[Farm A.C.]

Study aims to clear haze surrounding pot addiction

By Terri Somers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 14, 2008

Atrophy of the brain and cirrhosis of the liver are long-term side effects of heavy alcohol dependence. And withdrawal for alcoholics can bring sometimes fatal delirium tremors and convulsions.

Those facts are well known.


Barbara Mason
But much less is known about marijuana, the nation's most widely used and socially accepted illicit drug. Our knowledge of marijuana is often based on personal experience, observation or anecdotes, despite a growing collection of scientific studies on the topic.

Scripps Research Institute addiction expert Barbara Mason hopes to change that, and to help find novel treatments for addiction to marijuana, with some solid scientific data.

Mason is leading the first-ever comprehensive study on the neurobiological effects of cannabis addiction, funded with a $4 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The four-year project will involve animal and human studies that look at what happens in the body during cannabis addiction. That data will then be compared to what happens in the body during withdrawal and afterward.

The four scientific labs involved, including one at UCSD, will then submit their findings to the drug abuse institute to help researchers develop new medications that can help prevent relapse.

Not that Mason wants to be a buzz kill.

“I'm not a stand-on-the-soa**** kind of person,” Mason said. “I just feel like there's a real gap in our knowledge and understanding of cannabis that I want to fill in.”

She has spent two decades researching addiction, withdrawal and treatment. She is the director of Scripp's Laboratory of Clinical Psychopharmacology. And she has won national honors for her groundbreaking work on the combination of alcohol and depression, as well as her research into medical therapies to treat withdrawal from alcohol dependence.

Dr. Mark Gold, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Florida, said Mason is a world class investigator and the study is significant.

“Cannabis addiction is a common patient complaint,” he said. “While treatments have been developed for addictions from alcohol to nicotine and narcotics, none exists for the cannabis dependent. This research will help the field define what cannabis is and is not, and how to treat it.”

Studies at the University of Michigan in 1994 and 2004 show that one in every nine or 10 people who tries marijuana becomes dependent.

In the commonly used medical reference manual for psychiatric disorders, there is precise information about intoxication, dependence and withdrawal from substances ranging from alcohol to nicotine to heroin. But there is no information on cannabis.

And if it isn't listed in the manual, it doesn't exist in the treatment world and, perhaps more importantly, in the eyes of health insurance companies, said Dr. Ivan Montoya, who is with the NIDA's division of pharmacotherapies and medical consequences of drug abuse.

Mason said there is proof in animal and human studies of a withdrawal syndrome for cannabis. Like with nicotine, relapsing with marijuana gets rid of the symptoms, she said.

Two of the most frequent, long-lasting symptoms seen in people trying to stop smoking marijuana are sleep disturbances, such as vivid bad dreams, and negative behavioral affects, such as anxiety, anger and irritability, she said.

The symptoms are more subtle than withdrawal from other substances, such as alcohol. But alcohol clears from the system in a couple of days, she said.

Part of the problem with marijuana is its long half-life. Because it can be detected in a person's body 30 days after the last use, withdrawal symptoms can last at least that long, Mason said.

And other addiction treatment specialists point out that marijuana lingers indefinitely in some human tissue. So how long does the drug affect someone's physical functions and thought process?

An objective of Mason's work will be to study all the manifestations of the withdrawal, including stress hormones that are released, subjective effects reported by the patients and the effect on sleep and mood.

The study will research the effect marijuana has at different stages on development, comparing teens between the ages of 15 through 18, whose brains are still developing, and young adults ages 21 through 30.

The research will investigate how cannabis affects the capacity for learning, as well as the ability to make judgments and control impulses, which are cognitive processes that are needed for treatment, she said.

The study will involve neurophysiological testing and functional imaging of the brain, to determine how long the effects last, Mason said.

The project will also be able to take advantage of what Montoya said have been tremendous advances in the science of marijuana in recent years, including the presence of receptors in the brain that react to it.

“The thing that troubles a lot of us is that (marijuana) has such an appeal to younger people, and in recent time we have learned that the adolescent brain is so different in many ways that the final adult version,” said Dr. Reese Jones, a psychiatry professor at the University of San Francisco. “There is a lot of reason to think that all these issues may be a bigger deal in younger people.”

Recruitment for the study will be conducted through advertising and a Web site. Mason does not expect difficulty finding participants.

She is currently running a separate, more narrow study on treatment for cannabis addiction. When preparing to recruit participants for it, Mason said she worried she was “throwing a party that no one wanted to attend.”

The response surprised her.

“I've been doing alcohol research for a long time, and I got more people seeking treatment for cannabis than I did for alcohol,” she said.

About one-third of those don't use anything but cannabis, she said. And there were two predominant age groups, college-aged and people in their mid-50s, she said.

Southern California is a great location for the study, because there is confusion about the drug, she said. Medical marijuana, though illegal under federal law, is legal in the state.

“I think, in part, that's because policy has been made based on personal biases, rumor and innuendo, instead of science,” she said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/s...-1n14dope.html

[Farm A.C.]

Someone should make a commercial for a new drug that combats addiction to prozac and oxyconton and the name of that new drug is medical marijuana.

Just kinda to pre-empt em.

[CRISPYBUD]

Originally Posted by Farm A.C.

Someone should make a commercial for a new drug that combats addiction to prozac and oxyconton and the name of that new drug is medical marijuana.

Just kinda to pre-empt em.

There are withdrawls from alot of medications in some form or another . Whats new ? Anyways this lady is rubbing me the WRONG way . I heard her interview. Why cant she expose the withdrawls from medications that are handed out at wallgreens ?

[Smilodon]

Try withdrawal from coffee if you want a real bitch. Splitting headache for 2-3 days besides being groggy till you get used to it.

[Jamesf]

Originally Posted by CRISPYBUD

Why cant she expose the withdrawls from medications that are handed out at wallgreens ?

That still doesn't change the fact that some people who use marijuana everyday for medical or recreational uses will suffer from some form of withdraw symptoms. Even DR. Drew Pinsky (whom I am sure many trackers here love) said that some people can have heroin like withdraw symptoms from extremely heavy cannabis use.

[resipsa]

Originally Posted by Smilodon

Try withdrawal from coffee if you want a real bitch. Splitting headache for 2-3 days besides being groggy till you get used to it.

Yup, coffee withdrawal, God's own punishment. All I've ever had in terms of MM withdrawal is one sleepless night. If I'm cranky it's because I can't use the medicine that works best for me and have to rely on big pharma.

Be a good joke if after extensive study they had to rank the discomfort of the withdrawal and figured out detoxing off coffee was more uncomfortable than MM, which has been my experience.

[palmspringsbum]

Full employment for 12-step faith-healers!

One can be sure they will make every effort to keep from making the same mistake Tashkin did.

[Justonevoice]

Looks like more Governmental Propaganda to me. Why not study effectiveness and side effects of MMJ vs Modern or acceptable medications. Lets be real here they only have the intent of putting as much negitive spin on MJ as they can.

[palmspringsbum]

Looks like more Governmental Propaganda to me. Why not study effectiveness and side effects of MMJ vs Modern or acceptable medications. Lets be real here they only have the intent of putting as much negitive spin on MJ as they can.

You make a good point. This has been my rant for years and I am so glad to see a number of people finally raising the issue.

Does anyone actually pay attention to the warnings for the pills pedaled on TV?

The fact is all of the SSRIs are ADDICTIVE. Prozac, the first one, had a half-life of about a month. What they have done with succeeding generations is shorten the half-life so that the half-life on the most recent one, Paxil, is ONE DAY.

I am a victim of SSRIs and prozac in particular. It destroyed my life.

A related emerging problem is pharmaceutical pollution. AP just did a study and story on it and it is frightening. On my site I have articles that some 40% of americans use pharmaceuticals. Elsewhere I have found it stated that you piss away 90% of your dose. Do the math.

What I truly fear is these cannabinoid-blocker diet pills. They are already being sold pretty much everywhere but the U.S.

These pharmaceutical pollutants persist and accumulate more or less like styrofoam in the environment. They persist in the environment, and accumulate. And unless they behave unlike virtually every other pollutant, the accumulation increases up the food chain.

So, if you REALLY want to get depressed, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Uh, what was the topic again?

Well I finally READ the article and:

Atrophy of the brain and cirrhosis of the liver are long-term side effects of heavy alcohol dependence. And withdrawal for alcoholics can bring sometimes fatal delirium tremors and convulsions.

Those facts are well known.

Yes, those fact are well known. And it didn't take 3,000 years and a fancy $4 million study to prove them.

[420patriot]

Well after approximately 40,000 bong hits over the last 25 years of my 40 years, and having objective proof of how it has only improved my health, I seriously question the value of marijuana withdrawl. I suppose next we will have a study on broccoli withdrawl. At age 90, after another 250,000 bong hits, I'll let you know how the withdrawl process went.

[BrattonBasher]

Everything in life is addicting. Maybe this study is not the greatest thing for our movement, but we can not deny that MJ is addicting. All things are. Especially to people like myself who have been diagnosed as having an addictive personality.

[BLUNTMAN2000]

Pot Addiction or Pot Passion?
Personally,I've got passion for pot.
Some people might call it an addiction in their small narrow minds.
How could you not hava passion for such a Beautiful yet medicinal plant?
Even the dryed ,cured flowers are nothing but a godsend.
The colors,the flavors,the smells.
Hey ,maybe I am addictted to the essence the Cannabis Plant.

[CRISPYBUD]

Originally Posted by BLUNTMAN2000

Pot Addiction or Pot Passion?
Personally,I've got passion for pot.
Some people might call it an addiction in their small narrow minds.
How could you not hava passion for such a Beautiful yet medicinal plant?
Even the dryed ,cured flowers are nothing but a godsend.
The colors,the flavors,the smells.
Hey ,maybe I am addictted to the essence the Cannabis Plant.

Said so true .
you have given out too much rep point====I will hit you up in a few hours with rep ^
EDIT " TRY WITHDRAWLS FROM the OXY my doc gave me for my tummy .
Its like ants and snakes crawling under your fuckin skin .
its been 7 days or so no oxy by choice for me . I am feeling fine thanks to MJ

[Ulalume]

Originally Posted by Justonevoice

Looks like more Governmental Propaganda to me. Why not study effectiveness and side effects of MMJ vs Modern or acceptable medications. Lets be real here they only have the intent of putting as much negitive spin on MJ as they can.

I agree.

And NIDA is funding it? Is there any doubt the study will "prove" exactly what NIDA wishes it to prove? Simply visiting the "NIDA InfoFacts: Marijuana" page of their site makes it clear precisely where they stand. On it, they give looming, frightening "facts" of marijuana's ruinous effects on the brain, the heart, the lungs, general health, intelligence, and personality.

The final paragraph on the marijuana page is very telling:
"Although no medications are currently available for treating marijuana abuse, recent discoveries about the workings of the THC receptors have raised the possibility of eventually developing a medication that will block the intoxicating effects of THC. Such a medication might be used to prevent relapse to marijuana abuse by lessening or eliminating its appeal."

And I suspect NIDA is funding this study to lead directly to just such a medication, tossing four million dollars into looking at the "neurobiological effects of cannabis addiction."

And would anyone care to venture a guess as to exactly who will benefit the most from this soon-to-be-created pharmaceutical? (Hint: The answer is not "the people 'addicted' to marijuana.")

Indeed. It sounds to me as if Mason, NIDA, and Big Pharmaceutical are in bed together, enjoying a cozy little ménage à trois. (And yet, strangely, it's the MMJ patients who will likely be the ones who are screwed.)

[SubUrban Cowboy]

I bet that in over 50% of the people who have a marijuana "addiction" they started to smoke because of anxiety or sleeplessness. So how are those withdrawal effects in those people? I use MMJ for insomnia, and if I do not dose my bed time smoke just right I will not sleep properly. But I bet if I were a part of this study, Mason would include it as a withdrawal symptom. I call major BS on this "study".

I also thought I read somewhere that there is no physical addiction to marijuana, maybe I made that on up. But even if 1 in 10 people can be physically addicted, who cares? There are much worse things one can be addicted to, like pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical pills are the real gateway drugs, think of how easy it is to get drugs nowadays, especially for high school and even middle school kids. Like every other kid is on Ridilin or Aderol or something like that. "Doctors" just call everything a problem and solve it with a pill. If doctors acted like that when I was a kid, I would have been so doped up, I would probably be dead now. As a kid I couldn't sit still, I couldn't concentrate in class, I would day dream, and I had a major abundance of energy. A doctor now would call it ADHD or something and prescribe me a pill. With MMJ I am much calmer, I can focus properly, and I get all my work done in a proper manner and time, and I am still full of luife and energy. These are scary times we exist in.

[palmspringsbum]

"Although no medications are currently available for treating marijuana abuse, recent discoveries about the workings of the THC receptors have raised the possibility of eventually developing a medication that will block the intoxicating effects of THC. Such a medication might be used to prevent relapse to marijuana abuse by lessening or eliminating its appeal."

They already have such a medication.

They are selling it as diet-pills on the internet.

I just googled 'purchase acomplia' and got 2,750,000 hits.

They make Marc Emery look like the two-bit back-alley hustler that he is.

But 90% of each one of those how-ever-many-billion-pills-a-day is being pissed back into the environment.

Coming to a glass of water near you...

...soon. In a cocktail of god only knows what else, but much of it addictive.

Prescription Drug Environmental Pollution

[palmspringsbum]

I bet that in over 50% of the people who have a marijuana "addiction" they started to smoke because of anxiety or sleeplessness.

Well, in a sense I suppose. But I would guess the overwhelming majority of them were addicted to sleeping indoors. And the only way they could get housing was to 'go into recovery'. And they didn't use anything to recover from, except marijuana.

In Santa Cruz, for example, Compassion Central, Land of The Free and Home of The Brave, there are 1,000 units of 'transitional' housing, but not one for medical marijuana patients. They are all SLEs (Sober Living Environments). And any use of marijuana means you are an addict needing treatment, and at least 30-days brainwashing with a 12-step professional. In fact, much treatment here in California is court ordered thanks to Prop 36, a trojan horse if there ever was one.

Or maybe they're addicted to having a job, and they tested dirty, and the only way they can keep their job (and therefore sleep indoors) is to 'go into recovery'. And pay for it. While paying court costs and rent and so forth.

It IS NOT physically addicting. No more than cheese-cake. Or Cherry Garcia.

Now, the SSRIs on the other hand, will produce in withdrawal the symptoms for which they were prescribed. Which means if you don't need them before you take them you will afterwards, for the rest of your life.

That is, if you're not one of the 3% or so that experience suicidal episodes from the drug. Like the chancellor of U.C. Santa Cruz that jumped off the top of one of the big buildings in San Francisco last year.

Or like Sonny Bono, who skied into a tree on pills.

He was on pills, not the tree.

Now, why doesn't the Partnership For A Drug Free America have ads with Sonny Bono sking into a tree? I doubt Cher would mind...

... "This is your mayor on ludes."

[Ulalume]

Originally Posted by palmspringsbum

Or like Sonny Bono, who skied into a tree on pills.

He was on pills, not the tree.

That made me laugh.

[patsheba]

http://www.scripps.edu/intro/intro.html
"The bulk of the Institute's funding is derived from the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. In today's environment of increasing competition for shrinking federal dollars, however, collaborative industrial partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies provide additional funding in several areas key to the organization's research objectives."

[The Urban Spaceman]

i wish someone would give me 4 million to prove or disprove marijuana addiction.

i'd quit so fast your heads would spin - proof positive it isn't addictive.

then when the check cleared i'd take 2 mil of that 4 mil and head to my favorite co op.... (hey I'd still need a little cash for NEXT week right?)

suckers!

much love
spacey