According to an article in USA today, the new product is called Sativex and has already been approved for use in Canada and in eight European countries for different types of use, such as relief for Multiple Sclerosis pain.

Getting the FDA approval would prove to be a big milestone toward the nation’s uneasy relationship with the drug. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have already allowed residents to legally use the drug with a doctor’s recommendation. However, the DEA believes it is a dangerous drug which can be addictive.

If there is future availability of the prescription drug that may lead to increased pressure on our federal government to reevaluate their position and encourage other pharmaceutical companies to follow GW Pharma’s lead. A pharmacology professor with Virginia Commonwealth University believes there is disconnect between public demands, state demands and what this market actually provides. Possession of marijuana is still illegal in the UK but nearly ten years ago, the founder of GW Pharma, Dr. Geoffrey Guy was allowed permission to develop and grow it for prescription drug use.

Recently a study was conducted that explored the impact of using marijuana and alcohol together (Harrington, Baird et al. 2012). The researchers sought to investigate whether specific clusters of individuals using the substances together existed and the spectrum of consequences that are associated with these behaviors.

To gather data, the researchers utilized information gathered during a randomized controlled trial related to brief intervention at an emergency room in a trauma department.

The researchers examined data from 427 participants who had agreed to sign up for a study focused on consequences of the use of alcohol and marijuana and had also indicated that they had used the substances within the past month. The researchers gathered information from the participants about their frequency of use for both substances during the past month.

Using a cluster analysis, the research team identified sub-groups of users of both marijuana and alcohol according to their frequency of use. There were also several additional inventories completed by the participants:

• Marijuana Problem Scale
• Alcohol Use Disorders Inventory Test
• Noteworthy Index of Problems
• Injury Behavior Scale
• High Risk Behavior Scale

The researchers used the separate measures to compute a single score for each individual enrolled in the study. Analysis of Variance and Tukey tests were used to compare the participants grouped in clusters and determine whether there were differences in behavioral and psychosocial factors.

The researchers’ analysis showed that there were four specific clusters of participants identified based on the frequency of marijuana and alcohol use.

The authors of the study note that there are limitations to the results of the study, such as the use of self-reported data can result in some bias. In addition, while the study measured frequency of use for the two substances, there was no inclusion of a measure to determine quantity of use.

The analysis of the clusters showed that for individuals who use alcohol daily, there were more alcohol-related problems when compared with those who used it weekly, despite the level of marijuana use. For marijuana, the pattern was not as apparent and there were more variations among the clusters of users.

The study’s findings may be very helpful for those who plan education and intervention for marijuana and alcohol users. Those who use both of the substances on a daily basis may require intervention because of the high number of consequences associated with the substances.

According to this Drugs.com report, there may be an alternative. Remoxy has been suggested by Pain Therapeutics Inc. as a safe alternative. The company claims Remoxy is more difficult to abuse, even among those with a history of abusing pain medications.

Remoxy was reported as less enjoyable than OxyContin by those with a history of prescription drug addiction and abuse. These individuals did not like the drug as quickly and claimed they could not chew the drug for any length of time due to its unpleasant texture and taste.

Research results such as these could help the company receive approval for Remoxy. Regulators request data proving that new drugs to treat chronic pain are less likely to be abused than OxyContin, made by Purdue Pharma LP.

A trial to test the effectiveness and abuse potential of Remoxy included 45 adults, each of whom had used opioid drugs at least five times in the past year to achieve a high. The study also focused on a comparison between Remoxy, OxyContin and a placebo. Reportedly, none of the participants were able to chew on the Remoxy tablet longer than 90 seconds.

The active ingredient in these painkillers is oxycodone, a substance one can access all at once by simple crushing or dissolving the pill. To make it harder to abuse OxyContin, Purdue Pharma has reformulated the drug, while competitors continue to seek approval for pain medications more resistant to abuse.

The public’s perception of substance abuse addicts is demeaning. Addicts are called names like "junkie", "stoner" or "drunk". Very seldom do you see someone with depression degraded with such a hated label.

Society’s acceptance of mental illnesses has come a long way and openly talking about PTSD or anxiety is now more commonplace. But those suffering from other mental illnesses, like prescription-drug addiction, are thrown to the side and accused of deciding their own fate. Mental health experts are now arguing that there is not difference.

The recent financial crisis is suggested to be at the root of the problem for addiction. However, the article doesn’t recognize that the misuse of prescription drugs can be directly linked to complete disregard of mental illness.

Troubles with depression and anxiety are easily explained to be triggered by adverse affects of a person’s environment, and addiction works in much of the same way. Many individuals began self-medicating which is how they are introduced to prescription painkillers. They use these pills in stressful situations, called maladaptive coping mechanism. This is where the person can become hooked and so goes the story of the drug addict.

The problem is so persistent in Ohio that a story in the New York Times recently pointed out how bad the prescription drug epidemic has hit suburbia. The writings of Sabrina Tavernise illustrate the staggering number of young people who have lost their lives to addiction.

Scioto County sees nearly one in ten babies born testing positive for drugs. Overdoses in the entire state have surpassed car accident death totals. Across the country, addiction of prescription drugs is taking more lives than crack cocaine did in the 1980s and heroin in the 1970s combined.

Alcohol triggers a variety of changes throughout the body that cause these aggravating symptoms of a hangover. The "day after" hangover is bad enough, but some people even experience hangover symptoms past 24 hours.

During alcohol fermentation, substances called congeners are produced to give liquors their taste and aroma. These congeners contribute to many hangover symptoms, including the pounding morning-after headache.

Alcohol causes the following reactions which lead to hangovers:

• Dehydration- Drinking alcohol dehydrates the body. Researchers at Virginia Tech report that alcohol can fool a body system by suppressing the thirst mechanism. An intoxicated person would produce more urine than normal, yet not feel thirsty which could lead to severe dehydration the following day.
• Blood Vessel Expansion- Alcohol causes blood vessels to expand, which leads to those horrible day-after headaches.
• Low Blood Sugar- Alcohol causes blood sugar levels to drop. The less food the person consumes, the more severely the blood sugar will fall. This also leads to hangover headaches.
• Acetaldehyde in the Liver- In order to break down alcohol in the body, the liver must produce a chemical called acetaldehyde. This chemical causes headaches and other hangover symptoms.
• Elevated Acidity- Alcohol causes the stomach to produce excess acid while it simultaneously slows the digestive process. The stomach reacts by vomiting, aching, or causing nausea.

In severe cases of consuming too much alcohol, a person can suffer from alcohol poisoning. If the person develops seizures, loses consciousness, suffers from hypothermia, and develops irregular breathing patterns emergency personnel should be called.

The only sure way to prevent a hangover is to not drink alcohol. Each person’s intake affects them differently. For some people, a few drinks is all it takes for them to awaken with hangover symptoms. The best way to try and avoid a hangover is to know your limits and drink alcohol at the safest limit for your own body.

Having at least a few glasses of water intermingled between alcoholic beverages will help slow or prevent dehydration later. Eating some light snacks will also help by keeping blood sugar up. Sleep helps heal the body; the more the body gets, usually the less severe the hangover. If these suggestions fail to deter a hangover, the UK National Health Service recommends the same methods of hydration, mild foods, and sleep to help alleviate hangover symptoms.

Researchers at the University of South Wales’ National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre hope that a cannabis mouth spray that is used to help multiple sclerosis (MS) patients could also help individuals recover from a marijuana addiction.

A Balancing Act in Sativex

Director of the study, Jan Copeland, says that the combination of ingredients in Sativex, the mouth spray, could likely help marijuana users break free from their abuse. The mouth spray contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)-two main cannabinoids from the cannabis plant that could help fight the intensity of a craving for marijuana.

CBD is referred to by Professor Copeland as the "good" cannabinoid, while THC is the cannabinoid associated with getting users stoned. The two balance each other. In Sativex, CBD can lower the effects of THC so that an individual’s receptor systems protect the body from getting stoned.

Using the cannabis mouth spray rather than using marijuana is safer for the body in two ways. The lungs stay healthier with the spray, and most of the better CBD has been removed from the cannabis that is smoked.

Sativex for MS Users

Sativex is legal in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain to help treat spasticity in individuals with multiple sclerosis. Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals developed the drug that was legalized for MS users in 2010.

In the United States, 16 states and the District of Columbia allow the growth and sale of medicinal marijuana. But those in the U.S. who suffer from MS do not have the choice to use Sativex yet. According to GW Pharmaceuticals, the FDA has not approved the use of Sativex in the United States.

According to Professor Copeland, side effects reported for Sativex include the following:

• Sleeplessness
• Anger
• Difficulty functioning

Neurology consultant and cannabinoid expert, John Zajicek, at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth states that the side effects can usually be managed by adjusting the dosage of Sativex for the need of the patient.

Sativex for Marijuana Users

Professor Copeland says that her research team at the university has been given permission to use Sativex with individuals in their study. In a controlled environment, the team plans to administer the mouth spray in low doses every six hours.

John Zajicek believes that using Sativex to treat patients with an addiction to marijuana is a "milestone" in cannabinoid research. He believes its addition to the field will yield future benefits in the world of recovery.

The researchers’ findings are shown in a recent journal review showing that in eight of nine studies done drivers were at twice the risk for vehicle crashes. These are significant findings since national debate is heating up over the issue of legalizing marijuana. A recent Gallup poll shows that half of adult Americans favor the legalization of marijuana and that number is up from just 36 percent in 2006.

Statistics show that marijuana was the most commonly found substance those drivers in vehicle accidents tested positive for when testing for non-alcoholic drugs. Analysis showed that of the 28 percent killed in vehicular accidents, over 11 percent of the general population of drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol and marijuana was most common.

Professor Guohua Li at Columbia University says that if these facts are further confirmed by more research, this will have major impact on driving safety and the public policy that surrounds it. Furthermore, it would play a key role when it comes to policy making and the use of medical marijuana, says Li.

This is quite a large problem and if more states like California allow the medical use of marijuana, it could grow even bigger. In 2009 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that over 10 million people ages 12 and up have driven while under the influence of illegal drugs.

A recent study launched by the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy is considered the first organization to effectively demonstrate the link between function and structure in the healthy brain. For those who have developed an addiction to cocaine, the structure and function are both impaired.

According to co-lead author on the study, Muhammad Parvaz, this research for the first time documents the importance of the brain’s structural integrity in terms of reward processing. This processing takes place in the prefrontal cortex and the gray matter contributes to executive function of a higher order, such as decision-making and self-control.

Parvaz noted that while studies have been done in the past at Brookhaven and other locations, the research conducted focused on exploring the prefrontal cortex to understand structural integrity when drug addiction is present, as well as the functional components involved with reward processing. Such studies, however, were always conducted separately. The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not the specific reward processing function could be mapped onto the underlying structure of the brain and study the relationship between the two.

To explore the relationship, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was conducted through brain scans in both healthy individuals and cocaine users. The scan collected structural measurements on the brain on a whole to analyze voxel-by-voxel for detailed measurements within specific regions of the brain.

For healthy individuals, scientists found an increasingly powerful relationship between increasing reward and the volume of gray matter within the prefrontal cortex. Individuals with a cocaine addiction did not fare as well. The amount of gray matter measured in these individuals was reduced and no differences could be detected between reward conditions when measuring brain activity.

A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) stated that ER visits linked to consuming energy drinks rose from 1,128 visits in 2005 to 13,114 in 2009. This unit of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that more than half of these visits were college-age males between 18 and 25 years old. Teens, ages 12 to 17, and adults over 40 were the smallest percentage age group with 11 percent of visits.

Dr. Cecile Marczinski, an assistant professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University, says that caffeine intake from energy drinks is more dangerous than from coffee. Energy drinks come in containers much larger than a coffee cup. Also, because they are cold and sweet they are consumed like thirst-quenchers (more quickly and in greater amounts). Before they know it, a person may have inadvertently consumed much more caffeine than they realized.

Although Marczinski states that energy drinks are only reported to contain as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, stimulant herbs like guarana give the drink an added boost. What disturbs Marczinski is that beverage companies don’t have to report how much caffeine is in their beverage. But the herbs in their drinks may contain a large amount of caffeine.

SAMHSA reported that 56 percent of the ER visits were people who had only consumed energy drinks. Although the report did not state the symptoms suffered by that percentage, they mentioned other reports that cited complications of energy drinks. Dr. Tamara R. Kuittinen, Director of Medical Education in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, stated that some symptoms of excessive intake of energy drinks include the following:

• Elevated blood pressure
• Rapid heart rate
• Fever
• Moodiness and agitation
• Confusion
• Difficulty with fine motor control

The American Beverage Association counters that these statistics are misleading. They point out that out of the 123 million-plus visits to the ER each year, those relating to consumption of energy drinks only account for less than one one-hundredth of one percent.

They stress that 44 percent of ER visits resulted from combining energy drinks with medications, alcohol or illegal drugs. Twenty-seven percent of these visits were related to medications, 16 percent with alcohol and 10 percent with illegal drugs. The report by SAMHSA alerts consumers to monitor their intake of caffeinated substances and to be aware of the effects of mixing other substances with energy drinks.

Now, a research team from the University of Vermont has found that caffeine use through the drinking of high-calorie energy drinks or soda may also predict a person’s reaction to exposure to cocaine.

The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence was led by Stacey Sigmon, Ph.D. Sigmon is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, whose work has focused on the effect of caffeine, including withdrawal and the relationship between such stimulants and cigarette smoking.

The team found that in their placebo-controlled, double-blind trial that a subject’s reaction to a dose of caffeine may offer a prediction of how they will react to a stimulant drug such as cocaine, which may give information about their risk of abusing that drug. Sigmon explains that there is a wide range in individuals’ response to a drug, with an individual dose resulting in effects that repulse one person and provide a pleasant experience for another.

Those types of different effects may help in understanding who might be at risk for a possible drug problem. In order to test the effects, Sigmon and Roland Griffiths, Ph.D, coauthor, from Johns Hopkins University looked at how subjects with a variation of responses to caffeine react to doses of d-amphetamine, which is classified as a psychomotor stimulant. The effects of d-amphetamine are similar to those found in other stimulants like cocaine.

The researchers found that when given a choice between caffeine and a placebo, those who picked caffeine reported a significantly higher level of positive subjective effects and fewer unpleasant effects in response to d-amphetamine. Those who chose the non-caffeine placebo reported the opposite effects in response to d-amphetamine.

Sigmon and Griffiths report that their research is unique in showing that caffeine consumption reinforcement can predict the subjective reaction to the use of another stimulant drug. Sigmon says that though the results do not translate to every coffee drinker being at a elevated risk for cocaine addiction, it does indicate that individuals have a specific reaction to stimulants and their reaction to one type may predict how they will respond to another stimulant.

The study, in which research included 22 individuals, was conducted over a period of approximately three months and was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.