Nicholas Eyle has a good post over at ReconsiDer: How To Create A Problem Where None Exists.
It’s about the research being done to create a THC-based drug that could be used to treat people who are addicted to marijuana.
NIDA director Nora Volkow says the agency “is interested in exploring the role of transdermal THC delivery as an innovative way to treat marijuana withdrawal symptoms and dependence… This is especially relevant to our efforts to fill a critical gap in available treatments for the many Americans struggling with marijuana-related disorders and their detrimental medical and social consequences.†So how many marijuana addicted Americans are there?
Good question. Must be a pretty big problem for NIDA to give $4 million to AllTranz to develop this “treatment.”
But, of course, it’s mostly a government agency looking for a solution to justify the problem they’ve mostly invented.
Oh, sure, yes I know that a small number of people have dependency issues with marijuana and that they can experience minor withdrawal effects significantly less severe than caffeine.
But of all the things we could do to help people who abuse drugs, finding a treatment for marijuana dependency has got to be pretty low on the list.
However, with all those hundreds of thousands of people in treatment for marijuana dependency, you gotta pretend to deliver some kind of actual… treatment, I guess.
WTF! So whats next? We gonna grow test tube kids to help pedefiles with there addiction! How bout a transdemal patch for those addicted to cheese burgers? Alcohol patch anyone? Did this countries I.Q. just drop while I was in the can?
I would like to know what scientific standard of addiction NIDA is using. I’m picturing in my mind someone who has DT’s and hallucinations when they are experiencing…oh wait, that’s alcohol addiction. Actually I don’t know of any physical manifestations of cannabis addiction. I think that NIDA is targeting people who don’t need help with their cannabis use other than it being illegal and gosh darn it they just won’t quit.
NIDA’s $4 million isn’t chump change as grants go. Someone might think AllTrank is really serious about a THC patch for that kind of money. How about this for a THC delivery system: alcohol—Tincture of THC, two bangs for the buck. The fact that Queen Victoria used a similar concoction to soothe her PMS should appeal to conservatives who always like old stuff.
Do not invest money in AllTranz.
What’s really hopeless about this project is that AllTranz will probably develop their THC patch, one that delivers the wrong cannabinoids or combination of cannabinoids and any other unknown chemicals that facilitate the treatment of specific symptoms and different body chemistries, all of which would have otherwise been well accommodated by the use of natural cannabis with its smorgasboard of symbiotic medicines. Odds are that everyone will continue to use cannabis despite the availability of half-assed and prohibitively expensive analogues to the real thing.
In fact, that’s a good hook: Cannabis, the Real Thing.
They outlawed DMSO as a drug delivery system. after thoughts of using it for acid if memory serves. I’ve never heard of it being used for Ganja. I’ll be happy to roll them a $4 million dollar transdermal THC delivery system. Such OiNkDeCePtions.
The American Lunatic Asylum
Rick Simpson Confirms Police Raid on His Home
Rick Simpson, a Canadian man known for treating cancer patients with his signature ‘hemp oil’, says police have raided his Nova Scotia home – and he won’t be coming back to Canada from Europe to face charges.
“There seems to be no stopping drug frenzy once it takes hold of a nation. What starts with an innocuous HUGS, NOT DRUGS bumper sticker soon leads to wild talk of shooting dealers and making urine tests a condition for employment – anywhere.”
~ Barbara Ehrenreich: Writer
Drug Scientist Says UK Prime Minister ‘in Another Universe’
The controversial former chief adviser on drugs launched a scathing attack on the Government and Gordon Brown, calling him from “some other universe”.
“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
~ William F. Buckley, Jr. – Writer
Oh, man, I saw this coming when the transdermal nicotine patches started coming out, and the nicotine in them was being referred to as ‘medicine’ in the TeeVee commercials.
In fact, special emphasis was placed on the word ‘medicine’ in the delivery, as if to attempt to browbeat the obvious rejoinder of it still being nicotine. I suppose that was as much to legitimate it as well as soothe the cognitive dissonance involved in maintaining addiction while supposedly healing you of it.
So, now, we’re seeing the latest Rube Goldberg twist, the latest lever and knob and button on an unnecessarily complex and unworkable machine when a simple tool like a knife (to cut through the bullscheisse Gordian Knot-style via vaporized cannabis) would suffice. And all done with our money that could go to feed, house and clothe desperate families.
They must feel real proud of themselves. (Barfing sound)
God forbid any american was allowed to produce thier OWN medicine with nothing more than a few seeds and some dirt.
If it’s not a commercial product that we have to buy with our hard earned chump-change, then we aren’t allowed to have it.
I’ve been thinking for quite a while that the supposed intellectual leadership of the DrugWar is in fact mentally ill.
No, I am not joking, I’m quite serious. Many years ago, I came across an article entitled The Autistic Confederacy which detailed the possibility that many prominent politicians, policy wonks, etc. may in fact be victims of a form of autism called Aspergher’s Syndrome.
Without naming names, I know an internationally published psychologist who attended an anti-drug forum hosted by the ONDCP earlier this decade, and his observation about how ‘far out there’ some of the presenters like Volkow were only deepened my belief that what we are dealing with are mentally ill people who, because they exist in a sort of bureaucratic (as well as social) bubble, have lost contact with the outside world to such an extant that they behave like the old French aristocracy did prior to the French Revolution. As conditions outside of Versailles grew worse, the aristos became increasingly delusional…sort of like what happened in the Fuhrerbunker in the closing days of WW2.
As the end of drug prohibition creeps ever closer, we can expect these sad specimens to become increasingly less coherent, as the alcohol Prohibition-supporting preacher Billy Sunday did when it became evident that the Volstead Act would be repealed.
The problem is, their minions are still armed and dangerous, and likely to do anything. They’ve literally gotten away with murder for over two decades, and when the inevitable questions arise as to why this was allowed to happen, there will have to be a reckoning of some sort. A reckoning that cannot help but have some harsh consequences for those who took special pleasure in making the lives of their fellow citizens miserable in order to ‘save them’.
I’m sure that a glass of water would be just as affective at curbing “marijuana withdrawal symptoms and dependence”.
as the drugs they want to foist upon people.
“transdermal THC delivery” AKA “keeping the gravy train running”.
The stoopid ! It burns !
If only we could invent a smokable form of THC less dangerous and addictive than the injectable form
@ Kozmo: Yea, verily, it burns, but like ‘developmentally challenged’ children, they just keep playing with those matches…’cause it’s so pur-ty‘ Only now we can’t afford the matchbooks, anymore…
I’m under the impression that the contents of a patch would need to pass through, not only the skin but, also the subdermal fatty layer and isn’t THC fat-soluable? What would cause it to pass THRU a layer of fat? And when someone takes a piss test, is there some “marker” in the patch that differenciates it from the natural substance? How would they know if you had patch or “patch?” Yeah, compounded problems where there was none. And, the only useful purpose for nicotine patches is “flying.”
I agree this NIDA grant is probably dumb and cannabis dependency affects a small percentage of users, but that doesn’t imply cannabis dependency is “invented”. A small percentage of millions may still be a lot of people 4 or 5 joints a day could indeed negatively impact someone’s life.
Now they want money to treat the 1 million people seeking marijuana rehab,when 95% of the people “seeking” treatment are doing so because they either did that or go to jail or they failed a drug screening and their job required it. What a concept. Without prohibition,only 5% of the people that seek rehab would even be there. They create the problem,continue the problem while never solving the issue,then want too make more money treating the problem they created.
Mentally ill? I think they are brilliant. I wish I could get a game going like that.
Any day now I expect to receive an email telling me I won the DEA lottery,and if I will send them just $200,they will release my funds to my dealer.if I will send his name and address.
Remember Dr “What Hippocratic Oath?” Barthwell, and her earlier railing about cannabis having no medicinal properties when she was sucking down our taxpayer dollars, and how she changed her tune as soon as she began working for GW Pharma, and then suddenly it was ‘smoked marijuana’ that had no medicinal value?
This patch nonsense is the ‘same sh*t, different day’. Now Volkow and Company are tacitly admitting cannabis has medicinal value, enough to put into a patch, otherwise they would become nothing more than the same kind of Gub’mint ‘pushers’ that they claim the States would become for licensing natural cannabis product sales.
God, the HYPOCRISY of these people knows no bounds. And I still maintain that they are mentally ill. You have to be damned sick in the head to think that no one else notices that hypocrisy and won’t call them on it…
I just hope they use good weed to make it. We will probably have them on the streets a month before they try them on the patients. This thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger and more insane every day.
Come on Webb,get that Committee approved and save us from these imbeciles! Much more of this and they will have us all “hooked” on some drug they invent. Of course it will kill appx 25% of the people that use it,or else they won’t be able to get it legalized.
While the idea of a THC patch for addiction is absurd, it could have a silver lining. If the government allows cannabis consumers on probation to use a patch for THC, it could justify the presence of metabolites in a drug test. This could end up keeping many harmless cannabis consumers out of jail for failing a drug test.
CogLib, IMHO what’s needed is to scrap something (drug prohibition) that these prohib goofs keep trying to tweak into an unobtainable perfection. And this patch nonsense serves to illustrate that tendency perfectly.
Like less-than-normally-intelligent children who are too stubborn to admit that what they are trying to do is impossible, they have to have their ‘toys’ firmly taken from their hands and put on a shelf too high for them to reach anymore.
I agree 100%. In the long run, prohibition itself must be flushed down the drain. The patch idea is retarded, and the idea will ultimately backfire. (as in the case of probation enforcement) Like the semi legality of Marinol pills, this will only make people question prohibition even more. (ie. Why can’t one legally smoke cannabis, but is permitted to wear a THC patch?)
Heck, it sounds like it might be fun.
Well, ok, not likely. There’s a reason nobody trades Marinol on the black market. I actually managed to finagle a prescription for a friendly doctor back in the early ’90s. He was perfectly willing to write me more, but I never even had enough interest to finish the script. I honest to god have 4 marinols in my souvenir cabinet, closing in on 2 decades old.
Steve Clay that is total BS.
Ganja is Ganja and not addictive.
If you think it is so what, opinion or gossip won’t ever never ever change the physicality of Ganja into a drug worriers wet dream. Never. It ain’t physically addictive, period. Get over it.
Even though the notion of patch to treat an imaginary dependency issue is stupid, marketing a smokeless variant of the drug in the form of a THC patch is to be applauded. Widening the availability of not just drugs but variants of the same drug with differing routes of administration is a good thing.
Competition with smokable cannabis based products for market share is desirable too. You otherwise gift virtually the entire market for THC to the smokeable cannabis industry – which is basically what happened with the tobacco industry. And yes, I’m aware smokeless cannabis based products are already available.
Even though the notion of patch to treat an imaginary dependency issue is stupid, marketing a smokeless variant of the drug in the form of a THC patch is to be applauded.
Strayan that is just as stupid, in your words. The smoke could be preventing everyone from smog and air borne particles by Ganja’s expectorant effects. 2500 years ago Scythians were technically vaporizing Ganja buds on hot rocks inside a tent. But the majority of users either in Christian Temple incense, hookah’s or pipes and chiloms produced no lung damage from the smoke. Unlike burning coal or wood in fire places or camp fires inside of caves. Eating or transdermal may not cover the lungs as well, vaporizers are moisture and long term studies haven’t been done. Trying to fix what ain’t broken usually has an agenda attached. Booze white powders and fossil fools all require a huge wasteful infrastructures. Ganja grows in dirt. Many things sold for the Ganjawar that have nothing to do with the dangers or lack there of, of Ganja.
Without Ganja… because of prohibition, for a really brief period in human History, we have sky rocketed in Neurological illness, cancer, strokes and lung disease. In addition to the abstinence of cannabis, chemical adulterants and synthetic poisons have been inculcated, not in organic tobacco. As with Ganja early Americans, Indians, Egyptians, Turks, China and Europeans had no problems with tobacco smoke, only after the corporations and the pesticides and chemicals for your smoking pleasure Reagan used to pitch before voodoo economics. Still not mentioned as if it has no bearing.
So continuing to predict the future with hobgoblins doesn’t keep it real. Until you produce a victim and explain why thousands of years of medical documentation hasn’t produced victim one. Along with the total spectrum of cannabinoids in conjunction being a different property than individually… and the bodiy’s Endocannabinoid system many doctors aren’t even aware of… and the Nixon BS Controlled Substance Act including cannabis as a schedule#1 narcotic, while everyone headlined and focused on Watergate. Coincidentally lumping in medicinal and hemp, not included in the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.
Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze or Ganja/Hemp. While GOPerverts and Demonkrats bicker over nonsense.
Coincidentally removing thousands of local jobs and products from the free trade market. Sustaining the poisons and crude oil plastics and 90 million pounds of chemicals sprayed on cotton. Wasting trees for less cellulose than hemp. Then we have the prison industrial complex and builders, the copshops warehousing confiscated goods like its COSCO. Houses, cars auctioned off. All perpetuated for profits and hurting Americans unnecessarily. Ganja is or it tain’t. Tests have been conducted since the late 1800’s all concluding it is the safest substance in the entire pharmacopeia. The numerous times research has been blocked, distorted or buried isn’t of moral fiber, its of liars and cheats. The ignorant by passing rights for convictions. Mandatory minimum and prison rape jury deterrents. Manufacturing snitches, to produce 80% of the cases. Bartering pleas selling piss tests and probation bureaucracies. The 5% attempting a defense not mentioning medicine via 404 gag rules. Sold on the auction block to Whackenhut legal slave labor.
How many more lies to pass legislation then retractions after they pass. Prohibitionists reject science with Ganja as much as evolution, spherical planets or water expanding when heated. Its physical properties don’t change after each election. Ganja buds are safely smokable. The leaves are not, even if the government grinds them up for the IND patients. Prohibition causing many things called “marijuana” to be smoked and no doubt some are harmful. Not Ganja. Two different vegetables. Same as organic tobacco and chemical cigarettes. Same with hemp burlap making up 98% of the total “marijuana” eradications. Grows wild, pheasant habitat most small game hunters know about. Big numbers saveding duh kids from essential fatty acids.
BS and buzzwords keep it going and selling a pig in the poke or a pig with lipstick is uncool. Appeasing liars won’t make it true. Let Ganja stand on its own and let the truth be known and Hemp and RxGanja can be creating a better economy on all levels without the oil barrens hoarding and extortion and racketeering.
Widening the availability of not just drugs but variants of the same drug with differing routes of administration is a good thing…
if its done without political interference. If a market need develops then a supply will happen. It has to be the persons choice. Its obvious government is illiterate concerning Ganja, and can’t be trusted. Laws already exist for FDA standards of white powders. They haven’t the expertise of Growing RxGanja and Kynd buds 40 years. We have convenience stores that only remain expensive and hassled by sheer ignorance of propaganda by highly paid gossipers. Let the people grow they really don’t need your laws. I’m for a standards of industry guideline and legalities for adulterations harming someone, workers safety, environmental concerns adulterations etc.
Ganja is not a drug, its an herb. Drugs are manufactured in labs by people inventing things to sell in spite of the danger or even necessity. Cures and Prevention don’t sell very well. If you sell war paraphernalia and don’t care if you even win or loose, just keep er goin, its treason, war crimes and despicable. It tarnishes badges and good names of anyone even mentioning an alternative. Smoke from the car exhaust kills and gives kids asthma Ganja could prevent and treat. Where’s the beef, besides commercials from those paid to lie? Its over and the stragglers are standing in front of the burning barn holding a bucket of kerosine, busted! Let the Drug War Tribunal Commence. Non smokable cannabis products are already available. Have been for a while. Its called Fascism believe it or not. Having alternatives is fine but not because smoking is harmful.
The presence of chemical additives is not the only reason smoking is dangerous. It’s not as though ‘organic’ products suddenly become safe products. Smoking is dangerous because of this thing called combustion and the sheer level of exposure to smoke with the advent of more convenient smoking accoutrements and mass production.
The Scythians vaping shit off hot rocks is hardly comparable to smoking 30 cones a day – they simply didn’t have the same technological convenience; pocket sized lighters, matches, rolling paper, garden hose and plastic coke bottles to enable them to. The instances of historical tobacco use you reference are important because the use wasn’t anywhere near as widespread as it is today – there was no China National Tobacco Co pumping out hundreds of millions cigarettes every year and no mass media to promote it.
Meanwhile these same peoples couldn’t have dreamt of the life expectancy we today enjoy. Smoking related health problems typically show up later in life. If you’re already dead from the famine, there isn’t going to be any historical record of lung caner, stroke or blindness etc.
I’m sure ganja has medicinal value for some people, but I just use it for fun (though I can’t stand the smell – hence the patch’s appeal to me). Personally I think the medicinal value of marijuana is exaggerated. Obviously you’d like to hope it had magical properties, because well… wouldn’t that just be nice.
@DcD: The drug war is based on a lot of denialism, so let’s not ignore evidence. Although most experience none, there appears to be a small portion of regular heavy users that experience similar withdrawal symptoms serious enough to not let them quit when they want to. This post is worth a read. Judging from his posts, Dirk Hanson is no fan of the drug war.
Not deniel, just greed Cleve,
80 million boomers toked, 25 still do, Who is going to tell the 55 million they were addicted and didn’t even know? Rehabs are the only ones selling “addiction”, including Dirk Hanson and his “list” of mostly anonymous, probably ficticious anecdotal non physical withdrawal. He writes novels, like Walters. Can’t sleep, can’t eat? Hype to sell forced sometimes religious faith based rehabs.
If you sell it they will buy it?
Seriously cleve… “we can look to indications for which marijuana is already being prescribed”—anxiety relief, appetite enhancement, suppression of nausea, relief from the symptoms of glaucoma, and amelioration of certain kinds of pain.
(compounds similar to anandamide have been discovered in dark chocolate)
So what the dude claims is withdrawal is actually some of what Ganja is treating, the same things? Same quack Drew BS, cart before the horse cleve. Ganja relieves anxiety so naturally if you abstain and your environment causing the anxiety hasn’t changed, guess what, anxiety from not treating it.
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding
Chapter III
Social Impact of marihuana use
Addiction Potential
Unfortunately, fact and fancy have become irrationally mixed regarding marihuana’s physiological and psychological properties. Marihuana clearly is not in the same chemical category as heroin insofar as its physiologic and psychological effects are concerned. In a word, cannabis does not lead to physical dependence. No torturous withdrawal syndrome follows the sudden cessation of chronic, heavy use of marihuana. Although evidence indicates that heavy, long-term cannabis users may develop psychological dependence, even then the level of psychological dependence is no different from the syndrome of anxiety and restlessness seen when an American stops smoking tobacco cigarettes.
Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding – Table of Contents
Neither severe physical dependence, nor prominent withdrawal symptoms after abrupt termination of very heavy usage is suggested by some overseas experience (Charen and Perelman, 1946; Fraser, 1949; Ludlow, 1857, Marcovitz and Myers, 1944; Siler et al., 1933; Walton, 1938). Other studies, however, suggest marked psychological dependence from heavy use producing compulsive drug taking in very heavy users (Indian Hemp, 1893; Chopra and Chopra, 1957; Bouquet, 1944; Lambo, 1965).
Studies in the United States using much lower doses for shorter periods of time have revealed little if any evidence of psychological dependence (Bromberg, 1934 Mayors Committee, 1944; Williams et al., 1946).
Marijuana Addiction and Dependence
thegooddrugsguide
Cannabis is nowhere near as addictive as nicotine or alcohol but it is wrong to say it is not habit-forming.
If you are a regular cannabis smoker (every day) and you stop smoking, you will experience some of the following withdrawal symptoms: restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, nausea, sleep disturbance, sweats, and intense dreams. These symptoms, however, are mild and short-lived, lasting 2 to 4 days.
“In the end, what surprised many observers was simply that the idea of treatment for marijuana dependence seemed to appeal to such a large number of people.
addict-help.com
marijuana-addiction.net
marijuana-anonymous.org
marijuanaaddiction.com
recoveryconnection.org
myaddiction.com
All Rehabs… and how about dirky…
Dirk Hanson covers addiction medicine, the search for a cure, the science of recovery, alcoholism, and drugs of abuse. New treatment options and recovery
The Chemical Carousel
Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism?
Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse: Searching for a Cure
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding.”
~ Upton Sinclair…
Ganja shouldn’t be, no I’d even say Ganja can’t be used as a crutch, the problems need to be dealt with whatever condition it is. Blaming Ganja for individual shortcomings is a copout.
Not deniel, just greed Cleve,
80 million boomers toked, 25 still do, Who is going to tell the 55 million they were addicted and didn’t even know? Rehabs are the only ones selling “addiction”, including Dirk Hanson and his “list” of mostly anonymous, probably ficticious anecdotal non physical withdrawal. He writes novels, like Walters. Can’t sleep, can’t eat? Hype to sell forced sometimes religious faith based rehabs.
If you sell it they will buy it?
Seriously cleve… “we can look to indications for which marijuana is already being prescribed”—anxiety relief, appetite enhancement, suppression of nausea, relief from the symptoms of glaucoma, and amelioration of certain kinds of pain.
(compounds similar to anandamide have been discovered in dark chocolate)
So what the dude claims is withdrawal is actually some of what Ganja is treating, the same things? Same quack Drew BS, cart before the horse cleve. Ganja relieves anxiety so naturally if you abstain and your environment causing the anxiety hasn’t changed, guess what, anxiety from not treating it.
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding
Chapter III
Social Impact of marihuana use
Addiction Potential
Unfortunately, fact and fancy have become irrationally mixed regarding marihuana’s physiological and psychological properties. Marihuana clearly is not in the same chemical category as heroin insofar as its physiologic and psychological effects are concerned. In a word, cannabis does not lead to physical dependence. No torturous withdrawal syndrome follows the sudden cessation of chronic, heavy use of marihuana. Although evidence indicates that heavy, long-term cannabis users may develop psychological dependence, even then the level of psychological dependence is no different from the syndrome of anxiety and restlessness seen when an American stops smoking tobacco cigarettes.
Neither severe physical dependence, nor prominent withdrawal symptoms after abrupt termination of very heavy usage is suggested by some overseas experience (Charen and Perelman, 1946; Fraser, 1949; Ludlow, 1857, Marcovitz and Myers, 1944; Siler et al., 1933; Walton, 1938).
Studies in the United States using much lower doses for shorter periods of time have revealed little if any evidence of psychological dependence (Bromberg, 1934 Mayors Committee, 1944; Williams et al., 1946).
Marijuana Addiction and Dependence
thegooddrugsguide
Cannabis is nowhere near as addictive as nicotine or alcohol but it is wrong to say it is not habit-forming.
If you are a regular cannabis smoker (every day) and you stop smoking, you will experience some of the following withdrawal symptoms: restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, nausea, sleep disturbance, sweats, and intense dreams. These symptoms, however, are mild and short-lived, lasting 2 to 4 days.
“In the end, what surprised many observers was simply that the idea of treatment for marijuana dependence seemed to appeal to such a large number of people.
addict-help.com
marijuana-addiction.net
marijuana-anonymous.org
marijuanaaddiction.com
recoveryconnection.org
myaddiction.com
All Rehabs… and how about dirky…
Dirk Hanson covers addiction medicine, the search for a cure, the science of recovery, alcoholism, and drugs of abuse. New treatment options and recovery
The Chemical Carousel
Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism?
Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse: Searching for a Cure
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding.”
~ Upton Sinclair…
Ganja shouldn’t be, no I’d even say Ganja can’t be used as a crutch, the problems need to be dealt with whatever condition it is. Blaming Ganja for individual shortcomings is a copout
Neither severe physical dependence, nor prominent withdrawal symptoms after abrupt termination of very heavy usage is suggested by some overseas experience (Charen and Perelman, 1946; Fraser, 1949; Ludlow, 1857, Marcovitz and Myers, 1944; Siler et al., 1933; Walton, 1938)Studies in the United States using much lower doses for shorter periods of time have revealed little if any evidence of psychological dependence (Bromberg, 1934 Mayors Committee, 1944; Williams et al., 1946).
Marijuana Addiction and Dependence
thegooddrugsguide
Cannabis is nowhere near as addictive as nicotine or alcohol but it is wrong to say it is not habit-forming.
If you are a regular cannabis smoker (every day) and you stop smoking, you will experience some of the following withdrawal symptoms: restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, nausea, sleep disturbance, sweats, and intense dreams. These symptoms, however, are mild and short-lived, lasting 2 to 4 days.
“In the end, what surprised many observers was simply that the idea of treatment for marijuana dependence seemed to appeal to such a large number of people.
addict-help.com
marijuana-addiction.net
marijuana-anonymous.org
marijuanaaddiction.com
recoveryconnection.org
myaddiction.com
All Rehabs… and how about dirky…
Dirk Hanson covers addiction medicine, the search for a cure, the science of recovery, alcoholism, and drugs of abuse. New treatment options and recovery
The Chemical Carousel
Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism?
Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse: Searching for a Cure
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding.”
~ Upton Sinclair…
Ganja shouldn’t be, no I’d even say Ganja can’t be used as a crutch, the problems need to be dealt with whatever condition it is. Blaming Ganja for individual shortcomings is a copout.
“In the end, what surprised many observers was simply that the idea of treatment for marijuana dependence seemed to appeal to such a large number of people.
addict-help/com
marijuana-addiction/net
marijuana-anonymous/org
marijuanaaddiction/com
recoveryconnection/org
myaddiction/com
All Rehabs… and how about dirky…
Dirk Hanson covers addiction medicine, the search for a cure, the science of recovery, alcoholism, and drugs of abuse. New treatment options and recovery
The Chemical Carousel
Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism?
Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse: Searching for a Cure
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding.”
~ Upton Sinclair…
Ganja shouldn’t be, no I’d even say Ganja can’t be used as a crutch, the problems need to be dealt with whatever condition it is. Blaming Ganja for individual shortcomings is a copout.
Hansen only suggests that a small percentage of heavy users (an even smaller group) may have difficulty quitting (when they want to), so we may only be talking about less than 1% of the current 25M. My point was that for those unlucky few (possibly many thousands), cannabis dependence isn’t, as Pete suggested, “mostly invented”. Cannabis research did not stop in 1972. And of course none of this is justification for criminalization…
DdC — three of your comments got caught in the spam filter (listing rehab places probably did it), so I freed them all, but it looks like you re-posted in a variety of ways, so I can’t really figure out which ones to delete, so they’re all there now.
“Hansen only suggests that a small percentage of heavy users (an even smaller group) may have difficulty quitting (when they want to), so we may only be talking about less than 1% of the current 25M. My point was that for those unlucky few (possibly many thousands), cannabis dependence isn’t, as Pete suggested, “mostly inventedâ€.”
—————-
Thanks for the effort, Steve, but guys like DdC simply won’t read the words as I have written them. I doubt he finished the article before galloping off to refute it. DdC has me pimping for the DEA, probably on salary. I have never made a nickel from my blog, or my research on marijuana withdrawal, or my Praeger article, for which I was not paid. I hope to continue making a little money on my book, The Chemical Carousel, which advocates marijuana legalization and other harm reduction measures, and tells the truth about marijuana withdrawal based on peer-reviewed clinical research.
As for the anecdotes, if DdC wants to believe that I am a fundamentally dishonest journalist who fabricates quotes, there’s not much I can do about it.
It’s a shame that the DNC/Drug WarRant people don’t seem to understand that I’m on their side.
Why is it so easy for people to understand that most people can drink alcohol without becoming addicted–but a minority cannot? No different with pot. Why this should come as a big surprise or cause such controversy remains largely a mystery to me.
Correction: should be DRCNet/Drug WarRant above.
Thanks Pete. I tried posting shorter post and they posted ok. The first one didn’t and I thought it was because it was too long. I’ll sort it out and email you later today.
Dirk, looking forward to tearing you apart when I return, patience dude. Nothing personal and please spare the tears. There is a world of difference between man made, huge infrastructure addictive booze and Pharmaceutical industrial complex and a non-addictive psychotropic plant that grows in dirt almost anywhere. Hallucinogens are not addictive. Ganja is not a narcotic. Simply you are either working for or being duped by vested ignorance. Ganja can not stay a schedule#1 drug with all of the medicinal uses being re-discovered, but that doesn’t mean it will become the benign plant it is for the public to use. If they can prove through misnomers and good intentions that it is addictive. They can retain it as a schedule#2 drug and keep the profits in the Pharmaceutical family. And they won’t have to release recreational or Hemp status. Your false definition in a clinical setting only continues the bogus status for greed. Maybe not your personal income, but NIDA’s grants and exploitation along with the true reason Ganja was outlawed in the first place. So I look forward to smashing your theory to bits. Here’s something to gnaw on until then…
Be well.
Stanton Peele’s Body of Wor
The Meaning of Addiction, continue to be actively used in university courses to convey major new directions in addiction thought and treatment.
Following is a list of Stanton’s key writings and the impact of these writings. Stanton has written ahout defining addiction, addictive love relationships, fighting the disease theory of addiction, self-cure of addictive problems, the benefits of moderate drinking, drug and alcohol policies and, most recently, raising non-addicted children, teaching children positive drinking habits, and creating non-disease, “life process” addiction treatment programs.
Drug: Cannabis (marijuana, hashish)
Medical Use: None in modern medicine
Physical Dependence: Little if any
Psychic Dependence: Yes
Tolerance: Little if any
See cleve even Dirk knows how to spell DdC
Nah, this is the point where the accusations and ad hominem attacks really take off in forums like this, so I’ll just say so long, best of luck, you can check out my book or my blog if you are interested in a counterpoint to Peele.
Ddc, I respect your viewpoint and agree with alot of what you have to say, but the way you present it, most people will just view you in the same vein as the cookoos on the corner screaming ‘the end is near!”
Your average non-toker zombie needs to have the bits fed to them little by little. You can’t give them a brain and expect them to know it’s delicious if they don’t pry it from a warm corpse first themselves!
sorry for the over use of zombie imagery btw but ive been playin left for dead 2 alot latey haha….
But anyways… I don’t think you’re crazy, I think it just needs some toning down for the sake of making progress.
Peace-
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends on his not understanding.â€
~ Upton Sinclair…
4 million dollars to find a way to give marijuana users THC
Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding – Table of Contents
Neither severe physical dependence, nor prominent withdrawal symptoms after abrupt termination of very heavy usage is suggested by some overseas experience (Charen and Perelman, 1946; Fraser, 1949; Ludlow, 1857, Marcovitz and Myers, 1944; Siler et al., 1933; Walton, 1938). Other studies, however, suggest marked psychological dependence from heavy use producing compulsive drug taking in very heavy users (Indian Hemp, 1893; Chopra and Chopra, 1957; Bouquet, 1944; Lambo, 1965).
Studies in the United States using much lower doses for shorter periods of time have revealed little if any evidence of psychological dependence (Bromberg, 1934 Mayors Committee, 1944; Williams et al., 1946).
DWR December 4th, 2009 at 4:18 am
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding
Chapter III
Social Impact of marihuana use
Addiction Potential
Unfortunately, fact and fancy have become irrationally mixed regarding marihuana’s physiological and psychological properties. Marihuana clearly is not in the same chemical category as heroin insofar as its physiologic and psychological effects are concerned. In a word, cannabis does not lead to physical dependence. No torturous withdrawal syndrome follows the sudden cessation of chronic, heavy use of marihuana. Although evidence indicates that heavy, long-term cannabis users may develop psychological dependence, even then the level of psychological dependence is no different from the syndrome of anxiety and restlessness seen when an American stops smoking tobacco cigarettes.