"Radical" Russ Belville's List: Ask Dr Mitch

• The active molecules in cannabis kill brain cancer — another study has revealed.

   

  Scientists using an extract of whole-plant marijuana rich in pot’s main psychoactive ingredient THC as well as cannabidiol (CBD) showed “dramatic reductions in tumor volumes” of a type of brain cancer.

• Writing in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics this month, the team recounts how they decided to build on existing research that shows “cannabinoids have been shown to specifically inhibit glioma growth as well as neutralize oncogenic processes such as angiogenesis.”

   

  The researchers wanted to boost the success of cannabinoids, so they investigated using THC and CBD both alone and in combination with radiation in a number of glioma cell lines.

   

  Marijuana kills cancer cells in proportion to its dose and duration of treatment, researchers found, and whole plant cannabis rich in THC was more efficacious than pure, lab-grade THC alone.
• Moreover, pre-treating cells with THC and CBD for four hours prior to irradiation increased the cancer-killing effects of radiation.

1 more annotation...

• Researchers at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas in Dallas sought to clear up some of the confusion with a study that looked at a relatively large group of marijuana users and evaluated their brains for a slew of different indicators.

• What they found was complex, but the pattern was clear: The brains of marijuana users were different than those of non-marijuana users. The area of the brain responsible for establishing the reward system that helps us survive and also keeps us motivated was smaller in users than in non-marijuana users. But there was also evidence that the brain compensated for this loss of volume by increasing connectivity and the structural integrity of the brain tissue.

  Those effects were more pronounced for marijuana users who started young.

• Almost one-fifth of Americans do daily battle with crippling, chronic pain, a large new survey reveals, with the elderly and women struggling the most.

• The poll of roughly 35,000 American households provides the first snapshot of the pain landscape in the United States, the survey authors said.

     

  The bottom line: Significant and debilitating pain that endures for three months or more is now a common feature in the lives of an estimated 39 million Americans.
• The result: Overall, 19 percent of the adults polled were deemed to have experienced "chronic" and severe daily pain.
• That grouping did not, for the most part, include adults who said they struggled with arthritis or back and joint pain, as those people tended to say their pain was not constant and persistent, the study authors noted.
• And among those with chronic pain, more than two-thirds said their pain was "constantly present," while more than half said their pain was at times "unbearable and excruciating."
• "We are clearly overusing opioids [narcotics]," he noted. "The U.S. consumes about 80 percent of the world's opioid supply, and 99 percent of the hydrocodone supply. These medications are effective in the short term, [such as] for managing postoperative pain, but long-term use often leads to dependency or addiction."
• "Those medications are wonderful when they work, but on average, they only relieve about a third or less of the chronic pain people experience, and may be completely ineffective in treating some kinds of chronic pain," Twillman said. Also, the drugs don't do anything to tackle the emotional, mental and behavioral aspects of pain management, he added.

5 more annotations...

• IU study of brain networks in marijuana users receives a $275,000 NIH grant

• U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller, who granted the hearing, scheduled for three days, over prosecutors’ objections. In an April 22 order, she said lawyers for the defendants had presented expert declarations “showing there is new scientific and medical information raising contested issues of fact regarding whether the continued inclusion of marijuana as a Schedule One controlled substance ... passes constitutional muster.”

  She issued the order in a case that, based on the evidence so far, has little to do with medical marijuana — the defendants are charged with growing a large tract of pot plants on forest land, and there’s been no indication that it was for medical use. But Gilg said that’s irrelevant if they were charged under an unconstitutional law.

  As Gilg acknowledges, it will not be an easy case to win. She and her colleagues must prove not merely that the federal law is misguided, based on current research, but that it is entirely irrational. An initial ruling would apply only to the current defendants, but the impact would be broader if higher courts weighed in.

• Monday in California when a federal judge is scheduled to hear testimony from doctors that conclude the opposite.

   

  Doctors Carl Hart, Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, retired physician Phillip Denny, and Greg Carter, Medical Director of St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Washington will testify Monday that marijuana — real name, “cannabis” — is not the demon drug the federal government makes it out to be. Accepted science does not justify the listing of cannabis as a dangerous “Schedule I” substance, many say.

• Attorneys Zenia Gilg and Heather Burke write that “In effect, the action taken by the Department of Justice is either irrational, or more likely proves … [that] marijuana does not fit the criteria of a Schedule I Controlled Substance.”

   

  Testimony for the evidentiary hearing of United States v. Pickard, et. al., should last three days.

• a new study out from the University College of London
• draws on a
• sample of

• 2,612 children born in the Bristol area of the U.K. in 1991 and 1992. Researchers examined children's IQ scores at age 8 and again at age 15, and found "no relationship between cannabis use and lower IQ at age 15," when confounding factors - alcohol use, cigarette use, maternal education, and others - were taken into account. Even heavy marijuana use wasn't associated with IQ.

  "In particular alcohol use was found to be strongly associated with IQ decline," the authors write. "No other factors were found to be predictive of IQ change."
• The UK study does find evidence, however, of slightly impaired educational abilities among the very heaviest marijuana users. This group of students scored roughly 3% lower on school exams taken at age 16, even after adjusting for confounding factors.

3 more annotations...

• Nearly 10% of Americans Go to Work High on Weed
• About 9.74% of Americans have gone to work under the influence of marijuana, according to a survey conducted by SurveyMonkey for Mashable.
• Prescription drug takers were much more common, with 28.28% of people saying they've gone to work after taking prescribed medication. However, about 7.28% say they took these drugs for recreational purposes, rather than medicinal purposes.

1 more annotation...

• Study: Marijuana Smokers May Use Drug To Cope With Negative Emotions
• Getting high to stop feeling low; a new study concludes some adolescents and young adults are smoking marijuana to ease the pain of negative emotions or events in their lives.

• The first-of-its-kind study tried to gauge the moods of marijuana smokers in real time. 40 habitual marijuana smokers (who puffed at least twice a week) were trained to use a handheld computer that signaled them about four to six times a day.

   

  After getting a signal, the participants would answer questions about their mood, who they were with, and whether they anticipated using, or had already used, marijuana.

   

  They were also asked to check in just before and after they smoked weed. All in all, they filled out over 3,600 reports.

• The researchers found that negative emotions were significantly higher in the 24 hours before marijuana use than at other times. There was no similar increase in positive emotions before toking.

   

  This suggests that marijuana smokers use the drug to help them cope with their negative feelings, something the researchers say should be factored in when it comes to policies on cannabis use.

2 more annotations...

• Females Build Up Tolerance To Marijuana Faster Than Males, Study Finds
• Researchers at Washington State University have found evidence indicating that females may build up a tolerance to marijuana more easily than males do.
• The study focused on the pain-relieving effects of THC on male and female rats.
• At the beginning of the trial, the female rats displayed a higher sensitivity to THC than the males. However, after 10 days of testing, researchers found that the female rats were needing higher doses of THC than the males just to experience the same degree of pain relief. In other words, while female rats started out being more sensitive to THC, after 10 days, they ended up less sensitive.
• For women, this is an important issue, since medical researchers are now seriously considering these drugs' potential to relieve chronic pain -- something women in particular will benefit from if administered properly.
• In a 2014 study, women reported feeling the "high" sensation more acutely than men when given a joint to smoke. This sensitivity, combined with Craft's findings, can better inform doctors who want to prescribe cannabis as a pain reliever and women who smoke cannabis recreationally.

4 more annotations...

• Frequent teen marijuana use linked to issues later in life
• Teens who use marijuana daily before age 17 are more than 60% less likely to get their high school diploma than those who've never used pot, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry.
• The study, done by researchers in Australia and New Zealand, is a meta-analysis of three previous long-running studies that included nearly 4,000 participants.
• The study found daily adolescent users were 18 times more likely to become dependent on marijuana, seven times more likely to attempt suicide, and eight times more likely to use other illegal drugs in the future.

• Mason Tvert, communications director with the Marijuana Policy Project, said the study doesn't show using marijuana causes any of these problems; it just underscores a link between individuals who use marijuana and those who experience these types of problems.

   

  "The article expressly states that there remains no evidence that using marijuana causes depression, suicide or dropping out of school," he said. "It simply shows that teens who are prone to developing these problems are more likely to have used marijuana."

3 more annotations...

• Finally, Some Hard Science on Medical Marijuana for Epilepsy Patients
• The new study will recruit epilepsy patients who have already taken Charlotte’s Web. The patients will be divided into two groups—those who have seen seizure activity reduced by at least 50 percent on Charlotte’s Web and those who have had less dramatic or no results from taking the marijuana oil. Genetic analysis of the patients in both groups will then be performed in hopes of discovering what genetic components may cause a patient to be responsive to medical marijuana.
• A groundbreaking clinical trial may provide some answers to medical marijuana as a seizure treatment
• researchers at the University of Colorado, Denver will study the genes of those with a kind of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome who have been treated with a strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte’s Web. The study will attempt to determine if specific genetic components can explain why some epilepsy patients see positive results from ingesting Charlotte’s Web, while others do not.
• Edward Maa, the principal investigator of the Charlotte’s Web study, says the new trial could be a first step toward building a body of research on how and why medical marijuana can be used to treat epilepsy. “This is the first attempt to get the information people are interested in that is observational in nature,”
• Recruiting for the new study will begin within a month and data will be collected until February 2016.
• He says the study could allow children with Dravet Syndrome to be genetically screened before taking Charlotte’s Web so parents could know ahead of time if their children would benefit.

5 more annotations...

• The Surprising Everyday Ingredient That Can Reduce Pot Paranoia

• Study finds 100 percent increase in fatal pot-related crashes in Colorado
• A study out this month finds the number of people killed in marijuana-related accidents in Colorado has increased 100 percent over five years.

• The report comes from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, a drug prohibition group that brings together federal and local law enforcement. 

  It says that in 2012 there were 78 fatalities where someone involved in the accident (a driver, bike rider, pedestrian) tested positive for marijuana, compared to 39 in 2007. 
• Tom Gorman, director of Rocky Mountain HIDTA.
• A much more encouraging sign from the data is that overall traffic deaths in Colorado went down by nearly 15 percent in that same time frame.

• "I honestly believe within 4 to 6 years there will be a ballot initiative to overturn 64," said Gorman.

  "Would you support overturning Amendment 64?" asked 7NEWS reporter Lindsay Watts.

  "Absolutely," responded Gorman.

4 more annotations...

• Heavy pot use in teen years may predict later-life disability

• NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A long-term study of Swedish men finds that those who smoked marijuana at age 18, especially the heaviest users, were more likely to end up on the nation’s disability rolls by age 59.

  It’s unclear whether the pot use in adolescence may have led to more severe substance abuse or was an early sign of psychiatric or social factors that contributed to later disability, the researchers caution.

• She and her colleagues analyzed data from a large study that included almost 50,000 men born between 1949 and 1951 and conscripted into compulsory military service in 1969 and 1970.

  When the men entered the military, they were asked about their drug, tobacco and alcohol use, as well as questions about their family and social backgrounds, school performance, behavior, psychological issues and general health.

  Danielsson’s team was specifically interested in the frequency of marijuana use at age 18, when the men were conscripted.

• About 9 percent of the teens reported having used marijuana when they entered the military, and 1.5 percent said they had used it more than 50 times.

  The researchers found that men who used marijuana more than 50 times before the age of 18 were 30 percent more likely to go on disability sometime between the ages of 40 and 59.

  A similar pattern was seen for young men who used pot less frequently, with the chance of being on disability in middle age rising with increasing pot use at age 18.

  However, when the study team adjusted for other factors, including socioeconomic background, other substance use by age 18, psychiatric diagnoses and other health problems, the link remained statistically significant – meaning it could not have been due to chance – only for the heaviest users who had smoked pot more than 50 times as young men.
• That group already had a number of problems in their teens, the researchers note in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Of the 654 heaviest pot users at age 18, 80 percent also reported using other drugs, 47 percent reported risky alcohol use and 55 percent had a psychiatric diagnosis.

3 more annotations...