Friday, June 26, 2009

Abused from the womb

Pregnant women who drink alcohol put their unborn children at greater risk than they think.

Sanna Winston (37) had her first glass of wine -- forced down her throat from a rusted enamel cup -- when she was five years old.

"My stepmother used to drink a lot and my dad didn't like that. She started making me drink full cups of wine too. She used to say: 'If you tell your father I have been drinking, I will tell him that you drank as well, and then we will both get a hiding from him.' So I kept quiet."

Today Sanna has four children of her own -- including an eight-year-old daughter, Francisca.

She lives on a wine farm near the Boland town of Wellington. Nearby are verdant vineyards and gunmetal grey mountains. But Sanna lives in utmost poverty. With no income of her own, she has moved in with a much younger farm worker, whom she now somewhat disparagingly calls her "boyfriend".

It's not a happy union. But, as Sanna says: "My kids need a place to stay".

"My boyfriend assaults me and gives me a hiding and then locks me out of the house. My child says: 'He can't hit me because he's not my father.' But the fact is that this young man provides for us, so we have to listen to him."

The one constant in Sanna's tumultuous life has been abuse. Her body is covered with the terrible evidence. Blue-black bruises throb across her face and head; welts from past knife wounds wind like worms in the flesh under her skin.

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"All the people here ask me, 'Sanna, why does your face look so bad?' Then I reply: 'I fell.' They just shake their heads. They know I'm lying to them. But I can't make my boyfriend's name bad. He's taking care of me," she says.

A few years ago Sanna's husband died in a pool of blood on the same wine farm where she now lives.

"He died drunk," she whispers.

Sanna's husband, too, mistreated her. But she's always ready with an excuse for the men in her life.

"At least he never lifted his hands to me, gave me a black eye or hit me in the face. All he did was stab me with the messie [small knife] from time to time ..."

But Sanna's attempts at diluting the horrific truth are futile -- even when she uses alcohol to drown the pain, a survival skill she learned from her stepmother, father, aunts, uncles and all her partners.

"If someone makes me angry or sad, I don't know what to do, so I run to the bottle. I pour a drink and think about my problems … I'm soft and cry easily. Then, with the tears in my eyes, I drink and think," she says.

Nearby, her daughter, Francisca, is talking to friends. Sanna stares at the girl. Tears swell in her eyes.

"I was drinking a lot when I was pregnant with Francisca. So bad that I lay on the ground drunk. Now I can see that her head is damaged." Sanna sobs.

Francisca is suspected of suffering from foetal alcohol syndrome, or, more scientifically, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

She struggles at school. She can't seem to get past grade two. She's easily distracted, has a bad memory and is shorter than the other children in her class, even though she's older than them.

Experts say children severely affected by FASD typically have low IQs. Physical aberrations include small heads and eyes that are narrow and set wide apart.

Such children sometimes shake uncontrollably.

"I feel very bad about what I've done to Francisca," Sanna says. "If I didn't drink with her in my stomach, she would have been a normal child today and might have gone far in life."

But, at the time of her pregnancy, Sanna had no idea of what alcohol could do to her baby. For the first few months she didn't even know she was pregnant.

It's a scenario that Sharon Messina of the Women on Farms Project in Stellenbosch knows all too well.

"It's not easy for the women to just forget about the alcohol. They want to stop drinking, but there are no support systems within their families and their communities to encourage rehabilitation. All the structures encourage and approve more drinking, because you are seen as an outsider if you don't participate in the drinking parties," she says.

According to Professor Dennis Viljoen from the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research (Farr) in Cape Town, FASD is the most preventable form of mental retardation worldwide.

"Alcohol disrupts the tissue formation of the foetus, particularly in the brain, to such an extent that you get severe neurological consequences," he says.
South Africa has the highest FASD rate in the world. In Wellington 5% to 8% of all school-going children are affected.

But, says Viljoen, the highest rate of the illness on the globe is in the Northern Cape, in the town of De Aar, where 12% of grade one children suffer from FASD -- almost double that of children infected with HIV in the area.

Viljoen says 60% of women with FASD children have a body mass index of less than 20, which means they're abnormally thin. "If you're a poor, malnourished woman, alcohol will affect your baby far more than if you are a well-nourished, middle-class woman. So poverty underpins this whole situation."

A shebeen on the farm where Sanna lives ensures she and her fellow residents always have easy and relatively cheap access to alcohol.

The establishment is operated by the farm workers themselves and they're all allowed to drink on credit.

Messina's colleague, Leonora Sefoor, says since the so-called "dop system" -- which thrived during the apartheid years and in which some farmers paid their workers with wine -- was outlawed, farm workers across the Western Cape have created their own dop systems.

"Whereas before it was the white farmers that were exploiting the workers by making sure that they were in constant debt to the farmer, it's now the workers who are harming themselves. When workers get paid, they end up paying their alcohol debt and the whole cycle begins again," Sefoor says. Most women on the farms remain "totally ignorant" of the harm of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, she says.

South African law demands that liquor companies must place labels on their products warning consumers of the health problems associated with alcohol consumption. But Viljoen says this measure is largely ineffective.

"Many of the people living in affected communities are illiterate," he says, slamming the labelling of alcohol containers as "an appeasement of government's conscience".

Viljoen applies the same argument to government pamphlets on FASD: "It makes little sense to distribute masses of literature to people who can't read."

The solution to South Africa's FASD crisis, he says, lies in intensive, state-sponsored initiatives in affected areas that "speak directly" to people. This, he says, could be achieved by employing "reformed" individuals who've experienced the illness "first-hand" as mentors to discourage women from drinking while pregnant.

"It lies in increasing employment rates. Education and housing need to be bolstered. Contraception should be offered to all women so that they can plan pregnancies," Viljoen says.

But for Sanna and the other women on her farm, employment and education are mere dreams.

Messina is convinced that until social conditions in FASD-afflicted areas improve and women have less reason to abuse alcohol, the incidence of the illness will only increase.

"Some [of the women] will tell you they have stopped drinking, but this will generally be only for a while. After that initial success the abuse will continue and to get relief they'll start drinking again. It's mostly a vicious circle," Messina says.

Pregnancy dangers
Alcohol
Research shows that the risks of drinking alcohol while pregnant far outweigh prenatal exposure to tobacco and illicit drugs. In fact, alcohol is even more harmful to a pregnancy than marijuana, cocaine or heroin. This is because it is classified as a teratogen, a neurotoxin that can cause developmental disabilities, even severe brain damage, whereas drugs such as cocaine do not.

No amount of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is considered safe. Frequent drinking during pregnancy can cause mental handicaps, birth defects, brain damage, emotional and behavioural problems and defects relating to the heart, face and other organs. It increases the risk of premature birth or miscarriage.

Smoking
Babies born to smoking mothers generally tend to have a lower birth weight and higher rates of illness and respiratory problems. Smoking while pregnant increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and birth defects to the heart, brain and face.

Caffeine
Experts recommend consuming moderate to low amounts of caffeine while pregnant. Some experts say 300mg of caffeine a day is safe, but others say pregnant women should not consume more than 200mg a day. A 2008 study found that women who consumed more than 200mg of caffeine a day had about twice the risk of miscarriage compared with women who did not consume any. A cup of coffee contains 90mg to 150mg of caffeine, a cup of tea 30mg to 70mg and an average bar of chocolate about 30mg.

Over-the-counter drugs
Drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofen, which are safe under normal circumstances, can cause significant harm to a foetus. -- www.merck.com, www.acshealth.org,ww.ucsfhealth.org, www.netdoctor.co.uk, www.prenatal-health.suie101.com, www.thepregnancyzone.com --


- M&G

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol

Itsh just a pity the UN & SA can't dishhtinguishhh one from the other...
The only systematic monitoring of drug use in Africa is taking place in South Africa, based on treatment demand. Data for South Africa suggest that treatment demand for cannabis use increased over the first two quarters of 2008.
Including alcohol, cannabis accounted for 23.5% of substance abuse-related treatment demand in South Africa during this period.
- UN World Drug Report 2009 Cannabis Market

Excluding alcohol, What is the demand for cannabis substance abuse treatment?

I thought we were talking about systematic monitoring ...

UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug Report

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal's decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage "drug tourism."

But in its 2009 World Drug Report, the UN had little but kind words for Portugal's radical (by U.S. standards) approach. "These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users. Among those who would not welcome a summons from a police officer are tourists, and, as a result, Portugal's policy has reportedly not led to an increase in drug tourism," reads the report. "It also appears that a number of drug-related problems have decreased."

In its upbeat appraisal of Portugal's policy, the UN finds itself in agreement with Salon's Glenn Greenwald.

The report, released at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., also puts to rest concerns that decriminalization doesn't comply with international treaties, which prevent countries from legalizing drugs.

U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is scheduled to appear at the announcement of the report. (He has said "legalization" is not "in my vocabulary.")

"The International Narcotics Control Board was initially apprehensive when Portugal changed its law in 2001 (see their annual report for that year), but after a mission to Portugal in 2004, it "noted that the acquisition, possession and abuse of drugs had remained prohibited," and said "the practice of exempting small quantities of drugs from criminal prosecution is consistent with the international drug control treaties," reads a footnote to the report.

The UN report also dives head first into the debate over full drug legalization. Last year's World Drug Report ignored the issue entirely, save for a reference to Chinese opium policy in the 19th Century. This year's report begins with a lengthy rebuttal of arguments in favor of legalization. "Why unleash a drug epidemic in the developing world for the sake of libertarian arguments made by a pro-drug lobby that has the luxury of access to drug treatment?" argues the report.

But the UN also makes a significant concession to backers of legalization, who have long argued that it is prohibition policies that lead to violence and the growth of shadowy, underground networks.

"In the Preface to the report," reads the press release accompanying the report, "[UN Office of Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria] Costa explores the debate over repealing drug controls. He acknowledges that controls have generated an illicit black market of macro-economic proportions that uses violence and corruption."

Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired undercover narcotics detective, objected to the report's classification of current policy as "control."

"The world's 'drug czar,' Antonio Maria Costa, would have you believe that the legalization movement is calling for the abolition of drug control," he said. "Quite the contrary, we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who produces them and who they can be sold to. You can't have effective control under prohibition, as we should have learned from our failed experiment with alcohol in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933."

- Huffington Post

Monday, June 15, 2009

THC initiates brain cancer cells to destroy themselves

THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy in which cells feed upon themselves, according to a study conducted by Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University in Spain.

"These results may help to design new cancer therapies based on the use of medicines containing the active principle of marijuana and/or in the activation of autophagy,"

Friday, June 5, 2009

Top Anti-Drug Researcher Changes His Mind, Says Legalize Cannabis

One of the world's foremost lung health experts says it's time to legalize cannabis.

Dr. Donald Tashkin, expert on cannabis and lung health, has called for the legalization of cannabis.Dr. Donald Tashkin, expert on cannabis and lung health, has called for the legalization of cannabis.For 30 years, Donald Tashkin has studied the effects of cannabis on lung function. His work has been funded by the vehemently anti-cannabis National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has long sought to demonstrate that cannabis causes lung cancer. After 3 decades of anti-drug research, here's what Tashkin has to say about cannabis laws:

"Early on, when our research appeared as if there would be a negative impact on lung health, I was opposed to legalization because I thought it would lead to increased use and that would lead to increased health effects," Tashkin says. "But at this point, I'd be in favor of legalization. I wouldn't encourage anybody to smoke any substances. But I don't think it should be stigmatized as an illegal substance. Tobacco smoking causes far more harm. And in terms of an intoxicant, alcohol causes far more harm." [McClatchy]

We've been told a thousand times that cannabis destroys your lungs, that it's 5 times worse than cigarettes, and on and on. Yet here is Donald Tashkin, literally the top expert in the world when it comes to cannabis and lung health, telling us it's time to legalize cannabis. His views are shaped not by ideology, but rather by the 30 years he spent studying the issue. He didn't expect the science to come out in favor of cannabis, but that's what happened and he's willing to admit it.

Here's the study that really turned things around:

UCLA's Tashkin studied heavy cannabis smokers to determine whether the use led to increased risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He hypothesized that there would be a definitive link between cancer and cannabis smoking, but the results proved otherwise."What we found instead was no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect," says Tashkin, whose research was the largest case-control study ever conducted.

Prejudice against cannabis and smoking in general runs so deep for many people that it just seems inconceivable that cannabis could actually reduce the risk of lung cancer. But that's what the data shows and it not only demolishes a major tenet of popular anti-pot propaganda, but also points towards a potentially groundbreaking opportunity to develop cancer cures through cannabis research.

Over and over again, all the bad things we've been told about cannabis are revealed to be not only false, but often the precise opposite of the truth. So the next time someone tells you that cannabis is worse for your lungs than cigarettes, you might want to mention that the world's leading expert on that subject happens to be a supporter of legalization.

- Article from Stop the Drug War (DRCNet).

The drugs do work – for a lot of people

One in three adults in the UK have taken them, as have the last three US presidents, so it's time to remove the stigma around drugs, and talk openly towards more effective, safer policy

Nice People Take Drugs campaign for drugs policy reform

The Nice People Take Drugs ad campaign for drugs policy reform. Photograph: Release

Nice People Take Drugs – it's not a controversial statement. We all know people who have. The last three US presidents have admitted to it. Much has been suggested about the likely next UK prime minister. Nowadays if a politician admitted to it, the tabloids would struggle to make a story stick let alone generate a scandal. The fact is, a lot of people from all walks of life have at some point taken drugs and it's time we got real about it.

That's why this week we have launched a new campaign called Nice People Take Drugs. Buses will be travelling across London carrying this slogan in an attempt to get people talking about drugs and kickstart a drug policy debate.

Over one third of the adult population of England and Wales has used illegal drugs and almost 10 million people have smoked cannabis. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, one in eight Britons under 35 has taken cocaine. Some will have experimented with drugs with little apparent consequence, some will continue to use them on occasions.

The situation where people have to deny, hide or, if found out, regret their drug taking is simply absurd. The public is tired of the artificial representation of drugs in society, which is not truthful about the fact that all sorts of people use drugs. If we are to have a fair and effective drug policy, it must be premised on this reality.

It is time for the public to challenge the mantra adhered to by politicians and much of the media that society must continue to fight a war on drugs, as if they are an enemy worth fighting and ones that can be defeated. The implication that drugs are evil and that users of them ought to be made to feel ashamed suits this status quo, but in fact does not reflect most people's experience of drugs.

We all know that, for a minority, drugs and alcohol can have disastrous consequences – but ones that are only exacerbated by the current laws and are better addressed with robust and comprehensive public health campaigns.

Aside from the occasional tinkering with the outdated classification system, drugs and drug policy do not get properly discussed and politicians are afraid to debate the possibility of meaningful reform.

The government is reluctant to tackle the subject firstly because of the culture of fear of drugs that is used as justification for the zero-tolerance approach, and also due to politicians' uncertainty about how to make the transition from failed to improved drug policies.

The Nice People Take Drugs campaign is needed so that the public can give politicians the confidence that they need to abandon the ridiculous 'tough on drugs' stance and instead focus on finding real and effective ways to properly control drugs and manage drug use. This would make drugs much less dangerous and, critically, less available to children.

The current system has brought us powerful drugs like crack cocaine, skunk and methamphetamine; it has ravaged countries from Afghanistan to Colombia and has cost billions in a war on people who use drugs. Governments have next to no control over drugs and they are arguably more available and cheaper than ever before. In the UK it is often far easier for a 14-year-old to get cannabis than alcohol.

Breaking the taboo on drugs is the first step to reducing the harm that they can cause. By far the greatest risk to the majority of people who use drugs is criminalisation and stigmatisation. To simply ban substances and arrest those who use them is no more than a complete abdication of policy makers' responsibility to protect the health and well being of its people.

We must start a debate about the kind of drug policy that this country wants to see. The UK does not want drug laws that benefit massive drug cartels and are politically convenient for politicians, but ones that deal effectively and maturely with drugs and make our society a safer place for our children.

• Claudia Rubin is head of policy and communications for drugs charity

- Guardian

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Dealers (sic alcohol & drug) give free drugs to kids

Just as I can imagine SAB or Heineken standing outside schools or rugby matches giving out free booze... I can't imagine any 'dealer' would give away free anything...

yet here the spin is.... and yet again where drugs and alcohol are related soon after mentioning them together, the statistics are then massaged to give the impression that drugs are at fault and not alcohol...

Pretoria - Drug dealers stand at school gates to give drugs free of charge to pupils, a report on child abuse released on Thursday said.

The report, released by Solidarity Help Hand, said that the levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.

The report quoted a case study in the Western Cape, where it was found that 90% of child abused cases reported, drugs and alcohol played a role.

According to the case study, a five year-old child was raped while her mother was drunk.

It also said that young girls were lured into drugs and were later forced to become prostitutes.

According to the study a child is raped in South Africa every three minutes.

A study by the South African Youth Victimisation Survey in 2005 found that only about 11.3% of child rapes were reported to the police, Mariana Kriel, Solidarity Help Hand project director said.

"This means that for every reported case, an additional eight child rapes actually take place."

The report released in Pretoria, indicated that 1 410 children were murdered in 2007/08. Attempted murder of children stood at 13.7% at the same period - an increase of 22% compared to the previous year.

- SAPA