Health & Medicine
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
UC Davis Clinical Trial of Smoked Cannabis for Spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Now Recruiting
Health & Medicine David Downs — Tue, May 15, 2012 at 9:57 AM
The University of California Davis, in collaboration with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, has permission to conduct a clinical trial of smoked cannabis on 60 M.S. patients. It's extremely rare to see something like this National Institutes of Health study. This field of science has been dangerously politicized, critics note.
Friday, March 9, 2012
"Spice" and "K2" Fake Pot Chemicals Emergency Banned For Additional Six Months
Health & Medicine David Downs — Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 11:48 AM
"The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) exercised its emergency scheduling authority to extend, by six months, control of five chemicals (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) used to make so-called “fake pot” products," states the D.E.A. in a release Fed. 29.
JWH and company are burly synthetic cannabinoids created in labs, manufactured in China and un-tested on humans. People are using them to get high and pass a drug test, especially groups regularly drug tested for marijuana, like servicemembers, athletes, and as the D.E.A. relates below, teens and young adults. Their maker, chemist John W. Huffman has said "people who use it are idiots".
Friday, February 24, 2012
STUDY: "Do Medical Marijuana Laws Increase Marijuana Use?"
Health & Medicine David Downs — Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:19 AM
"CONCLUSION: Accounting for confounding by unmeasured state characteristics and measurement error had an important effect on estimates of the impact of MMLs on marijuana use. We find limited evidence of causal effects of MMLs on measures of reported marijuana use." — from "Do Medical Marijuana Laws Increase Marijuana Use? Replication Study and Extension", published in the Annals of Epidemiology.
Monday, February 20, 2012
'Los Angeles Times' on "Testing Pot In a Legal Vacuum"
Health & Medicine David Downs — Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 10:11 AM
"Few standards apply to quality of marijuana, because the federal government considers all use illegal." — Los Angeles Times, "Testing pot in a legal vacuum". Related content from over four years of lab coverage in the East Bay Express: "The Manhattan Project of Marijuana"; "The Cannabis Clean-Up Team"; "Testing The Weed Testers".
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Veterans Affairs, Stanford University, SPARC Patients in National Study on Medical Cannabis
Health & Medicine David Downs — Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:59 PM
San Francisco dispensary SPARC "has initiated a national first study on medical cannabis in partnership with Veterans Affairs and Stanford University”, the group writes in an email newsletter this morning.
“Help science understand why people are utilizing medical cannabis by coming to SPARC this week on the days listed below and filling out an anonymous questionnaire. ... You don’t need to be a veteran to participate in the study. Veterans Association has been studying the beneficial use of medical cannabis among veterans and would like to broaden its research of how medical cannabis is being used by patients in the community at places like SPARC.”
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Legal Weed Appears to Cause a Sharp Reduction in Suicides: Discuss
Health & Medicine David Downs — Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 3:55 PM
At least that's what epidemiologists and psychologists are going to have to do, in light of new findings from the same researchers who found that legalization correlates with fewer road deaths:
"Using state-level data for the period 1990 through 2007, we estimate the effect of legalizing medical marijuana on suicide rates. Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20- through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30- through 39-year-old males. Estimates of the relationship between legalization and female suicides are less precise and are sensitive to functional form."
That's from the discussion paper, entitled "High on Life? Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide," written by D. Mark Anderson, Daniel I. Rees, and Joseph J. Sabia, and sponsored by the IZA, a private, independent research institute that conducts nationally- and internationally-oriented labor market research.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
What the Funk? Terpenes Take off in Labs, Drug Companies, and Dispensaries
Health & Medicine David Downs — Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Bay Area residents have yet another thing to be snobs about in 2012 as knowledge of “terpenes” — the building blocks that make up the unique smell of cannabis — begin to waft into the mainstream.
Drug companies are researching the therapeutic properties of these simple organic molecules, and at least two California medical cannabis labs have begun testing for their presence in dispensary weed. One lab in Davis even holds routine smelling classes.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Study: Marijuana Smoking NOT Associated With Lung Damage
Health & Medicine David Downs — Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 2:08 PM
"For occasional users, smoking marijuana was actually associated with a small but statistically significant increase in lung capacity - perhaps caused by the deep-breathing pot smokers use to draw the drug into their lungs." A total bombshell of a study if you ask us. [via SFGate]
Monday, October 17, 2011
California Medical Association Officially Supports Legalization
Health & Medicine David Downs — Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Amid a new round of federal saber-rattling and setbacks for leading California dispensaries, here's some good news: The 35,000 doctor-strong California Medical Association has joined the reality-based community in recommending the legalization and regulation of cannabis. The CMA is the largest physician group in California and the first statewide medical association to take the position. CMA's president-elect James T Hay says it will be the first of many.
"CMA may be the first organization of its kind to take this position, but we won’t be the last. This was a carefully considered, deliberative decision made exclusively on medical and scientific grounds,” said Hay in a Sunday release. “As physicians, we need to have a better understanding about the benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis so that we can provide the best care possible to our patients.”
The federal government classifies pot among the most dangerous of all drugs, alongside heroin, when it is smoked in its plant form. However, pharmaceutical companies may sell the same active ingredients in pill form legally.
The CMA recommends regulating and taxing recreational cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco. In a related white paper (.pdf), the CMA also notes, the criminalization of cannabis has proven to be a failed public health policy for several reasons, including:
Monday, September 26, 2011
The Roundup: Testing the Cannabis Testers; San Jose to Close all its Clubs by Next Month
Health & Medicine David Downs — Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 10:58 AM
Good morning. Here's your headlines.
1) White House asks people online to have a voice in government. The first petition to hit the tipping point for review: legalizing cannabis.
2) Federal bill to end marijuana prohibition gets fifteen sponsors — but is still a long shot.
3) New York city police commissioner orders cops to stop arresting people for cannabis unless its in public view.
4) Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson busted for accepting 2.5 pounds of pot mailed from Humboldt.
