusFg_w/view?usp=drive_link\">which he shared with NPR\u003c/a>, shows four products would have failed state limits for yeasts and mold, one by more than six times the state limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Singer looked for things Colorado doesn’t require testing for, like coliform bacteria, which signals unsanitary conditions in the grow house or in storage. Four of the 15 products had high levels of coliform. Chemical components of pesticides were found in four of the products — inhaling certain pesticides through marijuana smoking poses a risk of harmful toxicants entering the lungs and bloodstream. Singer says it reminds him of the bad old days, before weed was legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I consider Colorado weed today to be on par with New York street weed in 2008. In fact, I think the cartels probably cared more about their consumers than a lot of people here,” said Singer. “I’ve got the data to back it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026213\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A machine doles out gummies for packaging in the Ripple Cannabis Co.’s Commerce City production facility. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A national patchwork of rules and testing standards\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every state that has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/cannabis/about/state-medical-cannabis-laws.html\">legal marijuana has its own regulations\u003c/a>. In Massachusetts and Alabama, for instance, state marijuana authorities require testing for coliform. Colorado does not. Even if states test for the same microbes, they often have different limits. Colorado’s standard for total yeasts and molds is 10 times lower than Michigan’s limits for recreational cannabis flower.[aside postID=news_12026195 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy.jpg']Recalls grabbed headlines across the country last year. In Missouri, state authorities issued recalls covering more than 132,000 marijuana products due to noncompliant lab testing and tracking. In California, Mike Tyson’s branded cannabis flower products were recalled due to molds. And Maine issued its first recalls last year due to yeast and mold in pre-rolled joints and other products sold at two dozen stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there have been no widespread reports of people getting sick or dropping dead from using cannabis products, despite an estimated $30 billion in sales last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/business-issues-benchmarks/cannabis-sales-trends/news/15686835/whitney-economics-forecasts-us-regulated-cannabis-sales-to-top-314-billion-in-2024\">alone\u003c/a>. But some in the industry and health and safety experts say the long-term ramifications of smoking contaminated weed are not known, and they are urging the state to do more to protect consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Colorado was the gold standard for legal cannabis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Colorado became the first state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana; many states use its regulations as a model. The rules were written with a primary purpose: keep it off the black market. There’s a seed-to-sale tracking system and cameras all through the grow warehouses. Safety rules came later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the industry became well established, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division increased its staff and started to require testing of marijuana for things like heavy metals and yeasts and molds, and it set limits for the contaminants. The MED issues health and safety advisories when contaminants are found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The director of the Marijuana Enforcement Division, Dominique Mendiola, would not comment directly on data from Ripple co-founder Justin Singer, nor on whether the supply of marijuana is safe, but said there is a robust process in place for ensuring marijuana is free of contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are instances where we identify those risks and act,” said Mendiola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The MED has issued 97 health and safety notices since 2016. But the advisories at times include marijuana products that were sold and likely consumed months, or even years, before. That suggests either the product was contaminated at some point after it left the grow or in storage — or testing is not always finding dirty weed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do see ongoing need to continue to work on that,” said Mendiola. “And ensure that we are reaching consumers effectively, that we are providing information that they ultimately need to determine: Do they have certain products that we’ve identified as a potential threat to health and safety?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said in recent months they updated the health and safety notice page online and will soon distribute flyers to help educate consumers on safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendiola acknowledged that the marijuana industry is suffering; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1145952385/colorados-nearly-2-billion-marijuana-industry-finally-has-had-a-bad-year\">prices for cannabis have crashed\u003c/a> after a huge infusion of investment during the pandemic lockdowns when sales were rising quickly. Now businesses are closing, limiting license revenue that funds MED enforcement. She noted that they are downsizing their offices in Lakewood to reduce costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been, for a few years now, looking at those opportunities to save costs, cut expenses, in a way that still allows us and ensures that we’re able to carry out our regulatory obligations,” said Mendiola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ripple Cannabis Co.’s Commerce City production facility. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Colorado marijuana growers, meanwhile, insist unequivocally that the supply is safe and that MED is active in inspecting their operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point in Colorado you’re dealing with the safest weed you can have in the United States,” said Ethan Shaw, co-founder of The Flower Collective. “At the end of the day there’s a lot of things Colorado’s learned that other states haven’t learned yet, and one of those, the big one’s, heavy metals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cannabis, Shaw said, is “an extreme bio-accumulator, so it takes up everything that’s in the soil and it stores it in the plant.” Research has identified heavy metal concentrations in smokable products like cigarettes, and cannabis, as \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10519194/\">a major long-term health concern\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw, who said he was inspected a few months ago by the state, said anything outside of the regulated market in Colorado, like hemp-derived products, have little to no safety regulations and should be avoided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is really where you need to be worried about heavy metals, mold, mildew, filth, all of these other things,” said Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw also noted that the rate of recalls in Colorado has slowed, after a major increase in 2023. He said that the financial struggles of the industry in Colorado means fewer producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/datawrapper/URIO3/3/?initialWidth=889&childId=responsive-embed-URIO3&parentTitle=Product%20safety%20regulations%20for%20legal%20weed%20vary%20widely%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2025%2F02%2F04%2Fg-s1-46374%2Fweed-cannabis-safety-marijuana-legal-recreational-states\" width=\"800\" height=\"550\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ones who are leftover, they’re producing [cannabis] that’s the best that you’ve been able to get in terms of consumer safety,” Shaw said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Scientists say more consumer protections are needed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside experts are deeply concerned about marijuana product safety, even in the regulated market. They don’t totally blame state regulators, since there is little to no research on health impacts of different contaminants in cannabis. It’s not definitely known if any state’s testing system is looking for the right things at the right levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to make judgments on if it’s right or wrong when there’s like zero data to really go into the health impacts,” said Tess Eidem, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder’s lab for aerobiology and disinfection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said there’s some research on molds like \u003cem>Aspergillus\u003c/em>, which can in rare cases lead to serious medical issues, \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7258471/\">especially for immunocompromised marijuana users\u003c/a>. But there’s no data on how smoking versus vaping, for instance, affects the amount of contaminants that ends up in the lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is clear, said Eidem, is that marijuana growers in Colorado and other states are allowed to use irradiation technology to treat their product when it fails testing. The process is approved in food, with required labeling. She said that a grower can hit the cannabis buds with X-ray until it passes testing. The process breaks down the chemical bonds of molds and bacteria, enough for them to die or stop multiplying, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/radtown/food-irradiation\">according to the EPA\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The marijuana industry insists that irradiation is safe, but Eidem said there’s no research on that with cannabis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the first step there is labeling, being transparent about what has been treated,” Eidem said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-irradiation-what-you-need-know\">has endorsed irradiation as safe\u003c/a> for food products, citing 30 years of research, but labeling is required when used. That’s not the case with Colorado cannabis, where the industry successfully fought \u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-076\">a labeling law\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, federal safety agencies, like the FDA, do not regulate grow operations. If they did, there would likely be rules about how the marijuana is grown — good manufacturing practices. The basic formula is that a clean facility, clean air and water, equals clean product. That’s what’s required for things like salad greens. Right now, none of that is required in marijuana in any state, not just Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we require that dog food follow this, but we don’t require that for cannabis — something that many people are using as medicine — to follow these kind of basic food safety guidelines, then I don’t know what the industry is doing,” said Eidem. “And I know that the industry already feels like it’s overregulated and in some ways it very much is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, what’s required is that products pass a final test. The process can be onerous, though, on growers, who are already suffering a prolonged downturn in sales prices. Stores and grows are closing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaun Opie, with E4 Bioscience in Michigan, is an expert in marijuana contaminants and lab testing. He said the money sunk into a harvest means there’s tremendous pressure to get it to market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The desire to have a $250,000 harvest pass (an inspection for contaminants) is very high,” said Opie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opie said it would be a good idea for states to implement a shelf surveillance testing program, to monitor the product that actually makes it to consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Buyer beware\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thomas Mitchell reviewed cannabis products for \u003cem>Westword \u003c/em>and is now an editor for the Colorado weekly. He’s written extensively on health and safety advisories and recalls issued by the state. He said it’s a buyer beware market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People assume it’s safe because of guardrails that are in place by state enforcement,” said Mitchell. “But when you actually look at the end result, I think that’s up for debate definitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a dispensary he can walk to, but he gets in his car to drive to a place that has marijuana he can trust. That’s a luxury available to someone who has deep knowledge of the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re not gonna keel over if you buy some cheap suspect weed,” said Mitchell. “But 10 years down the road maybe you develop a lung problem that someone who was smoking cleaner weed won’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Some in the industry and health and safety experts are urging the state to do more to protect consumers, saying the long-term ramifications of smoking contaminated weed are not known.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Justin Singer makes edible cannabis products in Colorado under the names Ripple and Ript, and over the years, he has become increasingly concerned about the state’s lack of enforcement of the industry and what that means for the safety of the marijuana supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty states allow the sale of some form of cannabis for medical or recreational use. But cannabis remains illegal under federal law. That means agencies like the Food and Drug Administration don’t regulate the growing or testing of the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breaking point came when Singer released a much cheaper product to the market and increased sales by 500%, a spike he expected would certainly trigger an inspection from the state Marijuana Enforcement Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They never showed up,” Singer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ripple Cannabis Co. co-founder Justin Singer stands in a clean production room in his Commerce City headquarters in December 2024. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What kind of guy wants an inspection from the state?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kind of guy who wants an honest playing field,” Singer said. “Professional sports would not be fun if there were no referees and one team was allowed to cheat, while one team tried to follow the rules. It would be very not fun to watch, to participate in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he had people buy 15 different marijuana products from dispensary shelves and tested them at a lab. The testing data, \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n4evjMmJ1u1SKZEvepcscIvmgeusFg_w/view?usp=drive_link\">which he shared with NPR\u003c/a>, shows four products would have failed state limits for yeasts and mold, one by more than six times the state limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Singer looked for things Colorado doesn’t require testing for, like coliform bacteria, which signals unsanitary conditions in the grow house or in storage. Four of the 15 products had high levels of coliform. Chemical components of pesticides were found in four of the products — inhaling certain pesticides through marijuana smoking poses a risk of harmful toxicants entering the lungs and bloodstream. Singer says it reminds him of the bad old days, before weed was legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I consider Colorado weed today to be on par with New York street weed in 2008. In fact, I think the cartels probably cared more about their consumers than a lot of people here,” said Singer. “I’ve got the data to back it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026213\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-3-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A machine doles out gummies for packaging in the Ripple Cannabis Co.’s Commerce City production facility. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A national patchwork of rules and testing standards\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every state that has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/cannabis/about/state-medical-cannabis-laws.html\">legal marijuana has its own regulations\u003c/a>. In Massachusetts and Alabama, for instance, state marijuana authorities require testing for coliform. Colorado does not. Even if states test for the same microbes, they often have different limits. Colorado’s standard for total yeasts and molds is 10 times lower than Michigan’s limits for recreational cannabis flower.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Recalls grabbed headlines across the country last year. In Missouri, state authorities issued recalls covering more than 132,000 marijuana products due to noncompliant lab testing and tracking. In California, Mike Tyson’s branded cannabis flower products were recalled due to molds. And Maine issued its first recalls last year due to yeast and mold in pre-rolled joints and other products sold at two dozen stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there have been no widespread reports of people getting sick or dropping dead from using cannabis products, despite an estimated $30 billion in sales last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/business-issues-benchmarks/cannabis-sales-trends/news/15686835/whitney-economics-forecasts-us-regulated-cannabis-sales-to-top-314-billion-in-2024\">alone\u003c/a>. But some in the industry and health and safety experts say the long-term ramifications of smoking contaminated weed are not known, and they are urging the state to do more to protect consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Colorado was the gold standard for legal cannabis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Colorado became the first state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana; many states use its regulations as a model. The rules were written with a primary purpose: keep it off the black market. There’s a seed-to-sale tracking system and cameras all through the grow warehouses. Safety rules came later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the industry became well established, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division increased its staff and started to require testing of marijuana for things like heavy metals and yeasts and molds, and it set limits for the contaminants. The MED issues health and safety advisories when contaminants are found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The director of the Marijuana Enforcement Division, Dominique Mendiola, would not comment directly on data from Ripple co-founder Justin Singer, nor on whether the supply of marijuana is safe, but said there is a robust process in place for ensuring marijuana is free of contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are instances where we identify those risks and act,” said Mendiola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The MED has issued 97 health and safety notices since 2016. But the advisories at times include marijuana products that were sold and likely consumed months, or even years, before. That suggests either the product was contaminated at some point after it left the grow or in storage — or testing is not always finding dirty weed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do see ongoing need to continue to work on that,” said Mendiola. “And ensure that we are reaching consumers effectively, that we are providing information that they ultimately need to determine: Do they have certain products that we’ve identified as a potential threat to health and safety?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said in recent months they updated the health and safety notice page online and will soon distribute flyers to help educate consumers on safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendiola acknowledged that the marijuana industry is suffering; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1145952385/colorados-nearly-2-billion-marijuana-industry-finally-has-had-a-bad-year\">prices for cannabis have crashed\u003c/a> after a huge infusion of investment during the pandemic lockdowns when sales were rising quickly. Now businesses are closing, limiting license revenue that funds MED enforcement. She noted that they are downsizing their offices in Lakewood to reduce costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been, for a few years now, looking at those opportunities to save costs, cut expenses, in a way that still allows us and ensures that we’re able to carry out our regulatory obligations,” said Mendiola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-4-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ripple Cannabis Co.’s Commerce City production facility. \u003ccite>(Kevn J. Beaty/Denverite)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Colorado marijuana growers, meanwhile, insist unequivocally that the supply is safe and that MED is active in inspecting their operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point in Colorado you’re dealing with the safest weed you can have in the United States,” said Ethan Shaw, co-founder of The Flower Collective. “At the end of the day there’s a lot of things Colorado’s learned that other states haven’t learned yet, and one of those, the big one’s, heavy metals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cannabis, Shaw said, is “an extreme bio-accumulator, so it takes up everything that’s in the soil and it stores it in the plant.” Research has identified heavy metal concentrations in smokable products like cigarettes, and cannabis, as \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10519194/\">a major long-term health concern\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw, who said he was inspected a few months ago by the state, said anything outside of the regulated market in Colorado, like hemp-derived products, have little to no safety regulations and should be avoided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is really where you need to be worried about heavy metals, mold, mildew, filth, all of these other things,” said Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw also noted that the rate of recalls in Colorado has slowed, after a major increase in 2023. He said that the financial struggles of the industry in Colorado means fewer producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/datawrapper/URIO3/3/?initialWidth=889&childId=responsive-embed-URIO3&parentTitle=Product%20safety%20regulations%20for%20legal%20weed%20vary%20widely%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2025%2F02%2F04%2Fg-s1-46374%2Fweed-cannabis-safety-marijuana-legal-recreational-states\" width=\"800\" height=\"550\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ones who are leftover, they’re producing [cannabis] that’s the best that you’ve been able to get in terms of consumer safety,” Shaw said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Scientists say more consumer protections are needed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside experts are deeply concerned about marijuana product safety, even in the regulated market. They don’t totally blame state regulators, since there is little to no research on health impacts of different contaminants in cannabis. It’s not definitely known if any state’s testing system is looking for the right things at the right levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to make judgments on if it’s right or wrong when there’s like zero data to really go into the health impacts,” said Tess Eidem, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder’s lab for aerobiology and disinfection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said there’s some research on molds like \u003cem>Aspergillus\u003c/em>, which can in rare cases lead to serious medical issues, \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7258471/\">especially for immunocompromised marijuana users\u003c/a>. But there’s no data on how smoking versus vaping, for instance, affects the amount of contaminants that ends up in the lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is clear, said Eidem, is that marijuana growers in Colorado and other states are allowed to use irradiation technology to treat their product when it fails testing. The process is approved in food, with required labeling. She said that a grower can hit the cannabis buds with X-ray until it passes testing. The process breaks down the chemical bonds of molds and bacteria, enough for them to die or stop multiplying, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/radtown/food-irradiation\">according to the EPA\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The marijuana industry insists that irradiation is safe, but Eidem said there’s no research on that with cannabis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the first step there is labeling, being transparent about what has been treated,” Eidem said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-irradiation-what-you-need-know\">has endorsed irradiation as safe\u003c/a> for food products, citing 30 years of research, but labeling is required when used. That’s not the case with Colorado cannabis, where the industry successfully fought \u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-076\">a labeling law\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, federal safety agencies, like the FDA, do not regulate grow operations. If they did, there would likely be rules about how the marijuana is grown — good manufacturing practices. The basic formula is that a clean facility, clean air and water, equals clean product. That’s what’s required for things like salad greens. Right now, none of that is required in marijuana in any state, not just Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we require that dog food follow this, but we don’t require that for cannabis — something that many people are using as medicine — to follow these kind of basic food safety guidelines, then I don’t know what the industry is doing,” said Eidem. “And I know that the industry already feels like it’s overregulated and in some ways it very much is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, what’s required is that products pass a final test. The process can be onerous, though, on growers, who are already suffering a prolonged downturn in sales prices. Stores and grows are closing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaun Opie, with E4 Bioscience in Michigan, is an expert in marijuana contaminants and lab testing. He said the money sunk into a harvest means there’s tremendous pressure to get it to market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The desire to have a $250,000 harvest pass (an inspection for contaminants) is very high,” said Opie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opie said it would be a good idea for states to implement a shelf surveillance testing program, to monitor the product that actually makes it to consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Buyer beware\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thomas Mitchell reviewed cannabis products for \u003cem>Westword \u003c/em>and is now an editor for the Colorado weekly. He’s written extensively on health and safety advisories and recalls issued by the state. He said it’s a buyer beware market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People assume it’s safe because of guardrails that are in place by state enforcement,” said Mitchell. “But when you actually look at the end result, I think that’s up for debate definitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a dispensary he can walk to, but he gets in his car to drive to a place that has marijuana he can trust. That’s a luxury available to someone who has deep knowledge of the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re not gonna keel over if you buy some cheap suspect weed,” said Mitchell. “But 10 years down the road maybe you develop a lung problem that someone who was smoking cleaner weed won’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How Safe Is Your Weed? Patchy Regulations May Leave Contaminants in the Weed Supply",
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"content": "\u003cp>The number of Americans who use marijuana \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smoke-marijuana.aspx\">has doubled\u003c/a> over the past decade, according to a survey by Gallup. In many parts of the U.S., weed is legal under state law — and many Americans now use it as casually as they might have a beer or glass of wine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, finding cannabis products that are safely sourced and properly regulated can be tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new series, NPR is looking at what consumers should know about the safety of the weed supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, cannabis itself is associated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/08/29/755423290/surgeon-general-sounds-alarm-on-risk-of-marijuana-addiction-and-harm\">health risks\u003c/a>, whether it’s contaminated or not. As cannabis products \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/15/723656629/highly-potent-weed-has-swept-the-market-raising-concerns-about-health-risks\">become more potent\u003c/a> and as more Americans consume greater quantities of them, researchers say there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/09/27/g-s1-25243/weed-cannabis-marijuana-legal-risks\">significant risks\u003c/a> to brain function and mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for consumers who do choose to partake, there’s another layer of concern: Traces of other harmful substances like pesticides, molds and heavy metals, might be lurking in a tasty-looking edible or nicely packaged vape. State regulators are trying to get their arms around the problem, but researchers say they have a ways to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are four things to know about the safety of marijuana products and the landscape of regulation today.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. States disagree about which contaminants to test for\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, state regulators are looking to keep cannabis products free of contaminants that can be introduced during the growing and producing process, including pesticides, mold, bacteria, solvent residues and heavy metals like arsenic, which can come from the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of those things have the potential to cause harm either in the short term — with an ER visit for vomiting, for example, which microorganisms could trigger — or in the long term, increasing your risk for certain cancers or neurological problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But regulation is tricky because, on the federal level, cannabis is still illegal. Not every state has legalized cannabis, and those that have may regulate it very differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maxwell Leung, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, did a \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP11206\">study in 2022\u003c/a> about that patchwork of cannabis regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found that there are over 600 contaminants that are regulated across some 30 states that had legalized cannabis at that time,” Leung says. “But interestingly, in each jurisdiction, there’s only anywhere between 60 to 120 contaminants that are regulated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, a pesticide that might prompt one state to pull cannabis off the shelf, another state might not even be looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, simply testing for more contaminants doesn’t necessarily make a state’s cannabis products safer. That’s because it’s early days when it comes to the research, so it’s hard to say which contaminants are the most hazardous to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. The black market is still booming\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not only are there conflicting regulations state by state, cannabis is still illegal under federal law, which means properly regulated products can’t be shipped legally from one state to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions have left a huge opening for underground producers and distributors, some backed by criminal gangs. NPR has found that these products are often grown and processed in unsanitary conditions, with banned pesticides and unhealthy working conditions. They also typically lack trustworthy potency guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about a market that lacks transparency and accountability. Whether I was getting cannabis or alcohol or my broccoli from an unregulated market, I’d be concerned about any number of issues,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of \u003ca href=\"https://norml.org/about-norml/\">NORML\u003c/a>, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even many storefront shops around the U.S. are selling black-market weed. This is one of the biggest challenges for consumers right now. If you want legal, regulated weed, you have to do your research and really understand how your cannabis products are sourced. That’s not always easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. It will get easier for consumers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Activists, historians and drug policy experts NPR spoke with expect the legal cannabis landscape to get easier to navigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you move from prohibition to legalization, it takes time to significantly reduce the size of the illegal market,” said Beau Kilmer at the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug policy experts point out the end of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s was also messy. It took years for legal alcohol brewers and distillers to push out the illegal moonshine operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a black market for years for moonshine” after Prohibition ended, said Daniel Okrent, a historian whose book \u003cem>Last Call\u003c/em> is a history of alcohol bans in the U.S. “Statewide prohibition laws in some states lasted into the 1950s and 1960s. They were ignored, but they existed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal cannabis producers say they think over time, the safer, regulated marijuana brands will win out. That’ll make it easier for consumers to know which products to grab off the shelf.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Legal weed offers some comfort\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In states and communities where it’s available, legal weed is probably more likely to be free of many contaminants like pesticides and mold because states are testing them and pulling them off the shelves. And the people growing the marijuana plants, making the products and selling them legally want to keep their customers safe and stay in business.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11982170,news_11981277,news_12002332\"]In California, there were more than 60 recalls in 2024. That includes cannabis flower buds, pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, edibles and vape products. That’s up from just four cannabis recalls the year before in the state. Officials tell NPR that’s due to an increase in testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zarha Ruiz, who’s in charge of environmental compliance and manufacturing safety at the California Department of Cannabis Control, says the uptick in recalls is a sign the system is working and makes her proud of the hard work her teams have done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s indicative of the fact that the department is [pulling] out all the stops to make sure that the tools and resources that we have are being used to keep consumers safe,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maine, which has a newer system, just issued its first-ever cannabis recall last year. It was a recall over mold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armentano, with the group NORML, says he believes this kind of regulation is building trust with consumers who want healthier, more regulated weed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general public largely assumes, ‘Hey, it’s in a state-regulated store. It’s got to be as pure and regulated as any other product I buy in a state-regulated market.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers are still looking at how effective these consumer protections might be, but for now, if you’re getting your cannabis in a store that has regulated products, there’s less risk of encountering many contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/825275572/sydney-lupkin\">Sydney Lupkin\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/935764762/brian-mann\">Brian Mann\u003c/a>, NPR",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The number of Americans who use marijuana \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smoke-marijuana.aspx\">has doubled\u003c/a> over the past decade, according to a survey by Gallup. In many parts of the U.S., weed is legal under state law — and many Americans now use it as casually as they might have a beer or glass of wine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, finding cannabis products that are safely sourced and properly regulated can be tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new series, NPR is looking at what consumers should know about the safety of the weed supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, cannabis itself is associated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/08/29/755423290/surgeon-general-sounds-alarm-on-risk-of-marijuana-addiction-and-harm\">health risks\u003c/a>, whether it’s contaminated or not. As cannabis products \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/15/723656629/highly-potent-weed-has-swept-the-market-raising-concerns-about-health-risks\">become more potent\u003c/a> and as more Americans consume greater quantities of them, researchers say there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/09/27/g-s1-25243/weed-cannabis-marijuana-legal-risks\">significant risks\u003c/a> to brain function and mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for consumers who do choose to partake, there’s another layer of concern: Traces of other harmful substances like pesticides, molds and heavy metals, might be lurking in a tasty-looking edible or nicely packaged vape. State regulators are trying to get their arms around the problem, but researchers say they have a ways to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are four things to know about the safety of marijuana products and the landscape of regulation today.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. States disagree about which contaminants to test for\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, state regulators are looking to keep cannabis products free of contaminants that can be introduced during the growing and producing process, including pesticides, mold, bacteria, solvent residues and heavy metals like arsenic, which can come from the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of those things have the potential to cause harm either in the short term — with an ER visit for vomiting, for example, which microorganisms could trigger — or in the long term, increasing your risk for certain cancers or neurological problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But regulation is tricky because, on the federal level, cannabis is still illegal. Not every state has legalized cannabis, and those that have may regulate it very differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maxwell Leung, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, did a \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP11206\">study in 2022\u003c/a> about that patchwork of cannabis regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found that there are over 600 contaminants that are regulated across some 30 states that had legalized cannabis at that time,” Leung says. “But interestingly, in each jurisdiction, there’s only anywhere between 60 to 120 contaminants that are regulated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, a pesticide that might prompt one state to pull cannabis off the shelf, another state might not even be looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, simply testing for more contaminants doesn’t necessarily make a state’s cannabis products safer. That’s because it’s early days when it comes to the research, so it’s hard to say which contaminants are the most hazardous to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. The black market is still booming\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not only are there conflicting regulations state by state, cannabis is still illegal under federal law, which means properly regulated products can’t be shipped legally from one state to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions have left a huge opening for underground producers and distributors, some backed by criminal gangs. NPR has found that these products are often grown and processed in unsanitary conditions, with banned pesticides and unhealthy working conditions. They also typically lack trustworthy potency guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about a market that lacks transparency and accountability. Whether I was getting cannabis or alcohol or my broccoli from an unregulated market, I’d be concerned about any number of issues,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of \u003ca href=\"https://norml.org/about-norml/\">NORML\u003c/a>, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even many storefront shops around the U.S. are selling black-market weed. This is one of the biggest challenges for consumers right now. If you want legal, regulated weed, you have to do your research and really understand how your cannabis products are sourced. That’s not always easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. It will get easier for consumers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Activists, historians and drug policy experts NPR spoke with expect the legal cannabis landscape to get easier to navigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you move from prohibition to legalization, it takes time to significantly reduce the size of the illegal market,” said Beau Kilmer at the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug policy experts point out the end of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s was also messy. It took years for legal alcohol brewers and distillers to push out the illegal moonshine operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a black market for years for moonshine” after Prohibition ended, said Daniel Okrent, a historian whose book \u003cem>Last Call\u003c/em> is a history of alcohol bans in the U.S. “Statewide prohibition laws in some states lasted into the 1950s and 1960s. They were ignored, but they existed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal cannabis producers say they think over time, the safer, regulated marijuana brands will win out. That’ll make it easier for consumers to know which products to grab off the shelf.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Legal weed offers some comfort\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In states and communities where it’s available, legal weed is probably more likely to be free of many contaminants like pesticides and mold because states are testing them and pulling them off the shelves. And the people growing the marijuana plants, making the products and selling them legally want to keep their customers safe and stay in business.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In California, there were more than 60 recalls in 2024. That includes cannabis flower buds, pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, edibles and vape products. That’s up from just four cannabis recalls the year before in the state. Officials tell NPR that’s due to an increase in testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zarha Ruiz, who’s in charge of environmental compliance and manufacturing safety at the California Department of Cannabis Control, says the uptick in recalls is a sign the system is working and makes her proud of the hard work her teams have done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s indicative of the fact that the department is [pulling] out all the stops to make sure that the tools and resources that we have are being used to keep consumers safe,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maine, which has a newer system, just issued its first-ever cannabis recall last year. It was a recall over mold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armentano, with the group NORML, says he believes this kind of regulation is building trust with consumers who want healthier, more regulated weed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general public largely assumes, ‘Hey, it’s in a state-regulated store. It’s got to be as pure and regulated as any other product I buy in a state-regulated market.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers are still looking at how effective these consumer protections might be, but for now, if you’re getting your cannabis in a store that has regulated products, there’s less risk of encountering many contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "lawmakers-consider-adding-mental-health-warnings-to-pot-products",
"title": "Cases of Cannabis-Induced Psychosis Rise. Lawmakers Want to Add Mental Health Warnings to Pot Products",
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"headTitle": "Cases of Cannabis-Induced Psychosis Rise. Lawmakers Want to Add Mental Health Warnings to Pot Products | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elizabeth Kirkaldie’s grandson was at the top of his class in high school and a talented jazz bassist when he started smoking pot. The more serious he got about music, the more serious he got about pot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the more serious he got about pot, the more he became paranoid, even psychotic. He started hearing voices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They were going to kill him and there were people coming to eat his brain. Weird, weird stuff,” Kirkaldie says. “I woke up one morning and no Kory anywhere. Well, it turns out, he’d been running down Villa Lane here totally naked.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size='small' citation='Dr. Lynn Silver, Public Health Institute']‘Today’s turbocharged products are turbocharging the harms associated with cannabis.’[/pullquote]Kory came to live with his grandmother for a couple years in Napa. She thought maybe she could help. Now, she says that was naïve. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kory was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Kirkaldie blames the pot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The drug use activated the psychosis, is what I really think,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, research confirms people who use cannabis are\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35315315/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">four times more likely\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to develop chronic psychosis, or schizophrenia, compared to people who don’t. For people who smoke every day or use higher potency products, the risk is up to\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35315315/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">six times higher\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. One study found eliminating marijuana use in adolescents would reduce global rates of schizophrenia\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01586-8\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">by 10%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doctors and lawmakers in California want cannabis producers to warn consumers of this and other health risks on their package labels and in advertising, similar to requirements for cigarettes. They also want sellers to distribute health brochures to first-time customers outlining the risks cannabis poses to youth, drivers and those who are pregnant, especially for pot that has high concentrations of THC.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Today’s turbocharged products are turbocharging the harms associated with cannabis,” says Dr. Lynn Silver with the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.phi.org/work-with-us/?gclid=CjwKCAjwv-GUBhAzEiwASUMm4sYE1WqZD4Z4iqYpMm60UMxb9B7hGezMGVxymh1JyTsjszQF7jfrIRoCUDUQAvD_BwE\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Public Health Institute\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit sponsoring the proposed labeling legislation,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1097\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SB 1097\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Cannabis Right to Know Act.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Californians voted to legalize pot in 2016. Three years later, emergency room visits for cannabis-induced psychosis went up 54% across the state, from 682 visits to 1,053, according to\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://data.chhs.ca.gov/dataset/hospital-emergency-department-diagnosis-procedure-and-external-cause-codes\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state hospital data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For people who already have a psychotic disorder, cannabis can make things worse: It leads to more ER visits, more hospitalizations, and more legal troubles, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/deepak_dsouza/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a psychiatry professor at Yale University School of Medicine, who also serves on the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/Medical-Marijuana-Program/Medical-Marijuana-Program-Board-of-Physicians\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">physicians’ advisory board\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for Connecticut’s medical marijuana program.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But D’Souza faces great difficulty convincing his patients of the dangers, especially as\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">19 states\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have legalized recreational marijuana.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Both my patients with schizophrenia, and also adolescents, hear very conflicting messages that it’s legal — [that] in fact, there may be medical uses for it,” he says. “If there are medical uses, how can we say there’s anything wrong with it?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11916223\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A rectangular wooden frame holds three images of children. Two are blurred and the third shows Kory as a young boy in a denim shirt with a mop of dark hair, black eyes, and a happy smile.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elizabeth Kirkaldie holds a photo of Kory as a child at her home in Napa on June 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legalization is not the problem, he says, but rather the commercialization of cannabis — the heavy marketing, which can be geared toward attracting young people to become customers for life — and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/27/california-cannabis-gets-thc-boost-as-voters-consider-legalizing-pot/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the increase in THC\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from 4% on average up to 20%-35% in today’s varieties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Limiting the amount of THC in pot products and including health warnings on the labels could help reduce the health harms associated with cannabis use, D’Souza says, the same way they worked for cigarettes. He credits warning labels, education campaigns and marketing restrictions for the sharp drop in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/trends-in-tobacco-use-among-youth.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">smoking rates among kids and teens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the last decade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know how to message them,” D’Souza says. “But I don’t think we have the will or the resources, as yet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some states, including Colorado, Oregon and New York, have dabbled with cannabis warning label requirements. California’s proposed legislation suggests language for 10 distinct warnings, including:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916265\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11916265\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-800x389.jpg\" alt=\"Three suggested warning labels in black lettering on a bright yellow background read: WARNING: Cannabis use may contribute to mental health problems, including psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Risk is greatest for frequent users and when using products with high THC levels. WARNING: Not for Kids or Teens! Starting cannabis use young or using frequently may lead to problem use and, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, may harm the developing brain. WARNING: Do not use if pregnant or breastfeeding. Substances in cannabis are transferred from the mother to the child and may harm your baby’s health, including causing low birth weight.\" width=\"800\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-800x389.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-1020x495.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-1536x746.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1.jpg 1678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s proposed rules are modeled after comprehensive protocols established in Canada: rotating health warnings would have to be set against a bright yellow background, use black 12-point font, and take up a third of the front of the package. \u003ccite>(Image by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opponents of the proposed warning labels say the requirements are excessive and expensive, especially since marketing to children is already prohibited in California and people must be 21 to buy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This bill is really duplicative and puts unnecessary burdens on the legal cannabis industry, as we already have incredibly restrictive packaging and advertising requirements,” says Lindsay Robinson, executive director of the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cacannabisindustry.org/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California Cannabis Industry Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which represents legal pot businesses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The state should focus more on combatting the illicit pot market, rather than further regulating the legal one, she says. Legal dispensaries are already struggling to keep up with existing rules and taxes: The state’s 1,500 licensed pot retailers generated \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/dataportal/dataset.htm?url=CannabisTaxRevenues\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">$1.3 billion in state tax revenue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> last year. Adding more requirements just makes it harder for them to compete with the illicit market, she says, and more likely to go out of business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The only real option if they fail out of the legal system is to shutter their businesses altogether or to operate underground. And I don’t think the state of California, with the tax revenue, wants either of those to happen,” she says. “The heart of the issue is that there’s a massive, unregulated market in the state.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some people, even parents like Elizabeth Kirkaldie, are skeptical the labels will work. Her grandson, Kory, is stable now, living with his dad. But she’s not sure a yellow warning would’ve stopped him when he was a teen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re just not going to pay attention,” she says. “But if it helps even one person? Great.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists still do not know what causes schizophrenia, but they believe multiple factors are at play, including genetics, family history, trauma and other influences in a person’s environment, like smoking pot. Some scientists believe having schizophrenia itself is what \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5341491/#:~:text=We%20found%20strong%20evidence%20in,2014).\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">predisposes people to smoking pot\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. While it’s difficult to prove a direct causal link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, the associations are strong enough to warrant action, says D’Souza — and importantly, pot use is one of the only risk factors people can control.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Not everyone who smoked cigarettes developed lung cancer, and not everyone who has lung cancer smoked cigarettes,” he says. “But I think we would all agree that one of the most preventable causes of lung cancer is cigarette smoking.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Applying the same health education strategies to cannabis that were used for tobacco, he says, is long overdue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Cases of Cannabis-Induced Psychosis Rise. Lawmakers Want to Add Mental Health Warnings to Pot Products | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elizabeth Kirkaldie’s grandson was at the top of his class in high school and a talented jazz bassist when he started smoking pot. The more serious he got about music, the more serious he got about pot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the more serious he got about pot, the more he became paranoid, even psychotic. He started hearing voices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They were going to kill him and there were people coming to eat his brain. Weird, weird stuff,” Kirkaldie says. “I woke up one morning and no Kory anywhere. Well, it turns out, he’d been running down Villa Lane here totally naked.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Today’s turbocharged products are turbocharging the harms associated with cannabis.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kory came to live with his grandmother for a couple years in Napa. She thought maybe she could help. Now, she says that was naïve. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kory was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Kirkaldie blames the pot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The drug use activated the psychosis, is what I really think,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, research confirms people who use cannabis are\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35315315/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">four times more likely\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to develop chronic psychosis, or schizophrenia, compared to people who don’t. For people who smoke every day or use higher potency products, the risk is up to\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35315315/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">six times higher\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. One study found eliminating marijuana use in adolescents would reduce global rates of schizophrenia\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01586-8\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">by 10%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doctors and lawmakers in California want cannabis producers to warn consumers of this and other health risks on their package labels and in advertising, similar to requirements for cigarettes. They also want sellers to distribute health brochures to first-time customers outlining the risks cannabis poses to youth, drivers and those who are pregnant, especially for pot that has high concentrations of THC.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Today’s turbocharged products are turbocharging the harms associated with cannabis,” says Dr. Lynn Silver with the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.phi.org/work-with-us/?gclid=CjwKCAjwv-GUBhAzEiwASUMm4sYE1WqZD4Z4iqYpMm60UMxb9B7hGezMGVxymh1JyTsjszQF7jfrIRoCUDUQAvD_BwE\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Public Health Institute\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit sponsoring the proposed labeling legislation,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1097\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SB 1097\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Cannabis Right to Know Act.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Californians voted to legalize pot in 2016. Three years later, emergency room visits for cannabis-induced psychosis went up 54% across the state, from 682 visits to 1,053, according to\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://data.chhs.ca.gov/dataset/hospital-emergency-department-diagnosis-procedure-and-external-cause-codes\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state hospital data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For people who already have a psychotic disorder, cannabis can make things worse: It leads to more ER visits, more hospitalizations, and more legal troubles, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/deepak_dsouza/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a psychiatry professor at Yale University School of Medicine, who also serves on the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/Medical-Marijuana-Program/Medical-Marijuana-Program-Board-of-Physicians\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">physicians’ advisory board\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for Connecticut’s medical marijuana program.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But D’Souza faces great difficulty convincing his patients of the dangers, especially as\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">19 states\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have legalized recreational marijuana.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Both my patients with schizophrenia, and also adolescents, hear very conflicting messages that it’s legal — [that] in fact, there may be medical uses for it,” he says. “If there are medical uses, how can we say there’s anything wrong with it?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11916223\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A rectangular wooden frame holds three images of children. Two are blurred and the third shows Kory as a young boy in a denim shirt with a mop of dark hair, black eyes, and a happy smile.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/003_KQED_LizKirkaldie_06062022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elizabeth Kirkaldie holds a photo of Kory as a child at her home in Napa on June 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legalization is not the problem, he says, but rather the commercialization of cannabis — the heavy marketing, which can be geared toward attracting young people to become customers for life — and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/27/california-cannabis-gets-thc-boost-as-voters-consider-legalizing-pot/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the increase in THC\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from 4% on average up to 20%-35% in today’s varieties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Limiting the amount of THC in pot products and including health warnings on the labels could help reduce the health harms associated with cannabis use, D’Souza says, the same way they worked for cigarettes. He credits warning labels, education campaigns and marketing restrictions for the sharp drop in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/trends-in-tobacco-use-among-youth.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">smoking rates among kids and teens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the last decade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know how to message them,” D’Souza says. “But I don’t think we have the will or the resources, as yet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some states, including Colorado, Oregon and New York, have dabbled with cannabis warning label requirements. California’s proposed legislation suggests language for 10 distinct warnings, including:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916265\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11916265\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-800x389.jpg\" alt=\"Three suggested warning labels in black lettering on a bright yellow background read: WARNING: Cannabis use may contribute to mental health problems, including psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Risk is greatest for frequent users and when using products with high THC levels. WARNING: Not for Kids or Teens! Starting cannabis use young or using frequently may lead to problem use and, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, may harm the developing brain. WARNING: Do not use if pregnant or breastfeeding. Substances in cannabis are transferred from the mother to the child and may harm your baby’s health, including causing low birth weight.\" width=\"800\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-800x389.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-1020x495.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1-1536x746.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/warning-labels-1.jpg 1678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s proposed rules are modeled after comprehensive protocols established in Canada: rotating health warnings would have to be set against a bright yellow background, use black 12-point font, and take up a third of the front of the package. \u003ccite>(Image by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opponents of the proposed warning labels say the requirements are excessive and expensive, especially since marketing to children is already prohibited in California and people must be 21 to buy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This bill is really duplicative and puts unnecessary burdens on the legal cannabis industry, as we already have incredibly restrictive packaging and advertising requirements,” says Lindsay Robinson, executive director of the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cacannabisindustry.org/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California Cannabis Industry Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which represents legal pot businesses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The state should focus more on combatting the illicit pot market, rather than further regulating the legal one, she says. Legal dispensaries are already struggling to keep up with existing rules and taxes: The state’s 1,500 licensed pot retailers generated \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/dataportal/dataset.htm?url=CannabisTaxRevenues\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">$1.3 billion in state tax revenue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> last year. Adding more requirements just makes it harder for them to compete with the illicit market, she says, and more likely to go out of business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The only real option if they fail out of the legal system is to shutter their businesses altogether or to operate underground. And I don’t think the state of California, with the tax revenue, wants either of those to happen,” she says. “The heart of the issue is that there’s a massive, unregulated market in the state.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some people, even parents like Elizabeth Kirkaldie, are skeptical the labels will work. Her grandson, Kory, is stable now, living with his dad. But she’s not sure a yellow warning would’ve stopped him when he was a teen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re just not going to pay attention,” she says. “But if it helps even one person? Great.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists still do not know what causes schizophrenia, but they believe multiple factors are at play, including genetics, family history, trauma and other influences in a person’s environment, like smoking pot. Some scientists believe having schizophrenia itself is what \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5341491/#:~:text=We%20found%20strong%20evidence%20in,2014).\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">predisposes people to smoking pot\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. While it’s difficult to prove a direct causal link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, the associations are strong enough to warrant action, says D’Souza — and importantly, pot use is one of the only risk factors people can control.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Not everyone who smoked cigarettes developed lung cancer, and not everyone who has lung cancer smoked cigarettes,” he says. “But I think we would all agree that one of the most preventable causes of lung cancer is cigarette smoking.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Applying the same health education strategies to cannabis that were used for tobacco, he says, is long overdue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>October marks the 25th anniversary of The California Report, and this week, we’re kicking off the first in a series of shows celebrating 25 years on the air. In this first installment, we’ll listen back to stories that showcase some of the ways the state has been a trailblazer. From passing first-in-the-nation climate change initiatives, to legalizing medical marijuana, to galvanizing the immigrants-right movement and marrying same-sex couples at San Francisco City Hall back in 2004, our state is often on the frontlines of progressive change. Host Sasha Khokha is joined by Scott Shafer, senior editor for KQED’s Politics and Government Desk and former host of The California Report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>October marks the 25th anniversary of The California Report, and this week, we’re kicking off the first in a series of shows celebrating 25 years on the air. In this first installment, we’ll listen back to stories that showcase some of the ways the state has been a trailblazer. From passing first-in-the-nation climate change initiatives, to legalizing medical marijuana, to galvanizing the immigrants-right movement and marrying same-sex couples at San Francisco City Hall back in 2004, our state is often on the frontlines of progressive change. Host Sasha Khokha is joined by Scott Shafer, senior editor for KQED’s Politics and Government Desk and former host of The California Report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The coronavirus is on all of our minds, and for some, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808367/coronavirus-lessons-from-veterans-of-the-aids-epidemic\">brings back memories \u003c/a>of another public health crisis, where the federal government was slow to respond and communities had to take care of each other: the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One woman who became an unexpected caregiver is Meridy Volz. Starting in the 1970s, she ran a bakery called Sticky Fingers Brownies. “The business changed,” Meridy says. “It went from something fun and lightweight to something that was a lifeline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Meridy Moves Out West\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Meridy arrived in San Francisco in 1975, just in time to have her mind blown on Polk Street on Halloween. “It was filled with costumes and color and drag queens and energy,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy was ready for a scene like this. She’d already been an artist and activist in Milwaukee, protesting for gay liberation and against the war in Vietnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And San Francisco was like a land of promise: — liberal and artistic and free,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy was a working artist, but needed a little more income, so she joined a friend selling baked goods and coffee on Fisherman’s Wharf. Today, the wharf is a tourist trap, but back then, it was a haven for street artists, selling handcrafted jewelry and knickknacks on little card tables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Barbara Hartman-Jenichen, former baker at Sticky Fingers\"]‘It was that whole time, that whole era, everything seemed magical. Walking next to cops on the wharf and you’ve got magic brownies in your bag and you know, and you feel protected.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her friend carried a Guatemalan pouch of marijuana brownies over her shoulder, and that quickly became the most lucrative part of her business. When she decided to move to Europe, she offered the business to Meridy. Like every decision in her life, Meridy consulted an ancient Chinese text, the “I Ching,” used for guidance and wisdom, which involved tossing a brass coin six times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I picked up the coins and I tossed a hexagram,” she says, and then asked, ‘Is it correct to start to sell brownies?’ And very quickly, my answer became clear that this was my destiny.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sticky Fingers Is Born\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There was one little problem: Meridy couldn’t cook. But luckily, she met Barbara Hartman-Jenichen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barb had been a costumer for a prominent San Francisco theater, but pretty soon she quit that job and started baking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembers making a lot more than brownies. “Pumpkin bread, blueberry muffins, some little peanut butter things called space balls, cranberry orange bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One evening after handling brownies all day, Barb had an idea: “I held my hands up and said, ‘sticky fingers,’ and boom, that was the name of the business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name was perfect: a little sweet, a little dirty, and a little rock ‘n’ roll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810549\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1497px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1497\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut.jpg 1497w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-1020x818.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1497px) 100vw, 1497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barb and Meridy smile together. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The artists at Fisherman’s Wharf started sending Meridy to gallery owners and shop owners in the neighborhood, who sent her to other store owners. Pretty soon, Sticky Fingers was delivering to small businesses all over the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What can I tell you? Fools have no fear,” says Barb. “It was that whole time, that whole era, everything seemed magical. Walking next to cops on the wharf and you’ve got magic brownies in your bag and you know, and you feel protected. I never felt threatened at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They consulted the “I Ching” over every decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean we wouldn’t even go to a bar without tossing a hexagram,” says Barb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Meridy Volz\"]‘There were beautiful boys everywhere. There was a style: There were sideburns and mutton chops and mustaches. They were draped over cars and leaning on buildings and sitting on steps.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By this time, Meridy was making money. She had good friends and time to paint. The one area of her life that felt unfulfilled was her love life. So Barb set her up on a blind date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been going to UC Berkeley, but he dropped out to go to the Berkeley Psychic Institute. He was also a painter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug Volz went to Meridy’s house and saw her at the top of these long Victorian stairs, with light beaming behind her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a very strong impression,” he says. “And that first week with her I did more drugs than I’d done in my life previously up until that point in time. It was pretty wild.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They moved in together almost right away, into a firetrap of a warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District, and Doug joined Sticky Fingers Brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810559\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 489px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11810559\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"489\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-800x1014.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-1020x1293.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sticky Fingers crew dressed up in outrageous outfits to deliver their brownies around San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A New Neighborhood Route\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Barb went back to working in theater, so Sticky Fingers hired a new baker, Carmen Vigil, who ramped up production to about 10,000 brownies per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which makes you wonder, why would they draw so much attention to themselves if they’re doing something illegal?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug explains, matter-of-factly, “The way to be invisible in a situation is to stand out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’d deliver the brownies wearing outrageous outfits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810565\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 404px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11810565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"404\" height=\"730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut.jpg 1785w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-160x289.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-800x1446.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-1020x1843.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meridy and Doug made hand-drawn designs for the bags the brownies came in. One has a cowboy riding a brownie like a bucking bronco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dressing up played really well in her newest neighborhood route: the Castro. It was the destination of people from across America who wanted to come out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were beautiful boys everywhere,” says Meridy. “There was a style: There were sideburns and mutton chops and mustaches. They were draped over cars and leaning on buildings and sitting on steps. Lovely men everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also hand delivered to Castro resident Sylvester, known as the Queen of Disco. Sylvester’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAHULpMXKQ\">breakout hit, “Mighty Real,”\u003c/a> was playing all over the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy says, “He always had an entourage, and there’d be Sylvester, generally in lounging pajamas or kimono, and they’d buy a massive amount of brownies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sticky Fingers Brownies became so popular in the Castro that Meridy could hardly keep up, so her friends at a neighborhood hotspot called the Village Deli started selling them from behind the counter, friends like Dan Clowry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mer was just coming by with a big smile and her beautiful eyes. I always thought she looked like a mermaid or like a peacock feather,” Dan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan moved to San Francisco on June 11, 1978. He drove his Oldsmobile convertible into the neighborhood and saw the iconic Castro theater sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had such a feeling of excitement and thrill,” Dan says. “I could tell I was starting a new life. And I wasn’t disappointed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within hours, Dan landed a job at the Village Deli. “And by the end of the day I was stoned on brownies,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By this time, Meridy was lugging more than brownies around. In late 1977, she and Doug had a baby daughter, Alia. Meridy would push the baby stroller with brownie bags hanging off the sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They could have been diaper bags! It was a good place to hang the brownies. They were heavy,” she says. She carried up to 40 dozen brownies at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says the fact that everyone knew they could pick up Sticky Fingers Brownies at the Village Deli gave the cafe a bit of celebrity status. “This added to the the general feeling of euphoria in the Castro at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810562\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 381px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11810562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"381\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut.jpg 705w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut-160x232.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Volz hold his daughter, Alia. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘It All Came Crashing Down’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gay liberation politics were hot and happening in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy frequented most of the stores in the neighborhood, including Castro Camera. It was a tiny, cluttered photo shop, that also served as campaign and organizing headquarters for Harvey Milk, who was becoming the most iconic figure of the gay liberation movement. Harvey had sworn off drugs when he got into politics, but that didn’t mean his employees or campaign volunteers abstained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan remembers, “You know, I got there in June of ‘78, so I only had, what, four or five months of euphoria, then it all came crashing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late November, a young Dianne Feinstein made a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NikqzmwbgU\">now-famous statement to the press,\u003c/a> “As President of the Board of Supervisors, it’s my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can remember standing in the warehouse and going, ‘Oh, my God,’” Meridy says. “I could feel the earth shift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan remembers, “You could feel the shock, the stillness on Castro Street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At nightfall, a silent candlelight vigil went from Castro Street down to City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"a message on the last bag of Sticky Fingers Brownies\"]‘Give it up and you get it all, power to the people, we love you, Sticky Fingers Brownies.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The candlelight march was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever been involved in,” Dan says. “It just was the start of a whole new feeling in the Castro. Then it became anger and shock and rebellion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood changed, the city changed, and the Volz family began to change. The “I Ching” hexagrams Meridy threw took an ominous turn. “Suddenly I’m getting hexagrams like shock, thunder, the abysmal,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With other marijuana busts happening in San Francisco, Meridy and Doug thought they’d get caught. Meridy says, when they announced they were closing Sticky Fingers Brownies, people started to panic buy. Offers poured in from people who wanted to buy the business, or buy the recipe, or buy the customer list. Meridy says the “I Ching” hexagrams kept giving the same answer: not right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They decided to give away the recipe. So on that last bag, they printed the recipe and Meridy wrote in cursive: “Give it up and you get it all, power to the people, we love you, Sticky Fingers Brownies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810548\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1358px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810548\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1358\" height=\"1057\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut.jpg 1358w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-800x623.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-1020x794.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1358px) 100vw, 1358px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brownies wrapped, ready for delivery. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Changing Castro\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Meridy, Doug and little Alia moved up to a town called Willits in Mendocino County, but with no plan for making a living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pretty soon it seemed obvious that our money, whatever we had, was running out. It was a matter of months,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She started making monthly runs back down to San Francisco, often with Alia in tow, staying at Beck’s Motor Lodge on the edge of the Castro. It was on these monthly runs that Meridy first started noticing little purple lesions on customers’ skin. It wouldn’t be long before the brownies became much more than a money-making venture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it was 1981, during my run in the Castro. I walked past Star Pharmacy and saw a poster that had somebody showing their lesions with Kaposi, and it was talking about the ‘gay cancer,’ ” says Meridy. The “gay cancer” soon became known as AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vibe in the Castro began to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No longer was that kind of sea of pretty men draped over cars and sitting on steps,” says Meridy. “There was a fear. It was palpable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From his post at the Village Deli, Dan Clowry watched the AIDS epidemic unfold. [aside postID=\"news_11808367\" label=\"Looking to the Past\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/1920_Silverman-1020x574.jpg\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was taking people out right and left,” Dan says. “I was one of the lucky ones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan started to see his role change from restaurant manager to care-taker. He wanted to make sure his customers were comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of shame, and I just did my best to try to not make people feel ashamed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, one of Dan’s regular customers came in, his head swollen and purple like a grape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could just barely see who he was. But he was always a character in the neighborhood, someone who loved to dress up in 1940s military uniforms. And even with his head being all swollen up, he would dress himself up in his outfits and he’d put that little cap on the top of his head and he’d come to the door knowing that I was gonna be there and say, ‘Girl, you look fabulous today.’ You could see him just straighten up and feel, for a few minutes, it wasn’t nearly as bad,” Dan says, tearing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy started losing friends, too. First acquaintances, lovers of friends, and then her best friend, Phillip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Phillip was beautiful, with the kind of smile where his whole face smiles,” she says. “One minute we were going to the opera, the next minute he was dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AIDS was still not well understood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t know if that was airborne or to the touch,” says Meridy, “and for me, I didn’t care. I was just there to help. I wasn’t there to judge. I wasn’t there to be afraid. And you had to put your big girl panties on for this. Being in the middle of that plague, my gut never let me down there. I always felt that I would be safe. And that Alia would be safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Alia Volz\"]‘Pot brownies weren’t going to save anyone’s life over the long term but it brought them relief, and there wasn’t a lot of relief in those days.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the AIDS epidemic killed tens of thousands of people, President Ronald Reagan refused to talk about it for years. Throughout the entire AIDS crisis, there was \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-early-days-america-s-aids-crisis-n919701\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">chronic underfunding and a lack of government support\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the San Francisco General Hospital opened the first AIDS ward in the country, and activism took many forms. People delivered meals, created hospices, supported emergency funds. Cleve Jones started the \u003ca href=\"https://aidsmemorial.org/theaidsquilt-learnmore/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NAMES Project, \u003c/a>putting together a massive quilt that would appeal to mainstream America. Though it started in New York, the advocacy group ACT UP staged \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2015/06/the-week-act-up-shut-sf-down/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highly visible protests\u003c/a> in San Francisco, too, and campaigned to get early access to experimental drugs and to make sure that when these drugs came out, they’d be affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Clowry says, “When they did come up with AZT, that was the only thing they had. Every place you went in the Castro you would hear ‘doo doo doo doo doo,’ because everybody had the little beeper with their pills in it. Every four hours they had to take their pills. Restaurants, movies, bars, you would just keep hearing: ‘doo doo doo doo doo.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became clear that AZT wasn’t effective in the long term. It extended some people’s lives for a period, but it was also highly toxic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were sick from the cures,” says Meridy, “and brownies were the one thing that helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’70s, Sticky Fingers Brownies was all about partying, making art and being subversive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The brownies became something else, when AIDS hit,” Meridy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became a calling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helped with depression,” she says. “It helped with the side effects of the drugs. It helped caregivers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says he would give a sick friend a small piece of a brownie, “and then we’d go out for dinner. It was great for an appetite stimulant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’90s, Dan left the Village Deli and became a nurse. He eventually helped open the AIDS unit at Mount Zion hospital, “and I ended up using that experience in my nursing because we would let people smoke marijuana out the windows of the hospital. Anything we could do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810567\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1335px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810567\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1335\" height=\"1060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut.jpg 1335w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-800x635.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-1020x810.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1335px) 100vw, 1335px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“The Wrapettes,” preparing the brownies for delivery. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Finding a Purpose in Providing Some Relief\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When Alia was 9, her parents divorced. Mother and daughter moved back to San Francisco, and Alia was deemed old enough to help bake, and sometimes she went with her mom on deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the AIDS crisis, there were a lot of home deliveries,” says Meridy. At this point she’d been delivering to Sylvester at his house for a decade. “After a while delivering at Sylvester’s, I only dealt with his entourage, when he got really sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s another delivery that’s really vivid in my mind,” says Alia. “There was a couple, friends of Sylvester’s, who lived in a beautiful Victorian.” She remembers the man who came to the door being so emaciated she could see every bone in his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not know what we were walking into,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says, when she entered the couple’s living room, she noticed a photograph on the mantle. “They were on a beach with their arms around each other, sand on their shoulders, and smiling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a bed in the middle of the room. “It took a while for me to register that what I thought was a pile of blankets on the bed was a person,” Alia says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The caregiver was sick and the guy in the bed was on his last leg,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says, “His caretaker who was also his partner, who was also dying, woke him up to say, ‘I’ve got those brownies and it’ll make you feel better.’ After that, when I helped my mom bake on the weekends, there was a new reason to do it. Pot brownies weren’t going to save anyone’s life over the long term but it brought them relief, and there wasn’t a lot of relief in those days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"pop_103422\" label=\"Stepping Up In a Time of Need\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/06/Ruth-Brinker-1020x574.jpg\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, first lady Nancy Reagan had started the “Just Say No” advertising campaign during the war on drugs. Alia sat through assemblies at school and saw PSAs on television. “Remember that egg hitting a frying pan?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy stayed under the radar. She never got caught. But other people involved with getting marijuana to people with AIDS did jail time and took the fight for medical marijuana public. One of those people was Brownie Mary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy remembers her as being kind of conservative. “She kind of looked like the church lady down the block, you know,” Meridy says. “You wouldn’t look at her and say, ‘Criminal, right there.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, protease inhibitors came on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They started to have some medicines that seem to be — in some way — helping people live longer with it,” Meridy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next two years, Meridy watched cannabis clubs proliferate throughout San Francisco and realized her brownies just weren’t as necessary as they had been. She left San Francisco and has been making art full time ever since. She’s 72 now, living in Desert Hot Springs, where she paints and teaches art to teenagers and retirees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California today, the adult use of cannabis is legal, but Meridy says she’s totally out of the game, only taking an edible occasionally when she’s at home painting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t talk about the old days that much, but since Alia just wrote a book about her mom’s life, Meridy’s starting to have to reveal her San Francisco days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says her childhood was unconventional, “But I was nurtured, I was cared for, and I was surrounded by an enormous amount of love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy had that same kind of love for her friends and her community, Alia says, and that led her to do the risky work of making and selling marijuana brownies to help ease the suffering of people with AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy still finds the AIDS crisis stunning. “I look back at how many beautiful people passed. It was a dangerous time, but in this case, it wasn’t a thrill out of danger. It became a sense of, ‘Well, I have a purpose here in this. There’s something I could do to help a little, relieve a little pain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alia Volz’s memoir, “\u003ca href=\"https://aliavolz.com/\">Home Baked\u003c/a>: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco,” comes out on 4/20, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://californiafoodways.com/\">California Foodways\u003c/a> is supported by \u003ca href=\"https://calhum.org/\">California Humanities\u003c/a>, and the \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/\">Food and Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The coronavirus is on all of our minds, and for some, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808367/coronavirus-lessons-from-veterans-of-the-aids-epidemic\">brings back memories \u003c/a>of another public health crisis, where the federal government was slow to respond and communities had to take care of each other: the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One woman who became an unexpected caregiver is Meridy Volz. Starting in the 1970s, she ran a bakery called Sticky Fingers Brownies. “The business changed,” Meridy says. “It went from something fun and lightweight to something that was a lifeline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Meridy Moves Out West\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Meridy arrived in San Francisco in 1975, just in time to have her mind blown on Polk Street on Halloween. “It was filled with costumes and color and drag queens and energy,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy was ready for a scene like this. She’d already been an artist and activist in Milwaukee, protesting for gay liberation and against the war in Vietnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And San Francisco was like a land of promise: — liberal and artistic and free,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy was a working artist, but needed a little more income, so she joined a friend selling baked goods and coffee on Fisherman’s Wharf. Today, the wharf is a tourist trap, but back then, it was a haven for street artists, selling handcrafted jewelry and knickknacks on little card tables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It was that whole time, that whole era, everything seemed magical. Walking next to cops on the wharf and you’ve got magic brownies in your bag and you know, and you feel protected.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her friend carried a Guatemalan pouch of marijuana brownies over her shoulder, and that quickly became the most lucrative part of her business. When she decided to move to Europe, she offered the business to Meridy. Like every decision in her life, Meridy consulted an ancient Chinese text, the “I Ching,” used for guidance and wisdom, which involved tossing a brass coin six times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I picked up the coins and I tossed a hexagram,” she says, and then asked, ‘Is it correct to start to sell brownies?’ And very quickly, my answer became clear that this was my destiny.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sticky Fingers Is Born\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There was one little problem: Meridy couldn’t cook. But luckily, she met Barbara Hartman-Jenichen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barb had been a costumer for a prominent San Francisco theater, but pretty soon she quit that job and started baking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembers making a lot more than brownies. “Pumpkin bread, blueberry muffins, some little peanut butter things called space balls, cranberry orange bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One evening after handling brownies all day, Barb had an idea: “I held my hands up and said, ‘sticky fingers,’ and boom, that was the name of the business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name was perfect: a little sweet, a little dirty, and a little rock ‘n’ roll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810549\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1497px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1497\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut.jpg 1497w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42515_Pic-003_Barb-and-Mer-qut-1020x818.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1497px) 100vw, 1497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barb and Meridy smile together. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The artists at Fisherman’s Wharf started sending Meridy to gallery owners and shop owners in the neighborhood, who sent her to other store owners. Pretty soon, Sticky Fingers was delivering to small businesses all over the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What can I tell you? Fools have no fear,” says Barb. “It was that whole time, that whole era, everything seemed magical. Walking next to cops on the wharf and you’ve got magic brownies in your bag and you know, and you feel protected. I never felt threatened at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They consulted the “I Ching” over every decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean we wouldn’t even go to a bar without tossing a hexagram,” says Barb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By this time, Meridy was making money. She had good friends and time to paint. The one area of her life that felt unfulfilled was her love life. So Barb set her up on a blind date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been going to UC Berkeley, but he dropped out to go to the Berkeley Psychic Institute. He was also a painter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug Volz went to Meridy’s house and saw her at the top of these long Victorian stairs, with light beaming behind her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a very strong impression,” he says. “And that first week with her I did more drugs than I’d done in my life previously up until that point in time. It was pretty wild.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They moved in together almost right away, into a firetrap of a warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District, and Doug joined Sticky Fingers Brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810559\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 489px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11810559\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"489\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-800x1014.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42510_orange-and-blue2-qut-1020x1293.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sticky Fingers crew dressed up in outrageous outfits to deliver their brownies around San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A New Neighborhood Route\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Barb went back to working in theater, so Sticky Fingers hired a new baker, Carmen Vigil, who ramped up production to about 10,000 brownies per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which makes you wonder, why would they draw so much attention to themselves if they’re doing something illegal?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug explains, matter-of-factly, “The way to be invisible in a situation is to stand out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’d deliver the brownies wearing outrageous outfits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810565\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 404px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11810565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"404\" height=\"730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut.jpg 1785w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-160x289.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-800x1446.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42512_Bag-2-qut-1020x1843.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meridy and Doug made hand-drawn designs for the bags the brownies came in. One has a cowboy riding a brownie like a bucking bronco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dressing up played really well in her newest neighborhood route: the Castro. It was the destination of people from across America who wanted to come out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were beautiful boys everywhere,” says Meridy. “There was a style: There were sideburns and mutton chops and mustaches. They were draped over cars and leaning on buildings and sitting on steps. Lovely men everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also hand delivered to Castro resident Sylvester, known as the Queen of Disco. Sylvester’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAHULpMXKQ\">breakout hit, “Mighty Real,”\u003c/a> was playing all over the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy says, “He always had an entourage, and there’d be Sylvester, generally in lounging pajamas or kimono, and they’d buy a massive amount of brownies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sticky Fingers Brownies became so popular in the Castro that Meridy could hardly keep up, so her friends at a neighborhood hotspot called the Village Deli started selling them from behind the counter, friends like Dan Clowry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mer was just coming by with a big smile and her beautiful eyes. I always thought she looked like a mermaid or like a peacock feather,” Dan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan moved to San Francisco on June 11, 1978. He drove his Oldsmobile convertible into the neighborhood and saw the iconic Castro theater sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had such a feeling of excitement and thrill,” Dan says. “I could tell I was starting a new life. And I wasn’t disappointed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within hours, Dan landed a job at the Village Deli. “And by the end of the day I was stoned on brownies,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By this time, Meridy was lugging more than brownies around. In late 1977, she and Doug had a baby daughter, Alia. Meridy would push the baby stroller with brownie bags hanging off the sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They could have been diaper bags! It was a good place to hang the brownies. They were heavy,” she says. She carried up to 40 dozen brownies at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says the fact that everyone knew they could pick up Sticky Fingers Brownies at the Village Deli gave the cafe a bit of celebrity status. “This added to the the general feeling of euphoria in the Castro at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810562\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 381px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11810562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"381\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut.jpg 705w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42508_8.-Me-and-Dad-qut-160x232.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Volz hold his daughter, Alia. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘It All Came Crashing Down’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gay liberation politics were hot and happening in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy frequented most of the stores in the neighborhood, including Castro Camera. It was a tiny, cluttered photo shop, that also served as campaign and organizing headquarters for Harvey Milk, who was becoming the most iconic figure of the gay liberation movement. Harvey had sworn off drugs when he got into politics, but that didn’t mean his employees or campaign volunteers abstained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan remembers, “You know, I got there in June of ‘78, so I only had, what, four or five months of euphoria, then it all came crashing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late November, a young Dianne Feinstein made a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NikqzmwbgU\">now-famous statement to the press,\u003c/a> “As President of the Board of Supervisors, it’s my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can remember standing in the warehouse and going, ‘Oh, my God,’” Meridy says. “I could feel the earth shift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan remembers, “You could feel the shock, the stillness on Castro Street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At nightfall, a silent candlelight vigil went from Castro Street down to City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Give it up and you get it all, power to the people, we love you, Sticky Fingers Brownies.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The candlelight march was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever been involved in,” Dan says. “It just was the start of a whole new feeling in the Castro. Then it became anger and shock and rebellion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood changed, the city changed, and the Volz family began to change. The “I Ching” hexagrams Meridy threw took an ominous turn. “Suddenly I’m getting hexagrams like shock, thunder, the abysmal,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With other marijuana busts happening in San Francisco, Meridy and Doug thought they’d get caught. Meridy says, when they announced they were closing Sticky Fingers Brownies, people started to panic buy. Offers poured in from people who wanted to buy the business, or buy the recipe, or buy the customer list. Meridy says the “I Ching” hexagrams kept giving the same answer: not right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They decided to give away the recipe. So on that last bag, they printed the recipe and Meridy wrote in cursive: “Give it up and you get it all, power to the people, we love you, Sticky Fingers Brownies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810548\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1358px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810548\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1358\" height=\"1057\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut.jpg 1358w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-800x623.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42518_Scan_20200401-6-qut-1020x794.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1358px) 100vw, 1358px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brownies wrapped, ready for delivery. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Changing Castro\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Meridy, Doug and little Alia moved up to a town called Willits in Mendocino County, but with no plan for making a living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pretty soon it seemed obvious that our money, whatever we had, was running out. It was a matter of months,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She started making monthly runs back down to San Francisco, often with Alia in tow, staying at Beck’s Motor Lodge on the edge of the Castro. It was on these monthly runs that Meridy first started noticing little purple lesions on customers’ skin. It wouldn’t be long before the brownies became much more than a money-making venture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it was 1981, during my run in the Castro. I walked past Star Pharmacy and saw a poster that had somebody showing their lesions with Kaposi, and it was talking about the ‘gay cancer,’ ” says Meridy. The “gay cancer” soon became known as AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vibe in the Castro began to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No longer was that kind of sea of pretty men draped over cars and sitting on steps,” says Meridy. “There was a fear. It was palpable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From his post at the Village Deli, Dan Clowry watched the AIDS epidemic unfold. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was taking people out right and left,” Dan says. “I was one of the lucky ones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan started to see his role change from restaurant manager to care-taker. He wanted to make sure his customers were comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of shame, and I just did my best to try to not make people feel ashamed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, one of Dan’s regular customers came in, his head swollen and purple like a grape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could just barely see who he was. But he was always a character in the neighborhood, someone who loved to dress up in 1940s military uniforms. And even with his head being all swollen up, he would dress himself up in his outfits and he’d put that little cap on the top of his head and he’d come to the door knowing that I was gonna be there and say, ‘Girl, you look fabulous today.’ You could see him just straighten up and feel, for a few minutes, it wasn’t nearly as bad,” Dan says, tearing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy started losing friends, too. First acquaintances, lovers of friends, and then her best friend, Phillip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Phillip was beautiful, with the kind of smile where his whole face smiles,” she says. “One minute we were going to the opera, the next minute he was dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AIDS was still not well understood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t know if that was airborne or to the touch,” says Meridy, “and for me, I didn’t care. I was just there to help. I wasn’t there to judge. I wasn’t there to be afraid. And you had to put your big girl panties on for this. Being in the middle of that plague, my gut never let me down there. I always felt that I would be safe. And that Alia would be safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the AIDS epidemic killed tens of thousands of people, President Ronald Reagan refused to talk about it for years. Throughout the entire AIDS crisis, there was \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-early-days-america-s-aids-crisis-n919701\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">chronic underfunding and a lack of government support\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the San Francisco General Hospital opened the first AIDS ward in the country, and activism took many forms. People delivered meals, created hospices, supported emergency funds. Cleve Jones started the \u003ca href=\"https://aidsmemorial.org/theaidsquilt-learnmore/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NAMES Project, \u003c/a>putting together a massive quilt that would appeal to mainstream America. Though it started in New York, the advocacy group ACT UP staged \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2015/06/the-week-act-up-shut-sf-down/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highly visible protests\u003c/a> in San Francisco, too, and campaigned to get early access to experimental drugs and to make sure that when these drugs came out, they’d be affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Clowry says, “When they did come up with AZT, that was the only thing they had. Every place you went in the Castro you would hear ‘doo doo doo doo doo,’ because everybody had the little beeper with their pills in it. Every four hours they had to take their pills. Restaurants, movies, bars, you would just keep hearing: ‘doo doo doo doo doo.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became clear that AZT wasn’t effective in the long term. It extended some people’s lives for a period, but it was also highly toxic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were sick from the cures,” says Meridy, “and brownies were the one thing that helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’70s, Sticky Fingers Brownies was all about partying, making art and being subversive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The brownies became something else, when AIDS hit,” Meridy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It became a calling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helped with depression,” she says. “It helped with the side effects of the drugs. It helped caregivers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says he would give a sick friend a small piece of a brownie, “and then we’d go out for dinner. It was great for an appetite stimulant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’90s, Dan left the Village Deli and became a nurse. He eventually helped open the AIDS unit at Mount Zion hospital, “and I ended up using that experience in my nursing because we would let people smoke marijuana out the windows of the hospital. Anything we could do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11810567\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1335px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11810567\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1335\" height=\"1060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut.jpg 1335w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-800x635.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS42516_Scan_20200401-10-qut-1020x810.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1335px) 100vw, 1335px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“The Wrapettes,” preparing the brownies for delivery. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Meridy Volz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Finding a Purpose in Providing Some Relief\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When Alia was 9, her parents divorced. Mother and daughter moved back to San Francisco, and Alia was deemed old enough to help bake, and sometimes she went with her mom on deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the AIDS crisis, there were a lot of home deliveries,” says Meridy. At this point she’d been delivering to Sylvester at his house for a decade. “After a while delivering at Sylvester’s, I only dealt with his entourage, when he got really sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s another delivery that’s really vivid in my mind,” says Alia. “There was a couple, friends of Sylvester’s, who lived in a beautiful Victorian.” She remembers the man who came to the door being so emaciated she could see every bone in his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not know what we were walking into,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says, when she entered the couple’s living room, she noticed a photograph on the mantle. “They were on a beach with their arms around each other, sand on their shoulders, and smiling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a bed in the middle of the room. “It took a while for me to register that what I thought was a pile of blankets on the bed was a person,” Alia says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The caregiver was sick and the guy in the bed was on his last leg,” says Meridy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says, “His caretaker who was also his partner, who was also dying, woke him up to say, ‘I’ve got those brownies and it’ll make you feel better.’ After that, when I helped my mom bake on the weekends, there was a new reason to do it. Pot brownies weren’t going to save anyone’s life over the long term but it brought them relief, and there wasn’t a lot of relief in those days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, first lady Nancy Reagan had started the “Just Say No” advertising campaign during the war on drugs. Alia sat through assemblies at school and saw PSAs on television. “Remember that egg hitting a frying pan?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy stayed under the radar. She never got caught. But other people involved with getting marijuana to people with AIDS did jail time and took the fight for medical marijuana public. One of those people was Brownie Mary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy remembers her as being kind of conservative. “She kind of looked like the church lady down the block, you know,” Meridy says. “You wouldn’t look at her and say, ‘Criminal, right there.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, protease inhibitors came on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They started to have some medicines that seem to be — in some way — helping people live longer with it,” Meridy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next two years, Meridy watched cannabis clubs proliferate throughout San Francisco and realized her brownies just weren’t as necessary as they had been. She left San Francisco and has been making art full time ever since. She’s 72 now, living in Desert Hot Springs, where she paints and teaches art to teenagers and retirees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California today, the adult use of cannabis is legal, but Meridy says she’s totally out of the game, only taking an edible occasionally when she’s at home painting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t talk about the old days that much, but since Alia just wrote a book about her mom’s life, Meridy’s starting to have to reveal her San Francisco days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alia says her childhood was unconventional, “But I was nurtured, I was cared for, and I was surrounded by an enormous amount of love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy had that same kind of love for her friends and her community, Alia says, and that led her to do the risky work of making and selling marijuana brownies to help ease the suffering of people with AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridy still finds the AIDS crisis stunning. “I look back at how many beautiful people passed. It was a dangerous time, but in this case, it wasn’t a thrill out of danger. It became a sense of, ‘Well, I have a purpose here in this. There’s something I could do to help a little, relieve a little pain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alia Volz’s memoir, “\u003ca href=\"https://aliavolz.com/\">Home Baked\u003c/a>: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco,” comes out on 4/20, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://californiafoodways.com/\">California Foodways\u003c/a> is supported by \u003ca href=\"https://calhum.org/\">California Humanities\u003c/a>, and the \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/\">Food and Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/70a1ce4810f74ba2a31af5f9ade9bd86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new study\u003c/a> shoots down the notion that medical marijuana laws can prevent opioid overdose deaths, challenging a favorite talking point of legal pot advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related stories\" tag=\"medical-marijuana\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers reexamined a 2014 analysis that linked medical marijuana laws to slower than expected increases in state prescription opioid death rates between 1999 to 2010. The original authors speculated patients might be substituting marijuana for painkillers, but they warned against drawing conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when the new researchers included data through 2017, by which time many more states had legalized medical marijuana, they found the reverse: Those states actually saw a 23% higher-than-expected rate of deaths involving prescription opioids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing medical marijuana “is not going to be a solution to the opioid overdose crisis,” said Chelsea Shover of Stanford University School of Medicine. “It would be wonderful if that were true, but the evidence doesn’t suggest that it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shover and colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/embargoed-pot-study.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported the findings\u003c/a> Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s unlikely, they said, that medical marijuana laws initially caused one big effect and then the opposite. Any beneficial link was likely coincidental all along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think it’s reasonable to say it was saving lives before, but it’s killing people now,” Shover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lower rates of opioid deaths were likely due to a combination of other factors in states that first legalized medical marijuana, said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, who helped lead the study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The states that legalized first tended to be wealthier states,” he said. “They’re more blue politically, they have more health care, they use naloxone more, they jail people for drug use less. And all these differences could account for why the overdose rates in those states are different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, prescription pills once were involved in the largest share of overdose deaths, but that changed as use of heroin, and then fentanyl, surged. The studies on marijuana laws and opioid deaths don’t account for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new study undermines recent policy changes in some states. Last week, New Mexico joined New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in approving marijuana for patients with opioid addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authors of the original research welcomed the new analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We weren’t happy when a billboard went up saying marijuana laws reduce overdose deaths,” said Brendan Saloner of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “That was very hard for us to rein in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marijuana has been shown to help ease chronic pain, and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/70a1ce4810f74ba2a31af5f9ade9bd86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other studies\u003c/a> have suggested medical marijuana laws may reduce opioid prescribing. So there’s still reason to believe that for some people, marijuana can serve as a substitute for opioids as a pain reliever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for addiction and the overdose crisis, “we should focus our research and policies on other questions that might make a difference,” Shover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Laura Klivans contributed reporting to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers reexamined a 2014 analysis that linked medical marijuana laws to slower than expected increases in state prescription opioid death rates between 1999 to 2010. The original authors speculated patients might be substituting marijuana for painkillers, but they warned against drawing conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when the new researchers included data through 2017, by which time many more states had legalized medical marijuana, they found the reverse: Those states actually saw a 23% higher-than-expected rate of deaths involving prescription opioids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing medical marijuana “is not going to be a solution to the opioid overdose crisis,” said Chelsea Shover of Stanford University School of Medicine. “It would be wonderful if that were true, but the evidence doesn’t suggest that it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shover and colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/embargoed-pot-study.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported the findings\u003c/a> Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s unlikely, they said, that medical marijuana laws initially caused one big effect and then the opposite. Any beneficial link was likely coincidental all along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think it’s reasonable to say it was saving lives before, but it’s killing people now,” Shover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lower rates of opioid deaths were likely due to a combination of other factors in states that first legalized medical marijuana, said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, who helped lead the study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The states that legalized first tended to be wealthier states,” he said. “They’re more blue politically, they have more health care, they use naloxone more, they jail people for drug use less. And all these differences could account for why the overdose rates in those states are different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, prescription pills once were involved in the largest share of overdose deaths, but that changed as use of heroin, and then fentanyl, surged. The studies on marijuana laws and opioid deaths don’t account for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new study undermines recent policy changes in some states. Last week, New Mexico joined New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in approving marijuana for patients with opioid addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authors of the original research welcomed the new analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We weren’t happy when a billboard went up saying marijuana laws reduce overdose deaths,” said Brendan Saloner of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “That was very hard for us to rein in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marijuana has been shown to help ease chronic pain, and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/70a1ce4810f74ba2a31af5f9ade9bd86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other studies\u003c/a> have suggested medical marijuana laws may reduce opioid prescribing. So there’s still reason to believe that for some people, marijuana can serve as a substitute for opioids as a pain reliever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for addiction and the overdose crisis, “we should focus our research and policies on other questions that might make a difference,” Shover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Laura Klivans contributed reporting to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Dispute Over Rules Riles California's Legal Pot Market",
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"content": "\u003cp>California has finalized its rules governing the nation’s largest legal marijuana market, a milestone coming more than a year after the state broadly legalized cannabis sales for adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a dispute over home deliveries into communities that ban pot sales could end up in court. The hundreds of pages of dense regulations are unlikely to resolve other disputes, including how purity and potency tests are conducted for infused cookies and other products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if imperfect, the rules were welcomed by many in the industry, who have been contending with shifting temporary regulations since California kicked off broad legal sales last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11715305/californias-year-of-legal-pot-a-mix-of-gains-growing-pains\">California’s Year of Legal Pot a Mix of Gains, Growing Pains\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11715305/californias-year-of-legal-pot-a-mix-of-gains-growing-pains\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS21423_161007_greendoor_bhs07-qut-1180x774.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Love it or hate it, California has regulations for commercial cannabis,” said Hezekiah Allen, chair of cannabis growing cooperative Emerald Grown and former executive director of the California Growers Association, an industry group. “There are no asterisks.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the regulations that deal with the minutia of running a legal pot business do not address other broad challenges in the industry, from a lack of banking access for pot companies that will likely need to be resolved in Washington to what to do about a thriving illicit market that is undercutting legal sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do these solve every problem that exists in the cannabis business regulatory regime? Absolutely not,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, a Democrat from Oakland who said the rules nonetheless create a strong foundation for a market that has gotten off to a shaky start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By far the biggest dispute focused on deliveries. The rules released last week will allow home marijuana deliveries statewide, even into communities that have banned commercial pot sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The regulation by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control was opposed by police chiefs and other critics who predict it will create an unruly market of largely hidden pot transactions, while undercutting control by cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The League of California Cities said the rule conflicts with Proposition 64, the law approved by voters in 2016 that opened the way for broad legal sales, which says local governments have the authority to ban nonmedical pot businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This decision puts the public safety needs of communities across the state at risk,” league executive director Carolyn Coleman said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many cannabis companies and consumers had pushed for the change, since vast stretches of the state have communities that banned commercial pot activity or not set up rules to allow legal sales. That means residents in those areas were effectively cut off from legal marijuana purchases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public spoke loud and clear in favor of statewide delivery,” cannabis bureau spokesman Alex Traverso said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said he supports statewide deliveries for medical patients, regardless of local bans, but not recreational users. He suggested legislation may be needed to deal with the dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenny Morrison, president of the California Cannabis Manufacturers Association, said California failed to examine the experience in other states, which in turn has created costly problems for California companies with labeling and testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industry officials have complained that the state rules force growers and manufacturers to hit too tiny a target when gauging levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes marijuana’s high, in products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rules require the THC concentration come within 10 percent of what is advertised on a product label. Company executives say some products are being rejected after landing outside the margin by small amounts, and that hitting that required range is even more difficult with low-dose products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colorado allows a more sensible 15-percent range, Morrison said. He said the state also should be mirroring rules set by the federal government, which could eventually oversee the national pot market. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody cares more about the quality of the product than the manufacturer,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruben Honig, executive director of Los Angeles-based United Cannabis Business Association, said the state’s biggest challenges remain cutting hefty tax rates that can approach 50 percent in some communities and cracking down on widespread illegal sales.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California has finalized its rules governing the nation’s largest legal marijuana market, a milestone coming more than a year after the state broadly legalized cannabis sales for adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a dispute over home deliveries into communities that ban pot sales could end up in court. The hundreds of pages of dense regulations are unlikely to resolve other disputes, including how purity and potency tests are conducted for infused cookies and other products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if imperfect, the rules were welcomed by many in the industry, who have been contending with shifting temporary regulations since California kicked off broad legal sales last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11715305/californias-year-of-legal-pot-a-mix-of-gains-growing-pains\">California’s Year of Legal Pot a Mix of Gains, Growing Pains\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11715305/californias-year-of-legal-pot-a-mix-of-gains-growing-pains\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS21423_161007_greendoor_bhs07-qut-1180x774.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Love it or hate it, California has regulations for commercial cannabis,” said Hezekiah Allen, chair of cannabis growing cooperative Emerald Grown and former executive director of the California Growers Association, an industry group. “There are no asterisks.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the regulations that deal with the minutia of running a legal pot business do not address other broad challenges in the industry, from a lack of banking access for pot companies that will likely need to be resolved in Washington to what to do about a thriving illicit market that is undercutting legal sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do these solve every problem that exists in the cannabis business regulatory regime? Absolutely not,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, a Democrat from Oakland who said the rules nonetheless create a strong foundation for a market that has gotten off to a shaky start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By far the biggest dispute focused on deliveries. The rules released last week will allow home marijuana deliveries statewide, even into communities that have banned commercial pot sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The regulation by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control was opposed by police chiefs and other critics who predict it will create an unruly market of largely hidden pot transactions, while undercutting control by cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The League of California Cities said the rule conflicts with Proposition 64, the law approved by voters in 2016 that opened the way for broad legal sales, which says local governments have the authority to ban nonmedical pot businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This decision puts the public safety needs of communities across the state at risk,” league executive director Carolyn Coleman said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many cannabis companies and consumers had pushed for the change, since vast stretches of the state have communities that banned commercial pot activity or not set up rules to allow legal sales. That means residents in those areas were effectively cut off from legal marijuana purchases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public spoke loud and clear in favor of statewide delivery,” cannabis bureau spokesman Alex Traverso said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said he supports statewide deliveries for medical patients, regardless of local bans, but not recreational users. He suggested legislation may be needed to deal with the dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenny Morrison, president of the California Cannabis Manufacturers Association, said California failed to examine the experience in other states, which in turn has created costly problems for California companies with labeling and testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industry officials have complained that the state rules force growers and manufacturers to hit too tiny a target when gauging levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes marijuana’s high, in products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rules require the THC concentration come within 10 percent of what is advertised on a product label. Company executives say some products are being rejected after landing outside the margin by small amounts, and that hitting that required range is even more difficult with low-dose products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colorado allows a more sensible 15-percent range, Morrison said. He said the state also should be mirroring rules set by the federal government, which could eventually oversee the national pot market. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody cares more about the quality of the product than the manufacturer,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruben Honig, executive director of Los Angeles-based United Cannabis Business Association, said the state’s biggest challenges remain cutting hefty tax rates that can approach 50 percent in some communities and cracking down on widespread illegal sales.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand, police across the country are more concerned than ever about stoned drivers taking to the nation's roads and freeways, endangering lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With few accurate roadside tools to detect pot impairment, police today have to rely largely on field sobriety tests developed to fight drunk driving or old-fashioned observation, which can be foiled with Visine or breath mints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has left police, courts, public health advocates and recreational marijuana users themselves frustrated. Nine states and the District of Columbia \u003ca href=\"https://marijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=006868\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have legalized recreational marijuana\u003c/a> and 30 states and D.C. have legalized medical pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now one California company claims it has made a major breakthrough in creating what some thought of as a unicorn: a marijuana breathalyzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are trying to make the establishment of impairment around marijuana rational and to balance fairness and safety,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://houndlabs.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hound Labs\u003c/a> CEO Mike Lynn in his downtown Oakland, Calif., office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a freshly pressed dress shirt and short hair, it's clear Lynn is no stoner inventor with a pipe dream. The former venture capitalist is a practicing emergency room trauma physician in Oakland and an active SWAT team deputy reserve sheriff for Alameda County, Calif. He knows first hand the devastating effects drugged and drunk driving can have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He picks up a small plastic box. \"This is a disposable cartridge. And there's a whole bunch of science in this cartridge,\" Lynn says as he slips it into the device about the size of a large mobile phone. A small plastic tube sticks out of one end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He starts to blow into the tube for the required thirty seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indicator bars start to show whether the machine detects any THC in his breath. THC is the psychoactive component in pot that gets you high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hound Labs says its device can accurately detect whether a person has smoked pot in the last two hours, a window many consider the peak impairment time frame. \"When you find THC in breath, you can be pretty darn sure that somebody smoked pot in the last couple of hours,\" Lynn says. \"And we don't want to have people driving during that time period or, frankly, at a work site in a construction zone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lynn then slides the cartridge into a small base station the size of a laptop, used to protect against cold or hot extremes. The breathalyzer needs a consistent temperature to have consistent results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The device also doubles as an alcohol breathalyzer, giving police an easy-to-use roadside for both intoxicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 666px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd.jpg\" alt=\"Hound Labs' breathalyzer and base station.\" width=\"666\" height=\"499\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11684894\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd.jpg 666w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 666px) 100vw, 666px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hound Labs' breathalyzer and base station. \u003ccite>(Hound Labs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About four minutes later, the results are in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Negative. No THC or alcohol in Lynn's system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For law enforcement, Lynn says, \"really the key is objective data at the roadside, just like we have for alcohol.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tools now on the market to determine marijuana test blood, saliva or urine can take days for a result. More importantly, they can't really tell whether a person has smoked a half hour ago or eight days ago. THC dissolves in fat so it can stay in your body up to a month after use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lynn claims the company has overcome the technical and scientific hurdles and can accurately measure THC in breath molecules in parts per trillion. That's \"kind of like putting together more than a dozen Olympic size swimming pools and saying, 'Hey, go find those 10 specific drops of water and in those 10 pools put together.' It is it is ridiculous how little [THC] there is\" in breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcohol impairment is measured in parts per thousand. \"THC is something like a billion times less concentrated than alcohol. That's why it hasn't been done before because it's really hard. It's taken us five years to overcome those scientific obstacles.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The machine detects THC's mere presence in the breath, but it cannot calculate the amount of THC consumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police are trying to figure out who is potentially impaired, Lynn says, compared to \"somebody who smoked maybe yesterday or a few days ago and is not impaired. They're not in the business of arresting people that are not impaired when it comes to marijuana. That makes no sense at all.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few police departments plan to start testing Hound Labs' breathalyzer this fall. \"They're interested in it providing objective data for them at the roadside,\" says Lynn. \"That's really the key, objective data at the roadside — just like we have for alcohol.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What constitutes impairment?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There's still no agreement on what amount or level of THC in breath, blood or saliva constitutes functional impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/drugged-driving-overview.aspx\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">only seven states\u003c/a>, including Washington and Montana, have set legal guidelines as to how much THC in the system makes you dangerous behind the wheel. Yet some \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/30/523004450/scientists-still-seek-a-reliable-dui-test-for-marijuana\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scientists are skeptical\u003c/a>, saying those limits aren't really backed by hard science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of the country, courts, police and scientists haven't been able to agree on which THC level constitutes functional impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies on marijuana and driving, post-legalization, have been mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drug-impaired-driving\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">One survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration\u003c/a> showed that, while marijuana users are more likely to be involved in crashes, that risk may be in part because of demographics. Pot users are also more likely to be young men, a group already at high risk for car wrecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugged driving incidents have risen steadily over the last decade plus, paralleling the nation's opioid abuse crisis and decriminalization of pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"Christine Glenn sorts marijuana at the Blum marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11684896\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Glenn sorts marijuana at the Blum marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas. \u003ccite>(John Locher/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Governor's Highway Safety Association\u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20180711/108525/HHRG-115-IF17-20180711-SD003.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> raised the alarm in a recent report\u003c/a> saying State Highway Safety Officers now rate drug-impaired driving \"equal to or more important than driving while impaired by alcohol.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Colorado, one analysis of highway safety after pot legalization showed that the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes \u003ca href=\"https://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/25/colorado-marijuana-traffic-fatalities/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who tested positive for marijuana is up significantly.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Washington state, where recreational pot is legal, a \u003ca href=\"http://wtsc.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/04/Marijuana-and-Alcohol-Involvement-in-Fatal-Crashes-in-WA_FINAL.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study from April of this year\u003c/a> showed that of drivers in fatal crashes who were tested for intoxicants — 61 percent were positive for alcohol and or drugs in their system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research by the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University showed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/young-fatal-crash-victims-used-either-alcohol-or-marijuana\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">half of young drivers, age 16 to 25, who died in car crashes\u003c/a> were under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to what extent and how long marijuana affects driving response, judgment and skill is not yet fully known. And what role, if any, THC played in those car crashes is unclear. \"We need more research to establish the dose-response relationship between THC level and crash risk,\" says epidemiologist Guohua Li, who directs the Columbia center and conducted that study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li, who calls drugged driving \"a silent epidemic,\" says that additional research is vital because \"there's a widespread misconception that it's OK and is safe to drive after smoking pot. And the public — especially teenage drivers — are not well aware of some of the hazards of drugs such as marijuana on driving.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/index.php/2015-11-20-20-52-15/active-studies/62-ab266\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">major study underway\u003c/a> on driving impairment at University of California San Diego's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is scheduled to wrap up next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not only looking at how impaired a driver is at different levels of smoking, but also how long that impairment lasts,\" the study's lead author, Thomas Marcotte, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927766/state-funded-marijuana-study-could-lead-to-better-policing-on-roads\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently told Member Station KQED.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other groups, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., are working on creating standards for a marijuana DUI detection test.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Police eager for help\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Police in a handful of cities, including Boston, are set to partner with Hound Labs to start field testing their weed breathalyzer this fall. The company hopes to have a product ready to sell to law enforcement and industry by early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's going to be a major issue in our city as more and more motorists drive after the legalization of recreational pot,\" Boston's Police Commissioner, William Evans, told NPR in an email. He says the department would soon test Hound Labs' breathalyzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evans, who retires this week, added, \"I opposed the legalization, now we need tools to combat its ill effects. These instruments by Hound Labs and others are going to become necessary.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while police departments are optimistic, they're taking a wait and see approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We'd like to get to point where there's a little more courtroom acceptance and a little more acceptance in the scientific community,\" says Kevin Davis, assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol Enforcement and Planning Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis says while these breathalyzer devices hold promise, his agency's questions about courtroom admissibility and liability will, for now, keep the CHP on the sidelines of beta testing such devices. \"We're obviously very excited about the prospect of having a tool like that in our officers' hands,\" Davis says, \"assuming we can identify the best ways of when and how it should be used, and how it will be admitted in court, and things of that nature.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, he says, the CHP will rely mostly on roadside sobriety tests by officers to make an initial determination on impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis says the CHP plans to train up more officers to detect drugged drivers under its Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.chp.ca.gov/programs-services/for-law-enforcement/drug-recognition-evaluator-program/schedule-of-classes/aride\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">program\u003c/a>. It's a 16-hour classroom course followed by field work to learn how to conduct cognitive tests and detect physical signs of impairment by marijuana or other drugs. The agency also offers a more in-depth Drug Recognition Expert \u003ca href=\"https://www.chp.ca.gov/programs-services/for-law-enforcement/drug-recognition-evaluator-program/schedule-of-classes/dre\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">(DRE) course\u003c/a> to train officers on how to detect and deter drugged driving.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Breathalyzer race\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A few other companies are developing a pot breathalyzer, including the Canadian-based firm \u003ca href=\"http://www.cannabixtechnologies.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cannabix Technologies.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of these guys is going to do it,\" says David Downs, the California Bureau Chief for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.leafly.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cannabis news site, \u003c/a>\u003cem>Leafly\u003c/em>, and an industry expert. \"It's just a question of who and how adaptable it is for the side of the road, in the middle of the night, in a blizzard. And a lot of these other conditions that police officers face.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downs says Hound Labs may be in the lead and \"stands a good shot at in terms of their technology being able to positively detect active THC in the breath within an impairment window. It's a big thumbs up or thumbs down signal police can use and a real big evolution over things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.draeger.com/en_aunz/Applications/Products/Breath-Alcohol-and-Drug-Testing/Drug-Testing-Devices/DrugTest-5000\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Drager 5000\u003c/a>, which are these active THC oral swabs that can have more variance and more false positives,\" he says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downs, who's been on the cannabis beat for nearly a decade and published several books on the topic, says drugged-driving laws clearly haven't kept pace with the cannabis revolution. Many in the industry, as well as consumers, would like to see more states where pot is legal settle on a science-based cut-off limit for THC level impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That would eliminate a major roadblock to further acceptance and normalization and sort of mainstreaming of cannabis as a consumer product. By far the biggest criticisms that's raised as these reform efforts advance, is the issue around driving,\" says Downs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could also help stem the unequal application of the law when it comes to cannabis-impaired driving and states with 'per se' standards and ones that have no such standards. \"We could be putting behind bars people who are safe and we could be letting go people who are a real danger.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, Downs' advice to recreational pot users out on the town: \"Just take a Lyft or an Uber, you know. Now more than ever, you don't really need to drive.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Pot+Breathalyzer+Is+Here.+Maybe&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "As marijuana legalization spreads, police are asking for better tools to detect drugged drivers. Some police are now working with researchers to try to bring a THC breathalyzer to market.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand, police across the country are more concerned than ever about stoned drivers taking to the nation's roads and freeways, endangering lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With few accurate roadside tools to detect pot impairment, police today have to rely largely on field sobriety tests developed to fight drunk driving or old-fashioned observation, which can be foiled with Visine or breath mints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has left police, courts, public health advocates and recreational marijuana users themselves frustrated. Nine states and the District of Columbia \u003ca href=\"https://marijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=006868\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have legalized recreational marijuana\u003c/a> and 30 states and D.C. have legalized medical pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now one California company claims it has made a major breakthrough in creating what some thought of as a unicorn: a marijuana breathalyzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are trying to make the establishment of impairment around marijuana rational and to balance fairness and safety,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://houndlabs.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hound Labs\u003c/a> CEO Mike Lynn in his downtown Oakland, Calif., office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a freshly pressed dress shirt and short hair, it's clear Lynn is no stoner inventor with a pipe dream. The former venture capitalist is a practicing emergency room trauma physician in Oakland and an active SWAT team deputy reserve sheriff for Alameda County, Calif. He knows first hand the devastating effects drugged and drunk driving can have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He picks up a small plastic box. \"This is a disposable cartridge. And there's a whole bunch of science in this cartridge,\" Lynn says as he slips it into the device about the size of a large mobile phone. A small plastic tube sticks out of one end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He starts to blow into the tube for the required thirty seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indicator bars start to show whether the machine detects any THC in his breath. THC is the psychoactive component in pot that gets you high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hound Labs says its device can accurately detect whether a person has smoked pot in the last two hours, a window many consider the peak impairment time frame. \"When you find THC in breath, you can be pretty darn sure that somebody smoked pot in the last couple of hours,\" Lynn says. \"And we don't want to have people driving during that time period or, frankly, at a work site in a construction zone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lynn then slides the cartridge into a small base station the size of a laptop, used to protect against cold or hot extremes. The breathalyzer needs a consistent temperature to have consistent results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The device also doubles as an alcohol breathalyzer, giving police an easy-to-use roadside for both intoxicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 666px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd.jpg\" alt=\"Hound Labs' breathalyzer and base station.\" width=\"666\" height=\"499\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11684894\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd.jpg 666w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/houndlabs-1-4153f354b21a43c581c3060e93eee35a8ddeb7cd-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 666px) 100vw, 666px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hound Labs' breathalyzer and base station. \u003ccite>(Hound Labs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About four minutes later, the results are in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Negative. No THC or alcohol in Lynn's system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For law enforcement, Lynn says, \"really the key is objective data at the roadside, just like we have for alcohol.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tools now on the market to determine marijuana test blood, saliva or urine can take days for a result. More importantly, they can't really tell whether a person has smoked a half hour ago or eight days ago. THC dissolves in fat so it can stay in your body up to a month after use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lynn claims the company has overcome the technical and scientific hurdles and can accurately measure THC in breath molecules in parts per trillion. That's \"kind of like putting together more than a dozen Olympic size swimming pools and saying, 'Hey, go find those 10 specific drops of water and in those 10 pools put together.' It is it is ridiculous how little [THC] there is\" in breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcohol impairment is measured in parts per thousand. \"THC is something like a billion times less concentrated than alcohol. That's why it hasn't been done before because it's really hard. It's taken us five years to overcome those scientific obstacles.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The machine detects THC's mere presence in the breath, but it cannot calculate the amount of THC consumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police are trying to figure out who is potentially impaired, Lynn says, compared to \"somebody who smoked maybe yesterday or a few days ago and is not impaired. They're not in the business of arresting people that are not impaired when it comes to marijuana. That makes no sense at all.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few police departments plan to start testing Hound Labs' breathalyzer this fall. \"They're interested in it providing objective data for them at the roadside,\" says Lynn. \"That's really the key, objective data at the roadside — just like we have for alcohol.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What constitutes impairment?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There's still no agreement on what amount or level of THC in breath, blood or saliva constitutes functional impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/drugged-driving-overview.aspx\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">only seven states\u003c/a>, including Washington and Montana, have set legal guidelines as to how much THC in the system makes you dangerous behind the wheel. Yet some \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/30/523004450/scientists-still-seek-a-reliable-dui-test-for-marijuana\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scientists are skeptical\u003c/a>, saying those limits aren't really backed by hard science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of the country, courts, police and scientists haven't been able to agree on which THC level constitutes functional impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies on marijuana and driving, post-legalization, have been mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drug-impaired-driving\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">One survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration\u003c/a> showed that, while marijuana users are more likely to be involved in crashes, that risk may be in part because of demographics. Pot users are also more likely to be young men, a group already at high risk for car wrecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugged driving incidents have risen steadily over the last decade plus, paralleling the nation's opioid abuse crisis and decriminalization of pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"Christine Glenn sorts marijuana at the Blum marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11684896\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/eric-breathalyzer-story-002-c6a52ea8c3876173b47c747ec9c23fd15e6a081b-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Glenn sorts marijuana at the Blum marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas. \u003ccite>(John Locher/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Governor's Highway Safety Association\u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20180711/108525/HHRG-115-IF17-20180711-SD003.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> raised the alarm in a recent report\u003c/a> saying State Highway Safety Officers now rate drug-impaired driving \"equal to or more important than driving while impaired by alcohol.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Colorado, one analysis of highway safety after pot legalization showed that the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes \u003ca href=\"https://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/25/colorado-marijuana-traffic-fatalities/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who tested positive for marijuana is up significantly.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Washington state, where recreational pot is legal, a \u003ca href=\"http://wtsc.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/04/Marijuana-and-Alcohol-Involvement-in-Fatal-Crashes-in-WA_FINAL.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study from April of this year\u003c/a> showed that of drivers in fatal crashes who were tested for intoxicants — 61 percent were positive for alcohol and or drugs in their system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research by the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University showed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/young-fatal-crash-victims-used-either-alcohol-or-marijuana\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">half of young drivers, age 16 to 25, who died in car crashes\u003c/a> were under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to what extent and how long marijuana affects driving response, judgment and skill is not yet fully known. And what role, if any, THC played in those car crashes is unclear. \"We need more research to establish the dose-response relationship between THC level and crash risk,\" says epidemiologist Guohua Li, who directs the Columbia center and conducted that study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li, who calls drugged driving \"a silent epidemic,\" says that additional research is vital because \"there's a widespread misconception that it's OK and is safe to drive after smoking pot. And the public — especially teenage drivers — are not well aware of some of the hazards of drugs such as marijuana on driving.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/index.php/2015-11-20-20-52-15/active-studies/62-ab266\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">major study underway\u003c/a> on driving impairment at University of California San Diego's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is scheduled to wrap up next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not only looking at how impaired a driver is at different levels of smoking, but also how long that impairment lasts,\" the study's lead author, Thomas Marcotte, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927766/state-funded-marijuana-study-could-lead-to-better-policing-on-roads\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently told Member Station KQED.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other groups, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., are working on creating standards for a marijuana DUI detection test.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Police eager for help\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Police in a handful of cities, including Boston, are set to partner with Hound Labs to start field testing their weed breathalyzer this fall. The company hopes to have a product ready to sell to law enforcement and industry by early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's going to be a major issue in our city as more and more motorists drive after the legalization of recreational pot,\" Boston's Police Commissioner, William Evans, told NPR in an email. He says the department would soon test Hound Labs' breathalyzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evans, who retires this week, added, \"I opposed the legalization, now we need tools to combat its ill effects. These instruments by Hound Labs and others are going to become necessary.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while police departments are optimistic, they're taking a wait and see approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We'd like to get to point where there's a little more courtroom acceptance and a little more acceptance in the scientific community,\" says Kevin Davis, assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol Enforcement and Planning Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis says while these breathalyzer devices hold promise, his agency's questions about courtroom admissibility and liability will, for now, keep the CHP on the sidelines of beta testing such devices. \"We're obviously very excited about the prospect of having a tool like that in our officers' hands,\" Davis says, \"assuming we can identify the best ways of when and how it should be used, and how it will be admitted in court, and things of that nature.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, he says, the CHP will rely mostly on roadside sobriety tests by officers to make an initial determination on impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis says the CHP plans to train up more officers to detect drugged drivers under its Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.chp.ca.gov/programs-services/for-law-enforcement/drug-recognition-evaluator-program/schedule-of-classes/aride\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">program\u003c/a>. It's a 16-hour classroom course followed by field work to learn how to conduct cognitive tests and detect physical signs of impairment by marijuana or other drugs. The agency also offers a more in-depth Drug Recognition Expert \u003ca href=\"https://www.chp.ca.gov/programs-services/for-law-enforcement/drug-recognition-evaluator-program/schedule-of-classes/dre\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">(DRE) course\u003c/a> to train officers on how to detect and deter drugged driving.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Breathalyzer race\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A few other companies are developing a pot breathalyzer, including the Canadian-based firm \u003ca href=\"http://www.cannabixtechnologies.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cannabix Technologies.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of these guys is going to do it,\" says David Downs, the California Bureau Chief for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.leafly.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cannabis news site, \u003c/a>\u003cem>Leafly\u003c/em>, and an industry expert. \"It's just a question of who and how adaptable it is for the side of the road, in the middle of the night, in a blizzard. And a lot of these other conditions that police officers face.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downs says Hound Labs may be in the lead and \"stands a good shot at in terms of their technology being able to positively detect active THC in the breath within an impairment window. It's a big thumbs up or thumbs down signal police can use and a real big evolution over things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.draeger.com/en_aunz/Applications/Products/Breath-Alcohol-and-Drug-Testing/Drug-Testing-Devices/DrugTest-5000\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Drager 5000\u003c/a>, which are these active THC oral swabs that can have more variance and more false positives,\" he says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downs, who's been on the cannabis beat for nearly a decade and published several books on the topic, says drugged-driving laws clearly haven't kept pace with the cannabis revolution. Many in the industry, as well as consumers, would like to see more states where pot is legal settle on a science-based cut-off limit for THC level impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That would eliminate a major roadblock to further acceptance and normalization and sort of mainstreaming of cannabis as a consumer product. By far the biggest criticisms that's raised as these reform efforts advance, is the issue around driving,\" says Downs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could also help stem the unequal application of the law when it comes to cannabis-impaired driving and states with 'per se' standards and ones that have no such standards. \"We could be putting behind bars people who are safe and we could be letting go people who are a real danger.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, Downs' advice to recreational pot users out on the town: \"Just take a Lyft or an Uber, you know. Now more than ever, you don't really need to drive.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Pot+Breathalyzer+Is+Here.+Maybe&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Oakland Assemblyman's Bill Would Provide Workplace Protections for Medical Cannabis Users",
"title": "Oakland Assemblyman's Bill Would Provide Workplace Protections for Medical Cannabis Users",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>With marijuana now legal for anyone over age 21 in California, a question still lingers over the workplace: Could employees still lose their job if they test positive on a drug test — even if they aren’t intoxicated at work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) is seeking a change in the law on behalf of medical marijuana patients, a population he argues is no different from any other patient with a medical condition. He’s proposed a bill that would make it illegal to fire someone or deny employment based on a drug test that turns up positive for medical marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta says he’s tired of people losing their jobs for taking a medication with fewer negative side effects than opiates, and he’s come to view medical marijuana as a civil rights issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California patients who use medical cannabis are being discriminated against in the workplace. They shouldn’t be. This bill would end that discrimination,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Assembly Bill 2069, companies could still fire an employee for testing positive if they don’t hold a medical card, or if they show up impaired at work. If a medical patient did test positive, the employer would need to treat the matter as any other medical condition, and make a reasonable accommodation to help the employee continue working. Federal employees would be exempt from the bill’s protections, as would federal contractors who must adhere to the Drug-Free Workplace Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11638056/everything-you-want-to-know-about-legal-weed-in-california-2\" target=\"_blank\">Proposition 64,\u003c/a>, the ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in 2016, made it legal for employers to fire an employee who tests positive for recreational marijuana. AB 2069 would apply to medical cannabis patients only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Trenton is president of the Sacramento franchise RCpoint Labs, a national drug testing service. The problem with Bonta’s bill, he says, is that when it comes to cannabis, it’s hard to determine when the drug stops affecting the user. In terms of productivity, Trenton argues that a marijuana hangover can be detrimental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s overall hurting your business if you aren’t testing for marijuana,” Trenton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11664472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/IMG_5901-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"James Relles poses in the showroom of Relles Florist, a 71-year-old family-owned flower shop in Sacramento. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11664472\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Relles poses in the showroom of Relles Florist, a 71-year-old family-owned flower shop in Sacramento. \u003ccite>(Allen Young/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While some studies have drawn links between cannabis use and negative effects for the workplace such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/article/us-work-pot/for-optimal-work-commitment-skip-the-pot-idUSTRE81M1Y020120223\" target=\"_blank\">decreased motivation\u003c/a>, another issue is that, as pointed out by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/HRPA-Clearing-The-Haze.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Human Resources Professionals Association\u003c/a>, cannabis affects people differently, and urine sample testing cannot reliably determine impairment. [contextly_sidebar id=\"427ug55Z823UMHPHQwbk93DDDahKL1Z8\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Relles is the owner of Relles Florist in Sacramento, a family-owned flower shop that recently celebrated 71 years in business. Relles does not currently drug test his employees, but he plans to start since cannabis is now legal in California. He’s worried, though, that this bill could make it more difficult to prove whether marijuana had a role in a workplace accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s just another headache for small business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Medical cannabis users should be afforded civil rights protections, says Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland). ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>With marijuana now legal for anyone over age 21 in California, a question still lingers over the workplace: Could employees still lose their job if they test positive on a drug test — even if they aren’t intoxicated at work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) is seeking a change in the law on behalf of medical marijuana patients, a population he argues is no different from any other patient with a medical condition. He’s proposed a bill that would make it illegal to fire someone or deny employment based on a drug test that turns up positive for medical marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta says he’s tired of people losing their jobs for taking a medication with fewer negative side effects than opiates, and he’s come to view medical marijuana as a civil rights issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California patients who use medical cannabis are being discriminated against in the workplace. They shouldn’t be. This bill would end that discrimination,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Assembly Bill 2069, companies could still fire an employee for testing positive if they don’t hold a medical card, or if they show up impaired at work. If a medical patient did test positive, the employer would need to treat the matter as any other medical condition, and make a reasonable accommodation to help the employee continue working. Federal employees would be exempt from the bill’s protections, as would federal contractors who must adhere to the Drug-Free Workplace Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11638056/everything-you-want-to-know-about-legal-weed-in-california-2\" target=\"_blank\">Proposition 64,\u003c/a>, the ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in 2016, made it legal for employers to fire an employee who tests positive for recreational marijuana. AB 2069 would apply to medical cannabis patients only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Trenton is president of the Sacramento franchise RCpoint Labs, a national drug testing service. The problem with Bonta’s bill, he says, is that when it comes to cannabis, it’s hard to determine when the drug stops affecting the user. In terms of productivity, Trenton argues that a marijuana hangover can be detrimental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s overall hurting your business if you aren’t testing for marijuana,” Trenton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11664472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/IMG_5901-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"James Relles poses in the showroom of Relles Florist, a 71-year-old family-owned flower shop in Sacramento. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11664472\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Relles poses in the showroom of Relles Florist, a 71-year-old family-owned flower shop in Sacramento. \u003ccite>(Allen Young/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While some studies have drawn links between cannabis use and negative effects for the workplace such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/article/us-work-pot/for-optimal-work-commitment-skip-the-pot-idUSTRE81M1Y020120223\" target=\"_blank\">decreased motivation\u003c/a>, another issue is that, as pointed out by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/HRPA-Clearing-The-Haze.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Human Resources Professionals Association\u003c/a>, cannabis affects people differently, and urine sample testing cannot reliably determine impairment. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Relles is the owner of Relles Florist in Sacramento, a family-owned flower shop that recently celebrated 71 years in business. Relles does not currently drug test his employees, but he plans to start since cannabis is now legal in California. He’s worried, though, that this bill could make it more difficult to prove whether marijuana had a role in a workplace accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s just another headache for small business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
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