Mood: Sick Slappin: Equipto Ft. Andre Nickatina - That Part 2
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July 1, 2003 -- Long-term and even daily marijuana use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers.
The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term marijuana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke marijuana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies.
In those studies, some 700 regular marijuana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information.
Surprising Finding
"We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD.
"I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal."
The marijuana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked marijuana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs.
"All study participants were adults," says Grant, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
"However, there might be a different set of circumstances to a 12-year-old whose nervous system is still developing."
10 States OK Marijuana Use
Grant's analysis, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, comes as many states consider laws allowing marijuana to be used to treat certain medical conditions. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 10th state to allow marijuana use to relieve pain and other symptoms of AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, and other conditions -- joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Medicinal marijuana is available by prescription in the Netherlands and a new marijuana drug is expected to be released in Great Britain later this year. In the U.S. and elsewhere, Marinol, a drug that is a synthetic form of marijuana and contains its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription to treat loss of appetite associated with weight loss in AIDS patients.
Grant says he did the analysis to help determine long-term toxicity from long-term and frequent marijuana use. His center is currently conducting 11 studies to determine its safety and efficacy in treating several diseases.
"This finding enables us to see a marginal level of safety, if those studies prove that cannabis can be effective," Grant tells WebMD. "If we barely find this effect in long-term heavy users, then we are unlikely to see deleterious side effects in individuals who receive cannabis for a short time in a medical setting, which would be safer than what is practiced by street users."
Grant's findings come as no surprise to Tod Mikuriya, MD, former director of non-classified marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies and author of The Marijuana Medical Handbook: A Guide to Therapeutic Use. He is currently president of the California Cannabis Medical Group, which has treated some 20,000 patients with medicinal marijuana and Marinol.
'Highly Effective Medicine'
"I just re-published a paper of the first survey for marijuana toxicity done in 1863 by the British government in India that was the most exhaustive medical study of its time in regards to possible difficulties and toxicity of cannabis. And it reached the same conclusion as Grant," Mikuriya tells WebMD.
"This is merely confirming what was known over 100 years ago, as well as what was learned by various government findings doing similar research -- marijuana is not toxic, but it is a highly effective medicine."
In fact, marijuana was available as a medicinal treatment in the U.S. until the 1930s.
Lester Grinspoon, MD, a retired Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who studied medicinal marijuana use since the 1960s and wrote two books on the topic, says that while Grant's finding provides more evidence on its safety, "it's nothing that those of us who have been studying this haven't known for a very long time.
"Marijuana is a remarkably safe and non-toxic drug that can effectively treat about 30 different conditions," he tells WebMD. "I predict it will become the aspirin of the 21st century, as more people recognize this."
SOURCES: The Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, July 2003. Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; director, UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center. Tod Mikuriya, MD, president, the California Cannabis Research Medical Group, Oakland; former director of non-classified marijuana research, the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies. Lester Grinspoon, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston; author, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine and Marihuana Reconsidered.
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When Wanda Salvatto heard Monday that her son was dead, she didn't trust the news. After all, Andre Hicks -- better known as Vallejo rapper Mac Dre -- had been slain three times before, according to rumors.
But at 4 p.m., Salvatto learned the latest buzz was true: Hicks, 34, was gunned down early Monday in a freeway shooting in Kansas City, Mo., where he was performing at a concert, police there said.
No motive was immediately revealed, but Hicks' death -- like his life - - seemed to befit his lyrics, as well as the rumor-filled lore of hard-core rap and the history of Vallejo's vaunted hip-hop scene. "V-Town" produced stars like E-40, Young KYOZ, Mac Mall and Coolio Da Unda Dog, but its music scene also has been linked to, and touched by, violence.
Police say Hicks was once part of Vallejo's northside Romper Room Gang, which was suspected of committing a series of bank robberies and pizza parlor stickups in the early 1990s. When his career was interrupted by a five-year prison stint for conspiring to rob a bank in Fresno, Hicks released a single he recorded on a jailhouse phone, taunting the police officers who put him behind bars.
But Salvatto said her son's story had changed after his 1996 release. He recorded album after album -- more than 20 in all -- and recently broke through on hip-hop radio stations, including KMEL, which Monday mourned Hicks by playing his tunes and airing pained calls from fans.
Hicks moved from Vallejo to Sacramento for a "fresh start" about four years ago, his mother said. He started a record label, Thizz Entertainment, and dreamed of hiring and mentoring teenagers he could steer away from the trouble he knew so well. His albums -- like this year's "Ronald Dregan: Dreganomics" -- began mining political themes.
"He wouldn't want his legacy to be that," Salvatto said of her son's legal problems. "He got through that and had been living a healthy, clean life. ... He started in the streets, and he got himself out."
"The part that hurts the most," she said, was that Hicks was killed after years of trying to reclaim his career after prison. "He was about to blow up again. It took him to this point to catch up. But he was determined."
Kansas City police officer Darin Snapp said investigators weren't sure who had killed Hicks or why. At 3:30 a.m. Monday, Hicks was the passenger in a white van heading north on Highway 71 through Kansas City when someone in a second vehicle opened fire.
"The driver said he heard shots and started ducking," Snapp said.
The van swerved across a grass median and four southbound lanes, then crashed into a ditch. The driver ran down the highway to a store to call 911, Snapp said. Paramedics found Hicks dead from a gunshot wound.
Snapp said investigators were looking into Hicks' performance schedule to find out whether he could have met his killer there. Bay Area rappers are popular in Kansas City and often perform there.
Hicks was a successful rapper while he was still in high school. He first found the radio airwaves with a song titled, ironically, "Too Hard for the Radio." It spoke of Vallejo's "Romper Room kickin' on Leonard Street/Mac Dre full of the Hennessy."
He soon lost his friend and fellow rapper Michael Robinson -- a.k.a. The Mac -- who was shot dead in Vallejo while sitting in his car with his pregnant girlfriend. Hicks' most recent album pays tribute to Robinson.
Hicks is "one of the pioneers of Bay Area rap and one of the guys who put Vallejo on the map," said Ryan Miller of Alameda, who operates rapbay.com, an online music seller that received a flurry of interest in Mac Dre on Monday.
Hicks made bigger news in 1992 when Vallejo police caught him preparing to rob a Fresno bank with two friends. Hicks had recorded a song called "Punk Police" that included rhymes like, "Man, can't even find who's been robbin' you blind."
Claiming he was not guilty, Hicks released "Back N da Hood," which he said he had recorded from a Fresno jail. He rapped, "Detective Nichelman I'd like to thank you/You put me on the news and tried to spread the lie/Then record sales jumped to an all-time high."
Vallejo police Lt. Richard Nichelman said Monday that Hicks had a long criminal history but that he was saddened to hear of his death. "It's a shame another young guy lost his life," he said. "I hope he was on the right track."
Mood: EH Spinnin: E-A-Ski - Come See Me & Yukmouth Ft. Tech N9ne - Kill'em Off Random Quote: Homer: "Im Not Much Of A Praying Man, But If Your Up There, Please Save Me SUPERMAN!"
Start work today but yeah haha im not too interested because its work i mean come on now! have a great day!
: EVERYTHING BY MAC DRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
