dangerous synthetics

A Pandora’s Box of Unregulated Cannabinoids

December 18, 2022 By Ruth A. Hill Leave a Comment

A white paper report recently issued by the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), declares a nationwide sale of hemp-derived intoxicants is a “public health disaster.” Delta-8, Delta-10, HHC, THCO are synthetic cannabinoids developed with hemp products. The 2018 Farm Bill created a loophole in regulated hemp vape products and high-potency edibles readily available on the Internet. Synthetic cannabinoids do not occur in nature like the Delt-9 THC.

Deaths from Synthetics Made from Hemp

Deaths are occurring in Virginia, Colorado, Vermont, and Iowa, due to the contaminants in these gummies and hemp vape products. These products fall between neither non-psychoactive “hemp” nor regulated “cannabis.” of this so-called hemp THC, and THC-like products are sold online and in convenience stores, gas stations, and smoke shops and are rife with contaminants and chemical byproducts. Brazen marketing of products in a way intended to appeal to children is strictly forbidden. In contrast, “hemp” products need not abide by any such restrictions.

Absent a single federally regulated cannabinoid market that oversees both hemp and cannabis, the 2018 Farm Bill urgently needs to be amended. The loophole that allows the unregulated sale of concentrated, intoxicating, and/or synthesized cannabinoids must be closed.

A Message to Parents During the Holidays

I have written several times about synthetic cannabinoids, but these deaths are always blamed on plant cannabinoids. See my April 3, 2022, article on Super-potent Synthetic Cannabinoids are Escaping the Lab. Because these synthetics are so dangerous I propose a message to all parents during this holiday season.

While you are sitting at the dinner table eating your feast are you teaching your children how to drink alcoholic beverages? I know when I was a little girl in an Italian family I was introduced to wine at the table. My brothers were introduced to beer. When you discuss alcoholic beverages are you also telling your children the dangers of alcoholic drinks?

Do you tell them how it can be addictive and lead to alcoholism? Are you telling them how excessive use can lead to the hardening of the arteries? Are you telling them it can lead to liver failure and cirrhosis a disease for which there is no cure?

Your children will come into contact with students who want to entice your child into drinking alcoholic drinks and marijuana. Which one are you telling them to try? Are you telling them that no one in 500 thousand years has died from using the botanical plant cannabis? But 95,000 Americans die every year from alcohol-related diseases. I want you to make a concerted effort to compare the safety of ingesting cannabis to alcohol.

Please during this holiday season protect your children by educating them on the dangers of drinking and driving as well as the surreptitious dumping of hallucinogen substances into their unprotected drink. More than 6,000 fatal crashes in the U.S. during the holidays stemmed from drunken drivers, or 667 on average per year, from 2010 to 2018. More than 6,700 people were killed in these holiday crashes in that same period. Do not mix drugs as they can potentially have lethal effects. Cannabis alone will not be deadly, mixing it with alcohol or other substances can lead to an ER visit and death. If they want to take marijuana be sure you provide it for them from a dispensary as that is the marijuana that is safe, tested, and regulated.

The synthetic marijuana obtained on the street or from friends is NOT tested, regulated, or safe. In fact, synthetic marijuana is Lethal. Anyone even a friend can spike their drink with a date rape drug, or another hallucinogen. Cannabis has an addiction rate of 9% the same rate as coffee. Alcohol has an addiction rate of 30% along with opiates. A fentanyl lased candy or pill leads to immediate death.

Please during this holiday season, protect your children, by educating them on the dangers of drinking and driving as well as the surreptitious dumping of hallucinogenic substances into their unprotected drink.

Learn more about how to use Marijuana Without the High at the Vault Dispensary Lounge. Starting in January 2023 lectures will be on the 2^nd and 4^th Fridays from 6 PM to 9 PM

When Can Ingesting Cannabis Lead to Death

December 17, 2022 By Ruth A. Hill Leave a Comment

Therefore

In the newspapers today, you can read about youngsters in CA who are dying from unregulated cannabis. There are over 207 pages of cannabis regulations in the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC). In addition, there are regulations promulgated by counties and cities. So why are youngsters under the age of 21 ingesting unregulated cannabis when it is prohibited?

There are 708 chapters and 707 pages in the 2022 Alcohol and Beverage ACT in CA, yet alcohol is available in every corner store, every big box outlet, every Rite Aid, and every restaurant in CA. Eleven percent of entering college students are already heavy drinkers leading to nearly 2,000 student deaths each year. So why isn’t the journalist talking about how youngsters die of alcohol ingestion? Why are colleges prohibited from teaching the science of cannabis, yet any business is allowed to obtain a liquor license?

Deaths From Plant Cannabis Nonexistent

The defining reason NC do not kill mammals as opposed to alcohol is there are NO, NONE, ZERO receptors for THC in the brain stem which controls breathing. Therefore there is not a single death from cannabis consumption by anyone, any age, anywhere in the world, ever. That is a fact. What allows the public and media to denigrate a natural plant that God made to mimic the biology of living mammals? Poor research? Government lies? Pharmaceutical influence? Alcohol commercials? Fifty percent of the commercials on my football channel are telling me how cool it is to drink alcohol. Children watch this. Are the parents telling children that alcohol kills? I doubt it.

Endocannabinoid System

So, what is the science that tells us alcohol kills yet cannabis does not? The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is the science. The ECS has millions of receptors all over the body for cannabis, more than any other chemical in the body. This abundance of receptors for the plant cannabinoids, cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), anandamide, and 2-AG are the exact replicas of the natural cannabinoids we make. The erroneous comparison between natural cannabinoids (NC) and synthetic cannabinoids (SyC) is what makes people believe cannabis kills. How do synthetics differ from plants?

Synthetic (LAB) Cannabinoids

First, SyC act on the same brain cell receptors (CB1 and CB2) as THC. The caveat to this Scenario is two very important principles. Synthetics that are made in the lab are a major lethal difference between the THC and CBD in the plant.

Human-made mind-altering chemicals that are either sprayed on dried, shredded plant material are SyC. This herbal or liquid incense is sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled in e-cigarettes or other devices. Manufacturers sell these products in colorful foil packages and plastic bottles to attract consumers, especially teenagers. Hundreds of brands have been around for years and are packaged as K2, Spice, Joker, Black Mamba, Kush, and Kronic.

Second, NC like the plant cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are partial agonists. But SyC are full agonists. A full agonist is when the drug locks onto a receptor completely so receptors are not simply off-on switches. They are more like light bulbs on a dimmer switch. A full agonist will crank on the receptor to its full level of “brightness” which is not possible with THC. The black-market SYC are full agonists causing medical emergencies, including adverse cardiovascular events, stroke, and death.

Third, unbeknownst to the user, deaths occur when dangerous synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, are added to the packaged mixture. Thus, these alternative core structures are technically legal – or at least not explicitly illegal. One of the seven small classes of molecules designed expressly to evade legislation passed in China in July of 2021 is called OXIZID cannabinoids,

Prohibition creates a market for completely unheard-of drugs that are talked about as marijuana-like. Lazy journalists cause a sensation by inflating a mother’s grief without the scientific nuance of synthetic cannabinoids.

previously published in https://coachellavalleyweekly.com/when-can-ingesting-cannabis-lead-to-death/

Synthetic Cannabinoids are Escaping the Lab

August 4, 2022 By Ruth A. Hill Leave a Comment

Previous articles on synthetic cannabinoids showed how dangerous they were during the vape crisis of 2019. Now super-potent synthetic cannabinoids are escaping labs and gaining notoriety among chemists, medical researchers, pharmaceutical companies, law enforcement, legal experts, public-health officials, and drug users. Research is revealing more dangerous chemicals that mimic 10 times the effect of THC. There are three types of cannabinoids. Endogenous or endocannabinoids we make ourselves. Phytocannabinoids are from the plant. Finally, synthetic cannabinoids, (which do not occur in nature), and are made in a lab. Synthetics are novel molecules that are providing good research but unfortunately are adding more volatile damage to street drugs.

Is this research, which is investigating novel approaches for specific disease entities, creating a crisis for the non-legalized drugs being produced? I will shed some light on that question in this article.

THC and JWH-018

Projectcbd.org writes about the molecule known as JWH-018 (named after its founder John W Hoffman). It is a potent synthetic cannabinoid with an affinity for the CB1 receptor five times greater than that of THC. This means, roughly speaking, that one-fifth of the dose elicits a similar effect. Just like the Wuhan virus escaped from the lab in China, new chemicals produced by chemists are now escaping the lab and being found in street drugs.

The Netherlands’ research at Maastricht University evaluated the JWH-018 compound’s effects on neurocognitive and psychotomimetics alongside the effects of THC. The new study, published in May 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, indicates that at equivalent subjective intoxication levels THC and JWH-018 are actually not as different as they seem. However, dissociative effects, are the one category they differ. Dissociative effects were considerably more pronounced for JWH-018 than THC. Dissociative effects mean the person has a feeling of being separate from reality. They are different people in different contexts. Some can commit a crime during a dissociative episode.

Mepirapim & Spice

Japan in 2013, detected Mepirapim, another synthetic cannabinoid in illegal compounds. It is structurally similar to JWH-018, a controlled Schedule 1 substance in the United States. Korea-based authors published a paper in June 2022 in the journal Pharmaceuticals showing that Mepirapim has a high potential to exhibit psychotropic effects with dangerous side effects. It can cause cardiac deaths in subjects that combine it with other drugs. Two individuals created a conundrum when Mepirapim was laced with acetyl fentanyl, an analog of fentanyl. One individual inhaled it and died. The other individual took it intravenously and did not.

What does all this mumbo-jumbo mean?

It means more studies on synthetic cannabinoids to better understand the negative effects. Just like the dangerous lab leaks from the gain of function research, so can lethal synthetic cannabinoids leak into illegal or quasi-illegal street drugs.

A small class of molecules designed expressly to evade legislation passed in China in July 2021. It banned synthetic cannabinoids containing one of seven general core new chemicals, called OXIZID cannabinoids. These alternative core structures are technically legal – or at least not explicitly illegal.

Prohibition creates the market for completely unheard-of drugs that can be talked aboutsup as marijuana-like. While media tends to refer to these drugs merely as “fake pot,” there is some important scientific nuance that gets left out of conversations about cannabinoid synthetics. It’s the brass tacks of what is called the “potency problem.” Potency is not the same as efficacy which the media, legislators, and “say no to cannabis promoters” do not or will not understand.

Receptors are not simply off-on switches. They are more like light bulbs on a dimmer switch. A full agonist will crank the receptor to its full level of “brightness” which is not possible with THC. The black-market synthetic cannabinoids are full agonists causing medical emergencies, including adverse cardiovascular events, stroke, and death.

While there is voluminous research on all types of cannabinoids there is not equal education about the scientific difference between potency and efficacy. The crisis of illegal consumption of synthetic cannabinoids and death will continue until the FDA stops denying the safety of plant medicine. Tell me what you think.

previously published in on August 3, 2022