Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2008.5.22

Weekly News in Audio

May 22, 2008

"Radical" Russ Belville
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Past Cannabis Use Not Associated With Injury Severity, Study Says

Pot Preparation Effective For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Journal Reports

Join NORML In Aspen In Two Weeks At The 3rd Annual NORML Legal Seminar

The Hague, The Netherlands:
Past Cannabis Use Not Associated With Injury Severity, Study Says

The use of cannabis and other psychoactive substances is not associated with an increase in the severity of car-crash related injury, according to data published in the current issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

Investigators at the Netherlands Forensic Institute and Utrecht University assessed the relationship between substance use and injury severity in a group of crash-involved drivers admitted to a regional trauma center. Authors determined that drivers who tested positive for the presence of drugs or alcohol in their blood or drug metabolites in their urine were no more likely to suffer from more severe injuries than were drivers who tested negative for the presence of psychoactive substances.

Authors wrote: “There is much evidence that driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs of abuse is related to an increased accident risk. A remaining question is whether the use of psychoactive substances is also related to clinically more sever accidents.”

They concluded, “[W]e found no relation between the use of psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs) and the severity of injury. … More research is needed and blood sampling of all crash-involved drivers [to more accurately determine recent substance use] is recommended to confirm the[se] results and to [better] study the relation between the different classes of drugs and injury severity.”

Previous studies of on road accident data have indicated that recent use of cannabis, as determined by the presence of significant levels of THC in the blood, is associated with an elevated risk of accident compared to drivers who test negative for the presence of THC.

By contrast, motorists who test positive for the presence of THC metabolites in their urine - indicating their past use of cannabis at some unspecified point in time - do not appear to have an elevated accident risk compared to other drivers.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

Full text of the study, “The relation between the use of psychoactive substances and the severity of the injury in a group of crash-involved drivers admitted to a regional trauma center,” appears in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

Additional information regarding marijuana use and on-road accident risk is available in the NORML report "Cannabis and Driving: A Scientific and Rational Review," available online at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459.

Berlin, Germany:
Pot Preparation Effective For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Journal Reports

Oral administration of synthetic THC capsules (dronabinol) mitigates symptoms in patients with treatment-resistance obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a pair of case studies published in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Investigators at Berlin's University of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, reported two cases of OCD patients augmenting their treatment regimens with oral THC.

For the first patient, a 38-year-old female, dronabinol administration three times daily significantly decreased OCD symptoms within ten days. For the second patient, a 36-year-old male, dronabinol treatment twice daily significantly decreased symptoms of OCD within two weeks.

Neither patient reported any physical or mental health side-effects from dronabinol.

Prior to their use of oral THC, both patients had been unresponsive to standard treatment medications.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

Full text of the case study, “Improvement in refractory obsessive compulsive disorder with dronabinol,” appears online in the American Journal of Psychiatry at: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/165/4/536.

Washington, DC:
Join NORML In Aspen In Two Weeks At The 3rd Annual NORML Legal Seminar

NORML is still accepting registrations from criminal defense attorneys and the general public for its third annual Aspen Legal Seminar. This year's event takes place on Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7 at the Gant Hotel in downtown Aspen - one of the nation's most marijuana-friendly cities.

Speakers at this year's event include John Wesley Hall, president elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Jeralyn Merritt, television legal analyst for MSNBC and host of the popular website TalkLeft.com; Gerald Goldstein, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and legal counsel for the late-Hunter S. Thompson; NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano and Paul Wright, editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News, the longest publishing independent prisoner rights magazine in US history.

Social events at this year's conference include an opening night reception, a benefit dinner catered by Aspen chef Chris Lanter of Cache Cache, and an afternoon cookout at the fabled Owl Farm, the legendary Woody Creek home of the late Hunter S. Thompson.

"NORML is proud to make this once-a-year legal seminar open to lawyers and the public," said NORML founder and Legal Director Keith Stroup. "Don't miss this rare opportunity to join NORML's staff and some of the nation's top pot lawyers and activists in this 'highly' unique and intimate setting."

Conference agenda and registration information (members of the general public may sign up at a reduced rate) for the 2008 Aspen Legal Seminar is now available online at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6823.

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