Update on States' Post-Election Medical Marijuana Initiatives

Montana became the 11th state in the country to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, with 62 percent of voters supporting the measure on Election Day.  Voters in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Columbia, Missouri also approved local medical marijuana initiatives.   Oregon voters rejected a measure that would have expanded its existing medical marijuana program.  Alaska, which also has existing medical marijuana law, rejected a measure to decriminalize the drug, though marijuana groups were encouraged by the 43 percent of voters there who supported it.  Drug prevention and government officials have often criticized the drive for medical marijuana as an actual effort to legalize the drug.  "As medical marijuana becomes more regulated and institutionalized in the West, that may provide a model for how we ultimately make marijuana legal for all adults," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director for the Drug Policy Alliance, as quoted by the Associated Press on November 4.  (The New York Times, November 4, 2004; The Associated Press, November 4, 2004)

Study Links Drugs and Alcohol to Youth Crime

A five-year study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that nearly four out of five young people arrested for juvenile crimes are also involved with drugs or alcohol.  The study also found that of the 1.9 million arrests of young offenders with substance abuse and addiction problems, less than four percent received some form of substance abuse treatment.  "Most of these young people can be safely placed in responsible community programs where they can get treatment," said Mark Soler, head of the Youth Law Center, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group.   "But when they're locked up behind bars they rarely get that kind of treatment." (The New York Times, October 7, 2004 or CASA at (212) 841-5260 or www.casacolumbia.org)

Study: Teen Substance Abuse Goes
Undetected During Medical Exams

Severe substance abuse by teenagers may be missed by physicians during medical visits, according to a new study published in the November iss of Pediatrics.  In the article, researchers highlight not only how often medical professionals fail to notice substance abuse problems during routine examinations, but also how seldom teenagers are asked specific questions about drug and alcohol use.  During the reviewed examinations, medical staff failed to detect illicit substance abuse in roughly 40 percent of the teens who were later determined to have serious problems.  Yet, when the teenagers were asked specific questions about drug-and-alcohol related behavior in separate interviews after their exams, they were likely to talk about their use of alcohol or drugs.  "While a structured screening tool won't necessarily make the adolescent reveal the problem, it hopefully would give the provider a structured way to ask about it," said lead author Dr. Celeste Wilson, a pediatrician and researcher at Children's Hospital Boston. (The Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2004)

Scientists Find Key to Nicotine Addiction

A California research team reports in the November edition of Science that a single molecule may be partly to blame for nicotine's addictive nature, a finding that some say could lead to potential therapies to help millions of smokers quit the life-threatening habit.   The team says that they have not only pinpointed the molecule responsible for nicotine addiction, but also have created genetically-specialized mice to help research other molecules impacted by nicotine addiction.  The findings "not only provide direct evidence of how nicotine promtoes dependence, but also raise fundamental questions about the genetics of addiction," researchers at the Centre Medical Universitaire, in Geneva, Switzerland, wrote in a companion piece.  More than 4 million people around the globe die from smoking-related causes each year. (The New York Times, November 5, 2004)