On the street, it’s also called “gravel” for its white, crystal chunks. In the lab, it’s known as a stimulant, part of a chemical class called cathinones, with the amphetamine-like effects of Molly and Ecstasy. In the media it’s been dubbed “the insanity drug.”

Indeed, flakka has fuelled a recent, bizarre a spate of public behavior, all occurring in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On April 4, a man who had smoked flakka ran naked in the streets, claiming people had stolen his clothes. In March, a man on flakka impaled himself on a spiked fence outside the police station. He survived. In February, a man on flakka tried to kick in the police station door, claiming cars were chasing him.

“This is bad stuff,” said epidemiologist James N. Hall, co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

“The biggest danger is these are guinea pig drugs and the users are like lab rats.”

Flakka simulates the effects of the khat plant, which grows in Somalia and in the Middle East. Experts say that in high doses, it can cause an “excited delirium,” during which a user’s body temperature can rise to as high as 105 degrees. It can also create heart problems like tachycardia and life-threatening kidney failure.

“Some get high and some get very sick and may become addicted,” Hall said. “Some go crazy and even a few die. But they don’t know what they are taking or what’s going to happen to them.” In 2013 alone, cathinones, created in China and sold over the Internet, caused 123 deaths in Florida, according to the United Way of Broward County Commission on Substance Abuse.

Flakka, which can be crushed and snorted, swallowed or injected, is peddled under many brand names, including the less-potent cathinone, “Molly.” Flakka is often mixed with other drugs like methamphetamine.

Ecstasy or MDMA is a different class of chemical altogether, but Molly, though often touted as “pure” MDMA, is a first-generation cathinone. Because flakka is sold under so many different brand names, including “Molly,” users can be fooled, not knowing the potency of this new synthetic drug.

Flakka is “very dose specific,” said Hall. “Just a little (of it) delivers the high effect. It produces energy to dance and euphoria. But just a little more — and you can’t tell by looking at the capsule or baggie. Its name comes from the Spanish word “flaco” for thin. Latinos also use “la flaca” as a clubbing term for a pretty, skinny girl.

Spelled “flakka,” it’s “an eloquent collegial term — a beautiful, skinny woman who charms all she meets,” said Hall. “They give [synthetic drugs] names that are hip and cool and making it great for sales.”

Flakka emerged in South Florida last year, and has been seen in parts of Texas and Ohio, but is still not illegal in many states, according to Hall.

The abuse of synthetic drugs is a well-worn story in the United States — the largest consumer market of illicit drugs, according to Dr. Guohua Li, an epidemiologist and founding director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University.

“Each generation is exposed to different drugs of choice,” Li said. “The signature substances and their particular effects become a unique feature of the birth cohort.”

“Designer drugs must stay ahead of the authorities and medical communities to keep their illegal business afloat,” Li added.

In the 1940s, a Swiss chemist synthesized a drug from the ergot fungus and discovered the psychedelic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD. But in 1966, after Timothy Leary urged a generation to, “turn on, tune in, drop out,” the drug was made illegal.

In the 1980s, the all-night rave scene gave birth to the synthetic drug MDMA or ecstasy, giving users the euphoric high of amphetamines and the psychedelic effects of hallucinogens.

By the 1990s, the scourge of lab-produced meth appeared on the West Coast and increased in popularity throughout a decade.

Synthetic marijuana dubbed K2 or Spice, emerged in 2006, and was eventually banned in 2011.

At the same time, MDMA, which is a phenethylamine, saw a resurgence, but by 2010, synthetic cathinones — “bath salts” and the drug Molly — arrived on the club scene.

But now, use of MDMA has tapered off, due to the growing popularity of flakka, which costs only about $5 a dose.

“It’s emerging as the crack cocaine of 2015 with its severe effects high addiction rate for a low cost,” said Hall. “People are terrified of the drug. It’s because the consequences are so devastating.”

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flakka-attack-new-synthetic-drug April 15th 2015

Abstract

Background and Purpose

An increasing number of case reports link cannabis consumption to cerebrovascular events. Yet these case reports have not been scrutinized using criteria for causal inference.

Methods

All case reports on cannabis and cerebrovascular events were retrieved. Four causality criteria were addressed: temporality, adequacy of stroke work-up, effects of re-challenge, and concomitant risk factors that could account for the cerebrovascular event.

Results

There were 34 case reports on 64 patients. Most cases (81%) exhibited a temporal relationship between cannabis exposure and the index event. In 70%, the evaluation was sufficiently comprehensive to exclude other sources for stroke. About a quarter (22%) of patients had another stroke after subsequent re-exposure to cannabis. Finally, half of patients (50%) had concomitant stroke risk factors, most commonly tobacco (34%) and alcohol (11%) consumption.

Conclusion

Many case reports support a causal link between cannabis and cerebrovascular events. This accords well with epidemiological and mechanistic research on the cerebrovascular effects of cannabis.

1. Daniel G. Hackam, MD, PhD, FRCPC

+Author Affiliations

1. From the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

1. Correspondence to Daniel G. Hackam, MD, PhD, FRCPC, 1400 Western Rd, London, Ontario, Canada N6G 2V2. E-mail dhackam@uwo.ca

Source: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2015/02/19

The methadone programme in Scotland is “out of control”, an expert has warned.

Prof Neil McKeganey, from the Centre for Drug Misuse Research, said “it is literally a black hole into which people are disappearing”. Data obtained by BBC Scotland showed pharmacists were paid £17.8m for dispensing nearly half a million doses of methadone in 2014.

In response, the Scottish government said both doses and costs linked to opioid treatment had been dropping. Community Safety Minister Paul Wheelhouse told the BBC: “Fewer Scots are taking drugs – numbers are continuing to fall amongst the general adult population, and drug taking among young people is the lowest in a decade.”

However, a lack of data to measure the programme’s impact was the focus of criticism from Prof McKeganey. He said: “We still don’t know how many addicts are on the methadone programme, what progress they’re making, and with what frequency they are managing to come off methadone.

“Successive inquiries have shown that the programme is in a sense out of control; it just sits there, delivering more methadone to more addicts, year in year out, with very little sense of the progress those individuals are making towards their recovery.”

But David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drug Forum, disputed claims that addicts were parked on the methadone programme. He said: “What we know is the level of methadone being dispensed continues at the same level, but it’s not the same individuals. “Our sense is that of the 20,000-plus people on methadone, it will be less than half who are on it for a very long period of time.” However Mr Liddell admitted that, unlike England, there is currently no data in Scotland on whether users are relying on the programme indefinitely.

Regional increases

In 2013, pharmacies claimed back more than £17.9m from the Scottish government for dispensing 470,256 doses of methadone – 22,980 doses more than in 2014.

But despite this overall decrease, new data – obtained from National Services Scotland through a freedom of information request – revealed the amount of methadone dispensed has increased in more than a third of Scottish local authorities over the last two years.

The Edinburgh council area saw the largest increase in doses (2,949), followed by Falkirk (421) and Argyll and Bute (405). The largest decreases were found in Renfrewshire (5,842), Inverclyde (5,611) and East Ayrshire (5,598).

And while fees paid to pharmacies for dispensing methadone have declined over a four-year period, Prof McKeganey said the average annual outlay does suggest users are parked on the drug.

Prof McKeganey said: “The aspiration contained within the government’s ‘Road to Recovery’drug strategy explicitly said that the goal of treatment must be to enable people to become drug-free rather than remain on long-term methadone. These figures show you that we are not achieving that goal – we are not witnessing large numbers of people coming off the methadone programme.”

New strategy

Methadone has been at the heart of drug treatment strategies since the 1980s, but its use has been widely criticised by recovering addicts and drugs workers.

Methadone is by far the most widely used of the opioid replacement therapies (ORT), with an estimated 22,000 patients currently receiving it, but some users take it for years without being weaned off it altogether. Howevera review commissioned by the Scottish governmentin 2013 concluded methadone should continue to be used to treat heroin addicts.

There are alternatives, including prescribing medical heroin, but many in the drugs field say the debate should move away from these to an examination of how the wider needs of drug users can be met. Prof McKeganey said methadone does have a role to play in helping addicts wean themselves off heroin, but it should not be prescribed as widely as it is now.

An estimated 22,000 people are currently on Scotland’s methadone programme

He said he would like to see a two-year reassessment implemented so that if the “highly addictive” methadone does not seem to be working for an individual, they can then either try the more expensive suboxone, or enter a drug-free residential home. “That seemed preferable to me than leaving people on a methadone prescription for years – and then the worry is that you’ve turned your heroin addicts into methadone addicts.”

Figures released by the NHS in 2012revealed that methadone-implicated deaths increased dramatically in cases where the individual had been prescribed the drug for more than a year.

Recent figures from the National Records of Scotland also revealmethadone was implicated in nearly the same number of deaths as heroin in 2013.

‘Methadone millionaires’

The methadone data obtained by BBC Scotland reveals how much each individual pharmacy claimed back in fees from the Scottish government.

Last year more than £102,000 was claimed by just one pharmacy on Glasgow’s Saracen Street in Possilpark – an area ranked the third most-deprived in Scotland. The largest claims were made by pharmacy giants Boots and Lloyds, who reclaimed £3.8m and £3.3m respectively from their hundreds of branches across the country.

The fees paid back to pharmacies are not only for the dispensing of methadone, but for oral hygiene services, and the services of a supervisor to ensure the dose is taken onsite and not sold on the street. Pharmacies apply to enter into a contract with their health board to provide methadone services and must justify the need for such a service within that locality. Pharmacists in Greater Glasgow are currently paid £2.16 for dispensing every dose of methadone and £1.34 for supervising addicts while they take it.

The fees are negotiated with individual health boards to suit local needs, and are lower than in England.

But a spokesman from Community Pharmacy Scotland dismissed the“methadone millionaire” tagplaced on such pharmacies in the past by certain media outlets.

He said: “Methadone is an NHS prescription medicine and as such a community pharmacy is obliged to provide it when it has been prescribed for a patient by a GP.

“While community pharmacists are paid to administer the program, the income is far outweighed by the time, administration and difficulties that can often be encountered by taking on a role in this difficult area. The argument is not a financial one – but a health and social issue.”

A statement by the Scottish government did not address the lack of data to prove the programme was enabling addicts to become drug-free. However, Mr Wheelhouse said: “Both the number of items and the number of defined daily doses of opioid treatment have dropped steadily over the past five years and the cost of methadone is down 19% since 2010-11. He added: “Independent experts advise that opioid replacement therapy is a crucial tool in treating opiate dependency. However, we believe it is important that there are a range of treatments available that suit the unique needs of individuals.

“Prescribing opioid replacement therapy is an independent decision for individual clinicians, in line with the current UK guidelines on the Clinical Management of Drug Misuse and Dependence.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31943109 24^th March 2015

These remarkable scans clearly reveal how smoking during pregnancy harms an unborn baby’s development.

New ultrasound images show how babies of mothers who smoke during pregnancy touch their mouths and faces much more than babies of non-smoking mothers.

Foetuses normally touch their mouths and faces much less the older and more developed they are. Experts said the scans show how smoking during pregnancy can mean the development of the baby’s central nervous system is delayed. Doctors have long urged pregnant women to give up cigarettes because they heighten the risk of premature birth, respiratory problems and even cot death.

Now researchers believe they can show the effects of smoking on babies in the womb – and use the images to encourage mothers who are struggling to give up.

Image shows the 4-D ultrasound scan of two foetuses at 32 weeks gestation, one whose mother was a smoker (top) and the other carried by a non-smoker (bottom). The foetus carried by the smoker touches its face and mouth much more, indicating its development is delayed

As part of the study, Dr Nadja Reissland, of Durham University, used 4-D ultrasound scan images to record thousands of tiny movements in the womb.

She monitored 20 mothers attending the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, four of whom smoked an average of 14 cigarettes a day.

After studying their scans at 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks, she detected that foetuses whose mothers smoked continued to show significantly higher rates of mouth movement and self-touching than those carried by non-smokers. Foetuses usually move their mouths and touch themselves less as they gain more control the closer they get to birth, she explained.

The pilot study, which Dr Reissland hopes to expand with a bigger sample, found babies carried by smoking mothers may have delayed development of the central nervous system. Dr Reissland said: ‘A larger study is needed to confirm these results and to investigate specific effects, including the interaction of maternal stress and smoking.’

She believed that videos of the difference in pre-birth development could help mothers give up smoking.

But she was against demonising mothers and called for more support for them to give up. Currently, 12 per cent of pregnant women in the UK smoke but the rate is over 20 per cent in certain areas in the North East. All the babies in her study were born healthy, and were of normal size and weight.

Dr Reissland, who has an expertise in studying foetal development, thanked the mothers who took part in her study, especially those who smoked. ‘I’m really grateful, they did a good thing,’ she said. ‘These are special people and they overcame the stigma to help others.’

Co-author Professor Brian Francis, of Lancaster University, added: ‘Technology means we can now see what was previously hidden, revealing how smoking affects the development of the foetus in ways we did not realise.

‘This is yet further evidence of the negative effects of smoking in pregnancy.’ The research was published in the journal Acta Paediatrica. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk  23 March 2015

DENVER, CO – MARCH, 4: Lights hang above cannabis plants in a “flower room” inside a medical cannabis cultivation facility in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, March 4, 2013. (Photo by Matthew Staver/For The Washington Post)

Across the country, there’s a growing trend toward the legalization of marijuana. Four states— Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Alaska —have voted to allow people to possess limited amounts of marijuana for personal use and also to let producers apply for licenses to produce and sell it. D.C. also just voted to allow personal possession. All of this is on top of the 23 states that allow it for medical reasons.

In some states, where businesses are also now legally cultivating and producing marijuana, a mainstream industry is emerging. Marijuana sales totalled $700 million in Colorado last year, for instance. But there’s a surprising catch. It turns out that indoor marijuana growth in particular — a cultivation method often favoured in the industry for many reasons — uses a surprising amount of energy.

Indeed, the level of power use appears to be so significant that one scholar is now suggesting that as the industry grows, states and localities should take advantage of marijuana licensing procedures to also regulate the industry’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

“Given that this is a new ‘industry’ that is going to be pretty highly regulated, I felt like the state and local policymakers have a unique opportunity to incorporate energy usage and climate assessments into their state marijuana licensing fees,” says Gina Warren, a professor at the Texas A&M University School of Law whose paper, titled “Regulating Pot to Save the Polar Bear: Energy and Climate Impacts of the Marijuana Industry,”will soon appear in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law.

The published statistics on energy use from indoor marijuana production will blow your mind (whether or not you use the stuff). In a 2012 study of the “carbon footprint of indoor cannabis production” published in the journal Energy Policy, researcher Evan Mills noted that “on occasion, previously unrecognized spheres of energy use come to light,” and marijuana is a textbook example.

The study estimated that indoor cannabis (both illegal and legal) uses $6 billion worth of electricity every year, amounting to 1 percent ofoverall U.S. electricity. And in some production-intensive states like California, it was much higher — 3 percent, Mills found.

“One average kilogram of final product is associated with 4,600 kg of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, or that of 3 million average U.S. cars when aggregated across all national production,” wrote Mills.

The reason is simply the technology required. “Specific energy uses include high-intensity lighting, dehumidification to remove water vapour and avoid mould formation, space heating or cooling during non-illuminated periods and drying, pre-heating of irrigation water, generation of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuel, and ventilation and air-conditioning to remove waste heat,” writes Mills.

Outdoor production also has environmental consequences —it has been charged with deforestation and high levels of water and pesticide use.But as pot becomes more legal and mainstream, notes Warren, outdoor producers will have to abide by pre-existing environmental laws, just like everyone else.

In effect, that makes indoor production the chief climate change and energy concern. According to Warren’s article, while underground indoor marijuana production already consumed plenty of energy, legalization will increase energy use even farther. “As theindustry grows, so will its negative externalities,” she writes.

Which is why she’s proposing that states that legalize marijuana use should also require the growing industry to power itself cleanly. And it’s not without precedent: Starting in October of this year, Boulder County in Colorado will require many marijuana facilities to “directly offset 100% of electricity, propane, and natural [gas] consumption” through renewables or other means.

Warren says she’s not “picking on the marijuana industry” with her proposals — it’s just that, well, we don’t often have new industries appear that use a lot of energy and are likely to be highly regulated as they become legal.

“I think it could actually be a marketing tool for the industry,” says Warren, “because if you have people who are purchasing the product who are the type of individual who cares about the environment, then they would gravitate towards the green marijuana production.”

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/

There’s a new drug in town.

It’s called Shatter and it looks like dark-amber toffee. It’s THC, the chemical that causes the high in marijuana, extracted from the plant and has highly addictive qualities, said Stratford police Insp. Sam Theocharis.

It’s been around for a while but it’s new to Stratford, Theocharis said.  Police have started to see the drug a bit more frequently and wanted to get the message out to the public.

“When you look at it, it just looks like goo but it’s a new form of marijuana drug,” he said.

Shatter is clear, smooth and solid. It can consist of more than 80% THC, according to the High Times website.

Police seized some Tuesday along with methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs after an investigation by the Street Crime Unit.  Two men in their 40s were arrested and face several charges including possession for the purpose of trafficking. The drugs seized are valued at more than $1,500. Cell phones, scales and baggies were also seized, police said.

Shatter sells for about $100 a gram on the streets. It’s dangerous and often leads to overdose, police said.  Whether it will overshadow crystal meth and oxycodone in popularity has yet to be seen.

“I can’t predict but anything that gives you a better high is going to be sought after,” Theocharis said.

Source: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/

“Even at normal doses, taking psychiatric drugs can produce suicidal thinking, violent behavior,  aggressiveness, extreme anger,  hostility, irritability, loss of ability to control impulses, rage reactions, hallucinations, mania, acute psychotic episodes, akathisia, and bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder.

“Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs can cause agitation, severe depression, hallucinations, aggressiveness, hypomania, akathisia, fear, terror, panic, fear of insanity, failing self-confidence, restlessness, irritability, aggression, an urge to destroy and, in the worst cases, an urge to kill.” -  From “Drug Studies Connecting Psychotropic Drugs with Acts of Violence” – unpublished.

My previous article on Global Research discussed the frustration of large numbers of aware observers around the world that were certain that Andreas Lubitz, the suicidal mass murderer of 149 passengers and crewmembers of the of the Lufthansa airliner crash, was under the intoxicating influence of brain-disabling, brain-altering, psychotropic medicines that had been prescribed for him by his German psychiatrists and/or neurologists who were known to have been prescribing for him.

These inquiring folks wanted and needed to know precisely what drugs he had been taking or withdrawing from so that the event could become a teachable moment that would help explain what had really happened and then possibly prevent other “irrational” acts from happening in the future. For the first week after the crash, the “authorities” were closed mouthed about the specifics, but most folks were willing to wait a bit to find out the truth.

However, another week has gone by, and there has still been no revelations from the “authorities” as to the exact medications, exact doses, exact combinations of drugs, who were the prescribing clinics and physicians and what was the rationale for the drugs having been  prescribed. Inquiring minds want to know and they deserve to be informed.

There are probably plenty of reasons why the information is not being revealed. There are big toes that could be stepped on, especially the giant pharmaceutical industries. There are medico-legal implications for the physicians and clinics that did the prescribing and there are serious implications for the airline corporations because their industry is at high risk of losing consumer confidence in their products if the truth isn’t adequately covered up. And the loss of consumer confidence is a great concern for both the pharmaceutical industry and its indoctrinated medical providers.

It looks like heavily drugged German society is dealing with the situation the same way the heavily drugged United States has dealt with psychiatric drug-induced suicidality and drug-induced mass murders (such as have been known to be in a cause and effect relationship in the American epidemic of school shootings – see www.ssristories.net).

The Traffickers of Illicit Drugs That Cause Dangerous and Irrational Behaviors Such as Murders and Suicides are Punished. Why not Legal Drug Traffickers as Well?

But there is a myth out there that illegal brain-altering drugs are dangerous but prescribed brain-altering drugs are safe. But anyone who knows the molecular structure and understands the molecular biology of these drugs and has seen the horrific adverse effects of usage or withdrawal of legal psychotropic drugs knows that the myth is false, and that there is a double standard being applied, thanks to the cunning advertising campaigns from Big Pharma.

But there is an epidemic of legal drug-related deaths in America, so I submit a few questions that people – as well as journalists and lawyers who are representing drug-injured plaintiffs – need to have answered, if only for educational and preventive practice purposes:

1) What cocktail of 9 different VA-prescribed psych drugs was “American Sniper” Chris Kyle’s Marine Corps killer taking after he was discharged from his psychiatric hospital the week before the infamous murder?

2) What were the psych drugs that Robin Williams got from Hazelden just before he hung himself?

3) What were the myriad of psych drugs, tranquilizers, opioids, etc that caused the overdose deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, etc, etc, etc (not to mention Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe) – and who were the “pushers” of those drugs?

4) What was the cocktail of psychiatric and neurologic brain-altering drugs that Andreas Lubitz was taking before he intentionally crashed the passenger jet in the French Alps – and who were the prescribers?

5) What are the correctly prescribed drugs that annually kill over 100,000 hospitalized Americans per year and are estimated to kill twice that number of out-patients?

(See http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/05/07/death-by-prescription-drugs-is-a-growing-problem/)

Because the giant pharmaceutical companies want these serious matters hushed up until the news cycle blows over (so that they can get on with business as usual), and because many prescribing physicians seem to be innocently unaware that any combination of two or more brain-altering psychiatric drugs have never been tested for safety (either short or long-term), even in the rat labs, future celebrities and millions of other patient-victims will continue dying – or just be sickened from a deadly but highly preventable reality.

But what about “patient confidentiality”, a common excuse for withholding specific information about patients (even if crimes such as mass murder are involved)? It turns out that what is actually being protected by that assertion are the drug providers and manufacturers. Common sense demands that such information should not be withheld in a criminal situation.

America’s corporate controlled media makes a lot of money from its relationships with its wealthy and influential corporate sponsors, contributors, advertisers, political action committees and politicians, but, tragically, the media has been clearly abandoning its historically-important investigative journalistic responsibilities (that are guaranteed and protected by the Constitution). It is obvious that the media has allied itself with the corporate “authorities” that withhold, any way they can, the important information that forensic psychiatrists (and everybody else) needs to know.

We should be calling out and condemning the authorities that are withholding the information about the reported “plethora of drugs” that is known to have been prescribed for Lubitz by his treating “neurologists and psychiatrists”, drugs that were found in his apartment on the day of the crash and identified by those same authorities who have not revealed the information to the people who need to know. Two weeks into the story and there still has been no further information given, or as far as I can ascertain, or asked for by journalists.

So, since the facts are being withheld by the authorities, I submit some useful lists of common adverse effects of commonly prescribed crazy-making psych drugs that Lubitz may have been taking. Also included are a number of withdrawal symptoms that are routinely  and conveniently mis-diagnosed as symptoms of a mental illness of unknown cause.

And at the end of the column are some excerpts from the FAA on psych drug use for American pilots. I do not know how different are the rules in Germany, but certainly both nations have to rely on voluntary information from the pilots.

1) Common Adverse Symptoms of Antidepressant Drug Use

Agitation, akathisia (severe restlessness, often resulting in suicidality), anxiety, bizarre dreams, confusion, delusions, emotional numbing, hallucinations, headache, heart attacks  hostility, hypomania (abnormal excitement), impotence, indifference (an “I don’t give a damn attitude”), insomnia, loss of appetite, mania, memory lapses, nausea, panic attacks, paranoia, psychotic episodes, restlessness, seizures, sexual dysfunction, suicidal thoughts or behaviors, violent behavior, weight loss, withdrawal symptoms (including deeper depression)

2) Common Adverse Psychological Symptoms of Antidepressant Drug Withdrawal

Depressed mood, low energy, crying uncontrollably, anxiety, insomnia, irritability, agitation, impulsivity, hallucinations or suicidal and violent urges. The physical symptoms of antidepressant withdrawal include disabling dizziness, imbalance, nausea, vomiting, flu-like aches and pains, sweating, headaches, tremors, burning sensations or electric shock-like zaps in the brain

3) Common Symptoms of Minor Tranquilizer Drug Withdrawal

Abdominal pains and cramps, agoraphobia , anxiety, blurred vision, changes in perception (faces distorting and inanimate objects moving), depression, dizziness, extreme lethargy, fears, feelings of unreality, heavy limbs, heart palpitations, hypersensitivity to light, insomnia, irritability, lack of concentration, lack of co-ordination, loss of balance, loss of memory, nightmares, panic attacks, rapid mood changes, restlessness, severe headaches, shaking, sweating, tightness in the chest, tight-headedness

4) Common (Usually Late Onset) Adverse Psychological Symptoms From Anti-Psychotic Drug Use

Blurred vision, breast enlargement/breast milk flow,  constipation, decreased sweating, dizziness, low blood pressure, imbalance and falls, drowsiness, dry mouth, headache, hyperprolactinemia (pituitary gland dysfunction), increased skin-sensitivity to sunlight, lightheadedness, menstrual irregularity (or absence of menstruation), sexual difficulty, (decline in libido, anorgasmia, genital pain).

The lethal adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs include Catatonic decline, Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS, a condition marked by muscle stiffness or rigidity, dark urine, fast heartbeat or irregular pulse, increased sweating, high fever, and high or low blood pressure); Torsades de Pointes (a condition that affects the heart rhythm and can lead to sudden cardiac arrest”; Sudden death

5) Late and Persistent Adverse Effects of Antipsychotic Drug Use  (Some of these symptoms may even start when tapering down or discontinuing the drug!)

Aggression, akathisia (inner restlessness, often intolerable and leading to suicidality), brain atrophy (shrinkage), caffeine or other psychostimulant addiction, cataracts, creativity decline, depression, diabetes, difficulty urinating, difficulty talking, difficulty swallowing, fatigue and tiredness, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, intellectual decline (loss of IQ points), obesity, pituitary tumors, premature death, smoking – often heavy – (nicotine addiction), tardive dyskinesia (involuntary, disfiguring movement disorder), tongue edge “snaking” (early sign of movement disorder), jerky movements of head, face, mouth or neck, muscle spasms of face, neck or back, twisting the neck muscles, restlessness – physical and mental (resulting in sleep difficulty), restless legs syndrome, drooling, seizure threshold lowered, skin rashes (itching, discoloration), sore throat, staring, stiffness of arms or legs, swelling of feet, trembling of hands, uncontrollable chewing movements, uncontrollable lip movements, puckering of the mouth, uncontrollable movements of arms and legs, unusual twisting movements of body, weight gain, liver toxicity

6) Common Symptoms of Antipsychotic Drug Withdrawal

Nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, rhinorrhea (runny nose), heavy sweating, muscle pains, odd sensations such as burning, tingling, numbness,  anxiety, hypersexuality, agitation, mania, insomnia, tremor, voice-hearing

FAA Medical Certification Requirements for Psychotropic Medications

https://www.leftseat.com/psychotropic.htm

Pilots can only take one of four antidepressant drugs – Celexa (Citalopram), Lexapro (Escitalopram), Prozac (Fluoxetine) and Zoloft (Sertraline).

Most psychiatric drugs are not approved under any circumstances.

These include but are not limited to:

• Abilify (Aripiprazole)
• Effexor (Venlafaxine)
• Elavil (Amitriptyline)
• Luvox (Fluvoxamine Maleate)
• Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors
• Paxil (Paroxetine)
• Remeron (Mirtazapine)
• Serzone (Nefazodone)
• Sinequan (Doxepin)
• Tofranil (Imipramine)
• Trazodone
• Tricyclic Antidepressants
• Wellbutrin (Bupropion)

To assure favorable FAA consideration, the treating physician should establish that you do not need psychotropic medication. The medication should be discontinued and the condition and circumstances should be evaluated after you have been off medication for at least 60 and in most cases 90 days.

Should your physician believe you are an ideal candidate, you may be considered by the FAA on a case by case basis only. Applicants may be considered after extensive testing and evidence of successful use for one year without adverse effects. Medications used for psychiatric conditions are rarely approved by the FAA. The FAA has approved less than fifty (50) airmen under the FAA’s SSRI protocol.

After discontinuing the medication, a detailed psychiatric evaluation should be obtained. Resolved issues and stability off the medication are usually the primary factors for approval.

Dr Kohls is a retired physician who practiced holistic mental health care for the last decade of his family practice career. He writes a weekly column on various topics for the Reader Weekly, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Many of Dr Kohls’ weekly columns are archived at http://duluthreader.com/articles/categories/200_Duty_to_Warn.

Source:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-connections-between-psychotropic-drugs-and-irrational-acts-of-violence/5441484  April 08, 2015

Low achievers, women and those who did courses involving maths most benefited from being banned from coffeeshops . The ‘partial-prohibition’ sought to ban smokers from France and Luxembourg

Students who were banned from smoking legal cannabis in Dutch coffeeshops were found to be more likely to pass exams, specifically maths-based ones, according to researchers. The findings were worked out during a temporary “partial-prohibition” of cannabis cafes in the city of Maastricht, in which people were not allowed to enter on the sole basis of their nationalities.

Students who were banned from the 13 coffee shops in the city have been 5.4 per cent more likely to pass their courses, economists at the University of Maastricht found. The effect is “five times larger” for courses requiring quantitative thinking and maths-based tasks, the researchers wrote.

Lower performers – who had a pre-study GPA below the median of 6.62 – were most impacted by the ban with a 7.6 per cent increase in probability of passing a course.  This may be down to ‘high’ achievers already getting top grades, regardless of cannabis consumption, they added.

The study comes after 20 US states legalised the use of medicinal cannabis and 14 others took some steps to decriminalise possession. Uruguay is planning to become the first nation in the world to fully legalise all aspects of the cannabis trade. Women were also found to have higher improved grades than men, which researchers Olivier Marie and Ulf Zölitz believe is down to differences in processing high amounts of THC found in Dutch weed, which is often twice as strong as that in the US.

They also claim that grade improvements are not in correlation with any increases in effort or amount of study hours. The undergraduates have a median age of 20.6, and most of the improvements were also found in those who were the youngest.

Online evaluations filled in by the students showed that overall understanding of their courses improved the most when they did not smoke in coffeeshops.“The effects we find are large, consistent and statistically very significant,” Marie told the Observer. “For example, we estimate that students who were no longer able to buy cannabis legally were 5% more likely to pass courses.

“The grade improvement this represents is about the same as having a qualified teacher and, more relevantly, similar to decreases in grades observed from reaching legal drinking age in the US.”  The seven-month policy implemented by the Maastricht association of cannabis-shop owners (VOCM) from October 2011, after pressure by local authorities, had sought to control weed smoking by “drug tourists” from neighbouring countries.

People from France and Luxembourg were found to be the “bad tourists,” according to the study, as they had been “creating the most nuisance” for the city’s residents.  Belgian and German citizens were allowed to use cannabis cafes and, including Dutch people, they comprise 90 per cent of all customers – which shows that the “partial prohibition” was only carried out on a minority of people.

Researchers admit that students who were banned could have got hold of cannabis illegally through friends and dealers, however they believe that the findings are significant enough to be considered when international drug laws are amended.

More than 54,000 grades were analysed of around 4,200 students.  Fifty-two per cent were German, 33 per cent Dutch, six per cent Belgian and remaining eight per cent listed as “other”.

Source:  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/students-banned-from-cannabis-coffee-shops-more-likely-to-pass-exams-a-dutch-study-claims-10169625.html

Dutch study finds mathematics results suffer most from dope consumption – findings sure to fuel debate over steps towards legalisation If you want to do well in your exams, especially maths, don’t smoke dope.

This is the finding of a unique study that is likely to be fiercely debated by those in favour of and those against the liberalisation of cannabis laws.

Economists Olivier Marie of Maastricht University and Ulf Zölitz of IZA Bonn examined what happened in Maastricht in 2011 when the Dutch city allowed only Dutch, German and Belgian passport-holders access to the 13 coffee shops where cannabis was sold.

The temporary restrictions were introduced because of fears that nationals from other countries, chiefly France and Luxembourg, were visiting the city simply to smoke drugs, which would tarnish its genteel image.

After studying data on more than 54,000 course grades achieved by students from around the world who were enrolled at Maastricht University before and after the restrictions were introduced, the economists came to a striking conclusion.

In a paper recently presented at the Royal Economic Society conference in Manchester they revealed that those who could no longer legally buy cannabis did better in their studies.  The restrictions, the economists conclude, constrained consumption for some users, whose cognitive functioning improved as a result.

“The effects we find are large, consistent and statistically very significant,” Marie told the Observer.  “For example, we estimate that students who were no longer able to buy cannabis legally were 5% more likely to pass courses.

The grade improvement this represents is about the same as having a qualified teacher and, more relevantly, similar to decreases in grades observed from reaching legal drinking age in the US.”

For low performers, there was a larger effect on grades. They had a 7.6% better chance of passing their courses.  Interestingly, Marie and Zölitz found the effects were even more pronounced when it came to particular disciplines.

“The policy effect is five times larger for courses requiring numerical/mathematical skills,” the pair write.This, they argue, is not that surprising.  “In line with how THC consumption affects cognitive functioning, we find that performance gains are larger for courses that require more numerical/mathematical skills,” Marie said.  THC – tetrahydrocannabinol – is the active ingredient in skunk cannabis, which some studies have linked with psychosis.

The ground breaking research comes at a significant moment.  The clamour for liberalisation of cannabis laws is growing.

In Germany, Berlin is considering opening the country’s first legal cannabis shop. Uruguay plans to be the first nation in the world to fully legalise all aspects of the cannabis trade. In the US, more than 20 states now allow medical marijuana use, while recreational consumption has become legal in Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.

But, as Marie and Zölitz observe in their paper: “With scarce empirical evidence on its societal impact, these policies are mainly being implemented without governments knowing about their potential impact.

“We think this newfound effect on productivity from a change in legal access to cannabis is not negligible and should be, at least in the short run, politically relevant for any societal drug legalisation and prohibition  decision-making,” Marie said. “In the bigger picture, our findings also indicate that soft drug consumption behaviour is affected by their legal accessibility, which has not been causally demonstrated before.”

The research is likely to be seized upon by anti-legalisation campaigners.  But Marie was at pains to say the research should simply be used to raise awareness of an often overlooked aspect of drug use: its impact on the individual’s cognitive ability.  “If marijuana is legalised like it is in many states in the US, we should at least inform consumers about the negative consequences of their drug choices.”

It will also feed into the debate about THC levels in cannabis, which are becoming ever stronger. Levels of THC in marijuana sold in Maastricht’s coffee shops are around double those in the US. “Considering the massive impact on cognitive performance high levels of THC have, I think it is reasonable to at least inform young users much more on consequences of consuming such products as compared with that of having a beer or pure vodka,” Marie said.  History suggests that prohibition often results in the illicit drug or alcohol trade producing ever stronger products.

Campaigners for liberalisation argue that it could help bring THC levels down and allow users to know what they are buying. The authors concede that their findings could turn out to be different if they were to replicate their study in a country that did not have restrictions on cannabis use.  Marie said his work had helped inform his discussions with his teenage son.  “I have a 13-year old boy and I do extensively share this with him as a precautionary measure so that he can make the best informed choice if he is faced with the decision of whether to consume cannabis or not.”

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/11/cannabis-smokers-risk-poorer-grades-dutch-study-legalisation

President Obama this week told an audience in Jamaica that U.S. efforts against illegal drugs were “counterproductive” because they relied too much on incarceration—particularly for “young people who did not engage in violence.”

In what the president termed “an experiment … to legalize marijuana” in Colorado and Washington state, he said he believed they must “show that they are not suddenly a magnet for additional crime, that they have a strong enough public health infrastructure to push against the potential of increased addiction.”

In regard to Jamaica and the entire Caribbean and Central American region, he said, “a lot of folks think … if we just legalize marijuana, then it’ll reduce the money flowing into the transnational drug trade, there are more revenues and jobs created.”

To some of us, Jamaica hardly seems an auspicious location for encouraging “experimentation” with drugs, in particular because of the challenges already faced by their deficient institutions of public health and criminal justice. The U.S. Department of State 2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report(INCSR) states:

Jamaica remains the largest Caribbean supplier of marijuana to the United States and local Caribbean islands. Although cocaine and synthetic drugs are not produced locally, Jamaica is a transit point for drugs trafficked from South America to North America and other international markets. In 2014, drug production and trafficking were enabled and accompanied by organized crime, domestic and international gang activity, and police and government corruption. Illicit drugs are also a means of exchange for illegally-trafficked firearms entering the country, exacerbating Jamaica’s security situation.

Drugs flow from and through Jamaica by maritime conveyance, air freight, human couriers, and to a limited degree by private aircraft. Marijuana and cocaine are trafficked from and through Jamaica into the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and other Caribbean nations. Jamaica is emerging as a transit point for cocaine leaving Central America and destined for the United States, and some drug trafficking organizations exchange Jamaican marijuana for cocaine. . . .

The conviction rate for murder was approximately five percent, and the courts continued to be plagued with a culture of trial postponements and delay. This lack of efficacy within the criminal courts contributed to impunity for many of the worst criminal offenders and gangs, an abnormally high rate of violent crimes, lack of cooperation by witnesses and potential jurors, frustration among police officers and the public, a significant social cost and drain on the economy, and a disincentive for tourism and international investment.

This does not seem like a place where “legal” marijuana would contribute to “reduced money flow” to the transnational drug trade, or “create jobs.”  The president apparently thinks Jamaica should consider allowing more drugs, based on a faulty understanding of what is actually happening in Jamaica and in the U.S.

His charge of high incarceration rates for non-violent offenders is not factual. For instance, data show that only a fraction of one percent of state prison inmates are low-level marijuana possession offenders, while arrests for marijuana and cocaine/heroin possession and use were no more than 7 percent of all arrests,nationwide, in 2013.

Though critics of drug laws claim that hundreds or even thousands of prisoners are low-level non-violent offenders unjustly sentenced, the reality was shown recently by the President’s inability to find more than a  of incarcerated drug offenders who would be eligible for  of their sentence because they fit the mythological portrait of excessive or unjust drug sentences.

Further, since 2007, the US is currently experiencing a surge in daily marijuana use, an epidemic of heroin overdose deaths (with minorities hardest hit), while the southwest border is flooded with heroin and methamphetamine flow, as shown by skyrocketing border seizures.

Importantly, Colorado, following marijuana “legalization,” has become a black-market magnet, and is currently supplying marijuana, including ultra-high-potency “shatter” to the rest of the U.S., leading to law suits by adjacent states. Legalization 

As for Central America, Obama’s policies have shown stunning neglect. Actual aid for counter-drug activities, and for resources for interdicting smugglers have all diminished, while the countries of Central America have become battlegrounds for Mexican cartels, with meth precursors piling up at the docks, the cocaine transiting Venezuela to Honduras is surging, and violence is at an all-time high, with families fleeing north in unprecedented numbers. The Caribbean/Central American region has become deeply threatened, as noted by the State Department report above—torn apart by drug crime.

In this context the president encourages governments in the region to make drugs more acceptable and more accessible in their communities, and with even greater legal impunity?

Moreover, these developments have been accompanied by a steady drumbeat of medical science  increasingly showing the serious dangers of marijuana use, especially for youth.   Yet President Obama speaks in a manner increasingly disconnected from the domestic and international reality of the drug problem.

Source:  David W. Murray and John P. Walters  WEEKLY STANDARD  April 11, 2015

CLEARING THE HAZE

….The ugly truth is that Colorado was suckered. It was promised regulation and has been met by an industry that fights tooth and nail any restrictions that limit its profitability.”  Ben Cort, Director of Professional Relations for the Center for Additction Recovery and rehabilitation at the University Of Colorado Hospital

Source:   http://gazette.com/clearingthehaze

REGULATION STILL INEFFECTIVE

But how it would work was described only in general terms and sound bites before voters headed to the polls to make a decision Gov. John Hickenlooper later would call “reckless” and “a bad idea” and new Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman declared “not worth it” to dozens of state attorneys general last month.

Source:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/regulation-still-ineffective/article/2562323?custom_click=rss

NO APPROVED MEDICINE IN MARIJUANA

Dr. Stuart Gitlow, a physician serving as president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, does not mince words: “There is no such thing at this point as medical marijuana,” he said. It’s a point he has made routinely for the past decade, as advocates for marijuana legalization have claimed the drug treats an array of serious illnesses, or the symptoms of illnesses, including cancer, depression, epilepsy, glaucoma and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Source:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-approved-medicine-in-marijuana/article/2562336

LEGALIZATION DIDN’T UNCLOG PRISONS

Of all the misunderstandings about marijuana’s impact on the country, perhaps none is greater than the belief that America’s courts, prisons and jails are clogged with people whose only offense was marijuana use. This is the perception, but statistics show few inmates are behind bars strictly for marijuana-related offenses, and legalization of the drug will do little to affect America’s growing incarceration numbers.

Source:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/legalization-didnt-unclog-prisons/article/2562326

DRUG USE A PROBLEM FOR EMPLOYERS

“This is a very troublesome issue for our industry, but I do not see us bending or lowering our hiring standards,” Johnson said. “Our workplaces are too dangerous and too dynamic to tolerate drug use. And marijuana? In many ways, this is worse than alcohol. I’m still in shock at how we (Colorado) voted. Everyone was asleep at the wheel.”

Source:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/drug-use-a-problem-for-employers/article/2562334

MEDICAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY STILL GROWING

And amid all the hoopla around legalized recreational pot, its older cousin, the medical marijuana (MMJ) industry — with 505 stores throughout Colorado — quietly continued to grow, adding patients by the thousands who seemingly had no problem finding physicians willing to diagnose what critics say are often phantom medical conditions. Statewide, the number of people on the Medical Marijuana Registry grew 4 percent in 2014 — the first year of legal recreational sales — from 111,030 to 115,467 by year’s end.

Source:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/medical-marijuana-industry-still-growing-in-colorado/article/2562335

Lynne Featherstone accepts advisory council’s recommendation of 12-month ban on substances including most widely used alternative to cocaine

Mephedrone, also known as 4-MMC and used as an alternative to cocaine, has already been banned in the UK. Photograph: Rex

Five legal highs, including an alternative to cocaine that is one of the most common in Britain, are to be banned from midnight on Thursday, ministers have announced.

The drug minister, Lynne Featherstone, said she had accepted a recommendation from the government’s official drug advisers that the five legal highs should face a temporary ban of 12 months while a full assessment of the harm they posed was undertaken.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has said one of the five legal highs, ethylphenidate, which users inject and is widely marketed as a “research chemical” or as a component in branded products such as Gogaine, Nopaine, Burst and Banshee Dust, has been available over the internet in Britain for four years. They said it was one of the most commonly encountered new psychoactive substances (NPSs), as legal highs are officially known, in Britain and has emerged as an alternative to cocaine.

The ACMD recommended the ban on ethylphenidate based on evidence that it had caused serious problems, particularly in Edinburgh and Taunton, Somerset. Four related compounds are to banned at the same time to prevent users switching.

Ethylphenidate is typically sold at £15 a gram for powder, £20 a gram in crystal form and £1 for a 50mg tablet. Professor Les Iversen, the chair of ACMD, said injecting users were putting themselves at risk of blood-borne disease and infections.

Police Scotland said Burst, as it is marketed in Edinburgh, was responsible for the majority of legal-high casualties seeking emergency hospital treatment in the city last summer.

Avon and Somerset police said an epidemic of injecting legal highs in public places in Taunton last summer had led to more than 200 needles being recovered in one clean-up day. In December, the high street “head shop” selling the products was closed down.

The banned substances are closely related to methylphenidate, a licensed stimulant marketed under the brand name of Ritalin that is regularly prescribed to children for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The temporary ban means anyone caught making, supplying or importing the drugs will face up to 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Possession is not illegal but police and border officials are allowed to search or detain anyone they suspect of having the drugs and seize, keep or dispose of the banned substance.

Drug law reform campaigners said such bans were simply trapping authorities in an “endless game of whack-a-mole” as they tried to play catch-up with drugs chemists. They said that while the government had responded to the frenzy over legal highs, drug misuse deaths overall had risen sharply.

The decision to ban methylphenidate-related substances while continuing to use the parent chemical as a medicine might raise questions over the safety of a drug often prescribed to children.

Ethylphenidate-based products are a growing issue and their use is associated with bizarre and violent behaviour

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

“The methylphenidate-related materials being marketed as NPS have psychoactive effects so similar to the parent compound that they can be expected to present similar risks to users,” Iversen said in the letter.

Although it has been marketed as a party drug, the ACMD’s advice warns that some ethylphenidate users appear to have developed chronic problems, continually redosing the drug intravenously in binges.

The ACMD report says that in Edinburgh “there has recently been a report of an outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes infections in this area associated with NPS injecting, which is believed to involve ethylphenidate.”

It added: “Ethylphenidate-based products are a growing issue in Edinburgh and their use is associated with bizarre and violent behaviour.”

Drugs reform campaigners said the government’s use of temporary bans on new substances had authorities constantly playing catch up with drugs chemists. The only answer was wholesale reform of drug policy, they said. Danny Kushlick, head of external affairs for Transform, said: “These substances have been brought out because of the success in enforcing the ban on ecstasy and cocaine in particular. Really we have to recognise that this is a self-inflicted trade.

Legal high drug deaths soar in UK

“If we were to have a regulated trade in drugs these ones would not exist. You would not have ‘fake cocaine’ if you could get real cocaine. The whole NPS market is a product of prohibition.

“This is a never-ending game of whack-a-mole because even using the analogues legislation there are new analogues; they can churn these out by the hundreds. This is the opposite of control and regulation. It’s fuelling anarchy in the market and we need to look at regulating frameworks for more benign drugs.”

Niamh Eastwood, director of Release, said new bans on substances only served to push drug use further underground and spur the development of new chemicals with unknown risks to users.

She said: “Speaking more broadly, the government appears to have made NPS something of a cause célèbre in its fight against drugs, apparently in response to the media frenzy over what many unhelpfully term ‘legal highs’. While NPS are indeed a part of the modern debate on drugs, they form a comparatively small part of the market.

“At a time when the associated harms are increasing for other substances – drug misuse deaths rose 21% in 2013, 32% when focusing solely on heroin/morphine deaths – there is a real risk that the government is turning its attention away from addressing the failures of its drug policy holistically in order to pander to poorly-founded fears over this new phenomenon.”

Ethylphenidate is already banned in Denmark, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Jersey and Turkey. It is also classified under analogue scheduling in the US and Australia.

The other substances recommended for the temporary ban by the ACMD included 3,4-dichloromethylphenidate, methylnaphthidate, isopropylphenidate and propylphenidate. It wasn’t clear how widespread their use was.

Methylphenidate, the drug from which ethylphenidate and its related compounds is derived, is currently controlled as a class B drug in Britain but also licensed as a medicine for conditions including ADHD and narcolepsy. It has also been widely used recreationally, and as a study aid. Research has found it can offer modest improvements in working memory and episodic memory.

Source:   http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/09/

December 16, 2014

At the end of a year that has seen further tragic deaths from addiction and new designer drugs that put young people at risk, today’s results from the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of drug use among adolescents provide a dose of welcome optimism. No major drug use indicators increased significantly between last year and this year; use of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit and prescription drugs either held at the same level or, in many cases, declined among American teens.

Particularly heartening was the fact that students’ marijuana use has not increased in the past two years: This year, 21.2 percent of seniors, 16.6 percent of 10^th graders, and 6.5 percent of 8^th graders used marijuana in the past month—high percentages, but not significantly different from 2013. Cigarette and alcohol use (including binge drinking) continued their steady downward trend that we’ve seen for several years now. Abuse of prescription opioids also declined since 2013 and is down by a third to a half over the last 5 years (depending on the opioid and the grade).

We have also seen diminished abuse of inhalants by the youngest teens, who historically are most likely to abuse these readily available substances, as well as diminished abuse of over-the-counter drugs like cough syrups. And although synthetic cannabinoids like “K2” and “Spice” (also known as “synthetic marijuana”) have only been tracked in the survey for the past two years for all three grades, use of these very dangerous and unpredictable drugs is also down from last year.

Although there are no doubt many possible contributing factors to these trends, I like to think that prevention messages are making an impact. Teens are getting the message from various sources that drugs are not good for their developing brains, and there are much better, healthier, and more enjoyable ways to spend their time.

An exception to the good news may be teens’ perception of the risks associated with marijuana. Although use has not increased since 2012, the numbers of teens who believe marijuana is not harmful continued the steady decline we have seen for a decade; this perception of safety could be linked to the drug’s greater visibility and public debates over its legality and its possible uses as medicine.

The survey also showed that edibles are popular among teen marijuana users, especially in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Forty percent of seniors who had used marijuana in the past year in medical marijuana states reported having consumed it in an edible form, versus 26 percent in non-medical marijuana states. With edible marijuana products there is a great danger (to both adults and kids) of ingesting high doses of THC without intending to, making it very important that these products be properly regulated and labeled.

Scientists and policymakers may endlessly debate the degree of long-term harm marijuana poses, but while there is much we still do not know about the drug’s effects, all available evidence points to significant interference in brain development when marijuana is initiated early and used heavily. In 2014, 5.8 percent of 12^th graders reported daily or near-daily use of marijuana, which may impact this segment of youth for the rest of their lives. (With the collaboration of other NIH institutes, NIDA is planning a major longitudinal study that will examine the effects of teen marijuana and other drug use more closely over the next decade.)

A brand-new area of concern reflected in the MTF survey is the surprisingly high use of e-cigarettes, which were included for the first time in this year’s survey (thus trend data are not available). The survey showed 17.1 percent of seniors, 16.2 percent of 10^th graders, and 8.7 percent of 8^th graders report past-month use of these devices, whose health effects are at this point virtually unknown.

Although e-cigarettes don’t burn tobacco and thus produce no tar, there may be other harmful chemicals in the vapor they produce, and products that deliver nicotine (which depend on the fluid used) can be addictive. Thus it will be very important in coming years to monitor e-cigarette use by young people and learn more about their health effects.

While overall the MTF data this year are encouraging, we of course cannot relax our efforts in educating teens about the dangers of the drugs they encounter now and will continue to encounter as they grow older. The message should be clear and unequivocal: For teens and young adults, whose brains are still not finished maturing and thus can be readily altered in their development by any substance exposure, there are simply no safe drugs.

Some good news, some not-so-good news about brain recovery from alcohol use disorders

According to a recent review article on recovery of behavior and brain function after abstinence from alcohol[1], individuals in recovery can rest assured that some brain functions fully recover; but others may require more work. In this article, authors looked at 22 separate studies of recovery after alcohol dependence, and drew some interesting conclusions.

First, the good news; studies show improvement or even complete recovery to the performance level of healthy participants who had never had an alcohol use disorder in many important areas, including short-term memory, long-term memory, verbal IQ, and verbal fluency. Even more promising, not only behavior, but the structure of the brain itself may recover; an increase in the volume of the hippocampus, a brain region involved in many memory functions, was associated with memory improvement.

Another study showed that after 6 months of abstinence, alcohol-dependent participants showed a reduction in a “contextual priming task” with alcohol cues; in day to day terms, this could mean that individuals in early recovery from alcohol dependence may be less likely to resume drinking when confronted with alcohol and alcohol-related cues in their natural environment because these alcohol-related triggers are eliciting less craving.- a good thing for someone seeking recovery!

Still other studies showed that sustained abstinence was associated with tissue gain in the brain; in other words, increases in the volumes of brain regions such as the insula and cingulate cortex, areas which are important in drug craving and decision-making, were seen in abstinent alcoholics. This increase is a good thing, because more tissue means more recovery from alcohol-induced damage. A greater volume of tissue in these areas may be related to a greater ability to make better decisions.

Now, the not-so-good news: these studies reported no improvement in visuospatial skills, divided attention (e.g. doing several tasks at once), semantic memory, sustained attention, impulsivity, emotional face recognition, or planning.  This means that even after abstinence from alcohol, people in recovery may still experience problems with these neurocognitive functions, which may be important for performing some jobs that require people to pay attention for long periods of time or remember long lists of requests. These functions may also be important for daily living (i.e. assessing emotions of a spouse, planning activities, etc.).

Importantly, there were many factors that influenced the degree of brain recovery; for example, the number of prior detoxifications. Those with less than two detoxifications showed greater recovery than those with more than two detoxifications.  A strong family history of alcohol use disorder was associated with less recovery. Finally, cigarette smoking may hinder recovery, as studies have shown that heavy smoking is associated with less recovery over time.

So what does all this mean? Recovery of brain function is certainly possible after abstinence, and will naturally occur in some domains, but complete recovery may be harder in other areas. Complete recovery of some kinds of behavior (e.g. sustained attention, or paying attention over long periods of time) may take more time and effort! New interventions, such as cognitive training or medication (e.g. modafinal, which improved neurocognitive function in patients with ADHD and schizophrenia, as well as in healthy groups), may be able to improve outcomes even more, but await further testing.

[1] Recovery of neurocognitive functions following sustained abstinence after substance dependence and implications for treatment

Source:  Mieke H.J. Schulte et al., Clinical Psychology Review 34 (2014) 531–550   October 2014

The most obvious characteristic of marijuana-legalisation campaigners – apart from billionaire interests on the scale of Big Tobacco – is that their lobbying and promises are based on theories not facts.

Legalisers regularly use the words “science” and “evidence base” but rarely cite research references. Never has this chasm between theory and fact been so powerfully and conspicuously exposed as in the March analysis by local media in Clearing the Haze of events a year after marijuana was legalised for recreational use in Colorado.

Here in the UK, a decade-long follow up by researchers into Britain’s disastrous 2004 ‘Lambeth experiment’ of depenalisation proved that it led to more crime and hospitalisations not less. The Colorado aftermath of legalisation is on a vaster scale.

CLAIM:“We view our top priority as creating an environment where negative impacts on children from marijuana legalisation are avoided completely,” Colorado’s governor promised.

FACT:There are growing concerns over exposure, potency and availability of marijuana to children. Even before legalisation, Governor John Hickenlooper predicted the need for “a project to analyse the correlation between marijuana use during pregnancy and birth defects” (FYI, here’sa listand one on perils tochildren). Colorado hospitals have admitted more children for marijuana harms. A June 2014 survey of 100 Colorado school officers found that 89 per cent witnessed a rise in marijuana-related incidents since legalisation.

CLAIM:Legalisation will fund prevention, education.

FACT:Colorado budgeted only about $34,000 for its Office of Behavioral Health’s prevention work in the 2014-2105 fiscal year; nothingwas received. Its Department of Public Health and EnvironmentGood to Knowcampaign, crafted with marijuana business owners, tells children how to use pot. “It’s like inviting a tobacco company to help us learn how to use tobacco and develop our next anti-smoking campaign.”

CLAIM:Regulation works.

FACT:How regulation would work was described only in soundbites before voting. Hickenlooper later admitted it was “reckless” and “a bad idea”. This February, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman declared it “not worth it”. Ben Cort at the University of Colorado Hospital disclosed that “Colorado has been met by an industry that fights tooth and nail any restrictions that limit profitability. Like Big Tobacco, the marijuana industry derives profits from addiction and its survival depends on turning a percentage of kids into lifelong customers.”

CLAIM:Legalisation of marijuana will unclog prisons.

FACT:There aren’t enough offenders in prison for simple possession of pot to unclog the system if they were freed: only 103. In 2011, the federal government convicted only 48 marijuana offenders with under 5,000 grams of marijuana: almost 12,000 joints.

CLAIM:Legalisation will produce new revenue for the general fund.

FACT:Tax revenues failed to meet projections – taxpayers could even get two refunds. The Governor’s Office of Marijuana Coordination director said the first priority for tax revenue is to cover regulatory costs. Moreover, Colorado isn’t equipped to gather cost-benefit analysis to quantify costs linked with cannabis abuse. This is alongside lawsuits against the state, manufacturing hazards, pressured resources for the homeless, concerns over children’s welfare and more: “Voters didn’t understand how difficult, resource-intensive and costly the enforcement of even just marijuana driving laws would be”.

CLAIM:Legalisation of marijuana will hobble drug cartels.

FACT:Cheaper marijuana prices mean cartels turn to ‘harder’ drugs including ‘black tar’ heroin and methamphetamine, as well as cybercrime and continued people-trafficking.

CLAIM:By regulating sales of marijuana, Colorado will make money otherwise locked into the black market.

FACT:Black-market sales are booming so much that they are blamed for cannabis tax revenues falling short of claims. “Don’t buy the argument that regulating sales will eliminate the black market, reduce associated criminal activity and free up law enforcement agencies’ resources,” Coffman urged in February. Worse is that “Colorado is the black market for the rest of the US”: neighbouring Denver suffered an almost 1,000 per cent spike in marijuana seizures.

CLAIM:Legalisation and regulation will see people using lower strengths of drugs.

FACT:Colorado permits one ounce of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient giving a euphoric high. Many people envision an ounce of dried marijuana plant, about 40 standard cigarettes. But one ounce of concentrated THC equals over 2,800 average-size brownies or candy; an ounce of hash oil is roughly 560 standard ‘vaping’ hits.

CLAIM:Medical marijuana works, only legalisation allows research.

FACT:Treating marijuana – sold in dispensaries without FDA approval and shown to be more carcinogenic than tobacco when combusted – as if exempt from the approval process others drugs must undergo for public safety, is seen as derailing legitimate research on specific parts of the marijuana plant for new clinically-proven medicines without addiction risks. As the prevention charity, Cannabis Skunk Sense, puts it: “it’s like getting penicillin by eating mouldy bread”. Non-legalisation has not stopped 70+ scientific studies on cannabinoids elsewhere, and the National Institutes of Health awarded over $14million for such research.

CLAIM:Marijuana is safer than alcohol.

FACT:“Not when it comes to driving – and officers are seeing people using both substances, which is worse,” revealed one police chief.In the first six months of 2014, 77 per centDUIDs (driving under influence of drugs) involved marijuana. Accident risk doubles with any measurable amount of THC in the bloodstream, rising when alcohol is added.

The tragic fact above all else is that these downsides were predicted by authoritative individuals and organisations – and ignored. The good of many people was sacrificed for the greed of a few: be it for money, power or a drugged delusion. Deirdre Boyd

Source: www.conservativewoman.co.uk 1^st April 2015

Several students and visitors from Wesleyan University were hospitalized on February 22 after taking the club drug MDMA. U.S. DEA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS/REUTERS

At least 11 people from the Wesleyan University campus in Middletown, Connecticut, were hospitalized on Sunday with symptoms consistent with drug overdoses. School officials and emergency responders are blaming MDMA, also known as Molly, a form of the drug ecstasy that medical experts say has become increasingly popular on college campuses.

Though some reports said 11 people had received medical treatment, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth put the number at 12 in an email to students on Monday. That includes 10 students and two visitors.

“I ask all students: Please, please stay away from illegal substances, the use of which can put you in extreme danger. One mistake can change your life forever,” Roth wrote. “And please keep those still hospitalized in your hearts and minds. Please join me in supporting their recovery with your prayers, thoughts and friendship.”

In a statement on Monday, a Middletown Police Department spokeswoman, Lieutenant Heather Desmond, wrote that her department would be involved in an investigation into “the origin of the drugs taken” and to “determine the extent of the criminal involvement in the case.”

A spokeswoman for Middlesex Hospital tells Newsweek it treated 11 people, three of whom are still there and four of whom were airlifted by helicopter to Hartford Hospital. She could not comment on the conditions of the three patients there. A spokeswoman for Hartford Hospital confirmed that four people were there. She too could not speak to their conditions. The police spokeswoman wrote that two individuals are in critical condition and two are in serious condition.

Middletown Fire Chief Robert Kronenberger tells Newsweek his department made seven runs to Wesleyan related to the incident on Sunday after receiving calls between 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. It rendered aid to eight individuals, including two people in a single dorm room. “We saw the trend and we worked with the university and the police department to notify them of the trend,” Kronenberger says. “We’ve never had anything to this extent,” he says, referring to health and safety issues at Wesleyan. “A couple of them were in some serious dire straits,” he says about the students, adding that they were cooperative. “As a parent of two college-age students, this definitely concerns me and hopefully something to this extent will open eyes,” he says.

Wesleyan’s student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, first reported about the incident on its website on Sunday after the school’s vice president for student affairs, Michael Whaley, sent a series of emails to students.

Medical experts say MDMA use on college campuses has grown in recent years, and while there have been reports of bad reactions to the drug, it appears the Wesleyan incident is the most widespread.

In 2013, a University of Virginia sophomore collapsed at a nightclub after taking MDMA and later died. Students at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York; Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire; and Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas have also died after taking the drug. In 2013, organizers of the Electric Zoo music festival in New York City cut the event short after two people died while taking MDMA, including a University of New Hampshire student.

“This age group is a risk-taking group that is willing to follow their friend wherever they go, and if the person next to them is popping a pill, then they’re going to do it too,” says Dr. Mark Neavyn, director of medical toxicology at Hartford Hospital, who treats patients there for MDMA overdoses.

“I think the popular culture engine kind of made it seem safer in some way,” Neavyn says, referring to references to the drug by the singers Miley Cyrus and Madonna that made headlines.

But when it comes to MDMA, people are rarely taking what they think they’re taking, the doctor says.

According to Neavyn, symptoms of an MDMA overdose include fast heart rate, high blood pressure, delirium, elevated body temperature and alterations in consciousness. Extreme cases could involve cardiac arrhythmia and seizures.

Wesleyan, which has about 2,900 full-time undergraduate students and 200 graduate students, also apparently dealt with MDMA-related issues last semester. As the Argus reported, the school’s Health Services Department emailed students on September 16 following a series of MDMA-related hospitalizations.

One former Wesleyan student from the class of 2011, who requested anonymity when discussing drug use, says the news is not surprising, given the prevalence of drugs on campus. “Anything you can imagine…would be readily available there,” the person says. “I don’t think at Wesleyan you need [a campus event] to take drugs. If it’s sunny, there’s probably a good percentage of people that are taking something.”

The campus activities calendar did not show any major events scheduled for Saturday or Sunday.

Another former Wesleyan student from the class of 2012, who also requested anonymity, says the drug culture at Wesleyan is comparable to that at similar schools. “It’s one of those things where, much like at those schools, you kind of have an understanding of where you can go to get it and who had it,” the person says. “If there’s a will there’s a way.”

www.newsweek.com weds Feb. 2015

The liberal billionaire George Soros is well known for funding groups world wide who promote the legalization of drugs.  It is rare for him to be sued – he usually decides to settle ‘out of court’.  This story beautifully describes  the character of the man.

A Syracuse, N.Y., restaurant owned by the liberal billionaire George Soros doesn’t pay its tipped employees fair wages, some of those employees alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.

Those employees signed on to a class suit lodged this week against the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant chain, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported on Monday

The suit claims Dinosaur failed to properly use the “tipped credit” provision in federal law, which requires employers to make up the difference between tips and pay to meet minimum wage standard. It also says Dinosaur required tipped employees to spend more than 20 percent of their work day doing “side work,” which includes setting up dining areas, for which they do not get tipped. The suit says workers should be paid minimum wage for that work.

The suit also claims Dinosaur failed to properly pay overtime wages, “misappropriated” tips belonging to the tipped workers, wrongly required tipped workers to share tips with managers for large events and failed to properly pay workers for shifts exceeding 10 hours. The suit also claims Dinosaur failed to keep accurate records of tips and wages.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New York City by the Fitapelli & Schaffer law firm, according to the firm’s web site. It says it seeks to represent “servers, bussers, runners, bartenders” and other tipped employees.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is majority owned by Soros Strategic Partners, an investment firm run by George Soros, who bankrolls liberal groups that complain about unfair wages for tipped workers.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/  31st March 2015

When you smoke marijuana, there’s an almost immediate effect on your brain, sense of perception, and heart rate. There may be long-term effects as well.

The Effects of Marijuana on the Body

Marijuana comes from the Cannabis plant. The flowers, seeds, leaves, and stems of the plant must be shredded and dried before they can be used. Most people who use marijuana smoke it, but it can be mixed into food, brewed into tea, or even used in a vaporizer. One of the ingredients in marijuana is a mind-altering chemical called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

When you inhale marijuana smoke into your lungs, it is quickly released into your bloodstream on its way to your brain and other organs. It takes a little longer to be absorbed when you eat or drink it.

The effects of marijuana on the body are immediate. Longer-term effects may depend on how you take it, how much you take, and how often you use it. Since its use has long been illegal in the United States, large-scale studies have been difficult to manage.

In recent years, the medicinal properties of marijuana are gaining acceptance in mainstream America. Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. THC and another ingredient called cannabidol (CBD) are the main substances of therapeutic interest. National Institutes of Health-funded research into the possible medicinal uses of THC and CBD is ongoing.

In addition to medicinal use, recent legislation has made marijuana a legal recreational drug in Colorado and Washington State. With the potential for increased recreational use, knowing the effects that marijuana can have on your body is as important as ever.

Respiratory System

Much like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is made up of a variety of toxic chemicals that can irritate your bronchial passages and lungs. If you’re a regular smoker, you’re more likely to wheeze, cough, and produce phlegm. You’re also at increased risk of bronchitis and lung infections. Marijuana may aggravate existing respiratory illnesses like asthma and cystic fibrosis.

Marijuana smoke contains carcinogens. It has the potential to elevate your risk of developing lung cancer. However, studies on the subject have had mixed results. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse(NIDA), there is no conclusive evidence that marijuana smoke causes lung cancer. More research is needed.

Circulatory System

THC moves from your lungs into your bloodstream and throughout your body. Within minutes, your heart rate may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute, according to the NIDA. That rapid heartbeat can continue for up to three hours. For people with heart disease, this faster heartbeat could raise the risk of heart attack.

One of the telltale signs of recent marijuana use is bloodshot eyes. They look red because marijuana causes blood vessels in the eyes to expand or dilate. Marijuana may help stop the growth of blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors.

 Central Nervous System

When you inhale marijuana smoke into your lungs, it doesn’t take long for THC to enter your bloodstream. From there, it is quickly transported to your brain and the rest of your organs. When you get marijuana from food or drink, it is absorbed a little more slowly.

THC triggers your brain to release large amounts of dopamine, a naturally occurring “feel good” chemical. That’s what gives you a pleasant “high.” It may heighten your sensory perception, as well as your perception of time. In the hippocampus, THC changes the way you process information, so your judgment may be impaired. It may also be difficult to form new memories when you’re high.

Changes also take place in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, upsetting your balance, coordination, and reflex response. All those changes mean that it’s not safe to drive.

Very large doses of marijuana or high concentrations of THC can cause hallucinations or delusions. According to the NIDA, there may be an association between marijuana use and some mental health problems like depression and anxiety, but more research is needed to understand the connection. In people who have schizophrenia, marijuana use can make symptoms worse.

When you come down from the high, you may be tired or feel a bit depressed. In some people, marijuana can cause anxiety. About nine percent of marijuana users develop an addiction, according to the NIDA. Symptoms of withdrawal may include irritability, insomnia, and loss of appetite.

In young people whose brains are not yet fully developed, marijuana can have a lasting impact on thinking and memory skills. If you use marijuana when pregnant, it can affect the brain of your unborn baby. Your child may be more prone to trouble with memory, concentration, and problem-solving skills.

THC can lower pressure in the eyes, which can ease symptoms of glaucoma for a few hours. According to theAmerican Academy of Ophthalmology, more research is needed to understand the active ingredients in marijuana and whether or not it’s a good treatment for glaucoma.

The pharmacologic effect of marijuana extends throughout the central nervous system. It is thought to ease pain and inflammation. It may also be of use in controlling spasms and seizures.

Digestive System

Smoking marijuana can cause stinging or burning in your mouth and throat. When you take oral THC, it is processed in your liver. Marijuana can ease nausea and vomiting. It can also increase appetite, which can be useful to people living with cancer or AIDS.

Immune System

Some research indicates that THC affects the immune system. Studies involving animals showed that THC might damage the immune system, making you more vulnerable to illness. Further research is needed.

A new political party is planning to field as many as 100 candidates at the general election to force the issue of cannabis legalisation centre stage.

Cista – Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol – is inspired by legalisation of the drug in some US states. The party’s election candidates will include Paul Birch, who co-founded Bebo before it was sold to AOL for $850m (£548m) in 2008 and says he is investing up to £100,000 in the venture.

Other candidates around the UK are soon to be named; this week the party said Shane O’Donnell, a former Conservative party activist, would stand against Labour’s Keir Starmer and the Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, in the London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.

According to YouGov polling commissioned by Cista and provided to the Guardian, 44% of voters support the legalisation of cannabis against 42% who don’t (with 14% undecided).

The two mainstream parties with the most to lose from some voters being tempted to opt for Cista in marginal constituencies are the Greens, which supports decriminalisation, and the Liberal Democrats, which has been looking at the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use and allowing cannabis to be sold on the open market.

However, Birch’s party has made a policy decision not to run in Brighton, where the sole Green MP Caroline Lucas is defending her seat, and in constituencies with incumbent Lib Dem MPs. The decision was taken after Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert, one of parliament’s most visible advocates of the decriminalisation of drugs, raised the issue of a candidate from Cista standing against him.

Birch said that in the main the other parties were keen not to talk about the issue of legalisation because they were embarrassed by it. “In the absence of this party forming I doubt that it would be an election issue. The Greens are the most explicit but even they don’t make it a prominent issue,” he added.

“With what has been happening in US states though, it now feels like it’s within touching distance. It’s like this is the final push and the time is right.”

Birch suggested that parallels with the road to legalisation in US states were forming on the basis of another of his party’s YouGov poll findings, which was that 18% of people believed that cannabis was safer than alcohol, while more than half thought that they were the same in safety terms.

He said: “In Colorado [one of the first US states to legalise the recreational use and sale of marijuana] the basis of their campaign was to juxtapose cannabis and alcohol. They knew that once they moved people to understand that it was safer then people would be happy to legalise it.”

Principally, Birch has faith that the public will come around to the idea in greater numbers as a result of becoming ever more informed. Of a recent experiment where the Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow took large amounts of skunk-type cannabis, resulting in him feeling “as if his soul had been wrenched from his body”, Birch said that this was akin to forcing a teetotaller to down a bottle of illegally distilled moonshine. In a regulated industry, he argued, the risk to consumers could be considerably reduced.

Cista’s candidates will campaign for a royal commission to review the UK’s drug laws relating to cannabis – a relatively modest initial aim calibrated to maximise its appeal. They will also push the economic argument for legalisation, which the party argues could net the exchequer as much as £900m if cannabis were legalised and properly controlled.

The party, which is keen to establish itself as a professional outfit in contrast to previous electoral attempts at highlighting the decriminalisation cause, is signing up members and candidates using online forms. It is eager to push back against stereotypes and, in particular, encourage women to become involved.

Five candidates, including Birch, are signed up to stand for election on 7 May, while he and his team will this week begin travelling around the UK in search of other candidates who they expect will include academics, existing campaigners, students and people who work or have experience of working in the criminal justice system.

Source:  http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25

The family of a Tulsa man who shot himself Saturday night in Keystone is blaming his suicide on his ingestion of edible marijuana candies.

“It was completely a reaction to the drugs,” Kim Goodman said about her son Luke’s Saturday night suicide.

Luke Goodman’s death is now the third death in Colorado linked to marijuana edibles.

The 23-year-old college graduate was in the midst of a two-week ski and snowboard vacation with family members. Saturday afternoon he and his cousin, Caleb Fowler, took a bus from Keystone to Silverthorne where Fowler says they bought $78 worth of edibles and marijuana.

“He was excited to do them,” Fowler told CBS4.

When the young men got back to Keystone, Fowler said they began ingesting the edible pot. He said his cousin favored some peach tart candies, each piece of candy containing 10 mg of the active ingredient in marijuana, the recommended dose for an adult consuming an edible.

But when Goodman consumed several and experienced no immediate effects he kept gobbling them up. “Luke popped two simultaneously” after the first two didn’t seem to do anything, said Fowler.

Then he said Goodman took a fifth candy, five times the recommended dose. His mother says her son likely didn’t see the warning on the back of the container which says, “The intoxicating effects of this product may be delayed by two or more hours … the standardized serving size for this product includes no more than 10 mg.”

Several hours later Fowler said his cousin became “jittery” then incoherent and talking nonsensically. “He would make eye contact with us but didn’t see us, didn’t recognize our presence almost. He had never got close to this point, I had never seen him like this,” Fowler said.

Fowler says Goodman became “pretty weird and relatively incoherent. It was almost like something else was speaking through him.” When family members left the condo Goodman refused to join them. After they left he got a handgun that he typically traveled with for protection, and turned it on himself.

Summit County Coroner Regan Wood says the preliminary cause of death is a self-inflicted gunshot wound. As for the impact of the marijuana edibles, she said, “That’s what we’ve heard consistently.” She said the impact the edibles had on Goodman will be more clear when toxicology results come back in a few weeks. “It’s still under investigation,” said Wood.

While definitive answers may be weeks away, Kim Goodman, Luke Goodman’s mother, told CBS4 she knows why her son took his own life. “It was 100 percent the drugs,” she said. “It was completely because of the drugs — he had consumed so much of it.” She said her son was well adapted, well-adjusted and had no signs of depression or suicidal thoughts. “It was completely out of character for Luke … there was no depression or anything that would leave us being concerned, nothing like that.”

Caleb Fowler echoed the feeling saying he fully believed the ingestion of so much marijuana laced candy triggered the suicide. “He was the happiest guy in the world. He had everything going for him.”

A year ago a Wyoming college student jumped to his death from a Denver hotel balcony after eating a marijuana cookie. Witnesses said Levy Thamba Pongi was rambling incoherently after eating the cookie. The Denver coroner ruled “marijuana intoxication” was a significant factor in Pongi’s death.

Richard Kirk of Denver faces first-degree murder charges stemming from the fatal shooting of his wife in Denver last year. Before her death his wife called 911 and said her husband had eaten marijuana candy and taken prescription medication and was hallucinating.

Kristine Kirk and Richard Kirk (credit CBS)

Luke Goodman’s family is now planning a memorial service for Friday in Tulsa. His mother says she remembers her last interaction with her son.

“We both said ‘I love you’ and I said ‘Have a great week.’ ”

Kim Goodman told CBS4 she believes marijuana edibles should be removed from store shelves.

“I would love to see edibles taken off the market … I think edibles are so much more dangerous.”

Source: CBS4 26^th March 2015

Several independent scientific study’s using the latest Brain Scan technologies have confirmed without a doubt that marijuana abuse causes great harm and devastation to the human brain. Some of the the most recent studies reported are:

• NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow’s studies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RSDnLSU3owc

• Lancet Study / Kings College – Skunk Versus Mental Illness

• Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (KOKI): Hungarian Scientists Prove Devastating Effect Cannabis Use Has On The Brain

And now we have another important scientific study regarding the damage that marijuana abuse does to the human brain; by the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (KOKI).

Hungarian Scientists Prove Devastating Effect Cannabis Use Has On The Brain

Smoking cannabis dramatically reduces the number of molecules ensuring the fine-tuning of brain functions and can significantly interfere in the two-way communication between neurons, according to the result of research spanning several years carried out by the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (KOKI), published in the world’s most highly acclaimed neuroscience journal, Nature Neuroscience.

A statement issued by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences reminds that a study arriving at the same conclusion, authored by Hungarian neuroscientists István Katona and Tamás Freund, deputy chairman of the Academy (MTA) and head of the Institute of Experimental Medicine), had already been published in the U. S. Journal of Neuroscience in 1999.

According to the latest results of Mr. Katona’s team, recreational cannabis gravely interferes with the two-way communication between neurons.

The discovery, revealing the gravity of the effect cannabis use has on a molecular level, shocked both the researchers and their colleagues, Mr. Katona said, adding that decision-makers must seriously consider the permitted THC content of cannabis products during increasingly widespread legalisation of the drug.

Research has shown that the number of receptors in synapses receiving endocannabinoid molecules decreased dramatically, by around 85 per cent, after a six-day THC treatment, with total regeneration taking as long as six weeks, the MTA statement reads.

The primary authors of the study published in Nature Neuroscience are junior MTA researcher Barna Dudok, László Barna, leader of the Nikon-KOKI Microscope Centre and Italian guest researcher Marco Ledri.

Source: http://hungarytoday.hu

http://www.nature.com March 2015

Source: https://learnaboutsam.org/

FROM TRAUMA TO TRANSFORMATIVE RECOVERY

Between 1986 and 2003, I served as the evaluator of an innovative approach to the treatment of addicted women with histories of neglect or abuse of their children.  Project SAFE eventually expanded from four pilot sites to more than 20 Illinois communities using a model that integrated addiction treatment, child welfare, mental health, and domestic violence services.  

This project garnered considerable professional and public attention, including being profiled within Bill Moyers’ PBS documentary,Moyers on Addiction:  Close to Home.  My subsequent writings on recovery management and recovery-oriented systems of care were profoundly influenced by the more than 15 years I spent interviewing the women served by Project SAFE and the Project SAFE outreach workers, therapists, parenting trainers, and child protection case workers.  This blog offers a few reflections on what was learned within this project about the role of trauma in addiction and addiction recovery.

Trauma, particularly physical/sexual abuse, was ever present in the lives of the women served by Project SAFE, but one must be cautious in over-interpreting trauma as the etiological agent in addiction and related problems.  After all, multitudes of women have experienced childhood and adult trauma without developing the severity, complexity, and chronicity of problems commonly experienced by the women in Project SAFE.  So an early challenge within Project SAFE was to understand what distinguished the trauma resilient from the trauma impaired.  Our collective experience with thousands of women across diverse community and cultural contexts led to the conclusion that the resilient and the impaired differed in two fundamental ways.  They differed in the nature of the trauma they had experienced, and they differed substantially in the recovery capital that influenced their capacities for resilience. 

What separated community populations of women and our clinical population of women was not the presence of trauma but the characteristics of such trauma.  A cluster of traumagenic factors distinguished the clinical group from the more resilient community group.  Trauma in the former was more likely to: 

1) begin at an earlier age (marking less developmental resources to cope with the trauma),

2) involve more physically and psychologically invasive forms of victimization,

3) take place over a longer period of time (e.g., multiple events over days, months, or years rather than a single point-in-time episode),

4) involve multiple perpetrators over time (confirming lack of safety, personal vulnerability, and suspicion that the cause lies within oneself),

5) involve perpetrators drawn from the family or social network (marking a greater violation of trust),

6) involve physical injury/disfigurement or threats of such if event(s) disclosed, and

7) generate environmental responses of disbelief or victim blaming when victimization disclosed.  

Women with histories of perpetration of violence against their children, partners, or others also had experienced three additional factors:  serial episodes of abandonment, desensitization to violence through prolonged horrification (witnessing violence against persons close to them in their developmental years), and violence coaching (transmission of a technology of violence and praise for violence from the family and social environment).  Combinations of these potent traumagenic factors dramatically increased the risk of a broad cluster of problems in personal and interpersonal functioning.

The second conclusion we drew was that women experiencing one or more of these traumagenic factors in community and clinical populations differed widely in the their level of adult functioning, with some exhibiting profound impairments and others exhibiting extraordinary levels of resilience and positive personal and social functioning.  While some of this difference could be accounted for by variations in the number and intensity of traumagenic factors, there was another quite influential force that often tipped the scales from pathology to resilience. Women exhibiting the greatest resilience had experienced trauma, but they also possessed high levels of recovery capital–internal and external assets that could be mobilized to initiate and sustain recovery from trauma and its potential progeny of related problems.  Such resources fell into three categories:  personal recovery capital, family recovery capital, and community recovery capital, with each arena constituting a potential focus of policy development and service programming.   

In contrast to this resilience profile, women served by Project SAFE were collectively marked by the combination of multiple traumagenic factors and low recovery capital.  That combination predictively produced distorted thinking about oneself and the world, emotional distress and volatility, migration from self-medication to addiction, assortative mating (recapitulation of developmental trauma in toxic adult intimate relationships), addiction to crisis, impaired parenting, and chronic self-defeating styles of interacting with professional helpers.

The first challenge in Project SAFE was for the outreach workers, therapists, case workers, parenting trainers, and others not to be personally paralyzed in response to the horror contained in the stories of the women they were serving.  The second challenge was not to be professionally paralyzed by the number, severity, complexity and chronicity of the problems presented by the women entering Project SAFE and the resulting multitude of community agencies involved in their lives.  Through training, skilled clinical supervision, and mutual professional support, those twin challenges were overcome, traditional models of clinical sense-making and intervention were cast aside, and new understandings and approaches were forged that have been described in a series of reports and training manuals.

So let me now share the rest of the story–the story of recovery.  As a long-tenured addiction professional and the evaluator on this project, what most intrigued me was that so many women who were given little chance of success achieved levels of health and functioning that no one, most importantly the women themselves, could have predicted. Equally intriguing were the processes involved in that achievement.  Here are just a few of the lessons of Project SAFE that still have salience today.

Hope, not pain or consequence, is the critical ingredient to successful treatment and recovery of traumatized women. Women with multiple traumagenic factors and low recovery capital don’t hit bottom, they live on the bottom.  They have incomprehensible capacities for physical and psychological pain.  What is catalytic is not pain, but the discovery of hope within relationships that are personally empowering–experienced sequentially within Project SAFE with outreach workers, SAFE clinical staff, a community of peers in recovery, and then within a larger community of recovering women.  In project SAFE, this process most often began through a process of assertive outreach during what I have called a stage of precovery (See Precovery:  “And then the Miracle Occurred”).   The move from precovery to recovery initiation was marked by exposure to women in recovery with whom they could identify and who made recovery contagious by the examples of their own survival and transformed lives.  

Life-limiting mottoes for living must be experientially disconfirmed for recovery to proceed. The mottoes that women brought to their involvement in Project SAFE included:  I am unlovable; I am bad; there is no safety; everybody’s on the make–no one can be trusted; if I get close to people, they will leave me or die; my body does not belong to me; and I am not worthy or capable of recovery. The triple challenges in providing effective addiction treatment to traumatized women are to: 1) avoid confirming these messages by recapitulating processes of victimization (e.g., problems rather than solutions focus, emotional battering via confrontation techniques, or emotional or sexual exploitation) and abandonment (e.g., acute care that provides brief stabilization without continued support or disciplinary discharge from treatment for regressive behavior), 2) experientially challenge these messages (e.g., providing enduring support within frequently tested relationships that unequivocally convey acceptance, regard, respect, safety, and security), and 3) forge new mottoes for living within the processes of story reconstruction and storytelling.

The most powerful catalyst for healing trauma is the experience of mutual identification and support within a community of recovering people.  Such an experience within Project SAFE marked the transition from toxic dependencies on drugs, people, and enabling institutions to healthy interdependence and mutual accountability within a community of recovering women and children.  This suggests that recovery outcomes in traumatized women may be as contingent on community recovery capital (welcoming recovery landscapes) as one’s personal vulnerabilities and resources.  Systematically increasing community recovery capital involves expanding beyond intrapersonal, clinically focused models of recovery support to encompass models for building strong cultures of recovery and models of recovery community building and recovery community mobilization.    

Effective parenting is contingent upon experiencing the essence of such parenting.  Parents cannot authentically give to their children what they have not personally experienced.   In Project SAFE, the journey to effective parenting involved an emotional/relational component (active resistance, emotional regression/dependence, reparenting of mothers by Project SAFE staff and volunteers; and a subsequent focus on selfhood and mutual help) and a skill component (parental modeling, training, and coaching with SAFE clients and their children).  

Effective parenting emerges in middle-to-late stage recovery.  While abuse and neglect of children often remit upon initial recovery stabilization, effective parenting and the larger arena of improved family health must be preceded by heightened recovery stabilization and maintenance and the subsequent transition to an enhanced focus on the quality of personal and family life in long-term recovery.  This suggests the need for structured supports for the developmental needs of children during early recovery (via indigenous peer and professional support) and the need for scaffolding (See Stephanie Brown’s discussion of scaffolding) for the whole family from these same supports during the early recovery process.

Project SAFE began with a focus on the psychopathology of the women it served but quickly shifted its emphasis to the creation of a healing community within which the potential and transformative power of recovery was nurtured and celebrated.  I remain in awe of the stories of these women and what they were able to achieve.

 Source: http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/ 28^th February 2015

 Underage drinkers who consume supersized flavored alcoholic drinks – also known as alcopops – are more than six times as likely to report alcohol-related injuries as underage youth who consume other types of alcoholic beverages, according to a new study. The research, published in the Feb. 25 American Journal of Public Health, is the first to document the association between consumption of alcopops and risky drinking habits in teens.

Alcopops — alcoholic beverages blended with fruit juice, lemonade or other flavorings — appeal to underage drinkers because they taste more like sweet soda than other alcoholic drinks. These brews are typically 8 percent alcohol content by volume compared to less than 5 percent for beer.

Flavored alcoholic drinks come in malt-based beverages; spirits-based premixed, ready-to-drink cocktails; and supersized alcopops. Previous studies found that half of underage drinkers in the U.S. said they had consumed flavored alcohol beverages in the past 30 days.

“It is impossible to discuss harmful alcohol consumption among youth and not include supersized alcopops,” study co-author David Jernigan, PhD, director of the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. “These low-priced and sweet-tasting beverages are associated with reports of dangerous consequences among youth.”

For their study, the researchers surveyed 1,031 underage youth ages 13 to 20 who had consumed at least one alcoholic drink during the past 30 days between December 2011 and May 2012. Using an online, self-reporting survey, respondents indicated which brands they had consumed in the past 30 days, and the typical number of drinks of each brand they had consumed on those days.

Survey results showed that heavy episodic drinking was reported by nearly 70 percent of the pre-mixed/ready-to-drink cocktail users. About 75 percent of supersized alcopop users and almost 80 percent of those who consumed more than one type of flavored alcoholic beverage engaged in the same drinking behaviors. Among the non-alcopop group, 45 percent reported heavy episodic drinking. Consumption of more than one type of alcopop was strongly associated with fighting and alcohol-related injuries.

In recent years, public health advocates have expressed concerns about the alcopops and their appeal to youth. Flavored alcoholic drinks, concluded the authors, “present an emerging public health problem among young people.”

“Public health practitioners and policy makers would be wise to consider what further steps could be taken to keep these beverages out of the hands of youth,” study author Alison Albers, PhD, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said in the news release.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/flavored-alcoholic-drinks 27^th Feb. 2015

Marijuana Use and Mania

 As the debate continues to rage over the possible risks or advantages of smoking marijuana, new research out of Britain’s Warwick University has found a “significant link” between marijuana use and mania, which can range from hyperactivity and difficulty sleeping to aggression, becoming delusional and hearing voices.

Published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, the study of more than 2,000 people suggested potentially alarming consequences for teenagers who smoke the herb. 

“Cannabis [marijuana] is the most prevalent drug used by the under-18s,” said lead researcher Dr Steven Marwaha. “During this critical period of development, services should be especially aware of and responsive to the problems cannabis use can cause for adolescent populations.”

Researchers examined the effect of marijuana on individuals who had experienced mania, a condition that can include feelings of persistent elation, heightened energy, hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep. On the other side of the coin, mania can make people feel angry and aggressive with extreme symptoms including hearing voices or becoming delusional.

“Previously it has been unclear whether cannabis use predates manic episodes,” Dr Marwaha said. “We wanted to answer two questions:

1.      Does cannabis use lead to increased occurrence of mania symptoms or manic episodes in individuals with pre-existing bipolar disorder?

2.      “But also, does cannabis use increase the risk of onset of mania symptoms in those without pre-existing bipolar disorder?”

Dr Marwaha found that marijuana use tended to precede or coincide with episodes of mania. Representing what the lead researcher referred to as “a significant link,” there was a strong association with new symptoms of mania, suggesting that these are caused by marijuana use.

The researchers also found that marijuana significantly worsened mania symptoms in people who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. “There are limited studies addressing the association of cannabis use and manic symptoms which suggests this is a relatively neglected clinical issue,” Dr Marwaha said.

“However, our review suggests cannabis use is a major clinical problem occurring early in the evolving course of bipolar disorder.   More research is needed to consider specific pathways from cannabis use to mania and how these may be effected by genetic vulnerability and environmental risk factors.”

These findings add to a body of previous studies that have linked marijuana to increased rates of mental health problems including anxiety, depression, psychosis and schizophrenia, and have suggested that the herb is addictive and opens the door to hard drugs.

A study which was published in the journal Neuroscience earlier this month nevertheless found that marijuana could be used to treat depression.

Scientists at the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions said molecules present in marijuana could help relieve the depression resulting from long-term stress.

 Source: Journal of Affective Disorders Feb 2015