Written by Benjamin Smith
A recent forum on marijuana, hosted by IFI, is the source of this week’s Spotlight podcast. Many factors contribute to the growing problem of homelessness in America and according to Pastor Phil Kwiatkowski, president of Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, the most common factor is drug use and addiction. With this reality in mind, how could anyone, especially in Chicago (ranked in the top 10 U.S. cities for homelessness), think that legalizing recreational marijuana is a good idea?… Continue Reading
Written by Benjamin Smith
In this week’s Spotlight podcast – maybe we should call it a potcast – Dr. Karen Randall returns to share her knowledge and experience with legal, high-potency marijuana, not only in her role as an ER physician, but also as a tax-paying resident of Colorado.
Dr. Randall explains the difference between the major compounds, THC and CBD, found in the marijuana plant and addresses how genetic modification affects compound levels. Monte, Dave, and Dr.… Continue Reading
Written by Benjamin Smith
Jo McGuire once again joins Monte Larrick and David Smith for a conversation on the extensive topic of commercial marijuana and the ongoing ramifications of legalized pot in Colorado. Ms. McGuire is the chairman of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association, NDASA.com.
The podcast opens with a discussion of an issue that is often overlooked – how might legalized access to marijuana affect, even pose a threat to, safe and drug-free work environments?… Continue Reading
Written by Benjamin Smith
This week we turn our Spotlight on Angela Camp, a drug addiction specialist with Bradford Health Services in Birmingham, Alabama. During an Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems conference in Springfield, Ms. Camp met with Monte Larrick to discuss the escalating heroin epidemic in the United States and its connection to opioid and marijuana use and addiction.
Ms. Camp explains how availability, affordability, and changes in public perception have contributed to the increase in drug abuse in middle-class America.… Continue Reading
Written by Benjamin Smith
In light of Governor JB Pritzker’s avowed priority to legalize “recreational” marijuana in Illinois, this week’s Spotlight podcast is definitely worth listening to as well as sharing with family and friends – especially anyone who might be on the fence about the subject of legalization.
As a long-time Emergency Room physician (with a certificate in Cannabis Science and Medicine from the University of Vermont), Dr. Karen Randall brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table as she describes to Monte Larrick and David Smith the devastation legal access to high-potency marijuana has brought to her community of Pueblo, Colorado.… Continue Reading
Tags: Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, Cannabis-Induced Psychosis, Homelessness, JB Pritzker, Jo McGuire, Karen Randall, overdose, psychotic break, recreational marijuana, SB 7, scromiting, Suicide
Marijuana | David E. Smith | 
January 16, 2019 6:00 AM | 
Comments Off on SPOTLIGHT: Until It Affects You
Written by Benjamin Smith
Happy New Year and welcome to the first Spotlight podcast of 2019! For this edition of Spotlight we are revisiting highlights of an earlier episode featuring IFI’s own Monte Larrick and J.D. Mesnard, Regional Director with Alliance Defending Freedom’s Church Alliance. This interview took place in May 2018 at IFI’s fourth annual Worldview Conference. Mesnard begins the podcast by detailing the range of vital legal assistance the ADF Church Alliance provides to churches.… Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
Addictions to help mitigate decades of irresponsible political spending? It’s preposterous, but that is out-going left-wing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s prescription to reduce (not solve) the nagging pension crisis.
Emanuel and others like him think that hooking Illinois citizens into vices like marijuana and casino gambling is a legitimate way to realize new revenue sources. Of course, ill-gotten gains from dope and gambling are inadequate in-and-of-themselves and require spendthrift politicians to increase our gasoline tax by 20-30 cent per gallon to feed their insatiable spending habits.… Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
This week’s Spotlight podcast focuses on the deception and devastation surrounding legalization of recreational marijuana. Joining Monte Larrick is Dr. Karen Randall, an emergency room physician from Pueblo, CO. Dr. Randall trained in the areas of emergency medicine, pediatrics and family practice. She holds a certificate in Cannabis Science and Medicine from the University of Vermont, serves on the Board of Directors and is Vice President of Case Management for Southern Colorado Emergency Medical Associates, and speaks nationally and internationally on the dangers of marijuana.… Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
If you listen to only one Spotlight podcast this year, please listen to this one!
Monte Larrick and I are joined by Jo McGuire, Colorado native and Chairman of the Board of the National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, for an eye-opening discussion of the devastation that five years of legalized marijuana has brought to the state of Colorado. In the 2018 lame duck Veto Session in Springfield (November 13-15 and 27-29), Illinois state lawmakers could vote to fully legalize marijuana in Illinois.… Continue Reading
Written by Daniel Horowitz
It’s a lot easier to treat doctors like drug traffickers and push pain patients into suicide than it is go after sanctuary cities and the drug cartels that are responsible for the entirety of the drug (not “opioid”) crisis. Nowhere is this more evident than in Minneapolis.
In April, the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a story on “how Mexican drug cartels turned Minneapolis into a meth hub.” They report, as we observed a few months ago, that distribution of meth, which is not an opioid, is surging to all-time highs in this country.… Continue Reading
