Tag: cannabis

  • Understanding Cannabis Addiction Myths

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    GuidaBrown
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    It happened again the other day…and I absolutely know better than to open my mouth…but I did anyway. I was an observer to a conversation about the vast and varied benefits of cannabis. I was trying my damnedest not to participate, but one of the two people in the conversation decided to point out that…

  • Is ‘California Sober’ a Real Path to Recovery?

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    GuidaBrown
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    There’s much debate about what recovery looks like. In fact, in some fun videos on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mikeandguida/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MikeAndGuida) that I do with my friend, the renowned trainer Mike McGowan, we recently talked about “California Sober,” and sheesh, did we get pushback! For the unfamiliar, “California Sober,” according to one source, means “when a…

  • The Overlooked Impact of Alcohol in Drug Policy

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    GuidaBrown
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    On April 1, 2025, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from the Executive Office of the President issued its Statement of Drug Policy Priorities. Sadly, as expected, the most abused drug in the nation, alcohol, was left out. Again. The document opens with this statement, but the emphasis is mine, “The Trump…

  • Prenatal Substance Exposure: A Growing Crisis

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    GuidaBrown
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    “Nearly 1 in 12 newborns in the United States in 2020 – or about 300,000 infants – were exposed to alcohol, opioids, marijuana or cocaine before they were born. Exposure to these substances puts these newborns at a higher risk for premature birth, low birth weight and a variety of physical and mental disabilities” (The Conversation). Unfortunately, this number…

  • When Medication Becomes a Hammer

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    GuidaBrown
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    I learned something new today…sort of. In part, CAPTA, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, “provides federal funding and guidance to States in support of prevention, assessment, investigation, prosecution, and treatment activities and also provides grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations, including Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations, for demonstration programs and projects” (childwelfare…

  • What Should Prevention Look Like?

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    GuidaBrown
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    I recently attended a presentation by the phenomenal Ira Chasnoff, MD. (You can find out more about him at NTI Upstream.) Dr. Chasnoff was doing research in the field of drug-affected neonates in the early 1990s, when I first started my career in the field of addiction. I had to wait about 30 years to…

  • Legal ≠ Harmless

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    GuidaBrown
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    Somehow along the way, we’ve made a distinction between “hard” drugs and, well, other drugs, as though only “hard” drugs cause problems. We’ve forgotten that those other, less “hard” drugs are also dangerous. We’ve also stopped thinking of alcohol as a drug at all, despite it being one of the most abused and dangerous drugs…

  • Our Next New Drug Crisis

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    GuidaBrown
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    Ketamine has a long and storied history. Developed in the early 1960s as an anesthesia, it was deemed too dangerous for people due to its “intense, prolonged emergence delirium that ultimately made it undesirable for human use.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126726/ More studies; more testing; and the end result — well, maybe not the END result, but the…

  • Weed in the NBA

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    GuidaBrown
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    Big news before 4/20 was that the new NBA collective-bargaining contract will not require testing for THC. This new contract comes on the heels of the NBA having temporarily suspended testing of THC over the last three seasons, in part as a response to the COVID pandemic. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has gone on record…

  • Four Ways to Die Podcast

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    GuidaBrown
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    Check out this podcast from the Kenosha County Substance Abuse Coalition, hosted by Mike McGowan. He interviews me about one of the most popular blogs I’ve ever written: “Four Ways to Die.” Alcohol is a toxin and, far and away, the most commonly abused substance. It can kill all by itself. It also doesn’t play…