Cannabis “Withdrawal” Syndrome Short-Lived, Affects Few

Canadian ‘Pot Prince’ In Custody, Awaiting Extradition To U.S. – Emery To face Up To Five Years In Prison For Marijuana Seed Sales

Vancouver, British Columbia: Longtime Canadian cannabis activist and publisher Marc Emery was taken into custody this week to await extradition to the United States on charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. United States law enforcement officials indicted Emery in August of 2004 for selling marijuana seeds to US customers. Emery had been previously convicted by a Canadian court in 1998 for selling pot seeds and was sentenced to pay a $2,000 fine.

Upon issuing the indictment, former US DEA administrator Karen Tandy proclaimed that Emery’s arrest struck “a significant blow to the marijuana legalization movement. … Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.” Under a plea agreement, Emery faces up to five years in US prison. Under Canadian law, he would face no more than one month in jail (and probation), if convicted.

For nearly two decades, Emery operated a highly visible seed bank in Vancouver. Emery declared hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the Canadian government, and officials at Health Canada – which oversees the nation’s legal medicinal cannabis program – frequently advised patients to purchase his seeds. Virtually all profits from Emery’s business ventures were distributed among various national and international drug law reform organizations.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or visit: http://www.cannabisculture.com.

Pot Smokers Likely To Increase Their Use Of Alcohol During Abstinence, Study Says

New Haven, CT: Abstaining from marijuana is associated with an increased use of alcohol, according to clinical trial data to be published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Investigators from the Yale School of Medicine and the University of Vermont assessed the alcohol intake of 28 daily marijuana users who voluntarily abstained from pot for a period of eight days. “Seventeen of the 28 participants (61 percent) increased their alcohol use,” researchers reported.

In particular, investigators reported that daily marijuana users with a history of “past alcohol abuse or dependence” substituted alcohol to a much greater degree than those without such a diagnosis. Seven of the 28 participants in the study reported previous problems with alcohol dependence. Researchers reported that especially light drinkers were also likely to experience an uptick in alcohol consumption while abstaining from cannabis.

“Another subgroup of daily marijuana users that especially substituted alcohol was comprised of those who consumed alcohol at levels below the median number of drinks (per) day during the baseline period,” authors wrote. “This finding … suggests that marijuana users who are also moderate alcohol drinkers should be advised before initiating marijuana abstinence that although their alcohol use might not be problematic, they are still at high risk for increasing their alcohol use.”

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Daily marijuana users with past alcohol problems increase alcohol consumption during marijuana abstinence,” will appear in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Cannabis “Withdrawal” Syndrome Short-Lived, Affects Few, Study Says

Halle, Germany: Symptoms associated with so-called “cannabis withdrawal” among marijuana “dependent” subjects are relatively mild, short-lived, and “may only be expected in a subgroup of … patients,” according to the results of a prospective clinical study to be published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Investigators at four separate German universities assessed the self-reported withdrawal symptoms of 73 subjects diagnosed with “cannabis dependence.”

“The intensity of most self-reported symptoms peaked on day one and decreased subsequently,” authors reported. “Most symptoms ranged on average between low to moderate intensity. The most frequently mentioned physical symptoms of strong or very strong intensity on the first day were sleeping problems (21 percent), sweating (28 percent), hot flashes (21 percent), and decreased appetite (15 percent). … Other often highly rated psychological symptoms included restlessness (20 percent), nervousness (20 percent), and sadness (19 percent).” Overall, less than 50 percent of the trial subjects reported physical or psychological withdrawal symptoms. “Only a subgroup experienced a cannabis withdrawal syndrome of clinical significance despite the fact that all patients had a diagnosis of cannabis dependence according to DSM-IV criteria,” investigators concluded. “Significant associations of personality characteristics with psychological withdrawal symptoms suggest that at least some of the elevated symptoms are related to factors other than cannabis consumption.”

The trial is the first study to prospectively investigate cannabis withdrawal symptoms in an inpatient sample of cannabis dependent subjects. A 1999 review by the US National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine reported that marijuana’s withdrawal symptoms, when identified, are typically “mild and subtle” compared to the profound physical and psychological syndromes associated with most other intoxicants, including alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Cannabis withdrawal severity and short-term course among cannabis-dependent adolescent and young adult inpatients,” will appear in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

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