In the 1980s and 90s two successive waves of heroin use swept Britain resulting in massively escalating levels of addiction, deaths, crime, and HIV. At the same time the use of other drugs, cannabis, cocaine, etc was also increasing. There was a widespread sense of crisis with the fear that control of our cities would be lost to drug gangs, drug related crime would continue to grow exponentially, and injecting drug use would become a major route for the transmission of HIV across the population. The drug treatment system was under resourced with lengthy waiting times and high levels of drop out. In 1992 the Major government launched the first national drug strategy “Tackling Drugs Together” to grip these problems.

Fast forward to 2014. Drug use is falling, down from 12% in 2004 to 9% now. The use of heroin peaked at the end of the 1990s at 450,000, it is now 260,000. Young people are shunning heroin with typical users now in their 40s rather than the vulnerable teenagers of popular imagination. Drug related crime has fallen dramatically with investment in treatment initiated during the Blair government enabling offenders and other users to access treatment in days rather than months. The quality of treatment has improved with lower drop out and improved outcomes. The Home Office estimate 30% of the reduction in crime since 2000 is attributable to ready access to treatment which currently prevents 4.9m crimes a year. Levels of HIV among drug injectors is among the lowest in the world, 2% compared to 20% in the USA and 70% in parts of Russia, a legacy of the harm reduction policies pioneered by Norman Fowler as health secretary in the Thatcher government.

None of this featured in last weeks critique in the Huffington Post of the failures of current policy from Caroline Lucas and Julian Huppert, or in their speeches in last Thursdays parliamentary debate. Instead we had a tired unevidenced assertion that policy is a failure, in Nick Clegg’s dramatic language, “on an industrial scale”. Why are outcomes that would have been a cause of celebration in 1992 consistently derided as failure?

The major difference between 1992 and today is that the crisis has abated. There is no longer a plausible argument that drug misuse is spiralling out of control with potentially disastrous consequences for social stability. The absence of crisis frees up ideologues of right and left to posture either about the “failed war on drugs” on the left or the “calamitous consequences of 1960s hedonism” on the right.

The value of the drug debate as a badge of moral and political affiliation is too potent to allow inconvenient truths to intrude. The reality of less use and less harm has to be airbrushed out of the debate if the power of the opposing polemics is to be sustained.

The commentariat’s  self indulgence is buttressed by a political/media culture in which no government policy is allowed to succeed. Ministers are wary of claiming success, fearing charges of complacency today, and ridicule tomorrow if events turn for the worse. Perhaps surprisingly, success is more likely to be buried in Whitehall than failure. Civil servants, policy advocates, and service providers have learned to sidestep inconvenient good news to sustain an ever evolving narrative of failure which is the best route to maintain the high media and political salience on which future funding, policy influence and employment depend.

To highlight the hidden successes of current drug policy is not to deny the continuing challenges and deficits. In England drug related deaths rose alarmingly last year after falling significantly since 2008. The immediate and long term health risks of “legal highs” present an unknown threat. The lack of integration between drug and mental health services is a continuing scandal. Locking people up to protect them from themselves is difficult to justify. But the reality of our drug problem today is that fewer people are using drugs, fewer are becoming addicted, and the social and economic costs of drug use are shrinking.

Any evidence based change to policy needs to acknowledge its successes as well as its deficits. It isn’t enough to dust off arguments from the sixth form debating society as MPs did in the commons this week. The calls for a radical change in policy do not sit well with a significantly shrinking problem. Proponents of change need to explain, not only how reform will prevent imprisonment of users, a laudable aim, but also how they would prevent increases in use and harm arising as a consequence. To steer a sensible pragmatic evidence based route through these policy challenges requires all the evidence to be on the table, including the surprisingly good news that some people would prefer to see ignored.

Source:   http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-hayes/drug-policy-uk-untold-success-story  4th Nov 2014

Abstract

Poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are major risk factors for chronic disease and premature mortality. These behaviours are of concern among higher education students and may be linked to psychological distress which is problematic particularly for students on programmes with practicum components such as nursing and teaching. Understanding how risk behaviours aggregate and relate to psychological distress and coping among this population is important for health promotion. This research examined, via a comprehensive survey undergraduate nursing/midwifery and teacher education students’ (n = 1557) lifestyle behaviour (Lifestyle Behaviour Questionnaire), self-reported psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire) and coping processes (Ways of Coping Questionnaire).

The results showed that health- risk behaviours were common, including alcohol consumption (93.2%), unhealthy diet (26.3%), physical inactivity (26%), tobacco smoking (17%), cannabis use (11.6%) and high levels of stress (41.9%). Students tended to cluster into two groups: those with risk behaviours (n = 733) and those with positive health behaviours (n = 379). The group with risk behaviours had high psychological distress and used mostly passive coping strategies such as escape avoidance. The potential impact on student health and academic achievement is of concern and suggests the need for comprehensive health promotion programmes to tackle multiple behaviours.

As these students are the nurses and teachers of the future, their risk behaviours, elevated psychological distress and poor coping also raise concerns regarding their roles as future health educators/promoters  Attention to promotion of health and well-being among this population is essential.

© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Source: Health Promot Int. 2014 Oct 14. pii: dau086. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

A number of cannabinoid compounds are being sold in the form of incense as ‘legal’ alternatives to marijuana. The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether the most common of these compounds have discriminative stimulus effects similar to Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC), the main active component in marijuana. Locomotor depressant effects of JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, JWH-203, JWH-250, AM-2201, and CP 47,497-C8-homolog were tested in mice. The compounds were then tested for substitution in rats trained to discriminate Δ-THC (3 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). The time course of the peak dose of each compound was also tested. Each of the synthetic cannabinoids dose-dependently decreased locomotor activity for 1-2 h. Each of the compounds fully substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of Δ-THC, mostly at doses that produced only marginal amounts of rate suppression. JWH-250 and CP 47,497-C8-homolog suppressed response rates at doses that fully substituted for Δ-THC. The time courses varied markedly between compounds. Most of the compounds had a shorter onset than Δ-THC, and the effects of three of the compounds lasted substantially longer (JWH-073, JWH-250, and CP 47,497-C8-homolog).

Several of the most commonly used synthetic cannabinoids produce behavioral effects comparable with those of Δ-THC, which suggests that these compounds may share the psychoactive effects of marijuana responsible for abuse liability.

The extremely long time course of the discriminative stimulus effects and adverse effects of CP 47,497-C8-homolog suggest that CP 47,497-C8-homolog may be associated with increased hazards among humans.

Source: Behav Pharmacol. 2014 Dec;25(8):750-7. doi: 10.1097/FBP.0000000000000093.

We Need Not Legitimize, Glorify Self-Destructive Behavior By Kevin A. Sabet

Editor’s note: this commentary is in response to the various US ballot initiatives for marijuana legalization at the state level this year (“November Ballots Offer Wave of Marijuana Legalization”). Mike Liszewski has offered acounter-perspective, in favor of legalization.

Remember Big Tobacco? Say hello to Big Marijuana. That’s what we’re about to et if we continue to legalize marijuana here in the United States. Despite warnings from groups like the American Medical Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, and National School Nurses Association, legalization is all about the mighty dollar — the money to be made by big marijuana businesses.

Legalization is a simplistic solution to an incredibly complex program. Indeed, we are ushering in a massive, profit-hungry industry, promoting addiction by commercializing and marketing the drug to our most vulnerable.

In Colorado, which began retail marijuana sales on January 1, Big Marijuana has already begun to emerge. Pot purveyors are selling candies, “ring pots,” cookies, and brownies. They are creating networks for investors and entrepreneurs in the marijuana industry, holding special “shark tank” fundraising sessions. A former Microsoft executive recently announced enthusiastically that he intends to create the “Starbucks of marijuana,” ultimately “mint[ing] more millionaires than Microsoft.” Another investor promises to become “the Philip Morris of marijuana.” And now these various venture capitalists have come together to hire lobbying groups to advocate for marijuana businesses in countless state capitals and in Washington DC.

The Big Marijuana playbook takes its cue from Big Tobacco: hire doctors to promote cigarettes as medicine, downplay harms, infiltrate political leadership, and target kids — since they will be your lifelong customers.

Why should the establishment of another for-profit industry like alcohol and tobacco, that relies on addiction and heavy use, be cause for concern? First, legalizing marijuana would completely normalize use, especially among kids. And this is something we should care about: the marijuana our kids use today is five to six times stronger than what it was in the 1960s and ‘70s (resulting in addiction for one in every six 16 year olds who ever try it). New methods of ingestion such as butane hash oil vaporization (or “dabbing”) are responsible for a growing number of hospital visits and overdoses.

Though it is true that a majority of those who use marijuana will not become addicted, a significant number of users will suffer a great deal of harm in the form of a IQ reduction, mental illness, poor learning outcomes, lung damage, car crashes, addiction, and emergency room admissions related to acute panic attacks and psychotic episodes.

History suggests that the societal costs that accompany increased marijuana use will significantly outweigh any gains in tax revenue. Our experience with alcohol and tobacco shows that for every one dollar gained in taxes, 10 dollars are lost in social costs. In Colorado, tax revenue from the first six months of legal sales is falling well short of previous projections.

We should reject any simplistic solutions that fit on a bumper sticker. Neither “lock em’ up” or “legalize” is an intelligent way to address such a complex issue. Let’s focus on strategies that work — drug prevention, justice reform, drug-treatment courts, and smart policing practices — and implement smart approaches to marijuana. Kevin A. Sabet (@KevinSabet) holds a PhD from Oxford University and is the president and cofounder, with former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).

Source:  http://panampost.com/editor/2014/10/31

More than 5000 Scots were taken to hospital for drug abuse last year, with cannabis one of the main causes.   The latest figures revealed a total of 5028 people were admitted to hospital in Scotland a total of 6516 times for drug misuse in 2013/14.   A total of 4365 of those hospital stays related to people taking opioid drugs, like heroin and morphine, with cannabis relating to 782 admissions, the third most prevalent.

The figures also revealed that since 1996, the rate of people admitted to hospital for drug-related illnesses more than trebled from 41 per 100,000 of the population to 124 per 100,000 of the population last year.  The vast majority (92%) of the drug-related hospital stays were emergency admissions.  In all age groups except the under 20-year-olds, heroin related drugs were the main cause of hospital stays.   Those aged between 20 and 24 had the highest percentage of stays related to cocaine.

Cannabis was by far the most prevalent drug relating to under-20s needing hospital treatment, a total of 37% of admissions.   The number of people taken to hospital due to cannabis in recent years has also increased from just 492 in 2008/09 to 751 in the last year.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw MSP said: “Cannabis enjoys a reputation in some quarters as essentially being a safe drug. But we can see from these figures that clearly isn’t the case.  “Allowing the illegal substance that reputation can breed complacency among not only users, but authorities too.  “It accounts for almost double the hospital admissions as cocaine, and the five-year trend is certainly moving in the wrong direction.

“We have to break this relaxed attitude, and ensure that the hundreds who are hospitalised as a result of cannabis don’t fall into a trap of believing what they are doing is a risk-free activity.”

Community safety minister Roseanna Cunningham said: “We have maintained record amounts of money in frontline drug services and support, with drug treatment waiting times dramatically reduced.  “We have an ambitious programme for education about the dangers of drugs, including cannabis, through Know the Score and Choices for Life.

“Drug taking in the general adult population has fallen since 2006 and drug use among young people is at its lowest levels since 2002.  Hospital discharges for drug use have also fallen among younger age groups.”

Source:   http://news.stv.tv/scotland/297420-    28th October  2014

K bladder, caused by excessive ketamine use, is a bigger problem in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, according to the country’s leading expert.

Mr David Gillatt, a urologist, told Newsbeat it has led to some young people having their bladders removed.  “Physical damage due to ketamine is almost unknown in the rest of Europe and large parts of the world even though it is used as a club drug,” he said.   “It’s a vicious cycle for some people.”  He added: “Unless you help them break the cycle and deal with the pain, they will never come off it.

What is ketamine?

* Ketamine is an illegal Class B drug – having being upgraded from Class C in February 2014. The maximum penalty for possession is now five years in prison and 14 for supply. You can get an unlimited fine for both.

* People use ketamine to get an out-of-body experience.

* Small doses make you feel floaty, dreamy and trippy.

* Larger doses can give you powerful hallucinations, and you may feel that you have crossed into another world – what’s known as going ‘into the K-hole’.

“Some people are going to turn up in the future with kidney failure too because they have been damaging themselves for so long and not doing anything about it.”

The most recent MixMag global drugs survey suggests that the UK has more ketamine users than the rest of Europe.

These problems were so severe for one young user that he tried to take his own life. He’s been asked to be known simply as Matt from Bristol.  He then developed a heroin addiction, he says, to ease the pain.

Matt told us that ketamine is “an evil drug that strips you down physically.”   He explained how he began taking it with friends at clubs and free parties in the city but it soon “got hold of him”.

“Everyone around me started getting stomach cramps and getting really ill and peeing blood,” he said.  “All the other drugs pretty much went out of the window. It just became a constant wanting to escape. I hated being me. I think I was trying to kill myself without actually giving up.”

The number of people getting treatment for ketamine-related issues in England has doubled in the past five years according to official figures from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.  Matt developed K bladder after taking as much as 15g of the drug a day.    K bladder is when the lining of the bladder gets so damaged and scarred that it shrinks in volume, which causes the person to need the toilet more.

Sometimes they can’t go, leaving them in excruciating pain.

Matt said the pain got so bad for him that he “woke up on the bathroom floor covered in blood, fitting because the pain had got so bad”.   He added: “I eventually got into heroin because it was the only thing that got anywhere near to easing the pain that ketamine caused.”

Newsbeat has spoken to another ketamine addict who said the damage was so bad he was rushed to hospital because his bladder was blocked and he was passing lumps of blood.   Jamie is 29 and a plumber from Wakefield. He said at the height of his addiction, he was taking it for 23 hours a day. He racked up a debt of £41,000 after spending £80,000 pounds on the drug.

“At one point I couldn’t actually pee because my blood was clotted. I actually thought my bladder was going to explode,” he said.   “It was the worst pain I have ever had. I never want to feel that again. I thought I was going to lose my bladder.”

For some, the only solution to K bladder is surgery and in some cases this means the removal of the bladder.    David Gillatt said some young users are storing up problems for the future and could develop kidney failure, which could lead to dialysis and even a kidney transplant.    He told Newsbeat: “Research we’ve done and surveys show there’s a relationship between how much you take and how long.  If you’re taking it every day and you’re taking large amounts; three, four, five, six grams a day then almost everybody’s got problems.”  Both Matt and Jamie have been through rehab and are slowly getting their lives back on track.

Jamie’s mum Sue told Newsbeat: “I know now that I have got my son back, because I used to say ‘You’re not my son when you take ketamine’.    “It’s nice to have him back.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29811499    29th October 2014

While we debate and differ on the risks and benefits of legalization, decriminalization, and medical uses of marijuana, all will agree (or say they do) that marijuana should remain illegal for young people. However, we should not deceive ourselves; just like with alcohol and tobacco, young people will almost certainly have ready access to pot with the liberalization of our laws and the commercialization of marijuana. What we are missing in fully understanding the ramifications of this new legislation, which can have broad effects on our country and culture, is first hand knowledge of how marijuana affects the brain, particularly the young brain. Without more scientific evidence, we are gambling with the health and safety of our young people based on speculation and wishful thinking. Moreover, our national wager will increase as more states move to legalize marijuana.

The irony is that we currently have the capacity to determine whether there are harmful effects of marijuana on the developing brain. The rapid growth of brain science in the last two decades has provided the capacity to measure the effects of drugs on behavior and mental functions and to identify brain changes in structure and function—something not previously possible. Substantial evidence from animal models and several human studies has shown that drug use produces a sensitization of brain circuits that leads to sustained drug use and to progression to additional damaging drug use and to perpetuation and relapse during abstinence. The tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is a prime example of these enduring effects. After a period of extensive drug use in his youth, he was drug-free for 20 years, only to fall victim to a common prescription for a pain medicine that triggered a fatal relapse into addiction at age 46.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has funded ground breaking research to understand specifically how drugs change the brain in a way that impairs mental functions and leads to addiction. This research has revealed how otherwise dissimilar drugs act through common neural pathways of reward to cause addiction. These fundamental pathways are hijacked by drugs that stimulate them far more intensely than do natural rewards like food and sex, which affect the same brain-reward system. That is why food and sex pathologies have so much in common with addiction to tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, including marijuana.

This capacity for drug-induced alterations in the brain is greatly enhanced during childhood and adolescence, when the brain is developing. In recent years, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health has annually reported that children who initiated alcohol or marijuana use at age 14 or younger report a fivefold increased prevalence of a substance use disorder later in life. These results suggest that drugs affect the trajectory of the developing adolescent brain. What we don’t know is how this differs from what would have been the drug-unexposed trajectory and what is the end result.

Missing is the scientific evidence to enable us to appreciate the specific impact of marijuana on the developing brain. Proponents of legalization argue that pot is “no worse” than alcohol and tobacco in terms of their potential for medically harmful effects. While this may be true (to some extent), many of the potential deleterious effects and long-term brain pathologies from adolescent drug use are seen in mental health where marijuana use can trigger serious and persisting anxiety and psychotic disorders.

And no one is talking about the possible effects of adolescent marijuana use on more subtle brain effects, including information processing, academic achievement, and motivation.

Research has already shown that early marijuana use is linked to these problems. We need data to show whether those changes have enduring biological underpinnings. Answers to this and other questions are essential to guide future drug policy and legislation.

There are many things that can and should be done to address the problem of substance abuse in our population. The major barrier has been the limited resources available to fund this research. However, given this new wave of legislation and its potential impact on the youth of our nation, it should be an urgent priority to determine the effects of marijuana use on the developing brain. Now is the time to launch a long-term study of a large, carefully selected, national cohort of 10-year-olds to be followed continuously for at least 15 years. It should begin before adolescence when the brain is rapidly developing, reorganizing, and undergoing final formation of major connections, the time when enduring brain biology can be established or changed. Uniquely among signalling systems, adolescence is the period when the wiring of the brain dopamine system is completed, the same dopamine involved with brain reward, learning and memory, psychosis, and sexual response. It is also the time before and during youthful initiation and novelty seeking.

Only with such a study, a veritable Framingham Study, of the effects of drug use on youth, with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will it be possible to advance our understanding of the brain impact of marijuana and other drug use on youth. However, support for this study must come from new funds and cannot cannibalize the meagre existing budgets of the NIH institutes, which are already stretched by the lingering effects of the Great Recession and sequestration.

With the recent state laws making marijuana more acceptable and more widely available, we are already behind schedule. A national investment in science must be made now to answer the essential questions about the impact of drug use, especially marijuana use, on the adolescent brain. Imagine if our country a century ago had the knowledge we have today about the negative health effects of tobacco. We cannot afford to wait any longer to learn the truth about the possible adverse brain effects of marijuana use. ■

Robert DuPont, M.D., was the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1973-1978) and is president of the Institute for Behavior and Health Inc. Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D., is president of APA and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University.

Source:  http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/   14th April 2014

Thanks to Derek in Washington who forwarded this important news story on a Washington sheriff who taped an ad for the pro-legalization campaign in neighbouring Oregon. The sheriff made what seemed to be grossly inaccurate or misleading claims about the state of legalization in Washington. King 5 News ran a fact check on the DUI portion of his statement.

Other claims made by the sheriff (along with the real facts).

1. “Month by month tax dollars are going to schools and police, not drug cartels.”

There is no money for schools (except 3/10 of 1% of second tier funding for the Building Bridges program at OSPI).

There is no funding for police, sheriffs, or state patrol. Enforcement funding exists for LCB enforcement officers–about 12 statewide.

2012 NW HIDTA report says cartels are staying in WA and modifying their business model accordingly. They are now positioned to compete in the only remaining marketplace where MJ is illegal–young people under age 21.

2.“Wasteful arrests are way down.”

Yes, marijuana is no longer illegal for adults over 21. Of note is that there was not, and is not, anyone in jail for simple possession. Of the 8 cases found in 2012 to be in jail for possession, all had plead down from more serious crimes.

Saying arrests are wasteful implies that enforcement is not appropriate. However the law is clear about it remaining illegal for youth and gifting MJ is a felony.  Also, law enforcement is now burdened with the additional, unfunded responsibility to police a new addictive commodity industry including DUI’s, gun violence when grows are burgled, and smoking in public. Of note is that in many jurisdictions, public smoking, and underage use for that matter, is not being enforced and sending a dangerous message to youth.

2. “DUI’s are down.”

Total DUI’s may be down thanks to Target Zero Task Forces and enforcement efforts, but, according to data adapted from the State Patrol/State Toxicologist, total driving cases testing positive for delta-9 THC increased by 33% the year after legalization, after decreasing by 7% the year prior.

3. “Drug prevention programs are getting funding.”

There has been no funding from I-502 to DSHS’s Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery which is responsible for community-based prevention efforts under 502. Nor has the Department of Health received any direct support from 502 proceeds. Funding has yet to “roll in” from marijuana sales and the amount that will is unknown.

Source:  http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2014/10/23/fact-checking-urquhart-marijuana-ad/17807305/

Poisons specialists have flagged rises in calls and online queries about treating users of new psychoactive substances, misleadingly known as ‘legal highs’.

The Public Health England commissioned National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) today publishes its annual report for 2013 to 2014.

And there it has noted further increases in enquiries about so-called ‘legal highs’, especially about man-made cannabis substitutes.

For these drugs there were more than 130 phone queries, a 13-fold increase, from clinicians treating users in the past year. There was also a 2-fold increase in queries from NHS health professionals through the NPIS online database TOXBASE, over the same period.

The only ‘traditional’ illegal drug which frontline medics asked more questions about than so-called ‘legal highs’ last year, was cocaine.

Prof Simon Thomas, director of the Newcastle unit of the NPIS, said:

The manufacturers of these so-called ‘legal’ highs are moving quickly to create new drugs as these substances are banned.

This is a significant problem for us because although new products are chemically similar to ones that have been banned, each new substance is different and information on their safety is very limited. Synthetic forms of cannabis have been used increasingly in recent years and pose users a particular problem as some appear considerably more toxic than traditional cannabis and many are now controlled as class B drugs. Those who use these substances are taking a real gamble with their health.

Rosanna O’Connor, PHE’s director for drugs and alcohol, said:

PHE will be strengthening our efforts around tackling the use of new and emerging substances. We support local areas to address the issue. This involves sharing intelligence about these substances, including on the harms they cause and the best responses; educating young people about the risks; preventing and treating harm; and supporting those who have developed problems to address them.

PHE works with the Department of Health and Home Office to raise awareness about the dangers of drug misuse via the Government’s FRANK website and helpline www.talktofrank.co.uk.

NPIS is an advisory service for medics working in the frontline in doctors’ surgeries and hospitals. As well as a telephone hotline that medics can use, and which took more than 50,000 calls during the 2013 to 2014 period,NPIS runs an database called TOXBASE which offers clinical users background and treatment information on thousands of poisons and chemicals. The site was accessed more than 575,000 times in the period covered by the report.

The report, which only deals with queries to the service not total number of patient presentations at UK hospitals, also highlights that the advisory service saw a notable increase in queries about e-cigarettes.

In 2013 to 2014 the service was contacted for advice 204 times, which is more than all the calls it received on the subject between 2007 and 2013 combined.

Dr John Thompson, Director of the Cardiff unit of NPIS, said:

Most of the exposures of which we are aware were accidents. Almost half were in children and young people, including some cases concerning under-5s. Children are curious and we know from experiences with other products that sometimes they explore their environment by putting things in their mouths.

We know these products can contain toxic doses of nicotine so could cause serious harm to a child. Nicotine poisoning can be unpleasant and can potentially cause vomiting, hyperventilating, and changes in heart rate.

Luckily the incidents involving severe toxicity remain low, but e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular and adults using these products should be careful about keeping them out of reach of children, just as they would dishwasher tablets or liquid detergent capsules. Read the NPIS annual report.

Source:     Public Health England  23 October 2014

Over at Ezra Klein’s new site, Vox.com, German Lopez has an article claiming to show that Colorado’s recent marijuana legalization experiment hasn’t increased crime rates in Denver. In contrast, when we actually look at the raw data Lopez uses, the message isn’t so clear. In fact, using Lopez’s own methods, we might conclude pot legalization has dramatically increased crime in Denver.

Lopez claims that “three months into its legalization experiment, Denver isn’t seeing a widespread rise in crime.” To reach this conclusion, Lopez uses Denver’s crime data (available here) for the months of January and February in 2013 and 2014. When I look at the data, I see some potentially different findings.

Over the first two months of 2014, “simple assaults” in Denver are up an astonishing 70% over the same timeframe in 2013. The crime of “intimidation” is up 86%, and all “crimes against persons” have increased 32% compared to 2013. But the real changes are evident in the “all other offenses” category. Here we see that “disorderly conduct/disturbing the peace” has increased 1,144% (from only 18 offenses in 2013 to 224 in 2014), “family offences/nonviolent” are up 97%, “liquor law/drunkeness” is up 1,150%, “violation of a restraining/court order” increased 87%, “criminal trespassing” is up 339%, and the “all other offenses” subcategory have increased 400%.

Of course there is also data available back to 2009 that illustrates the anomalously high incidence level for these offenses during the first two months of 2014 following marijuana legalization, as shown in the table below.

The number of offenses in each of these categories during January and February of 2014 are, by far, the highest over Denver’s available historical record, in some cases by more than an order of magnitude.

Source:   Sierra Rayne       www.AMERICAN THINKER   4th Sept. 2014

At the age of 14, Jake Hanrahan was a regular cannabis smoker like around 17 per cent of British teenagers. But his world changed the first time he tried skunk, a high-powered cannabis hybrid which Jake believes caused a psychotic episode lasting six months. In this film Jake, now a 23-year-old journalist who has never touched cannabis since, looks at how skunk has transformed the world of cannabis, turning a drug which (although illegal) has long been regarded as relatively harmless into a serious threat to mental health – particularly for its young consumers.

Skunk – a cannabis hybrid which was created in the 80s, developed in the 90s and which has transformed the marketplace over the last decade – is now effectively a super-powerful, highly-addictive, market-leading superbrand. In 2000, around 80 per cent of the cannabis consumed in Britain was hash or cannabis leaf – smuggled in from overseas and containing not just far lower levels of THC (the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis) but also containing a complementary balance of CBD (the therapeutic element also naturally present in cannabis, and long associated with positive medicinal benefits).

Skunk has turned that picture on its head: 80 per cent of the cannabis consumed in the UK is now high-grade skunk, grown in the UK and engineered for strength, containing up to five times more THC and virtually no CBD. In other words skunk is designed to get you sky high while doing nothing to counter its own highly psychoactive effects.

During the same period in which skunk has effectively taken over the market, transforming the tastes and expectations of successive generations of young cannabis smokers, Jake discovers that a new mental health issue has emerged: cannabis-induced psychosis is particularly harmful to skunk users – and to young skunk users in particular. The most recent research, published by Dr Marta Di Forti at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, suggests that while regular cannabis use doubles the risk of psychosis, heavy skunk users increase their risk by up to seven-fold.

‘I was totally paranoid, I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing,’ Jake says now of his own skunk episode. ‘It felt like I was I was living in a different dimension.’

Source:  bbc.co.uk  25th Sept. 2014

* Liberal Democrats held up Portugal as shining example on ‘drugs war’

* But since legalisation the number of children users has more than doubled

* In 1995 8% of teenagers had tried drugs but after new law it rose to 19%

* More children under 13 have also tried cannabis since laws were relaxed

The nation held up by the Liberal Democrats yesterday as a shining example of how to win the war on drugs is far from the unqualified success story they make out.

For the number of children using drugs in Portugal has more than doubled since the country’s laws were liberalised, the latest figures show. A decade after the law was relaxed, nearly a fifth of 15 and 16-year-olds use drugs – well over twice the number in the years before decriminalisation.

The controversial Home Office report commissioned by the Liberal Democrats states: ‘It is clear that there has not been a lasting and significant increase in drug use in Portugal since 2001.’ But the evidence suggests otherwise.

The most recent independent report on what is happening in Portugal shows that in 1995 eight per cent of Portuguese teenagers had tried drugs.

In 1999, when laws began to be relaxed, it was 12 per cent.

But after decriminalisation in 2001, it rose to 18 per cent in 2003 and 19 per cent in 2011. The picture for cannabis use is similar. In 1995, only 7 per cent of Portuguese teens had tried the drug but by 2011 the figure was 16 per cent.

The report, by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, looked at 100,000 15 and 16-year-olds across Europe. Its most alarming finding covers children under 13 in Portugal.

In 1999, 2 per cent had tried cannabis. By 2003, that had risen to 4 per cent and remained at that level in 2011.

The Home Office report based its contrary findings on evidence from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the EU drugs watchdog, which is based in Lisbon. But even the watchdog’s verdict on Portugal is contradictory.

It has not endorsed Portugal’s own drug abuse figures from a 2012 survey, saying the results are not yet available. But it adds that the country’s survey of children’s health ‘indicates an increase in the prevalence of cannabis use in the period 2006-10’.

The EU watchdog endorses ESPAD’s verdict. ‘The most recent ESPAD study corroborates the findings, showing an increase in consumption of illicit substances since 2006,’ its report on Portugal says. ‘This trend is observed among both male and female students.

However the Home Office report accepted, without qualification or reference to other sources, the Portuguese government’s figures produced by Portugal’s drug control agency SICAD.

It says that among all Portuguese adults the proportion that had used cannabis in the last year was 3.3 per cent in 2001, 3.6 per cent in 2007 and 2.7 per cent in 2012. On the basis of these figures, the Home Office report said: ‘Following decriminalisation in Portugal there has not been a lasting increase in adult drug use.’

There is, however, a question over the figures. The director of SICAD is Dr Joao Goulao, an influential political figure widely hailed as the architect of decriminalisation. He is publicly proud of the ‘success’ of his policy and boasted in 2012 of frequent visits by ‘politicians, doctors, experts and journalists from around the world’.

Critics say he has an interest in publishing figures to back his case. Kathy Gyngell, research fellow for the right-leaning British think tank Centre for Policy Studies, said: ‘The same man who introduced the policy is responsible for producing the figures.

‘Dr Goulao clearly has an interest in making the figures look good.’

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2815084/Portugal-decriminalised-drugs-Results-Use-teens-doubled-decade-nearly-fifth-15-16-year-olds-using-drugs.html#ixzz3HigpFzI8 

A small study of casual marijuana smokers has turned up evidence of changes in the brain, a possible sign of trouble ahead, researchers say.The young adults who volunteered for the study were not dependent on pot, nor did they show any marijuana-related problems.

“What we think we are seeing here is a very early indication of what becomes a problem later on with prolonged use,” things like lack of focus and impaired judgment, said Dr. Hans Breiter, a study author.

Longer-term studies will be needed to see if such brain changes cause any symptoms over time, said Breiter, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Previous studies have shown mixed results in looking for brain changes from marijuana use, perhaps because of differences in the techniques used, he and others noted in Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of Neurosciences.

The study is among the first to focus on possible brain effects in recreational pot smokers, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The federal agency helped pay for the work. She called the work important but preliminary. The 20 pot users in the study, ages 18 to 25, said they smoked marijuana an average of about four days a week, for an average total of about 11 joints. Half of them smoked fewer than six joints a week. Researchers scanned their brains and compared the results to those of 20 non-users who were matched for age, sex and other traits.

The results showed differences in two brain areas associated with emotion and motivation — the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. Users showed higher density than non-users, as well as differences in shape of those areas. Both differences were more pronounced in those who reported smoking more marijuana.

Volkow said larger studies are needed to explore whether casual to moderate marijuana use really does cause anatomical brain changes, and if so, whether that leads to any impairment. The current work doesn’t determine whether casual to moderate marijuana use is harmful to the brain, she said.

Murat Yucel of Monash University in Australia, who has studied the brains of marijuana users but didn’t participate in the new study, said in an email that the new results suggest “the effects of marijuana can occur much earlier than previously thought.” Some of the effect may depend on a person’s age when marijuana use starts, he said.

Another brain researcher, Krista Lisdahl of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said her own work has found similar results. “I think the clear message is we see brain alterations before you develop dependence,” she said.

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.

Source:  Associated Press   15th April  2014

Albert Stuart Reece

Medical School, University of Queensland, Highgate Hill, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

 Introduction 

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug worldwide. As societies reconsider the legal status of cannabis, policy makers and clinicians require sound knowledge of the acute and chronic effects of cannabis. This review focuses on the latter.

Methods

Asystematic review of Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo, and Google Scholar using the search terms “cannabis,” “marijuana,” “marihuana,” “toxicity,” “complications,” and “mechanisms” identified 5,198 papers. This list was screened by hand, and papers describing mechanisms and those published in more recent years were chosen preferentially for inclusion in this review. Findings. There is evidence of psychiatric, respiratory, cardiovascular, and bone toxicity associated with chronic cannabis use. Cannabis has now been implicated in the etiology of many major long-term psychiatric conditions including depression, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and an amotivational state.

Respiratory conditions linked with cannabis include reduced lung density, lung cysts, and chronic bronchitis.

Cannabis has been linked in a dose-dependent manner with elevated rates of myocardial infarction and cardiac arrythmias. It is known to affect bone metabolism and also has teratogenic effects on the developing brain following perinatal exposure. Cannabis has been linked to cancers at eight sites, including children after in utero maternal exposure, and multiple molecular pathways to oncogenesis exist. Conclusion. Chronic cannabis use is associated with psychiatric, respiratory, cardiovascular, and bone effects. It also has oncogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects all of which depend upon dose and duration of use.

Introduction

According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, there are some 165 million users of cannabis worldwide, making it the most widely used illicit drug.1 This review examines the psychiatric, respiratory, cardiovascular, and bone effects associated with chronic cannabis use and the neurodevelopmental, genotoxic, mutagenic, and oncogenic effects of cannabis.

Methodology

A systematic review of Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo, Google, Scholar, Scopus, Proquest, Web of Knowledge, and Ebsco- Host using the search terms “cannabis,” “marijuana,” or “marihuana” identified 14,065 papers, excluding duplicates. When the search terms “toxicity,” “complications,” and “mechanisms” were added, the list narrowed to 5,198 papers.

This list was screened by hand, and original papers describing mechanisms and those published in more recent years were chosen preferentially. Review papers are cited where appropriate to introduce a large or detailed field for the interested reader. Few case reports are included and they are specifically flagged where they occur; those that are cited have been included largely because they suggest important pathophysiological mechanisms.

Psychiatric and social disorders

An authoritative meta-analysis of cannabis-related psychopathology has been published,2 with an accompanying editorial.3  Another review found an elevated risk of psychosis in many studies, with an odds ratio (OR) of about 2.3.4 A similar meta-analysis from the Netherlands found a pooled OR for psychosis of 2.1.5 Several studies from diverse cultures have confirmed the elevated risk of psychosis and schizophreniform spectrum disorders5–17 following high levels of cannabis use, particularly when cannabis consumption has commenced at a young age.14,18 Cannabis use has been found to exacerbate pre-existing psychotic disorders.5,15 There is a similar and increasing literature around both bipolar disorder19–21 and depression.22–25 Although the psychoneurological  effects of cannabis are usually stereotypically characterized as a depressant, both its use and the withdrawal state are accompanied frequently by psychomotor agitation, which has been implicated causally with interpersonal violence.26 Interestingly, in a series of forensic examinations of suicide, cannabis use was associated with the most  violent means of death, particularly severe motor vehicle accidents.27

In 1972 Nahas28 drew attention to the devastating effects of cannabis in Egypt as quantified by carefully prepared and formally psychologically documented surveys from that country. Higher levels of anxiety, impaired memory, poor concentration, impaired learning ability, and psychomotor impairment including reduced quality and quantity of work were seen in these users. In addition, a common dependency syndrome was observed, which made exit from the dependent state both difficult and rare.28 Geographical microclustering of cannabis use has been demonstrated, which has the effect of establishing local socially normative use patterns.29 Both  in northern Africa and in New Zealand communities exist where cannabis use is common, and intellectual impairment, psychomotor slowing, poor work capacity, and severe social deprivation are entrenched.30–32 Lee and colleagues33,34 have published several descriptions of heavy, problematic, and refractory cannabis use in remote indigenous communities of the Northern Territory and across northern Australia more generally. A substantial proportion (31–62%) of users’ median weekly income and up to 10% of the total community income were spent on cannabis. Ninety percent smoked cannabis heavily (more than six cones daily) and were not able to cease use. Severe mental illness was commonplace, as were depression, suicidal ideation, auditory hallucinations, and imprisonment. There was less participationin employment, education, or training. Community violence escalated when cannabis supplies from distant centers were interrupted. Most users had not “matured out” of dependent cannabis use even 5 years later. It is particularly noteworthy that these same communities had largely successfully defeated alcohol abuse, primarily by tight restrictive policies aimed at severely curtailing alcohol supply. The authors concluded that cannabis was both an important cause and a consequence of ongoing severe social disadvantage and deprivation.

Respiratory effects

Both the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand35 and the British Lung Foundation4 have issued major statements in recent years acknowledging the known deleterious effects of cannabis on the lungs. Cannabis is smoked differently from tobacco. Users commonly inhale deeply to a  maximal breath and then retain the smoke in the lungs, which generates higher pressures during breath holding and on expiration.35–37 Cannabis smoke stimulates inflammation in the airways so that its long-term use is associated with the development of chronic bronchitis. A New Zealand study38 demonstrated large airway inflammation and obstruction and hyperinflation but was seldom associated with macroscopic emphysema, with a dose equivalence of one cannabis joint to 2.5–5 cigarettes. These findings were supported by an accompanying editorial39 and press release.40 Decreased lung density has also been noted with increased lung volumes, signs of destruction of lung tissue, cyst formation, and emphysematous change with secondary pneumothorax because of bullous rupture.41–43 Cannabis smoke is known to contain several potent carcinogens including anthrocyclines, nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, terpenes, and vinyl chloride.4,35,44–47 As a consequence, cannabis use is associated with cancer of the lung.30–32

Cardiovascular effects

Cannabis exposure is known to cause phasic systemic vasodilation, mild hypertension, and tachycardia often associated with postural hypotension, and a reduced duration and increased heart rate response to exercise.48–51 Some but notall these effects are mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Tolerance to many of these acute effects with time appears. In most young healthy patients such changes are clearly generally well tolerated,48,50 but this is not universally true and several exceptions cited below are of considerable pathophysiological interest. Such generic reassurances cannot be provided to patients with pre-existing coronary or atherosclerotic disease.50,52 Several case reports associate cannabis use with infarctions of kidney,53 brain,54–60 heart61–65, and digits,66,67 and of priapism in humans with sickle cell disease.68 An association between cannabis use and pedal gangrene has also been described in a 27-year old.67 Some 50 cases of cannabis arteritis have been reported in the literature.67 Cannabis use can acutely trigger myocardial infarction,69 which has also been documented in a 25-year-old man with no other cardiac risk factors and normal coronary arteries at angiography.62 Coronary no-flow phenomenon has been observed after acute cannabis use.57 Cardiomyopathy has also been reported in a young man.70 One large study of 1,913 adults conducted in the United States found both a significant association between myocardial infarction and cannabis use, and a dose– response effect, with adjusted hazard ratios of 2.5 and 4.2 for less than weekly and weekly use, respectively.52 Reversible cerebral vasospasm71 as well as slowing and flow reversal in the middle cerebral artery72 has also been documented and attributed to cannabis use. On the contrary, the same authors also reported an increase of blood flow in the cerebral frontal lobes.73 Several case reports have described a cannabis-associated inflammatory angiitis,61,74,75 which can be so severe as to mimic Buerger’s disease (thromboangiitis obliterans or “disappearing artery syndrome”). In a study in 19 patients, alterations of the cardiac pressure cycle were found with a highly significant prolongation of both electromechanical systole (by 17 ms) and left ventricular ejection time, in the context of a reduced pre-ejection period (systolic pressure upstroke), a tachycardia of 132 bpm, and unchanged brachial systemic pressures.76 These more abrupt cardiac pressure changes imply increased cardiac work in the context of a prolonged QTc interval and reduced opportunity for myocardial perfusion (the “Buckberg index”), which is limited to the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle.77,78 Hence, this scenario combines both an adverse mechanical and electrical profile in the context of reduced coronary perfusion and an altered endothelial, coagulation, angiogenic,79 and inflammatory milieu.

Cannabis has also been linked with elevated rates of cardiac arrhythmias in several case reports.80  Generally, these are supraventricular and trivial,81–83 but well-documented cases of lethal ventricular arrythmias do exist57 and one such was recently reported from a man who survived and whose episode was recorded on his implantable defibrillator.84 Elevated plasma concentrations of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonylglycerol status have been associated in an Italian study of 62 patients with an exacerbation of the cardiovascularrisk profile with worse concentrations of total  cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, intra-abdominal obesity, and adiponectin.85

Bones

Cannabinoid receptors are present on bones. Physiological studies have shown that cannabinoids have an important role in the regulation of bone density86; blockade or modulation of CB1 cannabinoid activity protects from bone loss.87 Heavy cannabis use in humans is associated with substantial bone loss.54 Interestingly, CB2 stimulation appears to be causally associated with stimulation of both endosteal and periostealbone growth by mechanisms involving inhibition of osteoclastogenesis, osteoblast stimulation, and favorable modulation of the RANKL (receptor activated NF-kB ligand) – osteoprotegerin system, matrix metalloproteinase inhibition, inhibition of adrenergic sympathetic signaling to bone, and inhibition of  bone marrow monocyte-directed hemopoiesis88–99 (the bone marrow-derived monocyte is believed to be the immediate precursor of the multinucleate osteoclast). Cannabis use is also known to be associated with profound loss of alveolar bone from the jaws,100–103 often in the context of severe erosive periodontitis.104,105

Maternal cannabis use and fetal development Not all the studies in this field have returned results confirming a link between maternal cannabis use and later deleterious changes in the offspring.106 However, maternal cannabis use has been shown to reduce body weight at birth.107 Many birth abnormalities were identified in a large Hawaiian sample over 6 years. Of 54 birth defects studies, 39% were noted in cannabis-exposed babies.108 Many of these defects were major and involved the brain (encephalocoele, hydrocephaly, microcephaly, anophthalmia/microphthalmia), cardiovasculature (tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and right and left heart atretic syndromes), gastrointestinal system (pyloric stenosis, intestinal atresias and stenoses, and gastroschisis), and limbs (polydatyly, syndactyly, and reduction deformities of the upper and lower limbs); oro-facial clefts were also reported. One large American study found a somewhat elevated risk of anencephaly (OR =1.7, CI = 0.9–3.4).109 The association with gastroschisis has been confirmed by other investigators.110

The dominant theme to emerge from studies of perinatal exposure is that of impaired executive cortical functioning reflected in reduced attention and analytical behavior and visuospatial analysis and hypothesis testing;111 parent-rated behavioral problems, language comprehension, and distractibility112; and inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and substance use disorders.113 Indeed, close agreement between human and animal studies of perinatal exposure has been shown.113 Such changes emerge from as early as the first weeks of life and persist in children in longitudinal studies into the school ages. Importantly, cannabis seemed to potentiate other causes of disadvantage such as smoking, low protein nutrition, and early age of first maternal pregnancy,and child sexual abuse implying that cannabis use by disadvantaged groups compounds other functional deficits.112,114 Lower school age child IQ was also noted in another large longitudinal follow-up study.115 It is important to note, however,  that such reductions in intellectual performance, executive function, memory, sustained attention, and verbal ability are also seen in samples of low-risk upper middle class children of school age.116 Equally, it is important to note that careful studies controlling for such pertinent confounding psychosocial variables find strong persistent effects of cannabis exposure.117 Maternal prenatal cannabis use has been found to predict later cannabis use during adolescence both as age of onset and frequency of use, a relationship that persisted after adjustment for many other risk factors.118

Genotoxicity, mutagenicity, and oncogenesis

Cannabis use is associated with cancer of the lung30–32 (OR = 2.3, 4.1, and 5.7), head and neck44,119 (OR = 4.1, 2.6, and 3.1), larynx (OR = 1.7 and 2.3), prostate (OR = 3.1)120, cervix (OR = 1.4),120 testes (OR = 1.7),121 and brain (OR = 2.8).122 Cannabis has also been linked with tumors of the urothelial tracts.123–125 Several authors have also found evidence of a dose–response relationship, either with dose, duration, or the combined lifetime total duration of cannabis consumption. 31,32,44,121 A report from Tunisia showed an eightfold rise in lung cancer risk, but initially did not demonstrate a dose– response relationship; tobacco is frequently mixed with cannabis in that country.30 A later expanded revision of these data from the same area in northern Africa was able to demonstrate a relationship with the total dose duration of cannabis exposure.121 Of great concern is the evidence of inheritable tumors such as childhood neuroblastoma (OR = 1.8, 4.7),126 rhabdomyosarcoma,45 and leukemia (OR = 11), particularly non-lymphoblastic leukemia,127 in cannabis-exposed pregnant mothers. It should be noted that not all epidemiological studies have been positive,128 with some studies failing to demonstrate such a link, possibly because cannabis exposure in the study population was limited.45 For example, a study conducted in Los Angeles did not observe an association with lung cancer, which the authors attributed to the relatively few cases exposed to significant amounts of cannabis.129 Similarly, a New Zealand study of head and neck cancer was recently found to be negative, a finding attributed by the authors to uncontrolled confounding and inadequate sampling of the New Zealand population.128 Cannabinoids liberate radical species both by receptor binding (nitrogen-centered species130–132 ) and by uncoupling mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation via stimulation of the matrix protein uncoupling protein 2.133,134 Nitric oxide generation at the cell membrane occurs via both CB1130 and non-CB1/2 receptor-mediated131 mechanisms. Indeed, it has been shown that oxidation135 of the DNA base guanosine to oxo-guanosine is a normal part of endocannabinoid signaling. This potentially very serious and inherently mutagenic defect is overcome during normal signaling by activation of the base excision DNA repair pathway within cells. The capacity of such DNA repair pathways is well known to be limited, so the possibility exists that with pathological overstimulation, as might occur during substantial cannabis use, the resulting major genetic defects would become fixed and eventually translated into altered mRNAs, micro-RNAs,genetic expression, and protein sequences. Cannabis is known to stimulate the oncogenic MAP kinase pathway,136 which is potently oncogenic, and to be involved particularly in the genesis of non-lymphocytic leukemias.137 A strongly positive association between cannabis consumption and this tumor has been found.127 Cannabinoids block topoisomerase II, an enzyme that untwists and makes accessible the dominant coding DNA strand and plays a vital role in DNA repair, meiotic chromosomal replication, mRNA transcription, and DNA hypermutation in prelymphocytes.138,139

Cannabinoids also impair RAD-51, another enzyme involved in the accurate repair of DNA breaks. Mice chromosomal studies imply that cannabinoids also interfere with the normal maintenance of the ends of chromosomes.140 Chromosomal ends or telomeres are made up of many copies of a 6-nt repeat structure (T–T–A–G–G–G) and are protected by a complex of proteins collectively called “shelterin.”141,142 Telomeres are maintained by an enzyme called telomerase, which is absent from most cells but is present in stem cells, gonads (testes and ovaries), and cancers. 143,144 The length of the telomeres has been shown recently to be proportional to the age, the health, and the reproductive fitness of stem cells in a variety of in vivo tissue niches.145 It is of concern that the chromosomal damage was shown in mice not only for tetrahydrocannabinol but also for cannabidiol (and cannabinol),140 a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has been added to commercial cannabis sprays supposedly to confer safety!146

The involvement of cannabinoids with at least three enzymes involved in DNA repair raises questions about their potential genetic toxicity, a subject that remains largely uninvestigated. Gonadal stem cell and genetic toxicity have implications for cell growth inhibition, fetal malformations, and inheritable defects including cancers. Indeed, evidence of cannabis-induced altered DNA expression,147 a higher incidence of 21 birth defects,107 and an 11-fold rise in inherited leukemias in the offspring of cannabis users127 have been documented. Other studies have produced similar findings,148 including tissues of the germ line.149 The presence of such major chromosomal abnormalities in sperm cells but not in circulating white blood cells149 is consistent with the inhibition by cannabinoids of telomerase, which is well known to be present in stem cells, germ cells, and cancer cells but not in the nuclei of normal tissue.150–152

Conclusions

In summary, now there is evidence for the implication of cannabis in various psychiatric, respiratory, cardiovascular, and bone pathologies.153,154 The reports of social disruption, disorganization, and deprivation consequent on widespread heavy cannabis use from a number of communities around the world are of substantial concern. The features associated with chronic cannabis use imply that a clear public health cautionary message is warranted along the lines employed for other environmental intoxicants such as tobacco, which should be targeted strategically to young and otherwise vulnerable populations.

Declaration of interest: There is no conflict of interest to declare.

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

Source:  Reece, Albert Stuart(2009)’Chronic toxicology of cannabis’,Clinical Toxicology,47:6,517 — 524

To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/15563650903074507

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15563650903074507

Background 

Debate continues about the consequences of adolescent cannabis use. Existing data are limited in statistical power to examine rarer outcomes and less common, heavier patterns of cannabis use than those already investigated; furthermore, evidence has a piecemeal approach to reporting of young adult sequelae. We aimed to provide a broad picture of the psychosocial sequelae of adolescent cannabis use.

Methods

We integrated participant-level data from three large, long-running longitudinal studies from Australia and New Zealand: the Australian Temperament Project, the Christchurch Health and Development Study, and the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study. We investigated the association between the maximum frequency of cannabis use before age 17 years (never, less than monthly, monthly or more, weekly or more, or daily) and seven developmental outcomes assessed up to age 30 years (high-school completion, attainment of university degree, cannabis dependence, use of other illicit drugs, suicide attempt, depression, and welfare dependence). The number of participants varied by outcome (N=2537 to N=3765).

Findings

We recorded clear and consistent associations and dose-response relations between the frequency of adolescent cannabis use and all adverse young adult outcomes. After covariate adjustment, compared with individuals who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age 17 years had clear reductions in the odds of high school completion (adjusted odds ratio 0·37, 95% CI 0·20–0·66) and degree attainment (0·38, 0·22–0·66), and substantially increased odds of later cannabis dependence (17·95, 9·44–34·12), use of other illicit drugs (7·80, 4·46–13·63), and suicide attempt (6·83, 2·04–22·90).

Interpretation 

Adverse sequelae of adolescent cannabis use are wide ranging and extend into young adulthood. Prevention or delay of cannabis use in adolescence is likely to have broad health and social benefits. Efforts to reform cannabis legislation should be carefully assessed to ensure they reduce adolescent cannabis use and prevent potentially adverse developmental effects.

Funding Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council.

Source:  Lancet Psychiatry 2014; 1: 286–93

Synthetic cannabinoids, better known on the street as “K2” or “Spice,” have pharmacological effects that are up to 100 times more potent than THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, says a new study.  Scientists from the University of Maryland and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) wrote an article, giving an overview of the effects of synthetic marijuana. In order to replicate the effects of using natural marijuana, laboratories illegally manufacture cannabinoid compounds that act on the same cell receptors that THC does. Users find synthetic cannabis appealing because the substance often does not appear when drug tested.  Studies showed that the pharmacological effects of synthetics can be 2-100 times more potent than THC, including analgesic, anti-seizure, weight loss, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer growth effects. Synthetics mimic physiological and psychoactive effects of THC, but are more intense, commonly resulting in medical and psychiatric emergencies.  Side effects in humans after using synthetic marijuana include nausea and vomiting; shortness of breath or depressed breathing; hypertension; tachycardia; chest pain; muscle twitches; acute renal failure; anxiety; agitation; psychosis; suicidal ideation and cognitive impairment.  The long-term or residual effects of using synthetic cannabis is still unknown.

Source:  www.cadc.org    18th Sept 2014

Once again voters will face another deceptive Regulate and Tax marijuana measure at the ballot box. The majority of Oregon voters have already said “No” to marijuana legalization with a similar measure in 2012.  No matter how you write a new measure, marijuana harms our kids, puts dangerous ‘high on pot’ drivers on our highways and is still a federally illegal drug.

First, pot advocates like to say that pot is harmless. But it’s not. Oregon currently has the nation’s third highest rate of marijuana use among youth, ages 12 – 17.   Between 6-11 percent of teens who smoke pot regularly get addicted, and they have serious problems. According to research published in several psychiatric journals, teenagers who smoke pot heavily find it harder to learn, get worse grades, and are less likely to finish high school or college. Marijuana legalization attempts if passed will skyrocket teen addiction rates as they have seen in Colorado.  In 2012 Clackamas County Mental health services revealed that of the 242 kids 18 and under who entered their treatment facilities, 87.5% were there for marijuana addiction.

M91 touts that kids will have less access to marijuana if it is legalized, but we can all see through the cloud of smoke, that kids will not only have access, but easy access to marijuana if M91 were to pass. M91 allows any individual 21 years and older to have an enormous amount of unregulated marijuana in their homes.  Under the proposal, anyone over 21 is permitted to have in their home a half pound (8 ounces) of dried marijuana, 4 unregulated-unlicensed-untaxed plants (of which can yield from 1 ounce to 10 pounds depending on the growing climate), an ounce of concentrates which can include 95%-100% pure THC, pound of edibles, and a six-pack of tinctures (72 ounces), all of which will be impossible to enforce by law enforcement.  In Colorado marijuana-related exposures for children ages 0-5 on average have increased 268% from 2006-2009 to 2010-2013.

Second, under Measure 91, Oregonians will see more Driving under the Influence of marijuana accidents, as where alcohol has an impairment BAC level, there is no defined THC impairment level like other States in Measure 91.   In Colorado the High Intensity Drug Trafficking August 2014 report indicates that traffic fatalities involving operators testing positive for marijuana have increased by 100% from 2007 to 2012.

Third, marijuana is still a federally illegal drug.  Pot advocates try to convince the public that by legalizing marijuana it will get rid of the black market, when the truth is they are the black market wanting to expand their market by advertising through marijuana storefronts to our young adults as well as illegally traffic their marijuana out-of-state.   In Colorado highway interdiction seizures of marijuana destined to 40 other states increased 397% from 2008-2013.

Finally, money does grow on trees when it comes to marijuana because as noted todays average pot plant can yield anywhere from 1 ounce to 10 pounds of marijuana depending on how and where it is grown.  M91 has no limitations on who can own marijuana licenses; this means that out-of-state residents can be a (producer, processor, wholesaler, and/or retailer).  It’s an open invitation to attract the out-of-state marijuana licenses without requiring they be an Oregon resident.  Imagine Oregon as a magnet attracting the out-of-state wealthy illicit drug cartels who are looking for opportunities to disguise themselves under the cover of so called legal marijuana storefronts, as many of Oregon’s medical marijuana cardholders and growers have done.

M91 has no restrictions on the number and locations of these grow sites and pot shops.  This leaves neighborhoods and areas near schools, daycare’s, preschools, libraries, churches, parks and shopping centers all vulnerable to increased exposure to illegal marijuana activity.  Oregon’s so-called unregulated and untaxed medical marijuana program has already caused public safety concerns to communities throughout Oregon; with violent and dangerous in-home invasions, electrical fires, and in-home Butane Hash Oil marijuana extraction explosions.

Oregonians should not put our communities at risk and vote NO on legalizing marijuana. No matter how you write a new marijuana legalization measure, you can’t put perfume on a skunk and make it smell better.  M91 harms our kids, puts dangerous ‘high on pot’ drivers on our highways and is still a federally illegal drug.   Say NO on M91.

Roy Burge is a volunteer citizen in Milwaukie Oregon and a member of the Overland Park Coalition against Drug Crime.

Source:  Marijuana News Daily  10th Sept.2014

Children of mothers who drink as little as four units of alcohol in a day even once while pregnant are at greater risk of developing mental health problems and doing less well at school, new research claims. The study found that the 11-year-old offspring of women who consumed the equivalent of two medium-sized glasses of wine in one session during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and inattention. The findings, from a British study of more than 4,000 children in the Bristol area, have reopened the debate about how much, if any, alcohol women should consume while carrying a child.  The Department of Health advised pregnant women and those trying to conceive to remain abstinent. “If they do choose to drink, to minimise the risk to the baby, they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk,” said a DoH spokesman.

Academics found that 11-year-olds born in 1991-92 to mothers who had drunk that amount one or more times in pregnancy had “slightly higher” levels of hyperactivity and inattention, in the opinion of both their parents and their teachers, who each filled out questionnaires.  Girls seemed to display such behaviour more often than boys, the study found.  Among 7,000 children in the study, those affected by their mother’s prenatal drinking scored on average one point lower in key stage 2 exams taken in their last year at primary school, according to an analysis of results.

The lead author of the research, Professor Kapil Sayal of Nottingham University, said: “Women who are pregnant or who are planning to become pregnant should be aware of the possible risks associated with episodes of heavier drinking during pregnancy, even if this only occurs on an occasional basis.

“The consumption of four or more drinks in a day may increase the risk for hyperactivity and inattention problems and lower academic attainment even if daily average levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy are low.”  However, children of women who had one drink a day while pregnant did not have any higher risk of either problem, Sayal and colleagues found.

The findings are from ongoing, long-term research called the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which looked at and followed the health of children born to mothers in Avon in 1991-92. They are published on Thursday in the journal European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the parenting charity NCT, said better awareness of the risks meant far fewer mothers-to-be now drink more than they should compared to when the children in this study were born.  Phipps said: “According to the latest Infant Feeding Survey in 2010, only 3% of pregnant women reported drinking more than two units of alcohol per week on average, compared to 24% drinking four or more units a day at least once while they were pregnant in 1990-1992.”

The director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies thinktank, Katherine Brown, said: “Exposure to alcohol can lead to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which manifests itself in a range of symptoms including hyperactivity, poor attention span and memory deficits, all of which can adversely impact on a child’s ability to learn and socialise. So it’s no surprise that this study found poor performance at school was linked to pre-natal drinking.”

However, FASD gets little attention in the UK and there is “huge under recording” of how common it is, with symptoms often not picked up until children are at school and sometimes misdiagnosed, Brown added. “Greater awareness is needed about the risks of drinking during pregnancy, with a clear message that no amount alcohol is safe. There also needs to be increased levels of support for those women who struggle to stop drinking due to dependency, and better diagnosis and treatment for babies with FASD,” she said.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England and government’s chief scientific adviser, is currently reviewing guidelines on safe levels of drinking, including in pregnancy.

Source:  www.theguardian.com  11th Sept. 2014

On March 10, a college student from Wyoming bought four marijuana cookies for herself and her three friends at the 16th Street Mall in Denver.

Late into the night, restless and exhibiting erratic behavior, 19-year-old Levy Thamba leapt over the fourth-floor railing of a Holiday Inn into the lobby. He was pronounced dead at 3:51 a.m.  Thamba’s tragic death highlighted the deceptive nature of THC-infused foods: They affect the human body later in time after ingestion than smoked bud.

The case is not the only disturbing episode connected to marijuana edibles since Colorado opened up the market for legal recreational marijuana eight months ago. Some children have gotten their hands on edibles, and landed in the emergency room, while one man who allegedly killed his wife—and faces a first-degree murder charge—was said to have eaten pot candy beforehand.  The incidents have prompted changes in marijuana policies that are intended to make edibles safer to consume, keep them away from minors, and educate Coloradans and visitors on the differences between marijuana food and pot that you smoke.

Eating an edible is not like taking a shot of whiskey or smoking marijuana, said Ron Kammerzell, senior director of enforcement with the Colorado Department of Revenue. “You need to give yourself enough time to make sure you are feeling the effects of marijuana before you consume additional edibles,” he said in a phone interview.

While the effects of smoked bud are rather immediate, edibles are deceptive because it can take hours to feel anything from the THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Thamba, a native of Africa who was on spring break from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, may not have known that.

Bessie Gondwe, one of his college friends with whom he was staying at the Holiday Inn, told Denver police she had purchased the cookies and it was the first time she believed Thamba had ingested marijuana. During a search of the hotel room, police found wrappers with labels that identified the marijuana products as “Sweet Grass Kitchen, lemon poppy seed cookie.”  Gondwe and another friend staying in the room with Thamba told authorities the college students had begun eating the cookies around midnight. Each of the four cookies contained 65 milligrams (mg) of THC, or the equivalent of 6.5 servings; an employee at the marijuana store advised the students that they should split the cookie into six pieces and eat one piece at a time, according to the police report.

But Thamba revealed he wasn’t feeling anything from the marijuana cookie so he ate the rest of the edible all at once, Gondwe told police. Later in the night, the police report detailed, Thamba exhibited strange behaviour—screaming, speaking in French, apologizing for criminal behaviour that he had not committed, smashing fixtures and finally jumping off the balcony.

Thamba’s autopsy report said the cause of death was the result of “multiple injuries due to a fall from a height” and listed “marijuana intoxication” as “a significant contributing factor.” The college friends weren’t aware that Thamba had consumed any alcohol or other drugs, and other than detecting THC in his system, the blood results revealed no other “positive findings of toxicological significance.”

Limiting THC in Each Edible

In the wake of his death, Colorado regulators have adopted rules that are designed to encourage marijuana edible companies to make pot treats that contain no more than 10 mg of THC. Under emergency rules that were adopted on August 1, if a marijuana edible is more than 10 mg and up to 100 mg, “you have to score it or demark it in such a way that it is intuitively obvious to the consumer how to break off a serving size of that edible,” said Kammerzell of the Colorado Department of Revenue.

State regulators also gave marijuana edible makers an incentive to make products containing no more than 10 mg. If they do so, their products will be tested for potency fewer times than other edibles. Even before the emergency rule was adopted, a number of manufacturers had moved toward individual serving sizes of 10 mg, Kammerzell said.

“There is no lethal dose for marijuana other than maybe a 500-pound brick of it falling on your head, but we don’t want people to have a bad experience or get to the point where they are not functional,” said Andy Williams, president of Medicine Man, a marijuana dispensary in Denver.

As part of a responsible vendor training program modeled after one administered by the state’s liquor enforcement division, it is expected that marijuana establishments will educate consumers on the differences between eating an edible and smoking marijuana.

Williams and the owner of a recreational marijuana dispensary north of Boulder said their employees, or budtenders as they are affectionately known, already warn customers about edibles – “We take the extra step at the counter to really educate people on how to use them safely, how to get familiar with the effect of edibles,” said Dylan Donaldson of Karing Kind, who estimated edibles constitute 30 to 40 percent of sales on an average day. “It is quite different. It’s a whole other beast.”

Protecting Kids from Inadvertent Consumption

That beast has sickened some kids in Colorado. Since recreational marijuana was legalized on Jan. 1, “Children’s [Hospital] Colorado has treated 13 children, six of whom became critically ill from edible marijuana,” said Natalie Goldstein, a spokeswoman with the hospital, in an email last month.

In a May interview with the Denver Post, Michael DiStefano, the medical director of the hospital’s emergency department, said a number of children who accidentally ingested marijuana had been admitted for sedation or agitation and one child suffered breathing problems that required a respirator.

Earlier this year, a 10-year-old boy in Greeley, Colorado admitted to selling marijuana to other students on the playground while another child came to school with a THC-infused candy bar, according to CBS4. The kids reportedly obtained the pot from home where it was purchased by their grandparents.

Edibles today hardly are limited to the marijuana brownies of the 1990s. Other than the THC, the treats are the same ones kids savor at home and school: cookies, gummy bears, Lollipops.

“In Colorado, there is almost no limit to what marijuana can be put into whether that is infused or baked or sprayed,” said Rachel O’Bryan of Smart Colorado, an organization that is dedicating to protecting Colorado youth and advocates for policies that limit early marijuana consumption.  Said state Rep. Frank McNulty: “Many of these marijuana edibles look just like kids’ snacks.”

The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division requires that a seal be placed on packaging of marijuana products, but “that doesn’t mean anything to most kids or parents,” said McNulty, a Republican who represents Highlands Ranch, a suburb south of Denver.

Colorado lawmakers have moved to solve the problem. House Bill 1366, signed in May by Gov. John Hickenlooper, required that Colorado’s state licensing authority convene a stakeholder group to discuss recommendations on how to make edibles clearly identifiable.

Members of the working group include a wide range of interests from law enforcement representatives and a school resource officer to a marijuana baker and testing facility owner. An initial meeting was held on Aug. 1, and a second meeting is scheduled for Sept. 11 in Denver.  Rules will be adopted no later than January 2016.

“It’s going to be a challenging topic for sure,” Kammerzell said.  But the edibles rule, once implemented, could save Colorado kids from unnecessary trips to the ER.

Source:   www.naturalproductsinsider.com      5th Sept. 2014

The drugs arrest case is a serious case of drug use/abuse in a work place and clearly reflects the seriousness of the local drug problem.

Already one of the defendants in the case has appeared in court and has volunteered to start a drug rehabilitation programme. This is another indication of the many people of all ages, all walks of life and employment in Gibraltar with drug issues who need help, where it has taken an arrest of this kind for that person to seek help.

The arrest of people at work, taking or abusing drugs should not shock those who know something about the local drug problem, because it has been a related drug issue that has grown on par with the general substance abuse problem. The fact that many people in Gibraltar prefer to bury their head in the sand and hope this serious social problem will go away has compounded many aspects of drug control locally.

Gibraltar’s Growing Drug Problem

The fact remains, the Rock has serious substance abuse problem that will continue to grow and blossom like a poisonous mushroom unless the Government takes immediate action in putting together a national plan to combat drug abuse in Gibraltar. People affected, individuals and whole families who are caught up in the lethal local drug syndrome as a whole, have not been effectively protected!

In fact Gibraltar cannot wait another year or when the government thinks it’s fit to unfold a substance abuse programme based on data taken from up to date research. This serious problem had been steadily creeping into local society, specifically attacking young people and the not so young. In fact, I go further, unless a determined and drastic action is taken, the Rock could lose the potential and the contribution of hundreds of young people and the fibre of the Gibraltarian family will be seriously impaired.

Nearly two decades have passed since the local drug problem really came into its own, what has wavered, and has been just as damaging as consuming drugs itself, is the manner Gibraltar has reacted to the problem. Over the years hundreds of young people have been asking and required help that never came. Many young people now adults were on their own or with their families struggling against the terrible habit, many are now paying dearly for the consequences. Too many young people are now going through the same cycle and like others in the same predicament, are going to waste.

What is Society Going to do About It!

What are we going to do about it? That “we” embraces the whole of society, from the law enforcers to the drug pushers and the drug abusers, to parents and their friends, their teachers, their employers, the owners of bars, nightclubs and squeaky-clean establishments or hotels where transactions are possible made, and where at some momentous times in their lives, youngsters or their elders take the horrendous decision to “try one, to see how it feels”.

It remains strange that a nation of the size of ours, the pushers and the traffickers and the big ones remain difficult to track down, although much has been done and is being done by the police. One big step remains to be taken: nailing down the Big Fish himself/herself to break the back of the drug problem in Gibraltar. Easier said than done; that much is obvious!

Its incredible, that the Government has not thought it important in nearly 3 years in office to compile Statistics to show the estimated number of problematic drug users, much of what we know in this sense is guesswork, empirically based or taken from police arrest and court attendance figures which has never been or will ever be an accurate picture of the real problem with drugs out there.

At the social level, the level of family, friendship and employment, that is, the habits of a “daily drug user” ought to be identifiable, his or her performance or behaviour at school or in the workplace ought to be detectable in one way or another: Lack of productivity, absence of concentration, inability to function normally to take but three characteristics that should show up. If I am correct, the implications are that there may be friends, teachers, parents and employers walking on the other side of the road, a morally and ethically alarming thought.

Everyone Should be Pulling at the Same Rope!

All Government agencies, organisations, NGOs, the Church, and schools should all be pulling the same rope and working closely together in a coordinated manner. Of course people who have overcome an addiction and are now rehabilitated would have an important story to tell.

For the above reason, I would also like to see more holistic and perceptive treatment of social welfare cases. “For instance, if a person applies for the social housing scheme, s/he should not simply be provided with a house. Further investigations should take place to determine whether the person in question has succumbed to additional problems, such as drug abuse etc. Because already in this sense, there have many problems regarding one relatively new estate where many social cases were transferred without properly looking into these social issues effecting them.

In my book, National Drug Policies should no longer be drafted solely by academics. Even after drafting and implementation, a national policy remains an on-going process, in need of constant evaluation. Aspects which are not working or having the desired effects should be identified and the authorities should have the courage to acknowledge the flaws and strive to find alternative strategies, this was never the case with the previous drug strategy that went flat before it even started.

Gibraltar Continues to Fail on this Important Social Problem

There are clear indicators that we’re failing somewhere. We therefore need more research to find out what’s really happening. It could be that 16-year-olds are emulating their peers and drinking alcohol because it’s the hip thing to do. But there could also be instances where this tendency has deeper roots…A properly coordinated outreach programme should get off the ground, with agencies actively seeking out those in need and not merely awaiting to be approached!

Employers should also be enticed to shoulder their responsibility by closely following their employees and identifying and referring cases such as drug abuse. They would be helping society as well as the workplace.

The Government recently informed Panorama “the strategic drug-working group focuses on substance misuse i.e. drug and alcohol not just drugs. We are committed to conducting a Drug Prevalence survey within the current term of office. Priority issues include reduction in drug consumption, emphasis on enforcement, increased awareness and comprehensive review of rehabilitation services. The strategic response (national drug strategy) is currently being developed to include all these issues many of which are interrelated and require clear coordination between different governmental bodies and statutory bodies”.

The Government further adding, “this is an important document, which needs to be done thoroughly but it will certainly be completed before the end of this term of office. The Government also confirmed that the public will be invited to contribute given this is an issue of general public concern as highlighted by successive Police Authority surveys”.

Frankly I do not agree that this serious social issue should have to wait until the end of the term of office of the present administration before a national drug strategy is in place, if that actually happens?

Because even today no one knows the real extent of the substance abuse problem in Gibraltar! Similarly, no one even now, appears to be in any great hurry to find out the extent of the problem either. A situation that is an incomprehensible because you would think that after nearly three years in office the Government would want to know what they are facing when it comes to drug abuse in Gibraltar.

Panorama has been asking for years for these important drugs findings to be carried out. Why should we have to wait a few months or weeks before an election to get this vitally important information? Data or research that may reveal that someone or vulnerable group in society requires immediate attention and not wait before the next election, which may be over a year away and come to late for the desperate person concerned!

Source:    http://www.panorama.gi/localnews/  05-09-14

Drug dealers are peddling a new marijuana product called Wax that looks and feels like lip balm and packs a kick equivalent to smoking 15-20 joints of weed.

Police in Roswell, Ga., discovered 80 grams of Wax during a recent drug bust. Roswell Police Officer Zachary Frommer told Fox 5 in Atlanta last week that the drug ring was selling the substance to high school students.

“It’s just an extra kick,” he said. “It gets ’em higher and it gets ’em higher faster. The 15-20 joints you smoke can equal a dose of the Wax.”

The marijuana concentrate, also known as Butter and Honeycomb, has the consistency of lip balm and is easy to conceal in lip balm jars. It can be eaten or smoked, using a bong or an electronic cigarette. It is made from the oils of marijuana plants and has a high level of THC — the chemical that gets a user high.

Wax is also easy to make, but dangerous to handle.

“You’re getting a lot of home cooks, a lot of teenagers and others that are trying to make it at home,” Frommer told Fox 5. “And because of the things you need to use to make it, because they’re flammable and they’re combustible and you may end up blowing up your house or burning yourself.”

In April, DEA administrator Michele Leonhart told the House Appropriations Committee that abuse of Wax was increasing throughout the U.S.

“In 2013, the THC content of leaf marijuana averaged 14 percent, while the THC content of marijuana concentrates averaged 54 percent, with some samples reported as high as 99 percent,” Leonhart said. “Highly flammable butane gas is used to extract the THC from the marijuana leaf, and has resulted in home explosions, injuries, and deaths.”

Source www.foxnews.com    17th August 2014

When Robin Williams committed suicide last week, his publicist announced he had been suffering from severe depression. Within days, his wife revealed he had also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was experiencing the early stages of the deadly disease.

Shocked experts and fans believed that the combination of the two ailments pushed the beloved comedian over the edge and caused him to take his own life.

For years, Williams had openly discussed his battle with depression and also with substance abuse. Board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock believes that Williams’ substance abuse — specifically his use of cocaine — was at the root of his Parkinson’s disease. In fact, a major study has found that cocaine users are at much higher risk for the brain illness.

“Robin said in interviews that he used a lot of cocaine in his youth and for many years,” Dr. Blaylock tells Newsmax Health. “Cocaine triggers excitotoxicity in the area of the brain pathological for Parkinson’s disease (PD).”

Excitotoxicity is the process by which nerve cells in the brain are damaged and killed by the excessive release of certain neurotransmitters, such as glutamate, that cause brain cells to become overexcited and die.

With PD, the brain cells that produce dopamine die, which affects the nervous system causing shaking and difficulties with balance. Some patients may have problems walking and talking. In addition, symptoms may include depression.

A 2005 study at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found that people who abuse cocaine increase their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. They found that cocaine altered nerves in the substantia nigra region of the brain, making them more vulnerable to a toxin (MPTP) known to cause symptoms of PD.

Williams admitted he suffered cocaine addiction in the 70s and early 80s, but the untimely death of his friend John Belushi from a drug overdose caused him to quit using drugs and drinking. He never took cocaine again, he told the Guardian newspaper.

“I knew (cocaine) would kill me,” he said.   Not only that, he didn’t enjoy the drug. “Cocaine – paranoid and impotent, what fun,” he said sarcastically. “There was no bit of me thinking, ‘Ooh, let’s go back to that.’ Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass. No.”

Still, alcohol and depression were constant battles, although his wife said he was sober at the time of his death.

However, the heavy cocaine use of his past may have already done its damage, setting up Williams to develop Parkinson’s in the future, said Dr. Blaylock.

“I have tried many times to warn foolish youth of the association of Parkinson’s with cocaine,” says Dr. Blaylock. “Cases like Robin Williams are tragic.”

Source:  NewsmaxHealth.   19th August 2014