“I am always a child advocate and seeking to speak out on the best interest of children.”
Who said that?
Was it a politician; or, one known for pretention (“an allegation of doubtful veracity”); or, a pediatrician?
Since both politician and pretention are, sadly, often synonymous, the correct answer is pediatrician.
Even though the first and the last should be equally concerned especially when the issue is lung tissue.
As the City Council of Lakewood, Washington considers the question of whether to allow retail marijuana within city limits, or not – a decision promised this month of May – it is worth asking what they knew and when they knew it as pertains the investigation of the ingestion of another so-called innocuous product given a report out of Pennsylvania.
This seventeenth day of May, Q13 Fox News is reporting that an 18-year-old, in just 21 days of vaping, had such “difficulty breathing that was worsening by the minute, and sudden stabbing pains in the chest with every inhalation and exhalation” that “the ER doctors admitted her to the pediatric intensive-care unit and started her on antibiotics. But her condition rapidly worsened.”
Next up? Respiratory failure.
While there are few studies of “respiratory distress following electronic cigarette use” chances are “as electronic cigarette use increases, we will be seeing more case reports and side effects,” said Dr. Casey Sommerfeld, general pediatrician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Some, but by no means all, vaping vendors “limit their offerings to tobacco and menthol flavors,” while others market their products with tastes “that appeal to children.”
Even though candy-conditioning is “prohibited for use in regular cigarettes,” there are no restrictions evidently, nor qualms apparently, among those in the e-cigarette industry since it promotes such products as available in more than six times as many flavors as Baskin-Robbins ice-cream ever thought of.
Ingredients that include nicotine.
“E-cigarettes heat liquid and turn it into vapor, which a user inhales and then exhales in a large puffy cloud. The liquid is known as e-juice, and it contains flavorings, propylene glycol, glycerin and often nicotine — though many users are unaware of this final addictive ingredient,” according to the Q13 Fox News article.
Health concerns as the above, and those regarding the ongoing and related discussion – and pending decision – of the likewise inhaled marijuana as reported below should, one would think, be expressed in no uncertain terms by those responsible for the health and safety of residents whose education on such matters, matters.
Since legalization of marijuana:
“Colorado toxicology reports show the percentage of adolescent suicide victims testing positive for marijuana have increased.”
“In Anchorage, school suspensions for marijuana use and possession increased more than 141% from 2015 (when legalization was implemented) to 2017.”
“Washington has seen a 70% increase in calls to hospitals and ER visits between the three-year averages before and after legalization.”
There are those of course who will dismiss such statistics as nothing more than “scare tactics”.
There are others who sit on committees – like Public Safety for which marijuana retail if approved locally most certainly one would think would be a pertinent matter of concern – whose views are unknown.
Lakewood City Councilmember Marie Barth “asked the Public Safety Advisory Committee members” at its January 3, 2018 meeting “how they felt about allowing marijuana stores into City limits” (p.065).
Their answer?
“Discussion ensued,” according to the minutes.
That’s all we know.
A member of the Youth Council was at that meeting. According to the minutes “she stated she had planned on asking some drug/marijuana questions but they’d all been answered during Councilmember Marie Barth’s time.”
That’s all we know.
The minutes of the Public Safety Advisory Committee record nothing further.
Now this month of May we are told we will hear from the Lakewood City Council their decision as to whether pot will set up shop in a store near you.
One Councilmember has stated here in this publication that he plans to present his reasoning for his vote on the marijuana issue at the hearing on May 21,” adding “I agree that the public certainly deserves to receive a sense of why folks vote the way they do on these topics of significant interest.”
Hopefully the minutes will reflect something more than “discussion ensued” and also hopefully – as has already been demonstrated by votes and explained decisions behind those votes by the Clover Park School District Board of Directors, and the Lakewood Planning Commission – there will be those likewise among the majority of the Lakewood City Council who are “child advocates seeking to speak out on the best interest of children.”
Do you ever tire of being on the wrong side of history?
Mr. Ames,
By all indications you support bringing more marijuana into our city. Am I right?
The last I knew, you are currently the Chairman of the Public Safety Advisory Committee. Am I right?
If my conclusions are currently accurate then that means the Chairman of the Public Safety Advisory Committee supports bringing more dope into the city along with supporting the normalization of smoking dope.
I cannot answer if Mr. Anderson “ever tires of being on the wrong side of history?”, but perhaps if there had been more like Mr. Anderson back in the day, the Roman Empire would not have fallen into a state of decay and ruin.
Joseph Boyle
P.S. Mr. Ames, you and I are certainly a couple of frank speakers on opposite sides of the dope issue. That does not preclude me buying you a cup of coffee should you one day feel parched.
So, let me get this right. Mr. Ames is the Chairman of the Public Safety Commitee? He’s also a member of the PTA of Harrison Prep? And, he endorses the sale of marijuana in Lakewood? Great. Just great.
Mr. Boyle, the Romans as well as their conquerors would have been using cannabis at the time.
Samples have been found on humans dating back to prehistoric times, and even in the remains of the pipe belonging to William Shakespeare.
Cannabis has been used as a medicine for the entirety of human history. Eli Lilly sold cannabis extracts in the United States before prohibition.
The cannabis plant is much more dignified than you currently realize.
Mr. Steve Anonymous,
I know. That is my point. Yes, the Romans may well have used weed to add to their drunken orgies. That is what I am talking about. Moral decay.
Opening dope shops in Lakewood is tantamount to bringing moral decay to Lakewood. Perhaps Lakewood and our entire country will disappear like the Roman Empire.
Joseph Boyle
Note: Some may not agree with my view, but at least I never hide behind just my first name.
Mr Joseph,
I think that pushing your own Judeo-Christian ‘ethics’ onto others is a larger and more problematic form of moral decay in today’s society than cannabis use. You project an air of self-superiority and ‘stick-up-buttedness’ analogous to Maude Flanders. I wouldn’t want my kids growing up to be anything like you or the people like you.
And using your last name doesn’t make your arguments any more credible. They are just as vapid today as they were in 1958.
I am in favor of citizens having a choice.
I do not use cannabis. Nor do I decide if others do.
I can only wonder Mr. Ames that your passionate support of legalizing the sale of pot in Lakewood might indicate that you too “partake” of the weed. Would you be honest enough to admit that one way or the other? Every “recreational” pot smoker prior to legalization at State level or here in Lakewood is and was a party to criminal activity which supported everything from Mexican drug cartels, MS-13 to local grow operations and all the mayhem and crime associated with them. Legalizing pot will not eliminate these criminal elements from the pot trade. Indeed with the 36% tax levied on pot by the State, there still exists a wide open black market for the illegal pot trade on the black market. This is exactly what happened in New York and other states that imposed high taxes on cigarettes: convoys of trailer trucks loaded with untaxed cigarettes driving up from North Carolina. We’re already seeing the illegal distribution of surplus pot to neighboring states and out the back doors of vap-shops. We also now have blatant pot smoking in public places such as our parks and streets. If pot heads were willing to disregard the law when it was illegal to purchase pot then a law forbidding smoking pot in public places is merely another law to disregard. The one thing that legalization did do is eliminate the need for small time dealers to buy through pot distributors who might just be narcs. Now they can buy their supply legally, as much as they can handle though “looping” and sell to those, like our kids, who still can’t buy it legally.
“Wrong” side of history? No, not in this case.
Mr. Anderson, I support your point but would like to add an additional thought for all those vape huffers out there.
If anyone suffering from nicotine elects to vape please do it inside your own home or car and roll the windows up. Turn your vehicle air controller to recirculate the air already inside your car. If vape is a good thing does it not make sense to not having your personal cloud of chemicals flying out the window. Why not breath it all in even more than once by so you get the most for your money. If vape is a good thing, then keep it all to yourself by inhaling your vape 6 – 8 times.
What am I saying? I am not interesting in vaping, so please do not share it with me. When that giant thick cloud of chemicals pours out your car window and I am driving behind you or we are stopped at a traffic light, you are assaulting me with your vape.
If you can assault me with your chemicals, I should be able to run up to your driver’s window and punch you in the face as long as I can get back to my car before the light turns green. It is agains the law to hold up traffic.
I won’t punch you in the face because because before they invented vape, they made punching you in the face an illegal assault. That being said, it should be against the law for you to assault my face with your vape.
What possible argument could a vape huffer have for inflicting their stupidity and poor judgement in the form of a vape cloud on innocent citizens? The only argument is they are ignorant or they do not care.
I take the same stand on marijuana.
Please do not share your dope or vape with me.
Joseph Boyle
Joey – before you haul off and start punching people in the face, maybe you should try vaping bro?
Most of this write-up is about e-cigs, not even cannabis, which was given to us as a whole plant by god.
You don’t even have a proper logical argument to stand on. Go back and re-read your own article. It’s like an Alex Jones fever dream.
Your ‘whataboutism’ and weak lists of reasons are nothing that should keep the citizens of Lakewood from being able to shop for the cannabis they voted for here in town. We should also be able to reap the financial benefits of the ‘green rush’. It’s one of the big perks of living here in the great state of WA.
Take a deep breath, Steve. Relax. It’ll all be okay.
Why doesn’t our city council leave it up to the voters? Put it on the Nov. ballot. Let the City of Lakewood guide our council on this matter. That to me would be the appropiate thing to do.
I’m personally against it because I’ve been there and done that. I know what it does to family and friends. Believe me, it’s not like in the movies, lol.
Look at the Lakewood vote numbers from when it passed the first time.
Or put it on the 2020 fall ticket, and allow recreational sales in the interim.
NEWS FLASH! Lakewood’s Council just voted 4 to 3 to prohibit retail pot shops within Lakewood! Common sense prevailed. Brandstetter, Anderson, Whelan and Barth for prohibition; Simpson, Boche, and Moss against prohibition.
Yay!