Welcome to March-April Fence Builder – Helping You be Proactive & Protective
Disrupting Cocaine Memories Prevents Return to Cocaine Use in Rats February 2021
Many people who use cocaine and other drugs return to drug use even after prolonged abstinence. Resumption of drug use often is driven by drug-associated memories that are retrieved when the person is exposed to drug cues. The results of a recent study in rats suggest that some neuronal connections (i.e., synapses) that encode cocaine-associated memories are not static but weaken for approximately 6 hours after they are retrieved and that holding these synapses in their weakened state may reduce return to cocaine use.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2021/02/disrupting-cocaine-memories-prevents-return-cocaine-use-in-rats
(Dalgarno Institute Comment: It is important to note the ‘recalibrating’ of both brain and cellular memory is motivated by behavioural action, not chemical engagement - See also Humpty Dumpty Resiliency Ed. S. 6: Rebellion & Experimentation P2: From Thermometer to Thermostat (https://nobrainer.org.au/images/humpty-dumpty/RewardExploration_-_Part_Two.pdf )
Alice Cooper: My mental state was 'very organised schizophrenia'
Exploring Psychedelic Micro-dosing & the Placebo Effect
Researchers from Imperial College London have carried out the largest placebo-controlled trial into psychedelics to date and found that small doses of LSD boost the psychology of users in a manner of ways.
However, when the researchers examined what trial volunteers took, they found placebos worked equally as well as the drug. In short, the uplift reported by microdosers might be nothing more than the placebo effect.
“But we see the same improvements among participants taking placebos. This suggests that the improvements may not be due to the pharmacological action of the drug but can instead be explained by the placebo effect.”
The findings, published in eLife, suggest the expectation of taking a small dose of the drug was as good as taking the drug itself. “This suggests that the perceived beneficial effects of microdosing psychedelics in this group are more likely to be a result of positive expectation than the capacity of the drug to induce a beneficial effect.”
For complete research go to https://elifesciences.org/articles/62878
Vaping pot worse than vaping tobacco for teens' lungs: study
A survey taken between December 2016 and January 2018 shows that adolescents who vape marijuana are more likely to wheeze and cough than those who smoke cigarettes or vape nicotine.
The federally funded Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study surveyed nearly 15,000 teens. It showed that vaping marijuana increased the risk of wheezing or whistling in the chest by 81 percent compared to a 15 percent increased risk from cigarettes and a 9 percent increased risk from nicotine e-cigarettes. Vaping marijuana also increased teens’ risk of:
- Sleep disturbed by wheezing by 71 percent,
- Speech limited due to wheezing by 96 percent,
- Wheezing during or after exercise by 33 percent, and
- Dry coughing at night by 26 percent
These are all signs of significant injury to the lungs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 4 out of 5 patients with the serious lung disease called EVALI had vaped marijuana, versus only about 16 percent who said they were only vaping nicotine. Vitamin E acetate was found in the lung fluids of all EVALI patients.
Read Healthday article here.
Abstinence-Supported Addiction Treatment
How does ASAT support recovery?
People get to a point where they think, okay so I stopped the coping behavior, now what? If just stopping substance use or stopping something that was causing negative effects in my life was adequate, I wouldn’t be thinking about what my New Year’s resolutions were going to be this year. So once you’ve gone through withdrawal management, you’re stabilized, you’re no longer using a substance in a negative way, what does your recovery look like? And that’s where abstinence supported environments come in. You have this period of life where you can practice recovery-based skills and competencies and get the basic life skills of growing up. For more https://www.thefix.com/abstinence-supported-addiction-treatment
What are magic mushrooms and psilocybin?
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance people ingest from certain types of mushrooms that grow in regions of Europe, South America, Mexico, and the United States.
Risks
People who have taken psilocybin in uncontrolled settings might engage in reckless behavior, such as driving while intoxicated.
Some people may experience persistent, distressing alterations to the way they see the world. These effects are often visual and can last anywhere from weeks to years after using the hallucinogen.
Finally, though the risk is small, some psilocybin users risk accidental poisoning from eating a poisonous mushroom by mistake – Symptoms of mushroom poisoning may include muscle spasms, confusion, and delirium. Visit an emergency room immediately if these symptoms occur.
Because hallucinogenic and other poisonous mushrooms are common to most living environments, a person should regularly remove all mushrooms from areas where children are routinely present to prevent accidental consumption.
Some Effects can include
The effects of psilocybin are generally similar to those of LSD. They include an altered perception of time and space and intense changes in mood and feeling.
Possible effects of psilocybin include:
- Quickly changing emotions
- Derealization, or the feeling that surroundings are not real
- Distorted thinking
- Dilated pupils
- Dizziness
- Impaired concentration
- Muscle weakness
- Lack of coordination
- Unusual body sensations
- Nausea
- Paranoia
- Confusion
- Frightening hallucinations
- Vomiting
- Yawning
For complete article go to Medical News Today April 2021
Cannabis Conundrum
Cannabis & Children’s Cancer.
Conclusion: Data confirm a close relationship across space and lagged time between cannabis and TPCIR which was robust to adjustment, supported by inverse probability weighting procedures and accompanied by high e-Values making confounding unlikely and establishing the causal relationship. Cannabis-liberal jurisdictions were associated with higher rates of TPCIR and a faster rate of TPCIR increase. Data inform the broader general consideration of cannabinoid-induced genotoxicity.
For complete research go to https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33632159/
Medical Marijuana Is Not Regulated as Most Medicines Are (dalgarnoinstitute.org.au)
Colorado's legal cannabis farms emit more carbon than its coal mines
In Colorado, the emissions add up to around 2.6 megatonnes of CO2e, which is more than that from the state’s coal mining at 1.8 megatonnes of CO2e.
“The emissions that come from growing 1 ounce, depending on where it’s grown in the US, is about the same as burning 7 to 16 gallons of gasoline,” says Summers
The carbon footprint of the cannabis industry is even larger than this study indicates, says Evan Mills, formerly at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, as the team didn’t look at emissions associated with storage and processing.
Illegal cannabis production is also likely to be more highly emitting, he says. “The energy profile of black-market production is distinctly different in that it frequently involves on-site diesel generators, which are often less efficient and more polluting per kilowatt-hour than grid-purchased electricity.”
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2270366-colorados-legal-cannabis-farms-emit-more-carbon-than-its-coal-mines/#ixzz6oeyC5CcE
Cannabis use, abuse and dependence: Real & Growing Concern
Background: This study determined factors associated with recent and current cannabis use. In addition, we explored factors related to having a cannabis use disorder (CUD)—defined using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders—among current users.
Results: The weighted prevalence of experiential cannabis use was 18.3%, with 3.0% and 3.3% of participants indicating recent or current use, respectively; 41.3% of current users indicated having a CUD.
Conclusions: Males, adolescents/young adults and individuals with lower educational levels are more likely to be current users of cannabis and are at a greater risk of having a CUD. Health professionals should be aware of these factors to improve detection and prevention of CUD.
Correlates of patterns of cannabis use, abuse and dependence: evidence from two national surveys in Ireland | European Journal of Public Health | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
Cannabis – Not a Good Pain Manager!
March 23, 2021 Author Michael Vagg C onjoint Clinical Associate Professor, Deakin University School of Medicine and Specialist Pain Medicine Physician, Deakin University.
They concluded overall the studies’ “quality, rigour, and transparency of reporting” of benefits and harms needs to be improved across the board. We would require higher quality data, for example through randomised controlled trials, to determine the safety and efficacy of using medicinal cannabis for pain.
In the polite and understated world of academic medicine, this is about as big a smackdown as it gets. The authors are essentially saying most of the studies are too poorly done, using unsuitable methods, to give any answer to the most basic question of whether medicinal cannabis helps with pain.
If medicinal cannabis was truly as potentially valuable as often claimed, we would be the loudest voice in favour of wider access. The weight of evidence points us away from this conclusion.
https://theconversation.com/medicinal-cannabis-to-manage-chronic-pain-we-dont-have-evidence-it-works-157324
Youth are becoming addicted to marijuana at nearly the same rates as prescription opioids.
Dr Nora Volkow, an author of the JAMA study and the current director of the U.S.’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, said, “The findings contradict widely held perceptions that cannabis isn’t particularly addictive and may attract attention amid a broad U.S. push to liberalize its use. The rates of addiction were significant, especially since teenagers’ brains are still developing…One in 10 teens having a marijuana addiction — that’s huge. Using cannabis also gives them a higher chance of becoming addicted to other drugs later.”
For complete article Cannabis Almost As Addictive as Opioids, JAMA Study Finds - (legalreader.com)
Psychoactive THC from marijuana can stay in breast milk for six WEEKS after new moms quit using it, raising concerns the drug may alter babies' brain development
- Researchers looked at 25 pregnant women who had a history of marijuana use when admitted to hospitals for delivery
- Within two weeks of giving birth, the women had levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) of 5.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) on average in their breast milk
- This is higher than the blood THC level of five ng/mL or higher needed to charge drivers with a DUI, in some states
- By six weeks post-delivery, the THC levels in breast milk had dropped to about two ng/mL, low but still detectable
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