T32-1A: Whatnot Shelf for Psychiatric Epidemiologists: August 2017

It will help you understand racist origins and mistakes made in US drug policy, how Harry Anslinger used "race-baiting" to revise the US tax code to his advantage and to the disadvantage of laborers from Mexico, in an echo of prior local and state anti-opium ordinances used to control immigrant-labor from China, and gives a quick overview of CSA1970 Schedule I, but makes factual errors in places. (Treated more thoroughly in the 1974 book I mentioned about a month ago. Search this blog label: #history for a web link.)

Use search link for AUGUST 25, 2017 podcast in archives of On the Media, if this link does not take you to the 50 minute recording and download page:

This American War on Drugs

Take it on a walk or our stationary bike ride and listen while you get some exercise.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

On Marijuana and its many names

Fugs: Marijuana

Posters of the era on sale via Pinterest (Shameless commercial mention so as to share culture of that era)

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Time to discuss what epidemic means?

Dual meanings inside and outside of epidemiology.

An anonymous AJE reviewer recently objected to our mention of the current cannabis epidemic, and argued that it no longer is an epidemic, but rather is "endemic."

For a different perspective, see the CDC use of the term in this report from August 2016, and notice the trend in estimates:

Plus, an opinion recently voiced in a JAMA Viepoint article:

Standard epi definition is an unexpected increase in numbers of newly incident cases or in the incidence rate (i.e., relative to expectation based on prior estimates for that population).

And see Frost and Van Volkenburgh (1935) for a somewhat muddled exposition -- i.e. muddled because "prevalence" is not clearly differentiated from " incidence" in some paragraphs, but context makes the meaning clear:

Heroin in Habitina, 1910

Earlier JAMA post on Habitina and blindness.

Methanol as vehicle for delivery of morphing and heroin?

Monday, August 21, 2017

MDHHS and LARA in social media: opioids

What pops up when I log into MSU E-resources and search JAMA articles:

MAPS stimulus:

State level opioid work

State efforts to reduce Rx opioid casualties, 2008.

Questions for you to answer:

Where are we now?

Report been updated?

What is the current set of public health components in this specific area: "evidence-based guidelines for prescribers; effective policy and programmatic tools"?

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/rxreport_web-a.pdf

Bullet point quotations:

Most states recognize prescription drug overdoses as a growing issue, although some states only recently became aware of its magnitude locally. Most states became aware of the problem through mortality data.
States rely heavily on measures such as interagency task forces and prescription monitoring programs to address the problem. Less common are educational and regulatory initiatives.
States cited lack of awareness of the problem, insufficient data, privacy and confidentiality concerns, and lack of state-based injury prevention capacity as barriers to implementing a response.
States cited the need to increase the visibility of the prescription overdose problem.
States need evidence-based guidelines for prescribers and effective policy and programmatic tools. Although many states have implemented responses, their effectiveness is unclear.