The War on Drugs -- A Peace Proposal Grinspoon, Lester; Bakalar, James B
The New England journal of medicine,
02/1994, Letnik:
330, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
After nearly 10 years of escalation, the government assault on illicit drugs has proved to be a costly failure. We have all been paying the price in misdirected resources, social tension, violent ...crime, ill health, compromised civil liberties, and international conflict.
The war on drugs is, in effect if not in intention, a war on drug users. The federal budget for the control of illicit drugs has increased more than eightfold since 1981, and more than two thirds of the total is devoted to the enforcement of increasingly harsh criminal laws
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. These laws needlessly make criminals of at least . . .
To the Editor:
Evidence of the therapeutic value and limited toxicity of marijuana in the treatment of various symptoms and syndromes is rapidly accumulating. Patients with glaucoma, migraine, ...epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, quadriplegia, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy for cancer have risked severe penalties to acquire cannabis, because they find it more useful than legally available medicines.
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The U.S. government has consistently refused to permit prescription sales of marijuana, insisting that the evidence of its safety and efficacy is inadequate.
In response to a lawsuit brought by advocates of the medical use of . . .
Many preindustrial cultures traditionally use certain psychedelic plants to enhance a procedure that resembles psychotherapy--an idea that was also tested in Western psychiatry in the 1950s and ...1960s. LSD and related drugs were used to facilitate the production of memories, fantasies and insights and to enhance the therapeutic alliance. The results were inconclusive, and research was largely abandoned after the drugs became difficult to obtain. It may now be possible to revive this research, using new drugs that do not have some of the disadvantages of the old ones. The drug now of most interest is MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) a relatively mild and short-acting substance that is said to give a heightened capacity for introspection and intimacy without the perceptual changes, emotional unpredictability, and occasional adverse reactions associated with LSD. Therapists who have used the drug claim that it can enhance the therapeutic alliance by inviting self-disclosure and promoting trust. Whether MDMA fulfills this promise or not, other drugs may eventually prove useful in psychotherapy. Research on their potential should not be curtailed because of fear that they will be subject to illicit abuse.
The War on Drugs Chilcoat, H D
The New England journal of medicine,
07/1994, Letnik:
331, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
To the Editor:
Kleber (Feb. 3 issue)
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refers to an explosion of use by young people of “crack” cocaine in the 1980s and implies that it was due to a dramatic drop in price and to increased ...availability. Clearly, any use of crack among younger people is reason for grave concern. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to find epidemiologic evidence that the use of crack “exploded” among the young after its price dropped and its availability increased. Fortunately, the prevalence of crack use has remained low among children and adolescents, relative to that of other drugs. According to the National . . .
Arguments for a Harmfulness Tax Grinspoon, Lester; Bakalar, James B
Journal of drug issues,
10/1990, Letnik:
20, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A "harmfulness tax" is proposed as an alternative to the current unsuccessful drug prohibition policy. Both legal and presently illegal drugs would be taxed in proportion to the social cost ...associated with their use.
The authors present case histories indicating that a number of patients find cannabis (marihuana) useful in the treatment of their bipolar disorder. Some used it to treat mania, depression, or both. ...They stated that it was more effective than conventional drugs, or helped relieve the side effects of those drugs. One woman found that cannabis curbed her manic rages; she and her husband have worked to make it legally available as a medicine. Others described the use of cannabis as a supplement to lithium (allowing reduced consumption) or for relief of lithium's side effects. Another case illustrates the fact that medical cannabis users are in danger of arrest, especially when children are encouraged to inform on parents by some drug prevention programs. An analogy is drawn between the status of cannabis today and that of lithium in the early 1950s, when its effect on mania had been discovered but there were no controlled studies. In the case of cannabis, the law has made such studies almost impossible, and the only available evidence is anecdotal. The potential for cannabis as a treatment for bipolar disorder unfortunately can not be fully explored in the present social circumstances.
Marijuana Addiction Grinspoon, Lester; Bakalar, James B.; Zimmer, Lynn ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/1997, Letnik:
277, Številka:
5327
Journal Article
