CANNABIS 'GOOD,' ECSTASY 'BAD'

BANFF -- Some people who frequent upper-altitude resorts such as Whistler
and Banff like to get high in other ways, too.

So it was fitting that an international group of drug experts gathered in
Banff last month for a conference hosted by the Canadian College of
Neuro-psychopharmacology, an umbrella group of researchers who study the
impact of drugs -- recreational and medical -- on the brain.

According to some of the experts, attitudes towards mood-altering
substances can be not only hypocritical, but absurd.

Marijuana, characterized for decades as a wicked corrupter of youth, is
known to have tremendous potential to treat pain and illness, and is far
less harmful than such legal drugs as alcohol or tobacco.

The reverse is true of the rave drug ecstasy: It has a street reputation as
a harmless, herbal, happy drug, but the latest science reveals the
so-called love drug is a nasty neuro-toxin that can snuff out memory, sex
drive, and even the user's life.

"Cannabis is essentially a good drug, with a bad reputation," said
Edmonton's Dr. Peter Silverstone, who helped organize the Banff conference.
"And ecstasy is a bad drug with a good reputation."

The conference couldn't have been more timely. Support for the legalization
of marijuana in Canada is peaking and the debate is playing itself out in
the media and in Parliament.

Polls show Canadians are still split on legalizing marijuana -- about 47
per cent pro and con -- but the pro side is up from about 30 per cent just
five years ago.

Psychopharmacologists say people take drugs because they act upon -- in
some cases prey upon -- natural chemicals in the brain which govern
pleasure and pain, balance mood and decrease anxiety.

As the Banff conference heard, ecstasy affects brain systems involving the
neuro-transmitter serotonin, which became well known in the 1990s for its
mood-enhancing properties. Modern anti-depressants boost serotonin levels
in the brain, producing improved mood, reduced anxiety and a decrease in
damaging, obsessive thoughts.

Ecstasy, or MDMA as it's known to scientists, was used in the 1970s as a
clinical aid to psychotherapy. Psychiatrists believed it broke down a
patient's resistance to therapy and created a greater sense of empathy.

But MDMA eventually made its way onto college campuses and into all-night
raves. It was dubbed ecstasy because it can create a euphoric high. The way
it also heightened tactile sensation helped its reputation -- misleading,
it turns out -- as a love drug.

In Banff, Dr. Una McCann of Johns Hopkins University revealed graphic
evidence of just how toxic ecstasy is to the brain. Images taken from the
brains of monkeys exposed to MDMA revealed profound physical changes.
Essentially, the brain's serotonin hard-wiring was being erased by MDMA.
That was after just four days of twice-daily doses -- and the effects were
still apparent seven years later.

British research presented in Banff underscored McCann's lab data. A
significant number of users reported such psychiatric symptoms as
depression, hostility, panic, paranoia, social phobia and even psychotic
episodes. Memory difficulties were common, as was a general loss of sexual
interest and pleasure.

"It's a tragedy. They are destroying their cognitive potential," said
Barbara Sahakian, a London graduate student.

Another researcher said ecstasy use in the heat of rave clubs can trigger a
physical breakdown, much like hypothermia, which can be lethal.

Significant toxic effects aren't necessarily dose dependent, or cumulative.
There are recorded cases where first-time ecstasy users suffered
psychiatric illness.

"There are a number of case reports where people have had very severe
reactions, including death and suicide, to a single dose," said
Silverstone. "It's a scary drug."

The researchers at the Banff conference emphasized that there's no such
thing as a wonder drug. But if you wanted to find a medically beneficial,
mood-enhancing and mostly benign substance, marijuana is your drug.

"THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) is probably one of the safest
compounds on Earth," said Daniele Piomelli, a psychopharmacologist from the
University of California. "It's very, very safe."

It was only in 1992 that scientists were able to definitively locate the
systems in the brain affected by cannabis. It's known that naturally
occurring chemicals, known as endocannabinoids, trigger pleasure centres in
the brain, in much the same way that dopamine does.

But cannabis is far less toxic on the brain's structure and isn't
physically addictive. "The way cannabis acts, it doesn't have the command
over your personality that nicotine, cocaine or alcohol have," said Piomelli.

Nor does it cause the kind of chronic mental lethargy and intellectual
burnout caricatured in Cheech and Chong movies. Users might be slowed
cognitively during a high -- likely to the point where they shouldn't drive
a vehicle -- but marijuana doesn't cause the same kind of permanent brain
damage as alcohol.

"The effects of THC and alcohol are completely different," said Piomelli.
"Alcohol is way more toxic than cannabis --it's devastating to your liver
and devastating to your brain."

Both Piomelli and Charles Marsden, of Nottingham University, another
leading pharmacologist, also rejected the portrayal of marijuana as a
"gateway" drug. No marijuana research has revealed any biological or
bio-chemical effect that would cause the user to crave stronger drugs, they
said.

"Of course it's a gateway drug, but only because the same guy who sells
marijuana also sells cocaine," said Piomelli. "Before you blame the
biological factors, look at the social components."

As for marijuana's medical potential, the two researchers say it has
already proven effective in regulating pain -- better than morphine in many
respects -- boosting appetite, controlling nausea and reducing tremors in
sufferers of MS. There's also evidence that cannabis derivatives have
anti-stroke, "neuro-protective" properties.

"This is a drug which offers a huge amount of potential to cover areas of
medical need which are not being covered," said Marsden.

Piomelli supports decriminalization, but sees raw marijuana as a crude drug
product containing hundreds of chemical compounds. Smoking it is as bad for
the lungs as smoking tobacco, maybe worse, he says. He foresees a day when
THC will be taken as gum, or a spray. -- Southam Newspapers