Recently, the Mississippi Poison Control Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center reported a concerning increase in calls regarding children rushed to emergency rooms after eating marijuana-laced candies and chocolates at home.
In 2019, the poison center received just two calls. That number rose to 36 last year, and 14 of those are under the age of 12. Mississippi reflects a national trend. From 2017 to 2021, a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed a 1,375 % increase in such exposures.Statewide, in the last 10 days, officials said they have received four calls related to children under the age of 6.Officials are concerned that number will be on the rise now that medical marijuana has become legal in Mississippi.
Legal Insurrection has followed the “progress” related to legalized marijuana and the increasing number of overdose cases (especially associated with synthetic varieties).
At the present time, 27 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana. This generally means certain small, personal-consumption amounts are a civil or local infraction, not a state crime (or are the lowest misdemeanor with no possibility of jail time). So, more data on the adverse health effects of long-term use are becoming available.
Based on the new information, Congress is considering new regulations.
Only recently has a steady flow of data emerged on health impacts, including emphysema in smokers and learning delays in adolescents. Lawmakers’ reaction to the bad news raises the prospect that the loosely regulated marijuana marketplace, worth $13.2 billion last year and growing 15 percent annually, could come under pressure.Even some of those most supportive of legalization, such as the co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), are calling for more regulation and better oversight.“One of the reasons I have fought so hard to be able to legalize, regulate and tax is because I want to keep this out of the hands of young people. It has proven negative consequences for the developing mind,” said Blumenauer, Capitol Hill’s unofficial cannabis czar.
The move should really not come as a surprise: If there is a way to implement a tax, the US Congress will find it. It must be packaged as a noble endeavor to “save the children.”
In better news for some marijuana users, a federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a federal law prohibiting people who use marijuana from owning firearms is unconstitutional.
Lawyers for Jared Michael Harrison had argued that their client’s Second Amendment right to bear arms was being violated by a federal law that makes it illegal for “unlawful users or addicts of controlled substances” to possess firearms.Harrison had been charged after being arrested by police in Lawton, Oklahoma, in May 2022 following a traffic stop. During a search of his car, police found a loaded revolver as well as marijuana. Harrison told police he had been on his way to work at a medical marijuana dispensary, but that he did not have a state-issued medical-marijuana card….U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick in Oklahoma City agreed with Harrison´s lawyers, ruling on Friday that federal prosecutors´ arguments that Harrison´s status as a marijuana user “justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm … is not a constitutionally permissible means of disarming Harrison.”
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