Starting things off on a sweet note: while “food addiction” remains more a useful analogy than a proven diagnosis, it seems that laboratory rats react similarly to high-fructose corn syrup and cocaine.
Luckily, it appears researchers may be on the track of a molecule that can block the specific pathways involved in cocaine addiction. This may lead to a medication similar to buprenorphine, perhaps with more specific and targeted effectiveness, which would be a great step forward.
While we’re talking about sugar; over at Addiction Inbox, there is an excellent breakdownof the context and controversy of a new study, “The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults“. Since this is a meeting-point of two of the most important health issues in the US today, what this study and its follow-up investigations have to say might have a massive impact on the laws and lifestyles we know.
And while we are busy investigating newly-discovered effects of marijuana, we may soon be seeing new ways to administer it as well; “dabs”, a more concentrated form whose production methods “resemble those of harder drugs”, may be set to replace the more traditional joints.
And to end on, here’s a guide on how and when to withdraw from the synthetic cannibinoid Spice. Hopefully no one reading this will need to use it, but it is an illustrative look at the withdrawal process.