Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2006.9.21

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6650

Weekly News in Audio

September 21, 2006

Experts Call For Legal Cannabis To Treat Hep C Virus

Arkansas: Municipal Pot Initiative Certified For November Ballot

Deterrent Effect Of Workplace Drug Testing Overstated, Study Says

Toronto, Ontario:
Experts Call For Legal Cannabis To Treat Hep C Virus

Patients afflicted with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) should be legally permitted to use cannabis to combat treatment-related side effects of the disease, advises an international team of investigators writing in the October issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

The researchers issued their recommendation following the results of an observational study by the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) that found that HCV patients who used cannabis were significantly more likely to adhere to their treatment regimen than patients who didn't use it.

Patients on HCV therapy medications typically report numerous adverse side effects - including fatigue, headaches, nausea, anorexia, depression, and insomnia that cause many of them to prematurely discontinue treatment.

Commenting on the study, investigators from Canada and Germany wrote that cannabis' "potential benefits of a higher likelihood of treatment success [for HCV patients] appear to outweigh [its] risks. ... Even before such effects are conclusively established, HCV treatment patients ... desiring to aid their treatment adherence by cannabis use should be legally permitted in doing so."

Though survey data indicates that many HCV patients use cannabis therapeutically to treat both symptoms of the disease as well as the side effects of HCV therapy, no clinical studies have been performed to assess the safety or efficacy of cannabinoids for hepatitis C treatment. In addition, a 2005 retrospective study of untreated HCV patients reported that daily cannabis smoking was associated with hepatic fibrosis. However, UCSF investigators found "no significant difference in liver fibrosis" between moderate cannabis smokers and non-users in their observational study.

Eureka Springs, AR:
Arkansas: Municipal Pot Initiative Certified For November Ballot

Eureka Springs city election officials confirmed this week that a municipal initiative that seeks to decriminalize minor marijuana possession offenses has been certified to appear on the November 2006 ballot.

Sponsored by the Fayetteville/University of Arkansas chapter of NORML, the proposal direct local law enforcement to issue a summons in lieu of a criminal arrest for adults found to be in possession of up to one ounce of cannabis and or marijuana paraphernalia.

Several municipalities - including most notably Ann Arbor, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin - have enacted local decriminalization laws. Voters in Columbia, Missouri passed a similar ballot initiative in 2004 amending the city criminal code to depenalize the possession of marijuana and/or paraphernalia to a fine-only offense.

Voters in several cities - including Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica, California, as well as Missoula, Montana - will also decide on municipal ballot measures to liberalize marijuana possession laws this fall.

Irvine, CA:
Deterrent Effect Of Workplace Drug Testing Overstated, Study Says

Claims that workplace drug testing programs can dramatically reduce employee drug use are overstated, according to the findings of a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Health Services Research.

"Previous studies have interpreted the large negative correlation between workplace drug testing and employee substance use as representing a causal deterrent effect of drug testing," the study says. "Our results using more comprehensive data suggest that these estimates have been slightly overstated due to omitted variable bias" such as failure to account for other workplace programs (e.g., employee assistance programs) and/or whether employees who do not consume illicit drugs are more likely to work in environments that mandate drug testing.

Though the study did report a negative correlation between workplace drug testing and self reported monthly use of marijuana, the study did not conclude that workplace drug testing was necessarily associated with increased employee productivity or decreased accidents.

The study reported that US businesses spend an estimated $6 billion per year on employee drug testing programs.

▲