Matthew Bark - Does legal pot entice users to drink more?

Source    : Futurity
By           : Deborah Bach-UW
Category : Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando, Matthew Bark

Does legal pot entice users to drink more?

Does legal marijuana tempt pot users to consume more alcohol? A new study highlights the difficulties of gauging the impact of a formerly illicit drug as it moves into the mainstream. Recreational marijuana use is now legal in four states and medical marijuana in 23 states. Research on legalization policies has focused largely on how they impact marijuana access and use, but researchers wanted to know how legalization affects the use of alcohol, by far the nation’s most popular drug. The majority of adults in the US drink to varying degrees. Alcohol abuse is the third leading preventable cause of death nationwide—and drinking accounts for almost one-third of driving fatalities annually. Excessive alcohol use cost $223.5 billion in 2006 alone. “We chose to focus on alcohol because even relatively small changes in alcohol consumption could have profound implications for public health, safety, and related costs,” says lead author Katarína Guttmannová, a researcher in the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington. The researchers sought to determine whether legalizing marijuana led to it becoming a substitute for alcohol or tended to increase consumption of both substances. If it was the former, that could greatly reduce the costs of healthcare, traffic accidents, and lower workplace productivity related to excessive drinking. But if legalized marijuana resulted in increased use of both drugs, costs to society could increase dramatically, particularly since those who use both substances tend to use them at the same time. Those who use both substances simultaneously are twice as likely to drive drunk and face social troubles such as drunken brawls and relationship problems. Drawing on previous studies, the researchers hypothesized that legalization of marijuana could result in either substitution or complementary effects. Marijuana and alcohol both provide users with similar “reward and sedation” effects, which could prompt users to substitute one for the other. But blood levels of THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s pleasurable psychological effects, increase with simultaneous alcohol use—so the quest for a better high might lead people to use both substances.

A mix of findings

For the study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, researchers reviewed more than 750 studies on marijuana and alcohol use and focused on 15 that specifically addressed the links between marijuana policies and drinking. They looked at how decriminalized marijuana, medical marijuana, and recreational marijuana affected alcohol use. The findings of those studies fluctuated widely, depending on the demographic and the type and frequency of alcohol and marijuana use. One study, for example, found that states where marijuana is decriminalized had more emergency room visits related to marijuana and fewer visits linked to alcohol and other drugs. Some studies found that high school seniors in states where pot was decriminalized tended to drink less, while other research found that college students who used pot also drank more. Findings around medical marijuana also varied. One study reported that states with medical marijuana dispensaries had higher rates of both marijuana and alcohol use, as well as higher admissions into alcohol treatment facilities. But while states with medical marijuana had fewer alcohol-related fatalities overall, those with dispensaries saw more of those deaths. Other research found that while legalized medical marijuana wasn’t associated with any increases in underage drinking, it was linked with more binge drinking and simultaneous use of pot and alcohol among adults.

A complicated issue

The researchers conclude there’s evidence of marijuana and alcohol being both substitutes and complements. Given the rapidly evolving landscape of marijuana policy, they say further study will be important to understand how changes in marijuana laws impact the use of alcohol and other drugs. In particular, future studies should address specific dimensions of marijuana policies, timing of policy change and implementation, and different aspects of marijuana and alcohol use, such as age of users and whether they are episodic or regular consumers, Guttmannová says. “This is a complicated issue and requires a nuanced approach. We were hoping to have more clear-cut answers at the end of our research. But you know what? This is the science of human behavior, and it’s messy, and that’s OK.” The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the work.

See more at :  futurity.org/marijuana-alcohol-1081732-2/

Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando | Jury’s guilty verdict surprises legal watchers

Source    :thespec
By        : Hamilton Spectator
Category  : Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando, DUI Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando

Legal watchers in the Maritimes expressed surprise over Saturday's murder conviction against a member of one of New Brunswick's most prominent families, with one expert forecasting an appeal.

A professor of criminal justice history who has been following the trial of Dennis Oland said he was shocked a jury came back with a guilty verdict.

Greg Marquis, of the University of New Brunswick, who is writing a book about the Oland trial, said the evidence presented at the trial was largely circumstantial.

Marquis pointed out that Judge John Walsh emphasized in his legal instructions to the jurors that they could not convict Oland of second-degree murder in the death of his father Richard Oland unless they felt his guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Marquis said if he had been on the jury he would have struggled with that concept in the light of evidence available, which included a brown sports jacket with some blood stains found on it.

"There was not a lot of direct evidence. There was no murder weapon or witnesses," he said in an interview on Sunday, a day after the jury handed down its verdict of guilty of second degree murder.

"There was hardly any blood evidence, except for on the brown sports jacket. That was a key piece of forensic evidence, but even that is problematic because no one could say how the blood got onto the jacket or how long it had been there."

Oland's mother Connie has issued a statement maintaining her son's innocence and said they would be discussing options with the prominent New Brunswick family's legal team.

Robert Currie, a criminal law professor Dalhousie University in Halifax, predicted Oland will appeal the conviction.

However, Currie said Oland's avenues for an appeal are limited because the jury's deliberations are kept confidential, so there is no written decision to dispute as there are when a case is tried by the judge alone.

Appeals in jury trials are usually limited to the judge's instructions to the jury or the admissibility of evidence, said Currie. He predicted Oland would appeal the decision to allow the brown sports jacket as evidence at the trial.

Oland was wearing the jacket when he visited his father on July 6, 2011 — the day before he was found face down in a pool of blood in his Saint John office. The DNA of the blood stains matched the profile of Richard Oland.

However, none of the expert witnesses could say how long the blood had been on the jacket or how it got there.

The Oland family is one of the Maritimes' best known families and founded Moosehead Breweries.

(Read More : .thespec.com/news-story/6202721-jury-s-guilty-verdict-surprises-legal-watchers-in-oland-s-second-degree-murder-case/)