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What's new in cannabis?

2012 Short Film, Poster and Music Competitions now open

NCPIC has now launched its suite of competitions for 2012. The brief for this year’s Poster and Short Film Competitions has taken on a more positive angle, with entrants being required to creatively explore the benefits of deciding not to use cannabis. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Competition is open to all ages and gives Indigenous Australians the opportunity to showcase their talents in exploring the impact of cannabis use on their communities. To view the ABC 7.30 report on last year’s Music Competition winner Carol George, click here. For entry forms and more information about each of these exciting competitions please click here.

Director’s report

Jan Copeland (PhD) – Professor/Director, NCPIC

This month we provide a commentary on the recent article published by colleagues from our consortium partner, NDRI. The paper is a good news story on the increase in the age of initiation to cannabis use for the cohort of under 20 year olds in the waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Surveys from 1998 to 2007. The 2010 survey also reported a significant increase in the age of initiation (15.9 to 16.2 years) among those aged 14-24 years. This delay in age of initiation is a most encouraging finding given what we know about the markedly increased harms from cannabis use in early adolescence.

While there was an increase in the rates of recent cannabis use in that survey overall, there is more to be learnt from exploring the patterns of use amongst this group. The rates of daily use, among that 10.3 per cent of the population who reported using in the previous year, have reduced from 14.9 per cent in the 2007 survey to 13 per cent in 2010. As the proportion reporting using only once or twice a year was up to 34.6 per cent in 2010, from 33.5 per cent in the previous survey, it suggests that the increase in recent use may be largely driven by more people experimenting with cannabis than those engaging in more harmful patterns of use.

In late February, NCPIC provided a symposium on cannabis harms and interventions to the Guild Pharmacy Academy NSW Convention. This was seen as an initial activity of a project to engage pharmacists in the provision of cannabis information and brief interventions. I provided an introduction but the principal speakers were Professor Iain McGregor and Etty Matalon. The session was attended by 60 pharmacists and an encouraging number expressed interest in forming a working group to develop a project plan to pilot test the adapted factsheets and intervention materials supported by more intensive training and evaluation. This project was driven by Dr John Howard and Ms Jennie Houseman and we are also most grateful for the support of Denis Leahy and staff from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (NSW). We were also encouraged to hear that the NSW Minister for Health, Ms Jillian Skinner, made public comment on her support for the project concept at a recent event. Should this be successful in NSW we will work to a national project.

As Chair of the Board of Management of the Drug and Alcohol Multicultural Education Centre (DAMEC), I would like to thank Clare Chenoweth for her excellent work on the provision of our first translated materials. We now have materials available in Vietnamese and aim to expand to additional languages as opportunities to do so arise. This E-Zine provides a report on the process we engaged in to deliver these materials. Please click here to view these translated factsheets.

Early this month the abstract submissions closed for our 2nd National Cannabis Conference. We were very pleased to receive more than 35 abstracts from national and international authors and it is shaping up to be a very exciting meeting. Once we have formally reviewed the abstracts and advised authors, the draft program will be available on the website.

Commentary on research

Evidence of increasing age of onset of cannabis use among younger Australians – a comment on Lenton and colleagues (2012)

Peter Gates

Lenton and colleagues (2012) present an analysis of data from the 1998-2007 National Drug Strategy Household Surveys (NDSHS; conducted triennially) to illuminate trends in the changing age onset of cannabis use. These authors draw results from the detailed findings of the NDSHS to highlight that, although the frequency of past 12-month cannabis use among those aged 14-19 years has declined from 35.0 per cent in 1998 to 12.9 per cent in 2007, the proportion of daily users remained relatively unchanged. This is particularly  concerning as a host of literature has depicted an association between early and daily cannabis use with prolonged frequent use and dependence in later years, and an increased risk of developing psychosis (particularly among those with a family history of psychosis).

These negative consequences of frequent cannabis use in adolescence are thought to be compounded by using cannabis before the age of 16 years. As such, it is of interest to determine how the average age of onset to cannabis use has changed over time.

Previous study of the age of onset of cannabis use utilised the 1998 NDSHS and investigated birth cohorts. The age of onset was seen to decrease with successive cohorts. Specifically, a mean age of 18 years was observed among those in the most recent cohort, reducing to 14 years among the 1980-84 cohort. A significant limitation of this study was referred to as “right censoring”. That is, the age of onset may have been observed to decrease among younger cohorts as a consequence of the fact that these cohorts had not yet reached older ages.

To address this limitation in previous research Lenton and colleagues (2012) compared age cohorts from several NDSHS surveys (1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007 surveys). These authors
addressed the limitations of making comparisons between surveys and brought attention to the fact that sample size increased significantly between surveys following the introduction of computer-assisted telephone interviewing in 2001. Upon comparing surveys, the mean age of cannabis use onset was presented to increase significantly from 14.6 years in 1998 to 15.2 years in 2007 among those aged 14–19 years. A reduction in the prevalence of first using cannabis before the age of 16 years was also noted following a survival analysis between the NDSHS surveys. Notably, the age of onset among older age cohorts was presented to significantly decrease.

These results were promising from a public health perspective; however, given the frequency of cannabis use among adolescents, Lenton and colleagues (2012) observed that in order to make a real impact, the increase in age of onset would need to continue in order to sufficiently reduce the proportion of the population using cannabis before the age of 16 years. Finally, it was noted that some recent research suggests that adolescents’ preference for cannabis use may be shifting with increases to risky alcohol drinking and the use of ecstasy, although further research is needed to confirm a relationship between these observations.

Lenton, S., Liang, W. & Chikritzhs, T. (2012). Evidence of increasing age of onset of cannabis use among younger Australians. Addiction 107, 650-657.

Media stories this issue

Each issue we will examine some of the cannabis-related stories that have received media attention across the country. The headlines are listed below in bold, with a short summary and/or commentary regarding the content of the news story beneath. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of a particular story, please contact Clare Chenoweth at c.chenoweth@unsw.edu.au

How marijuana clouds the memory

Adelaide Now: March 2, 2012

Research recently published in the journal, Cell, has revealed that cannabis use “impairs users’ working memory – the ability to retain and use information over short periods of time.” This is thought to be because THC, cannabis’ main psychoactive ingredient, “affects the support cells of neurones, known as astroglial cells.” Heavy use of the drug is said to be more likely to impact on memory. The findings from the study may assist efforts to “deal with working memory problems in Alzheimer’s.”

Link between school bullies and substance use

Medical News: March 5, 2012

A study has found that both bullies and to a lesser extent, those they bully, are more likely to use substances such as cannabis, tobacco and alcohol. Over 74,200 students were surveyed in Ohio, the United States, from public, private and Catholic middle and high schools. The study found that “among high school students, 13.3 percent of those not involved in bullying were marijuana users – compared to 31.7 percent of bullies, 29.2 percent of bully-victims, and 16.6 percent of victims.” It is hoped that these findings will help inform more effective anti-bullying and drug prevention programs in schools.

Synthetic drugs in spotlight

Hills News: March 13, 2012

A state government inquiry into “whether synthetic cannabinoid products are effectively controlled by current drug laws” will soon be launched by Castle Hill MP Dominic Perrottet. Companies have tried to circumvent existing laws banning the sale and use of these products by altering the chemical structure of these drugs and according to Mr Perrottet, the government’s approach of “adding more chemicals to the banned substance list, was not sufficient.”

NCPIC’s Professor Jan Copeland comments that, “synthetic cannabinoids were often classified as ‘research chemicals’ which were not approved for human consumption” and that “there was little data on the chemicals’ side effects, adverse reactions, long-term damage or dependence potential.”

Concordia study looks at rates of risky behaviours for online and offline gamblers

Medical News: March 29, 2012

A study recently published in journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, has found that alcohol and cannabis use are associated with online gambling. The study looked at “sociodemographic profiles, gameplay patterns and level of addictive behaviours in adults who gamble online and offline.” More research needs to be done to determine “whether gambling on the internet creates problems in and of itself, or whether those who already have addictive behaviours are more likely to be enticed to gamble on the Internet.”

Research publications

NCPIC factsheets – Vietnamese

It is well recognised that there is a paucity of health promotion resources available for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Australia. While translated resources do exist, NCPIC saw a gap in the way it provides information and support to CALD communities and has sought to rectify this by translating a selection of our factsheets into various languages.

NCPIC consulted with the Drug and Alcohol Multicultural Education Centre (DAMEC) and the Vietnamese Drug and Alcohol Professionals Inc. (VDAP), and had five of our factsheets translated into Vietnamese. After identifying which topics were of most relevance to the Vietnamese community, the factsheets were translated and focus tested and are now available to download from the NCPIC website. The factsheets will also be printed and distributed amongst Vietnamese Alcohol and Other Drug organisations and related networks around the country. In the coming months, we will begin the process of community consultation and translation of a selection of the NCPIC factsheets into other languages, including Arabic, Spanish and Chinese.

Mr Đăng Khoa Nguyễn, Vietnamese Projects Coordinator, Drug Health Services, is based at Fairfield Hospital and helped us coordinate this project. He writes below about how he sees the translated factsheets being of value to the Vietnamese Community in Australia:

“Vietnamese Cannabis Factsheets are very important resources not only to Australian Vietnamese Community members, but also to all other Vietnamese speaking people who are living in Vietnam and in other countries around the world, because the impact of cannabis use is now an international health issue, and there are very limited resources in our Vietnamese language about cannabis.

The fact is that if all cannabis factsheets are translated into Vietnamese and are uploaded onto the NCPIC website and linked to other Vietnamese health websites, Vietnamese people will have more chance to access the resources, to read them and have more understanding about cannabis and its impact on their health.

In the last 20 years I have been working in Drug Health Services, South Western Sydney Area Health Service and now, South Western Sydney Local Health District, to promote alcohol and other drug information to Vietnamese speaking people. I am very excited and delighted that NCPIC has translated the cannabis factsheets into Vietnamese. This will provide cannabis-related information to Vietnamese offices and to different government and non-government agencies which are working with Vietnamese in all Australian states and territories to help Vietnamese people.”

2nd National Cannabis Conference