Understanding the Risks and Dangers of Marijuana
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Is Cannabis Addictive?
Is cannabis addictive? CANNABIS EVIDENCE BRIEF BRIEFS AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES: ` Is cannabis safe to use? Facts for youth aged 13–17 years. ` Is cannabis safe to use? Facts for young adults aged 18–25 years. ` Does cannabis use increase the risk of developing psychosis or schizophrenia? ` Is cannabis safe during preconception, pregnancy and breastfeeding? ` Is cannabis addictive? PURPOSE: This document provides key messages and information about addiction to cannabis in adults as well as youth between 16 and 18 years old. It is intended to provide source material for public education and awareness activities undertaken by medical and public health professionals, parents, educators and other adult influencers. Information and key messages can be re-purposed as appropriate into materials, including videos, brochures, etc. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Health, 2018 Publication date: August 2018 This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes, without charge or further permission, provided that it is reproduced for public education purposes and that due diligence is exercised to ensure accuracy of the materials reproduced. Cat.: H14-264/3-2018E-PDF ISBN: 978-0-660-27409-6 Pub.: 180232 Key messages ` Cannabis is addictive, though not everyone who uses it will develop an addiction.1, 2 ` If you use cannabis regularly (daily or almost daily) and over a long time (several months or years), you may find that you want to use it all the time (craving) and become unable to stop on your own.3, 4 ` Stopping cannabis use after prolonged use can produce cannabis withdrawal symptoms.5 ` Know that there are ways to change this and people who can help you. -
Can Tobacco Dependence Provide Insights Into Other Drug Addictions? Joseph R
DiFranza BMC Psychiatry (2016) 16:365 DOI 10.1186/s12888-016-1074-4 DEBATE Open Access Can tobacco dependence provide insights into other drug addictions? Joseph R. DiFranza Abstract Within the field of addiction research, individuals tend to operate within silos of knowledge focused on specific drug classes. The discovery that tobacco dependence develops in a progression of stages and that the latency to the onset of withdrawal symptoms after the last use of tobacco changes over time have provided insights into how tobacco dependence develops that might be applied to the study of other drugs. As physical dependence on tobacco develops, it progresses through previously unrecognized clinical stages of wanting, craving and needing. The latency to withdrawal is a measure of the asymptomatic phase of withdrawal, extending from the last use of tobacco to the emergence of withdrawal symptoms. Symptomatic withdrawal is characterized by a wanting phase, a craving phase, and a needing phase. The intensity of the desire to smoke that is triggered by withdrawal correlates with brain activity in addiction circuits. With repeated tobacco use, the latency to withdrawal shrinks from as long as several weeks to as short as several minutes. The shortening of the asymptomatic phase of withdrawal drives an escalation of smoking, first in terms of the number of smoking days/ month until daily smoking commences, then in terms of cigarettes smoked/day. The discoveries of the stages of physical dependence and the latency to withdrawal raises the question, does physical dependence develop in stages with other drugs? Is the latency to withdrawal for other substances measured in weeks at the onset of dependence? Does it shorten over time? The research methods that uncovered how tobacco dependence emerges might be fruitfully applied to the investigation of other addictions. -
Patient-Focused Drug Development Meeting on Opioid Use Disorder
Patient-Focused Drug Development Meeting on Opioid Use Disorder April 17, 2018 FDA will be streaming a live audio recording of the meeting with the presentation slides, which is open to the public at: https://collaboration.fda.gov/pfdd041718/. The audio recording and presentation slides, along with a meeting transcript and summary report, will also be made publicly available after the meeting. Because of the sensitive nature of the meeting topic, and the importance of gathering candid, meaningful input from individuals who have come forward to speak about living with opioid use disorder, no other audio recording, video recording, and/or photography will be allowed at this Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting. FDA is asking for your cooperation and strongly requests that you respect the privacy of all attendees. #PFDD Wi-Fi Network: FDA-Public Password: publicaccess Welcome Sara Eggers, PhD Office of Strategic Programs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research April 17, 2018 U.S. Food and Drug Administration Agenda • Opening Remarks • Setting the context – Overview of Opioid Use Disorder – Road from PFDD Meetings to Clinical Trial Endpoints – Overview of Discussion Format • Discussion Topic 1 • Lunch • Discussion Topic 2 (with a short break) • Open Public Comment • Closing Remarks 3 3 No Recording or Photography • FDA is streaming a live audio recording of the meeting with the presentation slides, which is open to the public – Access the live stream: https://collaboration.fda.gov/pfdd041718/. – The audio recording and presentation slides, along with a meeting transcript and summary report, will also be made publicly available after the meeting. • Because of the sensitive nature of the meeting topic, and the importance of gathering candid, meaningful input from individuals who have come forward to speak about living with opioid use disorder, no other audio recording, video recording, and/or photography will be allowed at this Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting. -
HHS Guide for Clinicians on the Appropriate Dosage Reduction Or
This HHS Guide for Clinicians on the Appropriate Dosage HHS Guide for Clinicians on the Reduction or Discontinuation of Long-Term Opioid Analgesics provides advice to clinicians who are contemplating or initiating a reduction in opioid dosage or discontinuation Appropriate Dosage Reduction of long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain. In each case the clinician should review the risks and benefits of the or Discontinuation of current therapy with the patient, and decide if tapering is appropriate based on individual circumstances. Long-Term Opioid Analgesics After increasing every year for more than a decade, annual needs.2,3,4 Coordination across the health care team is critical. opioid prescriptions in the United States peaked at 255 million in Clinicians have a responsibility to provide or arrange for 2012 and then decreased to 191 million in 2017.i More judicious coordinated management of patients’ pain and opioid-related opioid analgesic prescribing can benefit individual patients as problems, and they should never abandon patients.2 More well as public health when opioid analgesic use is limited to specific guidance follows, compiled from published guidelines situations where benefits of opioids are likely to outweigh risks. (the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain2 At the same time opioid analgesic prescribing changes, such and the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Opioid Therapy as dose escalation, dose reduction or discontinuation of long- for Chronic Pain3) and from practices endorsed in the peer- term opioid analgesics, have potential to harm or put patients at reviewed literature. risk if not made in a thoughtful, deliberative, collaborative, and measured manner. -
Treatment of Benzodiazepine Dependence
The new england journal of medicine Review Article Dan L. Longo, M.D., Editor Treatment of Benzodiazepine Dependence Michael Soyka, M.D. raditionally, various terms have been used to define substance From the Department of Psychiatry and use–related disorders. These include “addiction,” “misuse” (in the Diagnostic Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximilian Univer 1 sity, Munich, and Medical Park Chiemsee and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition [DSM-IV] ), “harmful use” blick, Bernau — both in Germany; and T 2 3 Privatklinik Meiringen, Meiringen, Switzer (in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision [ICD-10] ), and “dependence.” Long-term intake of a drug can induce tolerance of the drug’s effects (i.e., increased land. Address reprint requests to Dr. Soyka at Medical Park Chiemseeblick, Rasthaus amounts are needed to achieve intoxication, or the person experiences diminished strasse 25, 83233 Bernau, Germany, or at effects with continued use4) and physical dependence. Addiction is defined by com- m . soyka@ medicalpark . de. pulsive drug-seeking behavior or an intense desire to take a drug despite severe N Engl J Med 2017;376:1147-57. medical or social consequences. The DSM-IV and ICD-10 define misuse and harm- DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1611832 ful use, respectively, on the basis of various somatic or psychological consequences Copyright © 2017 Massachusetts Medical Society. of substance use and define dependence on the basis of a cluster of somatic, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. According to the ICD-10, dependence is diagnosed if 3 or more of the following criteria were met in the previous year: a strong desire or compulsion to take the drug, difficulties in controlling drug use, withdrawal symptoms, evidence of tolerance, neglect of alternative pleasures or interests, and persistent drug use despite harmful consequences. -
Benzodiazepine Abuse and Dependence: Misconceptions and Facts
CLINICAL REVIEW Benzodiazepine Abuse and Dependence: Misconceptions and Facts Michael G. Farnsworth, MD St Paul, Minnesota Benzodiazepines can be prescribed for a number of medical conditions. Many physi cians are reluctant to prescribe benzodiazepines out of fear of producing depen dence in patients and incurring the disapproval of their peers. Studies of psychotropic drug use and abuse demonstrate that individuals using benzodiazepines for treat ment of a medical illness rarely demonstrate tolerance to the therapeutic action of the medication or escalate the dose. Eighty percent of benzodiazepines are pre scribed for 6 months or less, and elderly women are the most common long-term users of low-dose benzodiazepines. In contrast, recreational use of benzodiazepines is associated with polysubstance abuse, lack of medical supervision, rapid tolerance to the euphoric or sedating side effect, and escalation of dose. Most recreational us ers of benzodiazepines are young men. Documentation of indication for use, collec tion of drug-abuse history, close monitoring, and drug holidays can improve the man agement of this class of medication. J Fam Pract 1990; 31:393-400. enzodiazepines, as a class of psychotherapeutic med barbiturates and meprobamate, introduced in 1955, re B ications, have enjoyed widespread use since their US mained as dominant anxiolytic drugs. Physicians, how introduction in the early 1960s. These medications are ever, were concerned with the propensity of barbiturates used to treat some of the most prevalent emotional and to induce tolerance, physical dependence, drug interac physical disorders seen in medical practice, which include tions, and potential for a lethal withdrawal syndrome. anxiety, insomnia, seizure disorders, muscle spasms, and Accordingly, chlordiazepoxide was synthesized and mar alcohol withdrawal. -
Phenomenology Epidemiology
Phenomenology DEFINITIONS Intoxication: reversible, substance-specific physiological and behavioral changes due to recent exposure to a psychoactive substance. Addiction: compulsion to use a drug, usually for its psychic, rather than therapeutic, effects Tolerance: the decline in potency of an opioid experienced with continued use, so that higher doses are needed to achieve the same effect. This is a receptor mediated effect, typical of many psychoactive drugs. Physical Dependence: refers to the development of withdrawal symptoms once a drug is stopped. Withdrawal: a physiological state that follows cessation or reduction in the amount of a drug used. Generally these effects are the opposite of the drugs normal effects. Substance Dependence (DSM version): A maladaptive pattern of substance use with adverse clinical consequences. Substance Abuse (DSM version): A maladaptive pattern of use that causes clinically significant impairment. Alcoholism: A repetitive, but inconsistent and sometimes unpredictable loss of control of drinking which produces symptoms of serious dysfunction or disability. Clearly there is a wide range of findings possible on the mental status exam, however any exam should look for typical signs of regular substance use. Epidemiology Use of psychoactive substances is common in society, and is often socially acceptable or at least tolerated. Historically, psychoactive substance has served a variety of purposes, including medicinal, social, recreational and religious. In the U.S., 90% people report some alcohol use, 80% report some caffeine use, 25% report use of tobacco products, and 37% report having used illicit substances (at least once in life). Dependence and Abuse are also very common (13.6% in ECA). Over 10 million Americans are alcoholics, over 8 million are "Problem drinkers." Only 3% of alcoholics are on skid row. -
Nicotine Pharmacology and Addictive Effects
Chapter 8 Pharmacology and Markers: Nicotine Pharmacology and Addictive Effects Jack E. Henningfield and Leslie M. Schuh INTRODUCTION Dosing characteristics of cigarette brands are estimated using machines that smoke representative cigarettes from each brand according to a protocol termed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) method (Peeler, this volume; Pillsbury, this volume). This technology and methodology provide tar- and nicotine-dosing estimates of cigarettes that are misleading to consumers and do not accurately predict what level of tar and nicotine intake consumers will obtain by smoking a given brand of cigarettes (Henningfield et al., 1994). An understanding of the dependence-producing and other behavior-modifying effects of cigarette smoke is necessary to understand why the FTC method is a poor predictor of the nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide levels people obtain from cigarettes. Cigarette smoking behavior is influenced by nicotine dose, and smokers tend to maintain nicotine intake within upper and lower boundaries (Kozlowski, 1989). In brief, nicotine produces dose-related tolerance, physical dependence, and discriminative effects (i.e., effects that people can feel, which modify mood and physiology), and smokers change their behavior in response to these effects. Unlike human smokers, machines are not nicotine dependent, nor do they modify their behavior based on the flavor of the smoke. The FTC method was developed in the 1960's to provide a relative ranking of nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide yields from various cigarettes (Peeler, this volume; Pillsbury, this volume). This ranking has provided consumers with the false sense that they can tell precisely the amount of these substances they will obtain from a given cigarette. -
Do You Know... Tobacco
Do You Know... What is it? Tobacco is a plant (Nicotiana tabacum and Tobacco Nicotiana rustica) that contains nicotine, an addictive drug with both stimulant and depressant effects. Tobacco is most commonly smoked in cigarettes. It is also smoked in cigars or pipes, chewed as chewing tobacco, sniffed as dry snuff or held inside the lip or cheek as wet snuff. Tobacco may also be mixed with cannabis and smoked in “joints.” All methods of using tobacco deliver nicotine to the body. Although tobacco is legal, federal, provincial and municipal laws tightly control tobacco manufacture, marketing, distribution and use. Second-hand tobacco smoke is now recognized as a health danger, which has led to increasing restrictions on where people can smoke. Violations of tobacco-related laws can result in fines and/or prison terms. 1/5 © 2003, 2010 CAMH | www.camh.ca Where does tobacco come from? How does tobacco make you feel? The tobacco plant’s large leaves are cured, fermented The nicotine in tobacco smoke travels quickly to the and aged before they are manufactured into tobacco brain, where it acts as a stimulant and increases heart products. Tobacco was cultivated and widely used by rate and breathing. Tobacco smoke also reduces the the peoples of the Americas long before the arrival of level of oxygen in the bloodstream, causing a drop in Europeans. Today, most of the tobacco legally produced skin temperature. People new to smoking are likely to in Canada is grown in Ontario, commercially packaged experience dizziness, nausea and coughing or gagging. and sold to retailers by one of three tobacco companies. -
Solvents/Inhalants Information for Health Professionals
Solvents/Inhalants Information for Health Professionals Introduction Inhalants compromise a wide variety of vapours, gases, and aerosols that can be inhaled to induce psychoactive (mind-altering) effects. Unlike other drugs, inhalants are available as legal products with low costs and wide availability. Examples include commercial products such as nail polish remover, hair sprays, lighter fluid, cleaning fluids, vegetable frying pan lubricants, and spray paints. These chemicals can be sniffed or inhaled because they are gaseous at room temperature and pressure. “Inhalant” is a general term that includes all substances used in this way. Most inhalants are volatile solvents, which are liquids that easily vaporize at room temperature and can contain many different chemicals that may be psychoactive. The majority of these solvents are produced from petroleum and natural gas. They have an enormous number of industrial, commercial and household uses, and are found in automobile fuels, cleaning fluids, toiletries, adhesives and fillers, paints, paint thinners, felt-tip markers, and many other products. In addition to volatile solvents, aerosols (hair spray, paint spray) can be abused as inhalants. Other inhalants include the nitrites (amyl and butyl, “poppers”, “Rush”) and gases such as the anesthetics nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and ether. Inhalants can be breathed in through the nose or mouth in a variety of ways, including spraying aerosols directly into the nose or mouth, “sniffing” or "snorting” fumes from containers, inhaling from balloons filled with nitrous oxide, “huffing” from an inhalant-soaked rag stuffed in the mouth, or “bagging”- pouring the substance over a cloth or into a plastic bag and breathing in the vapours. -
MARIJUANA and SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER, Part 1: a Historical Perspective and DSM-5 Overview
MARIJUANA AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER, Part 1: a historical perspective and DSM-5 overview Introduction Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the Western world and the third most commonly used recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco. According to the World Health Organization, it also is the illicit substance most widely cultivated, trafficked, and used. Although the long-term clinical outcome of marijuana use disorder may be less severe than other commonly used substances, it is by no means a "safe" drug. Sustained marijuana use can have negative impacts on the brain as well as the body. Studies have indicated a link between regular marijuana use and schizophrenia as well as a demonstrated relationship between marijuana use and a higher incidence of lung cancer. Although there are no pharmacological treatments available with a proven impact on marijuana use disorder, there are several types of behavior therapy that may be effective in treating this disorder. Worldwide Use Of Marijuana For a number of years, the United Nations has been compiling annual surveys of worldwide drug use, including cannabis. Reflecting the difficulties and uncertainties associated with developing estimates of the number of people who use drugs (such as the quality of the data gathered and the methodologies used to sample populations), the latest United Nations estimates are presented in ranges, reflecting the lower and upper estimates indicated through the array of surveys ce4less.com ce4less.com ce4less.com ce4less.com ce4less.com ce4less.com 1 available. In their 2012 report (covering 2010), the United Nations estimated that between 119.4 and 224.5 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 had used cannabis in the past year, representing between 2.6% and 5.0% of the world’s population.22 In 2014, approximately 22.2 million people ages 12 and up reported using marijuana during the past month. -
Phenibut and EMS Earlier This Week, the Michigan Poison Center
Phenibut and EMS Earlier this week, the Michigan Poison Center (MPP) received an inquiry from a UP emergency physician who had cared for two patients in two days who had been abusing a substance called Phenibut, a synthetically produced central nervous system depressant with similarities to the neurotransmitter known as GABA. Phenibut is not an FDA approved or regulated drug. It typically is marketed as a dietary substitute and is readily available in stores (especially “headshops”) and online. While officially considered a supplement, it is felt to have properties more similar to a prescription sedative. It is marketed outside of the US for depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Recently Phenibut has been recognized as having the potential for physical dependence, withdrawal, and addiction.1,2 In response to the UP physician’s concern that these two cases might be part of an increase in Phenibut use, the MPC initiated a review, identifying 12 cases this year.3 They also notified MDHHS of the concern. The Division of EMS and Trauma, using Michigan EMS Information System data identified 8 cases in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to 5 cases in the last 6 months of 2018. One EMS case was also identified by MPC. Of the combined 19 cases from 2019, one third occurred in the Upper Peninsula, with 5 of the 8 cases (62.5%) in the last 6 months coming from the UP. Cases were reported in 10 Michigan counties. Documented coingestants were noted in 36.8% of the cases and included cannabinoids (2), kratom (3), ETOH, Flakka (bath salts), and other medications.