MPI NEWS
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IPS and the Center for Community Research, along with the district attorney’s office and the Behavioral Health Services Department in San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency, are joining forces to raise awareness about poly-drug use and driving. The innovative campaign focuses on sensible upstream prevention methods to reduce poly-drug use, increase driver education and promote responsible decisions like the use of ridesharing.
Now, consider the exposure of those 6.7 million consumers – and the untold number of cannabis-curious Californians – to Big Cannabis’ battery of attention-grabbing advertisements, such as eye-catching billboards, slick magazine advertisements and provocative digital ads. Think of the consumers, on the receiving end of this advertising onslaught, absorbing the industry’s alluring product-pushing messages without the benefit of counterbalancing them with health warnings about safer-use information.
Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-8 THC, is a psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plant, of which marijuana and hemp are two varieties. Delta-8 THC is one of over 100 cannabinoids produced naturally by the cannabis plant but is not found in significant amounts in the cannabis plant. As a result, concentrated amounts of delta-8 THC are typically manufactured from hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD).
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to five companies for selling products labeled as containing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8 THC) in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). This action is the first time the FDA has issued warning letters for products containing delta-8 THC. Delta-8 THC has psychoactive and intoxicating effects and may be dangerous to consumers. The FDA has received reports of adverse events experienced by patients who have consumed these products.
San Diego County officials, alarmed by a rise in deaths due to impaired driving, are backing an initiative to sharply reduce – even eliminate – such crashes by 2025.
In 2021, nearly 40 fatalities were caused by people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. That surpasses the 33 deaths in 2020 and more than doubles the 18 from 2019.