Drug Facts Week in full swing

24 Responses to Drug Facts Week in full swing

1. claygooding says:

   November 2, 2011 at 8:47 pm

   try “the only drug which showed reduction in use for the last 10 years was tobacco,and no one was arrested to get it done,and not one person or their dog was shot.
2. darkcycle says:

   November 2, 2011 at 9:56 pm

   Go get ’em Pete. They’ve got to be spittin’ nails. You’ve walked all over this since they announced it.
   At least it’s some fun. Hey, is this costing you money?…I’ll help out gladly.
   • Pete says:

     November 2, 2011 at 11:40 pm

     This particular effort isn’t costing a cent. Just time. And yes, it’s some fun, while also reaching some people and making the folks at NIDA know that they’re being watched.
     • Hope says:

       November 4, 2011 at 12:18 am

       Good job, Pete. Thank you.
3. Chris says:

   November 2, 2011 at 10:46 pm

   Pointing out the flaws in their carefully constructed “facts” is probably one of your favorite pastimes by now Pete. Retweeted a bunch of these, I’m not sure how much that accomplishes but I want to see these more than the other crap getting posted on that topic.
   • Pete says:

     November 2, 2011 at 11:42 pm

     Nice job with the re-tweets, there. Every bit helps. While you don’t have a lot of twitter followers on your account, your link to #drugfacts2011 means that it adds to my efforts in overwhelming that hashtag.
4. Ben says:

   November 2, 2011 at 11:11 pm

   You should link to your Twitter page, get blog readers following you. If you were also to tweet a link whenever you put up a new blog post, that’d be nice too…
   • Pete says:

     November 2, 2011 at 11:39 pm

     There’s a link to my Twitter page and my Facebook page on the left side. I often (but not always) tweet a link when I put up a new blog post, particularly if I think it’s noteworthy. Got about 1,500 following me on Twitter.

     Of course, this week is the most I’ve used my Twitter account since I got it.
5. claygooding says:

   November 3, 2011 at 5:42 am

   Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot

   Despite warnings from opponents of medical marijuana, legalizing the drug for medical purposes does not encourage teens to smoke more pot, according to new research that compared rates of marijuana use in Massachusetts and Rhode Island after the latter state changed its laws.

   Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/03/study-legal-medical-marijuana-doesnt-encourage-kids-to-smoke-more-pot/#ixzz1cdarky00

   Time has been publishing some very good articles on marijuana recently.

   Obama’s Misguided Crackdown on Medical Marijuana

   Why is the U.S. government cracking down on medical marijuana, a $1.7 billion business — and one of the few that seems to be thriving in a moribund economy?

   Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/24/obamas-misguided-crackdown-on-medical-marijuana/#ixzz1cdbYipIx
6. Maria says:

   November 3, 2011 at 8:13 am

   Pete I get the strategy to piggyback on the hashtag but why are you only linking to the NIDA page? Why not a link to someplace with real drug facts? Just curious.
   • Pete says:

     November 3, 2011 at 8:23 am

     That’s not the NIDA page. That’s my page (with real facts) that looks like the NIDA page. I own the drugfactsweek.com address. Would NIDA have Erowid on the left under “Useful Resources”?
     • Maria says:

       November 3, 2011 at 8:43 am

       Oh sweet potato pie. That’s clever. And that’s what i get for not paying attention.
       • darkcycle says:

         November 3, 2011 at 9:41 am

         You gotta watch closely, you’ll notice his hand never leaves his wrist..
7. allan says:

   November 3, 2011 at 8:29 am

   uh oh…

   NIDA has announced publication of a study on nicotine as a gateway drug. The news release from NIDA is below and at
   http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/11/NR11-02.html

   followed by the abstract of the article published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, that’s available at
   http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/107/107ra109

   NIH study examines nicotine as a gateway drug

   For Release November 2, 2011

   NIDA-funded research in mice shows that nicotine primes the brain to enhance cocaine’s effects

   A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person’s future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

   The gateway drug model is based upon epidemiological evidence that
   most illicit drug users report use of tobacco products or alcohol
   prior to illicit drug use. This model has generated significant
   controversy over the years, mostly relating to whether prior drug
   exposure (to nicotine, alcohol or marijuana) is causally related to later drug use. Before now, studies have not been able to show a biological mechanism by which nicotine exposure could increase
   vulnerability to illicit drug use.

   In the current study, by researchers at Columbia University, New York City, and published in today’s Science Translational Medicine, mice exposed to nicotine in their drinking water for at least seven days showed an increased response to cocaine. This priming effect depended on a previously unrecognized effect of nicotine on gene expression, in which nicotine changes the structure of the tightly packaged DNA molecule, reprograms the expression pattern of specific genes, in particular the FosB gene that has been related to addiction, and ultimately alters the behavioral response to cocaine.

   To examine whether the results from this study paralleled findings in humans, the researchers reexamined statistics from the 2003 National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Related Consequences to explore the relationship between onset of nicotine use and degree of cocaine dependence. They found that the rate of cocaine dependence was higher among cocaine users who smoked prior to starting cocaine compared to those who tried cocaine prior to smoking.

   These findings in mice suggest that if nicotine has similar effects in humans, effective smoking prevention efforts would not only prevent the negative health consequences associated with smoking but could also decrease the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and possibly other illicit drug use. In the meantime, this mouse model provides a new mechanism to study the gateway theory from a biological perspective.

   “Now that we have a mouse model of the actions of nicotine as a
   gateway drug this will allow us to explore the molecular mechanisms by which alcohol and marijuana might act as gateway drugs,” said Eric Kandel, M.D., of Columbia University Medical Center and a senior author of the study. “In particular, we would be interested in knowing if there is a single, common mechanism for all gateway drugs or if each drug utilizes a distinct mechanism.”

   For more information on nicotine and cocaine, go to
   http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/nicotine.html and
   http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/cocaine.html.

   The study, and a perspective by NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow, can be found online at http://stm.sciencemag.org/.
   • Duncan20903 says:

     November 3, 2011 at 9:33 am

     .
     .
     For the love of god why the f@ck does there get to be more than one gateway drug? Oh don’t mind me, I know good and well that cannabis is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Controlled Substances of America. No. Respect. At. All.

     Say, with approaching 20% of “drug users” “initiating” with oxycodone will opioids soon be labeled a “gateway” “drug”? Now that would be a novel way to kill the “gateway” “theory.” Just completely dilute the nonsense to the point that even the dimmest bulb can see the absurdity. I think we need to point out that coffee is probably a GD as well. Doesn’t the fact that there’s more medical merrywanna stores than Starbucks prove that? Shouldn’t children’s aspirin qualify?
   • darkcycle says:

     November 3, 2011 at 1:22 pm

     I don’t even have a comment about this. As a psychologist and someone familiar with brain chemistry, it is a non issue. I’m hypothesizing that if the look they’ll find other triggers for this type of neurological change. Stuff like…adrenalin, or sugar, or orgasm. The thing is, they are not looking for triggers, they’re looking for associations.
     Learning is a chemical phenomenon at it’s physiological roots. And it progresses from general to specific. Once you’ve learned one thing, whether it’s the pleasant association with an altered state of perception, or an algebra equation, it is subsequently easier to apply that learning in on new occasions. And this learning is accompanied by a measurable and qualitative change in the response to these stimuli in the future. And, hence, by logical need, to a change in the chemical response of the brain in similar situations. If learning doesn’t bring about some substantial change in the chemical response of the brain, no learning has occurred.
     Duncan nailed it. This learning will (likely)occur no matter which substance is encountered first. Mainly because as human beings, we are pre-wired to learn certain things.
     Did that make sense to anybody but me?
     • darkcycle says:

       November 3, 2011 at 2:42 pm

       …sorry…specific to general…

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9. Duncan20903 says:

   November 3, 2011 at 9:06 am

   .
   .
   Well I was surprised to learn that pot laws are racist this morning. Not that they are of course, but that I learned it over at the BET website. Is Bob Johnson still the most (monetarily) successful black guy? Is BET still his dog & pony show? It’s been a long time since I looked at the standings in the Professional Money League. For all I know he gave away all his dough to the Denver Zoo and took over Mother Theresa’s old job.

   Commentary: A Fight for Decriminalized Marijuana in Chicago

   A Chicago alderman is hoping to put an end to the racist pot laws in the Windy City.
   By Cord Jefferson
   Posted: 11/03/2011 09:02 AM EDT

   In August of last year, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which changed the 100-1 disparity between crack cocaine minimum sentencing and powder cocaine minimum sentencing to 18-1. The change wasn’t perfect, obviously, but it did lessen the disparity extremely. For years drug offenders busted with powder cocaine (read: white) were getting off far easier than offenders busted with crack (read: Black), despite the fact that crack and powder cocaine are very comparable substances. Now that that law’s been passed, however, a new drug disparity should be on the agenda of Blacks around the country: The decriminalization of marijuana.
   /snip/
   http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/11/02/commentary-a-fight-for-decriminalized-marijuana-in-chicago.html

   Wow. So I may not know what Bob’s been up to but I have been aware that black people have been noticeably absent from our side of the table. I guess think it’s nice to see that fact retired and replaced for drug fact week. Hopefully that’s not just wishful thinking.
10. claygooding says:

    November 3, 2011 at 10:28 am

    I still say mothers milk is the gateway,,it helps you live long enough to get curious,,,so let’s kill the women and stop this evil cycle of people using drugs.
    And it would probably take care of the population problems too.

    When are they going to admit that life is the gateway to drugs?
    • darkcycle says:

      November 3, 2011 at 1:24 pm

      Why do you want to eliminate the half of the population that SMELLS GOOD?
    • thelbert says:

      November 3, 2011 at 8:34 pm

      mothers milk contains endocannabinoids. which are the gateway drugs. natural drugs are bad, so breast feeding should be illegal. just ask gil.
11. Windy says:

    November 3, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Just wanted to let you all know that I am Azheera @ Twitter (and I am busily retweeting all the drug facts Pete posts, so cyl8r).

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