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[0] Hospitals are reporting that more teens are visiting emergency rooms with symptoms of THC toxicity.
[1] What's causing this increase in THC poisoning?
[2] And why is it appearing in teens?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Saturday, July 2nd, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Parents nationwide have been speaking out at school board meetings, voicing their concerns about what their kids are being taught in school.
[6] Now, the Department of Education has launched a parent engagement council.
[7] Is it working or backfiring?
[8] And new evidence from the Hunter Biden laptop could have national security implications.
[9] We talked to the investigative reporter who examined the recordings.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
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[20] With the legalization of cannabis in many states, highly concentrated THC products have proliferated the market.
[21] Now, doctors are saying teens are presenting to emergency departments with symptoms of THC toxicity.
[22] A recent study from the University of Toronto found that people who use marijuana are 22 % more likely to require emergency medical care compared to non -cannabis users.
[23] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[24] So Charlotte, welcome.
[25] First off, what are emergency departments reporting?
[26] Hey, Georgia.
[27] So according to the New York Times, hospitals are seeing more teens and young adults presenting with symptoms of THC toxicity.
[28] The most common symptom is intense bouts of vomiting, but according to the medical literature, teens are also experiencing mental health problems, including changes to brain connectivity and memory, depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.
[29] Now, I would imagine that adults use cannabis products more than teens, so why do doctors believe that these symptoms are more common in teens?
[30] So the thought is that teens still developing brains are more susceptible to the effects of THC.
[31] Since cannabis became legal, there's been a proliferation.
[32] of synthetic cannabis products on the market, many of which have been distilled to include very high levels of THC, which is the psychoactive component in cannabis.
[33] Those products include candies, vapes, oils, waxes, and a variety of other edible products.
[34] Cannabis naturally contains both THC and CBD.
[35] While CBD has a calming effect and has some medicinal uses, THC causes the psychoactive effects.
[36] The issue is that THC is fat soluble, and therefore it can accumulate in the body.
[37] When it accumulates to the point of toxicity, an individual can start to experience these health issues.
[38] Morningwire spoke to Dr. Eric Snyder, a medical director of the emergency department at Providence Cedar -Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
[39] And he said he's definitely seeing more cases of THC toxicity.
[40] Now that it is more readily available and such high concentrations and so pure, we're seeing more and more toxicity is associated with THC.
[41] Younger people, however, are seeing more of a long -term effect.
[42] of THC, which is cannabis hyperimicis syndrome, which is a really unique syndrome of just persistent vomiting and really bad abdominal pain.
[43] He also said it's mainly teens who are being affected.
[44] People that have used marijuana in high doses for high in high amounts for long periods of time, they cannot tolerate not having it or at some point.
[45] They just have too much of it in their system.
[46] And, you know, the treatment is now, we're pretty clear, is now we're using antipsychitis.
[47] to treat this syndrome.
[48] So why is this happening now?
[49] Cannabis has been around for generations.
[50] What's changed?
[51] Well, the strains of marijuana being grown now are just much more potent than even a few decades ago.
[52] In 1995, the concentration of THC in cannabis that the DEA collected was around 4%.
[53] By 2017, that number was up to 17%.
[54] And cannabis products, which use highly distilled THC extracts, can be much, much higher, even up to 90 to 100 % concentration.
[55] And at the same time, the average level of CBD has been going down.
[56] Keep in mind, CBD is the compound that is often touted as medicinal, like we said.
[57] And research has shown that lower amounts of CBD also has the potential to make cannabis more addictive.
[58] This higher use of cannabis and the potency of the substance is also resulting in more diagnoses of schizophrenia associated with use of marijuana.
[59] Now, what do we know about cannabis use rates among young people?
[60] So national research shows that marijuana usage of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders actually went down in 2021.
[61] And some point to the pandemic is one reason.
[62] But prior to 2021, it was increasing sharply.
[63] So between 2017 and 2019, the amount of high school seniors who said they had vaped marijuana within the past 30 days almost tripled.
[64] And in 2020, that number was 35%.
[65] The numbers are a little higher among college kids with 44 % reporting using marijuana in the past.
[66] year.
[67] And now that it's been legalized, are there any regulations on these products?
[68] I know that was one of the main arguments for legalization.
[69] Recreational use of cannabis is legal in 19 states plus D .C. And its medical use is legal in 37 states, but only two states, Vermont and Connecticut, have concentration limits.
[70] Both Vermont and Connecticut cap THC concentration at 60%.
[71] In most of the U .S. where cannabis is legal, there aren't restrictions.
[72] But it's not clear how much these regulations would even do because experts don't actually know what the safe level is.
[73] All right.
[74] Well, Charlotte, thanks so much for bringing us this story.
[75] Thanks for having me. That was DailyWire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[76] Coming up, amid backlash over school curriculum, the Biden administration launches the National Parents and Families Engagement Council.
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[80] Parents nationwide have taken a more active role in their children's education, speaking out at school board meetings about everything from COVID -related shutdowns to lessons on race and gender.
[81] In response, last week, the Biden administration's Department of Education launched a national parents and families engagement council, hoping to mend fences with parents.
[82] Here to discuss is Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Voice.
[83] So, Carrie, why is the president making this council a priority right now?
[84] Thanks for having me, Georgia.
[85] Well, Joe Biden has a parents problem.
[86] It started with a letter from the National School Boards Association to Attorney General Merrick Garland last fall, labeling parents who spoke out as school board meetings as potential domestic terrorists and directing the FBI to review possible violent threats and harassment against school boards.
[87] Parents were furious, with some claiming that the Biden administration was abusing its power and weaponizing the FBI against them.
[88] Anger towards schools at the state level predated that infamous letter and had become a major issue for voters for a couple years now.
[89] For example, angry parents helped propel Glenn Yunkin's election as governor, which was seen as a major upset in Blue Virginia.
[90] So flash forward to last week, the Biden White House established the National Parents and Families Engagement Council in hopes that parents can constructively participate in their children's education and to facilitate strong and effective relationships between schools and families.
[91] The council is made up of parent, family, or caregiver representatives for more than a dozen national organizations in a falls under the Department of Education.
[92] Here's Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a recent congressional hearing on.
[93] on how he hopes to engage with parents.
[94] What I haven't heard is an appetite from parents for sowing division in our schools or telling students what they can or can't read or can't learn or telling teachers what they can't teach.
[95] Now, there's been a pretty significant breakdown of trust between parents and schools over the past couple of years.
[96] My guess is it's going to be difficult to repair that.
[97] What's the response been to this announcement?
[98] Well, there is still a lot of distrust.
[99] Critics say that this parent group is merely window dressing so that the White House can claim that schools can say they're working with parents.
[100] They say this is a political move.
[101] The council includes groups like the National Parent Teachers Association, the PTA, the National Parents Union, and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.
[102] Critics say these groups are all left -leaning and tend to align with the teachers' unions, which almost uniformly donate to Democrat and liberal political causes.
[103] Here's Nicole Neely from Parents Defending Education, which has been critical of the council.
[104] From first glance, it looks like it's a bunch of rubber stamping, yes, men, because strangely, it seems like our invitation and invitations for people like friends we know, like moms for liberty, our invitations were lost in the mail.
[105] Well, definitely a story to keep watching.
[106] Carrie, thanks for reporting.
[107] Thank you.
[108] That was Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Voice.
[109] New evidence has come to light from the Hunter Biden laptop that Republicans say could have national security implications.
[110] joining us to discuss is Andrew Kerr, investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner.
[111] Welcome, Andrew.
[112] So you've done a lot of original reporting on this.
[113] Can you tell us first about your new report on Hunter and the Russian escort agency?
[114] Yeah, we've been working with a former Secret Service agent by the name of Gus Dimitrolos, and he was able to find the password to this 28 gig backup so we could actually access these files.
[115] And what we found in there was that extensive communications between Hunter Biden and this woman who works with an escort agency showing that he spent over $30 ,000 on escorts that were linked to Russian email addresses and bank accounts between November 2018 and March 2019.
[116] What we also found was that Joe Biden had wired a combined $100 ,000 to Hunter Biden during the same time frame.
[117] We found records showing that Hunter Biden was effectively broke during this time frame.
[118] He was spending all this money on Russian escorts.
[119] There's one instance that we reported in which Joe Biden wired his son at $5 ,000 while Hunter was actively engaged with an escort that's tied to a Russian bank account and just less than three hours after Joe Biden wired these funds to Hunter, Hunter filmed a disturbing video which he was accosting this escort telling her, I was just apologizing I was just explaining to you that it took so long to wire you $10 ,000.
[120] So we just have these instances that we found where money's going from Joe to Hunter and then Hunter's spending it on Russian escorts.
[121] And it's important to note that Senators Grassley and Johnson reported in 2020 that they uncovered payments showing that Hunter Biden, quote, paid non -resident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and what appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.
[122] So, you know, all that just looks very bad.
[123] And we can say factually that Joe Biden was funding this activity.
[124] Hunter was broke, and yet Joe was giving all this money.
[125] We found no evidence that Joe was aware or knew that Hunter was spending this money in this way.
[126] But, you know, that's, that is what happened.
[127] It's a pretty extraordinary story.
[128] Right.
[129] So this might be a case of Joe Biden inadvertently funding this activity.
[130] Now, some might say this is just a story of a troubled son and a father trying to keep him afloat, but this could have national security implications.
[131] Can you explain that for us?
[132] Yeah, we spoke to a former federal prosecutor, Andy McCarthy.
[133] And he explained after reviewing this data that if Joe Biden wasn't the president of the United States, he would not be able to obtain a security clearance.
[134] I mean, we have Joe Biden.
[135] His money is funding payments to Russian escorts, even if he isn't aware of that.
[136] You know, that there is security implications there.
[137] but that opens up Joe Biden to, you know, blackmail through Hunter.
[138] Those are legitimate questions to ask.
[139] Now, there's another report out by the Daily Mail about a voicemail that Joe Biden left at this time on Hunter's phone.
[140] In this voicemail left on December 12th, 2018, Joe Biden references a New York Times article about Hunter's involvement with a Chinese energy company and says, I just want to talk to you.
[141] I thought the article, at least this thing on online, it's going to be printed tomorrow on the Times.
[142] It's good.
[143] and I make you clear.
[144] Anyway, if you get a chance, give me a call, I love you.
[145] What do we need to know there?
[146] Yeah, so this voicemail comes from that password -protected iPhone backup that I referred to at the beginning of this interview.
[147] So Joe Biden has said multiple times that he has never discussed Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.
[148] And he has no knowledge of what Hunter Biden was doing with his foreign business dealings.
[149] But this voicemail indicates that, you know, when Joe is saying, like, hey, I think you're clear, it indicates that Joe knows all the facts and was happy with the way that the New York Times framed the facts, saying that you're in the clear.
[150] I'm glad that they framed it this way.
[151] Maybe they didn't bring up some of the stuff that we were more concerned about.
[152] And so this is just another example of Joe Biden being caught in the lie that, you know, him claiming that he has no knowledge of his son's foreign business dealings when, you know, it's just become overwhelming at this point that, yeah, he definitely had some level of awareness, at the very least.
[153] Well, we'll see if the efforts by Republican senators to investigate some of these claims lead to anything, as well as the ongoing probe of Hunter Biden.
[154] Thanks, Andrew.
[155] That was Washington Examiners, Andrew Kerr.
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