IN THIS ISSUE…… Marijuana Use Among Young Adults at All- Time High THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE MINNESOTA DRE SEPTEMBER 2018 Adderall Does Not EXPERTS WARN OF EMERGING Improve School Performance in College ‘STIMULANT EPIDEMIC’ Students Without With the nation still reeling from the opioid crisis, drug-forecasting experts say a ADHD new wave of addiction is coming and the United States isn’t ready for it. Abuse of stimulants like methamphetamine, cocaine, and even prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin is surging across the country, fed by cheap, potent, and Rising Number of Benzodiazepine plentiful supplies. “No one is paying attention to this,” said John Eadie, coordinator for the National Prescriptions Emerging Threat Initiative, which provides research to the government’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. “Everyone, correctly, is focused on CBD Not “Legal In All opioids and should be because of the known problem there. But this other problem 50 States” is catching up with us very rapidly. “We’re now facing a very significant stimulant epidemic,” said Eadie, who spoke at Renowned Medial the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta. For every kilogram of heroin -- a commonly abused opioid -- seized over the last 5 years, Edie says, drug Marijuana Doctor Says enforcement agents seized 15 kilograms of stimulants. “We have to pay attention to Concentrates Should this one. It’s very big, and it’s growing very rapidly,” he said. Be Banned Data from government surveys on drug use show that stimulant use is climbing and in some cases NHTSA 2016 Traffic outpaces opioid use. In 2016, for example, an Data estimated 2.3 million people started using opioids to get high for the first time, while 2.6 million people started using stimulant drugs for the same Effects of a Heavy purpose. In 2016, an estimated 3.8 million people Drinking Session on said they used opioids to get high within the last Our Thoughts and month, while 4.3 million said the same about Performance May Last stimulants. Longer Than We While opioids now account for most drug overdose deaths in the U.S., the number of people who are dying from stimulants is also rising. Early data from the CDC show Think that the number of overdose deaths due to psychostimulant abuse -- a drug category that includes prescription and illegal stimulants -- jumped nearly 30% last year. In TIRF: Annual Ignition 2017, 7,663 people died from a stimulant overdose, up from 5,992 in 2016. Interlock Survey The reasons for the increase are not yet well understood. But historically, drug abuse tends to happen in cycles. Continued on Page 4 SEPTEMBER 2018 Page 2 MARIJUANA USE AMONG ADDERALL DOES NOT YOUNG ADULTS IS AT AN ALL- IMPROVE SCHOOL TIME HIGH PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently released STUDENTS WITHOUT ADHD the results of its latest study, which examined trends on The attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) substance use among non-college and college young drug Adderall does not improve reading comprehension adults. or fluency in college students without the disorder, and For their evaluation, the researchers surveyed people, may impair memory, a new study suggests. aged 19 to 22, from across the United States. Many college students believe ADHD drugs will After analyzing the results, they found more than 13 improve their study skills, Science Daily reports. The percent of young adults not in college reported using new study by researchers at the University of Rhode marijuana daily or near daily, which is the highest level Island and Brown University looked at the impact of so- ever among the group. As a result, they said daily called “study drugs” on college students who do not have marijuana use is now three times as high among non- ADHD. college young adults as among college students. The study, Vaping marijuana was also higher among non-college published in the young adults than among college students. Nearly 8 Journal Pharmacy , percent of non-college adults vaped, compared to 5.2 found the standard percent of college students. 30-milligram dose The largest difference between daily rates for college of Adderall did students and non-college adults was in the cigarette improve attention category. About 14 percent of non-college peers and focus, but did not translate into better performance smoked daily, while just 2 percent of college students on tests that measured short-term memory, reading smoked every day. Past month use of vaping nicotine comprehension and fluency. was also higher, with about 8 percent of non-college “If your brain is functioning normally in those regions, adults vaping nicotine, compared to 6 percent of the medication is unlikely to have a positive effect on college students. cognition and my actually impair cognition. In other While misuse of Vicodin in both college and non- words, you need to have a deficit to benefit from the college peers dropped about 8 percent within the last medicine,” lead researcher Lisa Weyandt said eight years, synthetic drug use over the last year was higher in non-college peers than in college students. Source: Partnership for Drug Free Kids Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution RISING NUMBER OF BENZODIAZEPINE PRESCRIPTIONS Doctors are prescribing large amounts of benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Ativan, which can cause deadly complications, an expert tells NBC News. Dr. Anna Lembke, Chief of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, said complications from benzodiazepines, such as dependency and addiction, are fueling a hidden epidemic. The drugs are primarily used to treat anxiety and sleeplessness. “Medical students, residents and even doctors in practice don’t recognize the addictive potential of benzodiazepines,” Dr. Lembke said. “There’s been all this awareness on opioids but very little focus on benzodiazepines and yet people are dying from them.” Earlier this year, Dr. Lembke reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that there were 8,791 overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines in 2015, up from 1999 when there were 1,135 such overdose deaths. One study found that between 1996 and 2013, the number of adults filling a benzodiazepine prescription increased by 67 percent, reaching 13.5 million in 2013. Source: Partnership for Drug Free Kids SEPTEMBER 2018 Page 3 NO, CBD IS NOT 'LEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES' An Indiana man was overwhelmed with emotion this week when a county court dismissed his case. Mamadou Ndiaye was facing jail time and a $1,000 fine for marijuana possession. But Ndiaye possessed only CBD oil – a substance that was legalized by the state legislature last month. Thanks to the new CBD law, the prosecutor and judge both decided to dismiss the case. "This is the best day of my life," he told WTHR, which has been reporting on Ndiaye’s case and the confusion surrounding CBD laws in Indiana. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a compound found in cannabis that has gained prominence in recent years for its therapeutic properties. Cannabis advocates have hailed the cannabinoid for its promise in combating seizures, anxiety and myriad other ailments. CBD is "the new ‘it’ drug," according to The Washington Post. It’s a "rapidly rising star for its capacity to deliver mental and physical benefits," according to Quartz. But contrary to what these articles suggest, CBD products are not "legal in all 50 US states." If that were the case, why would Ndiaye be charged with a crime? Why would the Indiana police raid retailers selling the stuff? And why would the Indiana legislature take it upon itself to legalize CBD? Many in the cannabis industry claim that as long as the CBD product contains less than 0.3% THC, it is classified as hemp under federal law and is therefore legal to possess and distribute. (WTHR commissioned a lab test for Ndiaye’s CBD oil — it had 0.00% THC.) The 2014 Farm Bill is often cited as evidence that CBD derived from industrial hemp is now legal. But the legislation legalized only a very narrow set of hemp cultivation activities: It is legal to grow hemp under a state pilot program or for academic research. It is also legal to cultivate under state law "in which such institution of higher education or state department of agriculture is located and such research occurs." There are certainly CBD producers who source their hemp from cultivators that operate under the Farm Bill. But given how widespread these products are, it’s unlikely that all of them were sourced from research hemp. And state laws on CBD and hemp vary widely. Colorado, which legalized adult-use marijuana in 2012, has a robust industrial hemp program and is home to the first U.S.-bred certified hemp seed. But in Massachusetts, where you can now grow marijuana at home, it’s still a crime to grow hemp without a state license, reported The Boston Globe. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell announced last month that he would introduce a bill to legalize hemp on the federal level. Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration maintains that CBD is definitely still illegal. Last November, a spokesperson for the agency explained to WTHR that those who violate federal drug laws still run the "risk of arrest and prosecution." Continued on Page 6 RENOWNED MEDICAL MARIJUANA DOCTOR SAYS CONCENTRATES SHOULD BE BANNED Dr. Rav Ivker, a physician renowned for using cannabis to treat chronic pain, has said he believes marijuana concentrates should be banned. “I think they should be illegal,” Ivker said. “In fact, I hope they become illegal. The only thing they’re good for is getting really high. But they’re high-risk, and there’s really no benefit from them.” Ivker said that addiction is possible with “high-potency marijuana products, including concentrates like “shatter” and “wax”.