the dope report

Bay Area residents are enrolling in twelve-step-like classes that use cannabis to quit heroin, pills, cigarettes, alcohol, and other addictive substances, defying decades of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous tradition.

Even though NA and AA both mandate abstinence from all illegal drugs, that one-size fits all approach doesn’t work, says Harm Reduction Clinical Consultant Jennifer Janichek. For the last six weeks, Janichek, along with two other clinicians, have been running pro-cannabis mental health and addiction services for a handful of people out of the Harborside Health Center in Oakland. The free services paid for by the area’s largest cannabis dispensary explain the safest way to smoke pot — which is not physically addictive — and use it to combat depression, anxiety, and addiction.

For years, there’ve been anecdotal reports about people using cannabis to quit harder drugs. The process is called “substitution”, and it’s a tactic that’s beginning to be endorsed by the harm reduction philosophy of mental health. Janichek says harm reduction is most popularly associated with needle exchanges, condom disbursement, ecstasy pill testing, and seat belt laws. Harm reduction accepts that some people will engage in risky behavior, and clinicians should seek to reduce the harms associated with such risks. That might include endorsing a little pot over a lot of OxyContin.

“A lot of these folks go to NA or AA and can’t talk about their medical cannabis use because it’s frowned upon,” Janichek says. “NA and AA wouldn’t view users as being sober. I’ve talked to folks who’ve had a really good experience in NA except they couldn’t share that piece of their life.”

Harborside crafted a program that’s similar to traditional twelve-step programs, but ignores the pot smoking. This concept of substitution is cutting edge, with new research just coming out. According to a poll of medical cannabis users by UC Berkeley’s Dr. Amanda Reinman, published in the Harm Reduction Journal of December 2009:

“Forty percent [of those polled] have used cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 26% as a substitute for illicit drugs and 66% as a substitute for prescription drugs. The most common reasons given for substituting were: less adverse side effects (65%), better symptom management (57%), and less withdrawal potential (34%) with cannabis.”

With that reality in mind, Janichek designed a Substance Use & Misuse Clinical Services Program at Harborside Health Center that is currently at capacity. The program includes information sharing sessions, depression forums, social skills groups, online support groups, and one-on-one counseling. She says most of the clients who sign up report depression, anxiety, and mostly a lot of questions.

“A lot of folks are DARE generation at this point and they haven’t been given honest information on the basics of different drugs and what they do to your body.”

Kids want to know if it’s okay to break up Adderall and snort it, or which is healthier: smoking out of a bong or hitting a joint, she says. She consults the literature and tells them.

Janichek would never order someone with a problem to simply quit smoking pot. Harm reduction inverts the AA model where users must admit their powerlessness. Addicts aren’t powerless, they’re smart enough to make their own choices, she says.

Janichek is tracking the outcomes of Harborside’s free, cannabis-positive mental health services, with the goal of extrapolating the data into guidelines and replicating the services in other dispensaries.

New Poll: Californians ready to legalize

A 56 percent majority of Californians are ready to legalize cannabis for personal use, a new independent poll found last week. A handful of TV stations hired the reputable Survey USA to ask 500 random Californians this question:

“Should the state of California legalize the use of marijuana? Or not?”

56 percent said yes, 42 percent said no, with 3 percent undecided. Don’t get too worked up. The margin of error on the poll was around four percent, and the poll did not account for mid-term voters, who tend to be older and more conservative. The last independent poll had the same problem.

Still, there’s some interesting findings in the numbers. A supermajority of those under 34 favor legalization, which means time is on reform’s side. Californians aged 35-49 are slightly against legalization (50 — 46) yet legalization is a dead heat (49-49) in the 50-64 bracket. Those 65 and older are still staunchly in the “no” camp (54-39). And since these are the folks who like to vote early and often in mid-terms, reformers must turn out kids ready to rock Grandma’s vote. Well, are you, kids?

Racially: whites, blacks and Asians are for legalization, but 53 percent of Hispanics are against it.

Politically: independents are solidly for legalization, as well as Democrats. Republicans can’t make up their minds. They are against it 46 to 53, which is well within the margin of error.

In other poll news, ABC News did a national poll that claims to have found 55 percent of Americans oppose legalization. But This is Your Country on Drugs author Ryan Grim, a Huffington Post reporter covering health in Washington DC, dug into the poll numbers and noted that:

“when pot is compared to alcohol, support for reforming the laws surges. Forty-four percent of respondents said that ‘the regulations on marijuana [should] be the same as those for alcohol.’ Another 12 percent said they should be ‘less strict,’ meaning that a full 56 percent support the policy change — perhaps the highest number ever recorded in favor of legalization. (Alcohol is, after all, legal.)”

[Every week, The Dope Report re-posts content from brother blog Legalization Nation, funded by Oakland’s East Bay Express]