Liberação medicinal da maconha não induz uso em adolescente, diz estudo

Liberação medicinal da maconha não induz uso em adolescente, diz estudo.

Economistas de três universidades americanas analisaram dados sobre o consumo de maconha por adolescentes entre 1993 e 2009 e descobriram que, apesar de o uso ter crescido desde 2005, não há evidências entre a legalização da marijuana para fins medicinais no país e o aumento do vício entre alunos do ensino médio.

Homem manipula plantação de maconha com fins medicinais em Denver, no Colorado, estado onde o uso é aprovado para aliviar a dor. Só no condado de Denver, um a cada 41 moradores, ou 600 mil pessoas, está registrado como paciente medicinal de maconha (Foto: Rick Wilking/Reuters)

Os pesquisadores das universidades do Colorado, em Denver, do Oregon e de Montana examinaram dados nacionais de estudantes que participaram da Pesquisa de Comportamento de Risco Juvenil, que integra informações de 13 estados – Alasca, Califórnia, Colorado, Havaí, Maine, Nevada, Oregon e Washington – no período em que cada um legalizou a maconha para uso terapêutico.

Outros 17 estados e o distrito de Colúmbia, onde fica a capital dos EUA, Washington D.C., já têm leis desse tipo. Em outros sete estados, a legislação sobre o tema ainda está pendente.

Segundo o professor assistente de economia Benjamin Hansen, da Universidade do Oregon, o resultado do estudo é importante, pois recentemente o governo federal intensificou os esforços para fechar locais onde existe maconha medicinal. O pesquisador diz que, muitas vezes os dados chegam a mostrar até uma relação negativa entre a legalização e o uso da maconha.

Autoridades federais, que incluem o diretor do escritório da Política Nacional para o Controle de Drogas, argumentam que a legalização da maconha para o alívio da dor tem contribuído para o recente aumento no consumo entre os adolescentes nos EUA. O governo tem como principais alvos as farmácias que operam em um raio de 300 metros de escolas, parques e playgrounds.

Os dados de 2011 do relatório "Monitoramento dos resultados nacionais sobre o uso de drogas em adolescentes", elaborado anualmente pelo Instituto para Pesquisa Social da Universidade de Michigan, revelam que o consumo de maconha por alunos entre 10 e 12 anos aumentou nos últimos três anos, com cerca de um em 15 usuários diários ou quase diários. O relatório, citado no estudo dos economistas, entrevistou 46.700 estudantes em 400 escolas do ensino médio.

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Publicidade de cigarro aumenta chances de adolescente começar a fumar, confirma estudo

Segundo pesquisa, quanto maior a quantidade de anúncios de cigarro que um jovem vê, mais elevado é o seu risco de se tornar um fumante

A cada dez anúncios publicitários de cigarro que um adolescente vê, o seu risco de começar a fumar aumenta 40%. Além disso, as chances de que ele passe a fumar diariamente se tornam 30% mais elevadas. É o que concluiu um novo estudo feito no Instituto para Pesquisa em Saúde e Terapia da Alemanha que monitorou jovens não fumantes ao longo de dois anos e meio. As conclusões foram publicadas nesta quarta-feira no periódico BMJ Open.

A pesquisa começou em 2008, quando 1.320 adolescentes de 10 a 15 anos de idade que nunca haviam fumado foram questionados sobre a frequência com que haviam visto os anúncios publicitários que os pesquisadores lhes mostraram. A equipe incluiu imagens das seis maiores marcas de cigarro da Alemanha e de outros oito produtos, como de chocolates, roupas, celulares e carros.

Dois anos e meio depois, os pesquisadores perguntaram a mesma coisa aos mesmos jovens. Além disso, os participantes relataram se haviam começado a fumar e, caso a resposta fosse afirmativa, com que frequência e qual a quantidade que haviam fumado desde 2008.

De acordo com o estudo, um em cada três adolescentes afirmou ter fumado nesse período de dois anos e meio, e um em dez participantes disse ter fumado no último mês. Além disso, 5% dos jovens afirmaram ter consumido mais de 100 cigarros desde o início do estudo e 5% disseram que fumavam todos os dias.

Influência dos amigos — Os pesquisadores também observaram que o fator que exerce maior influência para que um adolescente comece a fumar é ter algum amigo que fuma. Em segundo lugar está a exposição à publicidade de cigarro – e quanto maior é essa exposição, maiores as chances de o jovem começar a fumar. Os jovens que afirmaram ter visto o maior número de anúncios de cigarro demonstraram ser até duas vezes mais propensos a fumar do que aqueles que viram menos anúncios.

"Os dados desse estudo apoiam a proibição de publicidade de cigarros, pois a exposição a propagandas de tabaco pode prever a iniciação no tabagismo", afirmam os autores.

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Antiretroviral prophylaxis for HIV infection in injecting drug users in Bangkok, Thailand (the Bangkok Tenofovir Study): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial.

Kachit Choopanya MD a, Dr Michael Martin MD b c , Pravan Suntharasamai MD a, Udomsak Sangkum MD a, Philip A MockMAppStats b, Manoj Leethochawalit MD d, Sithisat Chiamwongpaet MD d, Praphan Kitisin MD d, Pitinan Natrujirote MD d, Somyot Kittimunkong MD e, Rutt Chuachoowong MD b, Roman J Gvetadze MD c, Janet M McNicholl MD b c, Lynn A Paxton MD c, Marcel E Curlin MD b c, Craig W Hendrix MD f, Suphak Vanichseni MD a, for the Bangkok Tenofovir Study Group

Summary

Background

Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis reduces sexual transmission of HIV. We assessed whether daily oral use of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (tenofovir), an antiretroviral, can reduce HIV transmission in injecting drug users.

Methods

In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we enrolled volunteers from 17 drug-treatment clinics in Bangkok, Thailand. Participants were eligible if they were aged 20—60 years, were HIV-negative, and reported injecting drugs during the previous year. We randomly assigned participants (1:1; blocks of four) to either tenofovir or placebo using a computer-generated randomisation sequence. Participants chose either daily directly observed treatment or monthly visits and could switch at monthly visits. Participants received monthly HIV testing and individualised risk-reduction and adherence counselling, blood safety assessments every 3 months, and were offered condoms and methadone treatment. The primary efficacy endpoint was HIV infection, analysed by modified intention-to-treat analysis. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00119106.

Findings

Between June 9, 2005, and July 22, 2010, we enrolled 2413 participants, assigning 1204 to tenofovir and 1209 to placebo. Two participants had HIV at enrolment and 50 became infected during follow-up: 17 in the tenofovir group (an incidence of 0·35 per 100 person-years) and 33 in the placebo group (0·68 per 100 person-years), indicating a 48·9% reduction in HIV incidence (95% CI 9·6—72·2; p=0·01). The occurrence of serious adverse events was much the same between the two groups (p=0·35). Nausea was more common in participants in the tenofovir group than in the placebo group (p=0·002).

Interpretation

In this study, daily oral tenofovir reduced the risk of HIV infection in people who inject drugs. Pre-exposure prophylaxis with tenofovir can now be considered for use as part of an HIV prevention package for people who inject drugs.

Funding

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

Colombia’s capital banks on marijuana cure for hard drug addicts

Colombia’s capital banks on marijuana cure for hard drug addicts

BY JIM WYSS

JWYSS@MIAMIHERALD.COM

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Marijuana has long been accused of being a gateway to deadlier vices. But could cannabis be a swinging door that might also lead people away from hard drugs? That’s what this capital city is trying to find out.

In coming weeks, Bogotá is embarking on a controversial public health project where it will begin supplying marijuana to 300 addicts ofbazuco — a cheap cocaine derivative that generates crack-like highs and is as addictive as heroin.

Bogota has 7,500 bazuco users among its 9,500 homeless population, said Ruben Dario Ramirez, director of the Center for the Study and Analysis of Coexistence and Security, which is spearheading the project.

Addicts are often driven to panhandling and crime to support their habit, turning pockets of this thriving city into bazuco wastelands where junkies huddle to smoke the drug. In the last three years, 277 homeless people have been murdered, he said.

For the most desperate users, the cannabis cure may be the only way out.

“People accuse us of turning bazuco addicts into marijuana addicts but that’s an urban myth,” he said. “This program is about reducing personal harm and the risks to society.”

Authorities believe that by supplying addicts with quality-controlled medical marijuana with a high THC content (the mind-altering component of marijuana) and that is specifically selected to relieve the anxiety that comes with kicking bazuco, they might be able to rescue some of them.

The idea is controversial. Critics have accused Ramirez and his colleagues of smoking their own medicine and say the project risks making city government an enabler.

“This plan is completely absurd,” said Augusto Pérez, the director of Nuevos Rumbos, a Colombian think-tank that researches drugs and addiction. “It’s as if they didn’t know that everyone that smokes bazucoalready smokes marijuana. By giving them marijuana, all they will be doing is saving the (addicts) money so they can buy more bazuco.”

Bazuco is made from the residue left over after processing cocaine and it’s often mixed with kerosene and sulfuric acid. Smoked, it provides a powerful high that’s whiplash brief. Pérez said the only thing harder to kick might be heroin. And abandoning the vice usually requires interning the addict in a treatment facility and providing intensive therapy.

“I give this program zero probabilities of working,” he said.

But advocates say the traditional medical community is stuck in its thinking.

Julián Andrés Quintero, the head of Acción Técnica Social, a non-profit that is working with the district on the initiative, said most medical professionals think of drug cessation as the only answer.

“This project is not aimed at getting people to quit using,” he said. “This is about reducing risks and mitigating the damage. We want people to quit a substance that is very, very damaging and transition to something less dangerous and which will allow them to function in society.”

Marijuana has already been used as a hard-drug alternative in Canada, Brazil and Jamaica, he said. A 2002 ethnographic study of Jamaican crack users by the dean of the Iowa College of Nursing, for example, found that of 14 women who gave up the drug, 13 attributed their success to using marijuana.

And while marijuana has been getting most of the attention in Bogotá’s drug initiative, it’s just part of the equation. Addicts will also be receiving counseling, job training, emergency shelter and other services that are already part of the city’s social safety net.

Colombia isn’t known for having liberal views on drugs. The world’s top cocaine producer, the nation has, with U.S. backing, been engaged in one of the most aggressive, bloody and expensive drug wars in the hemisphere.

But domestically, its laws can seem a bit more like Amsterdam. While smoking and selling weed are illegal, Colombians are allowed to carry small amounts of cocaine and marijuana — or what’s called a “personal dose” — and are also allowed to grow up to 20 marijuana plants for personal consumption.

There are also laws that allow marijuana and other drugs to be prescribed by doctors.

While the mechanics of growing and distributing the medical marijuana for the city’s project haven’t all been worked out, Ramirez said one idea is to create a type of match-making service, where “personal dose” home-growers provide portions of their harvest to help bazuco addicts. But the city cannot legally hand out marijuana.

Camilo Borrero is one of the driving forces behind the program and perhaps its best advertisement. Now 40, Borrero said he grew up in a family full of addicts. By the age of five, he’d had his first drink, by seven he’d smoked pot, and by 12 he was using cocaine regularly. He managed to clean up for a few years until he accidentally smoked bazuco believing it was marijuana. Within two years, he went from being a university student with his own business to living on the streets and wandering the city looking for his next fix.

In 1999, he hit bottom and decided to kick the habit. He said he cycled through almost 20 drug-treatment programs, clinics and psychiatrists but never managed to give up bazuco for more than three months. Desperate for a solution, he recalled that in his younger years he’d kicked cocaine by smoking pot. He tried the therapy again and it worked, he said. He’s been off bazuco for three and a half years, and he gives credit to his carefully regimented marijuana consumption.

“When I cured myself, I said ‘I have to share this with everyone,’” he said. “My life began three and a half years ago.”

Borrero’s company, Cannamedic, grows medical-quality marijuana to make pomades and oils for arthritis, among other products. Cannamedic will also be one of the cannabis growers for the city’s program.

Quintero, with the Acción Técnica non-profit, said the first phase of the project needs to be successful to silence the critics. He has a tattoo running down his right arm that reads: “Nice people take drugs.” It’s his answer to those who criticize the initiative on moral and ethical grounds.

“For us,” he said, “there’s nothing more ethical than offering someone a solution who has never been able to find one before.”

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/07/v-fullstory/3385818/colombias-capital-banks-on-marijuana.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/07/v-fullstory/3385818/colombias-capital-banks-on-marijuana.html#storylink=cpy

Five myths about legalizing marijuana

By Doug Fine

Doug Fine is the author of “Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution,” in which he followed one legal medicinal cannabis plant from farm to patient.

With 16 states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition’s days seem numbered. You might wonder what America will look like when marijuana is in the corner store and at the farmers market. In three years spent researching that question, I found some ideas about the plant that just don’t hold up.

1. If pot is legal, more people will use it.

As drug policy undergoes big changes, I’ve been watching rates of youth cannabis use with interest. As it is for most fathers, the well-being of my family is the most important thing in my life. Whether you like the plant or not, as with alcohol, only adults should be allowed to partake of intoxicating substances. But youth cannabis use is near its highest level ever in the United States. When I spoke at a California high school recently and asked, “Who thinks cannabis is easier to obtain than alcohol?,” nearly every hand shot up.

In Portugal, by contrast, youth rates fellfrom 2002 to 2006, after all drugs were legalized there in 2001. Similarly, a 2011 Brown University-led study of middle and high school students in Rhode Island found no increases in adolescent use after the state legalized medical marijuana in 2006.

As for adult use, the numbers are mixed. A 2011 University of California at Berkeley study, for example, showed a slight increase in adult use with de facto legalization in the Netherlands (though the rate was still lower than in the United States). Yet that study and one in 2009 found Dutch rates to be slightly lower than the European average. When the United States’ 40-year-long war on marijuana ends, the country is not going to turn into a Cheech and Chong movie. It is, however, going to see the transfer of as much as 50 percent of cartel profits to the taxable economy.

2. Law enforcement officials oppose legalization.

It is true that many law enforcement lobby groups don’t want to end America’s most expensive war (which has cost $1 trillion and counting), but that’s because they’re the reason it’s so expensive. In 2010, two-thirdsof federal spending on the drug war, $10 billion, went toward law enforcement and interdiction.

But law enforcement rank and file know the truth about the drug war’s profligate and ineffective spending, says former Los Angeles deputy police chief Stephen Downing, one of 5,000 public safety professionals who make up the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “Most law enforcers find it difficult not to recognize the many harms caused by our current drug laws,” he wrote to me in an e-mail. Those harms include, according to a new ACLU report, marijuana-possession arrests that are skewed heavily toward minorities.

Since marijuana prohibition drives the drug war, these huge costs would end when federal cannabis law changes. Sheriff Tom Allman in Mendocino County, Calif., helpedpermit, inspect and protect local cannabis farmers in 2010 and 2011. When I asked him why, he said: “This county has problems: domestic violence, meth, poverty. Marijuana isn’t even in the top 10. I want it off the front pages so I can deal with the real issues.”

3. Getting high would be the top revenue generator for the cannabis plant.

I called both of my U.S. senators’ offices to support inserting a provision into this year’s farm bill to legalize hemp for domestic cultivation. Based on my research on industrial cannabis, commonly called hemp, I’m staggered by the potential of this plant, which is not the variety you smoke.

In Canada, where 90 percent of the crop is bought by U.S. consumers, the government researches the best varieties for its hemp farmers, rather than refusing to issue them permits, as the United States tends to do. In a research facility in Manitoba, I saw a tractor whose body was made entirely of hemp fiber and binding. BMW and Dodgeuse hemp fibers in their door panels, and homes whose insulation and wall paneling are made partially of hemp represent a fast-growing trend in the European construction industry.

Jack Noel, who co-authored a 2012 industrial hemp task force report for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, says that “within 10 years of the end of the war on drugs, we’ll see a $50 billion domestic hemp industry.” That’s bigger than the $40 billion some economists predict smoked cannabis would bring in.

Foods such as cereal and salad dressing are the biggest U.S. markets for hemp today, but industrial cannabis has the brightest future in the energy sector, where a Kentucky utility is planning to grow hemp for biomass energy.

4. Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol would control the legal cannabis industry.

In 1978, the Carter administration changed alcohol regulations to allow for microbreweries. Today the craft-beer market is worth $10.2 billion annually. The top-shelf cannabis farmers in California’s Emerald Triangle realize this potential. “We’re creating an international brand, like champagne and Parmigiano cheese,” says Tomas Balogh, co-founder of the Emerald Growers Association in Humboldt, Calif. Get ready for the bud and breakfast.

When America’s 100 million cannabis aficionados (17 million regular partakers) are freed from dealers, some are going to pick up a six-pack of joints at the corner store before heading to a barbecue, and others are going to seek out organically grown heirloom strains for their vegetable dip.

As Balogh puts it: “When people ask me if the small farmer or the big corporation will benefit from the end of prohibition, I say, ‘Both.’ The cannabis industry is already decentralized and farmer-owned. It’s up to consumers to keep it that way.” So Big Alcohol might control the corner store, but not the fine-wine shop or the farmers’ market.

5. In the heartland, legalization is a political nonstarter.

President Obama, in an interview last December, for the first time took seriously a question about the legalization of cannabis. He said that he didn’t yet support it but that he had “bigger fish to fry” than harassing Colorado and Washington.

In Colorado in 2012, 40 percent of Republican voters chose to legalize cannabis, and a greater share of Coloradans voted for legalization than voted for Obama.

In Arizona, a pretty conservative and silver state, 56 percent of those in a poll last month supported regulating cannabis for personal use. Maybe fiscal conservatives know about the $35 billion in annual nationwide tax savings that ending prohibition would bring. In Illinois, 63 percent of voters support medicinal marijuana, and they’re likely to get it. Even 60 percent of Kentuckians favor medical cannabis.

I’m not surprised. I live in a conservative valley in New Mexico. Yet as a woman in line at the post office recently told me: “It’s pills that killed my cousin. Fightin’ pot just keeps those dang cartels in business.”

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