Medical Marijuana for Heroin Addiction? Sure, what the hell.

"Dude, I'm so baked right now -- I can't even write this prescription for medical marijuana."

Keith Humphries

"A new drug treatment program says it has a cure for heroin addiction: marijuana.

The claim has attracted national attention, but the history of analogous miracle cures is as long as it is discouraging. 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some American physicians were persuaded that the best treatment for what was then called "alcoholism" or "inebriety" was morphine, an opiate. Even as late as the 1960s, researchers documented that a number of then-living morphine-addicted patients had been introduced to the drug by physicians as a treatment for their problem drinking.

At the turn of the 20th century, Bayer Corp., best known today for aspirin, rolled out what it marketed as a "safe, nonaddictive" alternative to morphine: heroin. Initially proposed as a pain killer and cough suppressant, it briefly gained a following among doctors who thought it a cure for morphine addiction and alcoholism.

William White, a historian of the addiction field, notes that a well-meaning philanthropic organization known as the Saint James Society actually "started a campaign to provide free samples of heroin to any morphine addict who wanted to take the cure."

Meanwhile, other physicians — most famously Sigmund Freud — touted yet another new wonder drug that would supposedly cure addiction to morphine, alcohol, heroin and tobacco too. It was cocaine, which claimed new victims of addiction, including William Halsted, a medical doctor, the founder of modern surgical practice.

In each case, initial enthusiasm for the "miracle treatment" waned when the new drug more often compounded than relieved the problems of addicted patients. Like an invasive species introduced intentionally into an environment to combat other invasive species, each new cure eventually became a problem in itself.

What accounts for these cycles of enthusiasm and disappointment? Historian David Courtwright of the University of North Florida emphasizes that medicine is surprisingly prone to fads.

"Physicians like new drugs. When one becomes available it often gets overused. In the 1970s, for example, physicians prescribed Valium for a wide range of conditions, from anxiety to insomnia to muscle spasms. Quite a few patients became dependent." Not incidentally, Valium was a benzodiazepine, a class of drugs that had been marketed as safer alternatives to barbiturates, a previous wonder drug that also proved to be addictive and dangerous."

Keep the Proles Quiescent: Legalize Marijuana

Keith Humphreys, Washington Post

“Most of the marijuana market is more Wal-Mart than Whole Foods,” says Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jonathan Caulkins, the lead author of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. Caulkins’ analysis of data from the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (above) shows that “college grads account for only about one-in-six days of use," the common measurement for national marijuana use.

The remaining 5/6 of today’s marijuana market comprises, from largest to smallest share, high-school graduates, people who attended some college (over 90% of whom are no longer enrolled), high school dropouts and teenagers.  All these population groups tend to have modest incomes, which Caulkins notes means that “they are likely to be price-sensitive and drawn to less costly brands."

Marijuana use in the U.S. is thus like tobacco use: A behavior concentrated in lower social capital groups. Why then is the modal cultural image of pot that of hipster professionals clucking over arrays of $500/ounce sinsemilla blends at upscale dispensaries in San Francisco or Boulder, rather than, say, that of a gas station attendant who smokes low-cost weed several times a day?

The answer may be that journalists, pundits, elected officials and policy analysts, like all human beings, have a tendency to overestimate the representativeness of their own experience. The college-educated chattering classes portray and discuss the world they know, which in fact is a small slice of the U.S. marijuana scene.

To the extent that both criminal sanctions and health damage connected to marijuana fall more heavily on lower income groups, college-educated public policymakers and advocates may not well appreciate how marijuana use and marijuana policy play out in the lives of the typical user. In contrast, with their culture of researching markets in search of profits, rising marijuana entrepreneurs will quickly come to pursue the potential fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.  Caulkins predicts that “this will lead them to promote value-priced brands, not just high-end artisanal versions”."

The Unemployed Young Male: Smoking Dope and Playing Videogames

Pretty egregious of this article not to mention that these unemployed young men are smoking dope as well as playing videogames. That's why they report higher-than-expected levels of life satisfaction -- cannabis makes you content with your present life circumstances, no matter how lame they are. Expect another middle-aged suicide bubble from these fellows in 20 years.

Atlantic

""In 2015, 22 percent of lower-skilled men [those without a college degree] aged 21 to 30 had not worked at all during the prior twelve months,” Erik Hurst, an economist at the University of Chicago] said.

"Think about that for a second,” he went on. Twenty-something male high-school grads used to be the most dependable working cohort in America. Today one in five are now essentially idle. The employment rate of this group has fallen 10 percentage points just this century, and it has triggered a cultural, economic, and social decline. "These younger, lower-skilled men are now less likely to work, less likely to marry, and more likely to live with parents or close relatives,” he said.

So, what are these young, non-working men doing with their time? Three quarters of their additional leisure time is spent with video games, Hurst’s research has shown. And these young men are happy—or, at least, they self-report higher satisfaction than this age group used to, even when its employment rate was 10 percentage points higher.

It is a relief to know that one can be poor, young, and unemployed, and yet fairly content with life; indeed, one of the hallmarks of a decent society is that it can make even poverty bearable. But the long-term prospects of these men may be even bleaker than their present. As Hurst and others have emphasized, these young men have disconnected from both the labor market and the dating pool. They are on track to grow up without spouses, families, or a work history. They may grow up to be rudderless middle-aged men, hovering around the poverty line, trapped in the narcotic undertow of cheap entertainment while the labor market fails to present them with adequate working opportunities."

 

Marijuana and Early Mortality

Swedish male military conscripts who had used pot 50 times or more before the age of 18 were 40% more likely than their abstemious peers to be dead by age 60. Legalize it if you want, but don't call it "safe." And, yeah, yeah, correlation can't prove causation, but correlational studies are how we know that tobacco isn't safe. You can't randomly assign some people to smoke a lot of dope and then others to serve as a control. There are underlying factors at work as to why some Swedish kids became potheads and others didn't AND there are underlying reasons why some people smoke cigarettes for 20 years and others don't.

American Journal of Psychiatry




Cannabis, Psychosis, and Mortality: A Cohort Study of 50,373 Swedish Men
                   

Edison Manrique-Garcia, M.D., Ph.D., Antonio Ponce de Leon, Ph.D., Christina Dalman, M.D., Ph.D., Sven Andréasson, M.D., Ph.D., Peter Allebeck, M.D., Ph.D.

Objective:

The authors assessed 1) the overall risk of death among cannabis users compared with nonusers and the extent to which psychosis affects excess mortality; 2) mortality among persons with psychotic disorders and the extent to which cannabis use affects excess mortality; and 3) the interaction effect of cannabis use and diagnosis of psychotic disorders on mortality.

Method:

This was a longitudinal study of 50,373 Swedish male military conscripts (ages 18–19) who were followed in the National Cause of Death Register up to around age 60. Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to assess risk of death in relation to baseline cannabis use and diagnosis of psychotic disorders.

Results:

Subjects with a baseline history of heavy cannabis use had a significantly higher risk of death (hazard ratio=1.4, 95% CI=1.1, 1.8) than those without such a history. The authors found an excess mortality among subjects with psychotic disorders, but the level did not differ between those with a history of cannabis use (ever users: hazard ratio=3.8, 95% CI=2.8, 5.0; heavy users: hazard ratio=3.8, 95% CI=2.6, 6.2) and those without such a history (hazard ratio=3.7, 95% CI=3.1, 44). No interaction was observed between cannabis use and diagnosis of psychotic disorders with regard to mortality.

Conclusions:

The results suggest that individuals with an early history of heavy use of cannabis are at a higher risk of death than those with a history of no use of cannabis. Although the authors adjusted for several confounders at baseline, the results should be interpreted with caution because of a lack of information on confounders in the period after conscription.

The Pot Available to Researchers is Ditch Weed

Marijuana is going to be Schedule I restricted (like LSD and heroin) until some actual medical use can be demonstrated. But it's tough for researchers to acquire Schedule I drugs, so that research is not often attempted. And, the pot the government supplies to researchers is nowhere near the potency of the drug used by today's consumers, so any research that's done is of questionable value.

Nola.com

"[Marijuana] can be legally purchased for recreational use in four states and sold for medicinal purposes in two dozens others, but researchers who want to conduct federally approved clinical trials can only use pot purchased from the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse, whose lone supplier is the University of Mississippi.

Despite the DEA's 2014 decision to increase the amount of pot the government makes available — the government ordered 650 kilos — scientists continue to gripe that they can't get the marijuana the need in a timely fashion.

After members of Congress echoed the supply concerns in public hearings, the DEA responded by showing a ledger of the university's inventory, organized by the potency of each strain. The university's growing program has more than 130,000 "marijuana cigarettes" available at varying potencies, according to the memo. On top of that, it has 185 "batches" of bulk marijuana in quantities ranging between just a few ounces and more than 20 pounds.

The disconnect seems to be a question of quality versus quantity.

The primary psychoactive compound that gives marijuana it's euphoric oomph is called Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The more THC, generally, the stronger the buzz.

The most powerful strain on the DEA ledger, a "reprocessed" batch numbered 1304-1, tops out at 13.7 percent THC. Most batches in the "high THC" section of the inventory are less than 8 percent.

The University of Mississippi's supply is essentially stuck in the 1970s, when THC content rarely broke the double digits.

Compare that to the potency available at dispensaries in Colorado, which recently legalized recreation pot. Having had years to experiment in medical marijuana industry, which has been legal for more than a decade, horticulturalists there have produced varieties packing 30 percent THC or more. The average THC level in retail stores is 18.7 percent, according to a state-sponsored study."

Medical marjuana doesn't work for anxiety or depression, duh

Dizzy Wright, possibly medicating his anxiety and depression.

"A comprehensive review of dozens of clinical trials that have tested medical marijuana for 10 conditions finds that there’s very little reliable evidence to support the drug’s use. The review, by an international team of researchers, was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.  

Patients who use medical marijuana to treat chronic neuropathic pain or cancer pain would probably have the least to fear from an FDA review. The JAMA study considered 28 studies involving 2,454 patients and concluded that there was “moderate-quality evidence” from at least a dozen studies showing that cannabinoids – chemicals in marijuana that produce pharmacologic effects inside the body – reduced pain in such patients by modest amounts.  

However, trials testing the pain-relieving effects of medical marijuana in people with fibromyalgia, HIV-associated sensory neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other conditions did not show that it worked. 

The other condition for which medical marijuana proved useful was muscle spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis. After assessing 14 studies with 2,280 patients, the JAMA authors determined there was “moderate-quality evidence” to support its use in these patients, although many of the studies reported improvements that weren’t quite big enough to qualify as statistically significant. 

The findings were even weaker for other conditions.  

The researchers found “low-quality evidence” that medical marijuana could relieve nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, that it could stimulate appetite in people with HIV to help them gain weight, that it could help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders get more rest, and that it could reduce the severity of tics in people with Tourette syndrome. 

The JAMA authors also examined studies of medical marijuana to treat depression, anxiety disorder and psychosis, and to reduce eye pressure in glaucoma patients. There was no reliable evidence that cannabis was useful in any of these cases.
One of the things the studies showed most clearly is that people who use medical marijuana had a “much greater risk” of side effects, including serious problems like kidney, liver and psychiatric disorders. The most common adverse effects included dizziness, confusion and disorientation, according to the JAMA report.  

The results show that something is amiss in the 23 states (plus the District of Columbia) that allow the use of medical marijuana, according to the authors of an editorial that accompanies the JAMA review.  

The authors, from the Yale University School of Medicine, lamented the fact that state approval of medical marijuana had been based on “low-quality scientific evidence, anecdotal reports, individual testimonials, legislative initiatives, and public opinion." 

“Imagine if other drugs were approved through a similar approach,” they wrote. 

To win FDA approval, drug makers typically have to show that a medicine works in not one but two randomized clinical trials. But for most conditions that qualify for medical marijuana treatment, “the evidence fails to meet FDA standards,” according to the editorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marijuana edibles claim another victim in Colorado

Lessons: Read the recommended dosages of your marijuana edibles. Don't leave family members suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis alone. Make sure you don't have access to a firearm while you are tripping your face off.

CBS-Denver

"The family of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, 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 [They left the condo? To do what? Ski?] Goodman refused to join them. After they left he got a handgun that he typically traveled with for protection [from what??], and turned it on himself.

Summit County Coroner Regan Wood says the preliminary cause of death is a self-inflicted gunshot wound."

Sprint Car Racer Killed by Tony Stewart was High -- Seriously?

Think up your own tasteless, insensitive caption.

 

Daily Mail 

Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart will not face charges in the death of fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr., after fatally hitting the 20-year-old in a race last month. 

Ward was hit and killed in a horrifying crash that was caught on film,  but a grand jury decided today not to bring up any charges against Stewart. 

At an afternoon press conference announcing the decision, Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo made the startling revelation that Ward was under the influence of marijuana the night he was hit and that there was enough of the drug in his system 'to impair judgment'. 

Ward was fatally struck by Stewart while getting out of his car to confront the racing veteran, after the two collided on a prior lap at a race on August 9 at upstate New York's Canandaigua Motorsports Park track.

People do this? Get high and then go sprint car racing? Oh...right...psychopaths. The same people who answer TRUE to the test item: "I would enjoy parachuting out of a burning airplane."
 

 



The video is a bit rough. You might not want to watch it.

 

 

10% of Americans go to work high

High Times magazine has some ideas about what these employees are doing while stoned at work.

CNBC

Showing up to work high? You're not alone.

A new report has found nearly 1 in 10 Americans are showing up to work high on marijuana. Mashable.com conducted the survey in partnership with SurveyMonkey, and found 9.7 percent of Americans fessed up to smoking cannabis before showing up to the office.

The data analyzed the marijuana and prescription drug habits of 534 Americans. What's more, nearly 81 percent said they scored their cannabis illegally, according to the survey.

Cannabis and the workplace seem quite linked lately. Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel recently chimed in on marijuana and work. While criticizing Twitter during an appearance on CNBC Wednesday, Thiel said Twitter is a "… horribly mismanaged company—probably a lot of pot smoking going on there."