Prenatal Marijuana Exposure

Marijuana: Harmless?

The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has just published a new study on the effects of prenatal exposure to marijuana. According to the study:

“There was a significant nonlinear relationship between marijuana exposure and child intelligence. Heavy marijuana use (one or more cigarettes per day) during the first trimester was associated with lower verbal reasoning scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Heavy use during the second trimester predicted deficits in the composite, short-term memory, and quantitative scores. Third-trimester heavy use was negatively associated with the quantitative score. Other significant predictors of intelligence included maternal IQ, home environment, and social support. These findings indicate that prenatal marijuana exposure has a significant effect on school-age intellectual development.” [Goldschmidt L, Richardson GA, Willford J, Day NL.]

Click here to read the abstract, which includes a description of the study’s methodology

The smoking of cannabis amongst woman who are pregnant is a function of the harms of prohibition, whereas effective and enable drug education as a societal norm can be harm reducing/minimising. (from evidence as presented to the New Zealand Health Select Cmte. )

Consider: “The female marijuana smoker was a rarity and the few women who engaged in smoking were considered base and undignified and often held in contempt by both men and women. Instead, women prepared marijuana for themselves and their families in the form of teas and tonics. “

Discussion: “Although no positive or negative neurobehavioral effects of prenatal exposure were found at 3 days of life using the Brazelton examination, there were significant differences between the exposed and nonexposed neonates at the end of the first month. Comparing the two groups, the neonates of mothers who used marijuana showed better physiological stability at 1 month and required less examiner facilitation to reach an organized state and become available for social stimulation. The results of the comparison of neonates of the heavy-marijuana-using mothers and those of the nonusing mothers were even more striking. The heavily exposed neonates were more socially responsive and were more autonomically stable at 30 days than their matched counterparts. The quality of their alertness was higher; their motor and autonomic systems were more robust; they were less irritable; they were less likely to demonstrate any imbalance of tone; they needed less examiner facilitation to become organized; they had better self-regulation; and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers than the neonates of nonusing mothers at 1 month of age. “

And:

“Conventional wisdom would suggest that mothers who are long-term marijuana users are less likely to create optimal caregiving environments for their neonates. In this area of rural Jamaica, however, where marijuana is culturally integrated, and where heavy use of the substance by women is associated with a higher level of education and greater financial independence, it seems that roots daughters have the capacity to create a postnatal environment that is supportive of neonatal development.”

cite: Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study
Melanie C. Dreher, PhD; Kevin Nugent, PhD; and Rebekah Hudgins, MA

This suggests that the methodology of consumption and set and setting of cannabis use is a determinate in neonate outcomes. Goldschmidt’s evidence is no argument for prohibition. /Blair
—
Blair Anderson ‹(•¿•)›

Social Ecologist ‘at large’
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com
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ph (643) 389 4065 cell 027 265 7219

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Heavy cannabis use ‘damages gums’

Heavy cannabis use ‘damages gums’ Heavy cannabis smoking is a major cause of gum disease, research suggests.

(note: suggests!! omitted from this item, interview, commentary is specifics regarding causation and correlation, although there is an awful lot of speculation. I might also suggest that the very same data may show that fundamental Christians are more likely to brush their teeth and less likely to contract venereal disease for much the same reasons as speculated here. I might also suspect that cannabis double standards, as identified by the 1998 Health Select Committee indicating a correlate alienation from rule of law and rejection of social values may exhibit itself in bioindicators such as oral hygiene. Now there is some useful research ideas for the Dunedin study. /Blair)

An international team tracked the dental health of 1,000 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973.

They found heavy cannabis smoking was responsible for more than one-third of the new cases of gum disease among the group by the age of 32.

The Journal of the American Medical Association study follows work linking cannabis use to mental health problems, and lung disease.

In the mouth, there is a fine balance between tissue destruction and tissue healing and the various toxins in the smoke disrupt that Professor Murray Thomson University of Otago
Gum disease, one of the most common diseases of adulthood, is the second most common cause of tooth loss, after tooth decay.

It has long been linked to cigarette smoking, but this is the first study to look specifically at cannabis.

The researchers accepted that cannabis users also tended to smoke tobacco.
However, they said that even after allowing for this, heavy cannabis smokers had three times the risk of having established gum disease by the age of 32.

Even cannabis users who did not smoke tobacco developed gum disease.
Overall, 29% of the sample showed some signs of gum disease.

Bloodstream toxins
Lead researcher Professor Murray Thomson, of the University of Otago, said the effect was unlikely to be due to the direct impact of smoke on the gums as it was inhaled.

Instead, it was likely that toxins in the cannabis were absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs, and then affected the body’s ability to heal inflammation in the gums caused by the build up of bacteria on the teeth.

He said: “The problem is not the smoke itself – it’s what is in the smoke. “In the mouth, there is a fine balance between tissue destruction and tissue healing and the various toxins in the smoke disrupt that.”

The fact that cannabis users tend to inhale more deeply than tobacco users might also exacerbate problems.

For the study heavy cannabis users were defined as those who used the drug for an average of at least 41 occasions a year between the ages of 18 and 32.

Susie Sanderson, of the British Dental Association, said: “It has long been recognised that smoking tobacco is a cause of gum disease.

“This study underlines the fact that gum disease can be caused not only by smoking tobacco, but also by smoking cannabis.”

The research team also included scientists from King’s College London, Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

Research published earlier this year found people who smoked one cannabis joint a day had a higher risk of lung cancer than those who smoked 20 cigarettes a day.

A separate study found that bullous disease – a form of emphysema – occurs 20 years earlier in cannabis smokers than in tobacco smokers.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7226969.stm
also see http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425826/1572530 (it mentions “strong association”. )

Blair Anderson
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Causation, Correlation, Nicotine, Alcohol & Pot.

Teenagers who smoke are five times more likely to drink and 13 times more likely to use marijuana than those who are not smokers, says a US report issued today.

The report by Columbia University’s National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse presented further evidence linking youth smoking to other substance abuse and spotlighted research on how nicotine affects the adolescent brain.

“Teenage smoking can signal the fire of alcohol and drug abuse or mental illness like depression and anxiety,” Joseph Califano, who heads the centre and is a former US health secretary, said in a telephone interview.

The report analysed surveys conducted by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and other data on youth smokers. Most smokers begin smoking before age 18.

Smokers aged 12 to 17 were more likely drink alcohol than nonsmokers – 59 per cent compared to 11 per cent, the report found. Those who become regular smokers by age 12 are more than three times more likely to report binge drinking than those who never smoked – 31 per cent compared to nine per cent.

Binge drinking was defined as having five drinks or more in a row.

Asked whether smoking is causing these other behaviours or is just another risky behaviour occurring alongside the others, Califano said, “There’s no question that early teenage smoking is linked to these other things. Now whether it’s causing it or not, I think the jury is probably still out on that.”

Smokers ages 12 to 17 are more apt to meet the diagnostic definition for drug abuse or dependence in the previous year – 26 per cent compared to two per cent, the researchers said.

The report noted that marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among teenagers, with government data from 2005 showing seven per cent of those aged 12 to 17 used marijuana.

Of these, current cigarette smokers are 13 times more likely to use marijuana than those who do not smoke.

The younger a child starts smoking, the greater the risk, the Columbia team said.

Children who start smoking by age 12 are more than three times more likely to binge on alcohol, nearly 15 times more likely to smoke marijuana and almost seven times more likely to use other drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

Teenagers who smoke also have a higher risk of depression and anxiety disorders, the study found.

The report cited scientific studies showing the nicotine in tobacco products can produce structural and chemical changes in the developing brain that make young people vulnerable to alcohol and other drug addiction and mental illness.

This includes effects on the brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin and changes to brain receptors associated with an increased desire for other addictive drugs.

Reuters

A poverty of reason.

Columbia University’s National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse have identified that naughty kids do naughty things…. (see MRC: Medical Rearch Council – News Antisocial behaviour in kids key to alcohol trouble in teens )

Like protecting the ‘vulnerable’ is the American way! Balderdash.
When we [NZ included] arrest someone for pot, we turn an otherwise normal person into a ‘victim’ purportedly to save them from themselves.

This study is evidence ‘pot laws’ protect and arguably, promote early entry into the ‘harmful’, albeit legal drug markets.

Worse, it avoids discussing the social ecology, the set and setting of poverty along with the toxic laws that create both the opportunity/incentive for early entry and rejection of social values/alienation and any subsequent ‘deviancy amplification’.

If pot wasn’t illegal, rather controlled by legal regulation, these kids would in all likelihood come to little or no harm. Isn’t that the desired ‘harm minimising’ outcome here?.

Consider; If ALL youth smoked pot and didn’t binge drink or inhale nicotine, the ‘life time’ prognosis would be entirely different.

As I have said on many occasions, prohibition couldn’t promote pot use to kids more efficiently than if pot was made compulsory.

The best advertising to prevent youth uptake would be to say cannabis is really good for rheumatism and other (over 50) age related stuff. It would turn them right off!

A bit of intellectual honesty is the ‘cure’. /Blair

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Alcohol = Hate, Cannabis = Love

During the civic elections “Mayor Blair” has been repeatedly asked “how is cannabis a local body issue?”

“Are we rendered silly by our inability to have the required discussion?”

The candidate’s reply notes that city plans approve bar after bar in inner city revitalisation while other candidates wax lyrical about crime and ‘broken glass’ usually while they prognosticate in an alcohol free zone.

British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, reported: “Cannabis differs from alcohol in one major respect. It does not seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence.”

That’s WHY we need a SAFER community. “Don’t vote to reward failure” on the crime and ‘get tougher policy’ front, demands the mayoral aspirant.

The Canadian Senate in 2002, determined: “Cannabis use does not induce users to commit other forms of crime. Cannabis use does not increase aggressiveness or anti-social behavior.”

“We would be better off with Cannabis Cafe’s along with some candidates with some integrity who would front up on core issues. “

At yesterdays Social Issues forum at the Knox Church in Christchurch alcohol was roundly linked to social dysfunction and access to health when candidate Blair drew to the attention of the many non-mayoral candidates attending (23) that the 2006 NHS study in the UK attributed 70% of the health vote to alcohol related dysfunction, and questioned the displaced resource allocation in limited access to elective surgery, impediments to health promotion and baseline primary health..

Time to get real. Time to VOTE for integrity AND social justice.

Blair Anderson
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Sex and drug education – does it work?

02/08/2007 –

credit: Communitycare.co.uk – the website for social work and social care professionals

(this is remarkably close to the mildgreen hypothesis – creating in ever younger children the illusion that all their peers are doing it, and they cant b******y wait!. What is fundementally broken are the artificial redlines surrounding ‘age of consent’ issues. We need to enable and not mask self responsibility. /Blair)

Children as young as eight years old are taking drugs. Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

So how effective is our sex and drug education?

There are reports in the press this week that according to experts, children as young as six are being treated for addiction to cannabis and are presenting symptoms including paranoia, anxiety, depression and even schizophrenia.

It also emerged last September in Scotland that children aged 10-years-old were dealing drugs.

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick will suggest in Community Care next week that the rise of drug abuse among young children has coincided with the increase of drugs education.

He says: “Gordon Brown has endorsed the fashionable “drugs education”, particularly favouring its extension to primary schools. Here is another policy immune to the evidence of failure.

“Never mind that the spread of drugs education appears to coincide with a dramatic increase in drug taking by school students – the government believes that we need more of the same, extended to even younger children.”

At the same time, Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe despite numerous government initiatives designed to take the problem.

Given that children taking drugs are getting younger and Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Britain, is sex and drug education in Britain effective at educating children or does it merely fuel the curiosity of young people?

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick suggests: “Why not instead teach children something interesting and inspiring, that might give them the truly radical idea that culture and society have more to offer than drug-induced oblivion?”

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Drug Foundation Welcomes BZP Party Pill Ban

The New Zealand Drug Foundation is extremely pleased that BZP-party pills will be banned from the end of the year. see New Zealand Drug Foundation Welcomes BZP Party Pill Ban

(This is IMHO an inexplicable position by the NZDF and contrary in principle to its membership of international organisations ie: The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of 24 national and international NGOs that specialise in issues related to illegal drug use. )

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton announced yesterday (26June?) that BZP will be reclassified as a C-class drug from Christmas, and will carry the same penalties as marijuana.

Users will be given a six month amnesty period after the law change to avoid criminalisation. “The introduction of party pills exposed the weaknesses of our current law. There was nowhere in the schedule to place party pills, and even though they’ll now be scheduled, we’re still left unable to deal with any new substances cooked up by clever chemists,” said Mr Bell. (Wrong, Jim A created Class-D, as advocated by the MildGreens as a non-punitive research, management and monitoring regulatory model)

The Government also announced a complete review of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Drug Foundation Executive Director Ross Bell said the review of this 30-plus-year old law is great news and overshadows the announcement to ban BZP-pills.

“The Misuse of Drugs Act is a patchwork of amendments, many of which were ad hoc responses to short-term public or political concerns. This has led to inconsistent legal treatment of substances, and has limited the options available for control, especially for emerging new substances,” Mr Bell said.

The Drug Foundation has long recommended a review of the drug law, saying that New Zealand’s current law is obsolete and should be replaced with a framework that can more effectively tackle existing and new drugs. (yes, but that is not the only or most significant reason the framework should be reviewed. THe writer agrees in a review of the ACT, not just the Law. Nor should it be reviewed without a full and unfettered resolution of the law, as it applies to cannabis as recommended by two select committees , including the completion of the ‘highly indicated’ cost benefit analysis. Anything else is perpetuating the sham. /Blair)

Jim Anderton, Associate Minister of Health said the review of the Misuse of Drugs Act had been advocated by many in the sector for some time. (including the MildGreens)

“This [review] is to be completed by December 2008 and will be aimed at providing a better, more coherent and rational legal framework for the law surrounding the implementation of, and penalties for, the misuse of drugs,” he said. (Wrong!!!, Its about health and harm reduction… not the law, penalties or pejoratively mischaracterising all use as misuse./Blair)

Party Pill Association spokesman Matt Bowden was the first person to import party pills and helped to establish the $35 million industry in New Zealand. He said party pills are a lot safer than alcohol.

“Nobody has died, there are no significant lasting injuries, it should not really be made illegal,” he said.
People found in possession of BZP after the six month amnesty ends will face a maximum of three months imprisonment and/or a maximum $500 fine

(The Gangs will be cheering this decision, all the way to the bank. More prohibition – like it will fix anything is handing control to criminal networks with all the contingent downsides. It is political expediency and obsfucation – fix what is really broken. The more dangerous a drug is, the less responsible it is of authority to abrogate control. We should aim to ring fence problems, where they occur, to those who do indulge. /Blair)

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Turf wars, gangs, drugs and…. doh!

Auckland on Drugs and just about everything else…The community is waxing lyrical about the horrors of city crime in Turf war raging between rival gangs, “The matter is of a highly serious nature. They’re turf wars and it’s not just over drugs. The conflicts are producing some serious injuries,” says Det Sen Sgt Pizzini, as reported in Howick and Botany Times, but in the same edition we read all about young folk taking ‘something’ in full view of the public in Drug use at a shopping mall near you. Refreshingly the Howick Pakuranga Times hints that it is not the low self esteem crowd, who lack money who are doing the drugs – its “acknowledged that the more money people have, the more illicit drugs or legal highs they can buy and take.” In fact it goes onto say its ‘unabashed and blatent’, infiltrating all sectors of society.

Well that’s a fact, with kiwi tokers of cannabis 52% of surveyed adults, there is no news there. However here comes the disconnect. Same paper. Same page (online)

• News: New course offers future police training on Manukau soil

Set this against the tableux of events, police gang rape of 16yr old, subsequent trials (and aquitals) of police commisioner in waiting Rickards and an advertising push by Police showing dutiful policeman dragging away bundles of cannabis and a picture starts to emerge.

A picture that is neither healthy nor sustainable.Its not that we havent done the work to find out why, how or whom….The National Party lead Health Select Commitee in 1998 identified’ certain specific laws that are creating impediments to effective health promotion, and that these laws are also creating disrepect for rule of law, on both sides of the ‘war’ on drugs. It was the inquiry into cannabis and mental health. And until we realise that here is the nexus that undermines the parent’s relationship with our kids we are destined to wax lyrical within our community while maintaining an inconvenient truth.

Systemic and Chronic failure to do the simple stuff, like complete ‘a cost benefit analysis’ would be a good start. its not that it hasnt been mooted. It was a foundation of the National Drug Policy until it got corrupted by the ALCOHOL lobby, seperating legal from illegal drugs [licit status] rather than on the harm they do.

Blair Anderson
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