Category Archives: Mental Health

The Addiction Paradigm Shift Away from Heroin to Marijuana

April 19, 2016

Drug Epidemic isn’t Because of Opiate Pills

“If you only know opiate addiction through the media or the political debates right now, or the political rhetoric, you’re going to be under the impression it’s because doctors are over-prescribing opiate medication.” It’s not true at all, said Jon Daily LCSW, CADC II, on March 17, 2016, at Sierra Vista Hospital in Sacramento. The topic of his talk was Heroin to Marijuana: A Paradigm Shift We Need Now.

Daily says that “drug bias” is enabling the epidemic of heroin addiction among youth today. Like others who work in treatment and recovery, Daily knows that addiction to substances of abuse are interconnected. Frequent marijuana users are more likely to become alcohol or heroin addicts. A study by researchers from Columbia and Yeshiva University — released in April — showed the likelihood of alcohol use disorder to be 5x more likely for people who were marijuana users at an earlier time period.

Daily challenged the counselors, therapists and physicians in the room to think differently about the connection between the choice of drug and addiction. “I want you to close your eyes and imagine your child. And then imagine that you got a call that that your child was caught using alcohol. Now imagine that you got a call that your child was using marijuana,” he said. Daily paused a few seconds to let those thoughts settle in. “And now imagine that you got a call that your child was using heroin. It feels different, doesn’t it?” he said.

“Drug bias” gets in the way of intervening sooner and more effectively when parents and professionals discover that a young person is using. Daily explained: “Addiction doesn’t really matter which drug is involved.”

NIDApercentages — The chart was published by NIDA in November 2015

Now that the big concern of today is heroin, the bigger concern should be that the addiction was there long before the heroin was there. His remarks were consistent with Sven-Olov Carlsson’s statement about the ineffectual drug policies that have led to the heroin problem.

It Starts with Weed, not Opiates or Heroin

“So if you’ve been using drugs for a long time, say weed, or alcohol, then you might try a lot of pills, then try another drug,” Daily explained. He emphasized that addiction is not so much about the specific drug but about the development of reward systems. (The most recent surveys of drug use by American teens shows that 6% of high school seniors are daily marijuana users, 3x the rate of the next biggest drug of abuse, alcohol. With this rate of abuse, it’s logical to predict that heroin problems will continue, or get worse.)

Before his talk, Daily surveyed the doctors with whom he associates. He asked them, “Of the opiate addicts you treated, how did it start?” He found that 98% percent of the clients his associates work with were already addicted to another drug when they started to get pain pills. (He acknowledges there are those who get addicted to pain pills after a car accident and multiple surgeries, but he emphasizes that this group is in a tiny minority.) Daily doesn’t explain addiction as simply being about genetics, or about addictive personality. One’s first reaction to opiates is affected by trauma experiences earlier in life, shame experiences in childhood. It’s affect disregulation, but not clearly understood.

There needs to be greater understanding of the nature of addiction with medical practitioners. Prescriptions for opiate painkillers can lead to a dependency that evolves into heroin use which is cheaper and easy to access via the internet.

However, the low perception of harm with youth using marijuana contributes to the heroin epidemic because most people do not understand a) that addiction to heroin and marijuana are essentially the same disease, and b) the THC levels of marijuana (the chemical component that gives the intoxication) are much higher today than in previous time periods.

The ways in which kids are using pot in high concentrations, known as wax/dabs and oils consumed as edibles (cookies, candies, etc.), makes it very addictive and can also cause psychotic breaks.

Daily urges medical and healing professionals to advocate for education and intervention when the first known instance of use of alcohol and drugs by a minor child. “It is much easier and more cost-effective to do prevention and early intervention than to reverse the harm from long-term addiction,” he said. Daily supports the CARA Act which will provide Naloxone or Suboxone to addicts. “And yet our system is set up to reverse the harm too long after onset of addiction.”

Daily’s comments are consistent with a position we have advocated to advance drug prevention. Jon Daily is the founder and clinical director for Recovery Happens Counseling Services in Fair Oaks, Davis and Rosedale. He specializes in the outpatient treatment of adolescents, young adults and their families with addictive disorders and dual diagnosis issues. He is the co-author of (2006) “How to Help Your Child Become Drug Free,” and (2012) “Adolescent and Young Adult Addiction: The Pathological Relationship to Intoxication and the Interpersonal Neurobiology Underpinnings.” Jon has been an instructor to nurses, medical residents and has taught post-doctoral students for UC Davis. Currently he instructs graduate students for University of San Francisco.

Please watch the complete Video.

Mental Health, Washington

Marijuana-Induced Psychosis Is Increasing

March 9, 2016

Specialists in Washington and London Explain Links to Pot and Psychosis

More doctors and other specialists are going public to speak about the dangers of psychosis related to marijuana. An article published in My Northwest recently needs to be taken seriously. Paul Hunziker, a licensed chemical dependency specialist in Renton, Washington explained that researchers have known for years marijuana can lead to everything from paranoia to depression, but the problem is expanding significantly. Duane Stone, a mental health specialist in Seattle, said: “I get lots of first break kind where this person doesn’t have an experience with mental illness, they don’t have a diagnosis, they’re 30 or 40-years-old. And the only thing they’ve been doing has been smoking marijuana for the last year or two.” He goes onto say, “It’s a daily kind of thing.”

In Olympia, Washington, Providence St. Peter Hospital attributes this increase in psychosis to the practice of “dabbing.” “That sudden blast of cannabis can trigger extreme paranoia, hallucinations or delusions — often a few days or even weeks after consumption,” according to those seeking medical treatment, reports TJ LaRoque. In Washington, marijuana was legalized in December, 2012, and marijuana stores opened in July, 2014.

Medications Don’t Work Well for Psychosis with Cannabis Users

Marijuana users need to know that if they end up in psychiatric hospitals, their chances of recovery are less than those who don’t use marijuana. First of all the marijuana users are more likely to have a relapse after the first episode of psychosis. Furthermore, anti-psychotic medications are less likely to be effective for the cannabis users. A new study out of Great Britain highlights these difficulties.

Psychosis plus pot is a bad mix. Rashmi Patel, lead researcher from the Department of Psychosis Studies at King’s College, London said: “We’re not entirely sure why that is, but it’s possible for whatever reason cannabis use makes it less likely that anti-psychotic treatment will work as well in people with psychotic disorders.” (It should be noted that antipsychotics are known to be ineffective in most cases of drug-induced psychosis including LSD, PCP, meth, etc.)

This finding is important since the marijuana industry wants to use marijuana to treat psychiatric problems. Marijuana makes the course of psychiatric illness worse. The finding is relevant since there has been an increased number of hospital admissions for psychosis and other mental health admissions in localities that have legalized marijuana.

Providence St. Peter Hospital reports there are one or two new psychosis emergency admissions each day. The standard treatment for marijuana induced psychosis is the anti-psychotic medication risperdone. Anti-psychotics are like band-aids; for long-term results, substance abuse or addiction treatment may be necessary. Unfortunately our current health care system treats acute symptoms rather than root causes. Unless the patients are rigid about staying off of marijuana, the problem may return. We hope this new information can bring about better treatment for marijuana-related mental health problems.

States considering medical marijuana or any form of legalization need to know about the increase of mental health care needs and be ready to pay for it. A psychosis from marijuana is not necessary a death sentence, as Vice recently reported the story of Devan Fuentes, who had a marvelous recovery.
The observations of doctors in the state of Washington are substantiated by numerous studies.

Read Updates on the Marijuana-Psychosis Link

Marijuana is Linked to Psychosis and Schizophrenia.

Here’s other websites on the marijuana – psychosis connection.

California, Mental Health, Washington

Adult Pot Use Affects Grade, Middle and High School Students

January 26, 2016 Ben Zumdahl Leave a comment

(Part 1 in series on older children of pot-using parents, Custody issues, Part 2, children in BHO explosions and Part 3, children who fall.)

When Colorado fourth-graders were caught buying and selling their grandparents’ pot at a school in 2014, it became clear that the age level for first-time drug use in America has changed. A year ago, there was also an incident when a three-year old girl brought marijuana in a backpack to a Head Start Center near Pittsburgh.

A survey released in December showed that 6 percent of high school seniors are daily pot users, a very bad omen for our children’s future. The statistics are worse in marijuana states such as Colorado and Washington. In Vancouver, Washington, 8 percent of 8th grader, 19% of 10th graders and 27% of 12th graders report recent pot use.

Each drug has at least one quality that makes worse than all other drugs, and for marijuana it is what it does to the teen-aged brain and motivation, according to Ed Gogek, author of Marijuana Debunked.

Problems on the San Juan Islands

Kathleen Bartholomew, a nurse and a grandmother in the San Juan Islands of Washington, explains what it’s like living in an area with long-time marijuana users: “Of the 7th grade pot users, 80% received the pot from their stoner parents.”

“My own granddaughter went from being a straight-A student skipping her sophomore year in a private school to a pot-smoking 15-year-old in the public school system. Her story started in 7th grade when a few seniors taught her how to smoke marijuana at lunch,” Bartholomew explained.

“After having a drug coalition for 10 years, we have made zero progress in convincing teens that pot is harmful – because so many parents smoke it in the home. Of 12th graders, there was no change in their belief system after a decade of education.” Here’s a link to the drug coalition’s marijuana education page.

Also in the San Juan Islands, a young man with mental illness issues died tragically from dehydration in jail last year. Keaton Farris suffered from bipolar disorder; a history of marijuana use would be consistent with the tragic ending. The risks for mental illness from early marijuana use cannot be adequately addressed in an environment that glorifies pot use. (His mom sold t-shirts in his honor at Seattle Hemp Fest, which doesn’t prove that Keaton used marijuana, but suggests his family had a peculiar fondness for the weed. The family has reached a settlement in the case.)

Multi-Generational Pot use in California

California has a large medical marijuana program — full of problems. One mother was shocked to find her son first received medical marijuana at age 11 — three years before she knew about it. A doctor didn’t prescribe it; he got it from someone in school whose mother had a medical marijuana card. So clearly parents pass it to children, with or without their knowledge.

Another grandmother in California described how her grandson’s father went about getting him a medical marijuana card.

Parents who use marijuana go to lengths to rationalize their use of pot. Some say they have more patience and can play better with their children while stoned. These parents are at risk for addiction and building so much tolerance that they will have more anxiety and anger when not using.

With many parents and grandparents using pot, we seem to be creating a multi-generational society of drug addiction. Drug addiction today is multi-substance addiction, making the treatment more complicated and the prognosis worse than it was in the past.

One member of AA and Narcotics Anonymous in Chico, California, explained what happens to multi-generational drug users when they try to get clean. “I need to teach them to dress, bathe and feed the baby, brush their teeth and floss, all skills they did not learn growing up. They must start life anew.” Sobriety gives them hope.

Medical Marijuana,Colorado Springs — A medical pot shop in Colorado advertised using Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster. Parents and Sesame Street objected and it was removed.

People laud the success of anti-smoking campaigns but what has changed youth smoking rates is the lack of adults who still smoke cigarettes. It has become socially unacceptable. How can an anti-pot campaign for kids can’t work when more adults are eating pot candy, or smoking it, and it’s advertised everywhere?

Recently a father from Washington who drove recklessly and was stoned forced his 12-year-old daughter to walk home. Some of these parents don’t seem to be aware of the trauma they may be forcing their children to experience. Traumatized children will be more inclined to abuse marijuana, alcohol and other drugs.

We need to break cycles of addiction if we are to have healthier adults who don’t follow their parents’ dysfunctional cycles. Compared to 40 or 50 years ago when alcohol was the primary problem, we now have multi-substance addiction. If we stopped substance abuse we could end about 70% of child abuse. We will have more success in rooting out problems by getting to their roots in substance abuse, not possible when we are normalizing drug use.

Finally, we need to comply with international treaties, especially The Rights of the Child Treaty, and as long as we allow marijuana legalization, we are out of compliance with the treaties. For more information, read On Marijuana, edited by Pamela McColl, and Marijuana Debunked, by Ed Gogek, MD.

Although many very young children die from the abuse and neglect by parents who get stoned, this series concludes that the older children won’t die because of parent’s pot use. The risks are for their long-term psychological well-being. (Read Part 1: custody problems, Part 2: treating burns from hash oil explosions. Part 3 explains the widespread problem of parents who give marijuana to their children. See our chart of the 53 deaths related to parents’ and caregivers’ pot use. )

Mental Health, Washington

Updates on the Marijuana Psychosis Link

January 18, 2016 Leave a comment

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University have issued a correction to their original report that teen marijuana use had no effect on the development of a psychotic order by age 36.

Meanwhile, a hospital in Washington, the first state to legalize marijuana, reports 1-2 new cases of admissions for marijuana-induced psychosis each day.

The full length version of their published correction, which can be purchased for ~$11 online, reveals that in fact their data showed a trend towards a 2.5-fold greater prevalence of psychotic disorders in the marijuana users, a trend which reached significance in a “one-tailed” statistical test. Such a test is generally deemed appropriate if abundant prior studies have shown the same degree and direction of effect, as is the case here. Continue reading Updates on the Marijuana Psychosis Link →

Parents Opposed to Pot