Drug Addiction

Study strengthens marijuana brain damage case

A new Australian study says long-term, heavy cannabis use causes brain damage that is equivalent to mild-traumatic brain injury or premature aging.

The research is published today in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry. The study also found that all users are at risk, and the more you smoke, the more your brain shrinks. Doctors have known for years there is nothing "soft" about the drug cannabis. Professor Jon Currie is the director of addiction medicine at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.

Smoking marijuana can cause a person to acquire brain damage to the point of retardation...

There is a causal relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia (psychotic disorders).

We have developed a non-toxic, detoxification procedure where we can take the addicts off heroin or methadone with no withdrawal symptoms. The addicts have no desire to return to the drug and if they do take a 'fix', it is like injecting plain water, the detoxification is so complete and rapid...Methadone is far worse on the body, from a metabolic point of view, than is heroin...It is unconscionable to me to put a person on methadone maintenance with no way to get them off." --Dr. Archie Kalokerinos A.M.M., M.B.B.S., Ph.D., F.A.P.M.

by Archie Kalokerinos A.M.M., M.B.B.S., Ph.D., F.A.P.M., Glen Dettman A.M.M., BA, Ph.D., F.A.P.M.
Introduction

Brain Chemistry. The changes brought on by psychoactive drugs and addictive behaviors cause temporary and permanent changes in various parts of the brain that can be viewed. For many years, Dr. Daniel Amen, M.D., has studied these changes in brain function at his clinic in Fairfield, California, using SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scans of the brain.