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Mental Health and Drug Abuse
May is Mental Health Awareness Month May 29, 2018
Scientists have long made the link between mental health disorders and substance abuse. In fact, the co-existence of both is referred to as “co-occurring disorders.”
According to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 8.2 million adults over the age of 18 had co-occurring disorders (see a diagram from the survey below).
Schizophrenia: Consider schizophrenia. About 50 percent of people suffering from the disorder have also abused illegal substances at some point during their lives, according to the article “Treating Substance Abuse among Patients with Schizophrenia” published in Psychiatry Online.
“It is widely assumed that patients with schizophrenia use substances to reduce psychotic symptoms and alleviate the sedating side effects of neuroleptics. However, the most common reasons given for use of alcohol and other drugs are to \”get high\” and to reduce negative affective states including social anxiety and tension, dysphoria and depression, and boredom.”
Researchers have made a connection between schizophrenia and marijuana use in particular. Use of the drug causes symptoms of schizophrenia — like hallucinations and paranoia — to get worse.
Teens dealing with a social anxiety disorder are more likely to start using marijuana at an earlier age, according to a study from Case Western Reserve University School.
What are reasons for the connection? There are young users who take the drug to appear more fun and to “alleviate the social anxiety of making friends,” according to the recent “Canadian Youth Perceptions on Cannabis” report, where interviewers spoke to youth participating in the study. In addition to that, both “cannabis intoxication” and withdrawal from the drug can lead to anxiety.
For complete article https://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov/family/mental-health-and-drug-abuse?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Cannabis puts 27,000 people a year in hospital: Rise in admissions could be due to increase in use of super-strength \’skunk\’, warns MP
- There were 27,501 admissions linked to cannabis in England in 2016/17, a 15 per cent rise in just two years from 23,866 in 2014/15
- Medical journal The Lancet takes unprecedented step of branding cannabis a ‘huge risk to health’
Tens of thousands of people are ending up in hospital with cannabis-related health problems, official figures have revealed.
There were 27,501 admissions linked to cannabis in England in 2016/17, a 15 per cent rise in just two years from 23,866 in 2014/15.
Labour MP Jeff Smith, who requested the figures on cannabis-related hospitalisations, said the large increase was ‘a concern’.
The influential medical journal The Lancet has just taken the unprecedented step of branding cannabis a ‘huge risk to health’.
The journal was reflecting on results from the 2018 Global Drug Survey, which asked 130,000 people in 44 nations about their use of drugs. The Lancet said: ‘Globally, cannabis is still the top illicit drug used and, with the concurrent use of tobacco, remains a huge health risk.’
Opioid News & Tool kit
News:
- FDA approves the first non-opioid treatment for management of opioid withdrawal symptoms in adults https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm607884.htm
- (New York Times) Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html
- Opioids Found in Seattle Mussels Could Put Salmon, Other Fish at Risk https://www.ecowatch.com/opioids-seattle-marine-life-2573300534.htNew
Opioid Resources from Drug Free America Foundation
Opioid Toolkit https://dfaf.org/Opioid%20Toolkit.pdf
Opioid Use During Pregnancy https://dfaf.org/Opioid%20Toolkit.pdf
Opioids in the Workplace https://dfaf.org/Opioids%20in%20Workplace_85x11.pdf
Justin Trudeau stated he would legalize marijuana if he became prime minister. Instead of taking on Big Tobacco and pushing for a financial settlement for the damage inflicted on the Canadian public by the tobacco industry, a settlement worth in the tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars, Trudeau decided once in power to focus his government’s energies on commercializing an additional smoked product.
Bill C-45, the draft legislation to legalize pot in Canada for adults of 18 years of age and older, allows for marijuana to be consumed through smoking devices for the first year of implementation. Access to edibles will follow.
Norman Bosse, the Child and Youth Advocate for New Brunswick, prepared a risk assessment of Bill C-45, recommending that it be amended to better protect children. Bosse called for a ban on the smoking of marijuana in homes where kids reside. This wasn’t given serious attention by either provincial or federal parliamentarians.
The Senate, the chamber of sober second thought, passed over the right children have to security of self under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by not making amendments to address kids’ exposure to second-hand smoke in the home. Officials engaged in months of discussion over far less important aspects of the legislation than the pivotal issue of the protection of children from the consequences that can befall them from adult use of marijuana, a psychotropic, genotoxic and carcinogenic product.
The gold standard in tobacco prevention is de-normalization strategy. De-normalization aims to tackle the predatory behaviours of addiction for profit industries. Legalization discussions in the House of Commons and the Senate ignored de-normalization strategy and the lessons learned from decades of tobacco control.
Discussions swirled around prosperity for the emerging marijuana industry and funding opportunities for hungry research institutes, institutes who survive on government grants and corporate dollars, which places them in a precarious position when asked to weigh in on the government’s pot agenda.
For complete article http://theprovince.com/opinion/op-ed/pamela-mccoll-xxx
Hon. Anne C. Cools: Honourable senators, I rise to speak to third reading of Bill C-45, An Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other Acts.
I must inform you that I have absolutely no will to vote in favour of this bill, and I have not been prompted by any good reason as to why I should. In my view, this bill is unconscionable and morally objectionable. I have had great difficulty accepting the fact that Canada’s national government is leading on the legitimation of the frequent and recreational consumption of cannabis, known as marijuana, and does so despite the abundant and copious evidence in its possession that cannabis is a dangerous psychoactive narcotic.
The Government of Canada is well informed and fully aware that cannabis legalization is not solely a matter of the government’s presenting and providing cannabis as a harmless and healthy form of recreation and entertainment. The real issue here is that marijuana is, in fact, a mind-altering drug and is most harmful to the human mind, the brain, and the cognitive functions of its users, whether frequent or occasional, and most particularly to the minds of our youth.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines psychoactive as “affecting the mind or behavior.” In addition, The Oxford English Dictionary defines psychoactive as “Of a drug: that possesses the ability to affect the mind, emotions, or behaviour.”
Colleagues, I believe that the consequence of cannabis decriminalization and legalization is a much deeper issue than the properties of the drug itself. As Deputy Chair of our Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, I was struck and impressed by the quality and quantity of concerns raised by many witnesses regarding Canada’s obligations, conventions and international treaty agreements.
Mr. Bruno Gélinas-Faucher, a PhD candidate in International Law at Britain’s Cambridge University, testified before our Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, a committee which I must add is ably chaired by our honourable colleague, Senator Andreychuk, on March 29, 2018. He informed, as recorded in this committee’s report on Bill C-45, at page 11, that:
. . . this is not minor at all. Legalizing cannabis will lead to the violation of a fundamental principle that is at the very heart of the conventions.
Honourable senators, this witness, Mr. Gélinas-Faucher, cited documents from Global Affairs Canada, obtained through an access to information request. These documents recognized that the legalization of cannabis would have “a significant impact” on Canada’s obligations under the international drug control conventions.
Colleagues, I believe that this bill, which will make drastic and radical behavioural and social changes, has not been sufficiently and vigorously thought through, nor have our Canadian citizens and our international partners been sufficiently consulted.
Colleagues, testifying before the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, many witnesses raised the important question, being the extent of the impact of Canada’s legalization of cannabis on our population.
In a written brief to our Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the quasi-judicial control body called the International Narcotics Control Board, which was established by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, and which is also responsible for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions, wrote that Bill C-45 is “incompatible with the treaty obligations to which Canada is bound.”
The International Narcotics Control Board further noted, and is recorded in our Foreign Affairs Committee’s Report at page 11, that:
. . . it “views any legislative measure aimed at legalizing and regulating the use of controlled substances for non-medical purposes as a fundamental breach of the international treaty provisions to which State parties to the international drug control conventions are held.”
Accordingly, the International Narcotic Control Board further noted that:
. . . the legalization and regulation of cannabis for non-medical purposes . . . as foreseen in Bill C-45, cannot be reconciled with Canada’s international obligations . . . .
Colleagues, section 91 of our Constitution Act, 1867, is headed “Powers of the Parliament,” and informs us that the fundamental purpose of government is:
91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate and the House of Commons, to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of Canada, in relation to all Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces; . . .
Honourable senators, I do not believe that Bill C-45 can possibly be for the peace, order and good government of Canada. As a senator, I feel morally and politically bound to use my intellect at all times. For many reasons, I have simply not been persuaded that Bill C-45 is legally, morally and spiritually sound. I sincerely believe and I know that psychoactive drugs are a mighty foe to our society and to our young people. I believe that I have a duty to uphold those whom I do not know, and the many who have no voice, to speak on these issues.
Colleagues, a worrisome characteristic of cannabis that should preoccupy us is that whereas the human body can process and excrete alcohol quickly, the human body is slow to discharge marijuana, which can reside and remain in the body for up to four weeks.
Throughout this debate, I have rarely heard this health question raised. For myself, this health fact this is not one that I can ignore. The slow exit of cannabis from the human person should be a source of concern to all senators.
I maintain that cannabis is a very dangerous drug, which many have been persuaded to think is less dangerous and less harmful than cocaine and heroin.
Honourable senators, I shall close with Saint Thomas Aquinas.
(1900)
He said:
Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.
Honourable senators, from where I look out at life and at these issues which deeply affect our youth and young people, I am convinced that Bill C-45 cannot possibly be for the peace, order and good government of Canada. I shall vote with my conscience.
I thank honourable senators for their attention in this very important matter.
https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/chamber/421/debates/214db_2018-06-04-e#27
CANADIANS: LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT MARIJUANA DANGERS
30/5/18Bottom of Form
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to legalize marijuana by summer 2018. While marijuana has been directly linked to multiple suicides across the United States, the Canadian government refuses to recognize pot as anything but a harmless drug. In response to Trudeau’s legalization plans, Health Canada has unveiled a marijuana consumer fact sheet, warning Canadians about the adverse effects of marijuana use. With legalization on the horizon ClearTheAirNow.org partnered with RIWI to survey over 1,100 Canadians from May 2 to May 12 and gauge their awareness of marijuana’s dangerous health effects, as previously reported by Health Canada.
40% of Canadians are unaware that marijuana impairs safe driving — where is the outrage!
Marijuana Impaired Driving is Not Safe Driving
RIWI found that more than 40 percent of Canadians under age 25 are unaware that marijuana impacts safe driving. Far too many young lives have been lost to marijuana impaired driving for this to be acceptable. There were 3,335 marijuana-related U.S. driving fatalities in 2016. And marijuana impairment now comprises 24.2% of the fatal crashes in states that have legalized marijuana. Driving under the influence of marijuana significantly impairs motor coordination, judgment and reaction time. Given today’s highly potent marijuana, Canada should expect the same if not more fatalities attributed to marijuana impaired driving.
48% of Canadians believe marijuana is addictive — Why isn’t Health Canada educating more?
Is Marijuana Addictive?
According to RIWI, about half of respondents (48 percent) agree that marijuana is addictive. These findings back up Health Canada’s 2016 statement regarding the drug’s addictive properties: “long term use may result in psychological dependence (addiction).” Yes, marijuana addiction is real. Many of the stories shared with the Poppot community involve adolescents consistently smoking marijuana for at least a year (or more) and the aftermath – changes in personality, cognitive behavior, energy level, diet, digestive stomach problems, and sleep patterns. For one Texas mom her daughter’s drug abuse was a daily nightmare. At 17 years old she was smoking marijuana on a daily basis, eventually moving on to harder, more illicit drugs. Later her marijuana addiction ended but others weren’t so lucky. We implore Canadian parents to ask themselves, “how can I protect my child under marijuana legalization?”
42% of Canadians believe that marijuana could increase the risk of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression!
Marijuana and Mental Health
Back in 2016 Health Canada declared that “long term use [of marijuana] may increase the risk of triggering or aggravating psychiatric and/or mood disorders (schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder). RIWI found that 42 percent of Canadians believe that marijuana could increase the risk of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression, while 58 percent are unaware of marijuana’s long-term effects on the brain. There are studies linking marijuana use to an increased risk of schizophrenia, but yet most people just aren’t aware of the connection. What should be disturbing to Canadian families is the amount of psychosis cases treated just in Washington state – one hospital reports one to two new psychosis patients every day. Yet marijuana and mental health problems are nothing new. Since 2002, a series of European studies have reported that individuals who use cannabis have a greater risk of developing psychotic symptoms. The science is there and it’s time Canada wakes up to marijuana’s dangerous effects on mental health.
For complete article http://www.poppot.org/2018/05/30/canada-marijuana-dangers/