RainDog

RainDog's Journal

November 25, 2012

A ‘Party Drug’ May Help the Brain Cope With Trauma

Another reason we need to examine our drug schedules to allow more controlled studies and access for medical use in safe, therapeutic settings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/health/ecstasy-treatment-for-post-traumatic-stress-shows-promise.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Hundreds of soldiers have contacted a husband and wife research team.

The soldiers have no interest in traditional talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, a party drug that surfaced in the 1980s and ’90s that can induce pulses of euphoria and a radiating affection. Government regulators criminalized the drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research purposes.

In a paper posted online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Michael and Ann Mithoefer, the husband-and-wife team offering the treatment — which combines psychotherapy with a dose of MDMA — write that they found 15 of 21 people who recovered from severe post-traumatic stress in the therapy in the early 2000s reported minor to virtually no symptoms today. Many said they have received other kinds of therapy since then, but not with MDMA.

(Work from this same couple appeared in 2010)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100719082927.htm

Here's the latest one- jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/08/29/0269881112456611.full

...Given the scarcity of good treatments for post-traumatic stress, “there is a tremendous need to study novel medications,” including MDMA, said Dr. John H. Krystal, chairman of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. A handful of similar experiments using MDMA, LSD or marijuana are now in the works in Switzerland, Israel and Britain, as well as in this country. Both military and civilian researchers are watching closely. So far, the research has been largely supported by nonprofit groups.

“When it comes to the health and well-being of those who serve, we should leave our politics at the door and not be afraid to follow the data,” said Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist who recently retired from the Army. “There’s now an evidence base for this MDMA therapy and a plausible story about what may be going on in the brain to account for the effects.”

The MDMA enhanced treatment found standard measures of PTSD symptoms were more than twice as effective as psychotherapy alone - with a 75% reduction in anxiety, depression, hypervigilance and arousal and nightmares.

More info at the link.

We cannot allow our prejudices to keep useful treatment from vets and other people who may find relief from suffering in substances that initially scared the powers-that-be.

November 24, 2012

What's Next For Marijuana Laws? (CBS News)

...Lawmakers are waking up to the fact that their constituents are clearly calling for some kind of change in the nation's drug laws. A group of congressmen is urging the federal government to leave Washington and Colorado alone for now. Additionally, some lawmakers have filed legislation to amend the Controlled Substances Act.

"It's just a matter of time for the laws to catch up to reality," Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., told CBSNews.com.

For the time being, individual marijuana users in Colorado and Washington should be "well insulated" from federal authorities, according to Sam Kamin, a professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law who researches marijuana policy.

...supporters of recreational marijuana shouldn't hold their breath. The establishment of a commercial marijuana market, he said, "is exactly what the federal government has said it won't permit."

A good article worth reading. I can't post all the points, pro and con, the article mentions b/c of fair use, so...

More at the link...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57553346/whats-next-for-marijuana-laws/?fb_action_ids=10151302063251007&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=fbrecT&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%7B%2210151302063251007%22%3A409199782481793%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151302063251007%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%2210151302063251007%22%3A%22fbrecT%22

November 24, 2012

Timothy Egan: Give Pot a Chance

Timothy Egan worked for The Times for 18 years – as Pacific Northwest correspondent and a national enterprise reporter. In 2001, he was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that wrote the series “How Race Is Lived in America.” He is the author of several books, including “The Worst Hard Time,” a history of the Dust Bowl, for which he won the National Book Award, and most recently, “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America.”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/give-pot-a-chance/#more-136666

Social revolutions in a democracy, especially ones that begin with voters, should not be lightly dismissed. Forget all the lame jokes about Cheetos and Cheech and Chong. In the two-and-a-half weeks since a pair of progressive Western states sent a message that arresting 853,000 people a year for marijuana offenses is an insult to a country built on individual freedom, a whiff of positive, even monumental change is in the air.

But there remains the big question of how President Obama will handle the cannabis spring. So far, he and Attorney General Eric Holder have been silent. I take that as a good sign, and certainly a departure from the hard-line position they took when California voters were considering legalization a few years ago. But if they need additional nudging, here are three reasons to let reason stand:

(and here's the third one)

Lead. That’s what transformative presidents do. From his years as a community organizer — and a young man whose own recreational drug use could have made him just another number in lockup — Obama knows well that racial minorities are disproportionately jailed for these crimes. With 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of its prisoners — and about 500,000 of them are behind bars for drug offenses. On cost alone — up to $60,000 a year, to taxpayers, per prisoner — this is unsustainable.

November 17, 2012

LOL

I discovered this woman via this video -

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/stoned-in-suburbia/

November 17, 2012

Cannabis May Slow Brain Aging

http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/how-cannabinoids-may-slow-brain-aging/?iid=obinsite

The over 65 voting bloc may be the least likely to support marijuana legalization, but they might find it's in their best interests to do so. Cannabis' ability to help with inflammation and pain is well known.

In addition, not withstanding the stoner memory-loss stereotype, marijuana may help with Alzheimers, brain aging and degenerative diseases. Cases of Alzheimer's disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years.

Since the mid 2000?s researchers have been building an appreciation for the power of marijuana-like substances that make up the brain’s cannabinoid systems. In animal experiments, for example, synthetic compounds similar to THC—marijuana’s main psychoactive component—have shown promise in preserving brain functions. A 2008 study even demonstrated that a THC-like substance reduced brain inflammation and improved memory in older rats.

Activation of cannabinoid receptors can also reduce brain inflammation in several different ways, which may in turn suppress some of the disease processes responsible for degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Andras Bilkei-Gorzo of the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn in Germany and an author of the study, is encouraged by the expanding knowledge of the brain’s cannabinoid system and its potential for leading to new understanding of aging in the brain. “[C]annabinoid system activity is neuroprotective,” he wrote, and increasing it “could be a promising strategy for slowing down the progression of brain aging and for alleviating the symptoms of neurodegenerative disorders.”

Other studies covered in the review showed that mice bred to lack the cannabinoid receptors have better memories early in life but have more rapid cognitive decline as they age, including inflammation in the hippocampus, a key region for memory. “This finding suggests that, at some point during aging, cannabinoid activity helps maintain normal cognitive functions in mice,” says Daniele Piomelli, professor of neurobiology, anatomy and biological chemistry at the University of California – Irvine, who was not associated with the study.

In 2006, one study showed -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17140265

A molecular link between the active component of marijuana and Alzheimer's disease pathology.

Eubanks LM, Rogers CJ, Beuscher AE 4th, Koob GF, Olson AJ, Dickerson TJ, Janda KD.
Source
Department of Chemistry and Immunology, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.

(The researchers) demonstrate that the active component of marijuana, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease. Computational modeling of the THC-AChE interaction revealed that THC binds in the peripheral anionic site of AChE, the critical region involved in amyloidgenesis. Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of Abeta aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease.

These are things the elderly need to know about in order to make informed decisions. Their health may be improved by such actions.

November 17, 2012

UN Drug Watchdog warns against marijuana legalization/Mexico says Re-Legalize

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2012/13303/un-drug-watchdog-concerned-with-marijuana-legalization-votes/

The INCB is a quasi-judicial body charged with monitoring compliance with the Single Convention and associated treaties. It hectors governments that step outside its interpretation of what the treaties allow, although in practical terms, its ability to enforce its will is mainly rhetorical. INCB criticism of Australia and Canada over the establishment of safe injection sites, for example, has not moved those governments to end the practice, nor has its criticism of Bolivia over allowing coca cultivation resulted in a shift of policy in Bolivia.

(Raymond) Yans (president of the INCB) was inspired to speak out by the victories of Amendment 64 in Colorado and Initiative 502 in Washington state, both of which envisage legal, state-regulated commercial marijuana cultivation and distribution regimes and both of which will result in the possession of small amounts by adults being legal by early next year. The INCB also alluded to the votes in the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint to legalize the possession of up to an ounce by adults on private property.

“These developments are in violation of the international drug control treaties, and pose a great threat to public health and the well-being of society far beyond those states,” Yans said in a Thursday statement. “Legalization of cannabis within these states would send wrong and confusing signals to youth and society in general, giving the false impression that drug abuse might be considered normal and even, most disturbingly, safe. Such a development could result in the expansion of drug abuse, especially among young people, and we must remember that all young people have a right to be protected from drug abuse and drug dependency.”

Yans also noted that “for the international drug control system to function effectively, to achieve its aim of ensuring availability of drugs for medical purposes while preventing their abuse, the conventions must be universally adhered to and implemented by all states.” He called on the US government “to take the necessary measures to ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties within the entire territory of the United States, in order to protect the health and well-being of its citizens.”

Meanwhile...

A group of Latin American leaders declared Monday that votes by two U.S. states to legalize marijuana have important implications for efforts to quash drug smuggling, offering the first government reaction from a region increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-backed war on drugs.

The declaration by the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica did not explicitly say they were considering weakening their governments' efforts against marijuana smuggling, but it strongly implied the votes last week in Colorado and Washington would make enforcement of marijuana bans more difficult.

The four called for the Organization of American States to study the impact of the Colorado and Washington votes and said the United Nations' General Assembly should hold a special session on the prohibition of drugs by 2015 at the latest.

Last week, the most influential adviser to Mexico's president-elect, who takes office Dec. 1, questioned how the country will enforce a ban on growing and smuggling a drug that is now legal under some U.S. state laws. The Obama administration has yet to make clear how strongly it will enforce a federal ban on marijuana that is not affected by the Colorado and Washington votes.

and...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexico-says-marijuana-legalization-in-us-could-change-anti-drug-strategies/2012/11/08/7e6d45ba-29ca-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html

MEXICO CITY — The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their anti-drug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that “changes the rules of the game.”

It is too early to know what Mexico’s response to the successful ballot measures will be, but a top aide said Peña Nieto and members of his incoming administration will discuss the issue with President Obama and congressional leaders in Washington this month. The legalization votes, however, are expected to spark a broad debate in Mexico about the direction and costs of the U.S.-backed drug war here.

Mexico spends billions of dollars each year confronting violent trafficking organizations that threaten the security of the country but whose main market is the United States, the largest consumer of drugs in the world.

With Washington’s urging and support, Mexican soldiers roam the mountains burning clandestine plantations filled with marijuana destined for the United States. Mexico’s police and military last year seized almost as much marijuana as did U.S. agents working the Southwest border region.

and...

Uruguay lawmakers consider legalization of marijuana with goal of outselling pot dealers

Uruguay came one step closer to turning the government into the country’s leading pot dealer on Thursday, as lawmakers formally introduced to Congress a framework for regulating the production, sale and consumption of marijuana.

The proposal is much more liberal than what Uruguay’s government initially proposed months ago, when President Jose Mujica said only the government would be allowed to sell pot.

The draft law would instead create a National Cannabis Institute with the power to license individuals and companies to produce and sell marijuana for recreational, medicinal or industrial uses. It would foster marijuana growing clubs to provide the weed to their members. And most significantly, it would allow anyone to grow a limited amount of marijuana in their own homes, and possess marijuana for their own consumption.

“The thrust is the same, to create state-controlled markets. This provides the legal framework,” Colette Youngers, a drug policy expert at the Washington Office on Latin America who came to Montevideo to advise lawmakers and others drafting the proposal, told The Associated Press. “The main difference is that they have incorporated the idea of cultivation for personal use, and also the cannabis clubs, which was not in the initial proposal.”

yet...

Talk about irony, eh? The very same day American voters in two states legalize, the Stephen Harper government in Canada brought into force tough new mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana.

As Washington and Colorado both on Tuesday approved measures loosening their pot laws, drug measures in the Conservative government's Safe Streets and Communities Act, passed last spring, came into full force in Canada, reports Bruce Cheadle of The Canadian Press.

Canada's new marijuana law dictates a mandatory six-month jail term for growing as few as six cannabis plants -- which is twice the mandatory minimum for luring a child to watch pornography or exposing oneself on a children's playground.

while only one day before...

Canadians call for marijuana referendum after two U.S. states legalize it

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/07/canadians-call-for-marijuana-referendum-after-two-u-s-states-legalize-it/

Colorado and Washington voters - you started changing the world!

In April 2011, former Mexican President Vicente Fox sat before an audience at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in his baritone voice and frank tone urged Americans to legalize marijuana. His thrust: it could help enervate Mexico’s violent drug cartels. “The drug consumer in the U.S. yields billions of dollars, money that goes back to Mexico to bribe police and money that buys guns,” Fox said. “So when you question yourselves about what is going on in Mexico, it depends very much on what happens in this nation.”

At the time, many pundits warned that legalization was a nonstarter. But on Tuesday, voters in Colorado and Washington state did exactly what Fox called for: they approved landmark amendments to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

As supporters in Colorado jumped up and down, shouting “64, 64” after the amendment’s ballot number, the seismic implications of the reforms began to be slowly digested by activists across the globe, especially in drug-war-torn Mexico. “It was very emotional,” says Jorge Hernández, president of the Collective for an Integral Drug Policy, which is pushing for legalization in Mexico. “Now we are not like madmen in the desert. This transforms the debate.” That’s because the U.S. referendums signal the first time voters have approved the full legalization of marijuana anywhere on the planet, giving advocates from Mexico to Moscow bona fide cases to cite and follow. Even the famous cannabis coffee shops of Amsterdam exist only through an ambiguous policy of toleration often referred to as decriminalization, something Portugal has pursued as well. A 2009 Mexican law also decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis and other drugs, but production and selling has been left in the hands of bloodthirsty traffickers.

http://world.time.com/2012/11/08/from-mexico-to-moscow-the-world-turns-on-to-u-s-marijuana-legalization/#ixzz2CWMK5Dsf

The only age group in the U.S. that does not support marijuana legalization is the over 65 group. EVERY other age group, from 18 to 64, supports legalization.

The easiest way to deal with this issue in regard to the U.N. Single Convention on Drugs is to remove cannabis from the CSA, the Controlled Substances list that consists of "schedules" for various substances.

Let the FDA deal with cannabis law in the U.S. and let other countries determine their own law concerning cannabis.

November 16, 2012

Legalize Drugs: A Debate from Intelligence(squared)

November 15, 2012

Marijuana Legalization: What Can/Will the Feds Do?

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2012/nov/14/what_will_feds_do_about_marijuana_legalization

So far, the federal response has been muted. The White House has not commented, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has not commented, and the Department of Justice has limited its comments to observing that it will continue to enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act.

"My understanding is that Justice was completely taken aback by this and by the wide margin of passage," said Eric Sterling, former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and currently the executive director of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. "They believed this would be a repeat of 2010, and they are really kind of astonished because they understand that this is a big thing politically and a complicated problem legally. People are writing memos, thinking about the relationship between federal and state law, doctrines of preemption, and what might be permitted under the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs."

Here is another group that didn't seem to think polls were telling the truth.

The article goes on to note the standard line about fed law and state law and quotes a former Drug Czar employee who said the crackdowns in CA regarding mmj provide a template for expected responses.

Then this article gets more interesting...

Less clear is what else, exactly, the federal government can do. While federal drug laws may "trump" state laws, it is not at all certain that they preempt them. Preemption has a precise legal meaning, signifying that federal law supersedes state law and that the conflicting state law is null and void.

"Opponents of these laws would love nothing more than to be able to preempt them, but there is not a viable legal theory to do that," said Alex Kreit, a constitutional law expert at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego who co-authored an amicus brief on preemption in a now mooted California medical marijuana case. "Under the anti-commandeering principle, the federal government can't force a state to make something illegal. It can provide incentives to do so, but it can't outright force a state to criminalize marijuana."

good read - more at the link above.

November 12, 2012

LOL!!! Fox News story: Legalized Pot: Smoke it or Eat it?

The times, they are a changin' when Fox News runs with a syndicated story about the pros and cons of smoking vs. eating.

The story is still full of wrongheaded ideas, etc.

BUT...how many in their GWG (grumpy white guy) audience were ready for that one, I wonder.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/11/12/legalized-pot-smoke-it-or-eat-it/

November 12, 2012

Notice that Social Conservatism is being discredited?

David Frum, Karen whatshername, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention himself have, among many others, acknowledged that America has rejected the extremism of fundamentalist Protestant and conservative Catholic belief.

Live how you will, but don't pretend you have the right to tell the rest of us how to live based upon your beliefs. That's what Americans told the Republican Party.

Frum is telling social conservatives to move from their current objective to deny homosexual and women's rights to economic populism of some sort. This is diametrically opposed to the Republican Party's entire reason for being... so, if the social issues are not going to work as an issue - why should economic populists stay with the party that has traditionally opposed labor rights?

Karen whatshername and others are just saying "Shut up, don't say what you really think." - but we've had more than enough years to see what social conservatives really think. If you have to lie to get elected... well, I guess that makes you the modern Republican Party.

Democrats need to heed the changes in the wind too, in terms of economic justice and tax rates and the rest. Wall Street got their bail out. It's time to invest in America.

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