Addiction InboxAddiction InboxA review of news about addiction, alcoholism, drugs of abuse, and new scientific and medical treatment options. Website is based on the book, Addiction, The Search for a Cure, by Dirk Hanson. Articles
Smoking Rates Fall 18% in Indiana
2008-06-06 18:32:00 What's their secret?Addiction is a tough disease, and smoking grabs hold of the addiction-prone with a speed and ferocity that remains impressive even in a world of crack cocaine and ice amphetamine. Zyban may help, and there is the ever-controversial Chantix, as well as a plethora of nicotine replacement products. They are valuable and frequently effective additions to the arsenal of medical approaches to nicotine addiction.Yet there remains one universally effective--if equally controversial--method of lowering smoking rates in a given population. You can increase the price.Last year, Indiana boosted state taxes on cigarettes by a whopping 44 cents per pack. The result? Cigarette sales fell in Indiana by almost 18 per cent in the nine months since the new tax was put into effect, according to a June 3 Associated Press report. That percentage represents a decrease in sales of roughly 80 million packs of cigarettes, according to state health experts."This is exactly what we predic... More About: Smoking , Rates , Fall
The Biology of Bulimia
2008-06-02 22:09:00 The binge-and-purge addiction.By 2000, the biological substrate unifying alcoholism, addiction, depression, and certain eating disorders had become irrefutable. Population surveys had shown that nearly half of alcoholic patients had a long history of coexisting depression and/or anxiety disorders. Overall, about a third of patients with depression or panic disorder have had lifelong problems with drug abuse. These are estimates, best clinical guesses, but associating depression and addiction is no longer a speculative venture.As with more familiar forms of addiction, bulimia was coming to be seen as another serotonin/dopamine-mediated medical condition. As noted, serotonin is involved in both the binge and the purge. Once researchers began performing the necessary double blind, placebo-controlled studies, it became clear that serotonin-boosting drugs dramatically lessened bulimic behavior in general, and associated carbohydrate binging in particular, in a large number of diagnosed b... More About: Biology , Bulimia
Epigenetics and Addiction
2008-05-30 20:13:00 Turning off the genes for substance abuse.If psychiatric disorders, including depression and addiction, are rooted in nature, but modified by nurture, some better way of viewing the interaction between genes and the environment is desperately needed.Enter "epigenetics," defined as the study of how gene expression can be modified without making direct changes to the DNA. Writing in Science News, Tina Hesman Saey explains that "epigenetic mechanisms alter how cells use genes but don't change the DNA code in the genes themselves.... The ultimate effect is to finely tune to what degree a gene is turned on or off. Often the fine tuning is long-lasting, setting the level of a gene's activity for the lifetime of the cell."A common form of epigenetic modification involves adding molecules to the DNA structure. Adding molecules from a methyl group or an acetyl group can change the manner in which genes interact with a cell's transcribing system. Cells can "mark" specific genes by attachi... More About: Addiction
Annals of Addiction: Richard Lewis
2008-05-29 20:37:00 From The Harder They Fall"It's hard to know exactly when I became an alcoholic. What I do know is that growing up I felt misunderstood, not appreciated, and needing validation. I didn't feel I was getting it from important people in my life. They had their problems, their own concerns. I felt sort of invisible...."Drinking made me feel not as miserable. It was a great Band-Aid. It progressed, but it didn't stop me in my career. I've done well, and I was an alcoholic at the height of my career, when I really hit. When alcohol really got me by the throat, I quit stand-up comedy. Acting was easier. Easier to stay sober most of the time, do my work, and know I'm off for three days....."There were tip-offs, even way early. I remember getting some sort of sexually transmitted disease that was going to last for a week. I had to take certain antibiotics, and I remember the doctor very nonchalantly saying, 'Oh, by the way, you can't drink for five days.' I was going to New York to ap... More About: Addiction , Lewis , Richard
Annals of Addiction: Grace Slick
2008-05-28 16:50:00 From The Harder They Fall"There's a whole bunch of alcoholics on both sides of my family, but they function in the sense that everybody kept their jobs. There were no divorces, except for my grandmother, but she's not an alcoholic. She was just a wild child like I was. Our alcoholics all kept their jobs and stayed married...."The Airplane became famous as the original psychedelic band, but personally, I was more of a drinker. Anything that was around and easy I took--marijuana was very easy to score, but alcohol was my drug of choice. That's the genetic deal going on, where I'm an addict in the sense that anything I like I'm all over. Like flies on shit! And sometimes that works out fine. Right now I'm a painter. That's how I make my living and pay the mortgage...."In 1970, when I became pregnant with China, I wasn't conscious of addiction. My life was all just sex, drugs and rock and roll. But I'm not a moron, so I knew that what you put into your face goes into your body,... More About: Addiction , Grace
Annals of Addiction: Malcolm McDowell
2008-05-26 23:28:00 From The Harder They Fall"My father was an alcoholic, so I never really drank much. I kept away from it, but I didn't realize that cocaine was really the same thing. Alcohol eventually started getting a little out of control, but in the form of 'fine wine.' That was my excuse...."So I didn't consider wine a problem, but cocaine was a problem, and that got out of hand quite fast. It had a very bad effect on my marriage. The lies and deceit and everything that goes with addiction. I went from snorting it occasionally to now smoking it, doing freebase. Doing as much as I could. Finish a batch at four in the morning. Driving around the San Fernando Valley looking for some more of it. Driving while completely stoned, of course. How I was never in an accident, I just don't know...."The using ended because I went down to the Betty Ford Center.... I didn't thank God at the time time, however. I felt I'd lost a great friend or mistress, that I'd lost the one thing that I could total... More About: Addiction
The Chemistry of Cocaine Addiction
2008-05-19 19:40:00 Crack, free-base, and powderThe cocaine high is a marvel of biochemical efficiency. Cocaine works primarily by blocking the reuptake of dopamine molecules in the synaptic gap between nerve cells. Dopamine remains stalled in the gap, stimulating the receptors, resulting in higher dopamine concentrations and greater sensitivity to dopamine in general.Since dopamine is involved in moods and activities such as pleasure, alertness and movement, the primary results of using cocaine--euphoria, a sense of well being, physical alertness, and increased energy?are easily understood. Even a layperson can tell when lab rats have been on a cocaine binge. The rapid movements, sniffing, and sudden rearing at minor stimuli are not that much different in principle from the outward signs of cocaine intoxication among higher primates.Chemically, cocaine and amphetamine are very different compounds. Psychoactively, however, they are very much alike. Of all the addictive drugs, cocaine and speed have the... More About: Addiction , Chemistry
Take the Alcohol Test
2008-05-17 19:57:00 CAGE questionnaire still a useful toolDespite the time, labor, and expense that have gone into the search for a better way to diagnose alcoholism, researchers have yet to outdo what may be the simplest, most accurate test for alcoholism yet devised. A set of four simple, relatively non-controversial questions, first devised in 1970 by Dr. John A. Ewing, still serve as a useful predictive tool for alcoholism.Neurobiology has taught us that addictive drugs cause long-lasting neural changes in the brain. The problems start when sustained, heavy drinking forces the brain to accept the altered levels of neurotransmission as the normal state of affairs. As the brain struggles to adapt to the artificial surges, it becomes more sensitized to these substances. It may grow more receptors at one site, less at another. It may cut back on the natural production of these neurotransmitters altogether, in an effort to make the best of an abnormal situation. In effect, the brain is forced to treat a... More About: Alcohol , Test
Neuroaddiction and the Reward Pathway
2008-05-16 03:22:00 How addictive drugs fool Mother Nature"The addicted brain is distinctly different from the nonaddicted brain,” writes Alan Leshner, the former director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). “Changes in brain structure and function is what makes it, fundamentally, a brain disease. A metaphorical switch in the brain seems to be thrown as a result of prolonged drug use.”Addiction is both a cause and a consequence of these fundamental alterations in brain function. If physical abnormalities in the brain are at the root of the problem, then any treatment program worth its weight ought to be dealing—directly or indirectly--with these differences in brain state. Writing in Lancet, researcher Charles O’Brien has suggested a similar orientation: “Addiction must be approached more like other chronic illnesses--such as diabetes and chronic hypertension--than like an acute illness, such as a bacterial infection or a broken bone."All of this suggests that we are not likely ... More About: Pathway , Reward
Lethal Injections
2008-05-14 22:05:00 Bloggers Unite for Human RightsI offer the following post as a participant in "Unite For Human Rights," a campaign co-sponsored by BlogCatalog and Amnesty International USA.----------------Last month, in Baze v. Rees, the U.S Supreme Court dashed the hopes of human rights activists and ruled 7-2 that lethal injection in Kentucky does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the constitution. In a narrowly technical ruling, the Court found that this method of execution under death penalty statutes was legal so long as there was no "substantial risk" of pain that could be alleviated by participating health professionals.In response to the court decision, Amnesty International USA released a public statement decrying the government's "preoccupation with lethal injection," calling it a "distraction from myriad problems currently plaguing the death penalty system. Incompetent counsel, prosecutorial misconduct and racial, class and geographic bias are just the tip of the...
Coffee Addiction
2008-05-09 21:38:00 The pharmacology of caffeine.Recent studies have documented the existence of severe caffeine addicts who suffer significant depression and lessened cognitive capacity for several weeks or months following termination of coffee drinking. Balzac, the nineteenth century French writer, reportedly died of caffeine poisoning at roughly the 50-cup-per-day level.At low doses, caffeine sharpens cognitive processes--primarily mathematics, organization, and memory--just as nicotine does. The results of a ten-year study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that female nurses between the ages of 34 and 59 who drank coffee were less likely to commit suicide than women who drank no coffee at all.Until recently, coffee and tea were rarely thought of as drugs of abuse, even though it is certainly possible to drink too much caffeine. Are the xanthines, the family of compounds that includes caffeine, addictive?The typical caffeine dose in a cup of coffee--between 50 and 200 milligram... More About: Coffee , Addiction
U.K. Marijuana Panic Continues
2008-05-06 19:23:00 British Prime Minister plans to stiffen pot penalties.The national hysteria over "skunk" marijuana shows no signs of abating in Great Britain, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown is poised to overrule his advisors and reclassify cannabis as a more dangerous drug. Lost in the debate is any semblance of reasonable discussion about scientific research on marijuana.British health authorities continue to find the basics of cannabis to be an inscrutable mystery. Some months ago, they declared that "skunk" cannabis was linked to the onset of schizophrenia. Since no one knows what, exactly, causes schizophrenia, and recent findings continue to point toward genetic causes, this was a doubly astonishing claim.Now, continuing in the same vein of misinformation, The University College of London reports that different strains of marijuana cause different types of psychological maladies. Recently, Prime Minister Brown "publically described new strains of cannabis as 'lethal,' as if they could trigg... More About: Marijuana , Panic
Ten Things to Know about Addiction
2008-05-04 00:12:00 From "Rethinking Substance Abuse."In the closing chapter of their 2006 book, "Rethinking Substance Abuse,? editors William R. Miller and Kathleen M. Carroll attempt to sum up what has been learned about the science of addiction. Their useful contribution, entitled Drawing the Science Together, offers "Ten Principles" that are designed to synthesize the welter of recent scientific research on addiction and help make sense of what we know.In vastly truncated form, they are as follows:1. Drug Use is Chosen Behavior At least in the beginning, people choose to take drugs, as one of the behavioral options available to them.2. Drug Problems Emerge Gradually "Dependence emerges over time, as the person's life becomes increasingly centered on drug use," the authors write. "The diagnostic criteria for classifying people with 'drug abuse' and 'drug dependence' represent arbitrary cut points along a gradual continuum" (p.296).3. Once Well Established, Drug Problems Tend to Become ... More About: Addiction , Things
Marijuana Withdrawal Syndrome: A Bibliography
2008-04-30 06:09:00 Selected science references.The idea of marijuana addiction and withdrawal remains controversial in both private and scientific circles. For an unlucky few, a well-identified set of symptoms characterizes abstinence from heavy, daily use of pot. In this respect, marijuana addiction and withdrawal does not differ greatly from alcoholism--the vast majority of recreational users and drinkers will never experience it.For those that do, however, the withdrawal symptoms of marijuana abstinence can severely impact their quality of life. Since discussions of this topic so often veer off into political and cultural lines of argument, leaving science behind, I offer below a sampling of the growing medical and psychiatric literature on this aspect of drug use and abuse.For additional comments and discussions about symptoms, see Marijuana Withdrawal .References Aharonovich, E., Liu, X., Samet, S., Nunes, E., Waxman, R., & Hasin, D. (2005). Postdischarge Cannabis Use and Its Relationship to C... More About: Syndrome
Bill to Legalize Marijuana Offered in U.S. House
2008-04-26 18:46:00 Rep. Frank seeks to end Fed war on potNobody expects it to pass except its most ardent enthusiasts, but H.R. 5843, a bill "To Eliminate Most Federal Penalties for Possession of Marijuana for Personal Use, and for Other Purposes," sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 17. It is not the first such attempt, nor is it likely to be the last.The bill would remove federal penalties for personal possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, or roughly 3 1/2 ounces. Not-for-profit transfers of up to an ounce of pot would also be legal under the statutes. A civil penalty of $100 would be levied for public use of marijuana.The bill would not affect federal laws prohibiting major drug dealing, nor would it interfere with or hinder federal agencies prosecuting the cultivation and export of cannabis. In addition, the bill does not seek to alter the legal status of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlle... More About: Bill
Female Smokers and Menstruation
2008-04-22 18:27:00 Better to quit after ovulation, study finds.Women stand a better chance of successfully quitting smoking if they stop during the later phase of their monthly menstrual cycle, according to new research conducted at the University of Minnesota and published in the May 2008 edition of the journal Addiction. Sharon Allen and co-workers discovered that women who quit smoking right before they start to ovulate--the so-called follicular stage--relapsed more often than women who quit during the "luteal" stage, defined as the two weeks between ovulation and the start of a new cycle. In the study, 86 percent of women who gave up smoking during the follicular phase relapsed during the first 30 days, compared to 66 per cent of women who quit during the later luteal phase."Our findings support an important role for ovarian hormones in nicotine addiction and smoking cessation," the authors wrote.The ebb and flow of estrogen and progesterone during the menstrual cycle can have a direct effect on m... More About: Female , Smokers
Food Addiction and Dopamine
2008-04-15 22:24:00 Why your brain likes sweets.The brain's ability to sniff out calories in the form of sugar depends upon sugar's drug-like effect on the dopamine-rich reward center known as the nucleus accumbens, according to a study published in the March 27 issue of Neuron. This tiny structure in the mid-brain is also the locus of reward activity for all addictive drugs.In the study, Ivan de Araujo and colleagues at Duke University and the Universidade do Porto in Portugal demonstrated that lab mice lacking the ability to taste sweet foods still preferred sugary water to regular water. The genetically altered mice, lacking functional taste receptor cells for bitter and sweet, consistently chose to consume sugar water--even though they could not sense the sugar. (The lab animals were also prevented from smelling or sensing textural differences in the offerings.)"Our findings suggest that calorie-rich nutrients can directly influence brain reward circuits that control food intake independently of ... More About: Food , Addiction
Marijuana Withdrawal? What Marijuana Withdrawal?
2008-04-10 19:39:00 AlterNet author calls pot addiction "laughable"Wondering why you're feeling anxious, sleepless, irritable, sweaty, and scared when you stop daily pot smoking? Don't worry, Paul Armentano has the answer: You're full of bullshit.Armentano, in an article for AlterNet entitled "B.S. on the idea of 'marijuana addiction'," asserts that "there's little consensus that such a syndrome is clinically relevant -- if it even exists at all."The proof? "According to state and national statistics, up to 70 percent of all individuals in drug treatment for marijuana are placed there by the criminal justice system. Of those in treatment, some 36 percent had not even used marijuana in the 30 days prior to their admission. These are the 'addicts'?"No, these are not necessarily the addicts. These are people undergoing mandatory treatment dictated by the criminal justice system. As Armentano points out, they may or may not have been using drugs before their court-mandated treatment sessions.In con... More About: Marijuana , Withdrawal
Salvia: The Mystery Drug
2008-04-06 00:03:00 Tripping with the kappa opiate receptor. Over the past few years, a little known and highly unusual psychedelic drug has claimed the interest of drug users and drug scientists alike. Salvia divinorum, a green, leafy plant native to the Mazateca region of Mexico, provides its users with a short but intense hallucinogenic experience. A member of the mint family, it is not among the ornamental garden plants sold under the name Salvia at local nurseries.The high is unlike that from LSD or psychedelic mushrooms, users say, nor is it anything like the experience of smoking marijuana. Salvia is not currently controlled by federal law, but dozens of states have moved to outlaw cultivation and sale of the plant, which is currently freely available for purchase on the Internet.As an herb with psychedelic properties, Salvia divinorum is of pharmaceutical interest because of its uncommon affinity for opium/endorphin receptors?specifically the kappa opioid receptor. Most drugs with classical ?ps... More About: Mystery , Drug
The Genetics of Cigarettes
2008-04-04 04:45:00 Mutations on chromosome 15 linked to lung cancer A variation among the genes that code for nicotine receptors in the brain has been linked with increased cigarette smoking and a heightened risk for lung cancer, according to three new studies released this week.Two studies in Nature, and one in Nature Genetics , demonstrated that people who inherited the genetic variation, or allele, from one parent?roughly 50 percent of the population--had a 30 percent higher risk of developing lung cancer. ?What?s more,? according to Michael Hopkin at Nature News, ?another 10 percent of the population is likely to carry two copies of this set of mutations, raising cancer risk by as much as 80 percent relative to people with equivalent lifestyles without the cancer-linked gene variant.?More than 35,000 Caucasian smokers in Europe and North America took part in the government-funded research. It was the strongest evidence to date of a firm link between genetics and lung cancer. It was also added evide... More About: Cigarettes
Amphetamine Blues
2008-03-30 05:46:00 How meth addiction happens.If alcohol?s impact on brain cells is wide-ranging and diffuse, and marijuana?s impact is selective and subtle, the impact of cocaine and amphetamine is much more straightforward. ?There is certainly lots of evidence for common neurological mechanisms of reward across a wide variety of drugs,? said Dr. Robert Post, chief of the biological psychiatry branch at NIMH.Animals will readily administer cocaine and amphetamine, Dr. Post once explained to me, but when researchers surgically block out areas of the brain that are dense with dopamine receptors, the picture changes dramatically. ?The evidence definitely incriminates dopamine in particular,? said Dr. Post. ?In animal models, if you make selective lesions in the dopamine-rich areas of the brain, particularly the nucleus accumbens in the limbic system, the animals won?t self-administer either amphetamine or cocaine.?When you knock out large slices of the nucleus accumbens, animals no longer want the drugs... More About: Blues
Fewer People Testing Positive For Meth and Cocaine
2008-03-25 18:44:00 Quest Diagnostics releases 2007 figuresQuest Diagnostics, the nation?s leading provider of employee drug testing services, reported a 22 percent drop in the number of U.S. workers and job applicants testing positive for methamphetamine last year. The percentage of positive tests for cocaine fell 19 percent in the same period?the largest single-year decline since 1997, the company reported.Overall, drug test positives were at an all-time low (see chart). The company said 3.8 percent of employees had tested positive for drug use in 2007, compared to a high of 13.6 in 1988. Quest Diagnostics based its conclusions on a summary of results from more than 8 million workplace drug tests the company conducted in 2007. The data include pre-employment, random, and for-cause testing. The primary test population included federally mandated testing of ?safety-sensitive? workers such as pilots, truck drivers, and employees at nuclear power plantsIt is not immediately clear what conclusions can be ... More About: People , Testing , Cocaine , Positive
Feds Fund Study of Marijuana Withdrawal
2008-03-19 01:01:00 Probing the biology of cannabis addiction Addiction expert Barbara Mason of the Scripps Research Institute of La Jolla, California, will oversee a four-year study of the neurobiology of marijuana dependence under a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA).The comprehensive project will involve both animal and human research, and will make use of state-of-the-art functional brain imaging. The federal grant will also be used as seed money for the new Translational Center on the Clinical Neurobiology of Cannabis Addiction at the Scripps Institute.Mason, director of the Laboratory of Clinical Psychopharmacology at Scripps, told reporters in San Diego that the research, which will also be conducted at several universities, is important work: ?People are deciding every day whether to use or not to use marijuana, for medical purposes or otherwise, and there is little scientific information to advise this decision.? Mason has previously done work on medical therapies for alcoh... More About: Study , Fund , Marijuana , Withdrawal
Drug That Blocks Stress Receptor May Curb Alcohol Craving
2008-03-15 04:02:00 Anxiety, drugs, and the brain?s ?fear center.?A brain receptor for a neurotransmitter involved in stress and anxiety has become a primary target in the scientific war on alcoholism?the only kind of drug war that really matters.Researchers at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), working with colleagues at Lilly Research Laboratories and University College in London, announced that a drug that blocks the so-called NK1 receptor (NK1R) reduced alcohol cravings in a study of 25 detoxified alcoholic inpatients. The drug ?suppressed spontaneous alcohol cravings, improved overall well-being, blunted cravings induced by a challenge procedure, and attenuated concomitant cortisol responses.? The study, published in the current issue of Science magazine, (look here for abstract) demonstrates that investigators continue to work toward more effective anti-craving drugs from a variety of angles. The NIAAA researchers are making effective use of recent findings about th... More About: Stress , Drug , Blocks
Drug Addiction and Dissociation
2008-03-12 17:19:00 Where does the ?self? go during active addiction? Where does the everyday self go during active cycles of addiction? It is not a simple case of amnesia, or sleepwalking. It is more like a waking trance, or autohypnosis. Psychologically, it is a state of dissociation. The sense of self becomes impaired through the processes of intoxication, denial, neuroadaption, withdrawal, and craving. This impaired sense of self causes behavior that is baldly contradictory to the addict's core beliefs and values. Honest men and women will lie and steal in order to get drugs.Webster?s Unabridged Dictionary defines dissociation, rather vaguely, as ?the splitting off of certain mental processes from the main body of consciousness, with varying degrees of autonomy resulting.? How autonomous were you, consciousness-wise, the last time you got drunk and parked your car somewhere you couldn?t remember?Dissociation may be part of the way consciousness itself adapts to chronic drug use. Richard S. Sandor,... More About: Addiction , Drug
Paul Wellstone?s legacy
2008-03-08 21:03:00 House passes Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act.I live in Minnesota, so it is with great pride that I report that the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed mental health and addiction legislation named after the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, involving issues that were very close to his heart.Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in northern Minnesota in 2002, was a two-term Democratic Senator who championed the cause of full medical insurance for the coverage of addiction treatment and mental illness. The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, passed the U.S. House on a vote of 268-148. The legislation will now be the subject of negotiations with the U.S. Senate, which earlier passed a similar but less stringent bill, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Kennedy?s father, Sen. Ted Kennedy.Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, one of the bill?s key backers, and a recovering alcoholic, told Kevin Diaz o... More About: Legacy
Drug Use State-By-State
2008-03-08 00:20:00 Vermont leads nation in marijuana useA new report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) includes maps that purport to show the ratio of drug and alcohol usage from state to state. Rhode Island leads the nation in the use of illicit drugs, with 11.2 percent of respondents over the age of 12 reporting drug use in the past month. At the other end of the scale, a scant 5.7 percent of North Dakotans used drugs in an average month, according to numbers extracted from the 2005-2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services.The figures and explanatory text are from SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, National Survey on Drug Use and Health. More About: State
Marijuana Withdrawal Rivals Nicotine
2008-03-05 19:57:00 Kicking pot or cigarettes leads to anxiety, sleep problems.A small study in the journal Alcohol and Drug Dependence likened withdrawal from cannabis to that of withdrawal from nicotine, in the case of smokers addicted to either or both substances. The study gave further support to the growing body of evidence supporting the existence of a clinically significant marijuana withdrawal syndrome in heavy marijuana smokers.As one cigarette smoker in withdrawal famously put it, ?I cannot think, cannot concentrate, cannot remember.? Now it appears that heavy marijuana smokers who go cold turkey might be susceptible to the same symptoms of withdrawal from addiction.Dr. Ryan Vandrey, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and principle author of the study, told Amy Norton of Reuters Health that marijuana withdrawal can cause symptoms similar to nicotine withdrawal, such as anxiety, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and sleep problems. Marijuana withdrawal, which... More About: Nicotine , Withdrawal , Rivals
Addicts, Alcoholics Overwhelm Prison System
2008-02-29 21:51:00 1 out of 100 Americans now in jail. For the first time in American history, according to a study released by the Pew Center on the States, more than one in every 99.1 adult men and women are now in prison or in jail. States spent a total of $49 billion on prisons in 2007, compared to $11 billion 20 years ago. The United States incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any other country. China ranks second.?For all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn?t been a clear and convincing return for public safety,? according to Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center?s Public Safety Performance Project. The report says that higher incarcerations rates have not been caused by increased crime or a corresponding surge in population numbers. Rather, stricter sentencing policies, such as ?three-strikes? laws, as well as longer sentences, are behind the surge. A PDF version of the full report is available here.A Newsweek article by Claudia Kalb notes that the number of dru... More About: System , Prison
Marijuana Fact and Fiction
More articles from this author:2008-02-24 21:47:00 Why cannabis research is a good idea.There is little doubt among responsible researchers that marijuana--although it is addictive for some people--is sometimes a clinically useful drug. However, there is little incentive for commercial pharmaceutical houses to pursue research on the cannabis plant itself, since they cannot patent it.The use of marijuana in the treatment of glaucoma is well established. As for the relief of nausea caused by chemotherapy, the precise ?antiemetic? mechanism has not yet been identified, but several studies show that marijuana works at least as well as the popular remedy Compazine for controlling nausea. Cancer patients have used marijuana successfully to increase appetite and combat severe weight loss. Yet another intriguing possibility centers on Huntington?s chorea, the single-gene disease researchers spent years chasing down. Early data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported in Science News, showed a loss of THC receptors in the brain... More About: Fiction , Fact , Marijuana 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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