Pubdate: Thu, 04 Dec 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker

FINALLY, SOME CANNABIS RESEARCH WORTH WAITING FOR

The state's Public Health Department is recommending more than $7 
million in grant money for eight studies centered on research into 
both the safety of cannabis and the possibilities for its use as a 
treatment for symptoms of various ailments and diseases.

Some of the research seems to be based around promising earlier work 
done outside the United States. A 2004 survey at the Prague Movement 
Disorder Center indicated that more that half of Parkinson's Disease 
patients who tried cannabis noticed subjective improvement.

Israeli researchers in 2013 presented an observational study of 17 
Parkinson's patients that showed a 30 percent increase in their 
average Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. So "A Randomized, 
Double-blind, Placebo controlled Crossover Study of Tolerability and 
Efficacy of Cannabidiol (CBD) on Tremor in Parkinson's Disease" 
sounds really promising in finding out whether those results were 
subjective or not.

Another, "Cannabidiol (CBD) and Pediatric Epilepsy," might share some 
insight into why CBD, one of the most active cannabinoids, eases 
symptoms of certain forms of epilepsy in children. This is a subject 
of interest to a growing number of Americans, especially after the 
Sanjay Gupta CNN medical marijuana documentaries last year and work 
done by Israeli scientists. Subjective evidence indicates there is 
definitely something happening, enough so that parents are moving to 
Colorado to gain access to a particular CBD strain. A scientific 
study might shed light on why it's happening.

Some research has suggested a connection between the endocannabinoid 
system and how the brain processes traumatic memories. So "Treating 
PTSD with Marijuana: Clinical and Functional Outcomes" and "A Double 
Blind, Placebo-Controlled Cross Study Comparing the Analgesic 
Efficacy of Cannabis versus Oxycodone" aim right at the heart of a 
serious debate about whether cannabis might be effective in treating 
symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome in our veterans, who are 
sometimes treated with narcotic drugs, which puts them at risk for 
opioid abuse and other side effects.

Other studies approved include one on the use of cannabis to treat 
adolescents and young adults with inflammatory bowel disease and the 
use of CBD in possibly treating pediatric epilepsy and brain tumors.

The grants range from $472,000 to $2 million per project. The Board 
of Health will consider the recommendations Dec. 17. Beyond that, 
applicants will need federal approval to get access to 
government-grown cannabis, so research could begin as early as next 
year. It used to be virtually impossible to get approval for 
government marijuana product for any research that wasn't aimed at 
proving cannabis abuse, not study its use. Let's hope that more of 
this kind of research helps end that nonsense.

A steady-running prohibitionist meme these days touts studies that 
"prove" that marijuana causes users' brains to shrink. And that has 
to be bad, right?

Turns out perhaps not. A study from researchers at the University of 
Texas (funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, no less) found 
that "chronic marijuana users have smaller brain volume in the 
orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a part of the brain commonly associated 
with addiction, but also increased brain connectivity."

The study looked at 48 adult three-times-daily marijuana users and 62 
gender- and age-matched non-users. It employed several advanced MRI 
techniques to create brain images.

"Cognitive tests show that chronic marijuana users had lower IQ 
compared to age- and gender-matched controls," researchers wrote. 
"But the differences do not seem to be related to the brain 
abnormalities as no direct correlation can be drawn between IQ 
deficits and OFC volume decrease."

Mainstream media outlets seemed to only read the first half of that 
particular sentence while not grasping the implications of the 
second. The researchers didn't find that marijuana shrank the brains, 
and made clear that, most likely, other factors were involved outside 
the parameters of the study. But that didn't stop the headline 
writers from chiming in with a new round of Reefer Madness.

"Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says," crowed the 
Los Angeles Times.

CNN warned, "Regular pot habit changes your brain, may even lower 
your IQ, study says."

The Daily Mail took it a step further:

"Smoking cannabis every day 'warps your brain and shrinks grey 
matter,' scientists warn."

"We cannot honestly say that that is what's happening here," said 
Francesca Filbey, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of 
Texas, who headed the study, which didn't address whether the 
differences in brain size might have existed before the subjects used 
cannabis or even whether the cannabis caused the brain shrinkage.

"The changes in connectivity may be considered a way of compensating 
for the reduction in volume," Filbey said. "This may explain why 
chronic users appear to be doing fine, even though an important 
region of their brain is smaller in terms of volume."

Cannabis isn't a benign drug. It should be used and handled with 
care. Still, millions of Americans use it, whether legally or 
illegally, annually, monthly, weekly, daily or hourly. Their brains 
might be smaller, or larger, than other peoples' brains. Their 
orbitofrontal cortices might be more connected, or less connected, 
than non-users. But most of them function in society just like anyone 
else. With legalization, we have even more control over its growth 
and distribution.

So bring on the research. Bring on the studies. But for goodness 
sakes, lay off the hyperbole.

You can hear Leland discuss his most recent column and Colorado 
cannabis issues each Thursday morning on KGNU. http:// 
news.kgnu.org/category/features/weedbetween-the-lines/
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom