Hope for Treating Meth Addiction
November 24th, 2008 by Perry
An experiment, conducted by the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently showed significant promise in treating methamphetamine addiction.
The treatment is a new drug called, vigabatrin (a.k.a. gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG), which has shown effectiveness in blocking drug-seeking behavior in lab animals.
Stephen Dewey, a Brookhaven neuroanatomist who led the research team, said:
Reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior after an extended period of abstinence is the number-one cause of drug-addiction relapse.
There is currently no effective treatment for methamphetamine addiction, and vigabatrin may be the only known drug which has shown efficacy in stopping addictive behavior for amphetamines. Said tests were conducted on rats, and are currently being tested by Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners for use against cocaine and methamphetamine addiction in humans in Phase II clinical trials.
Mexico Gets All British on Enforcement Policies
October 6th, 2008 by Perry
President Felipe Calderon has decided to follow the strategies of a European counterpart in guiding Mexico’s new approach to combatting narcotics.
Calderon called drugs the “slavery of the century,” in what has to be a cute, creative and misguided use of scare tactics - I don’t remember slaves ever getting a choice.
But I digress, Mexico’s addiction and violence rates are through the roof. Since the 1990s, the demand for narcotics (not just the friendly green kind) has been staggering. In just 6 years, the number of drug addicts has doubled to 307,000 since 2002. Not good.
This effort is in response to the recent growth of violence all over Mexico as the world’s biggest drug market. Traffickers battle with Calderon’s administration, which has attempted repeatedly to clean up the country’s drug trade and resulting corruption, and Calderon isn’t necessarily winning.
Let’s hope this new approach is able to get the truly dangerous substances off the streets while keeping marijuana users out of harms way.
An Unbiased Take on Marijuana Addiction
September 22nd, 2008 by Perry
Assholes and scientists have long debated the tenets of marijuana addiction. With assholes representing the U.S. Government, who desperately rely on typical Bible Belt-based scare tactics. And the scientists who rely on actual science, conducting actual experiments, in actual laboratories.
Not surprisingly, the assholes have failed miserably thus far. Guys in the government can thank the cult-classic, propaganda gem “Reefer Madness” for the additional support.
Right here we have a decent argument from neither an asshole nor a scientist.
