Last Week In Weed Issue 64
Published June 19th 2023
In this week’s issue of Last Week in Weed. We look at a new study using a novel anti-cannabis drug. Volteface and the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS) were appointed as the new secretariat of the ‘medical cannabis’ APPG, and finally. The Ottawa Department of Public Health wants to add graphic warnings to cannabis packaging similar to tobacco products.
New Study Finds 'Anti-Cannabis Drug' Effective In Treating ‘Cannabis Use Disorder’
In the first story, we’ll look at a new phase 1 trial using a pill derived from a synthetic endogenous steroid to create an ‘anti-cannabis’ drug to treat so-called ‘Cannabis Use Disorder’. A team of researchers at Columbia University conducted the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, dose-ranging, crossover, single-site study titled “Signaling-specific inhibition of the CB1 receptor for cannabis use disorder: phase 1 and phase 2a randomized trials”.
The exceptionally small-scale study published early this month in Nature Medicine found that a derivative of Pregnenolone, a naturally occurring endogenous steroid hormone, known as AEF0117 was ‘effective’ at reducing the subjective “good effects” of cannabis in participants by 38%.
The novel drug was given to a small cohort of 29 adult men and women diagnosed with ‘cannabis use disorder’ who consume an average of 3 grams of cannabis a day. The participants were given either a placebo or a low dose of 0.06 milligrams or a higher dose of 1 milligram.
The study’s participants consumed either the high or low dose or placebo for five days on two separate occasions and then smoke cannabis 3.5 hours later. 20 minutes after consuming they were then asked various questions for up to 2 hours.
Researchers found that the lower dose of AEF0117 reduced the ‘good effects’ of cannabis by 19% and the higher dose reduced it by 38% compared to the placebo control group. The higher dose was also found to reduce the amount of cannabis consumed later in the day by those participants.
The study concludes “AEF0117 is the first of a new pharmacological class of inhibitors, CB1-SSi, that modify the activity of their target receptor in a Signaling-specific manner. Because these drugs reproduce the effects of a natural mechanism to counteract CB1 overactivation11, they can inhibit the effects of THC without altering the basal activity of the CB1.”
“Therefore, these compounds seem to have no effect on normal behavior and physiological activity while decreasing cannabis’ abuse-related and reinforcing effects, resulting in a well-tolerated and potentially efficacious therapy for CUD.”
Meg Haney, the lead author of the study and director of the cannabis research laboratory at Columbia University says that the study's preliminary results are “very encouraging” and that “the findings would need to be replicated in larger trials, such as a phase 2b trial that enrols 300 participants around the US, with results due as soon as next year.”
‘Cannabis use disorder’ (CUD) is a controversial pathology that currently has no ‘accepted’ pharmacological treatment options. So the production of ‘cannabis blocking’ drugs is an ‘exciting area’ for pharmaceutical companies to explore and exploit in the pursuit of profit and market share.
This reminds me of another study I read a while ago about the creation of a so-called ‘Cocaine Vaccine’ A nasal-delivered liquid drug designed to block and prevent the positive mental and physical effects experienced by its consumers. The ‘vaccine’ induces the immune system to produce cocaine antibodies that bind with the cocaine molecule to form a more complex molecule too large to pass the blood-brain barrier.
While I can see the potential for these kinds of drugs to help with the small minority that may face dependency issues with some drugs. I cannot help but be fearful of these new weapons which will ultimately be deployed and utilised in the war on us, sorry drugs.
Prohibition, complex socioeconomic, historic racial, and class issues are the problem not drugs. In a well-adjusted, equitable, and healthy society, drugs could be sold everywhere with little consequence to individual or societal health and human harmony.
Volteface and The Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS) Appointed New Secretariat of APPG
Last week it was announced that Volteface and The Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS) were appointed as the new secretariat of ‘The Medical Cannabis on Prescription APPG’ taking over from the End Our Pain Campaign.
In a quasi-press release published on the Volteface website. The ‘advisory and communications' organisation states that the two new appointees will be “bringing new bold strategy and commitment to working collaboratively with parliament, the industry and patients to improve the UK landscape.”
Volteface goes on to thank the MP members of the APPG for their ‘tireless work’ to raise awareness of the significant barriers that have formed since the creation of the contradictory and classist Schedule Two legislation in 2018 under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
The conservative think-tank states that “The new focus of the APPG seeks to find allies both in and out of parliament who can provide evidence-based and practical solutions to overcoming the existing barriers.”
The new areas the joint secretariats will focus on include:
Awareness amongst the British public that it is available on prescription
Policy model in place is limiting and should explore broader prescribing (i.e. GPs)
Number of prescribing clinicians and the hesitancies cannabis-naive clinicians face
Competition with the illicit market in regards to pricing, quality, distribution and cultivation Stigma among the British public, exploring how medical cannabis can appropriately fit into mainstream healthcare
Highlighting the challenges of paediatric access.
Families are faced with very high costs compared to adult patients and a lack of prescribers.
The ‘All-Party Parliamentary Group for Access to Medical Cannabis under Prescription’ to use its full name, was founded on April 21st 2021. Its purported purpose “To help secure appropriate access to medical cannabis on the NHS in its various forms including full plant extract containing both CBD and THC in formulations produced to a consistent high-quality pharmaceutical grade and manufactured to GMP standard.”
I take issue with the language used to describe this APPG’s claimed purpose. The use of the word ‘appropriate’ immediately raises a red flag for me. Who gets to decide what is appropriate, the patient, the doctor, or the manufacturer? As does the emphasis on ‘full plant extractions’ - does this mean the subject group won’t be pushing for cannabis flowers to be prescribed on the NHS?
I fear that this appointment will further fortify and empower the ‘Medical Cannabis Industrial Complex’. That it will lead to enormous commercial monopolies operated for the sole benefit of shareholder and investor returns while patients and cannabis consumers continue to suffer under the wanton ignorance of capitalism, government corruption, and the draconian law.
Ottawa Public Health Wants To Add Graphic
Warnings To Cannabis Products
The final story this week comes from Canada – where public health officials in the Canadian capital of Ottawa recently announced their desire to add graphic visual warnings to cannabis product packaging – similar to those on tobacco products currently sold in the Great White North.
Written warnings about the dangers of consuming tobacco first appeared on tobacco products in Canada in 1988 under the Tobacco Products Control Act. The number of warnings was later increased in 1994 to cover 25% of the total packaging under the Tobacco Sales To Young Persons Act before once again being updated at the turn of the millennium.
In 2000, Canada passed the Tobacco products information regulations (TPIR) becoming the first country in the world to add graphic visual warnings to tobacco products. You know the ones featuring tumours and dead bodies. The new regulations also increased the size of health warnings to cover 50% of the package with the inclusion of a graphic pictorial warning and short explanation. The Act was later amended in 2010 and renamed the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act in 2018.
Earlier this month the Canadian government announced that it’s planning to add warning messages to individual cigarettes and cigars. Warnings including “Cigarettes cause cancer”, “Tobacco smoke harms children”, “Cigarettes damage your organs”, “Cigarettes cause impotence” and “Poison in every puff” will begin to appear on individual cigarettes from August 1st 2023 as part of a phased launch.
“The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations will be part of the Government of Canada's continued efforts to help adults who smoke to quit, to protect youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction, and to further reduce the appeal of tobacco. Labelling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether.” - Health Canada
This latest update to the tobacco regulations in Canada is part of the government's push to reduce the 48,000 excess deaths annually attributed to consuming tobacco and to reduce consumption to less than 5% of the population by 2035.
Last week Ottawa Public Health (OPH) announced that it would like to see similar graphic pictorial warning labels added to cannabis packaging and products ‘lawfully’ sold in Canada. Although it is difficult to envision what these images would contain as, unlike tobacco, there are no proven illnesses caused by the regular consumption of cannabis, like cancer, COPD, heart disease, lung disease, and strokes to name but a few.
It makes sense to add a warning label to a product that is dangerous and has been proven to kill tens of thousands of people annually, but its application must first be necessary, then proportional, and finally factual. And the fact is that cannabis has never killed anyone!
Unlike alcohol, refined sugar, and ultra-processed food, which are markedly worse for human health than cannabis and cause a myriad of diseases, chronic health conditions, and contribute to the early mortality of tens of millions of individuals around the world annually. Yet they are not required to contain warnings about the health consequences of their consumption – which they definitely should if we’re going to start including these unnecessary fear-mongering labels on cannabis products.
These aren’t the first such disproportionate proposals made by Ottawa Public Health (OPH) that it claims would prevent cannabis products from appealing to children. Last year the department issued several proposals to Health Canada as part of the Canadian federal government's call for recommendations for amendments to its current cannabis laws – which are expected to happen early next year (2024).
These included banning the use of words like ‘candy’ on the packaging and the use of sprinkles, colours, and shapes in cannabis edibles, such as animals, fruit, lollipops, or gummy bears – because you know, you wouldn’t want your kids accidental ingesting some incredibly beneficial compounds like cannabinoids when they’re consuming their addictive, diabetes-inducing, and highly cancerous melted animal bone by-products.
It's not just health officials making recommendations for updates to the current Canadian cannabis laws (all 45 of them). Last month the Competition Bureau of Canada (CBC), an ‘independent’ law enforcement agency set up to protect and promote competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses, urged Health Canada to relax current rules and regulations not tighten them.
The CBC made three suggestions to the federal government. Firstly that it should increase the limit on THC in edibles from the rather low 10mg serving limit that is currently dwarfed by the products available in the criminalised legacy market. Secondly, it should address issues with the licensing process and the costs associated with regulatory compliance to ensure they are “minimally intrusive to competition.”
The final recommendation is to ease the current regulatory restrictions on packaging, labelling, and promotion to provide retailers with more information to better educate their customers on the difference between products. So will the OPH or the CBC recommendations come to fruition? Only time will tell.
Written By Simpa For The Simpa Life
