SANTA ROSA - Amid the euphoria of this weekend's famed Emerald Cup weed fest, there was this creeping buzzkill: the glacial rollout of legalization. Right when it seems like "The Great Pot Moment" is upon us, it turns out there are a lot of really tough regulatory issues to resolve first, according to government and industry experts who sketched out all the thorny challenges at the two-day conference, competition and harvest celebration at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. And implementation of commercialization could be delayed a year until 2019, said insiders. [continues 102 words]
Amid celebration at Emerald Cup fest, there is angst about regulatory future SANTA ROSA - Amid the euphoria of this weekend's famed Emerald Cup weed fest, there was this creeping buzzkill: the glacial rollout of legalization. Right when it seems like "The Great Pot Moment" is upon us, it turns out there are a lot of really tough regulatory issues to resolve first, according to government and industry experts who sketched out all the thorny challenges at the two-day conference, competition and harvest celebration at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. And implementation of commercialization could be delayed a year until 2019, said insiders. [continues 937 words]
Labs Can Tell You What's In Your Pot, From THC to Contaminants Cannabis used to be what moonshine is to alcohol, its content as murky as a cloud of smoke lingering over a Phish concert. Now a cadre of Bay Area laboratories can tell you exactly what you're getting for your money - creating reliability, safety and standardization in a business that long relied on the casual assurances of a skanky friend from Stonerville. Gone are the days of being ripped off with a nickel bag of dusty oregano. Or eating a cookie that delivers manic euphoria, when all you wanted was to ease a little nausea. [continues 1244 words]
The student government of the University of California-Berkeley will offer scholarships to students who have lost federal financial aid because of a drug conviction. Although similar aid has been offered by a handful of private colleges, this is the first time that students at a public university have taken a stand against Question 31 on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which asks, "Have you ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs?" The scholarship - a one-time payment of $400 to an affected student - was conceived by student senator David Israel Wasserman. The vote of support took place last month. [continues 132 words]
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Mother Nature created a way to "tune in, turn on" long before pot smokers rolled their first joint, Stanford scientists have found. Eavesdropping on conversations between brain cells, researchers learned neurons make their own marijuanalike chemicals called cannabinoids, which indirectly alter the way that information is received and filtered. When the chemicals are released, "neurons have a harder time deciding which are the relevant things to pay attention to," said investigator John R. Huguenard, associate professor of neurology and neurologic sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. [continues 277 words]
How Brain Produces A 'High' Mother Nature created a way to ``tune in, turn on'' long before pot-smokers rolled their first joint, Stanford scientists have found. Eavesdropping on the conversations between brain cells, the research team found that neurons make their own marijuana-like chemicals called cannabinoids, which indirectly alter the way information is received and filtered. When the chemicals are released, ``neurons have a harder time deciding which are the relevant things to pay attention to,'' said investigator John R. Huguenard, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. [continues 535 words]
Possible Health Costs Haven't Deterred Use When big-name baseball players such as Ken Caminiti turn to performance-enhancing drugs to try to hit farther and move to the top of their game, they are also unwittingly signing up for a massive -- and potentially dangerous -- experiment. Steroids and other drugs that might boost athletic ability may be prevalent in sports, but they are also, in many ways, a medical unknown, doctors and researchers say. There have been few studies that determine what extra strength the drugs may confer, or what long-term damage may arise. [continues 1573 words]
It's another sleepless night at Stanford University. But unlike the legions of students dozing over textbooks, volunteers at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Lab have pharmaceutical help: a controversial new drug called Provigil. The medication, whose name is an abbreviation of the words "promotes vigilance,'' keeps the mind fully awake and attentive without the euphoric "buzz'' or jittery nerves of amphetamines and caffeine. It could prevent deadly mistakes by sleep-deprived truck drivers, doctors and other nighttime workers -- but also poses the risk of misuse in a culture fueled by a 24/7 ethos. [continues 1526 words]
The body produces its own marijuana-like chemical that may play a role in the creation of memories, according to a new research findings by UC-San Francisco scientists. The study, reported in today's issue of the journal Nature, suggests that the molecule, known as a cannabinoid, may regulate the flow of messages along the pathway in the brain used to build a memory. Although researchers determined nearly a decade ago that the brain contains a molecule that mimics the active ingredient in marijuana, its location and role in the brain has remained a puzzle. [continues 313 words]
Medical Journal Calls Practice Disturbing Growing numbers of preschoolers as young as age 2 are being treated with Ritalin and other behavior-altering drugs, new research shows. The practice is disturbing and has the possibility of damaging youngsters' developing brains, according to the authors of the report and an accompanying editorial published in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings that 1 to 1.5 percent of children in the study between ages 2 and 4 were receiving stimulants, antidepressants or antipsychotic medications shocked some Bay Area pediatricians and day care providers. Hyperactive toddlers, they suggested, might be better served by a rousing game of ring-around-the-rosy. [continues 903 words]
Health chief:Parents should talk to kids about drugs, drinking and sex. Even in affluent and educated Santa Clara County, a worrisome number of youngsters are experimenting with smoking, drinking and sex -- and have contemplated suicide -- according to the first comprehensive survey of teens by the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health. ``It is alarming, because these behaviors are all preventable,'' said Dr. Martin D. Fenstersheib, the county's health officer. ``They are things that kids are choosing to do: high-risk behaviors that lead to injury and illness.'' [continues 864 words]
With Public On Their Side, Health Workers Hope Davis OKs Bill If legislation now awaiting Gov. Gray Davis' signature becomes law, the veil of secrecy that surrounds Santa Clara County's illegal needle exchange program would be lifted. The issue has been a sticky one in California. Earlier efforts to legalize needle exchanges to thwart the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among intravenous drug users were vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson. And a spokesman for Davis said the governor also has serious reservations. [continues 1077 words]
The medicinal marijuana debate Throughout the nation's contentious debate over marijuana policy, a collective of patients at a tiny farm in northern Santa Cruz County have been quietly growing pounds of the drug for use by the sick and dying. Working cooperatively with law enforcement authorities, patients share chores of planting, weeding, watering and harvesting -- helping the plants thrive, even as they themselves wither and die. The federal findings released Wednesday simply confirm what these patients say they have believed for years: Marijuana has therapeutic benefit. [continues 715 words]
FDA: Improve Safety Testing WASHINGTON - The government Friday issued new rules that require drug companies to conduct much wider testing of drugs in children, so the companies can write labels that provide detailed information to doctors and parents about the proper use of medications by children. The final rules, issued by the Food and Drug Administration, were a top priority for President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton but met with strenuous objections from many drug companies, which said they were impractical and burdensome. [continues 724 words]
Legal hormone used by Cardinals' basher has unproven value, possible risks, experts warn Amateur athletes and bodybuilders are responding to the disclosure that St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire uses androstenedione by boosting sales at health food stores -- when they can find it. ``We've been selling a lot. We can't keep it on the shelves,'' said Jamie Laubacher of Great Earth Vitamin Store at the Oakridge Mall in San Jose. ``I sold 20 boxes in two days -- and would have sold more, if I had it.'' [continues 1080 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Three times a day, a neatly machine-rolled marijuana cigarette is delivered from a locked cabinet at San Francisco General Hospital to Patient No. 9. He closes the door to his small white room and lights a match. A nurse watches through a window. Following strict research protocol, he inhales for five seconds, holds for 10, then releases. He waits 45 seconds. The exercise is repeated 10 times. Patient No. 9, a 34-year-old former Navy man with HIV, is a volunteer in a new, $1 million, two-year research experiment that hopes to help resolve a long-running debate in federal drug policy: Does marijuana, the country's most widely used illegal drug, have medicinal value? [continues 1294 words]
Three times a day, a neatly machine-rolled marijuana joint is delivered from a locked cabinet at San Francisco General Hospital to Patient No. 9. He closes the door to his small white room, stuffs a towel under the door and lights a match. A nurse watches through a window. Following strict research protocol, he inhales for five seconds, holds for 10, then releases. He waits 45 seconds. The exercise is repeated 10 times. Patient No. 9, a 34-year-old former Navy man with HIV, is a volunteer in a new $1 million, two-year research experiment that hopes to help resolve a long-running and emotional debate in federal drug policy: Does marijuana, the country's most widely used illegal drug, have medicinal value? [continues 1384 words]
Metabolism: Finding Could Help Smokers Quit; If Medicines Can Inhibit The Breakdown Of Nicotine, Perhaps They Can Treat The Addiction. Scientists have found that some people carry a genetic Lucky Strike: a mutation that makes them feel lousy when they try their first cigarette -- and less likely to become addicted to nicotine. The mutation, estimated to be carried by one-fifth of the non-smoking population, impairs the ability to metabolize nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco products, said researcher Dr. Edward Sellers of the University of Toronto. [continues 711 words]
Why some imbibing insects can't handle their booze. Soused fruit flies in a lab at UC-San Francisco may have solved the mystery of how your college roommate could drink everyone else under the table. A newly isolated gene, aptly named ``cheapdate,'' explains why some inebriated fruit flies can still fly gracefully -- while their brethren stagger, fall and pass out in a drunken stupor, according to a report in today's issue of the journal Cell. While the finding cannot yet be applied to humans, it adds to the growing body of research that contends that some alcoholics are born, not made. In nature's genetic shuffling, it appears, the nation's estimated 18 million problem drinkers have been dealt a bad hand, inheriting genes that set the stage for alcoholism. [continues 804 words]
THIS WEEK, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other top Republicans blasted President Clinton for endorsing needle exchange programs to prevent AIDS among drug users, even though Clinton will not allow federal funds for such programs. "What's a little heroin or cocaine among friends?" Gingrich said sarcastically at a news conference in which he lambasted Clinton on drugs and teen smoking, Reuters news service reported. "There's no such thing as a healthy heroin addict." "I am personally appalled," said Tom Delay of Texas, the third-ranking Republican in the House, saying that Clinton was talking about teen smoking but basically "throwing in the towel" in fighting drug abuse. [continues 959 words]
