Nora Volkow spotlights violent marijuana consumers

The belief that smoking marijuana can lead to gratuitous acts of violence among young adults (18-34) was resurrected in April of this year thanks to a science publication by NIDA director Nora Volkow.

In it Dr. Volkow and her colleagues gathered data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health featuring 113,454 participants who revealed increases in associations with violent behavior in women ranging from 1.0 to 1.4-percent when correlated with various levels or categories and frequencies of cannabis use. For men, the increases ranged from 1.2 to 1.4-percent. News of the findings was seized upon by prohibitionist and Smart Approaches to Marijuana founder Kevin Sabet who gleefully announced that the data showed “nearly twice the violent behavior rate of non-users.”

So how did smoking marijuana—the weed that gave rise to popular use of the expression “mellow”—end up getting blamed for causing violence? In Dr. Volkow’s paper it happens because she uses data collected within the category defined as drug abuse with no consideration of any medical use.

With all cannabis use considered an abuse, the NIDA lumps medical users into single categories along with recreational users. Medical cannabis use in the U.S. comprises 50-percent of the total number who medicate with cannabis for anxiety and 34-percent who medicate for depression. Anxiety and/or trauma can trigger PTSD and depression. Unchecked, the maladies can sometimes impair the emotional regulation associated with aggression and violence. Anxiety triggers the fight or flight response. Marijuana in many cases can treat depression and anxiety disorders so its users would include those seeking a medication to cope with depression or being overstressed. They would stand out in studies in which the sole intention is to discover and quantify violent behavior among marijuana consumers. Such behavior facilitates the creation of anti-marijuana propaganda.

That the NIDA functions in many cases as a propaganda mill should come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed its act since the agency was first established in 1974 to advance the science of drug use and addiction. Instead of doing useful research, the NIDA emerged as a toxic brew of politics masquerading as science. By creating and publicizing misleading information and false alarms about cannabis and psychedelics it has succeeded in little more than preserving its own agency while adding to a large commercial and taxpayer-funded cash flow falling into the hands of drug enforcement grifters and profiteers.

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12 Responses to Nora Volkow spotlights violent marijuana consumers

  1. Son of Sam Walton says:

    Cannabis makes me very violent. You ever heard of the Spagettie Incident? Red everywhere.

    • Son of Sam Walton says:

      speaking of food, who is this famous crepe maker of Gaza you keep hearing about? What an artist watching him make his food–even in a war zone. Chocolate pistaschio bannana crepes? He wears his chef whites and has a very fancy and spectacular set up of his kitchen and daily displays . . . plus all the people waiting in line and just watching their reaction to their requests, “You can do that with crepes?”.

      • Trump stinks says:

        It breaks your heart to see the people of Gaza carry on with normal life under the harshest of circumstaances. We are now seeing mass gasslighting of the public through the media on Gaza in the same way that the war on drugs was conducted through populist/tabloid newspapers for a century. The liars are still in control and dictating the narrative.
        By the way, anyone with knowledge of fire arms would know that a round from an AR 15 passing through the ear would result in a massive and fatal head injury due to the shock wave from a bullet travelling at three times the speed of a handgun bullet. We have here yet more gaslighting and altered reality.

        • NorCalNative says:

          No word from the treating hospital on Trump’s ear injury as far as I know. Trump on his social media said he knew he was hit by a bullet. Is the hospital afraid to call it a wound caused by flying debris after Trump’s statement? Cross MAGA and threats of death and violence soon follow.

          I know shit about ballistics but it didn’t appear that he was shot. Just another lie to add to the list.

  2. Servetus says:

    Microdosing appears to be the administrative choice for those interested in using psychedelics for therapy:

    28-JUN-2024 — Loosening local, state and federal regulations on cannabis and psychedelics has increased Americans’ interest in microdosing, according to a study from researchers at the University of California San Diego. Published in JAMA Health Forum, the study found that the rate of microdosing-related Google searches grew by 1250% from 2015 to 2023, with over three million searches in 2023 alone. This surge in interest correlates with recent legislative changes decriminalizing or authorizing the use of psychedelic substances in therapy and permitting recreational cannabis use. The research fills a gap in understanding how policy changes affect substance use patterns. […]

    Microdosing involves taking “sub-perceptual” doses of psychedelics, often over prolonged periods, with users claiming it improves cognition, mood and overall health without causing the intense hallucinogenic effects of higher doses. […]

    The study also examined trends in terms related to microdosing, such as substances commonly used for microdosing. Between 2015 and 2018, LSD was the top term related to the microdosing, while from 2019 to 2023, mushrooms were most frequently searched. Other terms included Adderall, cannabis, CBD, DMT, ketamine, and MDMA.

    The researchers believe these findings reflect a growing societal interest in psychedelics and psychotropic substances as alternative therapies, possibly replacing evidence-based care. On a federal level, President Biden suggested reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in 2022, and the Justice Department approved this recommendation in May 2024. Kevin Yang, M.D., lead author of the study and a psychiatry resident at UC San Diego School of Medicine, believes these actions, along with state and local legislation, indicate a more open attitude toward psychotropics, potentially encouraging scientific investigation. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: As restrictions on cannabis and psychedelics ease, Americans dabble with ‘microdosing’

    JAMA Health Forum: State Cannabis and Psychedelic Legislation and Microdosing Interest in the US

    Co-authors: Nora Satybaldiyeva, Matthew R. Allen, John W. Ayers, of UC San Diego.

    Funding/Support: The work is supported in part by grant T32IP4684 from the California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, grant K01DA054303 from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse and Burroughs Welcome Fund.

  3. Son of Sam Walton says:

    A Rap Song I’m making for a local group in my area, dedicated to the DEA and Nora

    Don’t you mess with your drug money enemies
    Financing War and Terrorism with endless keys
    Some real killers selling coca leaves and poppies
    Ready to drown and revive/Drown and Revive
    Repeat the slippery when wet bathtub process a few dozen times
    Just to waterlog your whole family
    More dangerous than any troubled YUTE who blew up the school Pep assembly
    Your children’s brains al-dente
    So Trust Me when I tell You World War Three will be financed by Drug Money.

    Shooting up Baghdad and Kabul with a 50cal
    Like Doing drive-bys in Southern Cal
    Laundering that dope money for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
    Dealing on American streets by way of a Slob Blood or a Crabby Crip
    Six-hundred and Sixty-six Grams
    The Sinaloa Cartel raping mommy and daddy’s little lambs.
    Dope Money creates endless immigrants and refugees
    “Sodomized by barbed-wire”, shouted from the pulpit in their sad funeral elegies.
    So Trust Me when I tell You World War Three will be financed by Drug Money.

    Thugs selling drugs
    Hiding road-side bombs in half-gallon jugs.
    An ISIS beheading with a dull blade
    The DEA refused to press charges on Cocaine Mitch after a successful Raid.
    1993–the WTC and Bailed out banks laundering that big D-money
    Go ahead and tell me that 9/11 wasn’t just a little bit funny.
    The DOJ telling the bankers they got that A-OKAY
    For HSBC and Deutsche Banks to Launder for another Day
    So Trust Me when I tell You World War Three will be financed by Drug Money.

    Cops and traffickers making it Snow
    Watch as another American Embassy in Africa is set to Blow
    Cartels and Jihad
    Funneling millions into the extremist slums of Beirut, Caracas, and Riyadh
    Central American Gangs
    Moving product north to Tulsa in some souped up things
    That’s okay, because America is getting divorced and estranged.
    Poverty, homelessness, and a shrinking middle class is the newest thing
    So Trust Me when I tell You World War Three will be financed by Drug Money.

    Come and try it—get your spoons and cotton and chop up lines of credit
    You read something about this in Reddit
    Let’s lose a Twenty Year War to a bunch of Drug Dealing Child Molesting Cavemen
    Iraqi Oil Made into American Plastics drained into the Indian and Pacific Ocean
    And Afghani Tech minerals found in our Wal-Mart and Amazon shopping spree
    Are just mere gifts for You and Me
    But that’s how you are $aving A Buck
    Because Lady Liberty is strung out and down on her luck.
    So Trust Me when I tell You World War Three will be financed by Drug Money.

  4. Servetus says:

    Acupuncture therapy reduces the methadone maintenance dose and cravings associated with opioid addictions:

    8-JUL-2024 — According to the results of a randomized, controlled trial, acupuncture may facilitate reducing methadone maintenance dose and reduce drug cravings for patients undergoing treatment for opioid addiction. These findings are important because while MMT has been widely used to decrease the use of opioids, suppress withdrawal symptoms, and reduce criminal activities, it is also a long-term treatment associated with harsh side-effects that make ongoing treatment difficult for patients. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. […]

    Researchers from South China Research Center for Acupuncture and Moxibustion and Medical College of Acu-Moxi and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou randomly assigned xx participants to either acupuncture or sham acupuncture 3 times a week for 8 weeks to assess the efficacy of acupuncture on methadone dose reduction. The researchers looked specifically for a reduction in methadone dose of 20% or more compared with baseline and a reduction in an opioid craving score. They found that the administration of acupuncture resulted in meaningful improvements in the amount of methadone reduction and the decrease in opioid craving score when compared with sham acupuncture. According to the authors, the findings support the consideration of acupuncture for methadone reduction for persons who are receiving MMT. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Acupuncture reduces methadone dose and opioid cravings in patients undergoing methadone maintenance therapy

    Annals of Internal Medicine: Effect of Acupuncture for Methadone Reduction: A Randomized Clinical Trial

  5. NorCalNative says:

    I used methadone briefly around 20-years ago as a sub for oral morphine (MS Contin). I discontinued it and went back on morphine due to dysphoria. Methadone sucked and it wasn’t any better for pain.

    My physician at the time, Andrew Cunningham, practiced acupuncture and electro-acupuncture and was featured on a PBS special called Chinese Medicine Master. He spent several months in China studying acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

    He used acupuncture and electro-acupuncture on me several times and I found the electro-acupuncture superior for relief from joint pain. I got long-term relief from low-back pain and osteoarthritis of hips and knees. Not aware if he was expecting me to quit or reduce my opiate dosing from acupuncture treatments. He did talk to me about replacing morphine with Suboxone but it never happened.

    He’s now doing exclusively telemedicine due to narcolepsy. I mentioned this here once about the time he left me alone hooked up to needles with the electric current. I wasn’t
    able to maintain position and it became very uncomfortable. However, overall my experience was good. I’d suggest the electro-acupuncture if one has a choice.

    A bit of a rant while I’m here. I’m a bibliophile and life-long reader. I lost thousands of dollars worth of leather-bound collectors editions of great literature (a lot translated into English) when my Santa Rosa home was destroyed by fire. After the fire, I lost the ability to concentrate enough to enjoy reading a book for several years.

    But last year I started reading again and binged on 13 Iaasc Asimov science fiction novels from the 50’s and 80’s. One of his books — I Robot — pissed me off! It pissed me off because I had seen the movie with Will Smith and enjoyed it a lot. Here’s the thing though, the movie and the book are not even remotely similar in the story line. The movie used the title and the name of two main characters and that was IT.

    I call bullshit!

    Lately, I’ve been reading non-fiction by geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan of whom I have become a big fan. Geography and Demographics are the basis of every countries destiny and Peter runs down where things are headed in the World. One of the things Peter mentions frequently is that Chinese demographics (and not so great geography) predict a failing nation and economy this decade. He talks about how China even if they invaded and controlled Taiwan, that they don’t have Chinese capable of running or managing Taiwans chip manufacturing plants.

    Peter has many YouTube videos of lectures he gives to military and business groups in addition to ten-minute videos pretty much daily. I highly recommend his stuff.

  6. Servetus says:

    A new technology developed at the University of California, Davis, for understanding opioid signaling in the brain, promises to increase understanding of multiple, individual opioid effects:

    15-JUL-2024 — New research from a Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience researcher could transform how we understand the way opioids affect the brain. […]

    Numerous questions remain about how … behavioral effects are caused by opioids and whether it is possible to harness specific opioid properties such as pain relief without undesirable effects, such as addiction. The opioid scientific literature is extensive and has confirmed that targeting the opioid system is of clinical interest – not only for pain management but also, more recently, for the treatment of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. Development of therapeutics that can target these health challenges while preventing the tragedy of the current opioid epidemic requires further understanding of the diverse effects of opioids in the brain.

    The diversity of opioid effects on the brain is driven by more than 20 different opioid chemicals produced in the brain and more than 500 different synthetic opioids. Most of these different opioids interact with all three types of opioid receptors with different strengths. Their varied effects depend on the concentration of opioid, the specific receptors present and the brain circuits involved. […]

    Through a massive effort developing and testing over 1,000 variants, Dr. Tian’s team has optimized highly-sensitive biosensors based on the three opioid receptors. These biosensors, originally developed while Tian was at the University of California, Davis, emit fluorescence upon opioid binding to the sensor and turn off when the opioid is no longer there. The biosensors, therefore, serve as a proxy for opioid binding to specific opioid receptors. Introducing these sensors into the brain of an animal provides a way to visualize opioid signaling across the brain in real-time.

    “The power of this new technology is that we now have the tools to understand the natural opioid system in the brain, including how to distinguish between different opioid effects. We can track endogenous opioid release in real-time, triggered by both reward and aversion and see the differences in opioid signaling in different brain circuits.” […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Visualizing addiction: How new research could change the way we fight the opioid epidemic

    Nature Neuroscience: Unlocking opioid neuropeptide dynamics with genetically encoded biosensors

    Coauthors: Chunyang Dong, Raajaram Gowrishankar, Yihan Jin, Xinyi Jenny He, Achla Gupta, Huikun Wang, Nilüfer Sayar-Atasoy, Rodolfo J. Flores, Karan Mahe, Nikki Tjahjono, Ruqiang Liang, Aaron Marley, Grace Or Mizuno, Darren K. Lo, Qingtao Sun, Jennifer L. Whistler, Bo Li, Ivone Gomes, Mark Von Zastrow, Hugo A. Tejeda, Deniz Atasoy, Lakshmi A. Devi, Michael R. Bruchas, Matthew R. Banghart & Lin Tian.

  7. Servetus says:

    Researchers map the critical network brain areas involved in introspective thinking under the influence of psilocybin:

    17-JUL-2024 — In a new study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, temporarily scrambles a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking such as daydreaming and remembering. The findings provide a neurobiological explanation for the drug’s mind-bending effects and lay some of the groundwork for the development of psilocybin-based therapies for mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. […]

    “There’s a massive effect initially, and when it’s gone, a pinpoint effect remains,” said co-senior author Nico U. F. Dosenbach, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology. “That’s exactly what you’d want to see for a potential medicine. You wouldn’t want people’s brain networks to be obliterated for days, but you also wouldn’t want everything to snap back to the way it was immediately. You want an effect that lasts long enough to make a difference.” […]

    The team recruited seven healthy adults to take a high dose of psilocybin or methylphenidate, the generic form of Ritalin, under controlled conditions. Because psychedelic trips carry the risk of users having negative or scary experiences, a pair of trained experts stayed with each participant throughout the experience. The experts helped prepare the participants for what they were likely to experience, provided guidance and support during each experiment, and helped the volunteers process what had occurred afterward. Each participant underwent an average of 18 functional MRI brain scans in the days to weeks before, during and up to three weeks after their experiences with psilocybin. Four participants returned six months later to repeat the experiment.

    Psilocybin caused profound and widespread — yet not permanent — changes to the brain’s functional networks. In particular, it desynchronized the default mode network, an interconnected set of brain areas that, ordinarily, are simultaneously active when the brain is not working on anything in particular. After falling out of sync, the network re-established itself when the acute effects of the drug wore off, but small differences from pre-psilocybin scans persisted for weeks. The default mode network remained stable in people who received methylphenidate. […]

    Normally, each individual’s functional brain network is as distinctive as a fingerprint. Psilocybin distorted brain networks so thoroughly that individuals could no longer be identified until the acute affects wore off.

    “The brains of people on psilocybin look more similar to each other than to their untripping selves,” Dosenbach said. “Their individuality is temporarily wiped out. This verifies, at a neuroscientific level, what people say about losing their sense of self during a trip.” […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Psilocybin generates psychedelic experience by disrupting brain network: Study advances efforts to harness drug’s mind-altering power to treat mental illness

    Nature: Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain

    Coauthors: Joshua S. Siegel, Subha Subramanian, Demetrius Perry, Benjamin P. Kay, Evan M. Gordon, Timothy O. Laumann, T. Rick Reneau, Nicholas V. Metcalf, Ravi V. Chacko, Caterina Gratton, Christine Horan, Samuel R. Krimmel, Joshua S. Shimony, Julie A. Schweiger, Dean F. Wong, David A. Bender, Kristen M. Scheidter, Forrest I. Whiting, Jonah A. Padawer-Curry, Russell T. Shinohara, Yong Chen, Julia Moser, Essa Yacoub, Steven M. Nelson, Luca Vizioli, Damien A. Fair, Eric J. Lenze, Robin Carhart-Harris, Charles L. Raison, Marcus E. Raichle, Abraham Z. Snyder, Ginger E. Nicol & Nico U. F.

  8. Servetus says:

    What to know about microdosing psychedelics:

    July 15, 2024 — Taking small doses of psychedelics, referred to as “microdosing,” has become increasingly popular, but little is known about the safety or efficacy of the trend. […]

    David Hellerstein, MD, of Columbia University in New York City, told MedPage Today that a therapeutic psychedelic dose of psilocybin is around 25 mg and could result in a “trip” with altered reality. But microdosing involves much less of the substance, generally about 1 to 3 mg, or about a tenth of a psychedelic dose, taken up to every few days. That’s with psilocybin; it would be much harder to dose mushrooms themselves because they contain other compounds, he added. […]

    Just defining “microdosing” is a challenge, experts said. Paul Hutson, PharmD, MS, director of the Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said there’s still no consensus as to the definition of a “microdose.”

    For instance, Hutson said, would microdosing be considered “a sub-hallucinogenic dose, that when you close your eyes, you don’t see any changes in vision or images? Or is it just kind of a little sparkle effect, a little bit of hallucinations, a little bit of euphoria, or changes in senses?” […]

    MedPage Today: What to Know About ‘Microdosing’ Psychedelics — Research is sparse and definitions aren’t consistent, experts say

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