Lit_Match

ONDCP Insider: Drug Czar's Office Is “Flying Blind”
07-17-08|NORML

Washington, DC: Claims made by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that America is making "progress" in the so-called 'war on drugs' are not based on evidence or measurable performance, according to an essay published this week by former ONDCP budget director John Carnevale.

Writing for the HuffingtonPost.com, Carnevale - who spent eleven years working in the Drug Czar's office - states: "[T]he Office of National Drug Control Policy … claims that America has reached a turning point in the war on drugs. In reality, we have little reason to believe a significant change has occurred."

He continues: "Though Congress created ONDCP to formulate research-driven and performance-based policy, assess and modify policy through performance measures, and give a precise accounting of the federal drug control budget, ONDCP fails at all of those tasks. … As a consequence, policy is now flying blind resulting in lost opportunities for more success."

Full text of Carnevale's essay, "The Failure of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,"

John Carnevale: The Failure of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.


Case Study: Inhaled Cannabis Improves Symptoms Of ADHD
07-17-08|NORML

Heidelberg, Germany: Oral administration of synthetic THC capsules (dronabinol) mitigates symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a case study published by the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM, Germany).

Investigators at the Heidelberg University Medical Center reported that smoking cannabis dramatically improved the performance, behavior, and mental state of a 28-year-old male patient diagnosed with severe ADHD. "The present case report suggests that individuals suffering from ADHD … may - in some cases - benefit from cannabis treatment in that it appears to regulate activation to a level which may be considered optimum for performance," researchers concluded.

Full text of the case study previously appeared in the German journal Archives of Criminology.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director.

Full text of the study, "Cannabis improves symptoms of ADHD,"

http://www.cannabis-med.org/english/..._2008_01_1.pdf


Austrian Parliament Approves Medical Marijuana Use
07-17-08|NORML

Vienna, Austria: Austrian Health regulators will be legally permitted to grow and dispense cannabis for therapeutic purposes under legislation approved by Parliament last week.

The Austrian Health Ministry will oversee production of the drug, according to an Agency France-Presse (AFP) news wire report.

To date, only a handful of European nations, including the Netherlands, Germany (via federal permit only), and Finland (via court order), allow for the use of medicinal cannabis by qualified patients.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.


Marijuana Extracts Provide Superior Pain Relief Compared To Plant's Isolated Compounds, Study Says. “Cannabis sativa evoked a total relief of neuropathic pain, ameliorating the effect of single cannabinoids”
07-17-08|NORML

Milan, Italy: The administration of whole-plant cannabis extracts provides superior pain relief compared to the administration of the plant's isolated components, according to preclinical data to be published in the journal Phytotherapy Research. Investigators at the University of Milan, Department of Pharmacology assessed the antinociceptive efficacy of plant-derived cannabis extracts compared to the administration of a single cannabinoid in an animal model of neuropathic pain.

Researchers reported that the administration of single cannabinoids such as THC or CBD (cannabidiol) produced limited relief compared to the administration of plant extracts containing multiple cannabinoids, terpenes (oils), and flavonoids (pigments). "[T]he use of a standardized extract of Cannabis sativa … evoked a total relief of thermal hyperalgesia, in an experimental model of neuropathic pain, … ameliorating the effect of single cannabinoids," investigators concluded.

They added: "Collectively, these findings strongly support the idea that the combination of cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid compounds, as present in [plant-derived] extracts, provide significant advantages in the relief of neuropathic pain compared with pure cannabinoids alone. … Further studies of cannabis-based medicines in neuropathic pain are now required to demonstrate a clinically relevant improvement in the treatment of this condition."

Two separate US clinical trials recently affirmed that inhaled cannabis significantly reduces neuropathy in patients with chronic pain conditions, such as HIV or spinal cord injury, compared to placebo.

Previously published preclinical data on cannabis and analgesia have shown that cannabinoids, when administered in concert with either opiates or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), evoke greater reductions in pain compared to the administration of either drug alone.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. Full text of the study, "Antihyperalgesic effect of a Cannabis sativa extract in a rat model of neuropathic pain," will appear in the journal Phytotherapy Research.

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