Question
Is it inconvenient for people and governments to legalize marijuana?
Today there is the tendency to believe that the solution to drug abuse is to legalize it. However, many drugs are legal and people continue using them although they finish the medical treatment, some become addicted. In the case of the marijuana, it is also a the bridge to stronger drugs.
All Answers (9)
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Well, It does reduce the consumption.In India, cannabis is still not used legally for medicinal purposes. The dose of the drug, the circumstances are the other factors that would account for the regular use. Legalizing the use should help in reducing the use. -
Marijuana is considered a gateway drug here in the U.S., bacause it is usually the first illegal drug a person experiments with prior to potentially using other "street drugs". There is an inherentt problem with the whole "gateway drug" concept in the U.S., as it centers on the transition from "legal" to illegal drugs. However, I would argue that if we must identify a gateway drug, it would be alcohol. The access and use is widely accepted by society in general. And when it comes to average age of exposure/use, that use is definately illegal in the U.S.. According to the AMA "Facts about Youth and Alcohol", age of first use AVERAGES are: 11 years old for males, 13 years old for females!
The larger issue is the "War on Drugs" and the U.S. governments failed attempt to limit the amounts, quality, use and addiction of "illegal drugs". Formally "declared" by none other than Pres. Richard M. Nixon over forty years ago, every entity involved in the "war" has a vested interest in maintaining the existing paradigm as it is a huge cash cow. Every enterprise from Law Enforcement to Private Prisons to Big Pharma (pharmaceutical manufacturing) all are powerful forces that will never relinquish their grip on funding until society shifts its attitude to a "War on Addiction". History tought us what we are witnessing and can predict from Prohibition: powerful criminal enterpriises continue to grow as long as prohibition exists and society is only more endangered as a result. One interesting is that the 18th amendment (prohibition of alcohol) made NO MENTION of personal use or possession! We are criminalizing a disease. It is like putting diabetics or cancer patients in prison! -
To legalize consumption of Marijuana may be convenient but it is harm full too.when we talk about addiction treatment of we should not consider the help of intoxicants. if we make person switched over to another intoxicants it means we are not treating but be fooling persons.If an addict come to us he hopes to get rid of addiction not the intoxicant .It is not treatment but disguise. I've always advocated the complete liberty from all types of intoxicants. -
I suggest you broaden your mind a fad bit Dr. Khan. First of all I'm a recovering alcoholic and bevan having debilitating panic attacks leading to adult diagnose adhd. I take clonazepam and dextroamphetamine er coupled with therapy and a support group. Absent this treatment I would have relapsed. You might want to pick up a copy of Psychedelic Medicine New Evidence for Halllucinogenic Substances as Treatments (Winkelman, M. & Roberts, T 2007).
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Gateway drugs;
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=97496
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<<< The gateway hypothesis holds that abusable drugs occupy distinct ranks in a hierarchy as well as definite positions in a temporal sequence. Accordingly, substance use is theorized to progress through a sequence of stages, beginning with legal, socially acceptable compounds that are low in the hierarchy, followed by use of illegal "soft" and later "hard" drugs ranked higher in the hierarchy.
One of the main findings of this study is that there is a high rate of nonconformance with this temporal order.
In a neighborhood where there is high drug availability, youths who have low parental supervision are likely to regularly consume marijuana before alcohol and/or tobacco. Consumption of marijuana prior to use of licit drugs thus appears to be related to contextual factors rather than to any unique characteristics of the individual. Moreover, this reverse pattern is not rare; it was observed in over 20% of our sample.
An adjustment style featured by delinquency, affiliation with deviant peers, and low connectedness to school is associated with the transition from licit to illicit drug use. Kandel and Yamaguchi (28) similarly concluded that deviancy and affiliation with non-normative peers are associated with marijuana use.
In effect, the greater the deviancy, the more likely an individual is to use an illegal drug. These findings underscore the need to prevent conduct problems in early childhood to diminish the risk of later illicit drug use.
The main task in prevention of substance use and substance use disorder thus involves promoting normative socialization such that during adolescence, when exposure to abusable substances sharply increases, the values and attitudes required for avoidance of illegal behavior, including marijuana use, will have been established. >>> -
What is suspect about the gateway drug theory?
* The vast majority of people who smoke cannabis never take any other illicit drug.
* Anyone who chooses to experiment with illicit drugs will begin with the most easily accessible one. Typically that is cannabis.
* The vast majority of illicit drug users take alcohol and/or nicotine long before they begin messing around with illegal drugs.
In terms of pharmacology and neurochemistry, if any drug can be called a "gateway drug", it is nicotine. The dramatic effect nicotine has on dopamine regulation is believed to "prime" the brain and increase the individual's likelihood of developing a dependence on other drugs later in life.
A US-Finnish twin study found that those who started smoking tobacco by the age of 12 were 26 times more likely to start using cannabis or other illicit drugs by age 17, compared to those who never smoked. In fact, early tobacco smoking was one of the most powerful predictors of later use of illicit drugs;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2815062/
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http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=18880
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<<< Every major study of the marijuana laws in the last 100 years has concluded that the only connection between marijuana and heroin is that they are both prohibited and, therefore, sold in the same black market.
The most recent study of the subject was the report of the US Institute of Medicine on medical marijuana. They reported:
"Instead it is the legal status of marijuana that makes it a gateway drug."
In other words, the people who support prohibition are using the bad effects of prohibition as justification for prohibition. The conclusion of all the research is that we have a "gateway drug policy". It is the laws that create the problem. >>>
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/gateway_myth.htm
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http://ifp.es.its.nyu.edu/?p=155855
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<<< Confirmation of a sequence leading from licit drug use to illicit drug use.
► Risk of subsequent other illicit drug use increasing with cannabis use level.
► Results supported by an original technique: multi-state modelling.
► Necessity of prevention measures at early stages of use among adolescents. >>>
This recent French study appears to confirm the conclusions of the studies and reviews I have linked to above.
It demonstrates that most (but not all) people who progress to illicit drug use begin with licit drugs, and then typically progress to the most accessible illicit drug.
It appears to make no assertions as to a causal role for cannabis in progression to other illicit drugs use
<<< OID experiment could be a consequence of initial opportunity to use the more accessible illicit drug, cannabis. >>>
<<< The evidence points to the key issue in all this as being the age of onset of use. The vast majority of demographic data emerging across most societies is revealing that tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use are all and almost always, initiated in early to late adolescence. >>>
The fact that most people who end up using other drugs typically try cannabis (and alcohol, and tobacco) before they try other drugs is not evidence of a causal relationship between cannabis (or alcohol or tobacco) use and progression to other drugs. -
Some relevant literature;
Reinarman, C.; Cohen, P. D. A.; Kaal, H. L. (2004). "The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco". American Journal of Public Health 94 (5): 836–42. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.5.836. PMC 1448346. PMID 15117709.
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"RAND Study Casts Doubt on Claims that Marijuana Acts as "Gateway" to the Use of Cocaine and Heroin.". RAND. 2002-12-02.
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<<< The results of this study reinforce the need for conceptual clarity in research on the etiology of substance use and substance use disorder. Our key findings were that 1) there are no unique factors distinguishing the gateway sequence and the reverse sequence—that is, the sequence is opportunistic; 2) the gateway sequence and the reverse sequence have the same prognostic accuracy; and 3) a sizable proportion of substance users begin regular consumption with an illicit drug. These results, considered in the aggregate, indicate that the gateway sequence is not an invariant pathway and, when manifest, is not related to specific risk factors and does not have prognostic utility. The results of this study as well as other studies demonstrate that abusable drugs occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete position in a temporal sequence. These latter presumptions of the gateway hypothesis constitute what Whitehead referred to as the "fallacy of misplaced connectedness," namely, asserting "assumptions about categories that do not correspond with the empirical world." >>>
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=97496
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Brecher, Edward M. (1972). "Heroin on the youth drug scene - and in Vietnam". Licit and illicit drugs; the Consumers Union report on narcotics, stimulants, depressants, inhalants, hallucinogens, and marijuana - including caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-10717-4.
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Comprehensive discussion here: http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/gateway.html
Paul. -
Cannabis reduces nausea and sweating, increases appetite, promotes normal sleep and is an anxiolytic. Anecdotally, many drug users report that cannabis ameliorates the withdrawal symptoms of both opiate and amphetamine dependence, and may reduce the risk of relapse to “hard” drug use.
Different cannabinoids are currently being investigated for a wide range of medical applications- including treating symptoms of MS or chemotherapy, and as treatments for cancer, anxiety and PTSD.
This is one application most people are not familiar with...
http://phys.org/news166196260.html
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<<< Injections of THC eliminate dependence on opiates in stressed rats, according to a research team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (France) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
Researchers habituated rats to morphine, then withdrew them abruptly. Rats treated with THC exhibited less “withdrawal response” and opiate withdrawal symptoms, and endogenous opiate levels were more quickly normalised, than in rats who were left to go “cold turkey” without THC.
Deprived of their mothers at birth, rats become hypersensitive to the rewarding effect of morphine and heroin (substances belonging to the opiate family), and rapidly become dependent. When these rats were administered THC, they no longer developed typical morphine-dependent behavior.
In the striatum, a region of the brain involved in drug dependence, the production of endogenous enkephalins (natural opioids or "endorphins") was restored under THC, whereas it diminished in rats stressed from birth which had not received THC.
Researchers believe the findings could lead to therapeutic alternatives to existing substitution treatments. >>>
In humans, drug treatment subjects who use cannabis intermittently are found to be more likely to adhere to treatment for opioid dependence, according to clinical trial data published in the July/August 2009 issue of American Journal on Addictions.
Historically, similar findings were reported in 1843 by a Dr. Clendinning, who utilized cannabis substitution for the treatment of alcoholism and opium addiction, and a Dr. Birch, who in 1889 reported success in treating several cases of opiate and chloral addiction with cannabis tincture.
And now pharmaceutical cannabinoids are being trialled as a reduction treatment for cannabis dependence...
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01747850
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http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/04/17/3479410.htm
Paul.
