Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2012
Source: Gisborne Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2012 The Gisborne Herald Co. Ltd
Contact: http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/Contact/
Website: http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/924
Note: Author: a concerned citizen

EDUCATE ON DRUGS, DON'T SCARE

Re: Warning drugs and alcohol linked to Alzheimer's disease, July 3 
article by a Daily Post student reporter.

When the press prints misleading information it hurts the community.

The press needs to keep a balanced approach to issues, and not 
misrepresent them. Of course there is a drug problem with youth in 
New Zealand. Reporting that cannabis is causing Alzheimer's again is 
misleading and it does nothing to educate the public and 
realistically present current medical opinions.

I refer you to the Oct. 2 issue of the Journal Molecular Pharmaceutics:

"The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at 
suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a 
hallmark of Alzheimer's disease than any currently approved 
prescription drugs."

If accurate news is not reported it will exacerbate the problem, not 
resolve it.

As an adolescent my mother always told me not to sit next to 
strangers in the theatre because they might inject me with some drug 
that would addict me for life.

Want to fix the problem - educate, don't scare people. To date I have 
never seen anyone advocating the use of any drugs, including alcohol, 
for non-adults. If kids are using, the parents should be focused on 
education, not scare tactics.

A CONCERNED CITIZEN

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Footnote from Alzheimer's Society scientific and medical adviser Dr 
Chris Collins:

The authoritative 2009 Cochrane review on the topic of cannabinoids 
and Alzheimer's disease states that:

"There is increasing evidence that the cannabinoid system may 
regulate neurodegenerative processes such as excessive glutamate 
production, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Neurodegeneration 
is a feature common to the various types of dementia and this has led 
to interest in whether cannabinoids may be clinically useful in the 
treatment of people with dementia. Recent studies have also shown 
that cannabinoids may have more specific effects in interrupting the 
pathological process in Alzheimer's disease . . .

"So far only one small, randomised, controlled trial has assessed the 
efficacy of cannabinoids in the treatment of dementia. This study had 
poorly-presented results and did not provide sufficient data to draw 
any useful conclusions. There is no evidence that cannabinoids are 
effective in the improvement of disturbed behaviour in dementia or in 
the treatment of other symptoms of dementia." In other words, there 
is interesting experimental evidence that cannabis may have 
potentially positive effects on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's, but 
no convincing scientific data yet that cannabinoids can be 
therapeutically useful either in prevention or treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom