Pubdate: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 Source: Penticton Herald (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://www.pentictonherald.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/664 Author: The Canadian Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John) POT PLANS MISGUIDED, SAYS EXPERT VANCOUVER -- A top American clinical researcher in the field of drug addiction warned Tuesday that decriminalizing marijuana could lead to increased abuse of the drug Studies show wider availability of a drug coupled with a relaxed attitude towards it help predict the level of use and addiction, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Volkow said surveys indicate that if a drug is considered safe and benign, its use spirals. Drug addiction rates can range from 20 to 30 per cent of users. "The notion of legalizing and making drugs accessible, what it will do is ultimately increase the number of people that get exposed to the drug," Volkow said in an interview. "Some of those people will become addicted that may have not become addicted had it not been so easily accessible." The best examples, she said, are alcohol and tobacco, both widely available and relatively acceptable socially and with the most widespread addiction rates The federal Liberal government is mulling the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of pot. The Canadian proposal is drawing frowns within the U.S. government -- notably from drug-policy czar John Walters Volkow, here to speak to people working in the drug-addiction field, said many scientists used to believe marijuana was not addictive But she said the pot consumed by the baby boom generation had much less of the active ingredient THC -- which interacts with receptor proteins in the brain that translate pleasure responses -- than the types now available "It is this chemical that can lead to the addiction," she said. "When people were taking marijuana in the past, they were consuming a very weak drug "The experiences that people may have had -- that are now in their 40s and 50s -- who say 'I never became addicted to that drug,' that does not necessarily pertain to the type of compound we're seeing today." Research since then has also revealed a lot more about the effects of marijuana on those brain receptors and how they help regulate things such as memory and learning, she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager