Substance Abuse
South Africa – Cannabis bill angers cannabis consumers who intend on doing things illegally
South Africa’s draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill has made some Rastafarian cannabis consumers quite upset. If the bill is passed there will be a maximum jail term of 15 years for dealing in cannabis, smoking in public earns two years of jail time, and smoking around children would be punishable by four years in jail. At home you may grow up to four flowering plants if you live alone, and eight plants if there are two or more adults. You may possess 600g of dried cannabis if you live alone or 1.2kg if there are two or more adults in your home. The Rasta Business Foundation members marched to Durban City Hall in protest complaining that the government gives police too much leeway to enter people’s properties, and also criticised the amount legal to possess. The motive of groups that advocate for cannabis becomes clear that it’s not really about health and well-being but that dealing was also their intention and police who would ensure legal activities is a problem for them. Why else complain unless you plan to do illegal trade. More
USA – Benadryl challenge sends many teens worldwide to the emergency room
The ‘Benadryl’ challenge, which encourages users to overdose on the drug to achieve a hallucinatory state, first did the rounds on Tiktok back in May, when three teenagers were hospitalized in Texas. One of the three a 15-year old in Oklahama City died. In small quantities the drug heals fever and cold symptoms, larger doses can cause hallucination, heart trouble, seizures, coma and death. After this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning of the dangers with high doses and that parents should lock up medicine beyond the reach of children. Other cases of teens overdosing on Benadryl and heading for the emergency room are popping up nationwide in the United States, Europe, Australia and certain Asian countries. Article, Article 2, Video
USA – Another TikTok Trend endangers teens: Nutmeg challenge
A toxicologist explains what happened to a 19-year-old’s brain who made TikTok videos of himself after he drank an entire bottle of nutmeg spice in a protein shake. GG’s immense thirst made him drink 14 litres of water over a few hours which did not quench his thirst nor could he urinate. Like everything that’s herbal and natural, nutmeg has hundreds of chemicals in it. Natural things are all made of chemicals. GG had nutmeg poisoning and hyponatremia (Low sodium presence in blood) and caused his organs, heart and brain to swell with water. Fortunately, no herniation occurred in his brain and the 3% sodium infusion was enough to solve the hyponatremia and draw the water out of his brain. Upon regaining consciousness, he realized that no amount of views on TikTok made that terrible experience worth it. More