important. so again the components are there. can i see absolutely that if the firm gets into batch it will be that it failed? i can't tell you that today. i think where to look at it but i think were much better off than we were before. in terms of cryptocurrencies, i think that technology behind them is certainly something interesting, has applications in a wide variety of field speed is just a few moments left in this event. we believe it at this point to hear from patrick kennedy as his marking april 20 holiday inn cannabis culture. ..

>> good afternoon, everybody. my name is kevin asabat. the president ceo of sam, smart approaches to marijuana. we're happy to be joined by multiple individuals represents organizations across public health and public safety. just a little background on sam. then we'll turn it over to the other speakers. sam was started in 2013 as a response to growing legalization of marijuana and our message today is very pimple, on the unofficial marijuana holiday. that message is we need to slow this train down. we need to put people before profit and need to get the science out about the true harms

of mayor one which he have day was this country slides deeper and deeper into legalization, commercialization of mayor one. we're also here to fight against this false dichotomy you have to lock people up in prison or legalize marijuana. in fact we don't want to lock people up in prison for using marijuana, nor do we want people criminalized for marijuana use. to be against criminalization is not to be for legalization and not what we've seen which is the cop -- commercialization. today's thc products are five to 30 times stronger than they used to be. i don't think anybody over 30 would recognize it. hc products being sold thc products sold in our communities today. at sam we're proud to be part of public health, public safety

consensus, we should have science, not deep pocketed investors guiding marijuana policy and so we're honored to be joined by one of our cofounders and honorary board chair, the honorable patrick kennedy who spent his congressional career, really his life, fighting for mental health parity and this over all issue of mental health. we're also very happy to be joined by a number of distinguished speakers today including this nation's officers african-american magistrate judge, judge arthur burnett, sr. honorable arthur burnett, sr. mr. jake nelson, aaa, director of advocacy of research. dr. lave, medical doctor, scripps hospital in san diego. dr. susan weiss, the director of division of extra mural research at national institute of drug abuse, arm of the national institutes of health. senator, the honorable senator

ron rice, senator from new jersey and leader of the new jersey legislative black caucus. bishop jethro james, jr., senior pastor of paradise baptist church, a senior advisor to a new jersey responsible approaches to marijuana policy. doug timan, president of ceo an of care and treatment centers. we're joined by recovering addict, alexa, who will share her story about marijuana addiction, because one of the big myths out there that marijuana is not addictive. dr. christine miller, neuroscientist, advisory board member smart approaches to marijuana. we are very concerned about edibles and products out there marketed really our vulnerable populations but we're also very heartened by the fact that even in the states like california and massachusetts, that have voted to legalize marijuana, the majority of localities are actually voting to not have legal commercial marijuana where

they live. so it signal as divide really between people that want to decriminalize and remove criminal penalties and actually go toward full-blown legalization. one bit of news i want to share a recent string of polls by emerson college, independent polls, not funded by sam, for example, fairleigh dickinson university, others like mason-dixon which was funded by sam, have found that when people are actually asked about multiple choices with regards to marijuana, their first choice is not marijuana legalization. so a majority of americans do not prefer legalization when given options like decriminalization and other policy choices. so we're really here to say we're also putting the marijuana industry really accountable. we want to hold them accountable just like the tobacco industry. took us unfortunately a century to hold them accountable. we're still paying for those

costs. we're very concerned that we notice that the tobacco industry in the u.s. in many ways is merging with some sectors of the marijuana industry. they are cross hiring, they are investing in the marijuana business. this is not a surprise but we know how the story ends. we also know how the story ends with our opioid crisis driven by a legal drug and special interests that relied on addiction for profit. at sam we do not take any money from the pharmaceutical companies, big pharma, opioid manufacturer, alcohol and cigarettes. we are funded by individuals who have had really suffered heartache from addiction. so i want to turn it over here. we have a very, very prestigious group of folks here and i'm going to first turn it over to jake nelson, the director of traffic safety and advocacy research at aaa to really talk about issue of impaired driving. on this unofficial marijuana holiday, we have a warning for

those on the roads given the issue of impaired driving. jake. >> knew that was going to happen. soon as you. good afternoon, everyone. in sift 10,497 people tied in crashes due to drunk drivers. that is period of time when the rates of drunk driving have dropped over 30% in the last decade. now the same period of time the rates of marijuana use among drivers has increased almost 50%. this is a drug that we know, without hesitation at least doubles crash risk. it does it by impairing driver attention, coordination, and reaction time among other skills that are very important for safe driving. now mixing alcohol with marijuana produces impairing effects that are greater than the combined effects of each drug used independently. this is the most common way that people who use marijuana and get

behind the wheel of a car use it, they mix it with alcohol, almost 2/3 of the time. now data suggests that legalizing marijuana for fun or recreational purposes has some pretty staggering impacts on traffic safety. a few years ago we did a study at aaa looked at washington state, one of the first few states to legalize the drug for recreational purposes, what we found the proportion of drivers involved in fatal crashes recently used marijuana, doubled from 8% to 17% in that year following change in law. this is an eye-opening case study for other states who are contemplating the same decision. now, also, this is, a topic, the use of mayor one and driving -- mayor one and driving people like to compare to alcohol and driving. law enforcement and officers and courts don't have the same tools to manage the highway safety issue for alcohol. there is no roadside test like a

breathalyzer to detect the recent use of marijuana at the roadside. even if we had a device that was reliable, the relationship how much marijuana in somebody's body and odds they cause a traffic crash, that is not established. that gives breatholyzers their power. at .08 we know what the odds are involved in a traffic crash. we don't have the studies for marijuana. impaired drivers kill people, well more than 10,497 in 2016 four sure but data are not very good when it comes to drugs like marijuana. this is the tip of the spear when we talk about this issue. it is one of the many reasons why aaa urging policy makers it put public safety over drug recreational use. thank you very much.

>> thank you good morn. i'm judge arthur burnett. in addition to serving 15 years in federal judge on intake for everyone arrested on federal crimes in d.c., i served 1years on superior court in d.c. which is both federal and state just dix. i had both federal and state jurisdiction. i have 31 years of experience dealing people who are involved with drugs, drugs from the point of abuse in fostered care, sentencing thousands of defendants who in their presentence reports told me how they got started with problem of drugs. homicide cases where people involved with drugs were aiders and abettores in drive-by shootings. i recall the case of a young guy who witness ad drive by and fled

to mexico. when the officers brought him to testify in case i resided it. he was a student at fourth and fifth grade level. the drunk gang, beat him up, took his shoes, if you want protection you have to be one of us. one day they took him to the basement apartment to talk with the lieutenant. the lieutenant had a marijuana cigarette. this marijuana cigarette, the guy said, i don't want that stuff because i want to be an outstanding athlete. you ain't going to be nothing if you don't smoke it. it is laced with pcp. in order to keep from being shot that day. what a lot of people, the media doesn't tell you, among some of our brightest young boys, and young girls, at the fourth and fifth grade with outstanding math skills, they are coerced into association with peer

pressure from the, that schoolkids involved in drugs and so for the. and you didn't get that high from marijuana. lace it with a little pcp. that is put lsd in it. for 31 years i sat on the bench and actually heard cases, heard over five to 10,000 cases, what i fear in this, especially where people are unemployed, they're idle, they are subject to group activities, some people say peer pressure and may not be medically speaking, use of marijuana automatically leads to experimenting with heroin. or experimenting with pcp or some of the synthetic drugs but the criminal problems i've seen in the nation's capital indicates that the problem of involvement in illegal drugs

results from opportunity, quality of education, dropping out of school, and then drug gangs sometimes end up shooting across streets where they kill a 19-year-old girl headed off to college which was a straight-a student in high school. i've seen hundreds in this city of kids who were college admitees, innocent victims of homicide in drug warfare. it is more dangerous than even the traffic issues you heard and indeed it is the beginning step to a life of crime. thank you. >> hi. i've been practicing emergency medicine in san diego for 28 years and they say the world is a stage and the people in the emergency department have the front seat. working on the opioid epidemic for the past seven years i see a link to marijuana.

i would like to share with you some of the stories i see, cases i see in the emergency department and what marijuana looks likes at the morgue. every day in california we treat patients with marijuana poisoning, every day. the number of emergency department visits related to marijuana has gone up by 830% in the past years, from 2006 to 2014. that is over 1000 people to 10,300 people a year in san diego alone. picture a 25-year-old girl with loud, audible wretching who is writhing in abdominal pain. we can hear her agony across, we can hear her agony from across the emergency department. we termed the condition, scromiting, it is screaming and vomiting and hallmark of cannabis syndrome.

she has been to emergency departments receiving die laud did, a strong opioid each time for her pain. she has been exposed to multiple ct scans and radiation, yet she can not understand what is wrong for her. her cure would be simple, stop smoking weed. the problem her marijuana addiction is becoming an opioid addiction. every day we treat cases of scoimiting. my next patient is spitting thrashing about, heart rate up and takes six strong men to hole him down until the sedatives take effect. the diagnosis could be anything, but the tests come back with just marijuana, just marijuana. it was just marijuana who landed another patient on life-support, in the icu, hanging between life and death as he was inhaling wax, 90 to 100% thc. tourists beware.

recently i treated a man who was visiting our beautiful city for a convention. he came to the emergency department concerned he couldn't talk right and his arm warrant working. i did the evaluation to make sure he didn't have a stroke. when everything came back normal showed me a small package of gummy bears, labeled hangover remedy. he received a very expensive diagnosis of marijuana poisoning. and it was heart-breaking for me to treat an early derly man who traveled to the scripts institute for a second opinion for his cancer diagnosis. he saw a prominent advertisement and was hoping the marijuana brown any would help with nausea caused by chemotherapy. his nausea was not better. i admitted him to the hospital with a palpitations with pot poisoning. a collision closed our freeway he was high on marijuana, he will in the enter statistics because no one died.

what about our medical examiner? what does our medical examiner see? death from all drugs in the past 10 years went up 56%. at the same time deaths from marijuana went up 64%. there is direct correlation with increased drug deaths and marijuana deaths. we can no longer turn a blind eye between marijuana and other drugs. who dice of marijuana? the san diego death diaries, 462 people tied with thc in their system in 2016. a one-year-old baby. a 15-year-old. a 19-year-old driver along with 31 other drivers. 55-year-old motorcyclist along with nine other motorcyclists. a 21-year-old who jumped off the bridge with 76 other suicides. a 55-year-old with hypertension along with 63 cardiac deaths. do you know that marijuana is associated with a three-fold increase of deaths from hypertension? if you have high blood pressure you should not be smoking weed.

thc was involved with 29 percent all homicides, 30% of all illicit drug use, 30% of the prescription drug deaths, 30% of alcohol deaths. if thc was a medication, the fda would have big black box warning. marijuana legalization in california has unleashed a public health disaster. [applause] >> hi. i'm susan weiss, i'm from the national institute on drug abuse. and i don't have any of these stories that will really tug at your heartstrings to tell you. i'm here as a scientist. i will tell you that we support a lot of research on cannabis to look at adverse health effects. understand how it works in the brain and in the body. even to look at the potential for therapeutic uses for some of cannabinoid compounds. what i want to talk to you today

which concerns us effects on developing brain. one. things we understand how cannabis works is that there is a system, a signaling system called the endocannabinoid system it is very important system if many physiological functions including brain development. i say this, one of the things we're seeing in increases in use by pregnant women who are being given it, advice through the internet this is a safe and natural and harmless plant to use to help with morning sickness. i would say that we have, we do not have any indication that is the case. instead what we know that this system is very important for how the nervous system develops and it comes on board as early as 16 to 22 days of gestation. among, among the population overall of pregnant women, approximately 4% report using marijuana. if you look at 18 to 25-year-olds, it goes up to 7%. if you look at the youngest

people who are pregnant, 12 to 17-year-olds, it is about 14%. most use it in the first trimester which is probably the most dangerous time. the other group i want to mention where we have put, where we have more evidence has to do with adolescents. we know the brain continues to develop into early adulthood. the period of adolescence is time of quite active brain development. and so we have many concerns about exposure to the brain. we have a number of different studies that are all, all coming together to tell us that those who start young in their teens and who use frequently are more likely to see a variety of adverse outcomes. this is on brain development, on brain function, as well as on academic achievement, employment, possibly their mental health including an increased risk of earlier onset of psychosis among people who are vulnerable. as well as the increased risk

for both addiction to cannabis and to other substances and cognitive impairment. there are a number of these different out comes that we're seeing but one of the things we are not, one of the things about these data is that they're not conclusive because there are always other factors that have to be considered. one of them is that many young people who use cannabis frequently are not using it alone. there are other drugs on board. they may also have effects. in addition we don't know what these people looked like before they started to use cannabis. there may have been risk factors we're unaware of that lead to these multiple outcomes. one way wit nida and other nih institutes are trying to address the problem through a very large study we're funding, called the adolescent brain cognitive development study, which is the study of a cohort of about 10,000 kids beginning age nine or 10, before they started to use substances to look at what the impact is on the development

of the brain and on their growth trajectories in general. we're looking at much more just the exposure to can that is about although in -- cannabis, although the fact of changing laws and emergence of electronic cigarettes all of these things prompted the study. now that we have a much broader group of institutes that are interested, we're looking at screen time and physical exercise and what are the resilient factors that could protect somebody but we think this is obviously an extremely important issue for us to understand and as i said right now, with keeps us up at night is really the effects on brain development. >> doug. >> good afternoon. i'm doug team. for the past 23 years i've been the president and ceo of care and treatment centers. for the past 35 years i've been in the substance abuse treatment field. and for those of us involved in providing treatment for those suffering from substance abuse, we provide respite and

resurrection for the casualties you heard the previous speakers talk about. first i want to say thanks to kevin and patrick for shining a lot on this topic an for being out front in helping our country know the other side of the story. and, what i want to talk about today is how did we get here? and one of the things i have seen in 35 years is that when you put availability, accessibility, and affordability with any mood-altering substance it leads to more addiction. that is certainly the case with marijuana. last year commission studied with "harris poll" just to get ideas about attitudes and two that really stuck out to me were 73% of all of those polled between the ages of 18 and 34 felt that marijuana was safer and far more okay to use than alcohol. 11% of the parents thought it was okay for their teenagers to smoke marijuana occasionally.

and when we look at the correlation between marijuana and other substance use, dr. robert dupont, former director of the national institute on drug abuse has extensive data and some of the statistics that really jump out to me are even for the teenager who casually uses marijuana, they are eight to 10 times more likely, when compared to someone who doesn't use mayor -- marijuana to smoke, bing drink and use other drugs. if they use marijuana regularly, they're 15 to 30 times more likely to do those same activities. what does that mean at care and treatment centers? because we see those casualties. a couple of statisticses to think about. for our population over the age of 28 about 1/3 of our patients will indicate that they use marijuana. about 15% will consider it their

drug of choice. for our young adults, those between the ages of 20 and 28, about 60% use marijuana. 35% indicated as their drug of choice. but for adolescents, 90% use marijuana, 70% have it as their primary drug of choice. that's the bad news. but there is hope. as i said, treatment centers provide respite and resurrection. even though there is no medication-assisted treatment yet for marijuana, abstinence based treatment does work. at care we do extensive follow up with the university of pennsylvania to follow up on our patients. we use, we use urine drug streams to corroborate whether someone is abstinent or not. for our patients almost 60% have been abstinent for the entire first year. another 20% while they may have used in the first year are abstinent at the end of the

year. so 80% alcohol and drug free. another 10 to 15% have not remain abstinent reduced use. quality of life better. consequences down. so treatment does work. we deal with the casualties. i want to salute patrick and kevin helping prevent those coming to our front door. we can help those that come but in an ideal world they would never show up at our front door. thank you. [applause] >> hi, i'm alexa, and i am a recovering addict and my drug of choice was marijuana. i started smoking when i was 15 and i started smoking recreationally at parties at 17. by the time i was in college i was using marijuana daily. i pretty much couldn't imagine my life without it. i literally couldn't do anything.

i went to class high. i went to work high. i drove high. i, i used marijuana to feel normal and, that isn't normal. and i didn't realize that. i didn't even realize that i was addicted. it started as something fun and it quickly became toxic. and i damaged my relationship with my family. i wasn't able to excel in school. i had brushes with the law. and it really took me down slowly. and was at the point where i wanted to commit suicide and i, luckily checked into caron treatment centers on december 28th, 2014. that is really when my life changed because caron is the

place that taught me what addiction and alcoholism looked like. that helped me realize that is exactly what i was struggling with. because of that i'm three years sober today. thank you. [applause] yeah, i mean i'm really lucky to be standing here today. and i'm grateful for what caron did for me and my family. it repaired the relationship about my family. i'm able to be productive member of society. i'm able to be a daughter, friend, worker. i'm incredibly grateful to speak here today. i hope we continue to listen to voices of those in recovery. i think those are very important voices to hear. thank you for letting me share. [applause] >> i'm bishop jethro james from newark, new jersey. i'm also a chaplain with the new jersey state police. i'm a retired corporate exec,

weird combination, clergy, cop, social worker, weird combination i helped orchestrate the campaign to bring governor murphy into the gubernatorial mansion, and yet and still on martin luther king day i stood up and said, we will not have legalized marijuana. let me put on a couple of my hats as, as law enforcement. we know what it does. let's look at the statistics in the states that have already legalized marijuana. because it will devastate, it will devastate communities of color. and in colorado for example, 55% increase of youth caught in possession of marijuana in the african-american community. you have to be 21 to have it. well, we're finding out that our kids from 11 years old until 17 years old, until they're

considered adults. now you start off with a record. let's talk about the hispanic community. 38% increase in the hispanic community of kids using marijuana. let's talk about what it does to our babies. we're seeing from age zero to seven years old a 70% increase poison hotlines pediatrics. there is no epipen for your baby if he or she is allergic to marijuana and their brain will be fried. bush sop, why would you take it on? being a social scientist the last place they will have marijuana in the county where our governor lives. i've been to his home. there is already places in new jersey that have already passed nimby, not in my backyard. you can't sell it hire. where is it going? going primary to the urban

areas. what are some of the problems in the urban areas? first of all unemployment. you will not retire from psg and or law enforcement or major corporation if you test positive for marijuana. therefore the whole economic system will be brought down. where will you place these shops? let's take a look at denver? denver has more marijuana shops than it has mcdonald's and starbucks combined. they're all in urban neighborhoods. what will it do to the neighborhood? well let's talk about crime. you must pay for it with cash. you can not pay pay for it with a card, can't write a check for it. if i'm one of the local fellows don't mind sticking up other drug dealers, your place becomes a prime place for dealing and redealing. i talked with some of my friends in the dpa. we're finding out that marijuana, legal, legal

marijuana is being sold on the black market. like anything else that there are plenty of it around. if there is any commodity. soybean, corn. you don't put it in a warehouse you sell it to someone in that mixture. i happen to sit on the board of a hospital. i happen to know just a week ago we had 28 kids in 24 hours come in and they're out of their mind because of the combination. you need to understand that there is no standard for marijuana. i went to college in the 60's. the stuff i smoked was 4% thc the stuff out now, is 38 to 98% thc. every mother ought to worry about it. there was no opioid problem in this country when it was in places like newark, places like camden in new jersey, places like trenton, or patterson.

these are the hoods, y'all. there was no opiate. it got on the parkway and went to places up county and places down county. when the people didn't look like me, their kids started dying, then we had an epidemic. i stopped by to tell you want put this, i say this to governor murphy and i say this to anyone nationally? you want to know what it will do? stick around and talk to me. the last thing i want to point out, newark, camden, patterson, and trenton in new jersey, we have the birthrates of third world countries for our babies. i refuse to allow something else to bring down african-american and hispanic children, that our children may have a chance in life, a chance for employment. and a chance to live the american dream. let me quote scripture as i go to my seat. the scripture says, what profit

a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? and what will a man give for his soul? and then there was another question asked and needs to be answered by those that made a promise, our governor made promise he would let everybody out of jail that went. so this is not social justice. this is social injustice because he just zero based last week, he zero based all the reentry dollars. so he has no intention of letting anyone out of prison. don't be bought by the hype. don't believe the promises that are made. they want to have marijuana sold, s-o-l-d. they are giving up your children, s--u-l. god bless you.

[applause] >> good afternoon. i'm new jersey state senator ronald rice, i am in washington and my son is ronald c. rice. he does a lot of youtube stuff. i want to be clear who i am. i'm the their senior serving senator in the state of new jersey. i've been there 32 years. i'm a former law enforcement officer, detective, investigator. i'm a former city council person for 16 years, four years deputy mayor, vietnam veteran. my background is criminal justice administration. i've lived in the city of newark since 1955. i left, came home after the 1967 riots and went to vietnam. i'm a college grad. been through many of them. the thing that disturbs i'm a product of the civil rights movement and a product of the racial south. the reason i tell me, congressman i when to new jersey

in 1955, i remind them january of 1955, i was nine years old and i could read and write. go back two weeks, 1954, brown versus board of education of topeka. because of that i know what it is to live in segregated communities. i know what the struggle was to allow us to go to school and get a education to better our lives and get away from all this craziness. in new jersey we're being sold and what offends me the most is not so much quote-unquote, white folk trying to make money, white folk with other agendas are doing, disturbs me the most what black leaders are doing after all the struggle for equality in education, the struggle to get life experiences is that they're accepting what they're being told to them. we're accepting the fact that all of a sudden in new jersey we're being told we need to legalize marijuana because it's a social justice issue. there are more black people in

jail for the use of marijuana, personal use, small amounts than white people three times more. we're told the same thing by the same groups and reform. it messed up. it took a constitutional right which is total different issue. when you look at this, the question i have, okay why do we allow people to use data that we know better than anyone to sell their products? so my talk to my colleagues putting legalization bill, if you finally agree with us, we've been saying for years you are ignore it, it is discremmer to, disparity issues, more of us in jail than other folk doing the same thing, turn us loose. they can't do that because it is complicated. why is it complicated? it is complicated because we have to legalize. i'm telling you this. it is insulting to me and people of goodwill and people that look like me, who come from the movement i just spoke about and history of struggle, to be quite

frank, the history of slave families it us insulting because what you're telling me is that even though i shouldn't be in jail, you're not going to turn me loose unless i help you make some money. it is also insulting to me because we have been asking for years, long before open boyed asking us 100 million for drug treatment and they give you free needles. you put that in your arm and you die. they want 100 million pour -- opioid but they want legalization of marijuana. what i'm told so many people dying from the opioid problem they believe when they went to colorado, that by legalizing marijuana there would be a shift from opioid to marijuana and you won't have as many deaths. that is problematic with someone like me who trying using my

nonsense and academic sense i told the senate president you're transferring the problem. we need to deal with both. when you look at transferring the problem, you are making less deaths so you think? but the social justice issue you're promulgating and saying it is not money but fact it is money. if it is not money, when if you want to talk about social justice i shouldn't be in jail we should decriminalize. we make it you don't go to jail, no longer have criminal record, go get a job and get treatment and we can expunge records but you will not make any money off of us. so what i always tell them in new jersey, we held three hearings. beginning a third hearing, i always say talk about what we know before we do this we know all the things that was said here today based on colorado, washington, california, elsewhere. but let's talk about what we

know about new jersey. because you have to put things in perspective. what i know about new jersey and new jersey, my office is five blocks from village called south orange, new jersey, which is predominantly white, upper class, wealthy, middle class people and seton hall university. and what i do know is that in newark where my office is, down the street from me on my block people get shot on regular basis. they are doing drugs and homeless, et cetera. i have a bodega almost every block, sometimes two. what i do know about new jersey where it is not legal, there are people trying to help with subsidies. they're getting food stamps. they're taking food stamps to the bodegas right now, cashing them in. not buying food. they're ripped off. you have $100, i give you 40. they're buying drugs, regardless of what the drug is. what i do know all that we know,

with longitudinal studies for at least four or five years in colorado, when you legalize marijuana, there is substantial increase use of people who never used any kind of drugs. so common sense dictate to me in new jersey, if i legalize marijuana i'm going to get substantial increased use of people who never use it. and within the aggregate of those people, that increased use, there will be some food stamp people, who will start to go to the same bodegas. unintended consequences. my kid go to school, your kid go to school and teachers said, why are you trying to take the kids food? are you hungry? yes. did your parents feed you this morning? no. or yes a little bit. in my state they will not call the parents. they will call what we call dics. they will come out and take the kids out of that home. unintended consequences happening now without legalization.

another quick too, low income people, working people, struggling, they're paying 12 and $1300 a month to live in a slum properties. when they live there, they're stretched. all of sudden new population never use drugs, now all of sudden, they like it, they shave off the rent. they go to the landlord, bishop, i'm a little short this month. bishop, been here a long time, we all run through the problems, see me next month. next month the same problem. bishop, we don't roll this way, we mortgage to pay, see me next month. next month come around bishop say you're evicted. people back in the system who are homeless. final thing i want to say is that seton hall, newark is college town, new jersey is a college state. seton hall is five blocks away. if newark decided to legalize marijuana and i'm going have all this commercialization next to my bodegas and lipsticks and

problems they're having south orange doesn't want it, i tell you what will happen. i'm not guessing. i know. students at seton hall university and that majority white population, middle class and others in south orange try it will come to newark in front of my office and somebody will get killed, killed. it will be violent crimes. and then the newspaper say it is racial when it is not. it is about the drugs and the money. because if you're black you come to buy it, they will kill you too or whip you up. that is going to happen. if newark decides we don't want it, and south orange wants it, what is going to happen is, this population, predominant black community including knuckleheads on corner but folks who never bought drugs, they will go up to be inquisitive, what cupcakes and gummies and lipstick is all about. when they cross the south orange line they will be stopped by the police for right reasons, not

wrong reasons. we're going to say it is profiling. we just addressed that i have a real serious problem with my colleagues of mentality listening to people without doing their own research and putting together what we know with legalization, what we know is happening now and being objective. in closing let me say this. as chairman of new jersey legislative black caucus. we're having two hearings, having final one. i'm asking members we're not telling people we're for or against the legalization of recreational marijuana, even though we have our own individual views about it. we want the people to know the facts. in new jersey thanks to sam and thanks to the congressman and et cetera, we have people providing information like you're doing today on the other side. i will leave this with you. sam and others, what i want to do when i go back, we can have this discussion, because i tests this last night. i kept saying that people don't

know the difference and we need to do a grass root campaign on none. i need to talk to those senior citizens who have to walk down the street and afraid to go. i need to talk to those parents and single head of household, pta folk, every day working people monitoring this. they're not following people around pro or con. interest listening and hearing. because when i test this last night i asked some people who were early derly people, elderly and middle age people i was on the side talking to them, they raised question. do you know what recreational marijuana is? lady, said i think so. at that told me something right there. i said if you think so, let me say this to you. if we legalize marijuana, you said maybe okay to do that do you know that commercialization right out here on south orange avenue you're going to have stores selling lipstick and cupcakes?

oh we can't have that. how come someone not telling us about that? you understand where i'm coming from. we need to talk to people, to the folks following folks around with information on one side or the other side. we need to get in the hood to talk to real people. i want to thank you very much for this opportunity to come down to share my concerns. but my concerns are coming from really an educated and informed person who lives in a community that i represented for over 30 plus years and one who understand this stuff very well and relationships. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon. i'm christine miller a neuroscientist and i'm going to talk about how marijuana has been given a free pass by our politicians with the few exceptions here and by the media. really there is no other drug in america that can be sold without a listing of side effects. but marijuana is sold in

dispensaries in this country with no serious warnings whatsoever. the side-effects that i care about the most is the disorder that i dedicated my career to researching, a suite of disorders really, psychotic disorders. you heard dr. lev mention, she sees examples of that in her clinic on a pretty regular basis i believe. my experience was that marijuana induced psychosis, although that was not something i researched is actually now the most well-replicated finding in schizophrenia research. more well-replicated than any genetic finding. i looked at a lot of genes when i was in the lab. more well-replicated than any other environmental factor. now it is true that those who have a family history of psychosis will be more at risk but that is about 10% of the

population. who has either first or second degree family member with some type of psychotic experience. it doesn't mean that the other 90% are safe either. i will get to that later. the effects size is large. 15% thc increases the risk five-fold. which translates one out of every 20 regular users of high-strength product being at risk for developing a chronic psychotic disorder if they don't quit in time. so i will touch briefly on the literature that illustrates the causality. there is no single paper that is definitive. rather it's a constellation of studies looked at the question from different angles, i illuminate causal basis. there are hundreds of studies i talk about. numerous epidemiological studies

shown a dose response effect amount of marijuana use, concentration and the psychotic outcome. from pharmacological research this is considered one type of evidence for causation. they answered obvious question comes first, is it the mayor one first or the psychosis comes first? they follow teens, thousands of teens, until they reach their young adult years. and they found that the preponderance of evidence is that the marijuana use comes first. if you administer purified thc in a clinic under controlled conditions to subjects who have no family history of psychosis, i told you i would get to that, 40% will develop psychotic symptoms right there on the spot. now fortunately they're reversible at that point but for recreational users who experience such stops, and continue to use about 35% will

progress to what is known as a full psychotic break where they have more than one multiple psychotic symptoms at once, and they don't recover so quickly. they will have paranoia, racing thoughts, hall louis nations -- hallucinations and delusions of grandeur. about half will end up with chronic, long term, lifelong chronic disorder. these are life studies conducted in europe where they have centralized health care systems enable a good collection of data controlling for demographic factors. the two studies i'm talking about totaled over 20,000 patients. they looked at other drugs as well. mayor one was by most effective reaching sad end tate. worse than lsd, pcp, cocaine or

methaphetamine. i stay lace your lsd with a little marijuana you are more likely to become psychotic. there are many studies to talk about. i don't have time but there are more. this type of mental illness like all mental illnesses carries heavy stigma. the farmlies experience it aren't that willing to speak out for obvious reasons. they want to protect their loved once. there is a website where a few families written their stories. momstrong.org. i highly recommend it. i also like to point out that, let's see my final two points, marijuana is often compared to the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. i have this to say about the alcohol comparison unlike alcohol, if you are using two servings marijuana per week, even if you're not driving that

is not a safe level of use. that is exactly the level of use that raises the level of the risk of psychosis significantly. compared to tobacco, where you actually have sort of a window of time, a grace period, if you will, to correct your useful mistake picking up this habit, until age who, -- 40, if you wat to get over risk of lung cancer, if you quit by then, you might be okay, with marijuana the severe psychiatric effects come on very early, very fast. can be extremely devastating at a young age and last a lifetime. so you don't have that grace period. you can't be forgiven this youthful mistake. you don't know who it is going to affect. so to conclude from the press here i hope there will be more reporting on this dark side of

marijuana. there are world experts that can be reached out to. dr. robin murray at kings college in london. dr. jim van nos in university of netherlands and from our government, i think a surgeon general's warning would be a great first step. much like the warning that was given for tobacco so many decades ago. thank you. [applause] >> first let me thank everybody who has spoken already today and really appreciate the eloquence and expertise that all of you have brought to this and the service to our country that many of you have exhibited throughout your lives. my name is patrick kennedy. i've had the honor to be the author of the mental health parity and addiction equity act which says that basically mental health ought to be treated the same as overall health. i spent my life campaigning to see that this parity law as it

is known is fully implemented so we can address mental health and addiction challengeses in this country just like we address diabetes and cardiovascular disease and cancer and every other illness. and i found that it would be inconsistent for me on the one hand to be around the country trying to advocate for adequate coverage and reimbursement by insurance companies for mental health and addiction services while ignoring that there will be a new addictive industry that will put more people in jeopardy of both mental illness as you just heard and in jeopardy of more addiction. it would seem to me, while we're in the midst of a five-alarm fire in this country with addiction and mental illness, suicide rate never been higher, twice the car crash rate,

overdose rate, surpassing, well past what we saw in the height of the hiv/aids crisis, that, our country would wake up and say we must have a problem here. and if we do, it would seem to me the last thing we would do is pour gasoline on the fire. if everybody is now looking at pharma saying, they got us into this mess because they had unscrupulous practices of selling more oxycontin than were needed because they were making bigger profits, the more people they got hooked, higher those profits would be, why would we be at this stage of our lives as a nation, well, let's repeat that mistake? instead of oxys, we'll have owl these new forms of this new addictive drug, thc, because it is not marijuana. it is elixirs. i don't know if everyone heard

what elixir, like fanta orange ade with thc in it. you have at the bar, you have red bull and now you see where i'm coming from. you have elixir, you have now another chemical to bring to the table. and of course, they're edibles. what the hell are edibles people tell me? those are the things that you might not be aware of how much thc in what you're eating. hence all the emergency room visits, people thought, well i only took a bite or two. never made any impact on me. i finished the brownie. next thing i knew i was hallucinating in in an e.r. let's not just look this in anecdotal in terms of individual cases. let's look big picture. our country clearly loves to self-medicate, okay? and more than ever before now

because of the stresses and anxieties brought about by a shifting economy that does not share wealth equally across this country, and leaves more and more people feeling insecure about their financial well-being and about the future of their families. that's the truth. and so, we have more and more kids disconnected because they think they're connected because they think they're on their phones and itch pads. in fact that is leading to more isolation and lack of human connection. and so we're thinking, what should be our response? our response, according to all the experts should be, we ought to be giving those kids social, emotional learning skills. we ought to be equiping them with coping mechanisms and problem solving skills. i had the honor of rededicating the fort bragg, john f. kennedy special warfare center and the general said to me, you know,

congressman, with the green berets, we have the most mental health, you know, training and delivery for our green berets than any other branch of the service. i said green berets don't need mental health. we all know they are the best of the best. no, we don't look at it that way. it's a force multiplier. what does that mean? because of special stress situations we put our special operators in, what makes them so special to navigate the stress of their environment. they look at stress management as a protecttive shield. all of these kids, all of america is heading into a global economy. that is causing them a lot of stress. are we going to give them the shield? give them the mental health skills to navigate and cope with

all of the stress coming down? or are we going to look the other way and allow an addictive industry to say, oh, we have an easy way out? and furthermore that easy way out, that will get you caught and imprisoned through the kind of illnesses that you have heard described here today. it would seem to me, we want -- i know with my four kids, soon to be five, i want to help make them as you were saying, bishop, as strong as they can be growing up. i think everybody wants their kids to be a strong -- i don't want anybody to grab them and take them down. i don't want any enemy coming across the border taking my kids hostage by addiction, and mental illness. so those that are out there selling this stuff and promoting this stuff, you're going to have this team right here and many

others saying, not on my watch. and i want to thank senator rice in my new adopted state of new jersey for leading the charge and doing it as eloquently as he has done we're looking forward to turning back this effort to legalize marijuana in new jersey so that we don't make it the garden state. but instead we say it is state safe for our young people. [applause] . . >> how do you feel about that?

>> well, the president has been very forthcoming about the impact of addiction. in his families life. so much so that he makes no bones about the fact that he does not drink alcohol, doesn't even have one single drink, because of the impact. that should tell us a lot, and he understands this personally. you know, the biggest issue here is denial, just in our lives, those of us who come from homes with alcoholism and addiction, who live with that in our own lives. in fact, people with addiction are often the last ones to know. it's the single characteristic, the person suffering from it is the last person to recognize it. i would say as a society collectively as a nation we are in a collective denial about the scope and severity of addiction

in this country. and people call it opioid or they call, you know, at the end of the date as all these experts can tell you, it's addiction, it's addiction, it's addiction. we can substitute one for the other. bottom line is we have to understand this for what it is. i think obviously it detracts at a time when we're in an all-out crisis in this country of addiction. it makes it more difficult for us to have a clear and consistent voice and policy about this to be, giving a wink wink over here while saying baby it's not a smart idea over there. that is disassembling. that's what we call in recovery when we are trying to have it both ways. i certainly hope the president, you know, depending on how true this story is, makes sure that his policy is consistent. because frankly he has a

commission and has been supported through the rest of his administration to really ensure that this is not legalized. so i'm hoping that this is not literally the case that is being made out to be. >> it's not only the president's commission, also assistant secretary of health gustav but -- talk about harms of marijuana as well as a lot of the president's on base. law enforcement groups will be soon releasing a letter opposing the president's move and so-called deal with senator gardner. because we've seen in legalized states the underground market getting stronger. one of the promises that the criminal market goes away under so-called regulation or legalization. in fact, we know that it adapts, it's able to infiltrate that legal market quite easily and this is been a huge problem for law enforcement to be getting within the states.

we have major law enforcement association opposing that recent move and will be sending out a copy of the letter to the folks here. >> on that same point, we in new jersey have met with the association of police chiefs and they have come out in new jersey against legalizing marijuana. >> senator schumer today pose decriminalizing marijuana, not legalizing it. do you support that move? >> actually we don't have the full text of the budget so it can't, on that but from what i've seen it's more what we would call d scheduling, not decriminalizing. it is called decriminalizing or from some of the text i've seen and still waiting for the full text, it would allow states to fall on legalized. i think we'll have to wait and get more details before making a final judgment but it's important to make the distinction between decriminalizing and legalizing. but if you do scheduled it that would allow states to fully

legalize and commercialize. >> also regarding senator schumer statement and pending legislation how much difference you think this is going to make in the long run terms of possibly legalizing marijuana across the country? >> there is a big industry that is trying to fund advocacy in this area, dozens of lobbyists from the marijuana industry now that unfortunately our funding candidates on all sides. first of all we have to do a better job in the public health community of keeping those candidates and politicians accountable. the public has a right to know if you are a lobbyist like john boehner was for big tobacco and i was working for big marijuana, and we have to start doing that. in terms of the piece of legislation again i don't think actually marijuana is much of a motivating factor for voters. when you ask opinions on marijuana people have all kinds of opinion dipping on how you frame the question. we found we offer

decriminalizing, more people choose that. but as a motivating factor to vote as a reason to sort of to leave on it politically none of the polls and what we are seeing is this is really a motivating factor. a lot of this is unfortunately members of congress hearing from very loud voices of special interest groups, not very loud voices of the grassroots. i've got to tell you, with the amount of the thousands of kids in york state that it died from it all. epidemic, over 90% of them if the statistics are correct marijuana having something to do with that history. i don't think this is necessarily a smart move politically for people of either party and that's a message for senator schumer as much as it is for president trump. >> this is very quick. first of all -- over $100 million spent in new jersey to get the bill through. i don't believe the votes are there now for any bill but

what's been happening is that those who are promulgating legalization, they continue to tell people that we like decriminalization but decriminalization harm minority people. and it harms minority people because even though you're going to, out of jail, still get a fine, if you don't pay the fine you are going to jail. they give the impression to the conversation that if you legalize drugs, you don't get arrested some kind of way the public has to make it clear you are going to get arrested whether you decriminalize or legalized. i think that's important because that's the way it is being sold. i think once the public recognize wealthy people special interest spent a lot of money, go back to bishop george soros, there will not do that but once the recognize people try to make money off their backs and to recognize that there's another way doing this that keeps coming

up, i think we'll see a difference. i would hope senator schumer would take a look at true decriminalization and not playing games with it because his state borders my state. >> and there's no sense in large fines without, and having decriminalization without actually having some kind of health intervention as well. it doesn't help us to have the same kid arrested ten times and find ten times over again without an actual health intervention. there's a lot of lip servicing addiction is a disease, addiction is a disease, addiction is a disease. but if it is we have to treat it as such. that major offer health intervention. and so we support bills that remove criminal penalties that have a health aspect to them so that we can actually move towards discouraging and reducing use as opposed to just perpetuating and giving someone who can't already afforded probably a huge fine versus some time in prison. that's also not the right way to deal with it.

>> yes, good afternoon to all of you. all of you, thank you so much for the impassioned wisdom that you provide here today. i'm kathy anderson. i'm elected reps and of the district of columbia, and my community we are still fighting hard against that awful awful proposition 70 that pastor in the district of columbia. we have mobilize the police who are now working harder to shut down the pop ups that sell the brownies. make were coming on sunday at 2:00 lines in the community taking up all our parking spaces. you pay or $10 to come in, get your little white bag and you come out with all kinds of illegal edibles that we don't want. so we are fighting back. my question is, is there -- now have a member of the council who

has sent a press release to the u.s. attorney's office and the police asking to decriminalize prostitution and the whole. unnoticed in this particular individual is a proponent of marijuana, sits on his porch, you know, smoking as though it's okay. my question is, what more can we do, or is there an effort to really go back and revisit the issue, the slippery slope that happened in the district of columbia? >> i think there is an effort and i think we need to hear from really grassroots activists. we need hear more from people like yourself to others here so that your collective voices are heard. right now they're drowned out by a deep pocket special interest group that really has unlimited funds because it's in a business interest to pass legalization. they benefit when the pass of legislation, were as us who are trying to prevent bad legislation or promote good legislation we don't have that financial incentives. it's powerful under the site. the only thing to counter it is

we hear individual voices. i'll also ask people, you can download for free our advocacy app which is sam action at in apple or the google place door and you can actually get alerts to be able to write elected officials to be able to show that collective advocacy that needs to happen. again we see this as a bipartisan issue. we don't see this as one party or the other and we see this as a public health and scientific issue. whether it's going to take five years, ten, 50 or 100, we know as patrick says were on the right side of history. we know that as a country with going to collectively come to our senses at some point. we just hope you don't have to pay the consequences before realizing it. >> one added comment. judge burnett, i testified before the city council and we need to see others talking about the negative consequence. there's a move move in the country today as a result of

bail issues, talking about posting bail where people can't make the jail and sit in jail. this would be another way of having these people sit in jail because i find a $300 as opposed for marijuana uses, a person has been unemployed for three years. where's the money coming from? the whole idea of just decriminalizing and imposing a fine puts us in sandbox or in more people sit in jail even pretrial on bail they can't make. >> i've reached out to my national affiliation and asked them, all the full gospel churches in usa, to a meeting with my senior bishop to say i need a statement. i'm reaching across all ecumenical lines, people of faith have to operate on faith and you have to call them out for who they are and what they

are. they talk about social justice. i, too, remember the rights. martin luther king was in newark the week before he went to memphis, chill at 17 years old i got to hear martin. martin said something, he said you must do the analysis but you can have paralysis. you need to call on your faith leaders. you need to call on every organization that you know that moves in the community. 20 years ago there was a group of clergy. we can to get it natural history because we negotiated the first treaty between the bloods and the cribs in the city of newark and i was part of that group. you can get gang bangers that really will help you out or ex-gang bangers because that's who the community believes there can lastly let me say this to you. martin said that we must know there's always a time and to do right, at the time is right now.

>> with that we'll ended. we think everybody for being here today. for more information you can get a come learn about sam.org and also the other organizations mentioned today. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] >> wrapping up this event, you were to reference close to the end of the program to a congressional effort to decriminalize cannabis. about this at the hell right senate minority leader chuck schumer plans to introduce a bill that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. senator schumer told by snooze that legislation will be released within the next week. the bill would remove marijuana from drug enforcement administrations list of controlled substances and would give the states the authority over how to regulate the drug. you can read more about that in the hill.com. a look at some of our prime time programming coming up tonight.

>> also coming up an interview with principal deputy white house press secretary raj shah we talked about his family, growing up in connecticut, sort of beginnings in politics, the relationship between the media and the white house as well as what it's like working for president trump. that will air tonight at 9:30 p.m. eastern also on c-span. the supreme court heard oral argument tuesday in south dakota v. wayfair concerning online sales tax collection. the court release the oral argument today and you can hear it tonight at eight eastern here on c-span2.

>> the funeral service for barbara bush is saturday at noon eastern from saint martin's episcopal church in houston. speakers include her son jeb bush, friend susan baker, and historian john bijan. watch our coverage on c-span and c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> this weekend live coverage on booktv of the 22nd annual "l.a. times" festival of books starting saturday at 1 p.m. eastern.

>> up next state department officials testify in u.s. policy in the middle east. they discuss the administrations strategy in syria, iran nuclear agreement, russia's engagement in the middle east, u.s.-turkey relations and the humidity and situation in yemen. the house for affairs committee held this hearing this week. on [inaudible conversations]