Cannabis News
The Death of a Marijuana Worker
While most occupations avoid headline-grabbing gore, innocuous vocations still inflict insidious damage through airborne threats eroding lung function over years. The phantom menace of ambient workplace toxicity carries an untold toll – including risk of sudden asphyxiation when cumulative exposures trigger acute attacks.
Consider “baker’s lung” – an asthma-like inflammation that develops from inhaling airborne grain and flour particles. This chronic disease forced many passionate artisans to abandon their craft over suffocating distress.
Hair stylists face analogous respiratory risks from potent chemical fumes permeating salons daily, as do factory workers breathing manufacturing particulates. The hazardous substances differ but the outcome feels identical – airways constricting and careers crushed through no direct misstep of their own.
In most cases, safety guidelines and equipment lag behind scientific understanding of emerging environmental illnesses. Thus, regulatory cracks allow once benign-seeming jobs to turn tragic before precautions adapt. Attributing blame becomes complex when unintended aspects of simple work carry unintended negative health consequences over time.
This ongoing issue underlies the first reported death of a cannabis industry worker recently – a 27 year old woman in Massachusetts suffered fatal asthma attack allegedly induced by workplace irritant exposure after previously managing her condition fine.
While the budding cannabis production sector hardly evokes hazards on par with industrial meatpacking or mine drilling, it still breeds its own singular risks, as regulators race to understand. When prohibition gives way to mass cultivation, new variables emerge.
So today, we will explore this tragic accident within its broader context – well-meaning workers undone by latent threats in substances at first sniff seemingly harmless enough. But when health hangs in the balance of unknowns, caution takes on grave urgency.
Let us honor this woman’s memory then by scrutinizing the growing pains of an industry rushing to meet demand. If preventing the next victim means pausing enthusiasm for patient access, the tradeoff seems clear. For in the end, no reefer revolution succeeds on backs broken laboring in shadows.
First, do no harm.
This young woman’s tragic death represents a watershed moment for the nascent cannabis industry to mature its ethical priorities around worker safety. While an individual loss first and foremost, her unnecessary passing will undoubtedly save future lives through forcing regulatory awareness and accountability.
Inspectors noted the facility had not established respiratory protections for staff handling volumes of agitated cannabis dust hazardous to compromised systems. But in fairness, few viability guidelines existed around large-scale commercial cultivation when early operators raced to capitalize on legalization. But playing the devil’s advocate – it might be kind of obvious to ensure worker’s protections in an enclosed space with plant matter floating in the air.
The vast underground cannabis production knowledge understandably emphasized concealment and profitability over governance with workplace hazards an afterthought. Now that full legitimacy and scalability replaces shadowy improvisation, codifying revised best practices falls on regulators.
This expectant shift from illicit business to regulated corporate enterprise was bound to endure painful lessons given the pace of social change outpacing bureaucratic preparations.
But through those legislative growing pains, let us at least extract meaning from suffering to bless broader communities. Industry crucibles should purify, not corrupt, our integrity.
With cannabis governance still evolving conceptually, what better opportunity to embed safety-first regulatory models before harmful norms cement? Other sectors have learned similar lessons too late after normalizing harm. Cannabis need not repeat history’s errors.
This tragedy powerfully demonstrates why writing compassion into policy protects all. And if legacy operators wish to speak convincingly about ethical industry standards, addressing worker welfare makes the perfect starting point.
May this loss provide the urgent impetus to build cannabis production regulations correctly the first time as exemplary frameworks prioritizing people over profits. That outcome would make this woman’s unwarranted death not in vain, but an indispensable catalyst bettering society.
While the cannabis worker’s death has raised concerns around respiratory risks from mass cultivation, her underlying asthma represents an often minimized health crisis facing over 25 million Americans today. Asthma proves one of the nation’s most common, underestimated and deadly chronic conditions.
Over 10% of American adults suffer asthma currently, with rates highest among minorities and women. Triggers range from allergy irritants to pollution to respiratory infections. But outcomes can quickly turn fatal without proper prevention and treatment.
In fact, a shocking 39% of asthmatic adults reported experiencing attacks recently, signaling vast unmet care needs. And after decades of declines, death tolls are actually rising again, taking ten lives daily.
Behind those abstract figures lie needless everyday suffering and lost livelihoods as asthma constricts once active lives. Simple tasks turn laborious amidst terrifying bouts of breathlessness. And the condition worsens over time without tight symptom control.
Too often the social stigma around asthma invites blame, minimizing its trauma as an imagined ailment instead of recognizing its lethal reality. Yet epidemiology shows no group immune from onset as inflammation disables airways without warning.
Even physically fit individuals find themselves unexpectedly hospitalized, bedridden for weeks after sudden attacks. If the pandemic taught anything, breath stands among our most precious assumed attributes until compromised.
And marginalized groups shoulder the harshest asthma impacts, facing eroded quality of life and early death – especially Black women. These unjust outcomes demand policy attention on par with splashier diseases like COVID but of course, the treatment options aren’t always pharmaceutical – there are practical methods of working with the lungs and strengthening it. In fact, asthmatics should totally do breathwork!
Yet care infrastructure remains sorely lacking for proper asthma management beyond quick-fix inhalers and emergency interventions. Patients lack sustained access to preventative anti-inflammatory regimens, home air purifiers, allergen avoidance education and mental healthcare.
In this woman’s case, the risks tragically proved insurmountable given workplace irritant exposures. But better safety regulations alongside elevated clinical treatment could have prevented such catastrophe.
Ultimately her death illuminates twin priorities – destigmatizing asthma as easily managed while strengthening societal infrastructure supporting patients long-term. Because the occasional frightening attacks hide in plain sight chronic day-to-day ordeals for millions that our healthcare system continues neglecting at their peril, sometimes fatally.
This young woman’s sudden passing at 27 over an invisible workplace threat sparks calls to balance cannabis reform zeal with cautions of unintended consequences from breakneck policy change. But ultimately all sides share the goal of preventing such needless loss.
And from crisis wisdom crystallizes. Asthma safety protocols will now enter cultivation facility regulations to protect other vulnerable industry laborers. Her legacy thus uplifts colleagues through institutional evolution she helped initiate.
The sticky truth remains that prohibition’s end creates new dialogue around health tradeoffs from increased access and production. But reasonable guardrails arise through compassionate debate, not scare tactics demonizing the plant itself.
With cannabis, as all medicines, responsible frameworks honoring human dignity over profit must prevail. And each tragedy underlines the work remaining to place community wellbeing first amidst commercialized healthcare.
Yet as we walk this complex path together, broader perspective seems vital too – that life’s impermanence claims all fates regardless of circumstance. However graciously lived, no mortal bypasses death in the end.
So this incident should remind us as bystanders to love boldly, forgive freely, speak kindly, waste no days in grievance. For in between first breath and last, meaning weaves through bonds nurturing each other against the endless entropy.
Few depart expecting their curtain call so soon or suddenly. But in that obscurity lies wisdom to consciously cherish each transient now beyond assumed tomorrows. The thriving cannabis movement must model this mindfulness.
Honor this woman then by embedding vigilance into your protocols and presence into your days. Uplift colleagues through purposeful work culture. Allow loss to reveal life’s urgency. The rest flows through awakened hearts connected to transient blessings blooming all around if we pause to perceive them.
CANNABIS DUST IN THE AIR, READ ON…
Cannabis News
US Court Rules Delta-8 THC Derived from Hemp is 100% Legal, Slamming the DEA in Embarrassing Court Case
In a groundbreaking decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-8 THC) derived from legal hemp sources is not classified as a controlled substance under federal law, directly contradicting the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) position that all synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols, including Delta-8 THC, fall under Schedule I controlled substances. This landmark ruling emerged from a case brought forward by several key players in the hemp industry who challenged the DEA’s interpretation of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp and its derivatives. The court’s decision not only rejects the DEA’s restrictive stance but also provides much-needed clarity regarding the legal status of Delta-8 THC, allowing for its continued production and sale from legally sourced hemp. This ruling is significant as it has the potential to reshape the regulatory landscape for cannabinoids, encouraging further exploration and commercialization of hemp-derived products while also highlighting the ongoing tensions between federal regulations and the rapidly evolving hemp industry.
Delta-8 THC: A Naturally Occurring Cannabinoid
Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-8 THC) is a naturally occurring cannabinoid found in trace amounts in hemp and cannabis plants that shares a similar molecular structure to Delta-9 THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana, but is known to produce significantly milder intoxicating effects; the 2018 Farm Bill’s legalization of hemp and its derivatives containing no more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis created a legal gray area for Delta-8 THC, which has proliferated in the form of various products derived from legal hemp sources and sold in a largely unregulated market, as they are not explicitly classified as controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) despite the agency’s stance that all synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols should be treated as Schedule I drugs regardless of their origin or potency, a position that has been challenged by hemp industry players arguing that Delta-8 THC from legal hemp should be exempt from the same restrictions as Delta-9 THC.
The DEA’s Stance and Industry Challenges
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has taken a firm stance that all synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols, including Delta-8 THC, are classified as Schedule I controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), regardless of their source or concentration. This position has faced considerable resistance from various stakeholders within the hemp industry, who argue that Delta-8 THC derived from legal hemp should not be subjected to the same stringent restrictions as Delta-9 THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana. Proponents contend that the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp and its derivatives, should extend to include Delta-8 THC, allowing it to be treated as a legal product when sourced from hemp that contains less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC. They emphasize that while Delta-8 THC may occur naturally in small amounts in hemp, the majority of Delta-8 products on the market are produced through a chemical conversion process from CBD, which the DEA argues renders them synthetic and thus illegal. This conflict has led to ongoing legal challenges, with some courts ruling in favor of the hemp industry, asserting that Delta-8 THC should not be classified as a controlled substance when derived from legal hemp. As the debate continues, the tension between the DEA’s regulatory framework and the evolving hemp market raises critical questions about the future of cannabinoid regulation in the United States.
The Court’s Ruling and Its Implications
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Delta-8 THC derived from legal hemp sources is not controlled substance.
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The court found the DEA’s interpretation of the law was “arbitrary and capricious” and lacked a reasoned explanation.
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This ruling effectively removes Delta-8 THC from the DEA’s list of controlled substances, provided it is derived from hemp containing less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC.
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The decision provides legal protection for businesses and consumers involved in Delta-8 THC products derived from legal hemp sources.
Opportunities for the Hemp and Cannabis Industries
The recent court ruling represents a significant victory for the hemp and cannabis industries, paving the way for new possibilities in product development and research.
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Therapeutic Potential: Delta-8 THC has been recognized for its potential therapeutic benefits, which could attract more consumers seeking alternative treatments.
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Increased Investment: The legalization of Delta-8 THC may lead to heightened investment and innovation within the sector, encouraging the development of new products and formulations.
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Regulatory Concerns: Despite the positive implications, the ruling also raises important concerns regarding the regulation and quality control of Delta-8 THC products, necessitating careful oversight.
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Need for Standards: As the market for Delta-8 THC expands, there will be a pressing need for clear guidelines and standards to ensure consumer safety and product consistency, helping to build trust in these emerging products.
Broader Implications for Cannabis Legalization
The court’s ruling underscores the ongoing conflict between federal and state laws concerning the regulation of cannabis and its derivatives.
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Increasing State Legalization: As more states advance toward the legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana, the pressure on the federal government to revise its policies and align them with shifting public opinion is likely to intensify.
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Step Forward for Delta-8 THC: The ruling regarding Delta-8 THC may be viewed as a positive development in the broader context of cannabis legalization, yet significant challenges remain.
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Path to Comprehensive Legalization: There is still a considerable distance to cover before achieving comprehensive federal legalization of cannabis, highlighting the complexities of navigating cannabis policy in the United States.
Conclusion
The court’s ruling underscores the ongoing conflict between federal and state laws concerning the regulation of cannabis and its derivatives. As more states advance toward the legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana, the pressure on the federal government to revise its policies and align them with shifting public opinion is likely to intensify. The ruling regarding Delta-8 THC may be viewed as a positive development in the broader context of cannabis legalization; however, significant challenges remain, and there is still a considerable distance to cover before achieving comprehensive federal legalization of cannabis, highlighting the complexities of navigating cannabis policy in the United States.
DELTA-8 THC IS LEGAL, READ MORE…
Metabolic syndrome is an umbrella term referring to several conditions that negatively impact how the body metabolizes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
It occurs when there are unusual, abnormal chemical processes in the body which affect otherwise healthy metabolic functions. The primary symptoms of metabolic syndrome include abdominal fat, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low levels of LDL (good) cholesterol. These conditions all greatly increase the risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and other severe health issues that are difficult or near impossible to reverse.
The most telling symptom, though, is a large waist circumference – and you don’t need to take any kind of medical test to tell you this because it’s completely visible.
That’s why prevention is key when it comes to metabolic syndrome. However, the choices you make on a daily basis in your lifestyle can determine your risk for metabolic syndrome of not. We know that an unhealthy diet that is high in sugar, salt, and processed food can contribute to the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. A sedentary lifestyle, obesity, poor sleep hygiene, and exposure to chronic stress can also make the risk much worse. Smoking tobacco and alcohol are even worse – don’t even think about it.
But cannabis? That can actually help!
What Studies Say
A recent study that was published in the American Journal of Open Medicine found that young adults with a habit of consuming cannabis had a significantly lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome. For the study, investigators from the University of Miami analyzed a cohort of almost 4,000 individuals whose ages ranged from 18 to 25. They specifically zoned in on the young adults’ cannabis use.
They found that current cannabis users were 42% less likely to have metabolic syndrome. They also found that Non-Hispanic Blacks, who were consuming more weed than the other subjects, were found to be the least likely of all to have metabolic syndrome. “Current cannabis users had a lower prevalence of MetS, predominantly noted among NHB (non-Hispanic Blacks], the group with the highest prevalence of current cannabis use,” said the study’s authors. “Future prospective studies are warranted to examine the role of specific cannabinoids on MetS by race/ethnicity,” they said.
A Smaller Waist Circumference: Why You Should Pay Attention, And How Weed Can Help
Having a large waist circumference or a visibly fatty belly has been associated with numerous health conditions. Of course, this includes a heightened risk of metabolic disease. It also increases the risk of inflammation, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease incidence, and cancer among others.
That is why it’s critical to pay attention to the size of your stomach. A smaller waist means you have a smaller amount of visceral fat, which is necessary for better health and an improved quality of life.
There are many steps you can take to reduce your visceral fat. These include:
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Sticking to a low carbohydrate and low sugar diet
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Having a diet high in good protein sources
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Reduce consumption of trans fat and saturated fats
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Engage in strength training and cardiovascular exercises
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Manage stress effectively
Last but not the least: did you know that consuming cannabis has been shown to be associated with smaller waistlines and a reduced risk for obesity?
In 2020, a study out of Quebec in Canada revealed that cannabis consumption was linked to a smaller waist and reduced triglyceride levels. For this study, the investigator in Canada analyzed subjects who either never consumed marijuana in the past, used it sometime in the past but had no recent use, had some infrequent use, or consume it infrequently. They specifically measured the participants’ waist circumference and triglycerides.
They found out that the subjects who consumed certain marijuana strains for metabolic syndrome for at least 4 days per week were found to have smaller waistlines as well as less triglycerides compared to the other participants in the study.
Another study from 2015, also out of Quebec, was conducted by researchers from the Conference of Quebec University Health Centers. They analyzed cannabis consumption patterns of 786 Arctic aboriginal adults, the Inuits. The investigators also analyzed their body mass index to search for any links between cannabis use and BMI.
They found that study participants who consumed marijuana within the last year were more likely to have a lower body mass index, as well as reduced fasting insulin and better insulin resistance (using the HOMA-IR indicator) compared to those who did not.
“In this large cross-sectional adult survey with high prevalence of both substance use and obesity, cannabis use in the past year was associated with lower BMI, lower percentage fat mass, lower fasting insulin, and HOMA-IR,” said the researchers. In other words, they observed a relationship between cannabis use and BMI that led them to conclude that cannabis and cannabinoid use can help consumers reduce the likelihood of obesity and diabetes.
Meanwhile, an older study from 2013 also had similar results. Research data from The American Journal of Medicine taken from more than 4,600 patients yielded interesting findings. Almost 45% of patients never consumed marijuana in their lives, while 43% of them smoked in the past though no longer do currently. And 12% of them were regular cannabis users.
Researchers discovered that cannabis users who consumed marijuana within the past month had 16% less fasting insulin levels compared to those who never consumed weed. In addition, they even add reduced HOMA-IR levels and higher high-density lipoprotein. Furthermore, the investigators found that regular cannabis users who usually consume more calories, they also had lower BMI’s.
Conclusion
Staying fit and healthy is much more than vanity: science and medical research makes it clear that there is a strong link between obesity and body mass index, to overall health and wellness. Metabolic syndrome further emphasizes the importance of keeping one’s BMI normal, and based on these studies, that’s something cannabis can help with. Integrating responsible cannabis use into your lifestyle is one tool out of many that can help you stay healthy and reduce the risks of developing metabolic syndrome.
MORE ON METABOLIC SYNDROME AND WEED, READ ON…
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