http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.press.release.page&obj_id=126615

People caught by police with up to 500 cannabis joints on them are likely to escape drug dealing charges under new Home Office proposals. A joint being passed on 4oz of cannabis is enough to roll about 512 'joints'

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, revealed the plans to set a "threshold" for the amount of drugs an individual can claim is their own personal "stash".

Setting a formal limit will affect how many people can be prosecuted as drug dealers and how many escape with lesser charges.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/30/udrugs.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/11/30/ixportaltop.html

Rev Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Enough for any anti to immediately become a Believer.

"These findings suggest...No, ONDCP suggests you SUGGEST for propaganda purposes, these (suggested) findings.

Most of the "heavy" users, (and I doubt there are really that many teeny boppers who can afford to be a "heavy" cannabis user), smoke cigarettes, too. Could the neurotoxins be from the tobacco smoke? Just curious. And were the non-cannabis smokers "tobacco" free? I wonder. Because I don't think cannabis itself is toxic, but actually protects the neurotransmitters.

From FoM's article:...It is also important to mention that at this time, DTI and MRI are not diagnostic means for schizophrenia patients or marijuana smokers.

I got a problem with this. Would it also be important to mention, at this time, that you have proved nothing, except yourselves to be the "Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York" who bends from pressure from DEA, ONDCP, etc., etc., to keep spewing propaganda about Cannabis? They are saying: "We want you to believe this though we know we can't prove it. But we will suggest it so we can keep the lid on Cannabis Liberalization. Those damn Hippies make our job of telling believable lies harder and harder.

Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!

There may be an underlying brain difference or disorder that makes certain subgroups more likely to be daily users, perhaps as a form of self-medication. Additionally, most heavy users of cannabis also use other drugs, especially alchohol. Did the study try to eliminate these confounders?

The big question is how much would heavy alcohol use affect adolescent development. My guess is by a much greater and permanent degree.

And what is the point of citing the numbers of Americans 12 and older who use marijuana daily? 12 to 16 might be relevant, but including adults betrays a cynical attempt to pump the numbers for the relevance of this study.

what have these unjust laws created in our brains. how are we damaged by just waiting for the hammer to fall/

Post traumatic stress and dissociation are associated with damage to the brain especially to the brains of young people.

So how did they know for sure that this is not just another episode of confusing causation with correlation?

I know that most people in science come from sheletered upper middle class backgrounds and don't really understand that a vast percentage of young people in this country are in effect "walking wounded" from the damages of things like domestic violence and or sexual exploitation.

I was the walking wounded as an adolescent. I was so post traumatic I could not sleep at night, only in the daytime. And I was so dissociative it was hard to have a conversation with me because I'd blank out in the middle and lose my whole sense of self completely and just stare off into space.

It sure wasn't pot that did that -- I was that way before I ever tried pot, and I used pot to relieve my disociation -- but I can well imagine, especially given the sheltered, pampered backgrounds of many people in science-- that a scientist working for the government might have argued that marijuana did this to me.

The missing link in the study of adolescent marijuana use is PTSD. PTSD and dissociation. I'll bet that teens who are the heavist users are ones whose brains were fried at home by violent or sexually abusive adults living in their home under the name "family".

This subject is never going to be understood properly unless drug researchers are willing to recognize that about a quarter of the young people in this country have been ireperably damaged by their home life, and account for this fact when they do their research.

But it's very politically dangerous to admit that a large fraction of American parents are toxic to their own children.

Since it's the parents and not their victims who vote.

Even if this study where absolutely true, it would not justify the punishment the government has put on people for using cannabis.

I think a study should be done to find out why some politicians have such cruel minds and some don't because cruelty is not normal human activity.

This study would need to be done with more subjects and a "before and after" use of cannabis before I would give it merit.

Furthermore, I think I'm seeing another pattern being developed here. The pharms are working on real cannabis is "bad bad bad" while synthetic compounds copying certain cannabinoids are "good good good".

Such bullsh*t.

Imaging Shows Similarities in Brains of Marijuana Smokers, Schizophrenics

Wednesday November 30, 2005

CHICAGO, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Heavy use of marijuana may put adolescents who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia at greater risk of developing the brain disorder, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Using a sophisticated brain imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), researchers at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, studied the brains of groups of adolescents: healthy, non-drug users; heavy marijuana smokers (daily use for at least one year); and schizophrenic patients. Unlike magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides a static picture of brain structures, DTI detects and measures the motion of water molecules in the brain, which can reveal microscopic abnormalities.

Manzar Ashtari, Ph.D., Sanjiv Kumra, M.D., and colleagues used DTI to examine the arcuate fasciculus, a bundle of fibers connecting the Broca's area in the left frontal lobe and the Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe of the brain. The investigators found that repeated exposure to marijuana was related to abnormalities in the development of this fiber pathway, which is associated with the higher aspects of language and auditory functions.

"Because this language/auditory pathway continues to develop during adolescence, it is most susceptible to the neurotoxins introduced into the body through marijuana use," explained Dr. Ashtari, associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

In the study, DTI was performed on 12 healthy, early adolescent males compared with 12 late adolescent males to show normal human brain development; 11 schizophrenic patients compared with 17 matched controls; 15 schizophrenic patients who smoke marijuana compared with 17 matched controls; and 15 marijuana smokers compared with 15 matched non-drug users. The scans revealed no abnormal developmental changes in the language pathway in the healthy adolescents, but showed abnormalities in both the marijuana users and schizophrenic patients.

"These findings suggest that in addition to interfering with normal brain development, heavy marijuana use in adolescents may also lead to an earlier onset of schizophrenia in individuals who are genetically predisposed to the disorder," said co-principal-investigator Sanjiv Kumra, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 3.1 million Americans age 12 and older use marijuana on a daily or almost daily basis. In 2004, 5.6 percent of 12th graders reported daily use of marijuana.

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder that affects about one percent of the entire population. Although the causes of the disease have not been determined, it is believed to result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors.

Drs. Ashtari and Kumra said longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these changes in the brain are permanent or change over time. It is also important to mention that at this time, DTI and MRI are not diagnostic means for schizophrenia patients or marijuana smokers.

Co-authors are Jinghui Wu, B.S., Kelly Cervellione, M.A., John Kane, M.D., Philip Szeszko, Ph.D., and Babak Ardekani, Ph.D.

RSNA is an association of more than 38,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to promoting excellence in radiology through education and by fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

AT A GLANCE

-- Researchers using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have found similar abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who are daily marijuana users and adolescents with schizophrenia.

-- The abnormalities were found in a part of the brain still developing during adolescence that is associated with the higher aspects of language and auditory functions.

-- The findings also suggest that heavy use of marijuana may lead to earlier onset of schizophrenia in adolescents who are genetically predisposed to the disorder.

Source: Radiological Society of North America