Hip, Hip, Hooray for Hemp! and other such hypocritical juvenile-isms – as the one headlined here and making headlines nationally what with Washington Gov. Inslee’s teevee pot pronouncement last week on the Bill Maher show – may soon high-light the high-way to lure passers-by to get their highs here instead of elsewhere.
As the Lakewood, Washington City Council plots the path toward sharing a piece of the pot pie with a public hearing scheduled for May 7 – a decision to approve recreational marijuana sales pending the outcome, purportedly, of public input on pot – there was a time when “keeping marijuana away from teens (was a) top focus for state leaders” according to a statement issued by this same Governor’s office.
Credit: thesubtimes.com
Waving the pot pompom, even in jest, hardly serves as an appropriate pot warning pronouncement if the Governor would, in fact, hope to govern (synonyms: shape, direct, influence) the pot uptake potential of youth.
For what it’s worth – and to many, and sadly, policy makers among them, it’s evidently not worth much – tetrahydrocannabinol, abbreviated THC, “is one of at least 113 cannabinoids identified in cannabis. THC is the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis.”
THC’s impact (in case you’re reading this Governor) on youth?
“Since THC affects areas of the frontal cortex involved in decision making, using it can make you more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as unprotected sex or getting in a car with someone who’s been drinking or is high on marijuana.”
The source of that last is the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens (NIDA).
There’s a good deal more there too, like the fact that “when marijuana is smoked or vaporized, THC quickly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries it to organs throughout the body, including the brain. Its effects begin almost immediately and can last from 1 to 3 hours. Decision making, concentration, and memory can be affected for days after use, especially in regular users.”
But, then, what does the NIDA know?
Because when you got the best pot, best promote it, I mean, right?
Makes you wonder if the guy at the top does pot?
Inquiring minds wanted to know. Does the Governor do dope?
Ironically, the same day as the story of the Governor’s boast as reported in Governing Magazine – of all places – under the topic of Public Safety – no less – some Vancouver, WA teens were found unconscious having overdosed on Xanax and Marijuana.
Apparently, they didn’t get the Gov’s memo.
Can’t be faulted after all for what you don’t know, ya know?
Adding insult to injury, the public – youth, et al – won’t know now either that there has been developed a simple test to determine if you’ve got – unknowingly, or otherwise – the dreaded THC somehow in your system, by well-meaning friends or, like, whatever.
Researchers at Washington State University (WSU) have developed a THC-detection tongue swab that would have allowed police to pinpoint pot presence in poor-performing motorists suspected of being high on the highway.
Would have, except that the school’s funding from the feds was threatened (not that that ever-bothered Inslee before when it came to thumbing his nose at those in the other Washington on who gets to make decisions on marijuana), and so, once again, safety is distant second to money, especially as it concerns the marijuana industry.
So far, no word from the Governor’s office in keeping with his ‘safety-is-our-number-one-priority’ marijuana mandate memo.
Credit: thesubtimes.com
