Keith Humphreys is pretty great in this interview: Harold Pollack: I should say you've also done some research on AA [Alcoholics Anonymous]. I think some folks would be interested to know that, at least according to your research, AA is actually a pretty impressive intervention in some ways. Keith: Yeah. I don't mind people who are skeptical … Continue reading without someone like me!?!?!?
Category: Controversies
Drugs + capitalism + innovation = ?
Andrew Sullivan directs us to a story on "dabs", a highly concentrated cannabis product: Most commonly created by a technique in which high quality pot is blasted with butane that is then extracted, these cannabis concentrates approach 70%-to-90% THC. ... Brad Gibbs, of Greenest Green, which has just opened a new state-approved lab in Denver … Continue reading Drugs + capitalism + innovation = ?
“No” to rehab?
I was asked by a friend to comment on this article. Here's the response I sent him: Well, he's got a point. But he's also gotten a lot wrong, including the name of the NIAAA. It's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol-ism. What he's right about is that not everyone who has an alcohol … Continue reading “No” to rehab?
Labeling legal weed
Mark Kleiman's looking for ideas about how to label marijuana in a hypothetical legal, commercial market: Imagine – just hypothetically – that a state decided to open a legal (at the state level) commercial market in cannabis, with some of the users intending to use the substance to treat some medical condition and others using … Continue reading Labeling legal weed
Prescription drug overdose statistics visually
Popular Science has a chart with US overdose deaths by drug: ...the rate of reported overdoses the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2010. About half of those additional deaths are in the pharmaceuticals category, which the CDC has written about before. Nearly three-quarters of the pharmaceuticals deaths are opioid analgesics—prescription painkillers like OxyContin and … Continue reading Prescription drug overdose statistics visually
Ten Percent in Recovery – NOT
Here's the headline at Partnership for a Drug-Free America: Survey: Ten Percent of American Adults Report Being in Recovery from Substance Abuse or Addiction Very interesting news, right? How did they arrive at that number? With a poll that asks, "Did you once have a problem with drugs or alcohol, but no longer do?" Does that measure … Continue reading Ten Percent in Recovery – NOT
What would legalized pot look like?
A RAND analyst lays out seven important questions regarding the establishment of legal marijuana: 1. Production. Where will legal pot be grown -- outdoors on commercial farms, inside in confined growing spaces, or somewhere in between? RAND research has found that legalizing marijuana could make it dramatically cheaper to produce -- first because producers will no … Continue reading What would legalized pot look like?
In the doctor’s office
Anna David shares her personal experience with an all-too-common problem. Doctors who don't understand addiction and do more harm than good: I continued to see my pinkie-ring psychiatrist for the next year or so, because he told me I had to if he was to keep prescribing me Paxil and Ambien—drugs I was convinced I … Continue reading In the doctor’s office
Venture capital and methadone
There must be a lot of money available if private equity firms are willing to expose themselves to this much risk: At least five state legislatures are considering bills to tighten oversight of methadone clinics after allegations that take-home doses of the drug are contributing to illegal street sales, misuse and deaths. Measures in West … Continue reading Venture capital and methadone
The placebo “problem”
It seems that PHARMA's difficulty in developing drugs with stronger effects than placebo has prompted a creative response to the researching drugs. Kas Thomas at assertTrue(), directs us to a scholarly journal article tackling the "problem": But then Fava and his coauthors make the baffling statement: "Thus far, there has been no attempt to develop … Continue reading The placebo “problem”
Recovery Review 