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To get started, firstLogin with Facebook YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY prev next U.S. cracks down on "world's largest" medical marijuana dispensaryExperts say a range of hallucinogens known as "spice" are very hard to kick, and addicts lose sleep, weight and get kidney and brain disorders from them.
Evgeny Roizman, who spoke Wednesday, heads a rehabilitation clinic in the central city of Ekaterinburg.
Concerned about the spread of "spice," Russian drug enforcement agencies have banned several of its chemical ingredients. But producers can easily change the chemical makeup to come up with new brands, which are advertised online and widely sold across Russia.
Components of "spice" have been banned in several European nations and in parts of the United States.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread pain, fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances and other symptoms. It affects up to 3 percent of people and is more common among women.
Standard drug treatments for fibromyalgia-related pain provide only modest relief, and some patients self-medicate with marijuana and other traditional therapies, said Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, a professor of medicine at McGill University and consulting rheumatologist at the Montreal General Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.
She and her colleagues looked at the use of marijuana or prescription cannabinoids such as nabilone and dronabinol among 302 patients with fibromyalgia and 155 patients with another chronic pain condition.
About 13 percent of all 457 patients used cannabinoids, with 80 percent using marijuana. Smaller numbers used prescription cannabinoids, according to the study findings published online June 21 in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.
Of the patients who smoked marijuana, 72 percent reported using one gram or less per day, though a few smoked significantly more.
Patients who used marijuana were more likely to have unstable mental illness, to seek opioid painkiller drugs and to be unemployed, the investigators found.
"While self-medicating with cannabinoids may provide some pain relief to fibromyalgia patients, we caution against general use of illicit drugs until health and psychosocial issues risks are confirmed," Fitzcharles concluded in a journal news release.
"Physicians should be alert to potential negative mental health issues in fibromyalgia patients using illicit drugs for medical purposes. Some herbal cannabis users may be dishonestly using a fibromyalgia diagnosis to justify self-medicating with illegal drugs," she added.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about fibromyalgia.
After nearly 10 hours of debate, the Senate voted 21-13 in favor of the measure, which already cleared the House.
Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy was expected to sign the bill. Once he does, Connecticut will join 16 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing use of marijuana to treat sick patients.
Connecticut's legislation calls for tight regulation of the plant, a move advocates say is aimed at avoiding problems that have plagued some of the other states, include disagreements with the federal government.
Under the bill, patients and their caregivers must register with the Department of Consumer Protection. In addition, their doctors must certify there is a medical need for marijuana to be dispensed, including such debilitating conditions as cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy. And, medical marijuana would be dispensed only by pharmacists with a special license.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Eric Beech)
