Cannabis use linked to increased initiation of cigarette smoking among non-smokers
Download PDF Copy March 27, 2018
While cigarette smoking has long been on the decline, marijuana use is on the rise and, disproportionately, marijuana users also smoke cigarettes. A new study by researchers at Columbia University\’s Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York reports that cannabis use was associated with an increased initiation of cigarette smoking among non-cigarette smokers. They also found adults who smoke cigarettes and use cannabis are less likely to quit smoking cigarettes than those who do not use cannabis. Former smokers who use cannabis are also more likely to relapse to cigarette smoking. Results are published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
The analyses were based on data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in 2001-2002 and 2004-2005, and responses from 34,639 individuals to questions about cannabis use and smoking status.
\”Developing a better understanding of the relationship between marijuana use and cigarette use transitions is critical and timely as cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature death and disease, and use of cannabis is on the rise in the U.S.,\” said Renee Goodwin, PhD, in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, and senior author.
The study suggests that marijuana use–even in the absence of cannabis use disorder (characterized by problematic use of cannabis due to impairment in functioning or difficulty quitting or cutting down on use)–is associated with increased odds of smoking onset, relapse, and persistence. As cannabis use is much more common than cannabis use disorder, its potential impact on cigarette use in the general community may be greater than estimates based on studies of cannabis use disorder alone, according to the researchers.
An earlier study by Goodwin and colleagues showed that the use of cannabis by cigarette smokers had increased dramatically over the past two decades to the point where smokers are more than 5 times as likely as non-smokers to use marijuana daily. For complete article https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180327/Cannabis-use-linked-to-increased-initiation-of-cigarette-smoking-among-non-smokers.aspx
Changing Lives Using peer support to promote access to services for family members affected by someone else’s drug or alcohol use
Whole Family Recovery Introduction: In 2009, the UK Drug Policy Commission estimated that there are at least 1.5 million people in the UK affected by someone else’s drug use. However, this figure only includes those family members and carers living with someone using drugs, and only when the drug use is at the extreme end of the spectrum. Other estimates, based on the assumption that every substance misuser will negatively affect at least two close family members, suggest that the true number is nearer 8 million. Family members affected by a relative’s alcohol use are likely to be far more numerous, given the greater prevalence of alcohol misuse in the general population https://www.adfam.org.uk/cms/docs/ChangingLives_March2018.pdf
Why total bans on workplace pot won’t be easy under Cannabis Act
March 23, 2018 by David Gambrill
Employers may be hard-pressed to ban marijuana outright from the workplace once The Cannabis Act is implemented in Canada, a lawyer told delegates attending the Ontario Mutual Insurance Association (OMIA) Thursday.
“Both bills [related to The Cannabis Act, Bills C-45 and C-46] are actually silent when it comes to employment and occupational safety,” said Sandra Gogal, practice leader at Miller Thomson LLP. “At present, there is no Canadian law that regulates mandatory drug testing of employees, so when the recreational market opens up, it creates a number of interesting issues.”
For one, employers will be challenged to uphold outright prohibitions on marijuana in the workplace, based on the difference between recreational and medicinal forms of cannabis. While proposed bills allowing recreational use are still up for debate, medical use of marijuana has been legal in Canada since 1999.
“I had a call from a company the other day that said one of their employees was injured on the job, and as a matter of standard practice, they get drug-tested,” Gogal recounted. “The results came back positive, and they said, ‘Can we fire him?’ And I just said, ‘We don’t know yet whether that was for medical purposes or not.’”
The issue promises to get murkier once recreational drug use is legalized.
First ever drug rehabilitation village opens its doors
Scotland’s first ever long-term “drug rehabilitation village” opens its doors today.
The River Garden Auchincruive project, near Ayr, is a groundbreaking residential project to help those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
Run by charity Independence from Drugs and Alcohol Scotland (IFDAS), the programme is inspired by a number of radical rehab programmes from around the world.
It will initially provide accommodation, training and support for up to 40 former addicts who will live there for up to three years.
Director of Development at IFDAS, Mark Bitel said the three year programme was unlike any other type of service currently available in the UK.
The 48-acre site acts as a residential training and social enterprise development where the community will grow food to supply an onsite shop and café, and run a bakery.
For more http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16111360.First_ever_drug_rehabilitation_village_opens_its_doors/
Head of private school warns about the \’rising tide\’ of drug abuse in schools including pupils hooked on the highly addictive tranquilliser Xanax
- Head of King\’s College School, Wimbledon says drugs are cheaper than tobacco
- Andrew Halls says pupils have asked teachers to help break \’dangerous\’ habit
- Students are tested for drugs and are offered counselling if results are positive
By David Churchill For The Daily Mail PUBLISHED: 26 March 2018
There is a \’rising tide\’ of drug abuse in schools as tranquillisers and \’new psychoactive substances\’ become more readily available, the head of a leading private school has warned.
Andrew Halls, head of King\’s College School in Wimbledon, South-West London, says substances such as Xanax, a highly addictive tranquilliser, have become cheaper than tobacco and easier to get hold of than alcohol.
In a strongly worded letter to parents he revealed a number of his pupils have asked teachers to help break a \’dangerous habit\’.
Mr Halls said that in more than one case they have had to deal with children \’so affected by the impact of drugs on their lives that remaining had become impossible for them\’.
King\’s pupils are given drugs tests if suspected of taking substances and offered counselling if they test positive. If they fail subsequent tests, they could be expelled.
Andrew Halls, head of King\’s College School in Wimbledon, South-West London, says substances such as Xanax, a highly addictive tranquilliser, have become cheaper than tobacco and easier to get hold of than alcohol
It is not the first time Mr Halls has raised concerns about drug-taking in schools.
At a meeting of head teachers earlier this month, he said that \’every single head around the table felt that drug abuse by young people was a central concern for schools and parents\’.
He was joined by Helen Pike, master of Magdalen College School, Oxford, who promised to send parents a letter warning of the risks of Modafinil, a \’smart drug\’ taken to improve alertness during exams.
Figures show a sharp rise in numbers of children admitting to taking drugs, with 37 per cent of 15-year-olds saying they had over the previous 12 months in 2016 — compared with 24 per cent in 2015.
Xanax, used to treat anxiety disorders, has become a particular concern among youth workers after it was reported this month that children were able to buy the pills illegally via dealers on Facebook and Instagram for as little as 89p.
Drugs charity Addaction warned children as young as 13 were buying them online. Neil Coles of the charity said: \’There\’s a lot of use in grammar schools, a lot in those high-pressure environments.\’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5542937/London-private-school-headteacher-warns-increasing-risk-Xanax-drug-abuse.html#ixzz5B0nr8EbF
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Jeff Sessions Has Found A Way To Make Marijuana Lethal
Nobody has ever died of a marijuana overdose – even the DEA admits that. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions can make marijuana lethal by enforcing capital punishment for drug traffickers (which Sessions is already threatening to do).
Under federal law, there is a provision allowing capital punishment in drug trafficking cases that involve \”extremely large quantities of drugs,\” regardless of whether any violent crimes took place as part of the illegal trade. According to the law, you could face the death penalty if you get caught with 60 kilograms of heroin, 24 kilograms of fentanyl or a mere 600 grams of LSD.
For marijuana, the amount that would trigger capital punishment is 60,000 kilograms. That might seem like a lot, but keep in mind that some legal states allow licensed cultivators to grow over 60,000 plants. So the 60,000 kg threshold isn\’t unrealistic for them to cross.
But while state-licensed growers are susceptible to capital punishment, they probably won\’t be given the death penalty, according to Tamar Todd – Director of the Office of Legal Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance.
“The Supreme Court has never upheld the death penalty for a crime that did not involve death,” Todd recently told Christopher Ingraham of The Washington Post.
For more Deadly Dope
Weed never killed anyone – Really???
Study Claims to Find First Two Deaths Caused by Marijuana
A recent German study claims to have documented the first known deaths resulting from marijuana use.
While researchers studied 15 people whose deaths were allegedly linked to marijuana use, 13 of those deaths were confirmed to be caused by other factors. Researchers said, however, that the drug was to blame in two isolated cases of two seemingly healthy people, one 23 years old and another 28. Autopsies found that younger had a serious undetected heart problem, suggesting that people with cardiological issues should be aware of marijuana risks, and the older had a history of alcohol and drug use.
“To our knowledge, these are the first cases of suspected fatal cannabis intoxications where full post-mortem investigations… were carried out,” researchers said in the study, published in Forensic Science International this month. “After exclusion of other causes of death we assume that the young men experienced fatal cardiovascular complications evoked by smoking cannabis.”
The new study cuts against many others showing pot use does not have serious medical repercussions. The German Association for Drugs and Addiction criticized the study on Wednesday, The Local reports.
“Cannabis does not paralyze the breathing or the heart,” said Jost Leune, who heads the group. He said the dangers of marijuana are “exaggerated” and that “deaths due to cannabis use are usually accidents that are not caused by the substance, but to the circumstances of use.”
http://time.com/10372/marijuana-deaths-german-study/
Cannabis \’kills 30,000 a year\’
by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
More than 30,000 cannabis smokers could die every year, doctors warn today.
Medical experts blame the Home Secretary for creating confusion about the risks posed by the drug – leading young people wrongly to believe it is harmless.
They claim David Blunkett\’s decision to reclassify cannabis as a class C drug – putting it on a level with anabolic steroids and prescription painkillers – sent out the wrong message and played down the devastating health effects of its regular use.
Professor John Henry, a leading authority on the drug, said the change – due to take place this summer – had undermined doctors\’ efforts to highlight the risks.
He said: \”Cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking – in fact, it may be even worse – and downgrading its legal status has simply confused people.
\”We have a clear public message about cigarette smoking. Every year, the number of smokers gets smaller and the message on packets about the dangers gets bigger.
\”At present, there is no battle against cannabis and no clear public health message.\”
In today\’s issue of the British Medical Journal, Prof Henry and other doctors from Imperial College, and St Mary\’s Hospital, both in London, say cannabis could be a major contributor to UK deaths.
Researchers calculate that if 120,000 deaths are caused among 13million smokers, the corresponding figure among 3.2million cannabis smokers would be 30,000.
The drug can cause cancer, lung disease and abnormalities associated with serious mental illness.
Users are up to six times more likely to develop schizophrenia.
The British Lung Foundation says smoking three joints a day can cause the same damage to the airways as a pack of 20 cigarettes.
Prof Henry added: \”Even if the number of deaths turned out to be only a fraction of the 30,000 we believe possible, cannabis smoking would still be described as a major health hazard.
\”If we add in the likely mental health burden to that of medical illnesses and premature death, the potential effects of cannabis cannot be ignored.\”
Dr William Oldfield, from St Mary\’s Hospital and one of the authors of the article, said: \”Cannabis and nicotine cigarettes have a different mode of inhalation. The puff taken by cannabis smokers is two-thirds larger, they inhale a third more and hold down the smoke four times longer.
\”All these factors could contribute to illnesses of the heart and respiratory system, particularly as the chemicals in cannabis smoke are retained in the body to a much higher degree.\”
He said the cannabis used today – especially that bought in the Netherlands – was up to 40 times stronger than that used by Flower Power hippies in the 1960s.
The level of active ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has increased from around 0.5 per cent 20 years ago to almost five per cent today. THC affects the heart and blood vessels and many sudden deaths have been attributed to cannabis smoking.
In Britain, about eight million people admit to smoking cannabis, with at least one-third of youngsters claiming to have used it at some time. They include Prince Harry, who admitted smoking the drug while a pupil at Eton.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-179264/Cannabis-kills-30-000-year.html (cited 26/9/14)
Allowing drug addicts to ‘die with the rights on’ is the real ‘disease’ in the drug crisis!
It is my opinion that involuntary treatment must have a prominent place in the treatment of addictive disorders. Generations in the future will look back on our response to the addiction epidemic and say, “What were they thinking”? Allowing addicted individuals to “die with their rights on” is the true iatrogenic disease of our time. Lawyers and advocates lobby for individual rights while individuals are dying by the thousands.
We as a society are allowing patients with “diseases of their brains” to make poor decisions with the very same brains that are diseased in order to protect their free will. We know forced treatment and contingent treatment works especially while the individual is recovering from short- and long-term drug effects.
Most aggressive patients are playing out a script of violence that has happened over and over in their lives. If you know the script, you are way ahead of the game when planning treatment options. The dance of aggression is specific to each patient and the drug is merely a catalyst that speeds up or disinhibits the process. Most drugs of abuse increase aggressive behavior, including THC intoxication and withdrawal, which is commonly present in the patients we evaluate who have been charged with serious crimes of violence.
Are some drug related crimes ever considered in an insanity defense or not? Why? Some examples of drug-related paranoid psychotic homicides include the Manson family. What makes one murderer, who committed their crime under-the-influence, not guilty by reason of insanity and another guilty with mitigating factors?
Most state statutes and federal law look down on insanity pleas that are associated with chronic substance use. Exceptions can include “involuntary intoxication” that is out of the defendants control. The horrific story of the Manson family and routine heavy LSD and alcohol use is one example. The Manson Girls and Tex could not sell an insanity defense because of their chronic voluntary use. If the murders had occurred after a single or first use of LSD, they might have had a chance at insanity as a defense. Historically, voluntary intoxication has been frowned upon by most cultures since recorded history.
Lord Chief Justice Matthew Hale in 1736 wrote, “ A person who commits an offense while he or she is afflicted with dementia affectata (intoxication), shall have no privilege by the voluntary contracted madness, but shall have the same judgment as if he were in his right senses.” This dictum has become know as the voluntary intoxication exclusion.
Narcan is no substitute for a good psychiatric assessment to include a suicide risk assessment. Narcan wakes the patient up to the same reality they were experiencing before they overdosed. A psychiatric assessment and suicide risk assessment gives the treatment team the tools they need to design a program of resilience and recovery.
John Thompson, MD – Professor, Chair, and Director, Division of Forensic Neuropsychiatry
Founding Director, Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry; Tulane University School of Medicine
For complete article https://www.rivermendhealth.com/resources/qa-john-thompson-md-forensic-psychiatry/#article
I Abused Drugs for 10 Years. Exercise Helped Me Get and Stay Sober
It was July 2009. Dana was 25, and had been abusing a variety of drugs for the past 10 years. “During those years, I lost a boyfriend to suicide and watched several friends overdose,” she says. Her parents did everything they could think of to try to help, including sending her through three rounds of expensive rehab. “I was hopeless and truly didn\’t see a way out.”
Dana was arrested the day of the accident and sent to county jail for a year, then to state prison for four years. “I had lots of time to think,” she says. “I knew the only way I could try to make amends for what I had done was to commit to a sober lifestyle–and vow that someday I’d help other people, as well.”
To give her life structure and discipline, she began meditating and doing hour-long workouts. With no gym and little space in her jail cell, she did pushups and burpees and crunches on the floor and created imaginative new ways to get fit.
“Before I was incarcerated, I had worked part-time in a health club, so I knew how to do a lot of exercises–and my parents gave me subscriptions to fitness magazines so I could find new exercise routines that didn\’t require equipment,” she says. “I’d jump rope with an imaginary rope, or I’d throw a whole deck of cards on the floor and do squats to pick them up.”
The physical activity brought her out of the murky mental state she’d been living in while she was addicted. “I began to think more clearly, and while many of my thoughts were extremely painful, I also started to regain a sense of self-worth and self-control–things that had been missing from my life for years.”
\”Fitness was an escape from the chaos and violence of prison, as well,” Dana says. And she became known to her fellow offenders as an expert on the topic. “Other women would come to me to ask how to do squats or crunches,” she says. “The ones who wanted to be healthy and stay out of trouble gravitated to me–which meant my social network remained safe and positive.\”
For complete story http://www.health.com/fitness/working-out-saved-my-life-addiction
Trudeau ignoring huge marijuana problems in rush to fulfil campaign promise
SUSAN MARTINUK Published on: April 2, 2018
The legalization of marijuana has implications. POSTMEDIA NEWS
When Justin Trudeau promised to legalize the use of recreational marijuana, he no doubt felt it would be one of his easiest and most rewarding tasks as Canada’s new and uber-cool prime minister. He vowed to make it a priority and change the laws within two years.
Fast-forward to last month, almost 2 1/2 years later, and Bill C-45, to legalize cannabis, faced an unexpected pushback from a Senate that threatened to send it packing. Trudeau took this chance to warn his supposedly independent senators that their job description didn’t call for them to defeat bills proposed by the very government that had bestowed upon them their most honourable appointments.
Trudeau’s determination to push the bill through clearly exposes the problem with Bill C-45: It’s a watershed moment that covers public policy, health care and Canadian law. Yet, the Liberals refuse to see it as anything more than an election promise that must be in place by August; details be damned. Why else would they ignore the warnings of Americans who have already dealt with this?
When representatives from Colorado and Washington state testified before a parliamentary committee, their most ardent recommendations were to “slow down.” “Don’t rush the process.” “Take your time – even when the public is clamouring for access.”
A University of Denver law professor warned MPs that the black market doesn’t go away after legalization – it still controls 30 per cent of sales in Colorado. Another witness from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said the illegal production of marijuana increased “20-fold” after legalization. Sellers stand in front of legal venues and offer cut rates to customers. Edibles (such as gummies and lollipops) are openly distributed and have increased ER visits for children who have accidentally consumed them. Police find it difficult to prove impaired driving as it requires a trip to the hospital and a blood test.
As a result, Bill C-45 is sloppy, devoid of details and filled with gaping holes. It does little but reflect our PM’s empty dreams and some very funky smoke.
For complete article http://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/susan-martinuk-trudeau-ignoring-huge-marijuana-problems-in-rush-to-fulfil-campaign-promise
