Marijuana is up to 20 times more potent than it was 40 years ago and most pregnant women who use the drug are totally unaware that it could harm their unborn child before they even know they are pregnant.
Writing in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis, American researcher’s state the argument that marijuana is a harmless drug is no longer valid due to the emergence of ‘high potency’ marijuana and synthetic marijuana which pose a potential real threat for pregnant women.
They also express concerns that marijuana’s increased popularity among teenagers and young adults could put this group at higher risk.
“The emergence of bioengineered crops and novel, medicinal marijuana strains, means that marijuana is no longer what it used to be in the 1970s and early 1980s: some new, high potency strains, including some medicinal marijuana blends such as ‘Connie Chung’ and many others, contain up to 20 times more THC, the psychoactive constituent of marijuana, than did ‘traditional’ marijuana from the 1970s and early 1980s,” explained co-author Dr. Delphine Psychoyos from the Center for Genetic and Environmental Medicine at Texas A&M University. “Furthermore, with the emergence of dispensaries and Internet Web sites, high potency marijuana and Spice products are now readily available to the general population.”
Spice products, a prominent brand of “synthetic marijuana,” or “fake weed” mixtures, contain extremely potent THC analogues, also called “synthetic cannabinoids,” such as AM694 (found in Euphoric Blends Big Band and others) and HU210 (found in Spice Gold), both of which are 500-600 times more potent than marijuana’s THC.
“The THC contained in ‘high potency’ marijuana and the potent THC analogues contained in Spice products and other brands of ‘synthetic marijuana’, are potentially harmful to embryonic development, as early as two weeks after conception. This is because these psychoactive chemicals have the ability to interfere with the first stages in the formation of the brain of the fetus; this event occurs two weeks after conception, earlier than before signs of pregnancy appear. By the time a woman realises she is pregnant and stops taking these substances it may already be too late for her unborn child. “
“Given that marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug by pregnant women worldwide – one study estimates the rate is as high as 20 percent – this is a major issue.”
Recent research from the past five years has shown that marijuana exposure during pregnancy has been associated with anencephaly, a non-sustaining life condition where a large part of the skull or brain is absent, neurobehavioral deficiencies, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities and memory impairment in toddlers and 10 year olds, as well as neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression, aggression and anxiety, in teens.
“The problem is that many women who are pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant are totally unaware of this increased potency and the risks they pose,” said co-author Dr. Delphine Psychoyos. “This is because many Web sites on mothering and pregnancy, and those run by pro-marijuana advocacy groups, base their discussions on data collected prior to 1997, when no detrimental affects on pregnancy had been reported; It is important to note here that prior to 1997, pregnant women were mostly exposed to low potency, ‘traditional’ marijuana, which was the common form of marijuana in the market in the 1970s and early 1980s.”
“Marijuana has regained its popularity from the 1970s, especially among teens and young people, and has established social and cultural status as the most popular drug of abuse. Yet, like pregnant women, these young users probably have no idea of the significant increase in potency over the past four decades. “
The researchers are calling for greater awareness among pregnant women about the availability of highly potent marijuana and synthetic cannabinoids such as those found in Spice products, and the risks that they can pose to their unborn child, even before their pregnancy has been confirmed.
They highlight the need to revise U.S. government bills and legislation to take account of the development of synthetic cannabinoids, such as those found in Spice and in new psychoactive substances that are based on cannabinoid research chemicals; they also question whether there is a need to put high potency marijuana in the highest category, if marijuana is to become legalized in America, based on its medical applications.
The authors also stress that teenagers and young people need to be more aware of the health risks of high potency marijuana, of synthetic cannabinoids found in Spice and other brands, and of synthetic cannabinoid research chemicals sold as designer drugs on various non DEA-regulated Web sites.
The head of one of the UK’s leading cancer research organizations has hailed a golden age in prostate cancer drug discovery as for the fourth time in two years results are published finding a new drug can significantly extend life.
A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the drug enzalutamide can significantly extend life and improve quality of life in men with advanced prostate cancer – in findings that could further widen the treatment options for men with the disease.
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and its partner hospital The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust jointly led the new Phase III trial of enzalutamide and the Phase III trials of two other drugs, cabazitaxel and abiraterone.
Abiraterone was also discovered at The Institute of Cancer Research and was recently made available on the NHS. A further drug sipuleucel-T has also been shown to extend life in the two-year period.
Professor Alan Ashworth, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), said cancer research in the UK was finally delivering new treatment options for men with advanced prostate cancer after a long period where the options were limited.
“Advanced prostate cancer is extremely difficult to treat, and it’s taken a massive coordinated effort to finally bring new drugs into the pipeline, after decades where there were no options once old-style hormone treatment stopped working,” said Ashworth.
“What we’re seeing now is an unprecedented period of success for prostate cancer research, with four new drugs shown to extend life in major clinical trials in just two years, and several others showing promise,” Ashworth added. “It truly is a golden age for prostate cancer drug discovery and development.”
Professor Martin Gore, medical director of The Royal Marsden Hospital, said: “We are delighted with the recent progress that has been made in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer and to see the impact this is having on our patients, many of whom are living longer with a better quality of life as the result of these new drugs.”
Enzalutamide, a new type of hormone treatment, was assessed in 1,199 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that had previously received chemotherapy, in a multinational, randomised placebo-controlled trial sponsored by pharmaceutical companies Medivation and Astellas.
Median survival with enzalutamide was 18.4 months, compared with 13.6 months for men receiving a placebo.
Around 43 percent of men taking enzalutamide as part of the AFFIRM trial reported an improved quality of life, compared with 18 per cent of men taking a placebo.
In November of last year, the trial’s Independent Data Monitoring Committee recommended that the trial be stopped early and men who received the placebo be offered enzalutamide.
The Phase III trial was jointly led by Professor Johann de Bono, head of the Drug Development Unit at the ICR and The Royal Marsden.
New research has found high rates of sleep apnea in women, despite the condition usually being regarded as a disorder predominantly of males.
The study, published online Aug. 16 ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal, also suggested that women with hypertension and/or obesity were more likely to experience sleep apnea.
“We were very surprised to find such a high occurrence of sleep apnea in women, as it is traditionally thought of as a male disorder,” said lead author Professor Karl Franklin said. “These findings suggest that clinicians should be particularly aware of the association between sleep apnea and obesity and hypertension, in order to identify patients who could also be suffering from the sleeping disorder.”
Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition in which there are frequent pauses in breathing during sleep. The incidence of the condition increases with age and it is considered more prevalent in men than in women.
In this new study, researchers from Uppsala and Umeå University in Sweden aimed to investigate the frequency and risk factors of sleep apnea in women.
The study analyzed 400 women from a random sample of 10,000 women aged 20 years. The participants answered a questionnaire and underwent a sleep examination.
The results found that obstructive sleep apnea was present in 50 percent of women aged 20 years.
The researchers also found links between age, obesity and hypertension: 80 percent of women with hypertension and 84 percent of obese women suffered from sleep apnea.
Additionally, severe sleep apnea was present in 31 percent of obese women aged 55-70 years old.
A previously unrecognized system that drains waste from the brain at a rapid clip has been discovered by neuroscientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The findings were published online Aug. 15 in Science Translational Medicine.
The highly organized system acts like a series of pipes that piggyback on the brain’s blood vessels, sort of a shadow plumbing system that seems to serve much the same function in the brain as the lymph system does in the rest of the body – to drain away waste products.
“Waste clearance is of central importance to every organ, and there have been long-standing questions about how the brain gets rid of its waste,” said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., senior author of the paper and co-director of the University’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine. “This work shows that the brain is cleansing itself in a more organized way and on a much larger scale than has been realized previously.
“We’re hopeful that these findings have implications for many conditions that involve the brain, such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease,” she added.
Nedergaard’s team has dubbed the new system “the glymphatic system,” since it acts much like the lymphatic system but is managed by brain cells known as glial cells. The team made the findings in mice, whose brains are remarkably similar to the human brain.
Scientists have known that cerebrospinal fluid or CSF plays an important role cleansing brain tissue, carrying away waste products and carrying nutrients to brain tissue through a process known as diffusion. The newly discovered system circulates CSF to every corner of the brain much more efficiently, through what scientists call bulk flow or convection.
“It’s as if the brain has two garbage haulers – a slow one that we’ve known about, and a fast one that we’ve just met,” said Nedergaard. “Given the high rate of metabolism in the brain, and its exquisite sensitivity, it’s not surprising that its mechanisms to rid itself of waste are more specialized and extensive than previously realized.”
While the previously discovered system works more like a trickle, percolating CSF through brain tissue, the new system is under pressure, pushing large volumes of CSF through the brain each day to carry waste away more forcefully.
The glymphatic system is like a layer of piping that surrounds the brain’s existing blood vessels. The team found that glial cells called astrocytes use projections known as “end feet” to form a network of conduits around the outsides of arteries and veins inside the brain – similar to the way a canopy of tree branches along a well-wooded street might create a sort of channel above the roadway.
Those end feet are filled with structures known as water channels or aquaporins, which move CSF through the brain. The team found that CSF is pumped into the brain along the channels that surround arteries, then washes through brain tissue before collecting in channels around veins and draining from the brain.
How has this system eluded the notice of scientists up to now?
The scientists say the system operates only when it’s intact and operating in the living brain, making it very difficult to study for earlier scientists who could not directly visualize CSF flow in a live animal, and often had to study sections of brain tissue that had already died.
To study the living, whole brain, the team used a technology known as two-photon microscopy, which allows scientists to look at the flow of blood, CSF and other substances in the brain of a living animal.
While a few scientists two or three decades ago hypothesized that CSF flow in the brain is more extensive than has been realized, they were unable to prove it because the technology to look at the system in a living animal did not exist at that time.
“It’s a hydraulic system,” said Nedergaard. “Once you open it, you break the connections, and it cannot be studied. We are lucky enough to have technology now that allows us to study the system intact, to see it in operation.”
First author Jeffrey Iliff, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the Nedergaard lab, took an in-depth look at amyloid beta, the protein that accumulates in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. He found that more than half the amyloid removed from the brain of a mouse under normal conditions is removed via the glymphatic system.
“Understanding how the brain copes with waste is critical. In every organ, waste clearance is as basic an issue as how nutrients are delivered. In the brain, it’s an especially interesting subject, because in essentially all neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, protein waste accumulates and eventually suffocates and kills the neuronal network of the brain,” said Iliff.
“If the glymphatic system fails to cleanse the brain as it is meant to, either as a consequence of normal aging, or in response to brain injury, waste may begin to accumulate in the brain. This may be what is happening with amyloid deposits in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Iliff. “Perhaps increasing the activity of the glymphatic system might help prevent amyloid deposition from building up or could offer a new way to clean out buildups of the material in established Alzheimer’s disease.”