Drunk pedestrians a walking danger to themselves

Pedestrians remain the most vulnerable road users but are often their own worst enemies, drunkenly wandering near roads or trying to take a shortcut across highways amid high-speed traffic.

In the past fortnight, two pedestrians were killed on the N1 and N2 when they risked crossing the dangerous, busy highways at night.

The Department of Community Safety says 27 pedestrians have been killed on the province's roads since the beginning of the year. Of those, 13 were killed on the N1 and N2.

Department spokesperson Makhaya Manie said pedestrian deaths were an increasing problem. The department had embarked on numerous campaigns at schools and among communities alongside the highways and the R300, but was struggling to get the message across. Pedestrians who crossed highways instead of taking a longer, safer way round over bridges were particularly resistant.

During the last festive season, 375 pedestrians were killed

He said they would shortly embark on a winter campaign to highlight the issue of pedestrian visibility on the roads.

Cape Town Traffic Services spokesperson Merle Lourens said they were investigating the possibility of building two pedestrian bridges across the R300.

Countrywide, there are 700 000 road accidents each year, and 13 000 fatalities. These accidents and fatalities cost the economy R43-billion and pedestrians are the third largest group of accident victims.

During the last festive season, 375 pedestrians were killed, the largest single grouping among the overall death toll of 1 223. Over the Easter weekend, 65 pedestrians were killed countrywide.

A Department of Transport spokesperson said pedestrians remained the most vulnerable road users and the number of fatalities involving pedestrians was unacceptably high. Alcohol played a major role in the problem.

'Motorists are urged to be on the lookout for pedestrians at night and when visibility is poor'

The dangers of drinking and walking were tragically evident because the high intake of alcohol could seriously slow reactions.

"By far the greater percentage of pedestrians injured or killed on our roads are found to have high levels of alcohol in their bloodstreams at the time of the accident," said the spokesperson.

The focus of enforcement measures was multi-pronged, with more officers deployed at holiday spots, townships and villages. "Motorists are urged to be on the lookout for pedestrians at night and when visibility is poor, especially during holiday seasons, because pedestrians under the influence of alcohol are a walking danger.

"Pedestrians often under-estimate the speed and over-estimate the distance of an approaching vehicle when crossing the road. This is made worse by the consumption of alcohol."

Arrive Alive has road safety tips for pedestrians and motorists:

Always cross at intersections or at pedestrian bridges and crossings where drivers expect to find pedestrians.

Walk directly across the street. Do not walk diagonally. The shorter the distance crossed the less time you are at risk of danger.

Try not to walk on the road because this puts you at risk.

If you do have to walk on the roadside, always walk on the right-hand side, facing oncoming traffic.

Cross only when it is safe to do so, and look in both directions and listen to oncoming traffic while crossing.

Wear bright-coloured clothing at night to increase your visibility to motorists.

Avoid crossing the freeway because vehicles travel at very high speeds. It is illegal for pedestrians to be on the freeway.

At a pedestrian traffic light wait until the little green man appears. Then look right, left and right again before crossing. Look out for impatient motorists.

Motorists should look out for unsteady or staggering pedestrians who might be drunk.

- Cape Argus

Alarming situation of alcohol, drug abuse

Pre-scoolers in rural areas are being treated for binge drinking along with a growing number of primary school children and teenagers, yet community leaders say the majority of "potential alcoholics" are not getting help.

They also fear the "very alarming" situation is getting worse.

In some cases seven-year-olds have had to be weaned off alcohol.

On Tuesday Brenda Pienaar, CEO of the SA National Council for Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in George, said "more and more children are drinking from a younger age".

Pienaar said while no official statistics were available yet, the number of children and teenagers seeking treatment in the George area since last year had increased from about 20 to 35 per month.

But, she said, for every child that came in for treatment, 17 others were drinking but not seeking help. This meant every month nearly 600 children were left untreated.

"These younger children get drunk on weekends. We've treated a seven-year-old but the majority are 10- and 11-year-olds.

These children are binge drinkers. Statistics show that 40 percent of those who start drinking before (the age of) 15 will become addicted to alcohol."

Social workers from the council had also heard pre-school children describe how they apparently smoked and drank with their parents.

Pienaar said poverty coupled with family disintegration often resulted in substance abuse.

"Alcohol is a major problem among adults and has spread to their children. Crystal methamphetamine (tik) is also a problem among the children."

She said alcohol and drug use resulted in less control over one's actions and could lead to violence and promiscuous behaviour.

Zackary Johnston, a member of the Theewaterskloof Emerging Farmers Association in Caledon, said he believed "a couple of hundred" children were drinking.

"There are definitely some pre-schoolers and those younger than 10 who are drinking. The parents don't seem to worry about the age of their children; they just give them alcohol and turn them into potential alcoholics. The children are also using tik and it seems the situation can't be controlled. The children are beyond their parents' control."

Johnston had tried to get parents involved in a community project which focused on protecting their children but he said he had no support from them.

He said last week's murder of 11-year-old Roseline Majola on a Joubertina farm allegedly by five girls and a boy aged between nine and 15 years, who police said had been drinking at the time, showed "the underlying problem of alcohol abuse".

Majola was stoned to death after an alleged argument about a bottle of wine. Her aunt was quoted in local tabloids as saying the family knew Majola often drank with friends.

Glynis Rhodes, of Women on Farms, said drinking among children from farming communities was a known problem.

"Just today (Wednesday) I heard of a 14-year-old who's a binge drinker. I think this is a cry for help. In the case of seven-year-olds, what bothers me is how that child accesses alcohol. Either the parents allow the child to drink, are too intoxicated to notice, or alcohol is too freely available," she said. - Cape Times

Police & Drug Crimes

Successful operation? Two joints? Qualified discharging a gun?

NO.

Clearly making South Africa SAFER from harmful drugs...
Check out this time line of traffic at South Africa's largest airport.

Only a small quantity of cannabis and 3g of hashish was found at the clubs.

Mentoor on Monday told e.tv that the raids were conducted according to "standard procedure".

The small amount of dagga/cannabis that was found in the 3 pubs last week, was allegedly planted by cops.

Stellenbosch: Yesterday the owner of Bohemia restaurant gave footage to Kaapse Son where according to staff it can clearly be seen how cops plant something under the bar. The people that were at Bohemia the night of the raid, say they suspect two guys that were hanging around the pub before the raid were cops. The video shows clearly how two large built guys stand around and lurk and bend slightly as the cops break through the doors.

One of the men then takes something from his pants pocket and messes with something under the bar. After that the two men stand up and simply stroll straight out of the pub - while chaos breaks out in the pub. Shortly after that a uniformed cop walks straight for the spot at the bar and picks something up that looks like dagga, and inspects it from all angels. Roussouw Botha, co-owner of Bohemia, says the CCTV in the pub was installed in the pub because of Police recommendations.

He says the latest video footage is now going to be used in the investigation against the police. In the mean time owners of the Bohemia restaurant, Springbok Pub and Mystic Boer have already laid criminal and civil charges against the police. Yesterday members of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) gathered all the CCTV footage and evidence.

Many students involved have already laid charges against the police. The ICD said yesterday that many statements had been lodged at local police station by people who say they were incorrectly handled by police in last week's raid.

Botha says: "We have already decided to work with the police, because we are also not in favour of people who sell drugs or use them on our premises." "I have already chided many people in my pub who wanted to do that here" ...

Yummy Stories - Cops Plant Drugs - In Die Son

Booze, unborn babies - a true horror story

South African wines are recognised as among the finest in the world, South African Breweries (SAB) is the second largest beer company in the world and local drinks are sold internationally.

But, while business is booming, the South African drinking culture unfortunately also has a number of black spots.

For one, it is generally accepted that alcohol is a leading cause of the carnage that occurs on the country's roads. Liquor also plays a part in domestic violence and neglect.

However, the biggest alcohol-induced problem in South Africa is foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

FAS is prevalent among children of mothers who consume alcohol during their pregnancies.

FASfacts, a Western Cape-based NGO committed to FAS education, says the issue is not the volume of alcohol so much as the fact that alcohol is consumed, which can cause a baby to be born with foetal alcohol syndrome.

Babies with FAS can be mentally challenged, stunted in growth or have major organ defects; alternatively they can be relatively normal children but display hyperactive behaviour patterns and poor concentration.

According to Professor Denis Viljoen, head of the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research in Cape Town, foetal alcohol syndrome is as great a threat to the health of the SA population as HIV/Aids.

Latest research in the Western and Northern Cape, as well as certain parts of Gauteng, has shown that between 4,5 percent and 12,2 percent of schoolgoing children have FAS.

"The incidence of FAS in first world countries ranges between 0,1 percent and 0,3 percent, which underscores the extent of the problem in South Africa. We have the highest extent of reported incidence of FAS in the world.

"The World Health Organisation recently identified birth defects as the most important cause of death, disease and future disability in developing countries.

"In South Africa, FAS is by far the most common birth defect. The incidence of FAS is higher than all other birth defects combined."

Dr Martin Fisher, a sociologist and consultant to FASfacts, says many social problems in South Africa can be related to FAS.

"Persons unlucky enough to be born with FAS in many cases have little impulse control. In many instances, the part of the brain responsible for reflection on personal behaviour and consequences of actions can be adversely affected by FAS," says Fisher.

"Without an impulse-checking function, these people are susceptible to random acts of violence, drug-taking and sexual abandon."

FASfacts is one of the major organisations responsible for preventing the occurrence of FAS, something it tackles through education programmes with adults and teenagers in the Western Cape.

"Fortunately, we have succeeded in highlighting the problem among various institutions which support us financially, making education programmes possible," says Francois Grobbelaar, CEO of FASfacts.

"The Western Cape government, the SA Wine Industry Trust, the Cape Winelands District Municipality and the KWV are some of our donors.

"All realise the devastating effects of FAS in their respective communities. Since 2004, FASfacts has reached 145 000 people in our education programmes. But the high figures of FAS prevalence show we still have a long way to go."

Rural areas

But why is FAS so common in these mainly rural Western and Northern Cape communities?

Santi Basson, an independent rural development consultant who is involved in various rural upliftment projects, says poverty and desperation are the main reasons.

"There are historical reasons, such as the notorious dopstelsel (dop system), which created a culture of alcohol use among rural communities," says Basson.

"But today, poverty and desperation lead to a lack of self-esteem. And in many of these impoverished communities, drinking is the only thing to do.

"During my research, I found pregnant women drinking out of ignorance about the effects of alcohol on the unborn child," she says.

"They assumed the alcohol content of beer to be negligible and believed it improved lactation. One cannot therefore come to any other conclusion than a desperate need for more education on FAS and its full spectrum of effects. The really sad thing about this social and health crisis called FAS is that it is 100 percent preventable," says Viljoen.

Grobbelaar says organisations such as FASfacts are facing a massive task by attempting to turn a surging tide.

"It is only by bringing the extent of this ticking time bomb to the attention of the broader society that awareness of FAS will reach the desired level where we will receive support from the entire country to address this crisis properly.

"FAS isn't restricted to a few rural villages. The social impact affects everyone," he says

With the international awareness of FAS in South Africa, the local liquor industry remains tainted.

Together with national government, which receives more than R3-billion a year from the industry through taxes and duties, the industry has to act on eradicating a monster it played a role - albeit unwittingly - in creating.

Joubert is an independent media consultant in the SA wine industry and a wine writer.

- Pretoria News

Manto: Promoting a healthy lifestyle not hypocritical

She said she believed that the proposed health-warning labels on alcohol products would reduce alcohol abuse and dependence.

Within the next year alcoholic beverages would carry health messages "highlighting the negative effects of alcohol consumption".

Asked if she would consider an outright ban on alcohol to eliminate alcohol abuse instead of simply increasing prices, she said such a ban was against the Constitution.

"You have the right to kill yourself if you want to," she said...

A reduction in alcohol consumption, she said, would also lead to a reduction in violence and road accidents.

- M&G

Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory

The evidence for a "hemp conspiracy" just doesn't stand up. It is far more likely that cannabis was outlawed because of racism and cultural warfare.

How cannabis was prohibited

Twentieth-century cannabis prohibition first reared its head in countries where white minorities ruled black majorities: South Africa, where it's known as dagga, banned it in 1911,

and Jamaica, then a British colony, outlawed ganja in 1913. They were followed by Canada, Britain and New Zealand, which added cannabis to their lists of illegal narcotics in the 1920s. Canada's pot law was enacted in 1923, several years before there were any reports of people actually smoking it there. It was largely the brainchild of Emily F. Murphy, a feminist but racist judge who wrote anti-Asian, anti-cannabis rants under the pseudonym "Janey Canuck."

... AlterNet

TB patients in isolation order dagga by phone

The management of Port Elizabeth's Jose Pearson Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital has taken steps to crack down on dagga smoking by patients with drug-resistant strains of TB.

Provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Wednesday that some patients with extensively or multidrug-resistant TB being held in isolation have been using their cellphones to order the drug. Suppliers would then toss packets to them over the hospital fence. The hospital management has already met police on the issue, and a meeting with patients will follow. "We will be telling the patients that if they continue taking the substance, it will be extremely dangerous for their health," Kupelo said. He said smoking is a cause of TB, and the department discourages the habit. "We also want to appeal to those who supply them with this kind of thing [dagga] to stop it," he said.

Patients have also been obtaining liquor and dangerous weapons the same way. "They don't want to stay at the hospital. I think this is an attempt to assist them to find their way out," he said. He said security at Jose Pearson has been stepped up following the escape of a number of patients last year. One patient absconded last week, using a knife to threaten security staff, but was brought back after the department obtained a court order. -- Sapa

Source: MG

How does cannabis compare to other drugs?

*Source of graph data: http://www.ndsn.org/AUGUST94/NICOTINE.html

Scientists want new drug rankings

The drug classification system in the UK is not "fit for purpose" and should be scrapped, scientists have said.

They have drawn up an alternative system which they argue more accurately reflects the harm that drugs do.

The new ranking system places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table, ahead of cannabis and several Class A drugs such as ecstasy.

The study, published in The Lancet, has been welcomed by a team reviewing drug research for the government.

The Academy of Medical Sciences group plans to put its recommendations to ministers in the autumn.

I would say that on balance, many 'illegal' drugs are less harmful than the two 'legal' drugs available Chris, Shropshire

Suggested rating of drugs according to harm done

A new commission is also due to undertake a three-year review of general government drug policy.

The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor David Nutt, from the University of Bristol, and Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council.

It assesses drugs on the harm they do to the individual, to society and whether or not they induce dependence.

A panel of experts were asked to rate 20 different drugs on nine individual categories, which were combined to produce an overall estimate of harm.

In order to provide familiar benchmarks, five legal drugs, including tobacco and alcohol were included in the assessment. Alcohol was rated the fifth most dangerous substance, and tobacco ninth.

Heroin was rated as the most dangerous drug, followed by cocaine and barbiturates. Ecstasy, however, rated only 18th, while cannabis was 11th.

Arbitrary ranking

CURRENT DRUG CLASSIFICATION Class A Cocaine/crack Heroin Ecstasy LSD Magic mushrooms Crystal meth (pending) Class A/B Amphetamines Class C Cannabis Ketamine Drugs key facts Crystal meth to be Class A

The researchers said the current ABC system was too arbitrary, and failed to give specific information about the relative risks of each drug.

It also gave too much importance to unusual reactions, which would only affect a tiny number of users.

Professor Nutt said people were not deterred by scare messages, which simply served to undermine trust in warnings about the danger of drugs.

He said: "The current system is not fit for purpose. Let's treat people as adults. We should have a much more considered debate how we deal with dangerous drugs."

He highlighted the fact that one person a week in the UK dies from alcohol poisoning, while less than 10 deaths a year are linked to ecstasy use.

Professor Blakemore said it was clear that current drugs' policies were not working.

"We face a huge problem. Illegal substances have never been more easily available, or more widely abused."

He said the beauty of the new system, unlike the current version, was that it could easily be updated to reflect new research.

Professor Leslie Iversen, a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences group considering drug policy, said the new system was a "landmark paper".

He said: "It is a real step towards evidence-based classification of drugs."

Professor Iversen said the fact that 500,000 young people routinely took ecstasy every weekend proved that current drug policy was in need of reform.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "We have no intention of reviewing the drug classification system.

"Our priority is harm reduction and to achieve this we focus on enforcement, education and treatment."

He said there had been "unparalleled investment" of £7.5 billion since 1998, which had contributed to a 21% reduction in overall drug misuse in the last nine years and a fall of 20% in drug related crime since 2004.

But he added: "The government is not complacent and will continue to work with all of our partners to build on this progress."

MOST HARMFUL DRUGS

BBC

Are you an alcoholic?

You only have to worry that you are becoming an alcoholic if you find yourself drinking hard liquor on your own at nine in the morning, right? Apparently not. David Bayever, a Wits pharmacist and Acting Chair of the Central Drug Authority says that if you drink at as little as two litres of alcohol a weekend you are at risk of becoming an alcoholic.

But surely drinking two litres of beer and two litres of vodka are completely different things?

"Obviously, there are many variables including age and alcohol tolerance," says Bayever "but you have to start somewhere".

So how much is too much?

According to Bayever, two litres is a rough estimate. So while there is no guarantee that drinking two litres of beer a weekend will make you an alcoholic (there can’t be any argument about the vodka), it will certainly put you at risk of becoming one.

While it is common knowledge that gender, to a certain degree, affects your alcohol tolerance — larger males generally being able to drink more — it is not widely known that your age can affect the likelihood of you becoming an addict.

It is estimated that it can take between five and 15 years for an adult to become an addict. Teenagers on the other hand can become addicts in the short period of five to 15 weeks, says Bayever.

Paul Adriaanse of Alcohol and Drug Concerns suggests that you can’t really give a blanket figure of two litres because there are many criteria and you need to look at what the alcohol consumption is doing "physically and psychologically and what effect it is having on the environment".

He says that while drinking two litres a weekend may very well mean that you have a problem, everyone has different tolerance levels and these levels increase with increased consumption.

High-risk binge drinking

"You need to start worrying if you are staying home from work or if there is a change in your temperament, if you have reduced inhibitions or impaired judgment and if you are suffering from 'alcoholic blackouts'," he says.

The Medical Research Council regards 'binge drinking' as 'high-risk' drinking behaviour. However, it also suggests that 'low-risk' drinking can in fact be healthy for certain groups. It defines 'low-risk' drinking as four units per day for males and two units per day for females, for not more than five days of a week.

If one unit is a 340ml can of beer, then four units is 1360ml. The difference therefore, in the case of men, between what is regarded as healthy and what is regarded as damaging is just under two cans of beer.

Alcohol is the primary drug of abuse in South Africa, with approximately 7.5 percent of the population engaging in weekend 'binge drinking' and Red Cross Children’s hospital has estimated that the total cost to the economy annually — including the cost of inability to work and child abuse — is around R20–billion.

To put this into perspective, at least 400,000 RDP houses could be built each year with the money that alcohol abuse costs the country. If you are drinking two litres of beer each weekend (assuming that that is all that you are drinking) you are probably spending about R3120 on beer each year. Could your money be better spent? - Health iAfrica

The Cancer Drug

Medical -- Ahh, cancer. One learns so much from being diagnosed with a death-sentence disease. Of course, 95% of it is stuff you would rather not know, but that other 5% is downright interesting. For example, "America's Next Top Model" is much more fun to watch when you've lost 15 pounds without trying. During chemotherapy, vanilla smells good, but vanilla wafers taste disgusting. And eyelashes really do have a purpose; without them, my eyes are a dust magnet.

But the most compelling fact I learned was about my friends. Not just what you would expect: how they cooked for my family and picked up my kids and took me to doctors and pretended not to notice how bad I looked and, most important, that I could not -- cannot -- survive without them.

No, what really shocked me was how many of my old, dear, married, parenting, job-holding friends smoke pot. I am not kidding. People I never expected dropped by to deliver joints and buds and private stash. The DEA could have set a security cam over my front door and made some serious dents in the cannabis trade. The poets and musicians were not a surprise, but lawyers? CEOs? Republicans? Across the ideological spectrum, a lot of my buddies are stoners. Who knew?

OK, I admit it, in college I smoked dope with the rest of them. I mean, everybody was doing it -- an excuse I do not allow my children -- and at parties I didn't want to be uncool. Plus, I felt my only other option was alcohol, and the sweet drinks I liked were too fattening. But that was a long time ago, and since then I have learned to drink bourbon straight, get high on life and appreciate the advantages of not doing anything you wouldn't want your kids to do.

I thought all my friends felt the same. Boy, was I wrong. When I surfaced from my chemo haze enough to care about anyone else, I was curious. Why do so many 40- and 50-somethings still get high? I asked my suppliers. Pain was the No. 1 answer. Not just the psychic angst of being mothers and fathers to teenagers, but real physical pain. We're all beginning to fall apart, and for those who imbibe, a couple of tokes really take the edge off the sciatica, rotator cuff injuries, irritable bowel syndrome and migraines.

The second biggest reason was anxiety. Perhaps we can blame politics for middle-age pot use: the war, the environment, the loss of our civil liberties, little things like that.

Obviously some of us use drugs to ease the lives of quiet desperation we never thought we would have back when we were getting stoned the first time. Our drug use now is really the same as in college. Then I got high to relax, to gain confidence, to forget I was an overweight, mediocre college student terrified of the future. Now we get stoned to relax, forget our disappointing careers and mask our terror of not just our own future but the future for our kids as well. Is it so different from my dad coming home from work and having a couple of martinis? Or my mother and those little prescribed pills she took when she felt "nervous"? At least -- we can rationalize -- cannabis is all natural.

I spoke to my oncologist about the pros and cons of cannabis use for cancer patients. He said he was part of a study 25 years ago on the effects of pot on nausea, joint pain and fatigue caused by chemotherapy. It worked then, he said; it really helped some people. But now they have great new drugs, such as Emend, dexamethasone and Ativan, that keep the nausea and other pain at bay. He said the people who use pot now do it because they like it. Or maybe they use it because they would rather support a farm in Humboldt County than a huge pharmaceutical conglomerate.

After chemo No. 1, I was violently ill. Anti-nausea drugs notwithstanding, I was hugging the porcelain throne. My body did not want to be poisoned; I guess it liked cancer better. I was willing to try anything, so I lit up. It helped. A lot. I collapsed on the couch, I zoned out watching "Project Runway," I was able to take deep breaths without puking.

My 15-year-old daughter was shocked. The look on her face was proof that her elementary school D.A.R.E. program had really done its job. A friend -- not a supplier or a user -- explained to her it was just to make me feel better and that if it worked, wouldn't that be great? My daughter reluctantly agreed, but I knew she didn't mean it. I had come full circle in my life -- the next time I had a toke, I stood in my bathroom with the fan on, blowing smoke out the window, but instead of my parents, I was scared my kids would find out I was smoking dope again.

The biggest pain of cancer is the gnawing, scratching, bleeding dread that they didn't find it all, that you didn't go to the doctor soon enough, that it is growing out of control at this very moment. My doctor recommended meditation. Yeah, right, I thought, more time sitting quietly trying not to think about dying. I had carpool for that. Meanwhile, I lost all taste for alcohol. Even half a glass of wimpy white wine could make me toss my cookies, so I turned to my friend Mary Jane occasionally, only when nothing else would do.

In the middle of one post-chemo night, my husband was out of town and I was sick and I got up and tried to get the little pipe lit and take one hit so I could maybe sleep. My son heard me struggling and he came into my bedroom. He lit the match for me and showed me where to put my finger on the "carburetor," the hole on the side of the pipe, to make it draw. I was too grateful to ask him how he knew all this. He stayed with me until I felt better. It was mother-son bonding in a new way.

Just another reason to say: Thank you, cancer.

By Diana Wagman Source: Los Angeles Times

Diana Wagman, a professor at Cal State Long Beach, is the author of the novels "Skin Deep," "Spontaneous" and "Bump."

Note: Cancer opens one's eyes to the many facets of cannabis.

'Cannabis' brain tumour drug hope

An ingredient in marijuana may be useful for treating brain cancers, say Spanish researchers from Madrid.

Chemicals called cannabinoids could starve tumours to death by halting the growth of blood vessels that feed it, the Complutense University team hope.

By studying mice, the team has shown for the first time how these chemicals block vessel growth.

Their study, published in Cancer Research, also shows the treatment appears to work in humans.

This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer drugs Dr Richard Sullivan, Cancer Research UK

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common brain cancer and is notoriously difficult to treat.

It can evade destruction by radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Dr Manuel Guzmán and colleagues set out to determine whether they could prevent the cancer from growing by destroying its blood supply.

Previous research has shown cannabinoids block the growth of blood vessels in mice, but little is known about how these chemicals do this and whether they might do the same in human tumours.

Starving tumours

The researchers first gave mice cancer resembling the human form of brain cancer they wanted to study.

They then treated the mice with cannabinoid and examined the genes of the mice.

The activity of genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumours through the production of a substance called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was reduced.

Cannabinoids appeared to stifle VEGF production by increasing the activity of a substance that controls cell death, called ceramide.

Lead researcher Dr Guzmán said: "As far as we know, this is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production."

Their next challenge was to see if cannabinoids had the same effect in humans.

They took samples from two patients with glioblastoma multiforme who had not responded to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

Treatment for humans

Samples were taken before and after the patients were treated with cannabinoid solution infused directly into the tumour.

In both patients, VEGF levels in the tumour were reduced following treatment with cannabinoids.

Although they only looked at two patients, the researchers hope their findings could lead to new treatments.

"The present findings provide a novel pharmacological target for cannabinoid-based therapies," said Dr Guzmán.

Dr Richard Sullivan, Head of Clinical Programmes at Cancer Research UK, said: "This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer drugs targeting cancer's blood supply.

"Although this work is at an early stage of development, other research has already demonstrated that VEGF is an important drug target for a range of cancers.

"The key now will be to show further activity in pre-clinical cancer models, find out in which combinations cannabinoids show greatest activity and formulate a product that can be tested in man.

"It is important to note that cannabinoids would need to generate very strong data in the future as there are already a number of VEGF inhibitors in clinical development," he said. - BBC

• Medical NEWS Today
• New Scientist

• SETHGROUP

In "Cannabis extract makes brain tumors shrink, halts growth of blood vessels," Medical News Today gives other details about the tests done on human patients.

[The researchers] selected two patients who had glioblastoma multiforme and had not responded to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. The scientists took samples from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution -- this was administered directly into the tumor.

Amazingly, both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor as a result of treatment with cannabinoids.

The researchers said that the results were encouraging. In order to be sure about their findings they need to carry out a larger study, they said.

Here you can see the effect of the treatment on the two patients with brain cancers. VEGFR-2 activation is shown in green and its expression in red. Cell nuclei are stained in blue. Relative values of activated-VEGFR-2 pixels are displayed in parentheses and total-VEGFR-2 pixels in square brackets are given for the two patients per cell nucleus. (Credit: Cancer Research).

For more information, you also can read this news release from the American Association for Cancer Research, "Cannabis ingredient inhibits VEGF pathway required for brain tumor blood vessels."

The research work has been published by the Cancer Research journal under the title "Cannabinoids Inhibit the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Pathway in Gliomas." Here are two links to the abstract and to the full paper (PDF format, 7 pages, 732 KB). The above illustration comes from this paper.

Sources: Shaoni Bhattacharya, New Scientist, August 15, 2004; Medical News Today, August 15, 2004; American Association for Cancer Research news release, via EurekAlert!, August 15, 2004; Cancer Research, Vol. 64, Num. 16, Pages 5617-5623, August 15, 2004

Migraine May Be Related To Underproduction Of Cannabinoids

Perugia, Italy: Patients with a history of migraine headaches may be suffering from a clinical deficiency of the endocannabinoid system, according to clinical trial data published in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Investigators at Italy’s University of Perugia, Department of Public Health, reported that patients with chronic migraines possessed "significantly lower" levels of the endogenous cannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) in their platelets compared to age-matched controls.

"These data support the potential involvement of a dysfunctioning of the endocannabinoid and serotonergic systems in the pathology of chronic migraine and medication-overuse headaches," researchers’ concluded.

A previous paper published in the journal Neuroendocrinology Letters similarly suggested that migraine, fibromyalgia, and other treatment-resistant conditions may be associated with dysfunctions in the endocannabinoid system. This system is believed to play a primary role in regulating humans' mood, appetite, skeletal development, motor coordination, digestion, and reproduction.

Full text of the study, "Endocannabinoids in platelets of chronic migraine patients and medication-overuse headache patients: relation with serotonin levels," appears in the November issue of the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Benefits of Cannabis in Migraine, and other Treatment-Resistant Conditions - Russo EB

South Africa: Death Toll on Country's Roads

Figures provided by Arrive Alive on Wednesday indicated that those fatalities included 460 pedestrians, 379 passengers and 303 drivers. The provincial breakdown shows that Gauteng province tops with 231 fatalities; 170 in KwaZulu-Natal; 145 in the Eastern Cape; 145 in Mpumalanga; 134 in the Western Cape; 125 in Limpopo; 97 in North West and 23 in the Northern Cape.

According to Arrive Alive spokesperson Ntau Letebele, most accidents were alcohol related. "Some motorists drink first thing in the morning, or drink apart from meals and we have warned road users about this hazardous pattern of drinking," he said...


"It has been estimated that the per capita consumption of alcohol in South Africa is between 10.3 and 12.4 litres, with the higher level reflecting the amount including homebrewed alcohol," Mr Letebele said. He said the Department of Transport's Arrive Alive was more concerned with safety of road users, especially pedestrians and motorists. Traffic authorities will be out in full force to deal with any eventuality, especially drinking and driving which carries a fine of R120,000 or six year jail sentence.

BUA NEWS

Driving

Here’s an interesting video aired on British television that’s been gaining popularity online.

It’s not the most scientifically sound piece of research on the planet, but it does illustrate the point that maybe driving while stoned isn’t as dangerous as everyone makes it out to be. The consensus is that a healthy dose of paranoia after smoking generates increased concentration in the driver.

On the flip side, driving while drunk makes you more liable to take risks.

Arrive Alive