The NC NORML Legislative & Education Committee has been hard at work!
In addition to developing our legislative strategy, compiling pertinent data on candidates for the NC General Assembly, they have produced new fact sheets for us all to use.
Each fact sheet covers one topic with the sources cited within. Most are 1 page in length. The information has been verified, and re-verified, so you can feel confident. These 1st 4 fact sheets cover very relevant topics for our current landscape in NC. They cover the Opioid Crisis, the Gateway Myth, Medical Research, and ways NC can reduce costs and increase revenues with legal cannabis.
More fact sheets are on the way, so it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the Resources page for new stuff! https://www.ncnorml.org/resources/. These fact sheets are all there as well as other important information.
1. The Medical Cost Savings and Tax Revenue fact sheet https://tinyurl.com/MedSavings-Revenue shows how NC could not only save money, but increase revenues with legal cannabis, containing gems like. “...researchers estimated that if all states had legalized medical marijuana in 2014 the national savings for fee-for-service Medicaid would have been approximately $1.01 billion. This is a yearly average of $19.825 million savings per state. Further, if equally applied to include Medicaid managed care plans, the savings nation-wide could jump to $3.89 billion yearly savings.”
2. The Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) Research fact sheet https://tinyurl.com/MedicalResearchFS offers a long list of peer-reviewed articles detailing the many potential medical benefits of cannabis and offers details like, “A systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of American Medical Association found evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV infection, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome. Five years later the Journal American Medical Association, Internal Medicine (2020) confirmed additional conditions for the medical use of specific cannabinoids: spasticity related to multiple sclerosis, rare forms of childhood epilepsy, and modestly reduces pain, especially nerve pain.”
3. Opioid Crisis and Cannabis Legalization fact sheet https://tinyurl.com/OpioidCrisisNC points to benefits seen by legal states and the low rate of dependence to cannabis. “The National Bureau Of Economic Research (2015) calculated there was a 28% reduction of opioid substance abuse treatment admissions in states where access to cannabis “is easiest (both legally and practically).” Legalized cannabis resulted in a reduction of both opioid addiction and overdose deaths. Some citizens find cannabis preferable to opioids.”
4. Cannabis/Marijuana is Not a Gateway Drug fact sheet https://tinyurl.com/GatewayMyth blows through some lingering misconceptions. “According to the Cato Institute, North Carolina spent ~ $263.3 million in state and local dollars to enforce cannabis laws in 2016. However, “a large national sample of arrestees that testing positive for illegal drug use [cannabis, cocaine, or opiate] is negatively associated with aggressive crime and that, in contrast, self-reported use of alcohol has strong and robust positive effects.” These results raise significant questions about the merits of policies focused on criminalizing cannabis use.”
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