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At first glance, it looks like a single serving bag of Nerds Rope that your child might eat as a treat. But take a closer look. See the word "medicated" and the small white box at the bottom that says 600 milligrams of THC?
Those three letters stand for tetrahydrocannabinol, the part of the marijuana plant that makes people high.
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In a study sure to kill the buzz at many a party, researchers at UC Berkeley say bongs may create more secondhand smoke than tobacco cigarettes.
The study, published Wednesday on the JAMA Network, found that smoking cannabis in a bong created concentrations of fine particulate matter four times greater than concentrations observed after smoking a tobacco cigarette or hookah pipe.
Cannabis products should carry a warning and consumer protections like tobacco and alcohol. One of the warnings is that the key ingredient THC has a risk of suicide. That’s why Senate Bill 1097, the Cannabis Right to Know Act, is a step in the right direction for consumer protection.
California has not passed any consumer protection laws on the cannabis industry since Proposition 64 legalized marijuana. In contrast, Colorado passed public health protection on marijuana concentrates.
Every day in San Diego County, about three dozen people show up at a local hospital emergency room for several reasons related to cannabis use, a common one being drug interactions. Chances are that when the medication was prescribed and when the prescription was filled, neither the doctor nor pharmacist issued any warnings about using cannabis alongside their regimen. Now that cannabis is legal for recreational consumption in California, this has become a growing problem.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom, who campaigned for marijuana legalization and serves as an ex-officio member of the state fair’s board of directors, has a special obligation to ensure that California balances support for the legal industry with what’s best for public health — and that should include responsible messaging about legal marijuana. He and the rest of the board should reconsider the contest category encouraging growers to develop more potent strains of pot when existing research demonstrates their dangers.