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Irresponsible Drug Use the Common Theme

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, cancer, chiropractic, drug abuse, drug overdose, drug use, Fentanyl, HIV, medical marijuana, narcotics, pain pills, pain relief, schedule 1 drugs

I was asked to say a few words about drug use, but not in the positive. Well darn-it, how could I resist? I’m guessing the request comes on the heels of my most recent posts on medical marijuana, of which I make no secret that I am in favor. But I wish to be very clear that my views on medical marijuana are not a condonation of recreational or irresponsible drug use. On the contrary, it’s precisely because I am so against the irresponsible and dangerous use of drugs that I advocate medical marijuana. When compared to the heavy-duty narcotics and other pain pills that are doled-out indiscriminately by doctors, believe me, medical marijuana is a blessing.

First and foremost, I am a former drug abuser, so I full well know what it means to be addicted. And I also know the down-side to heavy and/or long-term drug use. I have done it all, you name it, but alcohol and cocaine were my main weaknesses. I was also addicted to nicotine. For twenty years I smoked a pack a day.

My experience with drugs and alcohol were not all bad, though–I certainly learned a lot. If nothing else I came to understand how drugs can consume your life, how they can distort your view of the world, and how they could damage relationships. I got to experience how they could kill your motivation and prevent you from achieving your full potential. I was also exposed to a dangerous, seedy side of life that was full of mistrust, deceit, theft and violence, not to mention legal ramifications that could end a life of freedom by landing you behind bars for a long time. Yeah, lots of disadvantages to drugs; but for me it was a valuable education that will probably serve me, and hopefully others, for the rest of my life.

Despite medical marijuana being classified a schedule 1 controlled substance—high potential for abuse, lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States (not entirely true, but that’s the definition)—it does have definite benefits. In my lifetime, I have seen it help HIV+ men keep from wasting away by giving them an appetite when they had none. I have seen it help cancer patients. One elderly couple, who are in their 90s, and whom I treat chiropractically, have shared their stories with me about the unrelenting pain they feel on a daily basis due to the cancer they each have; and how not even the Fentanyl* patches their doctors put them on would bring relief. Only medical marijuana did that. That’s right—these people in their 90s could only find relief from the intense pain they felt 24/7 by smoking a joint. They were not hippies; they had never had marijuana in their lives until they were sick with cancer. And it helped them. Duh!

Listen, drugs in and of themselves are not bad. They are helpful, even necessary, in many instances. I’ve needed the help of pain killers. An attack of acute appendicitis in 2006 showed me just how useful morphine could be (although not 100% effective and highly addictive). Whether antibiotics, sedatives, pain meds or steroids, each has a short-term use; but too many doctors give them to people long-term, as an easy yet temporary fix, instead of looking for real, long-term and self-directed solutions.  And it’s this that leads to serious problems.

Let me ask you a question. What do the following people have in common:

  • Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, River Phoenix and DJ AM?
They all overdosed on recreational drugs.
And how about these people:
  • Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson?
In both groups the common theme was an irresponsible use of the drugs. So regardless of whether a drug is illicit or legal, using it carelessly is foolish, and it can lead to illness or death.
That doesn’t mean drugs are bad by any means. Worshiping and relying on drugs, however, is unwise. And that goes for medical marijuana too. But if a substance can help cancer patients, people with HIV and people that suffer from chronic pain find relief, and maybe even help them survive (by increasing appetite), and that substance has low-risk side effects when compared to harder drugs like narcotics, then shouldn’t we use it? Shouldn’t we at least study it to see what medicinal benefits it might contain, and do our best to understand it?
That’s not me condoning drug use. I have lived both a life of drugs and a drug-free one—and I can say without a doubt that I prefer being straight, sharp and clear of mind. But I don’t knock recreational drug use, either, if the user can do so responsibly. However, rehab centers and city morgues are filled with people who couldn’t, and frankly, that could be you one day.  So if you value your life, it’s better to stay clean.
That, however, is the farthest I will go with wagging a finger at society, because I know we can’t both live in a culture where taking prescription drugs is considered ‘normal’, and expect others to not do so recreationally. That would be a fantasy.
*Fentanyl is a schedule 2 controlled substance–high potential for abuse, currently accepted medical use in treatment in U.S., and currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence (not true of marijuana).  Medical cannabis (currently a schedule 1–see above) would be more appropriately placed in this category, and probably most appropriately as a schedule 3.

Teen Girls Dumbed Down by Binge Drinking

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, binge drinking, Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), health, spatial working memory, teen girls, teenagers
Teens and binge drinking ain’t nothing new–but understanding the ways in which heavy drinking affects teenage females is.  So says a recent study looking into the effects of alcohol on the teen brain.  Researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Stanford University found that binge drinking–four or more drinks for women, and five or more for men–hits the brains of teenage girls harder than it does teen boys.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted on 95 teen volunteers in the San Diego area, including 40 binge drinkers and 55 controls.  The volunteers self-reported how much and how often they had tied one on in their lifetime, and how much alcohol they’d consumed in the three months prior to the study.

The teens performed a spatial working memory task while the researchers observed brain activation using fMRI. Spatial working memory is the ability to perceive the space around you and then remember and work with that information, which could affect such tasks as driving, sports, and using a map.  Previous studies have shown spatial working memory to be impaired by heavy drinking.

The results showed eight different regions of the brain in teenage girls that were affected by the heavy drinking…but here’s the kicker: The detrimental cognitive effects lasted well beyond the study period.

“Long after a young person–middle school to college–enjoys recovery from a hang-over, this study shows that risk to cognitive and brain functions endures,” said Edith Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. 

Comparatively, teen boys had only four regions of the brain related to spatial activity affected by binge drinking.  These results showed that developing girls are more susceptible to neurological effects of alcohol. Some potential reasons are that girls’ brains develop two years ahead boys, hormonal differences, and the lowered amount of alcohol needed to affect women due to slower rates of metabolism, higher body fat ratios, and lower body weight.

These are frightening results since 3 in 10 American teens in the final year of high school reported binge drinking in the past month.  Especially scary for teen girls and their parents.  As peer pressure increases, so do the risks young ladies take by hitting the bottle hard.  And because of the lingering effects, the detriments may affect their studies, their safety and their health.

No easy answer to this problem as we were all young once.  My personal feeling is that I feel immense gratitude for the numerous stories on the nightly news of teen accidents, celebrity overdoses and drunken car crashes, teen sexting screw-ups, and other SNAFUs.  It’s what I’ll use, hopefully, to deter my own daughters from taking up teen binge drinking.  But the truth is you never know what they’re going to do.  I’ll mention these results to my girls when the time comes, and just hope they have other ways of expressing their youthful energy.

Blackout in a Can

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, alcohol poisoning, alcospeed, blood alcohol level, caffeine, Central Washington University, Four Lokos, malt liquor

Oh yeaaahhhh…Four Lokos, beatches.  Ya heard?  Four Lokos is the stuff: alcohol and caffeine–a goofy combination.  And goofy is what you’ll be when you drink the Four Lokos.  23 ½-ounces of fruity malt liquor, 12% alcohol, liquid speed and sugar–woo-boy, boing!  Can’t say it better than the official Facebook page:

“you will remember absolutely nothing in the morning, probably acted like a slut, and possibly tried to fight someone. It’s a four loko thing…”

This is no joke…it’s Four Lokos, mang.  It’s like drinking four beers at a time.  Double fist it, brah!  Yeh boyeee….

Nine Central Washington University freshmen were hospitalized after an Oct. 8th party, where when cops arrived they found “three girls sprawled on a bed, a barely conscious young man was being dragged out of the backyard, a girl was prostrate on the bathroom floor and three young people were splayed senseless in a car outside.”

Many CWU students couldn’t believe it either; they thought that, perhaps, roofies were involved.  They just couldn’t believe that this motley scene might be tied to the Four Lokos, which is also known as, the “blackout in a can.”  The students hospitalized had blood alcohol levels ranging from .123 to .35.  Doh!  Anything over .30 can lead to alcohol poisoning and death.  That’s right, G…don’t be a sissy, pound that twit.

For $2.50 a can???  Man, you can’t get that drunk since Night Train.  Yeh boyeee….

But not everybody’s laughing.  A Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Co., who eventually agreed to take their own “energy beverages” off the market.

As pointed out by the L.A. Times:

“That lawsuit cited a study by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, which found that young drinkers of so-called alcospeed beverages were more likely to binge drink, become injured, ride with an intoxicated driver or be taken advantage of sexually than drinkers of conventional alcoholic drinks.”

Although their aren’t any studies yet showing the effects of alcosopeed on the body, some believe the combination of alcohol and caffeine gives young drinkers a false sense of alertness, enticing them to drink more and more, leading to potentially dangerous blood alcohol levels.  The FDA will push for studies before setting out regulations on the alcospeed.

But don’t think for a second that Phusion Projects LLC of Chicago–manufacturers of Four Lokos–are not abhorred by the “irresponsible use” of their energy beverages.  Company officials said,

“The events in central Washington this month were inexcusable. And most would expect our company to disagree with recent decisions to ban our products from college campuses… We do not. We agree with the goals that underlie those sentiments,” 

Aw mang, don’t pull my Four Lokos…pleeease!!!  How am I gonna git “F”ed up for two-fifty, mang?  Guess I’ll have to go back to robotripping.

Booze, Cancer Link in Women

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, breast cancer, heart, liquor, liver cancer, oral cancer, rectal cancer
A drink or two a day is thought in some circles to be good for the health. Not so for women, we now know. According to a recent study, even moderate alcohol consumption causes an increased risk for several cancers in women. Youch!

A study of nearly 1.3 million British women found that as the numbers of drinks increased, so did the cancer risks. Breast, liver and rectal cancers were the most likely to develop. Throw in a few Marlboro Lights and oral and esophageal cancers went up too. Whether the women drank beer, wine, or hard liquor mattered not–the more drinks, the higher the cancer risk.

It’s true, studies have found some heart benefits to imbibing the hooch, but risk to benefit ratio must be weighed, especially in light of these findings. Healthy heart or breast cancer? Hmmm…might want to think twice about that one, especially since a good aerobic workout is better for the heart than a shot. The women with the lowest risk in the study drank fewer than two drinks per week. I know what you’re thinking, but saving them all up for an end of the month binge is probably not good either.

Listen, I’m no prohibitionist but just a little food for thought. As cancer slowly becomes the leading cause of illness and death worldwide, this is info everyone should have. So have a Martinelli’s tonight and sleep easy.

Weed is Benign

By On · Add Comment · In alcohol, Beckley Foundation, Legalize Pot, marijuana, tobacco

This is probably no surprise to you, but marijuana has been deemed less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. According to the Beckley Foundation, a research charity in Oxford, England, not only is marijuana relatively benign, but banning it has no impact on supply, and it turns users into criminals.

No surprise to me either, as I’ve been covering the marijuana debate for over a year now. The foundation reports that the number of deaths last year contributable to marijuana worldwide were two. Compared to the 150,000 deaths caused by alcohol and tobacco in Britain alone, the notion of keeping marijuana illegal seems absurd. But we still live in a Puritanical society. As pointed out by the foundation, it makes more sense to regulate the drug, as the ills society experiences are “the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment.”

Keeping marijuana illegal is baseless, and as it’s medicinal benefits continue to be uncovered, it seems foolish to keep up the prohibition. In the U.S. we manufacture and sell two of the most dangerous drugs on the planet–booze and tobacco–and they are subject to regulation. Even in the worst economic times, both products enjoy healthy sales. They are taxed heavily and generate millions of dollars in revenue. We should be doing the same with marijuana: Legalize it, regulate it, tax it, and stop wasting time and money prosecuting its use. Let’s get smart and move forward.

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