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African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009DRUG ADDICTIONS vs MEDICAL CANNABISSharp Rise in Liver Cancerblamed on Binge Drinking andObesitySarah BoseleyThe Guardian20 August 2009Cases of liver cancer have tripled over the last threedecades, according to figures published today by Britain'sleading cancer charity. Statistics compiled by CancerResearch UK show that in 1975 there were 865 cases ofprimary liver cancer. In 2006 that had risen to 3,108.Britain's changing drinking habits over the last threedecades are partly responsible, according to the charity, butobesity is another cause. The third contributory factor isinfection with the hepatitis C virus.Hepatitis C is transmitted through blood. In the past, manypeople contracted it through contaminated bloodtransfusions. Blood products were brought to Britain fromthe US, obtained from paid donors and prisoners, some ofwhom were drug addicts and had been infected with thevirus through sharing needles.Continued on page 2What is the African TraditionalHerbal Research Clinic?We can make you healthy and wiseNakato LewisBlackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.The African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic locatedin Bukoto, Uganda is a modern clinic facility created toestablish a model space whereby indigenous herbalpractitioners and healers can upgrade and update theirskills through training and certification and respond tocommon diseases using African healing methods andtraditions in a modern clinical environment.Traditional healers are the major health labor resource inAfrica as a whole. In Uganda, indigenous traditionalhealers are the only source of health services for themajority of the population. An estimated 80% of thepopulation receives its health education and health carefrom practitioners of traditional medicine. They areknowledgeable of the culture, the local languages andlocal traditions. Our purpose is to raise public awarenessand understanding on the value of African traditionalherbal medicine and other healing practices in today’sworld.I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE2 Waragi: 15 Dead as Three Go Blind3 Afrikan Spirituality – Drugs and the Subconscious4 Feature - Is America Ready to admit Defeat in 40 Year War6 Feature - Freud and Cocaine – The Deal8 Feature – Obama’s Drug Czar: Marijuana has no Benefit9 AMA Calls for Scientific Review of Marijuana Prohibitive Status10 Drink and Drugs can Damage Men’s Sperm14 Warning of Extra Heart Dangers from Mixing Cocaine & Alcohol15 Feature – Can Marijuana Help Children with Autism16 Cannabis may help Prevent Alzheimer’s Memory Loss22 Feature- What Alcohol Does to Your Baby24 One-in-10 Deaths Caused by Drinking Alcohol27 Alcoholsim Main Cause of Domestic Violence: Poll28 Brewers Turn Food into Beer to Lower Costs31 Feature – Harmless Habit or Dangerous Drug35 Heroin and the Road to Self-Respect37 Cocaine Addiction Vaccine In the Works38 Junk Food as Addictive as Drugs45 Uganda: Marijuana Sales Boom in City49 Kenya: Aids Prevention Amongst Drug Users a Challenge50 Antidepressant Use Doubles in U.S.54 Herb of the Month – History of Cannabis as a MedicineThe Clinic is open and operational. Some of the serviceswe offer are African herbal medicine, reflexology,acupressure, hot and cold hydrotherapy, body massage,herbal tonics, patient counseling, blood pressure checks,urine testing (sugar), and nutritional profiles. We believein spirit, mind, and body. Spiritual counseling uponrequest.Visit us also at www.Blackherbals.comHours: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru FridaySaturdays by Appointment - Sundays – Closed-1-Traditional African Clinic – December 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESIs America Ready to admit Defeat in its 40Year War on Drugs?By Ed VulliamyThe Observer, September 6, 2009Bruno Avangera, a 40-year-old web designer fromTucumán in Argentina, pauses to relight a half-smokedjoint of cannabis. Then he speaks approvingly of"progress and the right decision" by the country'sseven supreme court judges, who decided last weekthat prosecuting people for the private consumption ofsmall amounts of narcotics was unconstitutional."Last year three of my friends were caught smoking aspliff in a park and were treated like traffickers," hesaid. "They went to court, which took six months. Onewent to jail alongside murderers. The others were sentto rehab, where they were treated for an addiction theydidn't have, alongside serious heroin and crack users. Itwas pointless and destroyed their lives."The court's ruling was based on a case involvingseveral men caught with joints in their pockets. As aresult, judges struck down an existing law stipulating asentence of up to two years in jail for those caughtwith any amount of narcotics. "Each individual adult isresponsible for making decisions freely about theirdesired lifestyle without state interference," the rulingsaid. "Private conduct is allowed unless it constitutes areal danger or causes damage to property or the rightsof others."Is the "war on drugs" ending? The Argentinian rulingdoes not stand alone. Across Latin America andMexico, there is a wave of drug law reform whichconstitutes a stark rebuff to the United States as itprepares to mark the 40th anniversary of a conflictofficially declared by President Richard Nixon andfronted by his wife, Pat, in 1969.That "war" has incarcerated an average of a million UScitizens a year, as every stratum of American societydemonstrates its insatiable need to get high. And it hasalso engulfed not only America, but the Americas.At El Paso at the end of the month, experts from theUS and Mexico will gather to take stock and thrash outalternatives. El Paso stands cheek by jowl with its twincity, Ciudad Juárez, across the Rio Grande. There, lastWednesday, the day after the Argentinian court ruling,cartel gunmen broke into the El Aliviane drugrehabilitation centre, lined 17 young people against awall and cut them down with a fusillade of machinegunfire. Troops last night captured the suspectedkiller, Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, considered one of themost brutal hitmen in Chihuahua and one of theleaders of the Juárez cartel. The executions, comingshortly after the killing of 40 people over three days inJuárez two weeks ago, take the death toll to about1,400 this year, making it the most dangerous city inthe world.Never have the war on drugs and its flipside, the drugwars, raged so furiously as on this anniversary. YetMexico's is only the latest in a series of murderousconflicts that have scarred the pan-American war ondrugs, starting with Operation Condor in the 1970s,whereby the US helped Mexico to obliterate poppycrops, only to give birth to the new cartels andinstitutionalised corruption.Meanwhile, there have been catastrophic drug warsand narco-insurgency in Colombia, combining withpolitical struggles to create the biggest internaldisplacement of people in the western hemisphere.Drug-related violence has blighted Brazil, Peru,Bolivia, Venezuela and anywhere the Mexican andColombian cocaine cartels sought their product. LatinAmerica has also become a factory for synthetic drugs,much of it now under Mexican control.Latin America is seeking a different route to that ofoutright interdiction as advocated – and for decadesdirected – by Washington. The new thinking isemblematic of a new era in South American politicsContinued on page 5-4-Traditional African Clinic – December 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESFreud and Cocaine – The DealWhat do you get when you cross a famous personage,high minded ambition and cocaine? No, it's not NoellaBush. It's a tale of love and self-medication in Europeat the turn of the last century.On April 24, 1884, Sigmund Freud ordered his firstgram of cocaine from the local apothecary.It was not to be his last. He'd read about coke, it wassupposed to be great for fatigue. So great, the Germanarmy used it to stave off exhaustion [1], and he thoughtit might help out a few of his patients suffering nervousdisorders. Like most people who purchase their firstgram of coke, he was rather shocked - it cost him asmall fortune. One tenth of his monthly salary to beprecise. And again, like new kids in the cocaine game,the first thing he did was take a dose himself.Then another. And another.A young Freud sits still long enough for a picture.He sent some to his friends; he sent some to his fiancee,Martha Bernays, who lived some miles away, saying:I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you areplump. And if you are forward you shall see who is theHalima Shaban20 April 2009a little girl who doesn't eat enough or a big strong manwith cocaine in his body. In my last serious depression Itook cocaine again and a small dose lifted me to theheights in a wonderful fashion. I am just now collectingthe literature for a song of praise to this magicalsubstance. [2]Clearly, he was off his nut.A junkie in the makingFreud was going through a bad patch. He desperatelywanted to marry the fetching Martha, but her parentswere rich and sceptical of this young upstart whopresumed to ask for their daughter's hand. He'd startedstudying a variety of sea creatures in the hope of makinggreat leaps forward in the new science of neurology andhad the honour of being the first person to find thegenitals of an eel (how he found the genitals whilelooking for the brain is a bit of a mystery). But it wasn'tenough. Poking around in the nether regions of fishwasn't going to impress anybody [3], not least Martha'ssnooty parents.So when the cocaine came along, he had high hopes.How could a highly addictive stimulant not impressone's presumptive in-laws? Not only did this new drugcure hunger, thirst and melancholy, it made him feelfantastic. Like totally groovy, man. He couldn't wait toannounce this new wonder drug to the scientificcommunity, publishing "On Coca" in June 1884.Considering Freud was the father of psychoanalysis andspurred an entire new realm of intellectual discourse, thearticle was a complete mess. Rife with misspellings andinaccuracies, he managed to even get the comparativelysimple chemical formula of cocaine incorrect. Why?Let's just say he was extremely thorough in his research.-6-Traditional African Clinic – December 2009The rip offDuring this time, Freud had made the acquaintance of anophthalmology intern named Carl Koller. Koller waskeen to find a local anaesthetic for eye surgery, which,as one can imagine, was a terrible business, particularlyContinued on page 7

Continued from page 6 – Freud and Cocainegiven that the patient was generally required to stayawake throughout the procedure, rendering otheravailable anaesthetics useless. Try convincing someoneto hold still while you push a scalpel into their eyeballand you'll get the picture. It involved much fussing aboutwith burly lads holding down the patient and the use ofgags and other apparatus to restrain the struggling victim;and a bullet or wooden spoon to bite, perhaps. Stitcheswere often torn out, and the results were, in a word, aneyesore.Freud and Koller started dosing up on cocaine together,doing a variety of medical experiments on themselves.Noticing that cocaine numbed his lips when he drank it,Koller had the bright idea to try putting a coke solutioninto his patients' eyes before surgery. It worked.Sadly, for Freud, he was on leave at the time. He was offbeing a "big strong man" for Martha, whom he hadn'tseen in a year. When he returned, he was mortified toknow that his new discovery had been hijacked and thatKoller was currently enjoying the accolades of hiscolleagues as the discoverer of the first local anaestheticfor eye surgery.While Freud was lamenting the loss of his breakthrough,the rest of the medical fraternity on both sides of theAtlantic were chattering like monkeys about the possibleapplications of this new drug. They started testing it indroves - mostly on themselves.They painted it on their skin, in their ears and up theirnoses. They injected it, ingested it and snorted it by thebucketload. They stuffed it into a variety of orifices. Oneparticularly fervent researcher injected it into his penis,following up with the insertion of a range of objects totest its efficacy in anaesthetising mucus membranes.Research at the time suggested that cocaine could be usedfor urethral operations, removing ingrown toenails,catarrh, asthma, nymphomania, impotency, masturbation,lip waxing, seasickness, weight problems, head colds,gastritis, and toothache. And best of all, it had no sideeffects. They could all agree on one thing -- coke feltgood.I'd like to buy the world some cokeCocaine products started flooding the market: there werelozenges and pastilles, elixirs and pills. The most notable,however was cocaine wine, which was first sold inEurope under the name of Vin Mariani, named after itscreator Angelo Mariani in 1860.[4] It was a roaringsuccess, and spawned an army of impostors. In the US,an enterprising chap by the name of John StythPemberton brought out his own version of the drink in1881. He was moderately successful, but in 1885, AtlantaCoca Wine from the 1900 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogbanned the sale of alcohol. Clearly, something had to bedone. So Pemberton changed the recipe, took out thealcohol, and sold his new drink under the name Coca-Cola. It was good, but not great. Disillusioned that hisfortune hadn't been made overnight, he sold the entireoperation to Asa Griggs Candler for a$2,300. [5]What goes up must come downWe all know cocaine is an addictive drug: just about themost addictive drug on the planet. In one experiment, achimp was trained to hit a bar in his cage to beadministered with a dose of cocaine. At regular intervals,the number of times the chimp had to hit the bar to getthe coke was increased. The experiment was finallyabandoned when the chimp hit the bar over 12,000 timesto get a single dose of coke.[6]But in 1885, the medicos were blissfully ignorant. So, notsurprisingly, by the late 1800s more than half thescientific and medical community had developed healthycoke habits. One notable example was William Halstead,a founding father of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in paltryBaltimore. Halstead was a talented surgeon, now famousfor introducing the rubber glove to surgical hygiene.Halstead became hopelessly addicted to the drug whileperfecting nerve block anaesthesia in the mid 1880s. Hedeveloped a hefty two-gram a day habit injecting nerves,and never recovered. In a move that must make thelegions of JHU medical graduates beam with pride, heeventually switched to morphine in an effort to cure hiscocaine addiction and died an opiate junkie.Back in Vienna, Freud was having a similar problem witha good friend of his. Dr. Ernst Fleishl von Markow haddeveloped a morphine addiction treating his painfulthumb, and the young Freud figured there was one cure -cocaine and plenty of it.He started dosing Fleishl regularly, and miraculously, hismorphine dependence seemed to be on the wane. ThingsContinued on page 12-7- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESObama’s Drug Czar: Marijuana ‘Has NoMedical Benefit’When President Barack Obama appointed formerSeattle, Washington police chief Gil Kerlikowske tolead the Office of National Drug Control Policy,activists supporting marijuana policy reform werecheered by the news, however briefly.Kerlikowske’s appointment came on the heels ofAttorney General Eric Holder’s announcement thatAmerica would not longer prosecute patients who arelegally prescribed the herb in states that have passedlaws allowing medicinal marijuana. Holder’sannouncement fell in-line with Obama’s repeatedyet-quietendorsement of marijuana for medical useas “entirely appropriate” for states in which amajority of voters approve.Activists were given even more reason to hope whenKerlikowske advertised the end of America’s “drugwar,” saying he would seek to emphasize harmreduction policies over jailing those afflicted withdrug addictions. However, that hope was soon tofade.Even though Kerlikowske’s former city is famouslytolerant of marijuana — which is less harmful andless addictive than America’s most popular, legalintoxicant, alcohol — that did not stop America’snew drug czar from demeaning the president’sposition on medicinal use, telling a crowd in Fresno,California on Wednesday that marijuana is“dangerous” and “has no medical benefit,” accordingto The Fresno Bee.He has no medical training and did not qualify hisstatements with any opinions from medicalprofessionals.Kerlikowske was discussing “Operation SOS — or,“Save Our Sierra” — which has been underway inCalifornia for the last 11 days.By Stephen Webster23 July 2009“More than 314,000 plants were uprooted in 70 gardens— numbers expected to rise as the enforcement actioncontinues,” the paper reported. “Agents also seized$41,000 in cash, 26 firearms and three vehicles.”When Kerlikowske was announced as Obama’s choicefor drug czar, the organizers of Seattle’s famous annualHempfest welcomed the move.“Seattle Hempfest has enjoyed a good relationship withthe Seattle Police Department for 18 years, 8 of thoseduring Mr. Kerlikowske’s tenure as Chief of Police,” theysaid in a published statement. “We have always found theSPD to be extremely professional and guided by themotivation to ensure the safety of the public overenforcement of Marijuana laws.”California is one of 13 states to legalize marijuana formedicinal use. Other states, like Washington, have passedlaws providing an affirmative medical defense againststate possession charges for patients whose doctors haverecommended the herb to alleviate symptoms of variousillnesses. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law,which provides no medical exceptions.The plant can provide significant relief to sufferers ofmany chronic and life-threatening illnesses, such ascancer, AIDS, glaucoma, arthritis, muscular dystrophyand numerous others.“Every day I see people with nausea secondary tochemotherapy, depression, trouble sleeping, pain,” Dr.Donald Abrams, a cancer specialist at San FranciscoGeneral Hospital, told The Los Angeles Times, accordingto a recent report. “I can recommend one drug[marijuana] for all those things, as opposed to writingfive different prescriptions.”It has also been shown to alleviate symptoms of lessthreateningdisorders such as uncontrollable anxiety,Continued on page 9-8- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 8 – Marijuana has no MedicalBenefitdepression and insomnia, among others.Advocates of legalizing medical marijuana on thefederal level also point to the fact that it is virtuallyimpossible to die from overdosing on the substance; astark contrast with other common pain relieving drugssuch as aspirin, Ibuprofen and acetaminophen, whichcause thousands of U.S. deaths every year according tothe Journal of the American Medical Association.President Obama has maintained that legalization ofmarijuana is “not in my vocabulary” — words thatwere echoed by his drug czar in Fresno — but hasnever denounced his stated support of decrimalization.Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), who recently introducedlegislation to form a presidential commission on prisonreforms that would study drug criminalization, hasinsisted that marijuana legalization must be “on thetable.” His bipartisan bill would form a group to makerecommendations to Congress after 18 months. Webbhas reportedly received “quiet encouragement” fromPresident Obama on the issue.Kerlikowske’s 39-year-old son Jeff is in jail in Floridafor parole violations stemming from marijuana-relatedcharges. Kerlikowske said he has not spoken to or seenJeff in over a decade.http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/23/obamas-drug-czarmarijuana-has-no-medical-benefit/☻☻☻☻☻☻American Medical AssociationCalls For ScientificReview of Marijuana'sProhibitive StatusNovember 12, 2009Houston, TXThe American Medical Association (AMA) this weekcalled for a scientific review of cannabis' federal statusas a Schedule I prohibited substance.On Tuesday, the AMA's House of Delegates resolved,"[The] AMA urges that marijuana's status as a federalSchedule I controlled substance be reviewed with thegoal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research anddevelopment of cannabinoid-based medicines."The AMA's resolution amends the organization'spreviously held position that "marijuana be retained inSchedule I of the Controlled Substances Act" of theUnited States.Under federal law, all Schedule I classified substances aredefined as possessing "no currently accepted use intreatment in the United States." Congress classifiedmarijuana, and all of the plants naturally occurringcompounds (known as cannabinoids) as a Schedule Isubstance upon passage of the Controlled Substances Act in1970.In a 1988 administrative ruling, US Drug EnforcementAdministrative Law Judge Francis Young determined, "Byany measure of rational analysis, marijuana can be safelyused within a supervised routine of medical care," andrecommended that the drug be rescheduled under federallaw. Young's decision was eventually rejected by the DEAin 1990.Presently the DEA website, "Exposing the Myths ofSmoked Medical Marijuana," still states "The AmericanMedical Association recommends that marijuana remain aSchedule I controlled substance."In 2008 the American College of Physicians also called fora reclassification of cannabis' Schedule I status. In recentyears, numerous prominent health organizations, includingthe American Nurses Association and the American PublicHealth Association, have called for the immediatelegalization of marijuana for medical purposes.In a separate action, the AMA also adopted a report draftedby its Council on Science and Public Health stating,"Results of short term controlled trials indicate that smokedcannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite andcaloric intake especially in patients with reduced musclemass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients withmultiple sclerosis."This conclusion contradicts a recent White House factsheet,entitled "Medical Marijuana Reality Check," whichalleges, "no sound scientific studies have supported medicaluse of smoked marijuana for treatment in the United States,and no animal or human data support the safety or efficacyof smoked marijuana for general medical use."Commenting on the AMA's policy reversal NORMLDeputy Director Paul Armentano said: "This week theAmerican Medical Association abandoned its long-standing'flat-Earth' policy regarding the safety and efficacy ofcannabis as a therapeutic agent. The AMA's resolution callson science, not ideological rhetoric, to guide our nation'smarijuana policies – a position that NORML has advocatedsince our inception."For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre,NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or PaulArmentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8020☻☻☻☻☻☻-9- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 5 – Is America Ready to Admit Defeat onits 40 Year War on Drugs?that possession of up to four lines of cocaine or 50mg ofheroin will be legal. Juan Morales Magana, 17, awindscreen-washer and registered methamphetamine andheroin addict, was working out how many hits the legallimit of 40mg of meth would get him, though hiscounsellor, an evangelical pastor, was ambivalent: "Iwouldn't want anyone to think that, just because it is legal,one should live like this for fun. Drugs are the scourge ofour society. All this can do would limit killing betweensmall-time cholos [gangsters] for street-corner turf,allowing the army to go after kingpins and middle men.The danger is that kingpins will accelerate the domesticmarket if possession is legal and smuggling into the USmore difficult."In barrios such as this, drugs are sold from tienditascontrolled by gangs that operate an outsourced tendersystem for the battling cartels. "It's unsure how thelegislation will affect actions against the tienditas," saidpolice officer Elisio Montes, whose two best friends, hisformer boss and assistant, were murdered by executionersfor the cartels."Personally, I sometimes wish drugs would be made legalso that the gringos can get high and we can live in peace.Then I say to myself: no – these drugs are addictive afterone single hit. They're terrifying – they destroy lives, theydestroy our young people. If they are legal, they will buymore."A further reason for scepticism is the prospect of massdrugs tourism from the US. This is not what Mexicanbusinessmen in the border town of Nogales, Sonora, had inmind last Tuesday when they discussed how to restore theimage of cities that until recently enjoyed thriving tradefrom Americans looking for cheap pharmaceuticals, dentaltreatment, souvenirs, alcohol and sex.The prospect of border towns becoming the equivalent ofAmsterdam, only with cocaine and heroin freely on sale,was not discussed. "It's interesting,' said hotelier JesusAntonio Pujol Irastorza. ”I have seen a lot written aboutthis potential problem in the US media, but almost nothingin the Mexican press.""For a country that has experienced thousands of deathsfrom warring drug cartels," said San Diego police chiefWilliam Lansdowne, "it defies logic why they will pass alaw that will clearly increase drug use."The counter-voices will continue to make themselves heard.But even in the US, the discourse on drugs is changing.The prosecutor general in Baja California, RommelMoreno, said months ago that he found it "very hard" to-10- Traditional African Clinic December 2009talk to his American counterparts "about fighting drugswith any means other than interdiction", but senses "animportant shift". Officials in the Border States talkabout legalising marijuana for personal use, whileProfessor David Shirk, director of the Trans-BorderInstitute in San Diego, said: "I think it is inevitable thatpossession of marijuana will be legal in the US within adecade."Powerful voices against prohibition will create theunderlying theme at the major conference in El Pasothis month and there is even a movement of policeofficers and law enforcement agents urgingdecriminalisation, unthinkable until recently. "Today,drugs are illegal, they are out of control, and they areeverywhere", said Kristin Daley, projects director forLaw Enforcement against Prohibition. "If they weremanaged in the way that alcohol is, they would beunder control. Instead of criminals getting richer,violence escalating and drug-related deaths on the rise,we would live under a system of established pricing,peaceful purchase and a regulated labelling system."But they remain wary in Tijuana. Before the drug war,this border city was a capital of vice tourism, which hasnow disappeared. Tijuana lies opposite San Diego,from where most of those seeking prostitutes and otherdistractions came, and where a letter recently appearedin the local Union Tribune newspaper from OmarFirestone, principal cellist in the Orquesta de BajaCalifornia. He warned that the last thing the city needsis "offering sanctuary to American druggies" who will"draw the worst of our society to the streets of Tijuanaand increase the flight of those seeking a better life. Iguess the cartels needed a government bailout."http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2009/sep/06/war-ondrugs-latin-america☻☻☻☻☻☻Drink and Drugs canDamage Men's SpermAlok JhaThe Guardian19 February 2008Men should not smoke, drink or take unnecessary drugsif they are planning to become fathers to avoid causinghealth problems for their children, a health expert haswarned.Scientists found that toxic chemicals can damagesperm, which then pass altered genes onto babies. Inchemicals caused problems such as damaged and over-Continued on page 11

Continued from page 10 – Drink and Drugs can damageMen’s Spermgrown prostates, infertility and kidney problems all ofwhich were present up to four generations later.Cynthia Daniels, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, anexpert in the relation between a father and child's health,said: "If I was a young man I would not drink beer, Iwould not be smoking when I'm trying to conceive achild."It is well known that a mother's health is criticallyimportant in the resulting health of her baby, but there isnow a growing body of evidence from both animal andhuman studies that paternal exposure to toxins can alsoadversely effect the development of a foetus, and that thiscan be passed down the generations.Daniels, who led a seminar at the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science annual meeting inBoston, said: "Historically it has been assumed thatexposures to the male will not affect his ability to passdefects on to children."Scientists at the seminar listed problems includingpregnancy loss, low birth weight, increased birth defectsand childhood cancers in children fathered by men whowere exposed to toxins, from pesticides and prescriptiondrugs to wartime chemicals. Vietnam veterans exposed toAgent Orange, for example, have been shown to havechildren with increased rates of spina bifida."Men who drink excessive amounts of alcohol producehigher rates of sperm with abnormalities," said Daniels."There are many potential sources of harm to foetalhealth that remain unexamined. When 60% of birthdefects are of unknown origin, why are we not examiningone obvious potential source of harm?"In a study presented at the same seminar, Anwaydescribed how his team exposed pregnant rats to thefungicide vinclozolin and found that the sperm of maleshad been affected. Anway explained the reason behindthe changes as epigenetic, where chemicals in theenvironment can switch genes in the body on and off.Epigenetic changes are not usually passed to childrenunless they happen in germ cells such as sperm.Daniels' advice to young couples trying for a baby is tothink about both parents' exposure to chemicals. "If youminimise your exposure to toxic substances then youmight minimise your risks of reproductive harm."The good news for men is that sperm is producedcontinuously in a 74-day cycle, so the body does cleanitself over time.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/19/health.drugsandalcohol☻☻☻☻☻☻-11- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Argentina Rules on MarijuanaUseBBCAugust 26, 2009The Supreme Court in Argentina has ruled that it isunconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana forpersonal consumption.The decision follows a case of five young men who werearrested with a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.But the court said use must not harm others and made itclear it did not advocate a complete decriminalisation.Correspondents say there is a growing momentum in LatinAmerica towards decriminalising drugs for personal use.The Argentine court ruled that: "Each adult is free to makelifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state."Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said privatebehaviour was legal, "as long as it doesn't constitute cleardanger". "The state cannot establish morality," he said.The initiative has been supported by the government -Congress is expected to introduce amendments to thecurrent drug laws.But the court said it was not advocating a completedecriminalisation of the drug - a move possibly aimed atdeflecting criticism from the Church and conservatives,says the BBC's Candace Piette in Buenos Aires.The eight-page statement also called for a comprehensivepolicy against illegal drug trafficking.Health fearsThe move has been criticised by some campaign groupswho say it will encourage damaging behaviour and lead tohealth problems."There will be an increase in the drug trade and the peoplethat fall into addiction will not, unfortunately, accesstreatment," Claudio Izaguirre, director of the ArgentineAnti-drugs Association told Reuters."My country doesn't have the necessary health coverage forwhat will happen," he said.Argentina's move follows rulings by several other countriesacross the region, including Venezuela, Ecuador andColombia.Last week, Mexico enacted a law decriminalisingpossession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaineand heroin - the country is in the midst of a drugs turf warwhich has claimed more than 11,000 lives in the last threeyears.Continued on page 12

Continued from page 11- Argentina Rules on MarijuanaUseThe aim of such moves is to enable police to focus theirefforts on the big criminals in the drugs trade ratherthan dealing with petty cases, says our correspondent.But it also marks a shift a dramatic regional shift to thedecades-old US-backed policy of running repressivemilitary-style wars on the drug trade, she adds.http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8221599.stm☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 7- Freud and Cocainewere looking good. But the tide turned, and before longFleishl had developed an enormous addiction -equivalent to one full gram of pure cocaine a day. Hebecame paranoid, experienced convulsions and tactilehallucinations better know to cocaine aficionados as"coke bugs". This is a sensation caused by chroniccocaine toxicity where the sufferer feels that there areinsects or snakes crawling under their skin. Fleishlspent hours at a time trying to pick them out.Eventually, he settled on a morphine-cocaine combomore affectionately known today as a speedball - thevery same cocaine cocktail that sent John Belushi tooblivion. Fleishl suffered the same fate, dying in agonysix years later in 1891.Now one would think that watching the slow, tortuousdeath of a friend and colleague would be enough tosuggest that perhaps it was time to get out of the cokegame. It wasn't.The Coke-a-Rama Mutual Nasal AdmirationSocietySome four years before Fleishl's death, Freud had hadthe pleasure of the acquaintance of a young ear, noseand throat specialist called Wilhelm Fleiss. Theybecame firm friends and remained so for years.His admiration for the young doctor bordered on theextremely creepy. In 1896 he wrote in a letter to Fleiss:Your kind should not die out, my dear friend; the restof us need people like you too much. How much I oweyou: solace, understanding, stimulation in myloneliness, meaning to my life that I gained throughyou, and finally even health that no one else could havegiven back to me. It is primarily through your examplethat intellectually I gained the strength to trust my judgment,even when I am left alone - though not by you -and like you, to face with lofty humility all thedifficulties that the future may bring. For all that,accept my humble thanks! I know that you do not needme as much as I need you, but I also know that I have asecure place in your affection. [7]To all outsiders, Freud exhibited all the symptoms of a manin love. He shared intimacies about his disappointing sexlife with Martha, and told him all the dark secrets of hisemotional health. There was only one problem -- Fleiss wasa nutter.He was a master of quackery, a snake-oil merchant of thevery first order. He and Freud spent long nights togetherconcocting hare-brained theories.And Fleiss had a corker. He believed that the nose was thecentre of all human illness - both physical andpsychological. Rather in the way that phrenologistsbelieved that the bumps on your head dictate the kind ofperson you are [8] Freud wholeheartedly agreed. And whynot?High on cocaine, he was soaring at dizzy heights somewhere outside the galaxy. The two congratulatedsomewhere outside the galaxy. The two congratulated eachother on their genius, named their new science "nasal reflexneurosis" and got down to working out the details.They experimented extensively with cocaine paint,diagnosed each other [9], and occasioned the odd operation,where they used cocaine beforehand as an anaesthetic, andafterwards to dull the pain of surgery.After the first operation, Sigmund started to feel better. Alot better actually. In April 1897 he wrote:I put a noticeable end to the last horrible attack withcocaine; since then things have been fine and a greatamount of pus is coming out... Since the last cocainisationthree circumstances have continued to coincide: 1. I feelwell; 2. I am discharging ample amounts of pus; 3. I amfeeling very well..."[10]The fact that the drug may have been the primary factor inthis feel good saga didn't occur to either of them.Freudian slipFreud's inevitable disillusionment started around the sametime, with the treatment of a young woman by the name ofEmma Eckstein. Emma suffered from hysteria, and Freudfigured that there was no-one better to cure her disease thanhis good friend and "magical healer" Fleiss. So hesummoned him to Vienna to take a look at the haplessyoung woman.Fleiss immediately diagnosed the source of the problem - abump on the inside of her nose. So he operated and split thecity. A month later, Emma came to see Freud again - shewas in considerable pain and had clearly developed aserious infection. Other surgeons were consulted, anddiscovered, stuffed into her nasal cavity, a length of gauze,which Fleiss had negligently, if unwittingly, left behind. InFreud's words:-12- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Continued on page 13

Continued from page 12 – Freud and CocaineThere was still moderate bleeding from the nose andmouth; the fetid odour was very bad. [The doctor]suddenly pulled at something like a thread, kept onpulling. Before either of us had time to think, at leasthalf a meter of gauze had been removed from thecavity. The next came a flood of blood. The patientturned white, her eyes bulged, and she had no pulse...Atthe moment the foreign body came out and everythingbecame clear to me...I felt sick. After she had beenpacked, I fled to the next room, drank a bottle of water,and felt miserable...It was the beginning of the end of the great affair.The final cutIt's difficult to ascertain exactly when Freud gave uphis coke habit. We know he was using in the late 1890sand by 1904 had stopped completely. So whathappened in between?By 1900 the friendship was becoming strained -- Freudwas on the brink of success with psychoanalysis, whileFleiss was becoming moment increasingly grandiose inhis theories, which largely centered around the idea of amale and female sexual cycle, and finally that manyillnesses could be attributed to left and righthandedness. But this is only part of the story.Freud behaved like a petulant lover, overly sensitive,and prone to fits of depression if Fleiss didn't respondto his communications immediately. In one letter hewrote:There has never been a six-month period in which I soconstantly and ardently longed to be living in the sameplace as you. [11]A few months later Freud's jealousy had all butdestroyed the friendship. They met for the last time.Freud was cold and cross. He slandered ideas andtheories that he had once rapturously congratulatedFleiss for. Typically, Fleiss put it down to envy. Wethink it was more likely to be the absence of the happyjuice.Needless to say, Fleiss became a footnote in the life ofFreud, whose own ideas went on to be celebratedacross the globe. Although they're now largelydismissed, there's no doubt that they were groundbreaking, and deservedly earned him the moniker of"the father of psychoanalysis". We wonder if he wouldhave had them at all if half of Columbia hadn'tdisappeared up his nose in his formative years.Footnotes1. We can only speculate as to how twentieth centuryhistory would be different if the Germans had dis-covered marijuana instead of cocaine.2. Extract from a letter to Martha, 2 June 1884. Breger p.673. Someone should tell Ian.4. Even though cocaine didn't hit the street as medicine until the1880s, people had been using it recreationally for some time.When the cocaine business went south (geographically aswell as metaphorically), Coke pulled the cocaine out of theformula.5. Although they still use coca leaves today to flavour the drink.In fact, they own a pharmaceutical company called StepanChemicals in Chicago, whose primary purpose is to take thecocaine out of the coca.6. This is quite possibly how our faithful readers feel at timesabout History House stories.7. Breger, p129.8. And iridologists think your eyes tell your illnesses, andreflexologists think the answers to your problems are in yourfeet. Need we go on?9. Picture the two men, high as kites staring gravely up eachothers nostrils and you've got it.10. Streatfield, p.11211. Breger, p.150Bibliography1. Louis Breger. Freud: darkness in the midst of vision. JohnWiley & Sons, 2000.2. Dominic Streatfeild. Cocaine: An unauthorized biography.Dunne Books, June 2002. This book rocks, we highlyrecommend it.3. Robert Sabbag. Snowblind: A Brief Career in the CocaineTrade. MacMillan Publishing Company, December 1976.4. Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports.Licit and Illicit Drugs: The Consumers Union Report onNarcotics, Stimulants, Depressants, Inhalants, Hallucinogens,and Marijuana - Including Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol.Little, Brown and Co., 1972. [Out of Print]http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/cocaine/☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 3 – Drugs and the Subcon--sciousreason for the craving may seem vague. Sometimes thedrug use is accompanied by other destructive or evencriminal behavior which may not be remembered later. Wecan refer to this as the J & H Syndrome - Jekyll and Hyde.13. Drug dependent individuals often display a strangeethic based upon the idea that dysfunctional behavioroccurring in the drug state somehow more clearly reflectsthe true person. Such individuals will suggest that oneshould not quit getting high or "blame the drug" because ifthe tendency toward destructive behavior were not "there inthe first place" the drug could never bring it out. The factthat the behavior has never occured when the person isstraight doesn't even seem to matter. The drug is seen as a"reality trip." This leads the user to believe that he is more"tuned in" than non users.Continued on page 51-13- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Warning of Extra HeartDangers from Mixing Cocaineand AlcoholA third chemical – cocaethylene – builds up in the liverover a number of years among those who mix the twodrugs. And this is now having major health consequencesJamie DowardThe Observer8 November 2009"I first took coke when I was 18 and at university. Iremember two friends who did chemistry told me Ishould get really drunk first because it would mix intothis new chemical in my blood and make me evenhigher," a 30-year-old woman who works in publishingtold the Observer yesterday.What her friends did not tell her is that the combinationof cocaine and alcohol in her then teenage body will haveleft a highly toxic chemical in her liver calledcocaethylene.While few outside the world of pharmacology have heardof the chemical, fewer still are aware of its lifethreateningproperties. Now, however, its side-effects,discovered in 1979, are threatening to become tragicallyfamiliar as they take their toll on users in their 30s and40s.Drug addiction clinics say they are becomingincreasingly concerned by the health risks associated withthe chemical – the only known example of the bodyforming a third drug following the ingestion of twoothers.For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is alsoblamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge insocial problems. But because so little is known about thedrug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat tousers, and indeed society as a whole.Many who consider themselves social users – for whom aline or two of cocaine coupled with a few drinks in a baror a club is a weekly or monthly event – do not considerthe health implications of their drug taking."I am not sure I have ever taken coke when I haven't beendrinking alcohol," one 30-year-old television producerwho has been taking the drug socially for the past sevenyears said yesterday. "It allows you to drink more, so if Iam feeling a little too drunk I might take a line as asharpener. It makes you feel a bit more sober."The woman, from west London, who asked not to benamed, said that she used to take the drug much more frequentlythan she does now: "At the peak I would prob-ably do it with alcohol every weekend for a few months andthen have a few months off. But I don't take as much nowbecause the quality has dropped."She said that a "friend of a friend" who took the drugregularly and also drank had suffered a heart attack at the ageof 36. Although he had survived, he had needed serioussurgery."I don't really worry though," added the woman. "Partlybecause I don't do so much now, but also I do lots of otherrisky things. I smoke. I guess they are all calculated risks.They are dangerous but I don't see the point in worryingabout them."Talk to the people on the frontline of the drugs war, however,and they have no doubt the mixing of cocaethylene's twoingredients is becoming a troubling social issue.Karen Colgan, who helps run a treatment agency for thecharity Addaction, in Lincolnshire, said the trend was beingdriven by a new generation of users. "We are seeing moreyoung people using more substances," she said. "They don'tsee it as a problem, because they are just using at weekends."They do it to increase the effects of cocaine, but we havefound cases where young people are getting heart palpitationsand then going and playing Sunday football."Increasing cocaine use among the young may explainheightened concerns about the effects of cocaethylene. Lastyear's British Crime Survey revealed that there had been a25% increase in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds taking thedrug compared with the previous year. The number of peopleunder 25 who have sought help for cocaine abuse has doubledin the past four years.But the effects are being felt by all demographics. Figuresobtained by the Liberal Democrats reveal that the number ofpeople going to hospital after overdosing on cocaine hasdoubled over the past five years, with one person nowadmitted every 10 hours. Alcohol is thought to play asignificant part in many of these admissions.Cocaine-related deaths are also increasing in the US. The USNational Household Drug Survey estimated that around fivemillion people used alcohol and cocaine each month."There is no question that the use of both alcohol and cocaineis a growing concern," said Martin Barnes, chief executive ofthe charity DrugScope, who is concerned about how toaddress the trend. "Surveys show people who drink regularlyin bars and clubs are more likely to be using alcohol anddrugs. This presents challenges to health professionals abouthow to raise awareness of the health risks because combiningthe two drugs is not seen as taboo. It's simply a lifestylechoice."-14- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Cocaethylene's powerful effects may help to explain theContinued on page 17

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESCan Marijuana Help Children with AutismThis Mom says giving her kid pot made all the difference in the worldBy Gina Kaysen FernandesNovember 3, 2009As the mother of an autistic child, Marie Myung-OkLee is navigating uncharted territory as she struggles tomanage her son's condition. She has bravely comeforward to share her son's battle with this mysteriousdisorder, and to discuss how medical marijuana hasbrought them both back from the brink of despair.During what Marie calls the "dark phase," her son J hadunpredictable mood swings that could erupt into fitfulrages. Her 9-year-old would scream during lengthytantrums, he refused to eat and threw his food on thefloor. J broke plates, windows, and other householditems as a way of expressing his pain and frustration.The family would hide out within the confines of theirhome until the darkness passed.J's behavior disrupted his school performance andterrified the staff. "The teachers were wearing tae kwondo arm pads to protect themselves against his biting,"Marie said. The school monitored J's daily outbursts onan "aggression chart" that documented as many as 300episodes in one day that involved hitting, kicking,biting, or pinching another person.With her son in crisis, Marie had no choice but toperform an intervention. But the only solution offeredby child psychiatrists came in a pill bottle. "His schooltried to force us to medicate him," says Marie, whofeared the risk of dangerous side effects associated withcommonly prescribed antipsychotic drugs likeRisperdal. Many of the FDA-approved drugs on themarket used to treat symptoms of autism have noproven safety track record for use in children.Despite the unknown risks, more kids are usingprescription drugs than ever before. The number ofchildren on psychiatric meds has skyrocketed in recentyears, according to reports in medical journals such asArchives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.Prescription drug use is growing faster among childrenthan the elderly and baby boomers. But when it comesto medicating kids with marijuana, the issue becomestaboo."There's no such thing as a harmless drug, but marijuanais much less harmful than other drugs," said LesterGrinspoon, M.D., a professor emeritus of psychiatry atHarvard Medical School. Dr. Grinspoon is a leadingexpert in the field of medical marijuana, who hasauthored several books on the subject. "No one in theworld has died from marijuana," insists Grinspoon, whohas spent four decades researching the illicit drug.Undeterred by the social stigma, Marie pursued this morenatural approach to calm J's demons. After discussing herwishes with J's pediatrician, Marie decided to check outMarinol, a synthetic form of THC, which is the primarycannabinoid in marijuana. After fine-tuning J's dosage,she began hearing praises like, "J was a pleasure to havein speech class," instead of complaints about his violentepisodes.After a few months, J built up a tolerance to the drug andhis unruly behavior returned. "The drawback of takingMarinol is that it's only THC. That's the most powerfulcannabinoid, but it may not be the most relevant," saidMitch Earleywine, Ph.D., an associate professor ofpsychology at the State University of New York atAlbany. Earleywine says there are about 70 differentcannabinoids in the marijuana plant, many of which havemedicinal value. Marie decided to take a chance on thereal deal.All it took was a signed prescription and a backgroundcheck for J to become the youngest person in RhodeIsland to obtain a license for pot. After buying somemarijuana-infused olive oil, Marie made a batch of potcookies. That night, J ate half of one cookie and "he wastired and conked out," said Marie, who checked hourly onhis sleep, "half-expecting some red-eyed ogre fromReefer Madness to come leaping out at us." To her relief,J slept soundly and appeared happy and mellow the nextday.Continued on page 16-15- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 15 – Can Marijuana Help Childrenwith AutismOver the past four months, Marie has documented herson's progress in an online blog entitled, Why I Give My9-Year-Old Pot, Part II. While she doesn't believemarijuana is a cure for autism, it "allows J to participatemore fully in life without the dangers and sometimespermanent side effects of pharmaceutical drugs." Dr.Grinspoon has seen positive results with a number of hisautistic patients who are undergoing pot therapy. "I canconfidently say to a parent that marijuana relieves sometypes of pain. It's not going to hurt them if you use itresponsibly," Grinspoon says. Ingesting the drug worksbetter because the effects can last up to eight hours. "Alittle goes a long way," says Earleywine, who remindsparents that the drug can take up to an hour and a half tokick in, "so wait a little while before administering anymore."While a growing number of distressed parents are turningto the herbal remedy, many moms with autistic kids areskeptical. "I feel it does more harm than good," saysTrish, the mother of a 7-year-old boy with autism. "Youare sedating the child, not treating the cause of the rage."Trish believes that medicating kids with pot is a cop-out."Nobody said parenting was going to be easy, or that thesolution to every problem is to get our children stoned."The mainstream medical community shuns the subject,and the government refuses to fund any research thatwould legitimize marijuana use in treating autism oraggression disorders. "Marijuana is a very loadedsubject," says Cara Natterson, M.D., a pediatrician andmother of two. "As a parent and as a pediatrician, I feel aresponsibility to know that what I am putting into a child-- mine or someone else's -- is safe and tested."The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes thelegalization of marijuana, but does support furtherresearch into the potential medical benefits of cannabis."We need to make sure the treatment is safe -- we haven'tdone that," Natterson adds. The doctor can sympathizewith parents who desperately want to help their child."But wanting to advocate for your child and making sureyour child is safe are two different things," Nattersonsaid.Marie is confident that she has made the right choicewhen she sees J's transformation. "He doesn't lookstoned. He just looks like a happy little boy."Gina Kaysen Fernandes is an award winning documentaryproducer and a former TV news producer/writer.http://www.momlogic.com/2009/11/can_marijuana_help_kids_with_autism.php☻☻☻☻☻☻Cannabis May Help PreventAlzheimer's Memory LossBen Sills and Ian SampleThe Guardian24 February 2005Scientists at one of Spain's leading research centresclaimed yesterday to have found evidence that cannabishelps prevent the memory loss experienced by peoplesuffering from Alzheimer's.The potential breakthrough in understanding a diseasethat affects nearly half a million people in Britain, andaround nine million worldwide, was made by a team ledby María de Ceballos at the Cajal Institute in Madrid.Their study seems to show that THC, the main activeingredient in cannabis, inhibits the activity of cells thatcause damage to neurons in the brain. Although the studyis preliminary, it was welcomed by patient groups."Right now, there are no good drugs for Alzheimer's.There are some that treat symptoms but nothing that haltsthe disease," said Susanne Sorensen, head of research atthe Alzheimer's Society.While the beneficial effects of cannabis lookedpromising, Dr Sorensen cautioned that people withAlzheimer's should not start using the drug to help theirmemories, because of side effects.Memory loss in Alzheimer's patients is not fullyunderstood, but part of the problem is thought to lie withcells called microglia that surround neurons in the brain.In Alzheimer's, the activity of microglia gets out ofcontrol, damaging neurons and killing off parts of thebrain. Dr de Ceballos's team conducted two separateexperiments using human brain tissue and rats whichshowed that THC inhibits the activity of microglia, thusreducing memory loss.Dr de Ceballos said the results showed that THC couldhelp prevent memory loss in Alzheimer's patients,although the reasons why this might happen are still to beexplored.The next stage, she said, would be to test the rats using asynthetic equivalent of THC which inhibits the activity ofmicroglia without intoxicating the rats as well."There's a long way to go before we will know if it isactually possible to stop the progression of Alzheimer's,"she said.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/feb/24/highereducation.science☻☻☻☻☻☻-16- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 14 – Warnings of Extra Heart Dangersfrom Mixing Cocaine and Alcoholincreasing attraction of combining alcohol and cocaine. A2003 study by scientists at the University of California'sDrug Dependence Research Centre noted: "The combineduse of alcohol and cocaine can produce a sense ofincreased and prolonged euphoria, compared with the useof either substance on its own."This claim is disputed by some scientific studies. Butwhat seems irrefutable is that the two drugs can "stretchthe good times", as one regular cocaine and alcoholbinger told the Observer. "I can drink for ever on coke,"said Dave, a 28-year-old electrician from Manchester."Without it, things can go downhill very fast."His comments are backed up by independent research.The respected magazine Druglink reported that a 2006analysis of 102 alcohol and cocaine users, carried out bythe UK National Addiction Centre, found strong linksbetween snorting cocaine and long, heavy drinkingsessions. Almost half of regular powder cocaine usersquestioned for the analysis said that their last heavydrinking episode had lasted more than 12 hours.The ability of cocaine users to consume vast amounts ofalcohol is being blamed for an increase in sexually riskybehaviour among the young and rising levels of violence.Small studies in Manchester and Merseyside suggest thataround half of all young people arrested for violentbehaviour were on drugs, and of these the majority wereon cocaine. Many had been drinking prior to their arrest.Greater Manchester's chief constable, Peter Fahy, hasalso observed the trend to combine cocaine and alcohol."I am concerned that we seem to be producing a lot ofangry young men at the moment," he said last year. "Weneed to understand why that is, and why some of theseyoung men are quite prepared to use extremes of violenceover nothing. I think alcohol plays a part, but we are alsoconcerned about the mixture of alcohol and cocaine."But while there is emerging evidence about the socialeffects of combining alcohol and cocaine, there is littleresearch into the physiological effects of cocaethylene onthe body.There is a growing suspicion that the drug may be at leastpartially responsible for the perceived increase in thenumber of people in their 30s suffering heart problems.According to US Drug Abuse Warning System,"cocaine/ethanol abuse is a major cause of emergencymedical admissions" and "the cause of increases incocaine-related mortality".Steven Cox, deputy head of the charity Cardiac Risk inthe Young, said around 12 fit young people are recordedas dying each week in the UK from a cardiac-related ill--17- Traditional African Clinic December 2009ness, compared with about four a week in 1995.But Cox said this increase might be down to a betteranalysis of postmortem data, which has raised awarenessof cardiac-related illnesses, rather than any externalfactor.However, he said that an estimated one in 300 peoplewho have been tested by the charity is found to have anunderlying heart condition. "We do know that if you havean underlying cardiac condition certain drugs can triggeran effect," Cox said. But until someone proves the link, itseems unlikely that the trend for people to mix alcoholand cocaine will show any sign of abating.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/08/cocainealcohol-mixture-health-risks☻☻☻☻☻☻Marijuana - The Wonder DrugLester GrinspoonThe Boston GlobeMarch 3, 2007CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- A new study in thejournal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proofthat marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sadcommentary on the state of modern medicine that we stillneed "proof" of something that medicine has known for5,000 years.The study, from the University of California at SanFrancisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective atrelieving the extreme pain of a debilitating conditionknown as peripheral neuropathy.It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of paincaused by damage to nerves afflicts people with manyother illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis.Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatmentwith conventional pain drugs. Even powerful andaddictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin oftenprovide little relief. This study leaves no doubt thatmarijuana can safely ease this type of pain.As all marijuana research in the United States must be,the new study was conducted with government-suppliedmarijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probablyunderestimated the potential benefit.This is all good news, but it should not be news at all. Inthe 40-odd years I have been studying the medicinal usesof marijuana, I have learned that the recorded history ofthis medicine goes back to ancient times.In the 19th century it became a well-established Westernmedicine whose versatility and safety were unquestioned.Continued on page 18

Continued from page 17 – Marijuana – The Wonder DrugFrom 1840 to 1900, American and European medicaljournals published over 100 papers on the therapeuticuses of marijuana, also known as cannabis.Our knowledge has advanced greatly over the years.Scientists have identified over 60 unique constituents inmarijuana, called cannabinoids, and we have learnedmuch about how they work. We have also learned thatour own bodies produce similar chemicals, calledendocannabinoids.The mountain of accumulated anecdotal evidence thatpointed the way to the present and other clinical studiesalso strongly suggests there are a number of otherdevastating disorders and symptoms for whichmarijuana has been used for centuries.They deserve the same careful, methodologically soundresearch.While few such studies have so far been completed, allhave lent weight to what medicine already knew buthad largely forgotten or ignored: Marijuana is effectiveat relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetiteloss, certain types of pain and other debilitatingsymptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe - safer thanmost medicines prescribed every day.If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a wellknownsubstance carrying cultural and politicalbaggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug.The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to isolatecannabinoids and synthesize analogs and to packagethem in non-smokable forms. In time, companies willalmost certainly come up with products and deliverysystems that are more useful and less expensive thanherbal marijuana.However, the analogs they have produced so far aremore expensive than herbal marijuana, and none hasshown any improvement over the plant nature gave usto take orally or to smoke.We live in an antismoking environment. But as amethod of delivering certain medicinal compounds,smoking marijuana has some real advantages: Theeffect is almost instantaneous, allowing the patient tofine-tune his or her dose to get the needed reliefwithout intoxication.Smoked marijuana has never been demonstrated tohave serious pulmonary consequences, but in any casethe technology to inhale these cannabinoids withoutsmoking marijuana already exists as vaporizers thatallow for smoke-free inhalation.Hopefully the UCSF study will add to the pressure onthe U.S. government to rethink its irrational ban on themedicinal use of marijuana - and its destructive attackson patients and caregivers in states that have chosen toallow such use.Rather than admit they have been mistaken all theseyears, federal officials can cite "important new data" andstart revamping outdated and destructive policies.Such legislation would bring much-needed relief tomillions suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis,arthritis and other debilitating illnesses.Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry atHarvard Medical School, is the coauthor of "Marijuana,the Forbidden Medicine." This article first appeared inThe Boston Globe.-18- Traditional African Clinic December 2009http://www.rense.com/general75/marijuana.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻Science: Study showsMarijuana increases BrainCell GrowthBy Juanita King, The Muse(Memorial University of Newfoundland)October 31, 2005ST. JOHN’S, Nfld — Supporters of marijuana mayfinally have an excuse to smoke weed every day. Arecent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigationsuggests that smoking pot can make the brain grow.Though most drugs inhibit the growth of new brain cells,injections of a synthetic cannibinoid have had theopposite effect in mice in a study performed at theUniversity of Saskatchewan. Research on how drugsaffect the brain has been critical to addiction treatment,particularly research on the hippocampus.The hippocampus is an area of the brain essential tomemory formation. It is unusual because it grows newneurons over a person’s lifetime. Researchers believethese new cells help to improve memory and fightdepression and mood disorders.Many drugs -— heroin, cocaine, and the more commonalcohol and nicotine — inhibit the growth of these newcells. It was thought that marijuana did the same thing,but this new research suggests otherwise.Neuropsychiatrist Xia Zhang and a team of researchersstudy how marijuana-like drugs — known collectively ascannabinoids — act on the brain.The team tested the effects of HU-210, a potent syntheticcannabinoid similar to a group of compounds found inContinued on page 21

Michigan Farm Expert opensMarijuana UniversityAndrea BillupsWashington Times11 November 2009SOUTHFIELD, Mich. | Nearly a year after voters in thiseconomically disadvantaged state overwhelmingly passeda ballot initiative approving the consumption ofmedicinal marijuana, a new trade school has opened itsdoors to educate aspiring growers.Med Grow Cannabis College, located in the Detroitsuburb of Southfield, is set to graduate its first class ofstudents later this month. Its co-founder and president,Nick Tennant, the 24-year-old son of a General MotorsCorp. employee, said he sees a significant opportunity toteach standards and safety in an industry that caneventually improve the state's sagging business climate."This is profitable and poised for tremendous growth,"Mr. Tennant said.Although some might jokingly call him the dope dean,Mr. Tennant is serious, even as his appearance is blond,hip and wholesome."A lot of people think you can pick up a book, put someseeds in the soil, shine some lights and you'll have acrop," he said of the information needed to grow pot well."But there are so many variables, and it's like a trade togrow it -- with skills like a master plumber orelectrician."So far, there doesn't seem to be any opposition to thistrade school.In a spacious facility featuring a lab, a classroom andgrowing rooms, students take a six-week night coursethat covers botany, horticulture, business, law, history --even cooking with a trained chef who teaches how potcan be included with such dishes as sushi -- all in aneffort to cultivate quality medical-grade marijuana.Roger McDaniel, a disabled carpenter and formersemitrailer mechanic, and his wife, Valeri, from Taylor,Mich., are taking the classes. They said the education isfar more in-depth than they ever imagined.Mr. McDaniel, 53, who was injured in a motorcycleaccident, said marijuana has helped ease his symptoms ina more natural way than prescription medications. He andhis wife enjoy gardening and said the course work is anextension of their interests as well as a way to improvetheir quality of life.-19- Traditional African Clinic December 2009"Instead of living on all these pills, the Vicodins andLortabs that tear up your insides, this gives you the painrelief and you are not damaging your body with all thesechemicals," Mr. McDaniel said of his medical marijuanause.Most surprising about the classes? "The whole walk offolks we've come across there," Mrs. McDaniel said. "It'sjust a real mesh of people - from young folks to peopleour age."Perry Belcher, who lives near Flint, Mich., teaches theHistory of Cannabis class at Med Grow and said he'sinterested in providing facts -- not talking politics -- evenas the issue has divided the nation."As a patient, I can testify to the results of this," he said."I want to make sure that they get the best knowledge."Mr. Belcher added that marijuana has been usedmedicinally since 6000 B.C. and by many cultures aroundthe world. But he said only in the 20th century did itbecome a prohibition issue and was demonized asharmful. Now, he said, with more states enacting medicalmarijuana laws, the culture around its importancemedically is changing."The first part of my class is called the pros and cons," hesaid. "I let people make the decision on their own onwhether they feel this is right or not."Mr. Tennant, a native of Center Line, Mich., came upwith the idea for Med Grow in April with the intention tolaunch a school where aspiring growers could learn theright way to cultivate clean, high-quality pot. By May, heand partner Nathan Johnston, who serves as the school'sdirector of horticulture, had a business plan to go alongwith their entrepreneurial drive.After advertising in area publications and through socialnetworking sites, the first class of 30 students began onSept. 14 in an office that was transformed into aclassroom, where students could train on high-techequipment. Courses are held on weeknights from 6 to 10p.m., and the cost of the class is $475.Among the members of Med Grow's first class are tworeverends, including one minister who works in an AIDSministry and wanted to learn more about how marijuanacan ease symptoms of that disease.Mr. Tennant said interest is high as more patients andcaregivers embrace the new Michigan law, which waspassed 63 percent to 37 percent by statewide ballotinitiative in November 2008 and is being watched byadvocates in other Midwestern states. It allows patientswho have received a doctor's permission to legallypossess 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana and to keep 12Continued on page 20

Continued from page 19 - Michigan Farm Expert OpensMarijuana Universitymarijuana plants for their personal use. It also allowsresidents to apply to be caregivers who can grow anddistribute marijuana for up to five people who have statepermits to use it.Through Oct. 1, more than 6,500 Michigan residents havereceived state-issued permits to grow and use marijuanato help alleviate symptoms of certain medical problems,according to the Michigan Department of CommunityHealth. Spokesman James McCurtis Jr. said his agency isreceiving 59 applications for permits per day and thatnumber is rising.Med Grow is not the nation's first marijuana growingschool. California's Oaksterdam University was foundedin 2007 and has campuses in Oakland, Los Angeles andNorth Bay, where students are taught growing techniquesas well as the business of the marijuana industry.Greg Francisco, executive director of the MichiganMedical Marijuana Association, said that he, too, isinvolved with teaching courses as part of a travelingseminar series from the North American CultivatorCollege. He travels across the state to teach seminars witha credentialed faculty much the same as those at MedGrow."Teaching is really important," Mr. Francisco said."People really want to know how they can grow thismedicine and help patients."http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/11/michiganscannabis-college-is-quite-a-joint/☻☻☻☻☻☻Medical Trials of Cannabisshow Positive ResultsCall for further drug research on multiple sclerosisTim RadfordThe Guardian11 September 2004Research could soon show that cannabis could be ahelpful long-term treatment for multiple sclerosissufferers.Patients who took part in a 15-week study - published inthe Lancet last year - went on to try the effectiveness ofthe banned drug for a 52-week course, John Zajicek ofthe Peninsula medical school told the British Associationscience festival which ended in Exeter yesterday."Initial results of the longer-term study are positive andwill be published in the near future. In the short-termstudy, there was some evidence of cannabinoids alleviat--20- Traditional African Clinic December 2009ing symptoms of multiple sclerosis; in the longer termthere is a suggestion of a more useful beneficial effect,which was not clear at the initial stage," he said in astatement. "I hope these results will encourage support offurther studies of cannabinoids in multiple sclerosis and,potentially, other diseases."Cannabis has been used as a medical treatment for at leastas long as it has been a recreational drug. Queen Victoriais supposed to have used it for period pains. It wassometimes used in childbirth and a poignantarchaeological discovery in the Middle East revealedcannabis remnants near the body of a young woman whoprobably died in childbirth 5,000 years ago.Cancer patients have claimed that cannabis could helpsuppress nausea after chemotherapy. Glaucoma sufferershave claimed it relieves pressure on the eyeball anddelays the onset of blindness.Animal experiments have suggested the drug slows nervecell death. And many multiple sclerosis sufferers havebeen using it, illegally, to relieve the pain and stiffness oftheir slow progression towards helplessness.Once it became clear that cannabis-like chemicals wereproduced naturally in the human nervous system tocontrol appetite and facilitate nerve cell communication,researchers began to understand why a folk remedy couldbe medically effective. But clinical evidence inrandomised double-blind trials has been rare. "We set outto establish whether there was any scientific truth behindthat," Dr Zajicek said.A total of 667 patients took part in a short-term study.More than 500 agreed to go on to longer trials. Thepatients were given either capsules containing cannabisextract, an active component of the drug called THC, orsugar pills. The chief aim had been relief of musclestiffness."But we also wanted to look at the other symptoms,including pain, bladder disturbance and measures ofdisability," he said. "From the patient's symptomaticpoint of view there was beneficial effect but we couldn'tprove that from an independent assessment by aphysiotherapist of muscle stiffness." So they continuedthe trials: the results could be published in a few weeks'time.Researchers are notoriously unwilling to discuss resultsbefore they have been reviewed by their peers andpublished formally in a scientific journal. "What I can sayat the moment is that there does seem to be evidence ofsome beneficial effect in the longer term that we didn'tanticipate in the short term study."http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/sep/11/health.drugs☻☻☻☻☻☻

Continued from page 18 – Marijuana increases Brain Growthmarijuana. The synthetic version is about 100 times aspowerful as THC, the high-inducing compound loved byrecreational users.The researchers found that rats treated with HU-210 on aregular basis showed neurogenesis — the growth of newbrain cells in the hippocampus. A current hypothesissuggests depression may be triggered when thehippocampus grows insufficient numbers of new braincells. If true, HU-210 could offer a treatment for such mooddisorders by stimulating this growth.Whether this is true for all cannabinoids remains unclear, asHU-210 is only one of many and the HU-210 in the study ishighly purified.“That does not mean that general use in healthy people isbeneficial,” said Memorial psychology professor WilliamMcKim. “We need to learn if this happens in humans,whether this is useful in healthy people, and whether THCcauses it as well.”McKim warns that marijuana disrupts memory andcognition. “These effects can be long-lasting after heavyuse,” he said. “This makes it difficult to succeedacademically if you use it excessively.”“Occasional light use probably does not have very seriousconsequences. [But] there is some evidence that marijuanasmoke might cause cancer.”Still, the positive aspects of marijuana are becoming moreplentiful as further research is done. McKim says it’s notsurprising that THC and compounds like it could havemedicinal effects.“Many have been identified,” he said. “It stimulatesappetite in people with AIDS, it is an analgesic, and blocksnausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. And ittreats the symptoms of glaucoma.”The research group’s next studies will examine the moreunpleasant side of the drug.Issue 9, volume 121 — October 31, 2005 —http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2005-3/issue9/ne-mj.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Active Component inMarijuana Targets AggressiveBrain Cancer Cells, StudySaysWebMD Health NewsBy Kelli Miller StacyApril 1, 2009 -- The active chemical in marijuanapromotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentiallyhelping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spainreport.Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at ComplutenseUniversity in Spain have found that the active ingredientin marijuana, THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo aprocess called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown ofa cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.The team discovered that cannabinoids such as THC hadanticancer effects in mice with human brain cancer cellsand people with brain tumors. When mice with thehuman brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumorgrowth shrank.Two patients enrolled in a clinical trial received THCdirectly to the brain as an experimental treatment forrecurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressivebrain tumor. Biopsies taken before and after treatmenthelped track their progress. After receiving the THC,there was evidence of increased autophagy activity.The findings appear in the April 1 issue of the Journal ofClinical Investigation.The patients did not have any toxic effects from thetreatment. Previous studies of THC for the treatment ofcancer have also found the therapy to be well tolerated,according to background information in journal article.Study authors say their findings could lead to newstrategies for preventing tumor growth.http://www.webmd.com/cancer/braincancer/news/20090401/marijuana-chemical-may-fight-braincancer☻☻☻☻☻☻Skin Churns out MarijuanalikeBrain ChemicalsBody's own cannabinoids help keep skin clear andhealthyBy Robin NixonLiveScienceJuly 11, 2008Marijuana-like substances made by the skin are necessaryfor a healthy complexion, a new study concludes.The skin has joined the growing club of organs that isknown to produce "endocannabinoids" — the body's ownreefer. The biggest producer of endogenous pot is thebrain.Significantly, the new study pins down long-suspectedContinued on page 29-21- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESWHAT ALCOHOL DOES TO YOUR BABYEunice RukundoDaily Monitor, 3 September 2009Every year on September 9 th , International Fetal AlcoholSpectrum disorders (FASD) awareness day is observed toraise awareness about the dangers of drinking duringpregnancy and the plight of individuals and families whostruggle with FASD.If it survives miscarriage and is not still born, your babycould be born prematurely, mentally retarded or withabnormal facial features; for many different reason out ofyour control, but also just because you choose to haveeven just a few sips of alcohol during pregnancy.When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, she risks givingbirth to a child who will for life pay the price in mentaland physical deficiencies. “Medically, we don’tencourage mothers to drink alcohol during pregnancybecause it affects the foetal development,” says Dr.AsinjaKapuru, a gynaecologist and obstetrician from MulagoHospital.The doctor explains that alcohol cause intra uterinegrowth retardation and the above mentioned are just a fewof the life long disorders in a chain of what is medicallyreferred to as Foetal Alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD),caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy. “Drinkingalcohol during pregnancy affects brain developmentwhich affects the general development of the foetus,” addsDr Vincent Karuhanga, a general practitioner at Friendspolyclinic. And no, there is no safe timing, a mount orkind of alcohol during pregnancy. It could make adifference when and how much you drink of course, butthis doesn’t guarantee total elimination of the risk of yourbaby being affected.“It is first of all not known how much alcohol is too littleto affect the foetus. Measuring how much is dangerouswould vary from person to person depending on amother’s weight, fat content and many other thingsanyway,” says Dr.Karuhanga.Dr.Kapuru emphasizes that alcohol is even moredangerous during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy as thefoetal brain forms somewhere between the 12 th and 16 thweek of pregnancy. “Alcohol may affect the brain, mak--22- Traditional African Clinic December 2009ing it smaller than normal, which affects itsfunctionality too,” he says. Kidshealth org. howeverwarns that the baby’s brain is developing throughoutpregnancy and can be damaged at any time. Theobstetrician adds that there’s no safe kind of alcoholeither; wine, beer, liquor is all dangerous to your baby.“While people think wine is safe, it might even bedangerous as the weakest wine, V&A I imagine is 25per cent alcohol, stronger than the strongest beerwhich is about seven per cent,” says Kapuru.HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR CHILD HASFASD?Kapuru explains that alcohol damage to the brainduring development result into physical abnormalitiesapparent at birth or brain deficiencies which tend tointensify as children move into adulthood as they startusing their brain.“Children with FASD will generally develop slower ineverything like walking and talking compared to thenormal baby and as they grow, they will usually not beas bright or fast and efficient with brain work,” heexplains.According to Kidshealth.org., most FASD frequentlygo undiagnosed if they are not physical. If youconsumed alcohol during pregnancy and are concernedthat your child may have Foetal alcohol spectrumdisorders however, you could watch out for mentalhealth problems, the inability to live independently andother FASD behaviours and characteristics, whichinclude;Failure to thrive• Poor coordination/fine motor skills, hyperactivebehaviour, difficulty paying attention and poormemory.• Difficulty in school (especially with math),learning disabilities including poor memory, speechand language delays or poor languagecomprehension, intellectual disability or low IQ.Continued on page 21

Continued from page 20 – HPV – The First Cancer Vaccine• Poor reasoning and judgment skills, lack ofimagination or curiosity and poor problem solvingskills.• Sleep and sucking problems as a baby• Vision or hearing problems• Behavioural problems, including hyperactivity,inability to concentrate, social withdrawal,stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety.• Problems with the heart, kidney or bone.• A small head size, shorter-than-average height and/orlow body weightWhy alcohol affects your babyWhen a pregnant women drinks alcohol, her unborn babydoes too. “Alcohol in mother’s blood passes through theplacenta to the baby through the umbilical cord so thebaby can’t miss it,” explains Dr Karuhanga. FoetalAlcohol spectrum disorders are lifelong disordersmeaning they can’t be cured even though earlyintervention can aid child’s development.But FASD are 100 per cent preventable; if a womandoesn’t take alcohol during pregnancy, or even when shemight get pregnant. After all, about 38 per centpregnancies in Uganda alone are unplanned thereforemost women will not know for several weeks when theyare pregnant.Even for a woman already drinking alcohol duringpregnancy, it is never too late to stop “The sooner awoman stops drinking, the better is will be for both herbaby and herself,” encourages the doctor. The thought ofall that could go wrong with your baby should be enoughmotivation for you to stay away from the bottle.☻☻☻☻☻☻Alcohol Consumption Set toRuin the Pearl of AfricaBy John KakaLetters to the EditorAugust 20, 2009Allow me share my concern with your papers’ esteemedreaders recently, I listened in utter amazement to the headof Butabika Referral Hospital. He said more than 10 percent of the patients received at the hospital have alcohol –related-ailments.As you may recall, Uganda was in the recent past, ranked-23- Traditional African Clinic December 2009the number one nation of drunkards in the world.Indeed, this ranking leaves this country in a veryprecarious position. As if that is not enough, local beerbrewers were granted a favourable tax regime in thecurrent Budget. Still, we all seem to be unbothered.Visit any shop, for instance, and see the cheap 10mlpacks of ‘waragi” some of which cost as little asShs.200.These days even school children take this ‘poison’because it is affordable and conveniently packed.Ugandans behave as if there is no licensed bar orstipulated drinking time. As early as 8 am some peopleare already drunk.In fact, there are some drinking joints that operate 24hours a day and seven days a week.My friend recently told me that even the so muchtalked about famine/food shortage in some parts of thecountry could be linked to ‘waragi” consumption. Insome areas of Uganda, men drink for 24 hours and it’sonly the women who toil for their family’s sustenance.Even the rising crime rate in the country can beassociated with alcoholism! Above all some drunkardshave no time for bathing or tidying themselves and mayeven attract jiggers in some cases. Surely, can’t ourleaders realize that the country is sinking?As a way forward, I propose the following:• Let there be designated hours for drinking• The weight and measures Act should be amendedto make it an offence to pack alcoholic drinks inpolythene materials or pack liquor in quantities lessthan 300 mls. This will make alcohol lessaffordable.• High taxes should be imposed on alcohol so as tomake it expensive.• Local government and other relevant bodies shouldenforce anti-drinking related laws.Otherwise, the Pearl of Africa will be no more!☻☻☻☻☻☻Alcohol Takes its Toll on YouthSarah ScheenstraDaily MonitorAugust 13, 2009In the past, Uganda has been ranked one of the highestconsumers of alcohol in the world by the World HealthOrganisation.Continued on page 26

One-in-10 Deaths 'Caused byDrinking Alcohol'A tenth of deaths in Europe and one in 25 worldwidecan be attributed to drinking alcohol, a report said.26 June 2009A pint of mild beer contains two units as does a largeglass of wine Photo: GETTYAlcohol also accounted for five per cent of years livedwith disability around the world, said researchers.The findings, published in The Lancet medical journal,found that average global alcohol consumption wasaround 12 units per person per week.A pint of mild beer contains two units as does a largeglass of wine.In Europe, people drink 21.5 units a week - almost twicethe world average - while average consumption in the USis 18 units. The lowest consumers were those in theeastern Mediterranean, who downed just 1.3 units.In 2004, the latest year for which global figures wereavailable, 3.8 per cent of all deaths around the world - orone in 25 - were due to drinking alcohol, said the study.The proportion of men suffering alcohol-related deathswas much higher than women - 6.3 per cent comparedwith 1.8 per cent.Among Europeans, alcohol was directly responsible foras many as one in 10 deaths, the researchers found.Within Europe, the former Soviet Union countriessuffered the greatest burden, with 15 per cent of alldeaths, or one in seven, caused by alcohol.Most deaths involving alcohol were the result of injuries,cancer, heart disease and liver cirrhosis. Overall, alcoholattributabledeaths had increased since 2000 mainlybecause of increases in the number of women drinking.Alcohol-related disability was weighted towards theyoung, in contrast to the normal trend for traditional riskfactors such as high blood pressure or cholesterol.Of all years lived with disability attributed to alcohol,34 per cent were experienced by people aged 15 to 29years, 31 per cent by those aged 30 to 44, and 22 percent by older individuals in the 45 to 59 age bracket.The authors, led by Dr Jurgen Rehm, from the Centrefor Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada,wrote: "We face a large and increasing alcoholattributableburden at a time when we know more thanever about which strategies can effectively and costeffectivelycontrol alcohol related harms."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5641741/Onein-10-deaths-caused-by-drinking-alcohol.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Risk of Dementia rises withHeavy Drinking, Say DoctorsBrain damage caused by drinking alcohol is set to risein future generations, according to medical experts.10 May 2009They claim that heavy drinking could be responsiblefor as many as one in four cases of dementia.Women are at much greater risk than men of sufferingmental problems because they are physiologically lessable to cope with the effects of alcohol. They havemore body water and less body fat, which means thatthey metabolise alcohol differently and are morevulnerableIn the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, doctors warnthat binge drinking and increased consumption arelikely to produce an epidemic of alcohol-related braindamage in the future. They linked alcohol intake to thedevelopment of dementia in between 10 and 24 per centof the estimated 700,000 people in the UK with thedisease.The rise in the amounts that people drink means "it istherefore likely that prevalence rates of alcohol-relatedbrain damage are currently underestimated and mayrise in future generations", say the authors.Dr Jane Marshall, one of the co-authors and consultantpsychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in south London,said: "People think that dementia is something thathappens to people over 65."But a lot of those problems and a large proportion ofthe problems in that group are related to alcohol."She added: "We know that alcohol is related withserious cognitive impairment. It reduces memory andgeneral cognition."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/5302098/Risk-ofdementia-rises-with-heavy-drinking-say-doctors.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-24- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Dementia Toll climbs to 35Million WorldwideEstimate of Alzheimer's, other ills, is 10 percenthigher than predictionsThe Associated PressSeptember 21, 2009WASHINGTON - More than 35 million people aroundthe world are living with Alzheimer's disease or othertypes of dementia, says the most in-depth attempt yet toassess the brain-destroying illness — and it's an ominousforecast as the population grays.The new count is about 10 percent higher than whatscientists had predicted just a few years ago, becauseearlier research underestimated Alzheimer's growingimpact in developing countries.Barring a medical breakthrough, the World AlzheimerReport projects dementia will nearly double every 20years. By 2050, it will affect a staggering 115.4 millionpeople, the report concludes."We are facing an emergency," said Dr. Daisy Acosta,who heads Alzheimer's Disease International, whichreleased the report Monday.The U.S. and other developed countries long have beenbracing for Alzheimer's to skyrocket. But the report aimsto raise awareness of the threat in poorer countries, wherefinally people are living long enough to face what ismostly a disease of the 65-and-older population.Stigma stalks dementia in poor countriesWhile age is the biggest driver of Alzheimer's, some ofthe same factors that trigger heart disease — obesity, highcholesterol, diabetes — seem to increase the risk ofdementia, too. Those are problems also on the rise inmany developing countries.In poorer countries, "dementia is a hidden issue," Acostasaid, and that's complicating efforts to improve earlierdiagnosis. "You're not supposed to talk about it."For example, the report notes that in India, such termssuch as "tired brain" or "weak brain" are used forAlzheimer's symptoms amid widespread belief thatdementia is a normal part of aging — when it's not.That mistake isn't confined to the developing world. Evenin Britain, the report found, just over half of the familiescaring for someone with dementia believed the samething.The new study updates global figures last reported in2005, when British researchers estimated that more than24 million people were living with dementia. Using thatforecast, scientists had expected about 31 millionpeople would be struggling with dementia by 2010.But since 2005, a flurry of research on Alzheimer's indeveloping countries has been published, leadingAlzheimer's Disease International — a nonprofitfederation of more than 70 national groups — to askthose scientists to re-evaluate. After analyzing dozensof studies, the scientists projected 35.6 million cases ofdementia worldwide by 2010.That includes nearly 7 million people in WesternEurope, nearly 7 million in South and Southeast Asia,about 5.5 million in China and East Asia and about 3million in Latin America.Count at least 4.4 million in North AmericaThe report puts North America's total at 4.4 million,although the Alzheimer's Association of the U.S. uses aless conservative count to say more than 5 millionpeople in this country alone are affected. The diseaseafflicts one in eight people 65 and older, and nearly onein two people over 85.The report forecasts a more than doubling of dementiacases in parts of Asia and Latin America over the next20 years, compared with a 40 percent to 60 percentjump in Europe and North America.The report urges the World Health Organization todeclare dementia a health priority and for nationalgovernments to follow suit. It recommends major newinvestments in research to uncover what causesdementia and how to slow, if not stop, the creepingbrain disease that gradually robs sufferers of theirmemories and ability to care for themselves, eventuallykilling them.There is no known cure; today's drugs only temporarilyalleviate symptoms. Scientists aren't even sure whatcauses Alzheimer's.But major studies under way now should show within afew years if it's possible to at least slow the progressionof Alzheimer's by targeting a gunky substance calledbeta-amyloid that builds up in patients' brains, notedDr. William Thies of the U.S. Alzheimer's Association.His group is pushing for an increase in U.S. researchspending, from just over $400 million to about $1billion.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32937442/ns/healthalzheimers_disease/☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻-25- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 23 - Alcohol Takes its Toll on YouthOne month ago, 23-year-old Alex Masabo wasspending all of his money on alcohol. Sitting in a greenhospital attire in Butabika National Hospital Alcoholand Drug Unit, Masabo explained he lost his appetitefor food and instead used any money he could find foralcohol and marijuana, spending about Shs.30,000 onalcohol and Shs.3,000 on seven to 10 sticks ofmarijuana each day - significant figures for a man withno steady job.Four weeks ago, Masabo began Butabika’srehabilitation programme at the recommendation of hismother, concerned at the severity of her son’s situation.“No I see it’s bad” Masabo told Daily Monitor,explaining how seriously his habits had is life. He hasnot completed his education, has no steady job, and haslost the trust of his parents, all consequences heattributed to his addictions.Masabo is just one of many drinkers in Uganda, wherealcohol consumption and abuse are on the riseaccording to a recent report on the state of alcoholabuse in Uganda by the Uganda Youth Developmentlink (UYDEL). In the past, Uganda has also beenranked one of the highest consumers of alcohol in theworld by the World Health Organisation.Dr.Rogers Nsereko, a clinical psychologist at Butabika,sees firsthand the impact of alcohol on the country. Hepointed to poverty, domestic conflicts, HIV and anincrease in road accidents as some of alcohol’s effects.“It’s obvious that alcohol is destroying the nation “hetold Daily monitor in an interview.Dr Nsereko does not think that drinking itself is bad,but he doesn’t approve of alcoholic drinks that exceedfive percent of alcoholic content. Too much alcoholcan affect relationships, families, finances andjudgment, he said.Dr. Nsereko defined alcoholism as the point at whichsome one can no longer cut back on how much theydrink, needs alcohol as an “eye-opener” in themornings, feels guilty about their drinking habits, andreacts angrily when others refer to their habits.Uganda currently has no regulating body over alcohol,though the Ministry of Health hopes that the countrywill soon create one. Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi, of theMinistry of Health, said that a new alcohol policy isalso in its early draft stages.For now however, alcohol remains essentiallyunregulated and is having a particularly large impact onyouth, according to studies done by UYDEL, whoreported some of their findings a the Alcohol AbusePrevention Media Dialogue in Kampala last week.UYDEL proposed a series of reforms to Parliament lastWednesday, requesting that the drinking age be raised to21 and those sachets, commonly called tot packs, beoutlawed. They also pushed for stricter regulations onalcohol prices, taxes, advertisements, packaging andlabeling. ”Our concern is the young person”, said Mr.Rogers Kasirye, the Executive Director of UYDEL.Parliament responded to UYDEL’s proposals with apromise to reexamine the country’s laws on alcohol andto present a motion for the banning of sachets beforeParliament once it resumes the plenary.However, Hon. James Kubeketerya, an MP representingBunya County East and a member of the three-personcommittee drafting the motion, says banning sachets is ashort term solution to the problem of alcohol abuse inUganda.Meanwhile, Dr. Nsereko said that parents should warntheir children about alcohol and drug abuse when they areyoung and take them to a hospital for help if they becomeaddicted.Majority of the patients at Butabika come in response tofamily pressure. “Most of them are brought in byrelatives when the relatives are fed up,” Dr. Nsereko said,adding, “The only criterion here is someone should havethe motivation to work on their problem.”According to Dr. Nsereko, at private clinics, it costsabout Shs500,000 per day for patients in rehabilitation,but in Butabika, the only government facility in Ugandawith drug rehabilitation, offers its programmed for free.The Butabika Alcohol and Drug Unit have a capacity of35 live-in patients to stay for up to two months. As of lastweek, there were 20 people in the ward, 15 of whomwere male. “It’s very rare to have ladies,” said Dr.Nsereko.The programme has only a 30 percent success rate andmany patients return multiple times, illustratingaccording to Dr. Nsereko, just how serious theiraddictions can become.One of the recovering alcoholics, a 41-year-old man whorequested anonymity, has been at Butabika for just over amonth. He started drinking at 15 due to peer pressure.“You want to have a good time with friends, all of that,not knowing that at the end of the day you’re justdamaging your body,” he said. He now wants to changefor the better.Like him, Masabo wants to make a fresh start when heleaves Butabika. He hopes to get a steady job andproduce music. At 23, he will have his whole life beforehim. That, and an extra Shs33,000 a day.-26- Traditional African Clinic December 2009☻☻☻☻☻☻

Alcoholism Main Cause ofDomestic Violence: PollAngelo InzamaDaily MonitorNovember 27, 2009Most Ugandans say domestic violence which hasbecome a topical subject of recent, is mainly caused byalcoholism, according to a new poll.Police records show that 137 cases of domesticviolence were officially reported last year of which 156people lost their lives.The new poll has linked such incidents to heavyconsumption of alcohol.The poll conducted by Synovate – is a survey of publicopinion on social, political, cultural and economicissues. It was conducted in September this year using asample size of 1999 adult Ugandans who answeredface-to-face structured interviews.Ironically even if poverty was cited as second leadingcause of domestic violence – unemployment comes lastamong the reasons for abuse.Uganda has a narrow formal workforce and it isperhaps not surprising that unlike many developedcountries which can map domestic tension tounemployment, here poverty – is a wider measureapplicable to living conditions across both formal andinformal economic activity.Little ResearchThere is also a marked absence of large researchprojects from local universities that tract social valuesand conditions which could help explain the highincidence of violence and its tolerance in general.Recently alcohol has also grabbed the headlines withmore than two dozen deaths from poisonings in acountry which, according to the World HealthOrganisation, is one of the biggest consumers ofalcohol on the planet.Two other reasons of violence related to tension in thehome are adultery and “lack of respect” or “lack oftrust” between partners. Indeed the ratio of people whosay respect and trust are issues in violence have grownaccording to pollsters.Despite over a decade of activism legislators havenever passed a comprehensive domestic relations law.Recent proposals for an amalgamated marriage anddivorce law by the Uganda Law Commission - reportedextensively by Daily Monitor have received a luke-warm reception among lawmakers.However, Ugandans are overwhelmingly {75 per cent]aware of domestic violence with awareness higher lastyear than in 2009.The debate on domestic violence has picked up followingthe recent incident in which the former army commanderMaj. Gen. James Kazini was reported killed by hismistress Lydia Atim Draru following a domestic quarrelin their rented apartment in Namuwongo, a Kampalasuburb.☻☻☻☻☻☻Why You Shouldn’t DrinkWhile BreastfeedingDr. Vincent KaruhangaDaily MonitorAugust 20, 2009Whereas it is true that drinking alcohol during pregnancyposes a great health risk to unborn babies, risks ofdrinking alcohol while breastfeeding, however, remaincontroversial. Unfortunately, many of our Ugandanreadingpublic who surf the internet will be get confusedon what to take as gospel truth.In such circumstances, it is necessary to play safe and notdrink alcohol at all if one is breastfeeding. Alcohol willfind it way into the breast milk and the amount the babyconsumes depends on the amount of alcohol taken by themother and therefore alcohol concentration in her bloodand milk, and the amount of milk the baby consumesthen. Many breastfeeding alcohol-thirsty women will sayit is safe to drink one or two drinks once in a while.However, if a breastfeeding mother drinks, she shouldbear in mind that since an adult can have short and longtermeffects of drinking alcohol, the effects can even beworse to a baby who is much smaller and whoseelimination system of alcohol is not well-developed. Alsoshe should bear in mind the amount she drinks, and theage of the infant involved. A newborn has a veryimmature liver, so even small amounts of alcohol canaffect the baby. Until around three months of age, infantsbreak down alcohol at around half the rate of an adulthence any alcohol exposure to them can be a problem.Several proven or potential adverse effects of alcohol onsucking infants have been reported, even after exposureto only moderate levels.These include, getting drunk and irritable or not beingable to hold the breast well to suckle properly, risk of lowblood sugar and low body temperature.Continued on page 28-27- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 27 – Why you should not Drink whileBreastfeedingUnfortunately, many women are oblivious or evenbelieve that drinking large amounts of alcohol increasesmilk flow when it actually retards it. The longer termeffects include impaired motor development apart frompriming the baby to be a future bottle fly.Although an older baby can detoxify (breakdown) thealcohol more quickly, heavy drinkers who breastfeedshould abstain from drinking alcohol until their babiesare weaned. It is especially important that womenabstain from drinking alcohol during the baby’s first sixweeks of life. For mothers who are heavy drinkers, it isbetter to breastfeed during the weeks rather thanstopping and using other feeds, even if they cannot stopdrinking altogether. However, it is encouraged tobreastfeed before they take alcohol. Occasionaldrinking, however, does not warrant discontinuingbreastfeeding, as the benefits of breastfeeding aremany. It may however be difficult to establish a safelevel of alcohol in breast milk and what is true; noalcohol in breast milk is safe for breastfeeding babies.It is therefore important for mothers to delaybreastfeeding their babies until alcohol is completelycleared from their breast milk or not to drink at all.After all, determining the time need to eliminatealcohol from breast milk based on number of drinksconsumed is erroneous since this does not take intoaccount the mother’s weight, which affects milkalcoholconcentration.Getting rid of the alcohol in the breast milk by firstexpressing and then feeding baby on the breast later iscumbersome but is better than pumping and dumpingmilk as a way to speed the elimination of alcohol fromthe milk. Or, breastfeeding should be done at least afterthree hours of taking the drink. If a mother must drinkalcohol, it is best to drink after the baby has beenbreastfed.☻☻☻☻☻☻Brewers Turn Food intoBeer to Lower CostsWalter Wafula & Faridan KulabakoDaily MonitorSeptember 1, 2009In a beer market of tightening means, brew masters areshaping future competition by turning to food crops asa major raw material to cut costs and boost profits.Cassava has become the third edible crop to make it tothe brewers’ waiting-list of sources of beer, BusinessPower has established.This follows the successful use of homegrown sorghumand maize as cheap and reliable sources of beer comparedto imported barley.With more exotic brands taking up places in bars, themarketplace is turning into a steeple chase for brewingfirms where survival is for the lean, most enduring andprofitable. In Uganda, the chase is between two of theworld’s leading beer makers South African Breweries(SAB) Millers and Diageo through their respectivesubsidiaries; Nile Breweries and East African Breweries.Mr. Nick Jenkinson, the managing director of NileBreweries Ltd., says if studies on the use of cassava as araw material to brew beer are successful in Angola andGhana, cassava like sorghum, could be adopted as aninput providing a cheaper technology for locally brewedbeer.“It is certainly a possibility for the future. If acommercially viable product can be brewed fromcassava, then there’s a good chance that it will be rolledout in other countries,” Mr. Jenkinson told BusinessPower in an interview at the Jinja-based brewery lastweek.SAB Millers – the world second largest brewingcompany and the parent company of Nile Breweries Ltd.– is conducting trials on the food crop.Most African countries grow a lot of cassava, whichmakes it a readily available material like sorghum.However, Mr. Jenkinson said the business motive behindutilizing cassava, like sorghum, maize and locally grownbarley is to reduce the price of beer, by lowering the costof production.”If you can brew a beer from a cheap local raw material itwould reduce the price of beer and make it moreaccessible to more people who cannot afford to drinkclear beer,” he said.East African Breweries Uganda’s Managing Director IvoBuratovich, agreed that their aim too is to reduce beerprices by using 99 per cent locally produced rawmaterials in the long term.EABL is using sorghum to produce beer at its Luzinabasedfactory in Kampala.If the trials, which are expected to end between the nextsix to 12 months are successful, SAB Millers is expectedto come up with a good and workable business modulethat it will expand from Ghana and Angola to otherAfrican countries.Continued on page 33-28- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 21 – Skin Churns out Marijuana-likeBrain Chemicalsconnections between brain and skin and between stressand zits.Your thinking skinIn the skin, explained lead researcher Tamás Bíró of theUniversity of Debrecen, Hungary, these compoundshelp the sebaceous glands protect us from harsh outerelements, such as the drying effects of wind and sun.Cannabinoids are thought to have a similar role in theleaves of the marijuana plant.Among its protective functions, "endo-pot" stimulatesoil production and tells hair follicles to stop producinghair. Whether this explains the plethora of pimples andreceding hairlines at Grateful Dead concerts (or thoseof former band members) has not yet been determined.The research, funded mostly by the Hungarian andGerman governments, will be detailed in the October2008 issue of The Federation of American Societies forExperimental Biology (FASEB) Journal.Why is a psycho-stimulant working outside the brain?Dermatologists have long suggested that mental statesaffect the skin, having observed flare-ups of acne,psoriasis, hair loss and other conditions that coincidewith stress. Now, they are finding that the skinresponds to, and produces, compounds calledneuropeptides previously thought to exist exclusively inthe brain. This is said to prove the brain-skinconnection by nailing down the mechanism."It is working in both directions," said AndrzejSlominski, a researcher at the University of Tennesseewho was not involved with the endocannabinoids studybut does research on the skin's neuroendocrine system.Brain-skin connectionNeuropeptides — such as serotonin, melatonin, cortisoland, possibly endocannabinoids — are made by theskin in response to environmental stressors or rewardssuch as thorns, humidity, sunshine or a refreshingbreeze. These compounds can then spur the brain toalter behavior, Slominski explained.Conversely, psychological stress sends signals from thebrain to the skin.The discoveries are giving credence to old wives' talesthat connect skin condition with mental state. Yes,perhaps exam period did give you that pimple.Because the skin is less complex than the brain, itknows only a few names for stress, said Slominski.Therefore, the skin may respond to emotional distressas if the body is under physical attack. Protectivelubricants are increased (resulting in oily skin) and lesscritical functions (like growing hair) may be halted.Even though the skin is the simpler organ, as primatesevolved our skin likely learned to deal with stress beforethe brain did, said Slominski. The skin, the body's largestorgan, is continuously exposed to a stressfulenvironment, he pointed out. Of all organs, it had themost pressing evolutionary need to develop protectiveresponses.Later, the skin's stress responses were adopted andperfected by the brain, he said, which explains why thesame compounds have similar effects in each organ.Natural high?While these discoveries may lead to breakthrough topicaltreatments, such as the use of endocannabinoids to treatchronically dry and itchy skin, the research may alsoinspire the pursuit of relaxation in the name of a glowingcomplexion and a full head of hair.What about the endo-pot already on our skin? Can it getus high?"Theoretically, yes," said Bíró. But, while our skin isconstantly pumping out its own type of hash, even if youchewed your arm to bits, he continued, there isn't enoughto have a psychological effect.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25641237/☻☻☻☻☻☻What Your GovernmentKnows About Cannabis andCancer -- And Isn't TellingYouPaul ArmentanoJune 24, 2008Senator Ted Kennedy is putting forward a brave facefollowing his recent surgery but the sad reality remains.Even with successful surgery, radiation, andchemotherapy treatment, gliomas -- a highly aggressiveform of brain cancer that strikes approximately 10,000Americans annually -- tragically claim the lives of 75percent of its victims within two years and virtually allwithin five years.But what if there was an alternative treatment for gliomasthat could selectively target the cancer while leavinghealthy cells intact? And what if federal bureaucrats wereaware of this treatment, but deliberately withheld thisinformation from the public?Continued on page 30-29- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 29 – What Your Government Knowsabout Cannabis and CancerSadly, the questions posed above are not entirelyhypothetical. Let me explain.In 2007, I reviewed over 150 published preclinical andclinical studies assessing the therapeutic potential ofmarijuana and several of its active compounds, knownas cannabinoids. I summarized these numerous studiesin a book, now in its third edition, entitled EmergingClinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids:A Review of the Scientific Literature. (NORMLFoundation, 2008) One chapter in this book, whichsummarized the findings of more than 30 separate trialsand literature reviews, was dedicated to the use ofcannabinoids as potential anti-cancer agents,particularly in the treatment of gliomas.Not familiar with this scientific research? Yourgovernment is.In fact, the first experiment documenting pot's potentanti-cancer effects took place in 1974 at the MedicalCollege of Virginia at the behest federal bureaucrats.The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974,Washington Post newspaper feature, were thatmarijuana's primary psychoactive component, THC,"slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers anda virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, andprolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent."Despite these favorable preliminary findings(eventually published the following year in the Journalof the National Cancer Institute), U.S. governmentofficials refused to authorize any follow-up researchuntil conducting a similar -- though secret -- preclinicaltrial in the mid-1990s. That study, conducted by theU.S. National Toxicology Program to the tune of $2million, concluded that mice and rats administered highdoses of THC over long periods had greater protectionagainst malignant tumors than untreated controls.However, rather than publicize their findings, the U.S.government shelved the results, which only becamepublic after a draft copy of its findings were leaked tothe medical journal AIDS Treatment News, which inturn forwarded the story to the national media.In the years since the completion of the NationalToxicology trial, the U.S. government has yet toauthorize a single additional study examining the drug'spotential anti-cancer properties. (Federal permission isnecessary in order to conduct clinical research onmarijuana because of its illegal status as a schedule Icontrolled substance.)Fortunately, in the past 10 years scientists overseashave generously picked up where U.S. researchers soabruptly left off, reporting that cannabinoids can halt thespread of numerous cancer cells -- including prostatecancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, andbrain cancer. (An excellent paper summarizing much ofthis research, "Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment:Progress and Promise," appears in the January 2008edition of the journal Cancer Research.) A 2006 patienttrial published in the British Journal of Cancer evenreported that the intracranial administration of THC wasassociated with reduced tumor cell proliferation inhumans with advanced glioblastoma.Writing earlier this year in the scientific journal ExpertReview of Neurotherapeutics, Italian researchersreiterated, "(C)annabinoids have displayed a greatpotency in reducing glioma tumor growth. (They) appearto be selective antitumoral agents as they kill glioma cellswithout affecting the viability of nontransformedcounterparts." Not one mainstream media outlet reportedtheir findings. Perhaps now they'll pay better attention.What possible advancements in the treatment of cancermay have been achieved over the past 34 years had U.S.government officials chosen to advance -- rather thansuppress -- clinical research into the anti-cancer effects ofcannabis? It's a shame we have to speculate; it's evenmore tragic that the families of Senator Kennedy andthousands of others must suffer while we do.-30- Traditional African Clinic December 2009http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-armentano/what-yourgovernment-know_b_108712.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Cannabis Biggest DrugChallenge in Africa - GiadeThis Day (Lagos)14 January 2008The Chairman of the National Drug Law EnforcementAgency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade said at the weekendthat Cannabis otherwise known as Indian hemp is thebiggest drug challenge in the country and the Africancontinent.Giade made the declaration when the Agency publiclydestroyed a total of 101,652.24 kilogrammes of narcoticswhich is about 102 metric tonnes in Anambra, Delta andEdo States.Edo State Command where 75,896 kilogrammes of harddrugs were destroyed has the largest quantity. This isfollowed by Delta State and Anambra State Commandswhere 22,700 kilogrammes and 3,056.24 kilogrammes ofnarcotics were set ablaze. The public destruction is partof the Agency's effort to provide a drug free society forall. Continued on page 34

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 4, Issue 11 NEWSLETTER December 2009FEATURED ARTICLESHarmless Habit or Dangerous Drug?Chris SummersBBC News5 January 2006The UK Home Office is expected to announce within dayswhether it will ban khat, a narcotic shrub which men inthe Somali and Yemeni communities have traditionallychewed.Khat is illegal in the United States but is entirelyuncontrolled in UK. Is it really any more dangerous thantobacco or alcohol?Facts about khat:• There are two main types of khat - mirra and hereri• Mirra is grown mainly in Kenya• Hereri comes from Ethiopia• A bundle of khat costs around £3 in Britain• Khat is illegal in the US and a bundle there sells forbetween $50 and $80The stimulant khat, or qat, is currently legal in the UKalthough it is banned in the United States, Canada andseveral European countries.The plant - celastrus edulis - is grown mainly in Kenyaand Ethiopia but most of the crop is picked and flown toSomalia or the Yemen or to expatriate groups in Europe.Labour MP Mike Gapes said khat was "causing havoc inthe Somali community" and he has called on HomeSecretary Charles Clarke to make it a controlledsubstance.The MP for Ilford South said: "It used to be chewedmainly by old men but it is now being used by young boyswho are in a state of permanent intoxication.Decision due soon"There is evidence of serious psychotic consequencesfrom long-term use and also a suggestion that it iscarcinogenic."Khat has been used for centuries by Somalis, not onlyfor its energy-giving qualities, but also because itmakes people more relaxed, talkative and friendly andis also said to improve sexual prowess, although insome men it can actually have the opposite effect.Just before Christmas the Advisory Committee on DrugMisuse handed Mr. Clarke its report on khat, whichincluded a recommendation.The report is due to be published later this month and,if it recommends a ban, it is thought Mr. Clarke willpush ahead with legislation.Many Somali women resent the effect of khat on theirmenfolk and this opposition was highlighted by arecent survey.Nearly 600 members of Britain's Somali communitywere interviewed and 49% said they would support aban on khat.The Yemeni community was not canvassed for theiropinions.'Horrified'The Home Office said of the survey: "Those whowanted to see it banned generally thought that Somalipeople would achieve more in British society, workingand studying harder than they currently did with khat todistract them."Faisa Mohammed, chair of the Bromley-based SomaliWell Women Project, said the abuse of khat wasdamaging many Somali families in Britain.She said: "Back home the men were the breadwinnersbut they came to Britain without jobs and took up khat,which has become an addiction. They chew all nightand during the day they can't do anything."“There is evidence of serious psychotic consequencesfrom long-term use and also a suggestion that it isContinued on page 32-31- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 31 – Harmless Habit or DangerousDrug?carcinogenic” - Mike Gapes MPShe told the BBC News website: "The women aregoing out to work, taking the children to school, doingthe shopping and the men are doing nothing butchewing."Khat was traditionally chewed by Somali men - it wasuntil recently taboo for Somali women to chew - in agathering place known as a mafrish.Mohammed Ducaale, a Somali journalist based inBritain, said: "The mafrish is as important to the Somalicommunity as the pub is to the British community. It istraditionally where people go to talk about theirproblems or plans."To be of good quality khat has to be consumed as freshas possible and the product is often flown overnight toits consumers.The trade in khat in one Somali city alone, Hargeisa -the capital of breakaway Somaliland - is estimated at$300,000 a day.“The women are going out to work, taking the childrento school, doing the shopping and the men are doingnothing but chewing” said Faisa Mohamed of theSomali Well Women Project.Somalia has been mired in political and militaryanarchy for more than a decade and many believe theviolence between the country's various warlords hasbeen exacerbated by the drug.Certainly the Americans thought so when they bannedit shortly after the infamous battle of Mogadishu in1993, which was immortalised in the film Black HawkDown.US military chiefs, who lost 18 soldiers duringOperation Restore Hope, were amazed by theendurance of Somali militiamen who fought on fordays boosted by khat.But Abdisalam Mohamed, who came to Britain 15years ago, said the nature of khat chewing had changedsince the day of pre-civil war Somalia.“The mafrish is as important to the Somali communityas the pub is to the British community” saysMohammed Ducaale.Mr Mohamed, a journalist with the BBC's SomaliService, said: "Khat never used to be a problem. Myfather was a banker and he was a chewer. After workhe would meet friends and they would chew and talkabout the day's events and exchange ideas."But nowadays, especially in England, these people don'thave jobs. They just sit around all day and all nightchewing. They don't talk to each other and the mafrish isoften unhygienic."Mr Gapes said: "Somali groups in my constituency,especially women's groups, are horrified by the effectkhat is having."The Somali community has high levels ofunemployment and non-engagement with the rest ofsociety. Although there are many successful Somalis, it isa community which is under-achieving and I believe khatis partly to blame."But many Somalis feel khat is no more dangerous or antisocialthan alcohol or tobacco and should not becriminalised.Mr Ducaale said the problem, as in the case of alcohol,was with those who abused the substance."It is not in itself addictive but there are people,especially the young and unemployed, who will chew andchew for 10 hours non-stop, which is not healthy," hesaid.Mr Ducaale said people who chewed too much were notonly wasting their lives but were also in danger frommouth cancer - many of the khat farmers are believed tospray their crops with carcinogenic pesticides.“It is a stimulant and it stimulates the mind... you open uplike a flower when you chew” says Abdisalam Mohamed.Mr Mohammed, who chews in moderation, said peoplewere abusing it but that was no reason to ban it outright.He described the benefits of khat: "It is a stimulant and itstimulates the mind. You open up like a flower when youchew. You think positively and make plans for the future.It is a good way of socialising."Mr Mohammed said while Somalis largely chewed khatin groups of men, for Yemenis it was something whichwas usually chewed at home with the rest of the family.Mr Ducaale said he hoped the Home Office would stopshort of a ban and introduce instead some form oflicensing system which would require each mafrish toclose at certain times and to pay regard to hygienestandards.http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/4615415.stm☻☻☻☻☻☻-32- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 28 – Brewers Turn Food into Beer toLower CostsUsing cassava, says Mr. Jenkinson, is a way of furtherstrengthening the company’s Eagle beer concept whichencourages farmers to grow sorghum for better pricesand at a larger scale, in Uganda.Eagle, which is one of the low-end market brands ofNile Breweries, costs almost half the price of somepremium bands like Tusker Malt, Club and Nile Specialbrands.The locally produced high-end brands cost betweenShs1,800 and Shs4,000 depending on the retailer whileEagle and EABL’s Senator Lager cost betweenShs1,100 and Shs1,400. According to the beer makers,premium beer is expensive because their raw materialslike barley are imported from abroad.According to Finance Minister Syda Bbumba’s2009/10 budget speech, Uganda imports malted barleyequivalent to 25,000 metric tones annually at a cost ofabout Shs103 billion or $50 million.Cassava as a raw material is expected to lower the costof some premium beer below their current prices; it isalso likely to increase the cost of cassava – a benefit tofarmers – as well as competition between individualconsumers of cassava as food and the beer makers.The beer makers are also turning to local raw materialsas navigation past the imported barley tax instead takeadvantage of government’s incentives to the beerindustry including the reduction of tax.At the reading of the 2009/10 budget, Finance MinisterSyda Bbumba proposed to reduce excise duty on beerproduced, using locally grown materials from 60 percent to 40 per cent. The move was aimed atencouraging value addition and promoting the growthof sorghum and barley for beer production, in variousparts of Uganda.Mr. Buratovich, explained that besides reducing thecost of production through using cheaper materials, it isalso more profitable for businesses. This is because ofthe 20 per cent tax breaks the government puts onlocally produced products.While making beer cheaper and more available couldonly result into its abuse and consumption by teenagers,the brewers think it’s one way of getting people offharmful alcohol.Mr. Jenkinson argued that producing cheaper clearbeer, would convert people from indigenous alcohollike tonto, a local brew made out of bananas, as well aslocal gins like Kasese and waragi, which can bedangerous and unhealthy to people when abused.-33- Traditional African Clinic December 2009The move to venture into cassava has already received awarm reception from one of Uganda’s farmersassociation based on the impact of the use of sorghum inthe East part of the country.Mr. Frank Tumwebaze, the president Uganda NationalFarmers Federation (UNFFE) – an organization thatadvocates for friendly farmer policies, lauded the movetowards more local food crops for manufacturingpurposes. “We welcome their initiatives because theycreate market opportunities for our farmers and guaranteemarket prices,” Mr. Tumwebaze said in an interview onTuesday.Using the Epuripuri sorghum brand grown in easternUganda as an example, he said brewers have helpedincrease the price of the crop from Shs300 per kilo lastyear to Shs400. The expectation is that it would boostcassava growing in the country and make it morevaluable to farmers.He, however, warns farmers to keep a keen eye on thecontracts they sign with beer companies. This is because,under their contract farming agreements, prices are fixedand yet market prices often change.“We urge farmers to be mindful of the fact that pricestoday may not be the same tomorrow.” He also called onbrewers to include clauses that take care of marketchanges in the contracts so that farmers are not exploited.Both Nile and East African Breweries employ over15,000 farmers of UNFFE’s 200,000 farmers.But with the recent famine that has hit both Kenya andparts of Eastern and Northern Uganda, turning to morefood crops may not be welcomed by many stakeholdersin the agricultural sector. According to Ms. AnnunciataHakuza an economist at the Ministry of Agriculture,adopting cassava as a raw material for premium beer islikely to have food security implications if adopted.By using cassava they will reduce the food which isavailable for consumption,” Ms. Hakuza said in a phoneinterview on August 26.In Kenya, turning to sorghum for beer, has also led to apartnership between EABL, farmers and Equity Bankwhich is the nation’s fastest growing ban, according tothe East African newspaper. Under the partnership, JamesMwangi the bank’s Chief Executive Officer announced,they would lend up to $145,000 (Shs 297 million) tofarmers at a 20 per cent interest rate per annum.Equity’s money is now being used by Kenyan farmers tobuy quality seeds and fertilizers to boost sorghumproduction. With the extension of the bank to Uganda,Mr. Mwangi made this year announced that they wouldalso support the agricultural sector.☻☻☻☻☻☻

Continued from page 30– Cannabis Biggest Drug Challengein AfricaGiade, decried the dangers of hard drugs to humanityand stressed that the destruction exercises is to spitedrug barons and also to demonstrate the superiority oflaw enforcement agents over illicit drug dealers.According to Giade "the threat of narcotic drugs ispalpable. It is difficult to ignore this peril starring at usin the face. Cannabis control constitutes the biggestdrug challenge in Nigeria and Africa. This is because itgrows effortlessly in the country. This drug has thepropensity to destroy our society but we equally havethe capacity to subdue it".Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State in his goodwillmessage said that it is sad that some indigenes of theState are getting involved in the illicit drug trade whenthey are highly respected as good business men andwomen."Anambra citizen has no business with illicit drugs andI assure you that the State will partner with the NDLEAto ensure that Anambra State and by implication theentire country is completely drug free" he said.Giade pointed out that illegal drug business is a covertaffair that makes drug control a very cumbersome taskdemanding enormous resources, training and dexterity.The NDLEA boss said that no drug baron wants hisdrugs seized let alone destroyed because they have paidso much to acquire them.He revealed that the Edo State Command discoveredand destroyed 27 hectares of cannabis farmlands withinthe last ten months. Similarly, in 2007, seventeenIndian hemp farms covering 9. 43 acres were alsodestroyed in communities within Delta State. Thisaccording to him is an indication that cannabis isstruggling for space with legitimate food crops in theStates.He lamented the unhealthy development and promisedthat urgent measures will be taken to right the wrong.The NDLEA will continue to do what it loves doing,which is drug enlightenment campaign, arrest,investigation, prosecution and public destruction ofseized and forfeited drugs. No effort will be spared insustaining this feat.It will be recalled that Edo State Command destroyed31,000 kilogrammes of Indian hemp in January 2007.The fact that about 76,000 kilogrammes of cannabis isbeing destroyed in barely one year after shows that thethreat of hard drugs is real and must be tackled with allsense of seriousness.The events were witnessed by royal fathers, representa-tives of military and paramilitary organizations, studentsand other stakeholders.http://allafrica.com/stories/200801141206.html☻☻☻☻☻☻AU Experts Ask for Ban onCannabisBy Carol NatukundaNew Vision (Kampala)30 December 2007HEALTH experts from the African Union (AU) haveasked member states to ban the growing of cannabis,popularly known as marijuana.They are worried that the cultivation of the drug, locallyknown as njaga, was affecting agricultural production andposing serious food shortage on the continent.It was also observed that cannabis users were at a higherrisk of contracting HIV, among other sexually transmittedinfections.The concerns are contained in a 12-page documentpassed at the African Union conference of ministers fordrug control and crime prevention, held in the Ethiopiancapital, Addis Ababa, from December 3-7."African leaders should acknowledge the use of cannabisas a continental problem. Governments should get moreinvolved in drug control through adoption and applicationof effective legislations and border control. Populationsespecially in the rural areas should stop cannabisproduction," the document reads in part.Speaking to The New Vision recently, Dr. DavidBasangwa, who was one of the Ugandan delegates at theconference, said: "Some people are planting more acresof cannabis and less of food, because they think they willget more money. This leads to food insecurity, and that iswhy we feel that production of the drug should bestopped across nations."On HIV, Basangwa, a drug control expert and seniorpsychiatrist at Butabika Hospital, explained that somepeople were injecting the drug into their skin, usingunsterilised equipment. "Even in Uganda, it is happening,though it is a hidden activity," he said.Basangwa, however, expressed concern that Uganda doesnot have a statutory body to oversee drug control. He alsowondered why a bill on drug abuse had not been passedby Parliament, yet the laws in place are weak and archaic.http://allafrica.com/stories/200712310463.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-34- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Heroin and the Road to Self-RespectTreating addicts with pharmaceutical heroin isbeneficial emotionally and financially – I've seen itfirst-handAdam BaxterThe Guardian18 September 2009Tuesday was a big day for me, as it was for everyoneinvolved in my line of work. I'm not talking about theanniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse, but ratherthe announcement of the results of RIOTT – theRandomised Injectable Opioid Treatment Trial. Thisstudy, in which diamorphine (pharmaceutical heroin),is given to long-term addicts under clinical conditions,began four years ago in a specially commissionedsupervised injecting clinic in London. A further centrewas opened in Darlington the following year and athird, in Brighton, in 2007.Brighton, a mere 50 miles or so from London on theSussex coast, bohemian and host to England's biggestarts festival, has a long-established reputation as a placewhere people come to have a good time. It's perhapsless well known as the "drugs death capital" of the UK,with per capita mortality rates higher than any othercity. The city has held this unwanted title for six out ofthe last eight years – despite costly interventionschemes and dedicated work by police and healthservices to reduce drug supply and demand.With this – and an estimated 2,300 injecting heroinusers – in mind, it's hard to fault Sussex PartnershipNHS Foundation Trust for agreeing to support a trialcentre, and when I heard about the project, I jumped atthe chance to join the nursing team.So, I've been giving people heroin for the last twoyears. People have often asked me if I think thetreatment works. I do. I've seen it first-hand. But untilyesterday, you would have had to take my word for it.Now scientifically rigorous evidence is out there.Our trial participants were all long-term heroin addictswho had failed to benefit from existing treatmentoptions. They continued to inject heroin daily, or onmost days, and their drug use was consideredintractable. In my experience, many had little hope fortheir own recovery.The results show that, of those receiving injectableheroin, a substantial majority had either dramaticallyreduced their illicit heroin use or ceased altogether aftersix months' treatment, although marked improvementswere seen after just six weeks. The average weeklyspends on illicit heroin, per client, dropped from £300 to£50.The cost of injectable heroin treatment is estimated at£15,000 per person annually, compared to regularmethadone treatment at about £3,000. It looks expensive,but if you add in the crime bill, this group of peopleactually costs less to treat with heroin than with oralmethadone. Prison, which has limited therapeuticbenefits, costs £44,000 a year. Not treating this group ofpeople at all also comes with a massive bill. Estimates ofan annual drug expenditure of £15,000 to £30,000 peraddict are not uncommon. If this sum is to be raisedthrough acquisitive crime, as is often the case, goodsworth perhaps three times that value need to be stolen.Trial participants showed gains in physical and mentalhealth, social functioning and, I can report anecdotally,self-respect. Almost all of the clients at my clinic havechosen to stop injecting twice a day and only come oncein the morning. Two are living drug free. And nobodydied.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/18/drugsheroin☻☻☻☻☻☻-35- Traditional African Clinic December 2009GSK Deal draws Smokers’Vaccine CloserBy Andrew JackNovember 16 2009Smokers may soon be able to break their habit with aninjectable vaccine that prevents nicotine in tobaccoentering the brain, where it creates a highly addictivesensation of pleasure.The NicVAX vaccine moved closer to the market onMonday after a deal between GlaxoSmithKline and theUS biotech company Nabi Pharmaceuticals, whichdeveloped the product.GSK will pay $40m (£24m) up front and as much as$500m in the future to Nabi at a time of growing concernover the heavy burden of tobacco-related diseases as oneof the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.The product potentially opens a new front in the tobaccowars, with most existing so-called smoking cessationproducts and methods failing to prevent many peoplefrom returning to their tobacco habits.The vaccine helps create antibodies that bind to nicotinemolecules, preventing them from passing from the bloodinto the brain. Trials have shown that it halves theContinued on page 36

Continued from page 35 – GSK Deal draw Smoker’sVaccine Closernumber of people returning to their habit comparedwith those given a placebo over six months. Thosevaccinated were 3.5 times more likely not to besmoking again after a year.Jean Stephenne, president of GSK’s Biologicalsdivision, said: “If approved, this . . . technology couldbe a novel solution to help the millions of smokers whowant to stop smoking and remain abstinent; a habit thatis well documented to be very hard to stoppermanently.”GSK cited research from the American LungAssociation that relapse rates among smokers are ashigh as 90 per cent within a year of quitting.Sales of the association’s own range of anti-smokingpatches, gums and products declined last year.This year, American regulators ordered additionalwarnings on GSK’s Zyban and Pfizer’s Champixprescription smoking cessation drugs after concernsthey triggered suicidal feelings. They have previouslyrefused to authorise Sanofi-Aventis’s rimonabant.Companies with less advanced nicotine addictionvaccines in development include Cytos, Celtic Pharmaand Independent Pharmaceutica.Under the terms of the deal, Nabi will continue to fundthe late-stage tests already under way, while GSK willsupport future tests and commercialisation if the resultsare promising, as well as combining its own and Nabi’sintellectual property for next-generation vaccines.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f32e2cb4-d2fe-11de-af63-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1☻☻☻☻☻☻From Coast to Coast, USAnti-Smoking ProgrammesGrow Ever More AggressivePaul HarrisGuardian.co.uk15 September 2009Once America was in thrall to the Marlboro man. Thehard-smoking cowboy, staring moodily from his horseat a far-off horizon, became a visual icon thatsymbolised a certain kind of freedom and - notcoincidentally - helped sell millions of cigarettes.But now America's smokers are groaning - or shouldthat be wheezing - under a flood of new measuresdesigned to make them give up their habit. Or at thevery least driving it from public view and turning it intosomething furtively done in private.New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announcedplans to try and ban smoking in the city's public parks,already adding to a hefty 2002 ban that has chasedsmoking from its offices, restaurants and bars. Thatwould see the Big Apple take on one of the mostambitious urban anti-smoking bans in the world,forbidding its citizens from lighting up on hundreds ofcity parks and 14 miles of beaches.But the New York move is actually just the tip of aniceberg of anti-smoking policies that are now sweepingacross the whole country spreading from rental cars to thearmy to people's homes.From next month Avis and Budget will be the first majorAmerican car rental companies to ban smokers frompuffing away in their vehicles, charging cleaning fees ofup to $250 for those who flout the rules.Chicago has already taken its ban outside by forbiddingsmoking on its beaches and playgrounds. In Californiathe small city of Belmont, just outside San Francisco, haseven banned it in its apartment buildings, marking thefirst real advance of anti-smoking laws into people'spersonal homes.Perhaps the biggest recent shock has been a surveycommissioned by the Pentagon which has argued thatsmoking should be banned in the military. Though fewchanges are expected soon in the army, the idea ofstopping American soldiers from lighting up in a combatzone after a firefight triggered a wave of headlines.Yet it is still New York that is on the front lines ofAmerica's new anti-smoking wars. The city celebratesitself for its global reputation for hard partying, toleranceof everyone's lifestyle and rabid individualism, yetBloomberg has successfully made the Big Apple'ssmokers one of the few social groups that it is acceptableto ostracize.On Monday Bloomberg - a former smoker - himselfadmitted that he personally gives smokers he sees "a notparticularly nice look" as he walks by them hunkeredtogether outside buildings.His comments appeared to be aimed at encouraging otherNew Yorkers to do likewise."Social pressure really does work," Bloomberg said. Itcertainly seems to have made New York smokers into afairly subdued bunch as they faced yet further limits ontheir habit.-36- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Hurrying across New York's Madison Square park - oneof the areas where a ban would come into place - JanariaContinued on page 36

Continued from page 35– –US Anti-Smoking Programmesgrows more AggressiveKelly shrugged off the news even as he clutched alighted cigarette in his hand."They have already banned it in so many other places,that it won't make much difference," said the 43-yearoldsalesman. Kelly added that he understood, and evensympathised with the reasons for the ban. "Smoking ismy choice, but I know it is bad for me, so I get whythey are doing it," he said.That is music to the ears of the anti-smokingmovement. Some reports have shown that smokingrelatedhealthcare costs are almost $100bn a year at atime when governments face spiralling healthcare costs.Bloomberg, and many others, have made it clear thatthey see smoking as expensive to society as a whole,not just as a private habit for the individual, and thushave not shied away from draconian measures thatwould be hard to impose on other products.But smoking rights groups have made no secret of theirhorror at the latest moves, equating it with a loss ofindividual freedom being imposed on the public fromabove."The American public is not asking for this. It iscoming from government and non-government groupsand it is attacking basic individual rights of freedom,"said Maryetta Ables, president of Forces International,a conservative group that campaigns on issues ofpersonal freedom in smoking and eating and otherconsumer choices.But Ables admitted that the current climate in the USseemed to indicate that her group was fighting a losingbattle at the moment. "There is going to be more of thissort of thing to come," she said.That did not seem to bother Paul Collins, 39, anothersmoker lighting up in Madison Square Park as herecovered from the stresses of his morning commuteinto the city."If they do it, they do it," he said with an air ofresignation "The smoking ban in bars was actuallygood for me. I cut down a bit. So I don't really mind,"he said. That is not the fighting spirit among smokersthat the Marlboro man was meant to encourage. Butthen the Marlboro man is perhaps not the best smokingsymbol anymore. Several of the rugged cowboys usedas models in the campaign contracted lung cancer andbecame anti-smoking campaigners.Leading the way• New York banned smoking in most restaurants in1995, followed by workplaces and indoor public placesin 2003, three years before such bans in Scotland andfour years before England and Wales. The Department ofHealth in England says it has no plans to extend smokefreeareas, saying such moves are up to local authorities.• Smoking was banned on Sydney's Bondi beach in 2004,after similar prohibitions on dogs, ball games andfrisbees. Soon after, the council restricted alcoholconsumption on the beach.• Amsterdam's coffee shops, where marijuana is oftenavailable, were not exempted from a smoking ban. Purecannabis or cannabis resin can be legally smoked – aslong as it is not mixed with tobacco.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/15/new-yorksmoking-ban-outdoors☻☻☻☻☻☻Cocaine-Addiction Vaccine inthe WorksTreatment would be first-ever medication for peoplehooked on the drugThe Associated PressJanuary 2, 2008HOUSTON - Two Baylor College of Medicineresearchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccinethey hope will become the first-ever medication to treatpeople hooked on the drug."For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccineshould be very useful," said Dr. Tom Kosten, apsychiatry professor who is being assisted in the researchby his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist."At some point, most users will give in to temptation andrelapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won'tget high and will lose interest."The vaccine, currently in clinical trials, stimulates theimmune system to attack the real thing when it's taken.The immune system — unable to recognize cocaine andother drug molecules because they are so small — can'tmake antibodies to attack them.To help the immune system distinguish the drug, Kostenattached inactivated cocaine to the outside of inactivatedcholera proteins.Trial planned for springIn response, the immune system not only makesantibodies to the combination, which is harmless, but alsorecognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. Theantibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it fromreaching the brain, where it normally would generate thehighs that are so addictive. Continued on page 38-37- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 37 – Cocaine Addiction Vaccine"It's a very clever idea," says David Eagleman, a Baylorneuroscientist. "Scientists have spent the last fewdecades figuring out reward pathways in the brain andhow drugs like cocaine hijack the system. It turns outthose pathways are difficult to rewire once they've seenthe drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that."Kosten asked the Food and Drug Administration inDecember to green-light a multi-institutional trial tobegin in the spring and is awaiting a response.Approval would mark a breakthrough in the treatmentof cocaine addiction, which now mostly involvespsychiatric counseling and 12-step programs. Itpresumably would be the final clinical hurdle beforethe vaccine — more than a decade in the making —might be approved for treatment. But one expert warnsagainst expecting too much."Addiction vaccines are a promising advance, but it'sunlikely any treatment in this field will work foreveryone," said Dr. David Gorelick, a seniorinvestigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse."Still, if they prove successful, they will give thoseworking in drug addiction an important option."http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22471149/☻☻☻☻☻☻More Young CocaineAddicts being TreatedThe number of cocaine users aged 18-24 beingseen by the NHS has jumped by 88% in four yearsDenis CampbellGuardian.co.uk3 December 2009The numbers of young adults entering NHS-fundedtreatment for cocaine addiction are growing rapidly.A total of 1,591 people in England aged 18-24 beganreceiving treatment for dependence on the class A drugin 2005-06. But that number had soared to 2,998 in2008-09, a jump of 88%, the NHS's National TreatmentAgency for Substance Misuse (NTA) disclosed today.The number of women in that age group rose 80%,(from 329 to 592) over the four years, while the numberof men increased by 91% (from 1,262 to 2,406).Among under-35s, the number of women startingtreatment has gone up 60% (from 790 to 1,261), whilefor men it jumped 75% (from 3,024 to 5,263). Theaverage age of first use of cocaine is 21, users have tolddrugs workers.However, on the positive side, the number of womennewly entering treatment for use of heroin and crackcocaine – the two drugs which involve the most crime,physical harm to users, and family problems – is falling,albeit slowly. In all, 15,440 women of all ages startedtreatment for these substances in 2008-09, which was 8%fewer than the 16,792 who did so four years earlier. Atotal of just over 56,500 women received drug treatmentin 2008-09."It is good news that women are turning away fromheroin and crack, the most problematic drugs. But we areconcerned by the increase in cocaine dependence,although it is consistent with national data charting theincreased use of cocaine in recent years," said RosannaO'Connor, the NTA's director of delivery.The new figures add to a growing body of evidence that agenerational shift is underway when it comes to harddrug habits in England, with growing numbers ofyounger users preferring cocaine and slowly-diminishingnumbers of older addicts hooked on crack and heroin.Drugs experts said the figures underlined both cocaine'sincreasing popularity and its capacity to damage users."Cocaine has become part of a night out for many pubandclub-goers but, as these figures show, people candevelop serious problems with the drug," said MartinBarnes, the chief executive of Drugscope, whichrepresents drugs projects across the UK."Evidence showing an increase in use – that one in eight16- to 24-year-olds report using cocaine – suggests thatthe rise in the numbers of men and women seekingtreatment for cocaine is likely to continue.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/dec/03/more-youngcocaine-addicts☻☻☻☻☻☻Heroin Users cost theirFamilies £10,000 a YearThe families of heroin and crack users lose an average of£9,741 each year due to theft, lost pay and clearing theuser's debts, according to research by the UK DrugPolicy CommissionPress AssociationGuardian.co.uk26 November 2009Heroin and crack users are costing their families andpartners more than £9,741 a year in lost pay, theft andfinancial support, a report claims today.Continued on page 39-38- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 38 – Heroin Users cost Families£10,000 a YearThey also spend an extra £450 a year on extrahealthcare costs, either for themselves or their drugusing relative.And the burden borne by family members of peoplewith drug problems saves the NHS and other stateservices £3,935 a year for each user, the UK DrugPolicy Commission said.The UKDPC claims that with an estimated 1.5 millionadults supporting or caring for a problem drug user inthe UK, affected families are shouldering a financialburden of £1.8 billion every year.If they did not provide that support, estimates thereport, it would cost the state an extra £750 millionannually.The report published today estimates the cost ofhelping a drug user with food, rent, healthcare and evenmoney for drugs — often stolen by the user without thefamily's knowledge.They are also, the report says, paying off debts andfunding detox programmes.Time off work to care for an drug- using relative or sickleave because of the impact on families own health isalso hitting pockets.The study claims that the costs could be far higher asthey fail to take into account factors such as the longtermpsychological effects on families or the widerangingimpact on siblings or children.The 12-month study found that, of the 1.5 millionadults, about 50,000 were living with a crack or heroinaddict, one million will be helping a loved-one withcannabis problems and nearly 130,000 will be caringfor a family member dependent on cocaine.Keith, from Scotland, watched his son Perry destroyhimself with drugs and eventually die of an overdoselast year.He said "There have been some really bleak timeswhen the strain has been unbearable. The needs of mywife and daughters have really taken a back seat. We'vehad to deal with drug dealers demanding money at thehouse and had to pay back thousands of pounds in drugdebts and lost property."When Perry became the centre of attention because ofhis problems, our other children suffered. They werescared of Perry, because he was violent towards us, andthe emotional stress meant they missed importantperiods at school."UKDPC commissioner, Alan Maynard, Professor ofHealth Economics at the University of York andspecialist adviser to the House of Commons SelectCommittee on Health said: "Because of the stigmaassociated with drug dependency and addiction the trueimpact on families is hidden. This shame and distressassociated with relatives' drug use exacerbates thefamily's stressful experience and can also hinder theuseful contribution that families make to the recovery ofthe drug user."Our study provides an insight into the large burdensthese families face in terms of costs linked to day-to-daycare, as well as costs linked to stolen money andproperty. Policy needs to catch up with the realities oftheir life because their contribution as families is fillingan important gap."Roger Howard, chief executive of the UKDPC said:"Drug dependency places an intolerable strain on familiesas well on our health and social care system and thosepressures will only soar unless we get the right services inplace for these families in their own right. Our researchshows families provide a bedrock of support, and thatinvestment in them is likely to save the state — includingthe NHS and criminal justice system — money in thelong run."Vivienne Evans, chief executive of Adfam, said: "Wewelcome this new research and its emphasis on families,as so often their supportive care — and the effects ontheir lives — are forgotten or ignored. We have seensome progress in national policy over the last couple ofyears but these new statistics should really make peoplestand up and take notice at a local service delivery level.We hope that this will encourage more families to accesssupport in their own right."-39- Traditional African Clinic December 2009http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/26/heroin-userscost-to-families☻☻☻☻☻☻Cocaine, Spices, HormonesFound in Drinking WaterChristine Dell'AmoreNational Geographic NewsNovember 12, 2009How's this for a sweet surprise? A team of researchers inWashington State has found traces of cooking spices andflavorings in the waters of Puget Sound.University of Washington associate professor RichardKeil heads the Sound Citizen program, which investigateshow what we do on land affects our waters.Continued on page 40

Continued from page 39 – Cocaine, Spices, HormonesFound in Drinking WaterKeil and his team have tracked "pulses" of foodingredients that enter the sound during certain holidays.For instance, thyme and sage spike duringThanksgiving, cinnamon surges all winter, chocolateand vanilla show up during weekends (presumablyfrom party-related goodies), and waffle-cone andcaramel-corn remnants skyrocket around the Fourth ofJuly.The Puget Sound study is one of several ongoingefforts to investigate the unexpected ingredients thatfind their way into the global water supply.Around the world, scientists are finding trace amountsof substances—from sugar and spice to heroin, rocketfuel, and birth control—that might be havingunintended consequences for humans and wildlifealike.Vanilla Seas?When spices and flavorings are flushed out of a U.S.home, they travel to a sewage-treatment facility, wheremost of them are removed.In the area around Puget Sound, the University ofWashington team found, the spicy residues that remainin wastewater end up flowing into the sound's inlandwaterways.Of all the flavors trickling downstream, artificialvanilla dominates the sound, Keil said. For instance, theteam found an average of about six milligrams ofartificial vanilla per liter of water sampled.The region's sewage runoff contains more than 14milligrams of vanilla per liter. This would be likespiking an Olympic-size swimming pool withapproximately ten 4-ounce (113.4-gram) bottles ofartificial vanilla.For now, there's no evidence that a sweeter and spiciersound is a bad thing—salmon, which can smell suchflavors, could be enjoying their vanilla-enhancedhabitat, Keil said.In an attempt to understand some of the consequencesof spice in the water, Keil and colleagues plan to studywhether cooking ingredients harm the reproduction ofoctopuses in Puget Sound.Overall, he added, the spice project has become asuccessful recipe for educating people, especiallyschoolkids, "that everything you do is connected to thewatershed."Illegal DrugsThe link from kitchen or bathroom to coast can alsogrease the path for some rather unsavory substances, suchas illegal drugs, experts have discovered.After a person has taken drugs such as cocaine, heroin,marijuana, and ecstasy, active byproducts of thesesubstances are released into the sewage stream throughthat person's urine and feces.These byproducts, or metabolites, are often notcompletely removed during the sewage-treatmentprocess, at least in Europe, said Sara Castiglioni of theMario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research inMilan, Italy.That means the drug-tainted wastewater can entergroundwater and surface water, which are collectively themajor sources of drinking water for most people.In a new review study, Castiglioni and colleague EttoreZuccato found that illegal drugs have become"widespread" in surface water in some of Europe'spopulated areas.For instance, in a 2008 study scientists discovered abyproduct of cocaine in 22 of 24 samples of drinkingwater at a Spanish water-treatment plant—despite arigorous filtering and treatment process.Likewise, in 2005, Zuccato found that a daily influx ofcocaine travels down the Po River, Italy's longest river.Though these drug traces are still tiny, it's possible thatthe potent residues could be toxic to freshwater animals,according to the study, which will be published in anupcoming issue of the journal Philosophical Transactionsof the Royal Society A.For this reason, the "risks for human health and theenvironment cannot be excluded," the study warns.PharmaceuticalsScientists are also developing a clearer picture of howlegal pharmaceuticals and personal-care products—fromantibiotics and morphine to fragrances and sunscreen—are flooding our waterways.For example, previous research had revealed that up to44.1 pounds (20 kilograms) of pharmaceuticals flowdown Italy's Po River each day.Much like illegal drugs, traces of pharmaceuticals oftenfilter through traditional sewage-treatment processes.These products are also found in many U.S. waterways,and studies have shown that certain drugs may causeharm to the environment—though no evidence to date hasshown effects in people, according to the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency.Some of the drugs that mimic hormones, such as birthContinued on page 41-40- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 40 – Cocaine, Spices, HormonesFound in Drinking Watercontrol, may also throw off an animal's endocrine, orhormone-regulating, system. Some male fish in theU.S., for example, have been growing female partsdue to exposure to estrogen in the water.Researching these substances is important,Castiglioni said, "because [these] are quite unknowncontaminants, and they are present in theenvironment in huge amounts, especially forpharmaceuticals."To control the flow of these substances, some expertshave suggested creating "green pharmacies," whichwould allow a consumer to send back their drugs to apharmacist or manufacturer instead of flushing themdown the toilet and into the wild.ContaminantsCurrent EPA regulations say that more than 90contaminants must be filtered out of drinking-watersystems, said Cynthia Dougherty, director of EPA'sOffice of Groundwater and Drinking Water.Viruses and other microorganisms are kept at bay, asare inorganic substances such as lead, cyanide,copper, and mercury. Pollutants from fertilizerrunoff, such as nitrate and nitrite, are also removed.In addition, the agency regularly studies newchemicals that may need regulation. Of particularinterest right now is perchlorate, a natural andhuman-made chemical used in fireworks and rocketfuel, Dougherty said.At sufficiently high doses, the chemical—found in atleast 4 percent of U.S drinking water—can reduceiodine uptake into a person's thyroid gland. Ifcontinued long-term, reduced iodine can lead tohypothyroidism, according to the agency, which isnow seeking input on whether to regulate perchlorate.Ultimately, "what you really want is to not ever havethings you're concerned about in drinking water inthe first place," Dougherty said.That's why it's crucial for local communities to keepa close eye on what runs into their waterways, shesaid."If you have an understanding of what your source ofdrinking water is and what can happen to it,"Dougherty said, "you can be a more educated citizenin engaging in those issues."http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091112-drinking-water-cocaine.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Hints of 9,000-year-old WineFoundResidue found in ancient pottery matches profile offermented drinkThe Associated PressDecember, 6, 2004WASHINGTON - The Chinese were consuming fermentedbeverages — possibly wine — as long as 9,000 years ago,according to scientists who used modern techniques to peerback through the mists of time.Early evidence of beer and wine had been traced to theancient Middle East. But the new discovery indicates thatthe Chinese may have been making their drinks evenearlier.“Fermented beverages are central to a lot of our religions,social relations, medicine, in many cultures around theworld,” said Patrick E. McGovern of the University ofPennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.These drinks “have played key roles in the development ofhuman culture and technology, contributing to the advanceand intensification of agriculture, horticulture and foodprocessingtechnologies,” he reported.The discovery, by a team of researchers led by McGovern,is being published online in this week’s early edition ofProceedings of the National Academy of Science.Artifacts from stone-age villageMcGovern’s team collected pieces of 16 pottery vessels atJiahu, an early New Stone Age village in China’s Henanprovince. This is the same site where archaeologists havefound the earliest evidence of musical instruments,including an ancient flute.The ceramics were dated to about 7,000 B.C. — 9,000years ago — and the scientists analyzed residue that hadcollected inside the pots.The results showed chemicals that matched residues frommodern rice and rice wine, grape wine, grape tannins andancient and modern herbs. There were also indications ofhawthorn fruit.“The most straightforward interpretation of these data isthat the Jiahu vessels contained a consistently processedbeverage made from rice, honey and a fruit,” the teamconcluded.The team also reported on an analysis of 3,000-year-oldliquid found in sealed bronze vessels from the Chinese cityof Anyang.Continued on page 42-41- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 41 – Hints of 9,000-year Wine FoundThese vessels contained rice and millet wines, theyfound, flavored with herbs and flowers.“It’s similar to the rice wine that’s produced in the areasouthwest of Shanghai” today, McGovern said in atelephone interview from Philadelphia. “I have nevertasted the ancient samples, I’ve only smelled it, but doesremind you of these Shaoxing rice wines with the floralaromatic scents,” he said.Ancient drinks around the worldIn 1990, McGovern was part of a team that found whatwas then the earliest known chemical evidence of wine,dating to about 3500 B.C., from Godin Tepe in theZagros Mountains of western Iran. That was followedtwo years later with the earliest chemically confirmedbarley beer, in another vessel from the same room atGodin.In 1994, chemical testing confirmed resinated wine insidetwo jars excavated by a University of Pennsylvaniaarchaeological team at the Neolithic site of Hajji FiruzTepe, Iran, dating to about 5400 B.C.Sarah Milledge Nelson, a professor in the anthropologydepartment at the University of Denver, said thatalthough no one has discovered such early evidence offermented beverages in China before, “it’s logical.”“People around the world found out how to makethemselves drunk quite early,” said Nelson, who was notpart of the research team.While it is possible that the newly found potterycontained grape wine, she suggested that rice wine ismore likely, possibly flavored with grapes or hawthornfruit.How did wine get started?Julie Hansen, chair of the archaeology department atBoston University, said the report is “exciting news for(fermented beverages) coming out of China. It’s the firstevidence we have, that I’m aware of, from that region.”“I think it’s probable that people would collect fruits anduse the vessels as storage, maybe deliberately fermentingthem, or accidentally doing so,” she said.The research was funded by the National Natural ScienceFoundation of China, the Henry Luce Foundation and theU.S. National Science Foundation.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6661424/☻☻☻☻☻☻Antibiotic Beer CuredNubiansDaily MonitorJuly 18, 2005Humans have been downing beer for millennia. In certaininstances, some drinkers got an extra dose of medicine,according to an analysis of Nubian bones from Sudan inNorth Africa.George Armelagos is an anthropologist at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta. For more than two decades, he andhis colleagues have studied bones dated to between A.D.350 and 550 from Nubia, an ancient kingdom south ofancient Egypt along the Nile River.The bones, the researchers say, contain traces of theantibiotic tetracycline. Today tetracycline is used to treatailments ranging from acne flare-ups to urinary-tractinfections. But the antibiotic only came into commercialuse half a century ago. So how did tetracycline get intothe Nubian bones?Armelagos and his team say they found an answer inancient beer. The brew was made from graincontaminated with the bacteria streptomycedes, whichproduces tetracycline.The ancient Nubians, according to Armelagos, storedtheir grain in mud bins. A soil bacteria, streptomycedes isubiquitous in arid climates like Sudan's. "We looked athow the grain was used then came across a recipe forbeer," Armelagos says.The Nubians would make dough with the grain, bake itbriefly at a hot temperature, and then use it to make beer."We are not talking about Heineken or Bud Light. Thiswas a thick gruel, sort of a sour cereal" he maintains.According to Armelagos, the Nubians would drink thegruel and probably allowed to their children to eat whatwas left at the bottom of the vat. Traces of tetracyclinehave been found in more than 90 percent of the bones theteam examined, including those of 24 month old infants.But did the Nubians know they were drinking beercontaminated with tetracycline?"They probably realised the alcohol made them feelbetter, but there is a whole series of Egyptianpharmacopoeias (medicine books) that talk about thingsbeer can help with," Armelagos says. (The ancientNubians had no written language but lived just south ofthe Egyptians, who did.)Armelagos says Egyptians used beer as a gum-diseasetreatment and a dressing for wounds.Continued on page 43-42- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 42 – Antibiotic Beer Cured NubiansThe anthropologist also believes the tetracyclineprotected the Nubians from bone infections, as all thebones he examined are infection-free.The anthropologist also believes the tetracyclineprotected the Nubians from bone infections, as all thebones he examined are infection-free.The anthropologist also believes the tetracyclineprotected the Nubians from bone infections, as all thebones he examined are infection-free.Charlie Bamforth, a professor of biochemistry andbrewing science at the University of California, Davis,says that beer has been a staple of the human diet forthousands of years and that the health benefits of beerwere well known, even if not scientifically explained, inancient times.They must have consumed it because it was rather tastierthan the grain from which it was derived.They would have noticed people fared better byconsuming this product than they were just consumingthe grain itself," he says.☻☻☻☻☻☻Beer Contains Cancer-Fighting IngredientsJanuary 14, 2008German scientists discovered that hops, used in beerproduction, had essential cancer-fighting agents. Theresults of the study showed that xanthohumol, found inhops, contains agents that inhibit enzymes which triggercancer. Besides, xanthohumol helps in fightingcarcinogens.Dr. Werner Back, a brewing technology expert at theTechnical University of Munich, explained that thesefindings indicate that beer can be actually healthy.Xanthohumol found in hopes is long known as anantioxidant, reducing bad cholesterol level. Hops are,used in herbal medicine, contains phytoestrogens -agents, protecting against prostate, breast, bowel, andother cancers, cardiovascular disease, brain functiondisorders, post-menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis.Xanthohumol deactivates enzymes called cytochromes P-4 that trigger the cancer process thus preventing thedevelopment of tumors at an early stage.However, the researchers explain that the amount ofxanthohumol necessary to fight cancer equals to 60regular beers and they are working to brew a healthybeer, containing high level of this helpful agent. It is alsopossible that xanthohumol will be added to other productsto make it healthier.On general, the higher is the amount of xanthohumol inbeer, the darker it is and the healthier it is for you.-43- Traditional African Clinic December 2009http://health.infoniac.com/index.php?page=post&id=55☻☻☻☻☻☻Junk Food as 'Addictive asDrugs'Junk food is almost as addictive as heroin, scientists havefound.28 October 2009A diet of burgers, chips, sausages and cake willprogramme your brain into craving even more foods thatare high in sugar, salt and fat, according to new research.Over the years these junk foods can become a substitutefor happiness and will lead bingers to become addicted.Dr Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist, carried out the researchwhich shows how dangerous high fat and high sugarfoods can be to our health. “You lose control. It’s thehallmark of addiction,” he said.The researchers believe it is one of the first studies tosuggest brains may react in the same way to junk food asthey do to drugs. “This is the most complete evidence todate that suggests obesity and drug addiction havecommon neuro-biological foundations,” said PaulJohnson, Dr Kenny’s work colleague.Dr Kenny, who began his research at Guy’s Hospital,London, but now works at Florida’s Scripps ResearchInstitute, divided rats into three groups for his research,due to be published in the US soon.One got normal amounts of healthy food to eat. Anotherlot was given restricted amounts of junk food and thethird group was given unlimited amounts of junk,including cheesecake, fatty meat products, and cheapsponge cakes and chocolate snacks.There were no adverse effects on the first two groups, butthe rats who ate as much junk food as they wantedquickly became very fat and started bingeing.When researchers electronically stimulated the part of thebrain that feels pleasure, they found that the rats onunlimited junk food needed more and more stimulation toregister the same level of pleasure as the animals onhealthier diets.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6451119/Junkfood-as-addictive-as-drugs.html☻☻☻☻☻☻

Dutch Police in CannabisMix-upBBC NEWSSeptember 9, 2009A triumph for Dutch police quickly turned out to be anembarrassing mistake after they destroyed what theythought was a field of cannabis plants.Police on Wednesday announced they had discovered aplantation of some 47,000 illicit cannabis plants with astreet value of 4.4m euros ($6.3m; £3.8m).They had destroyed much of the crop when they weretold the plants belonged to a respected school ofagriculture.They were a type of hemp, being grown as a fibre for usein textiles.Hemp is related to cannabis, but contains only traceamounts of THC, the psychoactive substance found inmarijuana.They were being grown in the field near Lelystad,Flevoland province under licence by researchers fromWageningen University who were studying the hempvariety as a potential sustainable source of textiles."The street value from a drug point of view is less thanzero," the university's Simon Vink told AP news agency.Under Dutch law, cannabis is a controlled substance, andits large-scale production is illegal.However a policy of tolerance is applied to individualusers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8237006.stm☻☻☻☻☻☻Nigeria: NDLEA DestroysCannabis PlantationJoshua UmaLeadership4 September 2009Abuja — The Osun State command of the National DrugLaw Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has destroyed acannabis plantation in a forest reserve borderingAyedaade, Isokan, Irewole and Ife South LocalGovernment Areas of the state.The destroyed farms measuring 24 hectares according tothe command are part of the ongoing efforts to cut offsupply of drugs this planting season from illicitcirculation.In his warning message to drug barons, theChairman/Chief Executive of the agency, Ahmadu Giade,advised them to desist from cannabis cultivation or beprepared to face the legal consequences.He also stated that the agency has perfected plans tofrustrate drug barons by ensuring that their drugs aredestroyed in the farms."Drug barons have suffered a great loss as a result of thecannabis farm destruction so far carried out, but we shallfurther incapacitate them by uncovering and destroyingall their farms ," Giade vowed.The NDLEA boss charged local government chairmenunder whose council areas cannabis farms are cultivatedto ensure that their territories are not used for thecultivation of illicit drugs.NDLEA Osun State Commander, Mrs. Audu Wusilat,said that the cannabis plantation is the largest destroyedby the agency in the state."When the plantation was first uncovered, a total of 10hectares was destroyed with the help of security officialsfrom the Nigeria Police and National Security and CivilDefence (NSCD) corps as well as local government staff."It is the largest farm the command has destroyed since itwas established. Four suspects were arrested inconnection with the cannabis cultivation. This timearound, we mobilised over 40 workers and police menfrom three divisional headquarters in Gbongan, Ikire andApomu in which 24 hectares were destroyed".She commended the state government and the policecommand for their support.The government in appreciation of the agency's drugcontrol efforts has allocated a large parcel of land to theNDLEA in the state.The land will be used for the permanent site of theagency's statecommand headquarters, rehabilitationcentre for drug addicted persons, staff quarters, officer'srecreation centre and other facilities.Meanwhile, the state command arrested 168 drugsuspects between January and August 2009.http://allafrica.com/stories/200909040877.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda: Country 'Leads inMarijuana Growing'Evelyn LirriThe Citizen28 March 2008 Continued on page 45-44- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 44 – Uganda Leads in MarijuanaGrowingKampala — Uganda is East Africa's biggest producer ofthe Cannabis plant, commonly known as Marijuana, thehead of the Anti Narcotics Unit at the CriminalInvestigations Department has said.Speaking at a meeting organised by the Ministry ofHealth in Kampala to plan a strategy for controlling drugabuse in Uganda, Mr Michael Were said most productionis for commercial and domestic consumption."Available data shows Uganda is the highest producer ofCannabis in East Africa. Most of the districts in Ugandaare growing this plant mostly for commercial gain," MrWere said.He said during a joint operation meeting on narcoticsheld in Arusha, Tanzania last month, Uganda wasidentified as the leading grower of cannabis in the region.Marijuana is a green, brown or gray mixture of dried,shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant known asCannabis Sativa. It is the most commonly used illicitdrug, considered a soft drug. It is smoked or chewed foreuphoric effect.Smoking or chewing Marijuana is the main cause ofmental disorders which are soaring at an alarmingly highrate in the country.It is for this reason that the Ministry of Health is comingup with a Master Plan on the establishment of a nationalcoordinating body on drug control, provision oftreatment, awareness and prevention, strengthening andformulating new legislation.Latest reports indicate that Cocaine and Heroin, two ofthe world's addictive narcotic drugs are being smuggledinto western markets through Uganda.Dr David Basangwa, a consultant psychiatrist at ButabikaNational Psychiatric hospital said drug abuse in Ugandais on the increase.Dr Basangwa, said before, people used to abusetraditional drugs like marijuana but of late, addicts arealso using heroin and cocaine.He said these drugs are dangerous because theycontribute to health complications, crime and socialdisorder. "We need to move faster and control thembefore they go out of hand," he said.He said 20 per cent of all patients admitted at ButabikaMental and Rehabilitation Hospital are a result of alcoholand drug abuse.http://allafrica.com/stories/200803280319.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda: Marijuana SalesBoom in CityChris KiwawuloNew Vision24 October 2009Kampala — The sale of marijuana in Kampala hasdrastically increased as the demand seems to be on anupward trend.A SURVEY carried out by Sunday Vision found out thatthe trade in marijuana or cannabis is rampant indowntown Kampala and slum areas.In the central business district, marijuana is solddiscreetly. Investigations show that some women foodvendors hide marijuana in the buckets in which they carryfood.Other notorious sellers are hawkers and roadside vendors,especially on the Nakivubo mews. The main merchandisethese vendors deal in is sweets, waragi packed in sachetsand cigarettes.The survey also established that some marijuana sellersremove tobacco from its original cigarette packaging(paper) and replace it with crushed marijuana. They dothis to confuse Police officers who regularly hunt themdown.But the seller can only serve this type of 'cigarette' toknown daily customers and those who use codedlanguage. For instance, one has to say out one of themany names that they give to marijuana such as ladi,sada, omuggo, etc.Some simply pay and say "njagala kwenyokeza" (literarymeaning I want to smoke). Here, the seller cannot make amistake. He/she will stealthily give the buyer a marijuanastick.Kampala Metropolitan Police Deputy SpokespersonHenry Kalulu says they have carried out a number ofoperations in places where the marijuana business isbooming and arrested several sellers and smokers. Kalulusays they arrest not less than 50 suspects every month. Hecould not rule out the sale of marijuana by food vendors,saying "the sellers employ a lot of tactics".In August, Kalulu said they arrested 65 suspects inconnection with marijuana smoking and selling, whilethey nabbed 50 in September. Besides arrests, the Policeare engaging in pro-active ways of stopping the sale andconsumption of marijuana through community policing.Kalulu says they continuously carry out sensitisationContinued on page 46-45- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 45 – Uganda Marijuana Sales Boom inCityseminars on radio stations and in the community. Theyespecially target the youth who are more vulnerable tosmoking marijuana."Many people call us and we arrest the suspects, which isgood," Kalulu observes.He says they have also embarked on destruction ofmarijuana plantations in Kampala and its surroundings.The plantation owners have been found to be the mainsuppliers of the marijuana sellers in the city centre. Policehave this year destroyed marijuana plantations in thedistricts of Kayunga and Wakiso, where the biggestnumber of growers is."The problem is that marijuana gives people falseconfidence and they end up engaging in other crimes liketheft, robbery and rape, among others," Kalulu notes.Smoking marijuana and selling it is illegal according tothe laws of Uganda. The Police say whoever is arrested inpossession of marijuana is charged with being inunlawful possession of narcotics contrary to section 47(1) and 61 of the National Drug Policy and Authority ActCap. 206. Those found smoking marijuana are chargedunder section 48 (a) and 60 of the National Drug Policyand Authority Act 206.The most common form of cannabis used as a drug is thedried herbal form. The major psycho-active chemicalcompound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol(commonly abbreviated as THC), although it contains 66other cannabinoids.The United Nations estimated that in 2004, about 4% ofthe world's adult population (162 million people) usecannabis annually and about 0.6% (22.5 million) use it ona daily basis. The possession, use, or sale of cannabispreparations containing psycho-active cannabinoidsbecame illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20thcentury.Since then, some countries have intensified theenforcement of cannabis prohibition, while others havereduced it. In some countries like Belgium, Argentina,Colombia, Australia, smoking marijuana is not illegal aslong as it is smoked by adults.Marijuana, as a drug, can be addictive. According to Dr.David Basangwa, a consultant psychiatrist at ButabikaNational Referral Hospital, drugs contribute largely to themental problems in Uganda.Statistics indicate that the highest number of drug addictsconsists of males, aged between 17 and 25 years (schoolgoingage). Basangwa says out of 20 patients admitteddaily at Butabika, 10 are drug addicts.An official in the Police Anti-narcotics Unit warned of a"very serious drug problem, especially among the youngpeople". The official said most of the people they arrestover drug abuse are youth.Like alcohol, marijuana impairs one's sense of judgmentand may lead the consumers to risky behaviour, includingunprotected sex.http://allafrica.com/stories/200910261114.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Nigeria: NDLEA Seizes N2.2Billion Drugs at Lagos AirportAnthony OmohDaily Champion6 December 2009National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) hasseized 507.936 kilogrammes of illicit drugs worth over2.2 billion naira in nine months at the MurtalaMuhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos.The breakdown of the drugs seized between January andNovember as released by the anti-narcotics agency showscocaine to have the highest quantity with 172.930kilogrammes, cannabis follows with 170.554kilogrammes, psychotropic substances 121.100kilogrammes while heroin is 43.352 kilogrammes.The agency also said that a total of 139 suspected drugtraffickers were arrested within the period under reviewcomprising of 127 males and 12 females, stating that themonth of July had the highest seizure of 135.066kilogrammes with 15 arrests while in February 19.04kilogrammes of drugs were seized with 13 arrests.The oldest among the suspects is 64-year-old FolayanElizabeth, a mother of seven that ingested 1.060 kg ofcocaine. She was arrested on November 17, 2009 duringscreening of passengers on Iberia flight.The youngest suspect, 19-year-old student, AdetolaOdufuwa studying in Cyprus was nabbed on August 23,2009 with 5.050 kg of cannabis concealed in powderedmilk container in his luggage.One Ukoh Ifeanyi, 45-year-old business man howeverbroke Agency's record on April 4, 2009 when he excreted3.349 kilogrammes of cocaine on his way to Germany.Ukoh John is the first suspect to ingest a whopping 3.349kg of narcotic drug in the history of Nigeria's drugcontrol.Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, AhmaduContinued on page 47-46- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 46 – Nigeria NDLEA Seizes N2.2Billion Drugs from Lagos AirportGiade who vowed to make drug trafficking unattractiveto encourage the principle of diligence said, "It hasbecome pertinent that we daily increase our commitmentto the anti-narcotic campaign as every seizure madetranslates to incapacitation of drug syndicates. ""If we fail to stop the drug barons, deny them of the illicitproceeds and place a commensurate sanction on them, wewill end up aggravating the problem of moral decadencein the society," Giade stated.While calling for more public support in the Agency'sdrive for a crime free society, he warned drug barons thatthe Agency will go the extra-mile in halting theobnoxious trade in narcotics and psychotropic substances.In a related development the National Drug LawEnforcement Agency (NDLEA) weekend arrested a 70-year-old woman who was allegedly found to be inpossession of 793.5kg of hemp in Numan, Adamawa.The state Commander of NDLEA, Malam HassanZungere said the woman was arrested with a 62-year-oldman, believed to be a renowned Indian hemp dealer inNuman."The suspects were arrested with 99 bags of weedssuspected to be Indian hemp weighing 793.5kg," Zungerusaid. He said the suspects were arrested in male suspect'smother's house on Kwata Street, Numan, where theexhibits were concealed in a warehouse.Zungeru said the man was a renowned hemp dealer, whohad been in business for many years. "it is sad to note thatthe immediate community has been tolerating this drugdealer for long," he said. He said the man's activities hadencouraged many youths to engage in drug addiction andbecome threats to the community.He warned other persons who were in the business to stopto avoid punishment. "There is no sacred cow to bespared in our collective effort of ridding the state and thenation of the canker worm of drug abuse and illicit drugtrafficking," he warned.He said the command had commenced investigations intothe arrests and would charge the suspects to court soon.http://allafrica.com/stories/200912070691.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Liberia: Police Burn over L$3Million DrugsThe Informer3 December 2009The Liberia National Police (LNP) has burned over 280kilograms of narcotic and other dangerous drugs valuedat least L$3 million.The drugs seized from May this year to November wereset ablaze yesterday in Wehn Town in Mount Barclay,few kilometers off Monrovia, Deputy Police spokesmanLewis Norman said.Drugs abuse and illegal trade continues to be a seriousproblem in post was , with the Drugs EnforcementAgency, an arm of the Justice Ministry, struggling alongwith other security forces to counter the situation.Thousands of kilograms of marijuana, cocaine, and otherdangerous substances costing millions of dollars havebeen confiscated and destroyed, and dealers prosecuted,but the trade still persists.Marijuana is heavily grown in central and other parts of ,which observers say is significantly contributing to itsprevalence in the country.The drugs destroyed yesterday included 350 Kg ofmarijuana valued at L$2,321,430; 280g of hardsubstances valued at US$4,500 plus L$1,015,000; and7,150 pieces of Ecstasy-all valued at L$3,336,430.Almost every month, huge quantities of drugs areconfiscated at port of entry and borders in the country.Many of these drugs are brought in predominantly byNigerian and Ghanaians; many of those involved in drugabuse are young people, most of who fought in theLiberian civil war.The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Juneannounced that it was simultaneously disposing of a hugeconsignment of narcotic drugs in the 15 sub political subdivisionof the country valued over L$24million.The disposition of the drugs coincides with thecelebration of the International Day of Drug Traffickingand Abuse expected that locally took place in Buchanan,Grand Bassa County.The Director of DEA, Col. James Jaddah, then, said theburning of drugs would be an annual event that to takeplace on June 26 of each year around the country.Col. Jaddah said the drugs destroyed in June comprisedof 8,143.44kg, equivalent to 8.2 tons. They wereconfiscated from traffickers within one year period.The DEA Boss further disclosed that the cocainecomponent of the drugs confiscated in one year periodincluded 230.4 grams worth L$138,240, while the ItalianWhite, another kind of drug seized nationwide totaled to52.0 grams with cash value of L$31,200.Mr. Jaddah said 3.0 gram of heroine valued at L$1,800Continued on page 48-47- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 47 – Liberia Police Burn over L$3Million Drugswas also seized while 36grams of Amphetamine valued atL$1000 was also seized.Col. Jaddah said there was a need for the establishment ofa drug trafficking law, which he said, would help tocreate punitive measure against people involved withdrug trafficking.He said in 2007, a drug trafficking law was draftedfollowing the collection of drug trafficking laws from subregional countries and was submitted to the House ofLegislature for passage into law.Mr. Jaddah said it is about time that the lawmakers takethe document seriously saying that the situation of drugtrafficking in is getting on the rampage and needs urgentattention by national government to save the lives of theinspiring generations."I have been a drug addict since the military hostilitiesstarted in ," said an ex-combatant identified as Ophelia--who fought with a rebel group during the country's 1989-2003 war-told IRIN in December 2008."We used to take drugs like marijuana or amphetaminesbefore going to the battlefront," she said. "They made usvery brave to attack and kill our enemies. Ourcommander used to buy these drugs from across theborder...eventually my system got used to them."The vast fallout from’s war includes a sector of thepopulation damaged by and dependent on illicit drugs.And along with widespread drug use, production andtrafficking hamper post-war recovery efforts.Ex-combatant Ophelia's story is common in, where druguse among youths, and particularly ex-combatants, isrising, IRIN quoted Richelieu Taye, deputy director atDrug Enforcement Agency (DEA)."The bulk of people we arrest for drug abuse are excombatants,"Taye told IRIN. "When these guys takedrugs many of them also get involved in criminalactivities. It is a huge challenge for us."Most drug addicts live in and around the capitalMonrovia, according to the DEA. The number of addictsis unknown and the DEA is creating a database todetermine just how many people are affected, Taye said.Getting helpZuo Taylor, executive director of the Monrovia-basedNGO Youth Crime Watch, told IRIN the impact of druguse is severe. "Most of these people have serious traumaproblems. Many of them do not have jobs."Ophelia for one steals to buy her drugs. "I have beenarrested by police on several occasions, but I managed toescape," she told IRIN. "I really want to stop, but it isdifficult. Even as I speak to you, I want to take drugsnow. But I don't have any money."Some drug users have managed to stop with the help oflocal NGOs. Former drug user and ex-rebel fighter,Samuel Kollie, credited Youth Crime Watch with"transforming" his life. "I used to take drugs every day,"he said. "I lost weight and used to get involved inunwholesome acts, but the NGO was able to counsel meand gradually I stopped."The NGO helped Kollie enroll in a vocational institutionwhere he is training to be a mechanic."We use trauma counseling and lots of other methods tohelp [people] change their attitudes and live rightfully insociety," said Youth Crime Watch's Taylor. "It is difficultand takes time, but we are trying our best."ProductionLiberia's drug problem goes beyond just users. Farmersare tempted to grow cannabis rather than other cropsbecause profits are higher and the drug can be traffickedrelatively easily throughout the region, according to theDEA's Taye. "Local farmers in Bong and Nimba counties[100km and 150km from Monrovia] are constantlyplanting these drugs to trade regionally."Much of cannabis is grown in southern or trafficked infrom , and , according to the DEA's Taye. Since June(2008) the agency, with the help of police from the UNMission in Liberia (UNMIL), has destroyed more than400,000 cannabis plants in Bong and Nimba counties,according to the DEA.The UN Police Commissioner, Henrik Stiernblad, toldIRIN: "We are on the alert and will not rest until weensure that is drugs-free." He said coordination amongpolice units is improving in some areas, with a number ofarrests this year.But the DEA's Taye said police anti-drug efforts areseriously hampered by a lack of basic equipment.UNMIL mission chief Ellen Loj told IRIN: "Thechallenge of drug cultivation is something we have toaddress before it spreads in the region."http://allafrica.com/stories/200912030677.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Rwanda: Police Destroy IllicitDrugs worth Rwf 6.6 MillionEdmund KagireThe New Times7 October 2009 Continued on page 49-48- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 48 – Rwanda Police Destroy IllicitDrugs worth Rwf 6.6 MillionKigali — The Rwanda National Police has vowed tocrackdown on criminals during the ongoing countrywideoperation to nab law breakers.According to the Police Spokesperson, Supt. EricKayiranga, the hunt is on to have all those dealing in theillegal trade of illicit brew, locally known as Kanyanga,and illegal substances such as marijuana as well ascounterfeits."The routine operations are on; we are seriously crackingdown on crimes, especially trade in illicit brew and drugs.As I speak, on Monday we destroyed illicit brew andCannabis worth over Rwf 6.6m in Kicukiro District.Similar operations are taking place countrywide."Kayiranga said.Night patrols around the city have also been intensified tocurb nocturnal criminals while the hunt for counterfeitproducts has also been intensified.According to Police, crimes related to production ofcounterfeit products and money as well as forgery ofacademic documents and have been on the rise. The forceis working with Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) tocrack the whip on producers of fake products."Most of these crimes, especially trade in illicitsubstances, are cross-border and we are working withneighbouring countries to tackle these problems.We have also intensified border patrols to monitorindividuals who smuggle in such products." said thePolice Spokesperson.According to Police, Rwanda has the least homicidecases in the region, thanks to improved securityoperations.In a related development the individuals accused ofhurling a grenade in a crowded market in RuhangoDistrict will be aligned before the courts of law to answercharges of murder.Four people were killed while over 40 were injuredduring the incident. The file is currently being handled bythe prosecution.http://allafrica.com/stories/200910080037.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-49- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Kenya: Aids Preventionamongst Drug Users aChallengeSusan AnyanguInter Press Service21 October 2009Mombasa — The United Nation Office on Drug andCrime (UNODC) claims that Kenya has more drug usersthan any other East African country. UNODC estimatesthere are 100,000 cocaine users, 200,000 using opiateslike heroin and four million who smoke cannabis.In the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya's main port, whichhas the country's highest concentration of substanceabusers, Masudi Omar of Reachout Centre Trust, a drugaddiction treatment centre, says it's vital that AIDSprevention programmes reach this demographic."A research done by our partners USAID in 2005revealed that 50 percent of injecting drug users who weretested for HIV were found to be positive. The challengehere is passing HIV risk reduction messages to drug andalcohol addicts as well as advising those who test positiveto seek help in terms of care," Omar says.These youth are at elevated risk of contracting HIV formultiple reasons. Chief among these is unsafe sex withmultiple partners - a combination of indifference to safersex practices and the demands of commercial sex work,which many addicts turn to in order to support their drughabits.Kenya's HIV prevalence rate is seven percent accordingto the most recent Kenya Aids Indicator Survey, it isfeared this may be higher where addicts are concerned.Abdul Aziz, who was able to quit using drugs six yearsago, confirms that it is difficult to get this group to listenand take action to protect themselves. "I am a recoveringaddict who was hooked on drugs for 22 years. I know thataddicts are stubborn and in my case when I wasapproached with risk-reducing messages, I was stubborn.Addicts will resist help and it requires patience and timeto get through to them," he says.A study done by UNODC reveals that drug users inMombasa typically share syringes, greatly increasing therisk that HIV is passed between them. Worse, few drugusers seem aware that shared needles can expose them toHIV.Peter Macharia, coordinator of Family Health OptionKenya, contends that dealing with addicts when raisingawareness about STIs requires special skills and focus.Continued on page 50

Continued from page 49 – Kenya Aid Prevention amongstDrug Users a ChallengeHe argues the government needs to establish centres thatwill cater to the special needs of addicts, especiallyyouth."Currently, (the) organisations that are dealing with drugaddicts and their reproductive health needs are nongovernmentalorganisations. Their reach is modest thusthe need for the government to come on board. Thisgroup has unique needs."Omar from the Reachout Centre says addiction treatmentcentres are few and far between and their cost isprohibitive. Currently, Kenya has only two treatmentcentres, one each in Nairobi and Mombasa. Omar sayscosts range from 20 to 40 U.S. dollars a day, well beyondthe means of most of those who need care.The high cost of treatment means many of those whorequire help are not able to access it and remain in thestreets hooked on drugs and alcohol. Most addicts whocome to the Reachout Centre Trust are poor.A four-month programme at the Centre one requires$132, but the centre is not able to offer a full range ofcare. Omar says they carry out HIV testing, but have torefer clients to a government facility for treatment.For this reason, says Caroline Mutua, a counsellor at theReachout Centre, case management and tracking ofclients presents a challenge."One is never sure that they will continue attending thecare service clinic. And if they do not stop abusing(drugs) then it becomes futile because they are bound todrink excessively and engage in risky behavior. For oneto begin recovery they need to accept they have aproblem and this is often the challenge," says Mutua.The majority of substance-abusing patients only initiateHIV treatment when their condition has deteriorated andthey are in need of acute medical care."For those women who brew illicit alcohol it is difficultto convince them to change their trade and avoidcommercial sex because this is their only source ofincome," says Mweupe Alfani, another volunteer at theCentre. "However, we are trying interventions throughwhich we encourage them to venture into otherbusinesses and so far there is some considerable changein behaviour."Macharia says efforts by NGOs only reach about 10percent of the population, leaving a large number ofpeople in need of help. If not addressed, he says, this willdeal a major blow to Kenya's fight against HIV/AIDS.http://allafrica.com/stories/200910220007.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-50- Traditional African Clinic December 2009Antidepressant Use Doublesin U.S., Study FindsBy Maggie FoxAugust 3, 2009WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Use of antidepressant drugsin the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005,probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reportedon Monday.About 6 percent of people were prescribed anantidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose tomore than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, theresearchers found."Significant increases in antidepressant use were evidentacross all sociodemographic groups examined, exceptAfrican Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of ColumbiaUniversity in New York and Steven Marcus of theUniversity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in theArchives of General Psychiatry."Not only are more U.S. residents being treated withantidepressants, but also those who are being treated arereceiving more antidepressant prescriptions," they added.More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales,according to IMS Health.Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin likeGlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, known generically asparoxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac, knowngenerically as fluoxetine, are the most commonlyprescribed class of antidepressant. But the study foundthe effect in all classes of the drugs.Olfson and Marcus looked at the Medical ExpenditurePanel Surveys done by the U.S. Agency for HealthcareResearch and Quality, involving more than 50,000 peoplein 1996 and 2005."During this period, individuals treated withantidepressants became more likely to also receivetreatment with antipsychotic medications and less likelyto undergo psychotherapy," they wrote.SOCIAL ACCEPTANCEThe survey did not look at why, but the researchers madesome educated guesses. It may be more sociallyacceptable to be diagnosed with and treated fordepression, they said. The availability of new drugs mayalso have been a factor."Although there was little change in total promotionalspending for antidepressants between 1999 ($0.98Billion)Continued on page 51

Continued from page 43 – Antidepressant Use Doubles in USand 2005 ($1.02 Billion), there was a marked increase inthe percentage of this spending that was devoted todirect-to consumer advertising, from 3.3 percent ($32million) to 12 percent ($122.00 million)," they added.Dr. Eric Caine of the University of Rochester in NewYork said he was concerned by the findings."Antidepressants are only moderately effective onpopulation level," he said in a telephone interview.Caine, who was not involved in the research, noted thatseveral studies show therapy is as effective as, if notmore effective than, drug use alone."There are no data to say that the population is healthier.Indeed, the suicide rate in the middle years of life hasbeen climbing," he said.Olfson and Marcus said out-of-pocket costs forpsychotherapy and lower insurance coverage for suchvisits may have driven patients away from seeingtherapists in favor of an easy-to-prescribe pill.The rise in antidepressant prescriptions also is seendespite a series of public health warnings on use ofantidepressant drugs beginning in 2003 after clinicaltrials showed they increased the risk of suicidal thoughtsand behaviors in children and teens.In February 2005, the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration added its strongest warning, a so-calledblack box, on the use of all antidepressants in childrenand teens.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090803/hl_nm/us_antidepressants_usa☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda: 'IDPs Drink to Copein Camps'Conan BusingeNew Vision23 July 2008Kampala — SEVENTY percent of men in internallydisplaced peoples' camps drink alcohol to end theirtrauma, according to psychiatrists. This almost doublesthe number of women using the same coping mechanism.Dr. David Basangwa, a consultant psychiatrist atButabika National Psychiatric Hospital, said excessivealcohol consumption and drug abuse had increased casesof mental illness in Uganda.He cited cocaine, heroine and cannabis as the mostabused drugs. "Stress, infectious disease like malaria,HIV, measles and fatal accidents are also responsible forthe 13% increase of mental cases," he added.Basangwa was yesterday discussing a recent survey by aDutch institute of social studies at the hospital inKampala. The study showed that alcohol had become alivelihood for the displaced people affected by the LRAwar, especially in northern Uganda.In 2005, a World Health Organisation report rankedUganda as the leading alcohol consumer in the worldwith a per capita consumption of 19.5 litres.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807240350.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 13 – Drugs and the Subconscious14. There is simply no courage, personal integrity, or selfloyalty in using drugs to induce feelings of calm,confidence, or elation. People who live this way arephony, but usually think that everyone else is phony.Pleasant feelings are worthwhile only if they are based onactualities. It is better to be miserable for awhile and toaddress the reasons why.15. The drinker may worry that he becomes nasty whendrinking. What he must learn is to become nasty whennot drinking. The next step is to find out and eliminatethe true cause for the desire to be nasty. Three ounces ofalcoholic beverage each day helps to break up cholesterolin the blood and will allow the individual to live longerthan otherwise and will give him a medicinal excuse for alittle buzz at lunch time.16. Tobacco is in common use and the effects are verysubtle. Nicotine triggers the release of endorphins,organic morphine, in the brain. The tobacco user isessentially a junky. Continuing use has a verydegenerative effect upon the character. The user willusually not become fully aware of what has been lostuntil several years after quitting. This is especially true ofthose who start in youth. Part of quitting tobacco is todevelop more genuine values regarding the false bravadothat accrues to the artificial alpha wave brain euphoriainduced by tobacco. The problem involved here, as withall pleasure drugs, is that since "the cool is not you" thereal "you" gets lost along the way.17. Almost every allegedly desirable or "mindexpanding" effect of psychoactive chemicals can beinduced with some type of physical or mental discipline.Every pleasant physical effect can be induced by exerciseor massage. Both can be utilized without anydegenerative side effects.18. Anything which keeps the individual from readingvoraciously will have a negative impact upon the expansionof his consciousness. This includes drug use or a lotContinued on page 52-51- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 51 – Drugs and the Subconsciousa lot of silly ego competitive socializing with goingnowhere"friends." The only thing that ever makes anyactivity exciting is when one is learning something new.In youth, endless parties seem exciting until one begins tolearn about deeper things.19. Drugs can give the user a strange and exciting mentallife, but the cost is too great. The heroic pursuit of truthwill give the user a far stranger and more exciting mentallife than drugs ever can. Books are much less money andfar stranger than drugs. The amount of truth to beuncovered is virtually limitless, since most humansocieties are based primarily upon lies. We must seekarcane and "forbidden" sources for this however, not justthe local newspaper.20. Drug use has been referred to as "hip." Hipness issimply having enough knowledge and courage to be opento, and hungry for, more knowledge. There is nothing"hip" about using a substance which can interfere withone's ability to think clearly and participate in theactualization of evolutionary destiny.21. There is a particular phenomenon we may call "thegreater burden of hipness." Fortunately not all people areafflicted. Those who are, seem to think that doing what isgood for oneself is somehow terribly phony. These moregenuine individuals believe that anyone healthy andhappy couldn't possibly be nearly as insightful or assensitive as they are. There is an underlying notion thatthose who are not all mixed up and depressed are notquite properly masochistic and self effacing enough to bereally as moral as the truly hip. This more profound ethicfinds expression in television programming representingan increasingly lower element. We see short"consciousness raising" segments which ridicule as"losers" people who are drug free and part of happyfamilies where there is love. Those who are serious andstudious, with a future plan for their lives are portrayed asbeing "nerds." People who believe that young peopleshould be drug free and gainfully employed are portrayedas ignorant, domineering, and violent. All this is touted as"uninhibited expression." How is it that this greatercoolness never seems to manifest in doing anythingconstructive? Why does it always seem to go lower andlower? Why, in certain cartoon shows, is there so muchemphasis on excrement? Why has vileness become sofashionable? Are we un-hip to question whether this veryspecial "in your face" way of things might actually be ansymptom of social decay, rather than some higher type ofconsciousness?http://www.angelfire.com/realm/odin11/ep7.html☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 54 – History of Cannabis as MedicineBut in the West cannabis did not come into its own as amedicine until the mid-nineteenth century. During itsheyday, from 1840 to 1900, more than 100 papers werepublished in the Western medical literaturerecommending it for various illnesses and discomforts. Itcould almost be said that physicians of a century agoknew more about cannabis than contemporary physiciansdo; certainly they were more interested in exploring itstherapeutic potential.The first Western physician to take an interest in cannabisas a medicine was WB O'Shaughnessy, a young professsorat the Medical College of Calcutta, who had observedits use in India. He gave cannabis to animals, satisfiedhimself that it was safe, and began to use it with patientssuffering from rabies, rheumatism, epilepsy, and tetanus.In a report published in 1839, he wrote that he had foundtincture of hemp (a solution of cannabis in alcohol, takenorally) to be an effective analgesic. He was alsoimpressed with its muscle-relaxant properties and calledit "an anticonvulsant remedy of the greatest value."Reports on cannabis accumulated in the medicalliterature. In 1860, Dr. RR M'Meens reported thefindings of the Committee on Cannabis Indica to theOhio State Medical Society. After acknowledging a debtto O'Shaughnessy, M'Meens reviewed symptoms andconditions for which Indian hemp had been found useful,including tetanus, neuralgia, dysmenorrhea (painfulmenstruation), convulsions, the pain of rheumatism andchildbirth, asthma, postpartum psychosis, gonorrhea, andchronic bronchitis. As a hypnotic (sleep-inducing drug)he compared it to opium: "Its effects are less intense, andthe secretions are not so much suppressed by it.Digestion is not disturbed; the appetite rather increased.The whole effect of hemp being less violent, andproducing a more natural sleep, without interfering withthe actions of the internal organs, it is certainly oftenpreferable to opium, although it is not equal to that drugin strength and reliability." Like O'Shaughnessy,M'Meens emphasized the remarkable capacity ofcannabis to stimulate appetite.If herbal marijuana is without any medical utility, as theUS government claims, why would thousands of patientsrisk running afoul of the law to obtain and use it? Theyuse it for one or more of three reasons: (1) herbalmarijuana is, even with the prohibition tariff, lessexpensive than either the conventional medicine itreplaces or Marinol; (2) because its toxicity is so low,they suffer fewer "side-effects" (toxic effects) than theydo with the conventional medicine for which cannabishas been substituted; and (3) because it is remarkablyversatile-- it is useful in the treatment of a number ofsyndromes and symptoms. Today, herbal marijuana isContinued on page 53-52- Traditional African Clinic December 2009

Continued from page 52 – History of Cannabis as Medicinemost commonly, but certainly not exclusively, used in thetreatment of:• The Severe Nausea and Vomiting of CancerChemotherapy• Glaucoma• Epilepsy• Multiple Sclerosis• The Spasm and Pain of Paraplegia and Quadriplegia• AIDS• Chronic Pain• Migraine• Rheumatic Diseases (Osteoarthritis and AnkylosingSpondylitis)• Premenstrual Syndrome, Menstrual Cramps, and LaborPains• Ulcerative Colitis• Crohn's Disease• Phantom Limb Pain• Depression• Hyperemesis GravidarumThere are several reasons why medicine has not beenquicker to recognize the value of readmitting cannabis tothe pharmacopeia. One is the lack of incentive ofpharmaceutical companies to develop it as a medicinebecause it is not possible to patent a plant. In fact, there is adisincentive because this versatile medicine wouldsuccessfully compete with many of their extant products.But the most important reason is the low regard with whichmedicine holds anecdotal data, and almost all that we knowabout herbal marijuana as a medicine is anecdotal.Anecdotal data is less reliable than that derived fromdouble-blind controlled studies which were introduced inthe early 60s and which modern medicine now relies on.Still, it must not be forgotten that modern medicine wasbuilt upon a foundation of anecdotal data and it continues topoint to new therapeutic possibilities, some of which, as inthe case of cannabis, turn out to be valuable. Now,attitudes toward the anecdotal nature of most of the data oncannabis are slowly changing. In a paper recently publishedin Trends in Neurosciences (May, 2005) the authors writeas follows:Use of cannabis as a medicine for numerous conditions hasa well-documented history stretching back thousands ofyears. With the identification of an endogenous system ofreceptors and ligands in recent years, abundantexperimental data have reinforced the anecdotal claims ofpeople who perceive medicinal benefit from the currentlyillegal consumption of cannabis. This, combined with datafrom recent clinical trials, points to the prospect ofcannabis as a medication in the treatment of multiplesclerosis and numerous other medical conditions.-53- Traditional African Clinic December 2009In 1985 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approveddronabinol (Marinol) for the treatment of the nausea andvomiting of cancer chemotherapy. Dronabinol is a solutionof synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol in sesame oil (the sesameoil is meant to protect against the possibility that thecontents of the capsule could be smoked). Dronabinol wasdeveloped by Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc. with a greatdeal of financial support from the United Statesgovernment. This was the first hint that "pharmaceuticalization"of cannabis might be what the governmenthoped would solve its problems with marijuana asmedicine, the problem of how to make the medicalproperties of cannabis (in so far as the government believessuch properties exist) widely available as a medicine whileat the same time prohibiting its use for any other purpose.But Marinol did not displace marijuana as "the treatment ofchoice"; most patients found the herb itself much moreuseful than dronabinol in the treatment of the nausea andvomiting of cancer chemotherapy. In 1992, the treatmentof the AIDS wasting syndrome was added to dronabinol'slabeled uses; again, patients reported that it was inferior tosmoked herbal marijuana. But Marinol has not solved themarijuana-as-a-medicine problem because so few of thepatients who have discovered the therapeutic usefulness ofmarijuana use dronabinol. In general, they find it lesseffective than smoked marijuana; it cannot be titratedbecause it has to be taken orally which causes a long delayin the manifestation of its therapeutic utility, and even withthe prohibition tariff on street marijuana, Marinol is moreexpensive. Thus, the first attempt at pharmaceuticalizationproved not to be the answer. In practice, for many patientswho use marijuana as a medicine the doctor-prescribedMarinol serves primarily as a cover from the threat of thegrowing ubiquity of urine tests.One is compelled to ask, what is the government's problemwith medical herbal marijuana? The problem as seenthrough the eyes of the government is the beliefs that asgrowing numbers of people observe relatives and friendsusing marijuana as a medicine, they will come tounderstand that this is a drug which does not conform to thedescription the government has been pushing for years.They will first come to appreciate what a remarkablemedicine it really is; it is less toxic than almost any othermedicine in the pharmacopeia; it is, like aspirin, remarkablyversatile; and it is less expensive than the conventionalmedicines it displaces. They will then begin to wonder ifthere are any properties of this drug which justify denying itto people who wish to use it for any reason, let alonearresting more than 750,000 citizens annually.Excerpts from a DEA statement (Prepared for DEAAdministrative Law Judge hearing beginning August 22, 2005, inwhich Prof. Lyle Craker, UMass Amherst, is using DEA forrefusing to issue him a license to grow marijuana exclusively forfederally-approved research, funded by a grant from MAPS.)☻☻☻☻☻☻

Mission StatementOur aim at The African Traditional HerbalResearch Clinic is to propagate and promote theawareness in Afrikan peoples at home and abroad oftheir health, biodiversity, history and culturalrichness. We gather pertinent information on theseissues and disseminate these freely to our people inUganda, the rest of the continent, and anywhere inthe Diaspora where Afrikans are located…. One ofthe main ingredients for increasing poverty, sickness,exploitation and domination is ignorance of one'sself, and the environment in which we live.Knowledge is power and the forces that control ourlives don't want to lose control, so they won't stop atanything to keep certain knowledge from the people.Therefore, we are expecting a fight and opposition toour mission. However, we will endeavor to carryforward this work in grace and perfect ways.“Where there is no god, there is no culture.Where there is no culture, there is noindigenous knowledge. Where there is noindigenous knowledge, there is no history.Where there is no history, there is no scienceor technology. The existing nature is madeby our past. Let us protect and conserve ourindigenous knowledge.”☻☻☻☻☻☻C ALENDAR OF E VENTSSPECIAL EVENT: CLINIC OPENINGPLACE: AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL HERBAL RESEARCH CLINICTIME:Afrikan Traditional Herbal Research Clinic1175A Mukalazi Road, P.O. Box 29974Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda East AfricaPhone: +256 (0) 782 917 902Email: clinic@blackherbals.comADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTEDHerb of the MonthHistory of Cannabis as a MedicineEXCERPTSBy Lester Grinspoon, M.D.August 16, 2005A native of Central Asia, cannabis may have been cultivated asmuch as 10,000 years ago. It was certainly cultivated in Chinaby 4000 B.C. and in Turkestan by 3000 B.C. It has long beenused as a medicine in India, China, the Middle East, SoutheastAsia, South Africa, and South America. The first evidence ofthe medicinal use of cannabis is in an herbal published duringthe reign of the Chinese Emperor Chen Nung 5000 years ago.It was recommended for malaria, constipation, rheumatic pains,"absentmindedness" and "female disorders."Another Chinese herbalist recommended a mixture of hemp,resin, and wine as an analgesic during surgery. In Indiacannabis has been recommended to quicken the mind, lowerfevers, induce sleep, cure dysentery, stimulate appetite, improvedigestion, relieve headaches, and cure venereal disease.In Africa it was used for dysentery, malaria, and other fevers.Today certain tribes treat snakebite with hemp or smoke itbefore childbirth. Hemp was also noted as a remedy by Galenand other physicians of the classical and Hellenistic eras, and itwas highly valued in medieval Europe. The English clergymanRobert Burton, in his famous work The Anatomy ofMelancholy, published in 1621, suggested the use of cannabisin the treatment of depression.The New English Dispensatory of 1764 recommended applyinghemp roots to the skin for inflammation, a remedy that wasalready popular in Eastern Europe. The Edinburgh NewDispensary of 1794 included a long description of the effects ofhemp and stated that the oil was useful in the treatment ofcoughs, venereal disease, and urinary incontinence. A fewyears later the physician Nicholas Culpeper summarized all theconditions for which cannabis was supposed to be medicallyuseful.Continued on page 52Mailing AddressStreet Number and NameCity, Country, etc.BULK RATEUS POSTAGEPAIDPERMIT NO.00000-54- Traditional African Clinic December 2009