Drugs and Pharmacology, Thirteenth Edition

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Drugs and Pharmacology. Today, we will discuss the fallacies of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s logic on marijuana prohibition, the prevalence and impact of dual diagnosis (mental disorders coupled with substance abuse), the benefits of breaking caffeine addiction, and poisonous birds with an analgesic effect.

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to drugs — medicinal, recreational, interactional, personal, professional, or any other aspects. If you were left out in this round, just leave a comment with your blog entry. You can check out the archives for every edition of this carnival.

For future editions, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…

Rationalitate writes Possible Surgeon General Sanjay Gupta’s tortured logic on marijuana prohibition:

But at the end comes the biggest doozy, when he declares: “And if you get high before climbing behind the wheel of a car, you will be putting yourself and those around you in danger.” This is made all the worse as its the last line of the article, giving you the impression that it’s the biggest thing you should take away from this all.

Mind Mart writes One Treatment, No Cure:

A well known study done in 1990 reported a dual diagnosis prevalence of 53 percent for problem drug users and 37 percent for problem alcohol users. A more recent study in 2004 found a prevalence of 60 percent for independent mood disorders and 43 percent as having at least one anxiety disorder.

Living the Scientific Life writes The Evolution of Poisonous Birds:

‘I performed this very complicated and sophisticated experiment. I clipped off some feathers and popped them in my mouth’ — taking care not to swallow. His lips, mouth and tongue became numb almost immediately. Clearly it was the pitohui itself — not some plant or tree — that was the culprit.

LimitlessUnits.com writes Why and How I Broke My Addiction to Caffeine:

I have higher and more even energy levels. I no longer have the caffeine driven ups and downs. Since I work in the video game industry, I am expected to work in “crunch” mode just prior to a product shipping. During crunch, developers are hard at work for 70 to 100 hours a week, six to seven days a week for periods of up to and beyond 6 months.