Overall, “the public health burden of cannabis use is probably modest compared with that of alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs,” Australian researchers reported in the Oct. 17 issue of The Lancet.
Wayne Hall, PhD, of the University of Queensland in Herston, Australia, and Louisa Degenhardt, PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, reviewed nearly 100 studies covering acute as well as chronic effects of marijuana, including reports of the prevalence of marijuana use around the world.
Globally, they wrote, about 3.9% of the world’s population used marijuana in 2006, according to United Nations statistics.
Well it opens nicely by noting that cannabis is safer and that almost 1 out of 25 people worldwide use cannabis. It gets a bit dicey from there:
They spent more time detailing the psychomotor impairments associated with the marijuana high. “Some experimental studies have shown diminished driving performance in response to emergency situations,” Hall and Degenhardt said, findings also corroborated in epidemiological studies.
For example, one study of car crash victims found that they were more likely to have tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of marijuana, in their blood compared with age- and sex-matched controls.
Another study determined that motorists killed in wrecks were 2.5 times as likely to have been responsible for the accident when they had THC in their blood.
These are meaningless points when you recognize that:
Marijuana is the third-most used drug after alcohol and tobacco, so it is not surprising you’d find it in car crash victims;
Marijuana is detectable in the blood long after most other drugs, including alcohol, are not; and
Recent studies show that people can test positive for THC in the blood up to a week after ceasing their use of cannabis.
Allowing the use of marijuana (or cannabis), even for medicinal purposes, doesn’t appear to have much support among public officials in Kansas. Locally, Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski said he believes relaxing the rules would be ill-advised. Saline County Attorney Ellen Mitchell, who was deep into preparing for the third murder trial of Cameron Nelson, expressed skepticism. Salina Police Chief Jim Hill didn’t return a call seeking comment.
And Kansas Attorney General Steven Six said he would oppose it if the Legislature ever brought it up.
“The use of marijuana can lead to the use of other harder, more serious, drugs,” he said in an e-mail, via a spokesperson.
Or just offer the common sense observation that while nearly every heroin and cocaine user first tried pot, nearly every pot user doesn’t try heroin or cocaine. There are now 102 million Americans age 12 and older who have tried marijuana, yet there are only 2 million active cocaine users and 350,000 active heroin users.
Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 7:32 pm | By: Radical Russ
NORML’s Paul Armentano has already done a stellar job taking on the latest reefer madess on ABC News. This is another one of what seem to be an increasing number of stories (NY Times, Dr. Drew, The Tenneseean, CNN, TransWorldNews, Christian Science Monitor) that bring up the idea of “marijuana addiction” by telling the personal stories of people whose lives became full of turmoil and regret when they just couldn’t give up the doobies.
Many years ago the former head of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Alan Leshner made this statement when forced to confront the fact that tens of thousands of patients were successfully using cannabis as a medicine:“The plural of anecdote is not evidence.”
Someone ought to pass on Lesnher’s cop out to ABC News, whose recent feature, “Reefer Madness Redux: Is Pot Addictive?“, is little more than a series of anecdotes from folks claiming that it’s becoming harder and harder for some individuals to quit weed.
Yes, if 10,000 people say that using marijuana helped them medicinally, that’s just anecdotes and no basis for medicine. But if a dozen people say that they were daily tokers, it ruined their lives, and they had a hard time quitting the bong, that’s enough for the mainstream media to question “Is Pot Addictive?”. Which, by the way, is one of those sneaky ways the media tries to push a narrative by just asking the question and not declaring the fact. “Is President Obama a Kenyan-born Illegal President?” or “Has Former President Bush Returned to His Hard Drinking Ways?” would be similar examples of the technique.
Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 9:20 am | By: Radical Russ
Well, of course our server hosts would move our FTP access to a new server over the weekend when I am going to be completely without computer access! Â As you probably know by now, you can’t download / listen to my last two Daily Audio Stashes because of this server move, since I uploaded the Stash to the old location. Â Then I headed off to the Mtn. High Camping Weekend where I had cell phone connection, but no computer connection. Â Thus, I got to read all your emails on my Crackberry saying “Where’s the Stash?!?” but I had no way to fix the problems.
I’m working right now to fix the problems. Â In the meantime, I’ve gotten a few comments about Michael Jackson and his apparent Demerol addiction. Â First off, I know about Demerol; my wife is a medical marijuana patient for migraines. Â Before we moved to Oregon, when we lived in Idaho, the only thing that would cure her migraine is a shot of Demerol at the emergency room (she is allergic to just about every NSAID and every other opioid). Â After the shot, she’d have to take two days off work because the Demerol would turn her into a puddle of drool.
Reports are saying Michael Jackson was getting daily shots of Demerol. Â I don’t know how he even functioned.
I’m reading people’s comments saying, “If Michael used medical marijuana instead of pharmaceutical painkillers, he’d be alive.” Â Personally, I don’t like to engage in that sort of speculation. Â Medical marijuana isn’t for everyone and who knows what advice Michael’s doctors gave him. Â Maybe he’s allergic to cannabis (some people are). Â His medical treatment is his own business. Â Plus, I’m not so certain that Michael’s religious beliefs would have tolerated marijuana use.
Michael’s use of painkillers didn’t necessarily need to lead to his death, either; it may have just been his time. Â But when a person achieves the demigod celebrity status he achieved, it is hard to get reliable, honest, agenda-free advice. Â Michael says he hurts, Michael’s done dance moves all his life, what doctor’s going to deny his requests? Â Even if he did, there are ten other doctors lived up for that Dangerous Bad Thriller money who will give him whatever he wants. Â He gets addicted, he wants more, doctors say yes, so he must figure it is OK.
Then think about living life as Michael Jackson. Â Imagine that every time you leave your home, someone points a strobe light in your face (that’s what the dozen of paparazzi flashes must look like at the center). Â You’ve messed up your face with too much plastic surgery. Â People you thought were your friends accuse you of terrible things in court. Â You’ve been working since you were four. Â You’ve never found true love. Â You’re fifty and trying to compete in music and dance against twenty-somethings. Â You can’t take your kids on a simple walk on the beach. Â You’ve mismanaged your money to the point of bankruptcy. Â And the pain, the daily pain, from so many twists and turns and kicks and spins.
I, too, wish Michael Jackson had been using marijuana instead of Demerol and that he was still alive and about to come back with a new album and tour. Â I don’t know if that alone would have saved him, though.
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
I have an acquaintence here in Portland who claims knowledge of “addictionology”. Â When I have mentioned that marijuana use causes dependence in a few, not addiction, he’s quick to correct me by saying that marijuana use causes the release of dopamine in the brain, just like any other addictive drug, and that is how we can consider marijuana to be physically addictive. Â I’ve always believed that correction to be faulty, but lacked the knowledge of brain functioning to offer a strong rebuttal.
Now it looks like I have a new study to back me up:
Background: Cannabis use in early adolescence may be a risk factor for development of schizophrenia. In animals, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) increases the rate of dopamine neuronal firing and release in the striatum. Thus cannabis use may increase dopamine release in the human striatum leading to vulnerability to psychosis
Aims: To investigate whether THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis, can produce dopamine release in the human striatum.
Methods: 13 healthy volunteers, with previous cannabis experience, underwent two [11C]-raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) scans to indirectly measure striatal dopamine levels following either 10mg THC or placebo.
Results: Although THC markedly increased psychosis-like symptoms on the Psychotomimetic States Inventory (PSI), there was no significant effect of THC on [11C]-raclopride binding
Conclusion: In the largest study of its kind so far, we have shown that recreational cannabis users do not release significant amounts of dopamine from an oral THC dose equivalent to a standard cannabis cigarette. This result challenges current models of striatal dopamine release as the mechanism mediating cannabis as risk factor for schizophrenia.
We’ve known in the past that Alcohol addiction can be hereditary, but not it seems that the roots of many addictions are actually genetic.
“Addiction researchers have found that several genes are linked with multiple addictions,” says co-author Ming Li, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the UVA School of Medicine.
There’s allot of technical information in the article, but in this case a picture tells a thousand words.
This diagram shows points where genetic markers can indicate addiction
I’m glad to see they put Cannabis in green, so I can point it out better.
See the difference in the number of genetic markers for say, Nicotine and Cannabis? We could be on the cusp of putting the “what about the children” garbage to rest indefinitely. If we know that addiction takes an addictive personality, the preferred drug, and a genetic predisposition; there can be an iron clad argument that addicts are suffering from a disease, just like breast cancer. Cannabis doesn’t make an addict, the addict seeks out cannabis.
What if everything you believed about addiction is wrong?
A major misconception involving addiction is the idea that certain substances are, all by themselves, addicting. That a drug can captivate an unwary victim is an idea popularized in the 1936 film Reefer Madness. In that movie, it took just a few puffs of marijuana to turn a gentleman into a slobbering dope fiend; his health shattered; his life ruined.
It just doesn’t work that way, and anybody who has ever smoked cannabis knows that. But many people believe that a particular substance is addictive (a belief that I’ve had until now). Why then isn’t half of America addicted to Marijuana?
The reason is because addiction depends, first and foremost, upon having an addictive personality. Such people, estimated at perhaps 10%-15% of the population, simply don’t know when to stop. During the Vietnam War, drug use was endemic among troops serving in Southeast Asia. And yet, returning veterans suffered addiction rates that were no higher than those found in the general population.
It’s a core 10% -15% of the population that may have an “addictive personality”. And they may be self selecting the drug that triggers that personality trait. If it takes a combination of the drug and the individual to create an addiction, what will we think about the Drug War when we discover that there is a biological component (like the genetic link to breast cancer) to those who are addicted to a particular drug. We would never think about arresting women who had breast cancer and placing them in jail to prevent others from getting breast cancer, we soon may be looking at addiction to drugs in the same way.
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Americans for Safe Access teleconference on California DMV medical marijuana policy change, with personal testimonies from patients whose licenses had been suspended solely for medical status.
Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 9:21 am | By: Radical Russ
These days Jim’s show revolves around family — being a husband, a father and the son of elderly parents. Of course, he still includes some humor from Half Baked and Saturday Night Live, but that material isn’t what carries his show.
The whole thing is in support of the comedian’s upcoming Comedy Central special, Let’s Clear the Air, which is set to debut June 6.
The title plays off of Half Baked, and Jim says it’s intended to “clear the air” about who he is now. Being a pot addict was never part of his plan, and he says Saturday Night Live was a reason for his dependence on the substance.
“That decision (to quit) was based out of a couple of things, mostly out of what I was becoming as a person,” he said. “By then, I was addicted to pot to numb myself. I was very moody and angry, and that’s something I never ever was my whole life. My wife said, ‘You’re the big advocate of, “If you don’t like your job, no money is worth that. Quit.’ ” I was like, ‘You don’t get it. It’s Saturday Night Live.’ She said, ‘I don’t care if you are the king of heaven. You are miserable. You’re ugly. Quit.’ ”
So, he did.
“I just wanted to feel better,” he said. “I would rather be broke (and) living in a tent than to live like that. It’s just like any other job. Someone hires you, and that person who hired you can’t stand some of his bosses, so he quits. And now the bosses that move in never were a fan of you, so they do everything they can to oust you, and if they can’t oust you, they make your life miserable. And that was my scenario.”
Once he was off the show, Jim and his wife moved to the suburbs and decided to start a family. The decision to quit smoking marijuana followed soon, but the comedian says it’s still something he thinks about every day.
Indeed, when Breuer gave up marijuana for good, his desire to do stand-up came back. Still, he isn’t saying it’s easy to leave the substance alone.
“I would go, ‘Well, I’ll stop for a week,’ ” he said. “Then I’d feel like, ‘Well it’s all right to do it on Thursday night, Everyone’s in bed. It will help me sleep.’ Until finally I went, ‘Just get rid of it, and let’s just start this run.’
“Each day I would struggle, and to this day I struggle. I never, ever thought I would say it. I always thought, ‘Oh, that’s drinkers or that’s drug addicts,’ but every day I struggle a little bit … I loved it. That was the problem. Will I walk away forever? I don’t know.”
I don’t have a problem with anyone giving up marijuana. Â I figure, great, more for me.
According to the Institute of Medicine report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999), 9% of those who use marijuana become “clinically dependent”, as defined by DSM-III-R criteria.  By comparison, the figures for dependence are 15% for alcohol, 17% for cocaine, 23% for heroin, and 32% for tobacco.  Jim Breuer could very well be one of those 9% and if his life is better without cannabis, good for him.
However, I’m not sure I can see how marijuana was the problem, if I’m following his story straight:
Person A hires Jim Breuer for SNL – Breuer is a happy pot smoker. Â (Assumption – Brewer began SNL in 1995, Half Baked was released Jan 16, 1998. Â That movie would’ve been in production and casting in 1997, and who would cast a total non-pothead in that role?)
Person A quits SNL, Person B comes in, hates Jim Breuer.
Breuer continues to smoke pot to “numb” himself to the SNL situation that made him “moody and angry”.
Breuer quits SNL, then later quits pot.
Breuer admits he “struggles” with pot because he “loved it”.
Seems to me SNL was the problem, not the pot, but I cannot walk in Jim Breuer’s shoes and there is probably a whole lot more not contained in this story. Â Still, I can’t help thinking this is some diabolical plot by Samson Simpson to intimidate us potheads, B, since killing Killer didn’t do it, yo!
The group now counts more than 150 people who currently use or would benefit from medical marijuana in the Tar Heel State.
Hoveland is a tree cutter who suffers from arthritis, joint pain, and broken bones. He says legal painkiller drugs are often too strong for him, or cause adverse reactions in his body.
But addiction counselors like Rebecca Austin aren’t convinced. She helps teens and adults break drug habits at the Ringer Center in Greensboro.
“I don’t buy it,” says Austin of medical marijuana use. “While it may alleviate symptoms, it also compromises the immune system. So while we may have a short term treatment, we may have long-term effects.”
Rebecca, can you explain to me why the AIDS Action Council, AIDS Treatment News, Canadian AIDS Society,  and the San Francisco Mayor’s Summit on AIDS and HIV all support legal access to medical marijuana and thirteen states legalized the use of medical marijuana for the treatment of HIV/AIDS?  Why would they recommend an herb that you think “compromises the immune system” for people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome?  Get yourself a copy of Paul Armentano’s pamphlet on Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids so you, too, can learn: “Clinical trial data indicates that cannabis use does not adversely impact CD4 and CD8 T cell counts, and may even improve immune function.”
Austin also worries about disregarding marijuana’s addiction risk. “The message that that gives to teens and others is that marijuana is safe in all instances and I think that’s a very dangerous message to send.”
Ah, yes, marijuana’s dangerous addiction risk.  The drug so addictive that a full one-third of the people entering rehab for marijuana dependence haven’t even used marijuana in the past thirty days.  The drug so powerful that a full 9% of its users report some symptoms of dependence, as compared to “alcohol (15%), cocaine (17%), heroin (23%), or tobacco (32%).”  A drug whose symptoms of dependence include irritability and sleeplessness when withdrawing, as opposed to delirium tremens, hallucination, intense craving, and perhaps death.
We wouldn’t want to send a medical marijuana message to the kids, would we? Â Why, in the last twelve states where we sent that message, teenage use of marijuana decreased.
Hoveland other medical marijuana supporters aim to send a message to state legislators to allow safe and legal access to the drug.
The NCCPN is seeking a bill that would allow patients and doctors to do marijuana research. Members claim they’re teaming up with local state representative Earl Jones, who has supported similar legislation in the past.
We interviewed Rep. Jones on the June 2, 2008 Daily Audio Stash. Â I am convinced that like Michigan in 2008, North Carolina in 2009 can be the state the introduces medical marijuana to a whole new section of the country.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
RevRayGreen: I was like 14/15 back then..old fuckng school sht
RevRayGreen: @MH.....white x's, yellow jackts,BB's.then it became just caffeine pills
SneakerPimp: im diggen yesterdays stash daily toker tunes segment awesome
WakeUpDead: Just got done with yesterdays stash and now the new one is up, very cool.
SneakerPimp: ah fresh stashieness
SneakerPimp: nice pic there mr ruben
Missippi Hippy: black beauties - got 'em by the pharm sealed 1000 in the 80s
Adam: Kieth Stroup told me that he has new book coming out, it will cover the time periods after High in America was published.
Adam: I recommend that you all read High in America: The True Story Behind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana.
Read it FREE online HERE
http://tinyurl.com/cxzc3h
slash5city: ah the mid 80's spof ..the summers of 3d weed.... head down to the smoking area at school buy a 2$ pin joint or two from the one dealer then [...]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Health Risks of Marijuana Still Not Nailed Down… really?
A new article on MedPage today claims that we still don’t fully understand the health risks of cannabis use:
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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