DRUG ADDICTION COSTS BILLIONS, EXPERT TELLS P.E.I. CONFERENCE

On the same day Charlottetown police arrested people for dealing drugs
at city high schools, Jag Khalsa was at a conference talking about the
consequences of drug use.

Khalsa is a pharmacologist with the U.S.-based National Institute on
Drug Abuse's (NISA) and was at the Delta Prince Edward last week as a
speaker for the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine's (CSAM) annual
meeting.

There are more than 200 million drug addicts worldwide and addictions
cost the U.S. billions of dollars every year, he said.

"Substance abuse is one of the major problems in the
world."

Through his work with NISA Khalsa manages the medical consequences of
drug abuse and co-occuring infections branch, which conducts research
into the effects of drug use. Khalsa said infections, such as HIV and
hepatitis, can occur in drug abusers, but they aren't the only types
of illness that stem from drug abuse.

"Drug addiction is a brain disorder so we do a lot of research into
how drugs affect the brain."

While the costs of drug abuse are high in the U.S., Khalsa said they
aren't alone with drug addiction as a major problem in Canada as well,
especially with marijuana.

"Marijuana is the most abused drug in the world."

Khalsa said a lot of people think marijuana is safe but it can affect
memory and the central nervous system.

"Marijuana is perceived to be harmless, but it's not."

He used the example of a study out of Ontario that followed women who
smoked marijuana during pregnancy and kept track of their children as
they got older.

It showed the marijuana use had a detrimental effect on the
children.

"Central nervous effects were quite significant."

But Khalsa said marijuana use is not the only drug problem and while
drug use has plateaued in recent years, prescription drug use in young
people has increased.

"That is troublesome to a lot of people."

And despite all the work organizations like his do around the world,
Khalsa knows they will never eliminate drug addiction.

"What we need to do is reduce the impact of it."

To help reduce that impact his group, which has a budget of about $1
billion, supports research on treatment of infections related to drug
addiction and also supports research into drug addiction vaccines.

"It's a major program at the institute."