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| Ex-Drug Czar Touts Drugs To Aid Addicts |
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Posted by FoM on July 26, 2001 at 07:54:55 PT By Josh Indar, Staff Writer Source: Daily Review 
The war against drugs is fought from the jungles of Colombia to the streets of the inner city. Now, one drug warrior wants to redraw the battle lines, using doctors and nurses as front-line troops. Former White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey (ret.) announced this week that he has joined the board of directors of a Hayward pharmaceutical company that focuses exclusively on developing drugs to treat addicts. McCaffrey said his membership on the board of DrugAbuse Sciences Inc., a privately held company that recently moved to Hayward, will allow him to continue to work on new solutions to the country's drug problem. "I do have a tremendous sense of pride in joining DrugAbuse Sciences," McCaffrey said. "I obviously looked at them very closely because I want to continue to support an emphasis on rational, science-based approaches to treating addiction." McCaffrey was appointed to the White House's National Office of Drug Control Policy by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996. He resigned the post in January, but said he still has an interest in finding solutions to what he referred to as "the single most pressing health problem" in America. "When you pick up any American problem, at the heart and soul of it, or at least a major factor in it, is going to be abuse of drugs and alcohol," he said. DrugAbuse Sciences CEO Elizabeth Greetham said McCaffrey's membership on the board will raise the profile of the company and give it a louder voice in federal regulation and funding issues. But more importantly, she said, McCaffrey's presence gives credence to the idea that addiction is a disease that can be cured through medical treatment. "To have someone with his knowledge, his stature -- it's a huge endorsement, just to let people know there's a need for a company like ours that offers treatment for addicts," Greetham said. The company has one drug on the market and several others in various stages of development. Its initial product, a drug called Zeeblok (naltrexone hydrochloride tablets), blocks receptors in the brain that trigger the release of the chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a naturally occurring brain chemical that causes the euphoric feelings associated with both alcohol and heroin use. By blocking the receptors that trigger a dopamine release, the drug makes it impossible for users to get high from heroin or alcohol. Greetham said a double-blind study of the drug showed a 60 percent reduction in relapse rates among the subjects who took it. The company is now working on a different version of the drug that recovering addicts will have to take only once a month, instead of the daily tablet dosage that Zeeblok requires. Also in development are "antidote" drugs that neutralize the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as experimental drugs that work in the frontal cortex of the brain, which stores what neurologists call "working memory." If this memory can be recoded, Greetham said, chronic users might begin to place less importance on the feeling of being high. Drugs that dilute or block the effect of other drugs have been in use for at least 30 years. Methadone, for instance, has been used since the early 1970s to suppress addicts' cravings for heroin. Studies show that the drug works, but is really effective only when used in a structured program that includes counseling, peer support and life management-type services. Judith Cohen, Ph.D., director of Hayward's East Bay Recovery Project, said some forms of naltrexone have been on the market for quite a while, but they have gained limited success due to their side effects. "It has nasty interactions with other drugs," she said, describing a bad reaction as being "like a heroin withdrawal, only worse. "No addict in their right mind wants that kind of stuff. It's very unpopular," she said. But McCaffrey said advances in pharmaceuticals used to treat addicts could one day provide the missing piece of the drug war puzzle, a problem the United States now spends about $20 billion a year trying to solve. "I don't think this is a treatment problem or a law enforcement problem or an education problem," he said. "In my view, it's always simplistic to say either one is the sole problem." McCaffrey said legal solutions are slow to materialize because there is a stigma attached to drug abuse issues that prevents a rational debate among legislators. But he, Greetham and other experts agreed that a change in tactics, and in attitudes, toward the nation's drug war is probably inevitable. "I think the whole climate is changing," Greetham said, citing a proliferation of news articles on biological treatments of addiction, as well as the success of the movie "Traffic," which documents different aspects of the drug trade. "It's important to get this across," she said, "that addiction is a closet disease that can be treated." Josh Indar covers local hospitals, religion and community life. To reach him send e-mail to: jindar@angnewspapers.com Source: Daily Review, The (CA) Related Article: What Has Barry McCaffrey Been Smoking? CannabisNews Articles - Barry McCaffrey Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #16 posted by dddd on July 27, 2001 at 05:52:00 PT |
| Lookinside,Mayan,Rambler,,,,,After spending some time decoding your messages,,,I am with you!.... #@#@***&?+/}]}2*^!\|\|>,<.?//*
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| Comment #15 posted by Rambler on July 27, 2001 at 05:32:23 PT |
| /><*&^%@#?{+(*&$#>"?+$$#@# *&%&$#$#$#@#$%$?><>*^^^%#$#$
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| Comment #14 posted by mayan on July 27, 2001 at 04:45:50 PT |
| #&%$!&*&%$#$@!!! @$%#&*%!$@&*&#$%&%*#@!!! [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #13 posted by lookinside on July 26, 2001 at 21:49:28 PT:
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| the words that come to mind after reading this article would get me banned from cannabisnews... Mr. barry is a war criminal...if justice is done he will die on a table with tubes in his arm...he is responsible for many deaths...unjust deaths caused by the WoD...he is a murderer... history will group him with other scumbags like hitler and stalin... it took alot to write that without using much more colorful phrases...the depths of my hate for this man know no bounds... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by digi on July 26, 2001 at 15:55:39 PT |
| Thats all I have to say for now. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by digi on July 26, 2001 at 15:52:58 PT |
| Here this guy is trying to tell everyone in the USA that drugs are bad, and he is trying to push man made drugs that pharm companies make huge profits on to cure another drug addiction! LOL Man, when I read the topic I thought he was actually helping. He is doing this to laugh in the face of illegal drugs and users. This guy should be under the micro scope 24 - 7. He may be able to block euphoric people, but that does not mean shit to some guy shooting up herion more and more and not getting high until he od's. I cant believe people are backing this guy. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by Mitchum Rathbone on July 26, 2001 at 13:09:47 PT |
| so let me get this right.....dr mengele (the pharmaceutical company) has hired dr nick (from the simpsons)....to give them a credible platform to unleash its "anti-mind" campaign?......what can we do other than watch in horror as the "just say no " kids become the "just say yes....(and keep your mouth shut) kids?.......well.....what can we do about it (other than just pointing out the obvious).... Mitchum [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by Firedog on July 26, 2001 at 12:33:24 PT |
| A good percentage of American kids are already forced to take Ritalin to keep them quiet and obedient in overcrowded classrooms of 30 students or more. Ritalin makes them less likely to question authority or think creatively, but who knows what the long-term effects of dosing kids with stimulants will be. If these "anti-high" drugs become available, and if they work as advertised, how long will it be before they are force-fed to kids in the public schools, especially kids deemed "at risk" for "drug abuse"? Of course, the new drugs might cancel out the Ritalin... - Firedog [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by E. Johnson on July 26, 2001 at 09:36:22 PT |
| People should study the European witch hunts, there were scummy bastards like McCaffrey pandering to public paranoia and trying to make a living off of the backs of the accused back then too. Crafting the instruments used to torture accused witches into a confession was a respectable family business back then. We are not that different today. We have not come so very far as we imagine from those horrible days. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by E. Johnson on July 26, 2001 at 09:33:44 PT |
| Barry McCaffrey, hands down. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by Kickaha on July 26, 2001 at 08:59:00 PT |
| " If this memory can be recoded, Greetham said, chronic users might begin to place less importance on the feeling of being high." And then we can start recoding other negative traits, so people will begin to place less importance on fair wages, questioning authority, racial equality, the list is endless. The authoritarian cornucopia runneth over... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 26, 2001 at 08:42:03 PT |
| That picture is in Cannabis News program. I didn't use it much when he was Drug Czar because people asked me not to because it made them feel sick so I didn't, but one more time for old time sake I thought! LOL! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by dddd on July 26, 2001 at 08:32:15 PT |
| ..Are you the one who adds that wonderful wallet sized photo of the McCaffster,,or does that come with the article?........I think it is wonderfully repugnant..............dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by dddd on July 26, 2001 at 08:26:26 PT |
| ...I can see it now.......now that "treatment" is the new trend, people who have to go into these "treatment" programs,will be encouraged,or required to take these lobotomy pills as part of the "treatment"...... They will be "treated" with drugs that are far more ghastly,and
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on July 26, 2001 at 08:16:17 PT:
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| Pardon me while I unclench my jaw; seeing that face makes me nauseous, and I have to control my natural inclination to vomit at the sight of something so God-awful-looking. Remember the old bit about the Federal 'revolving door'? You know: a supposed civil servant, working a for a regulatory agency in charge of riding herd on an industry, after establishing 'good relations' (free translation: accepting bribes to be less of a watchdog) with a company, leaves his regulatory position to take one with said company...and taking his good 'ol boy contacts with him. Sometimes, this corporate brown noser wins an political appointment to the head of the regulatory body (through judiciuos 'campaign contributions') but brings his corporate henchmen with him, to set up corpoarte business inside the regulatory body, in essence, nullifying it's true purpose. This is what's happened at the FDA, The Energy Department, and so on. So now McC, just like former DrugCzar Robert DuPont before him with his drug testing schemes, is cashing in on his prior 'leadership experience' (IMHO, McC couldn't lead people with Crohn's Disease to the s**thouse) in 'fighting drugs (on his watch, the hard dope became cheaper, purer, and more plentiful; hows that for success in fighting drugs?) by lending his 'good name' (my gorge is rising again) to a company that he once supposedly 'worked with'. Not all the whores are on the street corners; some wear three piece suits.
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Comment #1 posted by Lexx on July 26, 2001 at 08:11:41 PT:
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| Looks like he is just transferring from one pharmaceutical company (USA government pharmaceuticals) to another. What a bunch of B.S. now it is about profits for his new company. [ Post Comment ] |
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