Articles

09/06/2023

Pooling of data from the identified longitudinal studies showed that ever e-cigarette users have an increased likelihood for subsequent cannabis, alcohol, and unprescribed Ritalin/Adderall use compared to never e-cigarette users. The findings indicate a need for interventions to reduce e-cigarette use in adolescents and young adults.

02/12/2020

THC pre-exposure increased responding for heroin and heroin intake under FR-3 and FR-5 as well as PR protocols and increased breaking point in PR schedules in LEW but not F344 rats. Drug cues and heroin priming reinstated responding in LEW and F344, but THC pre-exposure increased reinstatement by priming in LEW rats and by cues in F344 rats. These observations show that in genetically predisposed individuals, adolescent cannabis exposure increases heroin reinforcing properties, thus providing a mechanism for a causal role of adolescent cannabis use in heroin abuse.

09/16/2018

There was more alarming news. Use of illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, and opioids by pregnant women increased significantly between 2015 and 2017. About 7 percent of pregnant women reported using marijuana. Three percent said they used it daily. 

McCance-Katz says marijuana use is linked to fetal growth problems, preterm births, stillbirths, hyperactivity and impaired cognition in newborns. 

03/03/2018

12/22/2016

12/07/2016

In Ontario, for instance, a survey released Wednesday by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found that past-year cannabis use virtually doubled between 1996 and 2015, rising from about eight per cent to almost 15 per cent of respondents.
Significant increases were found among all age groups, but especially among 18- to 29-year-olds, with the proportion of pot smokers jumping from about 18 per cent in 1996 to 38 per cent in 2015

08/09/2016

If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills two hundred people a week, take a hard look at the legalization of pot, which destroyed the profits of the Mexican cartels. How did they respond to a major loss in revenue? Like any company, they created an irresistible new product and flooded the market. The scariest part: this might not have happened with El Chapo in charge.

05/10/2016

02/20/2016

A new study suggests marijuana smokers may be significantly more likely to develop an addiction to other drugs and alcohol than people who don’t use marijuana.
The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, included almost 35,000 adults who were interviewed three years apart. At the time of the first interview, almost 1,300 used marijuana. After three years, two-thirds of people who used marijuana had some form of substance use disorder, compared with less than 20 percent of people who did not use marijuana in the previous year.

11/28/2015

Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T., a statewide recovery program, found that 84 percent of program participants in 2014 struggled with substance abuse, 54 percent of which said they used marijuana

09/21/2015

• Prenatal exposure to marijuana has been shown to be predictive of psychotic symptoms in young adulthood.
• Monitoring the Future survey reported a five-year decline in the perceived harm of regularly smoking marijuana, from 52.4% of high school seniors to 36.1%
• Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the United States and it is estimated that it is used by 61% of all persons suffering from a substance use disorder related to drugs other than alcohol.
• The risk of developing addiction associated with cannabis use has been reported to increase to about 17% among those who start using marijuana in adolescence, and to 25-50% among those who smoke marijuana daily.
• Smoke from marijuana combustion has been shown to contain a number of carcinogens and cocarcinogens, as well as many of the toxins, irritants, and carcinogens as tobacco smoke. 
• Marijuana-infused edibles account for 45% of the legal marijuana marketplace.
• AMA Marijuana has a high potential for abuse. It has no scientifically proven, currently accepted medical use for preventing or treating any disease process in the United States.

Number Using Opioids and Marijuana on the Rise

Chart: Colorado among states with growing heroin, prescription drug abuse problem 

Consistent with the past, in 2014 still only 47 percent of operators involved in traffic deaths were tested for drug impairment.

07/11/2015

Heroin use is part of a larger substance abuse problem.

Nearly all people who used heroin also used at least 1 other drug. Most used at least 3 other drugs.
Heroin is a highly addictive opioid drug with a high risk of overdose and death for users.
People who are addicted to…

Alcohol are 2 times more likely to become addicted to heroin.
Marijuana are 3 times more likely to become addicted to heroin.
Cocaine are 15 times more likely to become addicted to heroin..
Prescription opioid painkillers are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin.
SOURCE: National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2011-2013.

06/05/2015

The Gazette kicks off a four-day perspective series, "Clearing the Haze," that examines health, social, regulatory and financial issues associated with the world's boldest experiment with legal marijuana. 
The ugly truth is that Colorado was suckered. It was promised regulation and has been met by an industry that fights tooth and nail any restrictions that limit its profitability. 

03/01/2015

09/19/2014

09/03/2014

07/28/2014

 Stuart Gitlow, MD, president of ASAM and a board-certified addiction medicine specialist, called the paper’s stance “irresponsible” and “ignorant of the facts” that clearly place marijuana on the continuum of psychoactive drugs that trigger addiction and lifelong chronic brain disease.

07/07/2014

06/29/2014

“I can share my personal weed with somebody, no problem,” said Taijeron. “But we can’t sell it or exchange money for marijuana.”

06/19/2014

The reviewers consider areas in which little research has been conducted. This includes possible health consequences of secondhand marijuana smoke; the long-term impact of prenatal marijuana exposure; the therapeutic potential of the individual chemicals found in the marijuana plant; and effects of marijuana legalization policies on public health.

05/18/2014

04/03/2014

A new study suggests people with mental illness are more than seven times as likely to use marijuana weekly than people without a mental illness.

In total, 4.4 percent of individuals with a mental illness in the past 12 months reported using cannabis weekly, compared to 0.6 percent among individuals without any mental illness.

Cannabis use disorders occurred among 4 percent of those with mental illness versus 0.4 per cent among those without.

Researchers also noted that, although cannabis use is generally higher among younger people, the association between mental illness and cannabis use was pervasive across most age groups.

03/19/2014

Kevin A. Sabet, the director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and a former senior advisor for President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy, also takes issue with this sweeping claim.   "Show me that data," Sabet said in reaction to hearing this. "Also, chocolate doesn't cause car crashes or IQ loss or mental illness."

Calvina Fay, executive director of Drug Free America, a nonprofit that educates the public about the dangers of drug abuse, responded, "Unlike marijuana, I am not aware of anyone in treatment for chocolate addiction and it certainly is not a substance that sends people to the hospital or impairs one's ability to work or operate a vehicle or machinery."

02/24/2014

Furthermore, early users of all three substances were more than twice as likely to meet the criteria for marijuana dependence (21% vs. 8%).

01/21/2014

• Florida should not legalize marijuana because it is a gateway drug that is addictive and damaging to the teenage brain. Moreover, without FDA regulation there is no way to monitor the drug’s potency.
• He then fell into the habit of taking pills in order to maintain the buzz he got from pot.
• It is out of love for our children, for those like my son, that we must say no (to legalizing marijuana).

10/10/2013