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Today's
Stories
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War: Psychologists
Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al--Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go On and On
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's Sizzling
New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular Patricipation"
and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the Rest
of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition to Iraq
War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations is
Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything Wrong
with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay--Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti--War Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe: Coffin Bombs
in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP, But a Movement
in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
| Weekend
Edition
July 24 / 25, 2004
The Politics
of Pot
The Year
of the Antagonist
By
FRED GARDNER
This
is your preliminary warning about a weight--loss drug called Rimonabant
that works by blocking cannabinoid receptors in the brain. Scientists
from Sanofi, France's biggest pharmaceutical company, announced
favorable clinical--trial results at this year's meeting of the
International Cannabinoid Research Society and expect FDA approval
to market Rimonabant within a year.
Cannabinoid
receptors are proteins on the surface of certain cells to which
certain compounds bind, setting off molecular cascades within the
cells that produce effects in the body such as reduced inflammation,
increased appetite, etc. Two kinds of cannabinoid receptors have
been discovered -- CB1, highly concentrated in the brain and central
nervous system, and CB2, found mainly in tissues associated with
the immune system.
There
are three different kinds of cannabinoids, or chemical "agonists"
that activate the cannabinoid receptors. They are, in order of evolutionary
appearance: compounds made in the body for purposes of neurotransmission,
compounds unique to the cannabis plant (the most famous being delta--9
THC), and compounds made in the lab -- synthetics -- developed in
recent decades.
The
cannabinoids made in the body are called "endocannabinoids"
(just as the body's endogenous morphine--like chemicals are called
"endorphins"). The first to be identified, by Raphael
Mechoulam and William Devane in 1992, was named "anandamide"
after the Sanskrit word for "bliss." It has since been
learned that endocannabinoids help regulate the cardiovascular,
digestive, endocrine, excretory, immunological, nervous, reproductive,
and respiratory systems.
Rimonabant
is an "antagonist" drug that engages the CB1 receptors
so they can't be activated. Originally called SR--141716, it was
developed by Sanofi in the early '90s as a research tool. If a given
effect is blocked by SR--141716, that effect is said to be mediated
by CB1 receptors. Rimonabant is SR--141716 redefined as a "therapeutic
drug" that counteracts unwanted effects -- like overeating
-- mediated by the cannabinoid receptor system.
In a talk at the ICRS meeting entitled "Clinical Results with
Rimonabant in Obesity," Sanofi researcher Gerard Le Fur reported
that the drug had done well in phase--three clinical trials involving
13,000 patients. The trials were conducted at numerous sites in
the U.S. Obese patients were treated with Rimonabant for 52 weeks.
"Over 72% of patients at 1 year showed a weight loss of greater
than 5 percent, with over 44% showing a weight loss of greater than
10%," according to Le Fur. "There was also an increase
in HDL--cholesterol values, a reduction in triglyceride values and
reductions in glucose and insulin values... The general tolerance
of the compound was excellent."
But
the advent of Rimonabant troubles California doctors who have made
a specialty of monitoring their patients' cannabis use, as well
as some scientists who are studying the basic nature of the cannabinoid
system. Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, of Sebastopol -- one of the few
clinicians to attend the ICRS meeting, which was held in Paestum,
Italy, in late June -- says "We are only now be becoming aware
of the modulating effects the cannabinoids have on the body and
mind. The consequences of interfering with the cannabinoid receptor
system have not been evaluated in normal human physiology."
Le Fur and other Sanofi researchers were asked how a drug could
block the CB1 receptor system without adversely affecting mood,
sleep, pain relief, and other CB1--mediated aspects of well--being.
The answers were vague -- other neurotransmitters may play compensatory
roles. We were told that no pattern of adverse effects had been
observed during the clinical trials, and that such effects are probably
so rare that they won't be detectable until Rimonabant has been
used by millions of people over a period of years.
The developer of another antagonist drug, a rival of Sanofi's, claimed
that Rimonabant induced "food aversion" in five percent
of the test subjects. Le Fur responded that obesity was such a widespread
and serious health problem that five percent seems like an acceptable
rate of anorexia. Other criticisms and misgivings were only whispered.
A multiple sclerosis specialist told of a case in which Rimonabant
apparently caused an immediate, extreme exacerbation. A physician
wondered -- since the body's own cannabinoids have neuroprotectant
and anti--oxidant functions -- if Rimonabant users would be at increased
risk for stroke and cancer. But the negative remarks were anecdotal
or speculative; the positive data belonged to Sanofi.
Le Fur and two colleagues accepted the ICRS's 2004 achievement award
on behalf of their company. It was presented by Mechoulam, the grand
old man of the field. who observed that Sanofi had shown great foresight
in developing a weight--loss drug in the late 1990s, because it
has since swallowed up two much larger drug companies, Synthelabo
and Aventis.
From the perspective of the scientists in the ICRS -- mainly employees
of universities or pharmaceutical companies who get funding from
the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse-- it's a win--win--win
to honor Sanofi for developing CB--receptor antagonists as "new
therapeutic drugs." NIDA is eager to sponsor research involving
cannabinoid antagonists. A lot will be learned about the cannabinoid
system, its mechanism of action, etc. And a therapeutic effect is
a therapeutic effect, whether it's produced by activating or blocking
the cannabinoid receptors.
But common sense and a few cautious clinicians say DANGER DANGER
DANGER. CB1 receptors are concentrated in the cerebellum and the
basal ganglia (responsible for motor control, which may help explain
why marijuana eases muscle spasticity in disorders like multiple
sclerosis), the hippocampus (responsible for storage of short--term
memory), and the limbic system (emotional control).
Although
other neurotransmitters may play compensatory roles when the cannabinoid
receptors are blocked, the longterm impacts will not be known until
years after Sanofi gets approval to market Rimonabant to the slimness--loving
masses. Before marketing commences, says Hergenrather, "It
would be ethical to design longitudinal studies to assess the consequences
of interfering with the cannabinoid system."
Other uses for cannabinoid--antagonist drugs are being studied with
active encouragement from NIDA. Walter Fratta of the University
of Cagliari gave a paper in Paestum proposing antagonists "as
therapeutic agents to prevent relapse to heroin abuse." Carl
Lupica of NIDA discussed Rimonabant as a "potential treatment"
for food, alcohol and nicotine cravings. "It is also clear
that marijuana craving may be successfully treated by this drug,"
according to Lupica.
Alas,
this was supposed to be the year that G.W. Pharmaceuticals won the
ICRS achievement award. G.W. is the British firm that in 1998 got
government approval to develop and test an extract of the cannabis
plant which it formulated as an oral spray and dubbed "Sativex."
Clinical trials of Sativex as a treatment for neuropathic pain,
multiple sclerosis and other conditions were conducted and favorable
results reported to the regulators. Bayer agreed to market Sativex
in Europe when the approval came through. G.W. generously made Sativex
and other plant extracts with different cannabinoid contents available
to investigators who previously could experiment only with NIDA--weed
or synthetics.
But
the marketing approval that Guy said he expected by the end of 2003,
and then by spring '04, has yet to be granted. So he and his associates
had to walk a bit of a tightrope in Paestum, reassuring all concerned
that Sativex certainly will get approved, while not risking any
more misstatements about when.
Guy cited favorable data produced in recent trials of Sativex as
a treatment for pain in rheumatoid arthritis and spasticity in multiple
sclerosis. Unfortunately, in the U.K. as in the U.S., favorable
trial results can count for less than the establishment connections
of the doctors who conduct them. And so the British regulatory authorities
continue to ponder G.W.'s dossier, while the banquet at this year's
ICRS meeting was hosted by Sanofi.
Weekend Edition July 17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations is
Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything Wrong
with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
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