Pubdate: Wed, 13 Sep 2006
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Column: Cannabinotes
Copyright: 2006 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact:  http://www.theava.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2667
Author: Fred Gardner
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

OVERDOSE AT BERKELEY

There was a pot bust Sept. 6 at Cloyne Court, a UC Berkeley 
residential co-op, where some 30 students reported feeling unwell 
after eating marijuana-laced cookies at a meeting. A concerned 
resident phoned the Berkeley city police who then went door-to-door 
asking if anyone was experiencing adverse reactions. Those who 
responded affirmatively were taken to local ERs. Most decided not to 
enter the hospitals and returned to Cloyne; 12 received medical 
attention.  Two students and a recent grad were arrested as the 
alleged suppliers of the cookies.

A trustworthy source with friends at Cloyne says, "The cookies were 
potent but they were labeled 'don't take more than one' -a warning 
some people chose to ignore. It's the second week of school, there 
are many people at Cloyne who have not experimented with food 
containing pot and who knew nothing about what happens when you eat too much."

An overdose of mariuana produces an unpleasant torpor that starts 
coming on about 40 minutes after ingestion and can last six to eight 
hours. There is also a feeling akin to nausea but not nausea, 
exactly. A sophisticated user advises, "If you realize 
you've  ingested too much, try to sleep it off. The alternative is to 
stew impotently about the things you should be doing if only you could move."

Calmer types at Cloyne reportedly tried to reassure people that what 
they were experiencing was a transient state. "But a resident who was 
not affected by the cookies decided to call for help," according to 
our source. "The mass anxiety started after people knew the police 
and medics were on their way and after they started arriving."

The debilitating overdose is the reason bottles of cannabis tincture 
manufactured by Eli Lilly, Merck, Squibb, Parke, Davis et al in the 
early decades of the 20th century bore the skull and crossbones. 
"Poison" is not synonymous with "fatal," however. Veterinarians 
frequently get called by panicked dog owners whose pets are comatose 
after having eaten the owner's stash. Most vets know enough to advise 
that the dogs will awaken good as new.

The paranoia supposedly caused by marijuana is not an inherent effect 
of the drug; it's brought on by the context of illegality, the very 
real prospect of stigma and punishment. Imagine being a Berkeley 
student with your family savings and hopes riding on you and you've 
eaten these stupid cookies and now the cops are knocking on 
everyone's door and escorting those who admit that they "feel funny" 
to the Emergency Room. Should you go? If you give your name, will 
your student loans, grants, scholarships be jeopardized? (Possibly, 
for a pot-related infraction. But not for a rape.) Will your family 
be notified? A "feeling of doom," indeed.

Tom O'Connell, MD, a California cannabis specialist who has taken 
detailed histories from more than 3,000 patients, says "Pot doesn't 
have as much user control as most users require/need/would like 
unless it's smoked, which for most people is a paradox. Smoking 
almost completely avoids the 'first pass' effect in which everything 
absorbed by the gut and scrutinized by hepatocytes [enzymes in the 
liver] and a significant fraction may be metabolized into something 
entirely different. Since the major site of pot's action on the 
emotions is the brain, the first pass frustrates the titration 
smokers have become used to in two ways. First, they have to wait for 
digestion and then they have to do without the familiar anxiolytic 
[anti-anxiety] benefit that induced most of them to become chronic 
users to begin with.

"Add the fact that the duration of action of the liver's variant 
product is tripled and you'll understand why most chronic users 
either give edibles a wide berth or reserve them for week-end use at 
picnics, rock concerts, or ball games."

Is "Medical" Image Turning Teens Off Pot?

Every year the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA) conducts a survey on Drug Use and Health 
(DUH) and reports on perceived trends. Marijuana is, by far, the 
American people's illicit drug of choice. If the survey finds that 
drug use is down, government officials say "Our approach is working, 
give us more funding." If drug use is up, they say "We're in an 
epidemic, we need more funding."  This year they get to make both 
pitches because marijuana use was found to be up in the oldest age 
bracket (50-59) and down in the lowest (12-17).

SAMHSA released an "initial report" Sept. 7 based on the 2005 DUH 
Survey. "Youth Drug Use Continues Downward Slide, Older Adult Rates 
of Use Increase" was the headline. In the 12-to-17 age group, current 
marijuana users (those who acknowledged using within the past month) 
declined to 6.8 percent in 2005 from 8.2 percent in 2002. Among 
adults aged 50 to 59, however, "the rate of current illicit drug use 
increased from 2.7 percent to 4.4 percent between 2003 and 2005, 
reflecting the aging into this age group of the baby boom cohort."

In 2005, the average age of first-time marijuana users was 17.4 years 
- - a five-month increase since 2003. Drug Czar John Walter commented, 
"Something important is happening with American teens. They are 
getting the message that using drugs limits their futures."  Or maybe 
they're becoming more afraid to level with government survey takers. 
The DUH Survey has some 67,500 respondents nationwide. There were 
14.6 million past-month marijuana users in 2005, supposedly. If one 
trusted the data, one could conclude that the increasingly prevalent 
image of marijuana as medicine encourages older people to use it 
while making it less appealing to kids.

For everything spin, spin, spin

There is some research spin spin spin

And a line for every purpose under heaven

"Today's illegal market didn't really begin until large numbers of 
American teens born during the post-World-War-Two baby boom began 
smoking pot in the mid-1960s," says Dr. O'Connell. "The market has 
grown steadily ever since, despite all attempts of the federal 
government to eradicate it... Adolescence is precisely when chronic 
pot use began for the great majority of current users. My data show 
the opposite of a 'gateway' effect -pot use in adolescence is 
associated with diminished initiation of more problematic drugs and 
diminished use of alcohol and tobacco."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom