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Do medical marijuana laws promote illicit cannabis use and disorder?

Laws and attitudes regarding cannabis have changed over the last 20 years. In 1991, no Americans lived in states with medical marijuana laws, while in 2012, more than one-third lived in states with medical marijuana laws, and fewer view cannabis use as entailing any risks. The new study is among the first to analyze the differences in cannabis use and cannabis use disorders before and after states passed medical marijuana laws, as well as differentiate between earlier and more recent periods and additionally examine selected states separately. The researchers used data from three national surveys collected from 118,497 adults: the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions and the 2012-2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III. Overall, between 1991-1992 and 2012-2013, illicit cannabis use increased significantly more in states that passed medical mar...
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Longer-lasting pain relief with MOFs

Recently, scientists have been studying compounds called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are made of metal ions linked to organic ligands, for drug delivery. Active ingredients can be packed inside MOFs, which are porous, and some of them have additional traits such as water solubility that make them good candidates for drug couriers. But few studies have so far investigated whether such MOFs could be used in oral formulations. J. Fraser Stoddart and colleagues wanted to test promising MOFs using ibuprofen as a model drug. The researchers loaded therapeutically relevant concentrations of ibuprofen into easily prepared, biocompatible MOFs with cyclodextrin and alkali metal cations. Testing in mice showed that the compounds reached the blood stream quickly in about 10 to 20 minutes and lasted twice as long as ibuprofen salts, which are the active ingredient in commercial liquid gel formulations. The researchers say the promising findings suggest that these compounds could tak...
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New evidence finds standardized cigarette packaging may reduce the number of people who smoke

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use kills more people worldwide than any other preventable cause of death. Global health experts believe the best way to reduce tobacco use is by stopping people starting to use tobacco, and encouraging and helping existing users to stop. The introduction of standardized (or 'plain') packaging was recommended by the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) guidelines. This recommendation was based on evidence around tobacco promotion in general and studies which examined the impact of changes in packaging on knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. Standardized tobacco packaging places restrictions on the appearance of tobacco packs so that there is a uniform colour (and in some cases shape), with no logos or branding apart from health warnings and other government-mandated information; the brand name appears in a prescribed uniform font, colour, and size. A number of countries ha...
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Antidepressant may enhance drug delivery to the brain

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Usually, P-glycoprotein prevents most medicines from coming into the mind by pumping them again into the blood stream (left). The addition of amitriptyline quickly turns off P-glycoprotein pumps, permitting drug molecules to cross the blood-brain barrier (proper). Credit score: NIEHS NIH rat research suggests amitriptyline quickly inhibits the blood-brain barrier, permitting medication to enter the mind. New analysis from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being discovered that pairing the antidepressant amitriptyline with medication designed to deal with central nervous system ailments, enhances drug supply to the mind by inhibiting the blood-brain barrier in rats. The blood-brain barrier serves as a pure, protecting boundary, stopping most medication from coming into the mind. The analysis, carried out in rats, appeared on-line April 27 within the  Journal of Cerebral Blood Circulate and Metabolism . Though rese...
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National mental-health survey finds widespread ignorance, stigma

Those are just some of the findings of a new national survey on issues surrounding mental-health literacy by Michigan State University scholars. "Our work is designed to help communities think about how to address behavioral health challenges as they emerge , whether that's drug abuse, anxiety or other issues, and the challenges such as suicide that can accompany them," said Mark Skidmore, an MSU professor and co-investigator on the project. The national survey examines mental health literacy on four major issues: anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse and prescription drug abuse. The work is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, within Agriculture Department. Skidmore said the web-based survey -- which involved nearly 4,600 total participants -- aims to give hea...
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Social smoking carries same heart-disease risks as everyday habit

This large, nationally representative study is the first to look at blood pressure and cholesterol in social smokers. More than 10 percent of 39,555 people surveyed said they were social smokers, meaning they didn't smoke every day. That's on top of the 17 percent who called themselves current smokers. Among current and social smokers (after researchers adjusted for differences in factors including demographics and obesity), about 75 percent had high blood pressure and roughly 54 percent had high cholesterol . "Not smoking at all is the best way to go. Even smoking in a social situation is detrimental to your cardiovascular health," said lead author Kate Gawlik , assistant professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University. "One in 10 people in this study said they sometimes smoke, and many of them are young and already on the path to heart disease," she said. Smoking is a risk factor for unhealthy blood pressure and cholesterol and both a...
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Neuroscientists seek brain basis of craving in addiction and binge eating

"Craving is considered one of the strongest predictors of relapse," said Dr. Xiaosi Gu, who runs the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Center for BrainHealth. "Even after an individual has broken the cycle of compulsive drug taking, craving can still persist. Although current treatment can handle a lot of the behavioral aspects of addiction, especially physical symptoms, craving is difficult to treat because it is a subject state. For example, when you are hungry, you have the urge to eat, but it is difficult to measure how compelling your urge to eat is in a quantitative way. However, if we could visualize craving activation in the brain, we would be better able to quantify and target it. We aim, with this new framework, to begin to separate craving from reward- or drug-seeking behavior." Research on drug craving has traditionally centered on studying cue response. For example, a marijuana study participant typically undergoes a brain scan while being shown ...
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