Tag: Substance abuse

Marijuana Posted on

Corporations Want Control of the Marijuana Industry — Here’s How to Stop It

Putting the growing legal pot business in the hands of for-profit corporations could pose serious and dangerous consequences to the public The standard debate about marijuana legalization has been “Should we, or shouldn’t we?” For better and for worse, the country appears to be moving toward answering that question in the affirmative. The next logical question is, or ought to be, “What sorts of organizations do we want to supply that legal marijuana?” The debate typically skips past that crucial question and presumes that legal cannabis will be produced and sold by for-profit companies—with the government setting some regulatory limits such as restricting access to minors. Colorado and Washington, the two states where voters have already approved legalization, have gone this commercial route. At first […] Read More

Medical Posted on

Who Is Behind the Pain Killer Epidemic? Big Pharma, Of Course

The FDA approved Zohydro, with five to 10 times the abuse potential as its predecessor, OxyContin. There is good news and bad news when it comes to the nation’s decade-long opioid/heroin addiction epidemic. The good news is the government has cracked down on pill mills, strengthened warnings on pill labels and approved an injectable form of naloxone which reverses heroin overdoses and will reduce deaths in the hands of caregivers and police. The bad news is on the same day the FDA announced plans to tighten restrictions on hydrocodone combination products like Vicodin, it approved the long-acting drug Zohydro made from hydrocodone bitartrate which has five to 10 times the abuse potential of the infamous OxyContin. The FDA did so over the objections of many medical and public […] Read More

Drug's Posted on

2014: How the Corporate Media and Journalists Perpetuate Lies and Misinformation About Drugs

Drug panics have real and damaging consequences. The following article first appeared on Substance.com:  Journalists are no less likely to take drugs than anyone else—indeed, in my admittedly anecdotal experience, they’re more likely to use. You’d think that this would make us especially skeptical both about federal policies that failed to prevent our own drug-taking and about extreme claims about drug users. But the press may actually be one of the biggest obstacles to reform. Instead of asking tough questions, reporters tend to simply parrot conventional wisdom—and reinforce the idea that the drug war is the only way, even when drug warriors’ claims contradict the evidence of the writers’ own lives. In the last month alone, we’ve seen several particularly egregious examples of mindless reporting—including one that […] Read More

Marijuana Posted on

Frequent Cannabis Consumers Are Less Likely To Engage In Problematic Alcohol Use

Investigators analyzed data from a nationwide survey on alcohol and drug use. Those who report consuming cannabis two or three times per week are less likely to engage in at risk drinking behavior, according to data published online in The American Journal of Addictions. Investigators from Sweden’s Lund University, Department of Clinical Sciences, analyzed data from a nationwide survey on alcohol and drug use conducted by the National Institute of Public Health. Over 22,000 respondents between the ages of 15 and 64 participated in the survey. Researchers reported that frequent cannabis consumers (defined as having used cannabis two or three times per week) were less likely to engage in hazardous drinking practices compared to infrequent users (those who reported having consumed cannabis fewer than four times per month). […] Read More

Drug's Posted on

2014: Intelligent People Are More Likely to Use Drugs. Why?

There’s a correlation between high childhood IQ and adult drug use. What does it mean? The following article first appeared on TheFix.com. Also on TheFix.com: Brain Restoration: Too Good to be True for Addiction and Disease?; Howard Dean and the Politics of Recovery; Tap Tap Tap: A Path to Healing and Recovery.  Two major papers have found a positive correlation between high childhood IQ and adult drug use. The first was published in 2011 (Intelligence across childhood in relation to illegal drug use in adulthood: 1970 British Cohort Study). The second was published in 2012(Intelligence quotient in childhood and the risk of illegal drug use in middle-age: the 1958 National Child Development Survey). Both were co-authored by James W. White PhD and all of the data for both research papers comes from The Centre for Longitudinal […] Read More