The continuing issues with medical marijuana appears to be increasing the public’s frustration with government of the people, but not by or for the people – whether the executive or legislative. A recent NY Times editorial was scathing in its criticism of the current administrations continuous reversals in regards to marijuana, and other drugs such as religious use of ayahuasca. We also consider the idea that the real gateway drug is tobacco and look again at the hip hop drug Purple Drank, a mixture of strong cough syrups of codeine and promethazine with soft drinks.
Transcript (edited):
HOWARD: Welcome to the CNS Podcast featuring Dr. Darryl Inaba, research director for CNS Productions, I am Howard La Mere. There are a variety of things in the news this week including a story, following up on what we talked about the last couple of weeks about the ongoing controversy over medical marijuana and the pursuit of people growing it. There was an editorial in the New York Times this last week, restating what we have talked about in terms of going back and forth between the federal government and the state government – who is responsible for prosecuting these people that are growing, legally, marijuana medical marijuana with conflicting points of view from the federal government and the state government saying people are doing it in violation of the terms of the laws. Darryl, whats on your list?
DARRYL: Well, I guess we can start with that. It is something weve talked about, but it seems to be growing and especially here in Oregon weve seen just an outrage from growers and medical marijuana advocates and people protesting this recent rash of both local, state and federal crackdowns on the growing of marijuana. There are also issues surrounding providing it dispensaries that are providing it and crackdowns on those places as well. The reefer madness article today in the New York Times gave a scathing attack on the Obama administration saying its done an about face with marijuana, originally pledging to leave medical marijuana alone, and to refrain from interfering with states who approved use for medical purposes – and all of a sudden are supportive and actually urging crackdowns on growers and the dispensaries that are selling medical marijuana. And I think there are half- truths here – Ive seen lower percentages, but the New York Times quotes a survey that 70% … or nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population are in support of legalizing marijuana or are at least in favor of making medical marijuana available. So this activity flies in the face of what the vast majority seems to want and seems to advocate for. On the other side of that is the medical community American Medical Association now of course supports medical marijuana from a medical basis, but marijuana on a legal basis is opposed strongly. And even medical marijuana is opposed strongly by the American Board of Addiction Medicine, ASAM as well as other addiction professional doctors.
HOWARD: Did you see that story that came out about the California part of that group being in support of legalizing it and the larger group saying no, were not going to support that?
DARRYL: Yes, well, what can we say? Marijuana has always been a controversial issue.
HOWARD: All the way back.
DARRYL: We continue to push it to the forefront and if the reports are correct, if 70% of the U.S. population favor medical marijuana and over 50% favor legalization, then were at a real crossroads of what is really going to happen with this. Who is going to prevail? Are the laws going to become more lax? The office of National Drug Control Policy, and drug abuse experts, point the other direction. They still think marijuana is one of the gateway drugs. Actually there was a report recently on the effects of nicotine and smoking cigarettes and what it does to different brain cells and biological systems and citing nicotine as the real gateway drug, you know, not just by social standards or by just being exposed on a pharmacological, toxicological basis, nicotine is a real gateway drug and I believe that. I really do. If you can smoke nicotine, youre more likely going to end up using other drugs. But the experts also feel that when attitudes about drugs and especially about marijuana shift towards those substances being less harmful when the attitude that marijuana is a less harmful drug, what happens is abuse of all drugs greatly increase. Not so much that its a gateway drug, but its intertwined with an attitude about drugs and drug usage.
HOWARD: Well, I think a lot of this has to do with people being sick of hypocrisy across the board. It is really interesting that the head of the state legislature in Arizona got tossed out – he was one of the prime creators of the anti-immigration law and I think people across the board are just getting tired of politics that does nothing and solves none of our problems – watching everything go around and around and around in circles.
DARRYL: Well, actually Im hoping that is what is happening. Its amazing to see Occupy Wall Street and how thats taken off and growing, unfortunately it is becoming a little bit more violent, more aggressive in even places like Portland, but it is refreshing because for so long there was no reaction to the great disparities and inequities and the oppression that people are feeling. Some people ask why are people so upset? During the depression people were starving, they didnt have enough to eat. Well right now, people – even the poorest are able to eat and live some place. But in reality, what it is if you look at the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, its the largest its ever been. Even during the time of the Great Depression, it wasnt this extreme – where a handful of people in the United States control 85% of the wealth – thats just not going to sustain itself. I mean, people are going to get upset. People with needs are going to say, whats going on? Why is there a monopoly, why are people able to control all this wealth? Its time for redistribution, I would like to see it happen. There is a lot of hypocrisy certainly about drugs as well and a lot of flip flopping. Another thing that was in the news recently is I think you found something in British Columbia where some people are giving up their use of ayahuasca – concerned about some of the effects. Im reminded that under the Bush Administration, an agreement was made with the DEA, the Attorney General, and a church in Ashland, Oregon allowing the use of daime tea, which is basically ayahuasca, as part of their ceremonies. I read in the paper a few weeks ago that the current attorney general under the Obama Administration says thats a no-go. They made a mistake. They were too liberal. They didnt consider the consequences and now the government is reneging and taking back the privilege of using ayahuasca . That kind of bouncing back and forth creates an inconsistency that for people on the right or left of the aisle, as you say, are going to get fed up with. What are we doing?
HOWARD: Right, right. Not solving problems is what were doing. So, people will look for other solutions and I think thats what were seeing in many respects. The next election should be interesting in that regard. There was another topic we wanted to talk about and thats the purple drank. An ongoing abuse of codeine and an antihistamine that has been a large part of the hip-hop culture for 20 years and it seems to be growing and it seems to be a larger cause for concern.
DARRYL: Thats really a surprise to me, Howard. I thought – flash in the pan – I thought ok – the hip-hop community found a new drug specific to their culture and then would disappear. But more and more reports indicate that there is a market out there for purple drank. They are other names for it, but people are grabbing the cough syrups promethazine or the phenergan with codeine the actual cough syrup, the suppressant, the opiate cough syrup are the most popular they are purple in color mixing it with Mountain Dew, or Seven Up or something like that and drinking it. It’s a “purple drank” and it alters states of consciousness. I find the appeal very unusual because the hip-hop culture to me is one more of movement, its more of soulful interactions with music and things like that. And you know, promethazine, which is an antihistamine mixed with codeine, is going to chill you out. Its going to make you sleepy. Its going to make you drowsy and I dont see that as being hip-hop, but Im not hip-hop so maybe I really dont know what turns them on and what makes them high.
HOWARD: Or maybe theyre already too jazzed up and they need to come down.
DARRYL: The crazy thing I ran across in a recent report, I forget where it was, but there was a grandma operation that was busted. 70 year old grandmas were buying it wholesale. I dont know how they can get Phenergan with codeine wholesale, because it is a prescription drug, it is a control III substance it contains 10 mg of codeine per 5 cc, which is a good amount of codeine per teaspoon of this cough syrup, Phenergan with codeine. They were able to buy it someplace wholesale for 9 to 10 dollars for several pints and then they shipped it to other parts of the country where they were getting like $600 for the same purchase.
HOWARD: Good markup!
DARRYL: So maybe thats what I didnt appreciate about purple drank, that it was generating enough of a profit that aint going to go away its here to stay.
HOWARD: Right and I read some stories about a number of professional athletes who have been arrested and involved in this. Not just for using, but for selling it.
DARRYL: Yes, I think we first mentioned purple drank a long time ago in one of the podcasts and at that time there was concern because professional athletes were actually dying. A couple of professional athletes died from purple drank overdose – it’s still going on – both the hip-hop and the athletes are involved with the use of this. Again, unless theyre taking it just to chill out or calm down from the intensity of the stress they experience in a sporting activity or from dancing all night, I guess hip-hopping to chill out, I can see it. But other than that, its a downer.
HOWARD: Well, I guess more research is necessary to find out what the exact psychoactive allure is. Thats another one of those things we can chalk up to the ongoing prescription drug use and abuse, which we have talked about as being perhaps the largest problem we’re facing. Anything else you want to talk about?
DARRYL: Well, just interesting its not really big news .its one of those duh type of things, but theres a study being done now on the use of suboxone for the treatment of prescription pain killer abuse. And suboxone has become one of the most common, effective, and most sought after forms of treating opiate addiction, heroin addiction, because it has a good safety margin – better than methadone and other drugs that are used to treat opiate addiction. Vicodin, Oxycontin, and codeine for that matter, all of these prescription drugs are basically opiates and do the same thing as heroin, so in the treatment field, weve been using it to treat patients who were abusing Oxycontin or Vicodin. Even patients treated for Kratom, the herbal Kratom is a substance out of Indonesia, which produced opiate like effects and opiate-like addiction – suboxone is effective. Recently there has been a study funded and researchers were actually able to do some empirical work and really study this – the results indicate suboxone is really effective for treating abuse of prescription opiates as well as it was for heroin and other opiate drugs of addiction. So, this is duh, you know, but its important that research validates the practice so it can be used in treatment of various types of opiate addiction.
HOWARD: Okay, well, thats a brief look at the news and some of the stories of interest. Thanks for your interest and we welcome your comments, or your questions or your suggestions. Drop us an email: info@cnsproductions.com and please check back soon for the next in the series.