Thursday 29 November 2007

large doses of cannabis actually made pain worse

The pain-relieving attributes of cannabis have long been praised, and several countries have made it available for medicinal purposes. But moderation is the key, according to a study in the journal Anesthesiology.

University of California researchers found that limited use of cannabis had the greatest impact on pain in 15 volunteers, while large doses actually made pain worse. The team recruited 15 healthy volunteers, in whom pain was induced by injecting capsaicin—the "hot" chemical found in chili peppers—under their skin.

They were then given cannabis to smoke. The strength of the dose was determined by the tetrahydrocannabinol content, which is the main active chemical in cannabis. Other volunteers were given a placebo.

Five minutes after taking the drug, none of the doses had any effect on the pain felt. But 45 minutes later, those who had smoked the moderate dose said their pain was much better, while those who consumed high doses said it had gotten worse.

Dr. Mark Wallace, the lead researcher, said the findings could have implications for the way medicinal cannabis was offered, both in pure and drug form.

Some experts, however, are concerned that results on healthy volunteers may not be translated accurately into how cannabis works in the bodies of those with cancer or multiple sclerosis, for whom the drug is increasingly seen as a potential form of pain relief.

Dr Laura Bell, of the MS Society, said, "Many people with MS report benefits to symptoms such as pain from taking cannabis, however, studies to date on the effects of cannabis on pain are small and difficult to draw firm conclusions from. We would be interested to see the results from larger scale studies focused on people with MS."

anorexia and the highly addictive club-drug ecstasy activate some of the same brain pathways

Scientists from France have found that anorexia and the highly addictive club-drug ecstasy activate some of the same brain pathways, a finding that may help explain the addictive nature of anorexia and other eating disorders, leading to new treatments.
Dr. Valerie Compan of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montpellier, and colleagues report that both anorexia and ecstasy reduce the drive to eat by stimulating the same subset of receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin.
These so-called 5-HT4 receptors are located in a brain structure associated with feelings of reward called the nucleus accumbens.
In mice, Compan and colleagues stimulated these receptors, which are known to play a role in addictive behavior, and found that this led to anorexic-like behavior. Food-fed mice ate less and food-deprived mice showed a reduced drive to eat.
Stimulating these receptors in mice also boosted production of the same enzymes stimulated in response to cocaine and amphetamine use.
Blocking the receptors increased food intake in the animals and mice missing these receptors were less sensitive to the appetite-suppressant effects of ecstasy.
This research may have implications for the development of drug treatments for eating disorders.

Saturday 24 November 2007

crystal meth was cheap, caused a lot of violence and was "probably the most addictive drug".

Judge Phillips said crystal meth was cheap, caused a lot of violence and was "probably the most addictive drug".

"It is very cheap, you can get it not far from here for £20.

"That gives a four to five-hour high but the comedown is frightening, with symptoms including paranoia, stroke, heart problems, irritability and self-harm. It can lead to a lot of violence."

Crystal meth has often been taken by people who come into court, he said.

"I know it's being taken, because everyone on a drug order is tested, said District Judge Phillips.

"A lot of them don't know they are taking it - cocaine is cut with it, skunk is being cut with it, which may be in an attempt to hook people, as it is so addictive."

The drug was re-classified as Class A last month in a bid to prevent it taking off.

Type of arrest Number of arrests United States

Estimated totals of top seven arrest offenses in the United States, 2005



Total arrests* 14,094,200
Drug abuse violations 1,846,400
Driving under the influence 1,371,900
Simple assaults 1,301,400
Larceny/theft 1,146,700
Disorderly conduct 678,200
Liquor laws 597,800
Drunkenness 556,200

*Arrest totals are based on all reporting agencies and estimates for unreported areas.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.

Wednesday 21 November 2007

The Internet is creating a new breed of sex addict according to the latest research from the US.

The Internet is creating a new breed of sex addict according to the latest research from the US.

At a conference on sexual addiction in California last week, researchers claimed that 15 percent of surfers have visited sex chat rooms or porn sites with almost 9 percent spending more than 11 hours per week surfing for sexually related material.

Online porn is no longer the domain of males, researchers say. An equal number of women are also getting in on the act although females generally prefer sex chat to pictures.

Crystal meth,

tik, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes are all street names for Crystal meth. Tik seems to be the latest version and is unfortunatley now being used by school children. tik, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes will keep you awake and make you violent and in South Africa the police are coming down harder on dealers of Tik than on dealers of the likes of heroin, crack cocaine cannabis etc.

Crystal meth, tik, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes is being marketed as an easy way of losing weight which is making it a drug to try for young girls who would normally never get involved in drugs.

“The danger with crystal meth is that it is attractive to non-typical drug users,” says Prof Charles Parry, researcher at the Medical Research Council (MRC).

This is an additional worry as some users of Crystal meth, tik, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes have no idea how to handle drugs and the dangers they hold.

Crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes, Tik is now attracting extremely young first-time drug users. The greatest rise in registered users seeking help or treatment / rehab ( residential or non residential ) comes from those under the age of 20. Treatment centers / rehabs in South Africa are reportedly treating children as young as 13 for Crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes, Tik addiction. Hopefully the residential treatment, rehabs, rehabilitation centers of South Africa will receive more and more people suffering with crystal meth, tik addiction will seek help or rehabilitation before its to late.

The number of crystal meth tik addicts / abusers reported has increased from less than one per cent of those registered with the CTDCC back in 2002 to more recently a full third of those registered are crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes users.

This increase in crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes users has left the CTDCC extremely concerned and facing the greatest challenge the CTDCC has ever had to face.

The health proffesionals of South Africa are also very concerned about the effects using crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes is having on drug addicts. The addict / drug user / crystal meth abuser can think he or she is seeing and hearing things that are not there plus with the increase in violence associated with crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes then it is now a far more dangerous drug in South Africa than most other drugs available.

Crystal meth, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes is now becoming a sought after drug with gang members which leaves the obvious concern of those involved already with violent crime and criminal activity taking a drug which will only heighten this violence and induce more violent behaviours in the drug using criminal.

Methamphetamine is ideal to prepare gunmen for a hit, removing there inhibitions and fuelling the gunmens aggression . We could easily expect an increase in violence in this already extremely violent area of the population in South Africa


Crystal meth has many street names, tuk tuk, crystal, straws, globes. Plus Hitler’s drug as the drug was allegedly used by the Nazis as fighting drug to fuel aggression and keep soldiers awake for long periods of time during the war.

Friday 16 November 2007

METH discovered in Middlesborough earlier this year

METH discovered in Middlesborough earlier this year, Karl Sheldon, of the drugs charity Addaction, said: “It is going to have a wide-reaching effect on families and communities because it is easily produced, highly addictive and cheaper than cocaine.” Richard Cazaly, the man named by police as responsible for the stabbing of Abigail Witchalls last year, was a meth user.

Meth may not yet be a problem on the scale of other drugs in Britain — we are the biggest European users of cocaine — but it is gaining a foothold. And it is meth’s meteoric and disastrous spread overseas that is causing alarm here. Meth use in America has exploded since the late 1990s and the scale of the problem is startling. An estimated 12.3 million Americans had tried the drug by 2003 and in the same year more than 10,000 meth laboratories were found by police. Deborah Durkin, of the Minnesota Department of Health, says that in her state many cities went from “Not a problem” to “Help!” in six months to a year.

Drug addicts are being given injections of heroin on the NHS

Drug addicts are being given injections of heroin on the NHS under a government-backed plan to deter them from comitting robbery and theft to fund their habit.

Up to 150 addicts at three treatment centres in England will take part in the trial, which until now has been kept secret. The centres will report the results to ministers, police and doctors.

The addicts have been chosen because they have very serious addiction problems. They receive the drug daily under the supervision of nurses and doctors. The use of heroin by doctors is not illegal but they require licences from the Home Office.

Two clinics are already operating. One is at the Maudsley Hospital, South London, and a second is in Darlington, Co Durham. A third is expected to open later in a trial that will run for several years.

Heroin has not been routinely prescribed for addicts since the 1960s, when the “British system” was abandoned. Doctors were allowed to issue prescriptions to addicts but the practice was abandoned after a series of scandals in which half a dozen London doctors were overprescribing.

At present addicts are usually prescribed a synthetic substitute called methadone, which addicts often say is not strong enough or lacks the “rush” of heroin. Prescriptions are sold on the illicit market and addicts revert to heroin.

Thursday 15 November 2007

13 children a day are hospitalised as a result of alcohol misuse

- Alcoholic liver cirrhosis has increased by 95% since 2000, and by 36% over the last two years to 2006 and is still increasing
- Overall alcohol related deaths have increased by 18% from 2002-2005
- More people die from alcohol related causes than from breast cancer, cervical cancer and MRSA combined
- The 'passive effects' of alcohol misuse are catastrophic - rape, sexual assault, domestic and other violence, drunk driving and street disorder - alcohol affects thousands more innocent victims than passive smoking

alcohol dependent patients show altered responses to alcohol related cues

Several studies demonstrated that alcohol dependent patients show altered responses to alcohol related cues. It is assumed that the regular association of these cues with the ingestion of alcohol leads to conditioned reactions, motivating reward or relief craving and instigating drug intake. A group of German investigators has reported on this phenomenon in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. They used an innovative method for studying this issue: the measurement of startle reflex, which is the eyeblink response to a sudden loud noise, that is normally inhibited by a pleasant foreground and potentiated when unpleasant stimuli are presented. Thus, it is a reliable method to assess the affective valence of emotional stimuli without having to rely on the self-report of patients. Previous investigations with alcohol dependent patients have shown that an attenuation of the affect modulated startle reflex was demonstrated when patients were viewing alcohol associated pictures indicating an appetitive valence of the alcohol associated stimuli.

Bars and nightclubs, but not liquor stores, are linked with excessive alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking

Bars and nightclubs, but not liquor stores, are linked with excessive alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking in adults who live nearby, according to a new study from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California.

"Usually people think that liquor stores define a neighborhood's alcohol consumption, but we didn't find any relationship between them and problem drinking among the adult population in California," says author Khoa Truong, PhD.

Instead, the investigators say that overall, their findings point to so-called "minor-restricted establishments" -- adults-only bars and nightclubs -- as having the most consistent and sizeable effects on adult problem drinking, even though they accounted for only about six percent of the total number of alcohol retail licenses in the area studied.

After accounting for one's education level, income, race, and neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics, we found that a higher number of minor-restricted establishments located within one mile from someone's home is associated with that person's higher likelihood of binge drinking and consuming excess alcohol, the authors write.

"If the number of minor-restricted establishments increases, on average, from zero to two in a neighborhood, the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking in the past 30 days would increase from 11.1 percent to 14.3 percent among women and from 19.6 percent to 22.0 percent among men; and prevalence of riding with a driver who perhaps had too much to drink would increase from 2.9 percent to 4.1 percent among women and 4.0 percent to 5.5 percent among men," says Truong.

Monday 5 November 2007

Bob Johnsons theory works for addictions as well as mental health problems if you read nothing else read this.



Dr Bob Johnson is a consultant psychiatrist based on the Isle of Wight. He has written two books questioning psychiatry’s current focus on medication, and runs the website www.TruthTrustConsent.com.Here, he argues that psychiatry in its current form is not working


But of course, if you embark on such a radicaldeparture from psychiatric orthodoxy, there’sa price to be paid – in my case, it cost me mypsychiatric career. So taste what follows carefully,before you swallow. Being out on a limb can behair-raising – evidence for it must therefore be soobvious, it can stand on its own. And naturally,there are many sensible psychiatrists who willagree with what I write here, who practise excellentpsychiatry, but who keep their heads down, incase the Establishment chops them, as it did me.To examine where psychiatry currently goes wrong,we need to scrutinise three fundamentals of anymedical practice, viz: 1, what causes the disease;2, what’s the best diagnostic framework; and 3,which treatments work best. Get one of these wrong,and you invite medical disasters. Get them allwrong, and the outcome is a foregone conclusion.But before we get to the pyrotechnics, let’s brieflyreview the recent past. In 1952 the first of “theDSMs” was published – this was the first editionof the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of MentalDisorders. The current version is the 4th Edition,DSM-IV, 1994, with DSM-V about to hatch.However, the first edition is far superior – since in1952, it acknowledged that mental disorders couldarise from a whole host of factors, especiallyfamily and social stresses. By 1994, the DSM-IVhad emasculated this sensible view of humannature. What's left – apart from PTSD (PostTraumatic Stress Disorder) – is, in my consideredprofessional opinion, prime medical garbage.Back to the three fundamentals. Firstly, causativefactors – who can seriously doubt that stress playsa central role in mental breakdown? Well, theDSM-IV for one. Even ‘death of a loved one’ isexplicitly excluded from any connection withmental disease [DSM-IV p xxi]. How unreal canyou get? A vague ‘bio-genetics’ is wafted aboutin lieu, for which there has never been a scrapof objective evidence – nor is there likely to be.Psychiatry likes its mental disease hardwired –thereby permitting any number of bizarre physicalinterventions, all immune to scientific evidence.Secondly, diagnosis. This is the medical blue printthe clinician imposes on the hodge-podge ofsymptoms triggered by disease. If you still thinkthat malaria, for example, is caused by bad-air(which is how it got its name) then your diagnosticstructures and treatments, being less real, aregoing to be less efficacious.continued over“Psychiatry today is a dismal medical failure”. This is the conclusion I reached when writing mybook on the scientifically proven impact of psychiatric drugs. I eventually titled the book “Unsafeat any dose”, because that is what the published evidence proves beyond a peradventure....if you embark on such a radical departure from psychiatric orthodoxy,there’s a price to be paid – in my case, it cost me my psychiatric career.

The more realistic the diagnostic pattern, the more effective any treatment will be. Conversely, get thediagnosis wrong, and your treatment is likely toharm. Take a garage diagnosis – if your car won’tstart, you could diagnose either a flat battery or anempty fuel tank. Get this wrong, and over-filling thetank is both ineffective and dangerous. In my view,this mirrors today’s psychiatry.Thirdly, and finally, the question of treatment opensa whole new disaster area. But what is reallypuzzling is that the profession as a whole turnsa consistent blind eye to irrefutable evidence.So desperate is the current psychiatric professionto cling to its hardware model, that manifest andrepeatable evidence that its drugs inflict damageis ignored. Quite remarkable. The best source forthis is Mad in America by Robert Whitaker. Takechlorpromazine (Largactil) – when this drug wasintroduced in the late 1950s, a nine-hospital trialwas arranged to see if it worked. Almost 400patients were divided into two groups – half withthe drug, half with placebo. After 6 weeks thedrugged half were calmer, with fewer hallucinationsand less paranoia. 12 months later, the non-druggedgroup were twice as healthy. No prizes for guessingwhich result the psychiatric profession has ferventlyembraced ever since. Such a crucial issue, as youmight expect, has been researched over and over.Every time the outcome is the same. And eachtime, this discomforting result is suppressed.Be aware that every psychiatric drug now prescribedentails serious side-effects. Benzodiazepines(Diazepam, Valium etc, as also Ritalin) areaddictive and corrosive to brain tissue, as are theso-called anti-psychotics which actually prolongdisease. Anti-depressants exacerbate suicide andother violence – you name it, it’s unviable. All aredesigned to impact the mind – and therefore to dullit. But the established psychiatric profession cannotget out of the habit of shooting the messenger,because it doesn’t want to hear the message.Where should we go now? When I trained in 1963,I was given a superb grounding in the TherapeuticCommunity approach. This emphasised that themind is the organ of socialising – even wardcleaning staff were included in ward meetings,since they had multiple social contacts with thesufferers. That was my beginning in psychiatry,and it remains my approach today – all mentaldisorders arise, unsurprisingly, from mental factors– it’s software, not hardware. Sadly TherapeuticCommunities are now few and far between,and hanging on by their proverbial fingernails.Yet there is abundant evidence that this approachcures mental disease (also in Mad in America).If it could once again become mainstream,psychiatric nihilism would evaporate, bringingbenefits to all.18PSYCHIATRY - A NIHILISTIC DISCIPLINE
‘death of a loved one’ is explicitly excluded from any connection with mental disease. How unreal can you get?

Possibly the worlds greatest Psychiatrist

What a toxic fiasco – surely at the start of the twenty-first century we can do better than Picchioni and Murray’s review of schizophrenia1. Doubtless their review faithfully reflects current views of psychosis – but what an awesomely impoverished view that is. When the term ‘medical model’ is deployed to abuse psychiatry, then some effort to restore medicine’s good name should at least be attempted. Sadly those accusing present-day psychiatry of reducing sufferers to ‘mindless unfeeling robots’ will find ample supporting evidence here.

But first, why no reference to the abundant data that neuroleptics prolong psychoses? For 50 years there has been a continuous stream of damning evidence – from the Nine Hospital Study2 when after 12 months the non-drugged group were twice as healthy, through WHO studies in the 1970s3 where if you developed schizophrenia in countries too poor to afford neuroleptics you went back to work within 3 years, to the latest4 where stopping medication improved recovery rates eight-fold. You’ll be much better off going against what the doctor says – hardly the best basis for any medical practice. Even flimsier whiffs of iatrogenic damage should be intolerable in any medical speciality, especially one as important as psychiatry.

Whichever way you define psychosis, and the definitions offered are unhelpful, it is self-evidently a disease of the mind. Yet this most important of all human organs, is never mentioned. Half baked philosophy, such as the banal obfuscation about ‘mindbody dualism’ in DSM–IV5, doesn’t help – but if doctors use their own minds to puzzle out diagnoses, surely they should afford the same courtesy to their clients.

Not only are sufferers from schizophrenia presented as mindless – they are also seen as emotionless. In the opening sentences of their review, everyone is allowed to feel fear – except the sufferers themselves. And yet this is the key to the disease, as also to its cure – eliminate the fear by extending the ‘healing hand of kindness’, and recovery rates rocket, as they did in 17966. Recent fMRI studies7 indicate how fear degrades cognition. Reducing fear allows sufferers to blossom. When psychiatrists reintroduce emotions into their practice, as I was trained to do8, their tasks become infinitely more rewarding.

Robots and automatons are incapable of intent, let alone consent. Yet consent is the foundation stone of democracy, indeed of civilisation, and thereby also of the stable mind. By enlisting it, rational thought becomes available in even the severest psychosis – a happy outcome that remains unobtainable as long as doctors refuse to allow themselves to talk openly about infantile terrors and traumagenesis.

Picchioni and Murray’s review is based on meta-analyses. A rather different perspective emerges in a public debate9. Here parents and others eloquently describe their suffering, and the damage done by medication. Also on display is a psychiatric nihilism bordering on the inhumane – enough to make you wince. Psychiatry should be queen of all medical specialities, but first it must eliminate every last thing portraying human beings as ‘mindless unfeeling robots’.

Dr Bob Johnson

Saturday 3 November 2007

The men, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, and Bolton, Lancashire

arrested three British men who they alleged were planning to set up a cocaine trafficking network between South America and the UK.

The men, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, and Bolton, Lancashire, were reportedly planning to stash the drug in loudspeakers before smuggling it on to planes. They were arrested at a luxury hotel with 1kg of pure cocaine.

Friday 2 November 2007

Porn Stats

As of July 2003, there were 260 million pages of pornography online, an increase of 1800% since 1998. Porn amounts to about 7% of the 3.3 billion Web pages indexed by Google
Internet users who access adult websites spend an average of 73 min. per month there, but that doesn't include time spent on amateur sites
Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs a year, compared with 3.6 billion non pornographic videos. Nearly 1 in 5 rentals is a porn flick
Hollywood produces 400 feature films a year. The porn industry churns out 11,000
One in 4 American adults surveyed in 2002 admitted to seeing an X-rated movie in the past year

Porn Plan

• Eliminate all the pornography in your home

• Pray for help

• Determine how much you can afford to save each day

• Pick a reward for yourself after the first 100 days

• Make or buy a bank to save your money in

• Pay yourself each day that you successfully avoid pornography

• If you stumble, give all the money in your bank to your favorite charity

• After 100 days of success, reward yourself

• After the next 250 days, reward yourself

• Reward yourself each subsequent year for the rest of your life

Don't beat yourself up when you stumble. Remember that what you are trying to accomplish is a major undertaking. You can do it. And as you progress, God will bless your life with incredible joy. You will become more self-disciplined, and you will be happier than you have ever been. God bless us all with success.

pornography addiction is a secret thing

You may be the only one who knows you are addicted. If you went to a support group for pornography addicts, and your friends found out, or if your spouse found out, they might be very disappointed in you. You might hurt feelings, break hearts. Friends and family probably don't know you're addicted to pornography. They probably think you're a fine, upstanding, loving man. You know what? They're probably right.

You see, pornography addicts come from all walks of life. They're blue collar laborers and white collar executives; they're handsome and they're homely; they're Christian, Jewish, and atheist; they're all races and creeds. They're single, they're married and they're fathers. They can be lazy couch potatoes, and they can be diligent community volunteers.

Some want to control their addiction and some do not.