If you’re addicted to pot and looking for a way to give it up, a new trial into a cannabis mouth spray could have you drug free shortly, even if you do end up with Mary-Jane breath.
There’s next to no information about the trial in the original report other than the fact that the trial is taking place in Sydney and Newcastle using a drug called Savitex. A quick Wikipedia search shows that the drug is actually derived from the cannabis plant itself, and has been trialled as a pain relief medication for MS sufferers in the UK.
Locally though, it’s all about getting people off the drug. Let’s hope it works.
[Sky News]
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Of course, Marijuana isn’t physically addictive — more behaviourally. Other research has suggested that it might cause problems like social anxiety, depression and memory impairment.
adam
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:58 AMlol Nick Cannabis isn’t even physically addictive, and after all the medical uses Cannabis has they wont legalise it for medical use but will make a stupid spray that will do nothing, great job Australia. Cannabis isn’t bad for you and wont cause you to turn into a maniac, legalise it already.
LGB
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:56 PMThat’s right!!
We have Alcohol for that sort of capper….
jason
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:04 AMpot isn’t addictive, it can be habitual if used frequently tho. a mouth spray that gives a dose of thc instead smoking is going to help the people who habitually get high how?
legalise it, regulate it, tax it, everyone profits.
anon
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:09 PMIt is addictive to some. An ive seen the effects on friends. The dependency very real.
Thom
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 1:53 PMActually its very not – like the prior poster said, 80+ years of research has pretty much uniformly found that it is not physiologically addicted. Habitual users can still suffer “withdrawal”, but its psychosomatic.
toby
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:06 AMAgreeing with Adam. Pot has a lot less negative effects than booze and ciggies and it is illegal. I hope that soon a politician will work out that drug dealers are making a fortune in this country and that the majority of the population would embrace a change in the wind or at least a change in the smoke that wind is carrying.
monkeymind
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:06 AMFrom Wikipedia
“The drug is a pharmaceutical product standardised in composition, formulation, and dose, although it is still effectively a tincture of the cannabis plant….Each spray delivers a fixed dose of 2.7 mg THC and 2.5 mg CBD.”
So, a drug dreived from canabis is good but the plant itself is bad.
OK…. Good to Know.
Josh
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:20 AMAgree with all of the above. Cannabis is not addictive or bad for you in the way that some people will tell you.
It’s only illegal because of a perpetuation of a smear campaign started against hemp in the 1930s by a paper mill mogul who didn’t want to be taken out of business by hemp.
Josh
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:26 AMYeah I did the research. What of it?
DENAz
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:43 AMI’d disagree with it being addictive. I’m saying that as a smoker who has been trying to give it up for a while. Its a tough call, there is no chemical in the drug that makes it addictive, yet its not easy to give up when you’ve been smoking a while
Still its better for you then much of the legal drugs out there. There has been more deaths from Panadol then from MJ
Sicarius123
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:08 PMThere are certain foods I eat daily. I’m not addicted to them, but my day seems odd without them because eating them daily has become a habbit.
steve
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:54 AMdecriminalization would be the best thing the government could do. Allow people to obtain and grow from seed up to 3 plants for personal use. It has helped many people I know who suffer from depression and anxiety and chronic pain.
Jack
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:02 PMI think the trick here is to skull the whole bottle.
Honestly though, this is just big Pharma trying to make some money out of the massive cannabis Industry that prohibition has pushed under ground.
It will probably be used by doctors who dont know the facts about cannabis and only know of whatever friends/family tell them.
So they’ll be like “there is help for your addiction, you don’t have to waste away on this drug.” yada yada nonsense.
It’s addictive as food/entertainment… But expensive food/entertainment, so you can’t buy it too often, and If you smoke too much the price is too high so you have to cut your tolorence back.
End prohibition, regulate it!
Aucix
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:08 PMThe only way decriminalisation would work is if it is completely banned from use in any public place or around minors. Way to many potential issues otherwise.
Personally, having never tried it but being around people who have, I find the smell absolutely disgusting, some tobacco smoke is at least made pleasant.
Andy
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 1:11 PMYeah but how many extra chemicals do they have to pump into a smoke to make it smell nicer?
Aucix
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:27 PMI imagine quite a few. I’ll clarify then that it’s less offense, but I’d still prefer clean air regardless. Honestly, plain old tobacco smoke is less offensive to me than weed which just smells rancid.
adam
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:37 AMHow would it cause issues? I think you need to try it before you can speak about it.
Commander Shepard
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 1:26 PMWas thinking pill form would be good, but sprays ok.
The biggest need for this is regulation of strength and to not have to breathe smoke, so alot better for you.
Regulation of strengh is a good idea for those wanting to ease off it rather than going col turkey.
where do i sign?
adam
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:38 AMCannabis smoke has shown to cause no lung problems.
Jack
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:00 PMI think therapy is a better option here, it’s a psychological issue.
Sicarius123
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:05 PMWouldn’t most people who are “addicted to cannabis” really be addicted to the tobacco in their spin, which they’ve associated with cannabis?
monkeymind
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 5:23 PMSpot on.
Sam
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 5:29 PMI am ashamed to say I have never thought of that.
Danny Allen
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 6:31 PMI used to think that but Australia is one of the only countries that spin. NZ and US for instance balk at the idea. Err…so I’ve heard.
Tom Forrest
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:24 PMWriting from a filthy bug ridden hostel in Amsterdam, there is endless amounts that I could write on legalisation/decriminalisation or even the Dutch method of turning a casual blind eye.
All pre-rolled joints here have spin (baccy) in them although Canadians and Americans mostly buying and smoking just green. They have different names and other ways of smoking but predominately, most people around the world smoke their weed spun. The coffee shops have strict laws against smoking ciggies and some have cannabis only rooms where spun weed isn’t allowed.
Although most smoke spun weed, very few people here are overly familiar with the way we smoke in Canberra (mixed bowl of tobacco and pot chopped up with individual cones packed).
smurfydog
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:20 PM@ Tom – Melbourne does the same as Canberra.
John Birmingham, in his first book “He Died With A Felafel In His Hand” suggests that mixing, or spinning is only a southern-states thing.
Before reading that book I just assumed that was how it was done. A mix of tobacco and chopped-up MJ goes into a “mull” bowl and this is what goes into the bong. I always found this rather disgusting, nearly unsmokable, even as a cigarette smoker.
I don’t partake these days, but if you have access to free or cheap leaf, this is the way to bulk out your bud – not tobacco.
And joints > bongs.
Have some self respect and learn to relax without getting totaly wasted.
adam
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:40 AMThey do the same thing up here in NSW so I assume it is probably an east coast thing, I don’t know what they do in the other states that aren’t on the east coast.