health news

3-year-old is focus of medical marijuana battle

He’s only 3 years old, but Landon Riddle is already the focus of a medical marijuana fight in Colorado.

Landon has acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It’s the most common cancer in children.

His mother says his condition has improved so much following treatment with medical marijuana that chemotherapy isn’t needed. But the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, she says, disagreed.

It all started back in September 2012. Landon, then 2, was living with his mother, Sierra Riddle, in St. George, Utah, when he developed a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. The emergency room doctor said it was a virus and sent him home.

School stops giving boy medical pot Is medical marijuana right for a 3-year-old? “Please don’t let my daughter die”

Two days later he went back. His armpits were swollen. “They thought it was either a virus or infection in the lymph nodes, so they gave him some antibiotics,” Sierra Riddle says.

But on the fifth day, his mother says she was changing his diaper and noticed his groin was also swollen, as well as his abdomen and throat. He was having trouble breathing. That time, she got a frightening diagnosis: cancer.

New York governor announces plan for medical marijuana at hospitals Landon was flown to a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City.

“His whole chest was full of leukemia tumors, which is why he couldn’t breathe,” his mother says. “They started him on chemo, but told us that he probably wasn’t going to make it.”

Landon’s cancer had quickly progressed, leading doctors to give him an 8% chance of survival, she says.

In general, ALL is one of the most curable cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 90% of children diagnosed with the disease survive. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, and Riddle says doctors put Landon on a four-year treatment plan. The first two months of chemo went fairly well, but then Landon became extremely ill.

“Most days he couldn’t get off the couch,” Riddle remembers. “He would just lay there and throw up and throw up.”

Riddle says he also developed neuropathy — a symptom of nerve damage that can cause weakness, numbness and pain — in his legs that left him barely able to walk.

Around that time, a friend set up a Facebook page called Offer Hope for Landon, and recommendations started streaming in, including several endorsing cannabis — medical marijuana — as a treatment.

Medical marijuana, however, isn’t legal in Utah. Still, desperate for answers, Sierra Riddle and her mother, Wendy Riddle, started looking into it. They considered going to California or Oregon. Then their research led them to the Stanley brothers in Colorado. The six brothers are one of that state’s biggest cannabis growers and dispensary owners.

The Stanleys produce about 500 pounds of medical marijuana a year. At the time, much of it was high in THC — tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in pot that gets users high but also helps patients with an array of conditions including pain and nausea.

But the Stanleys were also growing something quite revolutionary: a plant cross-bred to reduce the THC and increase another compound found in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD. Many researchers believe CBD is one of the compounds in marijuana that has medicinal benefits. According to the National Cancer Institute, it’s thought to have significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity without the psychoactive effect.
The Stanleys expect to produce over 1,000 pounds this year, most of it the cross-bred variety, according to Joel Stanley.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed Riddle, herself a recovering heroin addict, struggled with the idea of giving Landon marijuana.

“I was telling my mom, you know, ‘We really need to think about this.'” But, says Riddle, her son was already prescribed medications like OxyContin and morphine — medications with significant side effects.

Landon suffered from stomach failure, and “the OxyContin made him so miserable, when he had hair, he would literally try to pull his hair out.” In the end, she decided she had nothing else to lose and moved to Colorado. She rented a room, got Landon’s medical marijuana card and began giving him marijuana — THC for the pain and nausea, but also CBD. The dose was based on Landon’s weight. He first took it in oil form, but now takes a pill.

Once the doses started, “Landon’s (red and white blood cell) counts increased dramatically,” she says.

Six months later, encouraged by Landon’s progress, she stopped his chemotherapy treatments completely.

“Once I took the chemo out, I see these amazing results. And no more need for blood transfusion and platelet transfusions,” Riddle says. “I think that the chemo in combination with the cannabis did put him into remission and now the cannabis will keep him there.”

But Landon’s doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado was shocked. “She told me with no uncertainty that if I refused chemo, she would have no choice but to report me to the proper authorities,” Riddle says. So Riddle found a lawyer willing to take her case.

“Nobody wants to hurt Landon here,” says attorney Warren Edson. “This is about making him better. We have no problem making sure he’s monitored throughout this process. And again, if there’s any indication this is doing him harm, I can’t imagine Sierra doing anything other than the right thing.”

Medical marijuana helps stem 6-year-old’s seizures
Children’s Hospital Colorado, in a statement, says it is “committed to protecting the well-being of our patients.” The hospital says it cannot discuss specific cases, but provided information from Dr. Stephen Hunger, director of the hospital’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Hunger noted that childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among American children; that about 25% of childhood cancers are ALL; and that the survival rate for children with ALL treated by Children’s Oncology Group research trials is over 90%, attained with two to three years of chemotherapy.

Children’s Hospital Colorado is “one of the largest centers in the country that treats children with ALL,” the statement says.

“The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado has always done its best to work closely with families to provide the most appropriate treatment for cancer, while also seeking to minimize side effects and maximize quality of life.
“Today, chemotherapy is a required part of therapy for children with leukemia. Many supportive care medications are used in children and adults with cancer, including those considered to be complementary and alternative medicine (also referred to as integrative health).

“Marijuana or a product derived from marijuana is often used to decrease side effects in adults with cancer,” the hospital says. “There are several FDA-approved and commercially available anti-nausea medicines derived from marijuana (cannabinoids) that are frequently used by adults and children with cancer, and we often prescribe these medications.”
In an effort to stave off a legal wrangle, Riddle, her mother and Edson met with the doctors in charge of Landon’s care in October.

Source: CNN

 

New device may put DNA testing in doctors’ hands

handheld-genetic-test

It can take days for doctors to determine if a patient infected with malaria carries a drug-resistant version of the disease. The same is true of tuberculosis.

But a new testing device could reduce that time lag to 15 minutes, potentially helping to ensure that patients are correctly treated right away, says the company developing this device.

United Kingdom company QuantuMDX now has a working prototype for a device intended to quickly test a sample of blood, sputum (saliva mixed with mucus) or even tumor cells for genetic markers that provide information to guide a doctor’s decisions on how to treat a patient.

“We want to put a full diagnostic test into the palms of health professionals’ hands,” said Elaine Warburton, chief executive officer of QuantuMDX and the companys cofounder.

The prototype is about the size of an iPad 5, or 6.6 by 9.4 inches (17 by 24 centimeters), but thicker. In about six months, Warburton said she anticipates the device will be reduced to about the size of an iPad mini, 5.3 by 7.9 in. (13 by 200 cm).

The device, currently known as Q-POC (pronounced Q-pock), is still a long way from being used in the clinic. The company still has work to do on the cartridges for use with the handheld prototype, and it needs to run clinical trials testing the device, followed by regulatory approval from bodies such as FDA, Warburton told LiveScience in an email.

Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Jonathan O’Halloran, inventor of the technology and the company’s cofounder, announced plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign. The campaign is expected to begin on Feb. 12 on the site Indigogo.com, to support further development of the Q-POC. The company is also interested in suggestions for a new name and design for the device, Warburton said.

If all goes well, QuantuMDX anticipates commercially launching the device and malaria test cartridge in Africa in 2015, she said.

Source: Fox news

Half kg hairball removed from girl’s stomach

Doctors have removed a mass of impacted hair weighing half a kg from the stomach of a 12-year-old girl in China’s Henan province.

Doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology in Luoyang, Henan province, surgically removed the hairball from the stomach of the girl Jan 11

The mother of the girl in Luoyang was shocked when doctors revealed the reason why her daughter had been inexplicably losing her long hair and weight over the past year.

Doctors said the girl suffers from pica, a pathological disorder where a person develops an appetite for clay, dirt, chalk or other similar substances that are considered socially unusual to eat.

A CT scan taken at the hospital revealed that the mass of 30 cm long clump occupied 70 percent of the girl’s stomach.

“The mass of hair was shaped like her stomach and is solid,” said Chen Ye, deputy director of gastrointestinal tumor surgery department at the hospital.

“I’ve seen her put hair in her mouth but I thought she was just playing and didn’t think much about it,” said the girl’s mother, who sought treatment when she discovered a lump in her daughter’s stomach two weeks ago.

Chen advised parents to pay close attention to their children’s behaviour and recommend timely treatment after any such discovery.

Source: Zee news

As Schools Boost Access to EpiPens, Do Teachers Know How to Use Them?

Dr. Dave Stukus, a pediatric allergist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital says anyone with severe allergies knows that an epinephrine auto-injector can be the difference between life and death. With approximately two and a half million epinephrine auto-injectors (such as EpiPens and Auvi-Qs) in circulation, my colleagues and I at Nationwide Children’s Hospital want to ensure that people know how to administer them appropriately — you could save a life.

A new law signed by President Barack Obama on Nov. 13 last year provides states with financial incentives to pass laws that allow schools to stock epinephrine, and to treat children who do not have a prescription for the drug. As a result, more people will be administering auto-injectors for the first time.

It is not hard to use one, you just need to take action quickly. In fact, the most common reason associated with death from severe allergies is waiting too long to administer epinephrine.

The good news is that instructions are written and pictured on each auto-injector. One type of auto-injector even gives verbal instructions.

Here’s what you will need to know to correctly use an auto-injector:

1. Prepare the device

Pull off the safety cap. Make a fist around the syringe so the tip is pointing down. But there’s a warning: DO NOT PUT YOUR THUMB ON THE ORANGE TIP. The needle comes out of the orange tip.

2. Inject the medicine

While you do not need to apply excessive force, you will swing your arm a bit to inject the contents of an auto-injector (you need to provide enough force that the needle deploys from the auto-injector tip and delivers its contents directly into thigh muscle). First, hold the orange tip near the patient’s outer thigh to position the device at a 90-degree angle (needle-tip straight down), then swing the auto-injector against the patient’s outer thigh and press firmly against it until you hear a click. Hold the auto-injector against the thigh for 10 seconds. Then, remove the auto-injector from the thigh and massage the injection site for 10 seconds. You can leave the patient’s pants on if necessary; the device will work right through them.? [8 Strange Signs You’re Having an Allergic Reaction ]

expert voices, op-edPin It If you’re a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here.

3. Get emergency medical help

Always call 9-1-1 after using epinephrine. The medicine may start to wear off or the reaction may come back. You can repeat the dose in 5 minutes if the child is not improving. Give the used epinephrine injector to a health care provider and ask for a refill right away if needed.

A few other things to note: Inhalers, such as albuterol and antihistamines (such as Benadryl), are not enough to treat severe allergic reactions. They can be given after epinephrine is used, if available. When in doubt, give epinephrine!

Do not store an auto-injector in a refrigerator or a hot car. It should be kept at room temperature. The liquid medicine in the pen should be clear. If it is discolored or has floating specks, get a new pen.

Source: live science

Woman’s tragic death witnessed by family on laptop

A nurse in a Michigan hospital kissed the patient’s forehead. More than 6,000 miles away, Sanaz Nezami’s family in Iran watched on a laptop computer and wept.

Nezami, a vibrant 27-year-old woman who could speak three languages, wanted to pursue an advanced degree in engineering at Michigan Technological University. Instead, she was brain dead just a few weeks after unpacking her bags, the victim of a fatal beating by her new husband, according to police.

Technology allowed family in Iran to watch her final hours. The family’s faith in the hospital staff led to consent for an extraordinary donation: Nezami’s heart, lungs and other life-saving organs were transplanted to seven people in the U.S., a remarkable gift that occurs in less than 1% of all cases.

“We wanted God to perform a miracle and bring Sanaz back to life,” her sister, Sara Nezami, said in a phone interview from Tehran. “But this is a miracle. Sanaz gave her life in order to give life.”

A nurse who took care of Sanaz Nezami said the experience was “eye-opening” for hospital staff.

“The family was willing to trust us to know she wasn’t coming back,” Kim Grutt said.

In August, Nezami married Nima Nassiri in Turkey and lived with him temporarily in the Los Angeles area, where he was born and raised. Her sister said the two met over the Internet.

Nezami, a native of Tehran, had a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s in French translation. She wanted a doctorate degree in environmental engineering.

On Dec. 7, she asked her sister to proofread some English-to-Persian translation she was doing on the side.

“I was shocked,” Sara Nezami said. “Sanaz was a very precise girl, but she omitted some lines. I asked, ‘Are you OK?’ She told me there was no problem.”

The next day, Sanaz Nezami was rushed to a hospital with severe head injuries and was transferred to Marquette General Hospital. Police believe she was assaulted by her husband, who has been charged with second-degree murder. His attorney, David Gemignani, declined to comment.

“Her brain was so swollen and so damaged, there was no longer any blood flow,” explained Gail Brandly, who supervises nurses at the hospital.

No one knew anything about Nezami, so Brandly ran her name through Google. Suddenly, the stranger who couldn’t speak for herself came alive through a résumé posted online.

After about 24 hours, the hospital reached relatives in Iran. Immediate travel to the U.S. was impractical due to visa requirements, so a laptop was set up so the family could see Nezami on life support and talk to nurses and doctors over Yahoo Messenger.

“It isn’t something we’ve done in the past. It’s not every day we’re dealing with family members so far-flung,” said Dave Edwards, spokesman for the hospital.

At one point, Grutt was asked to stroke Nezami’s head and kiss her forehead.

Nezami was buried Dec. 18 in a local cemetery. As a light snow fell, the hospital’s chaplain, the Rev. Leon Jarvis, read Muslim prayers over the casket while about 20 people, mostly nurses and others who cared for her, watched.

Source: detroit free press

Shocking – 2 year old gives birth to own twin

boy gives birth

A two-year-old Chinese boy named Xiao Feng was admitted to hospital to undergo an operation to “give birth” to his twin. The boy was suffering from breathing difficulties and his stomach was extremely swollen.

Following X-rays and MRI scans, doctors at the hospital confirmed that Feng was in fact carrying the undeveloped fetus of his twin inside his stomach. He was rushed to the operating room for emergency surgery to remove it.

The case known as cryptodidymus, or conjoined twins, is extremely rare, if not unprecedented in the world of medicine. the unborn fetus measured around 10 inches in width and was fully formed in terms of its spine and limbs.

It is just as well that the boy was admitted to the hospital. The parasitic twin growing inside him took up as much as two thirds of Feng’s stomach and if left untreated could have lead to his death.

Twins are formed when an egg splits following fertilization. Conjoined twins are formed when the egg itself fails to fully separate.

The foetus was 20cm wide and had developed a spine, fingers and toes. It had grown so much that it was taking up almost two-thirds of the boy’s stomach, doctors said.

The rare case of conjoined twins, known as cryptodidymus, is the case is extremely rare and possibly unprecedented in medicine, the Inquisitr reports. Conjoined twins form when the fertilised egg fails to separate completely.

Source: hi5 buzz

CDC issues warning about painful virus from mosquitoes

A virus that causes pain so severe that patients lie groaning in bed for days has come to the Western Hemisphere and travelers should take precautions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions.

Chikungunya virus has been confirmed in 10 people on the French side of St. Martin in the Caribbean, and it’s very likely to end up in the United States, CDC says. The virus is carried by the same mosquitoes that spread dengue virus — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, more commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito. Both have been making inroads into the U.S.

“Microbes know no boundaries, and the appearance of chikungunya virus in the Western hemisphere represents another threat to health security,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. “CDC experts have predicted and prepared for its arrival for several years and there are surveillance systems in place to help us track it.”

Chikungunya is not usually deadly, but it can cause a very bad headache, joint pain, rash and fever. Its name in the Makonde language, spoken in Tanzania and Mozambique in Africa, means “that which bends up,” because patients are often contorted with pain.

Chikungunya has been spreading out of Africa into the Indian Ocean region, Asia and Europe in recent years. So far, only 109 travelers have carried it into the U.S. and it hasn’t spread. But West Nile virus, also carried by mosquitoes, came to the U.S. in 1999 and is now established across North America.

A study last year predicted that it’s possible a single, infected person could start an outbreak of Chikungunya in New York once Asian tiger mosquitoes become more common in the city.

“CDC estimates that about 9 million U.S. residents travel to the Caribbean each year. Given that volume of travelers, chikungunya could occur more frequently in returning U.S. mainland travelers if the virus expands in the region,” the agency said in a statement.

“Infected travelers could then cause local transmission of the virus in the United States if mosquitoes bite infected people and then bite other people.”

Travelers to St. Martin should take extra care to protect themselves from mosquito bites, CDC says. They should use insect repellent, wear long sleeves and pants, and use air conditioning and screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out.

“Travelers returning from the Caribbean who experience fever and joint pains as well as other symptoms of chikungunya (e.g., headache, muscle pains, or rash) should seek medical care, and health care providers should be on the alert for possible cases,” CDC says. And any patients should take care not to get bitten by more mosquitoes—which could carry the virus to other people.

There’s no vaccine and no specific treatment for chikungunya.

Source: Nbc news

Hospital baron to promote Trichy for medical tourism destination

Founder of Apollo Hospitals Dr Prathap C Reddy said he would take healthcare to the next level while exploring the potential of Trichy in international medical tourism. He was on a visit to Apollo Speciality Hospital in Trichy on Sunday.

The recognition that the Apollo Hospitals receive worldover encouraged us to expand our healthcare endeavour a step further by launching Apollo Specialty Hospitals in Trichy, Dr Reddy said. The facilities provided at Trichy Apollo are equivalent to the best available in the world. Continuing innovation by the Apollo team by leveraging modern technology has brought down the cost of medical expenditure significantly, he added.The 225-bed hospital in Trichy was unveiled on November 7 by chief minister J Jayalalithaa through videoconferencing from Chennai. The plan for the facility was finalised in February 2011.

Talking about the future, Dr Reddy said that the 21{+s}{+t} century’s medical challenges were more than the ones we had witnessed in the past. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, cancer and infectious diseases are making India the capital of diseases in the world. By 2030, it was going to be a major disaster. But the IT industry will make a big difference to this challenge. The doctors at Apollo are using technology for transforming healthcare to reach more people and to bring personalized healthcare to everyone. “This was our biggest strength no hospital in the world could have,” Dr Reddy said.

There are only 10 hospitals in the world that has done 1,50,000 coronary bypass surgeries and Apollo has already done 1,53,000 coronary bypass surgeries, but not all of them in the world has 99% success rate like Apollo, he said, adding “this was possible because a team of doctors with extraordinary applications of skills brought best healthcare to our people”.

Answering a question, Dr Reddy said the Apollo Group has a 78,000-strong team including 7,800 doctors and 14,000 nurses across 90 clinics including 10 abroad.

Source: Times of India

Death penalty in the United States gradually declining

A shortage of lethal injection chemicals has contributed to declining use of capital punishment in the United States with a new report on Thursday noting only 39 executions this year.

It is only the second time in the past two decades the annual number of inmates put to death has dropped below 40.
The total represents a 10 percent reduction from last year. No further executions are scheduled in 2013.

Un-tested drugs used in executions

“Twenty years ago, use of the death penalty was increasing. Now it is declining by almost every measure,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, and the author of the report.

“The recurrent problems of the death penalty have made its application rare, isolated, and often delayed for decades. More states will likely reconsider the wisdom of retaining this expensive and ineffectual practice.”

The nonprofit organization provides accurate figures and a range of analysis, but opposes use of the death penalty.
Lethal injection in nine states

While the annual number of executions and death sentences continues to drop nationally overall, it remains a legally and socially acceptable form of justice for aggravated murder in 32 states.

But just nine states conducted lethal injections this year, and two — Texas with 16 and Florida with 7 — accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total.

Texas is among the active death-penalty states scrambling to find new lethal injection protocols after European-based manufacturers banned U.S. prisons from using their drugs in executions.

Among them is Danish-based Lundbeck, which manufactures pentobarbital, the most commonly used — either as a single drug, or in combination with others — to execute prisoners.

New drug combinations

States have been forced to try new drug combinations or go to loosely regulated compounding pharmacies that manufacturer variations of the drugs banned by the larger companies, according to an investigation last month by CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.
A pending lawsuit against Texas filed by several death row inmates and their supporters alleges the state corrections department falsified a prescription for pentobarbital using an alias.

Until recently, most states relied on a three-drug “cocktail,” but many jurisdictions now use a single dose or a two-drug combination.
Various state and federal courts have postponed some planned executions until issues surrounding the new protocols are resolved.
Every execution this year relied on pentobarbital, except in Florida, which used midazolam hydrochloride — a drug applied for the first time in human lethal injections.

And Missouri was prepared to inject a single dose of the anesthetic propofol for its two recent executions, until Gov. Jay Nixon halted its application.

The European Union had threatened to limit export of the widely used drug for other purposes if the state had proceeded. The two inmates were separately put to death in recent weeks using pentobarbital instead.
First woman executed

Among the high-profile capital cases this year involved Kimberly McCarthy, the first woman executed in the United States in three years.

The former Dallas-area resident was convicted of murdering her neighbor, and in June became the state’s 500th prisoner to die at the hands of the government since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume.
So far, 1,359 people have been put to death across the country since that time, using lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad. That includes three federal prisoners.

Spared for now was Georgia inmate Warren Hill, whose attorneys say he is mentally disabled. Courts earlier this year stayed three separate execution dates, one with just minutes to spare.
The Supreme Court in March will hold oral arguments and decide whether the Florida scheme for identifying mentally disabled defendants in capital cases violates previous standards established by the high court.
Freddie Lee Hall and an accomplice were convicted of the 1978 murders of a pregnant 21-year-old woman and a sheriff’s deputy in separate store robberies, both on the same day. His lawyers say the death row inmate has an IQ of 60.
In Missouri, Reginald Griffin was freed in October and his sentence thrown out after the state high court found the trial prosecution withheld critical evidence that may have implicated another prisoner in a jailhouse murder.
He became the 143rd person exonerated from death row in the past 40 years.

Maryland abolishes death penalty

Maryland became the sixth state in as many years to abolish its death penalty, joining Connecticut, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico. Eighteen other states have previously done so.
Attorney General Eric Holder faces a tough decision in coming months: whether to seek the death penalty in federal court for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev.

Across the country, capital sentences remain at historic lows, with just 79 so far this year.
They have declined in number by 75 percent from 1996, said the report, when 315 people were put on death row.
With the death penalty declining and recent polls showing a corresponding drop in public support, some legal analysts wonder if the Supreme Court is prepared in coming years to take another look at the issue’s overall constitutionality — whether capital punishment in the 21st century represents “cruel and unusual punishment.”

No sign of Supreme Court review
The justices in most cases continue to deny most requests for stays of executions, usually without any comment, or a breakdown of which members of the nine-member bench might have granted such a delay.
“It certainly seems that it merits another day in court after 40 years,” said Evan Mandery, a law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and author of the new book “A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America.”

“There are a lot of reasons to think that (moderate-conservative) Justice Anthony Kennedy’s vote is up for grabs and his mind is open on this question. So I don’t think the outcome of a case would be predetermined one way or another.”

But there is no sign such a monumental legal and social review by the nation’s highest court will be coming soon.

Source; CNN

Fewer teens trying dangerous synthetic marijuana, study shows

Teenagers are smoking less tobacco and drinking less alcohol, but they’re using more marijuana, according to a new report by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

More than 60 percent of high school seniors do not view marijuana use as harmful and 23 percent report smoking pot in the past month, said the report released Wednesday.

NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow blames the acceptance and use figures on adults and the media message following marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington State.

“These changes in perception come because of legalization of marijuana as medicine,” Dr. Volkow said. “Teens use it because they think marijuana is less harmful, since it cannot be as harmful if it has a medical purpose.”

Teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, falling to 10 percent today from 25 percent in 1993, according to the report. Alcohol use peaked in 1997, when 52 percent of high school seniors used alcohol monthly, that is now down to 39 percent.

But experts fear marijuana will continue on the upswing as more states adopt laws allowing medical marijuana, supply grows and prices decline. That is bad news for younger teens who light up.

“When you smoke pot, it interferes with the way you learn and memorize” says Volkow. “If you regularly consume pot, it affects your scholastic achievement.”

In those states where medical marijuana is legal, 34 percent of teens get their pot not from a drug dealer, but someone who buys their marijuana with a prescription. This contradicts the claim by many medical marijuana proponents that state regulations would keep pot out of the hands of kids. In fact, among states reporting the highest teen marijuana use – 19 of the top 20 already legalized medical marijuana.

“We know that for most of those, marijuana is not from prescription given to them but prescription to someone else, whether that is adult relative or friends is not clear,” says Volkow.

But even in states where reefer remains illegal, the DEA says 88 percent of cities report pot is widely available. The agency itself is eradicating 77 percent less pot than just three years ago, suggesting it too is not enforcing pot laws with the same vigor as in decades past.

With less eradication and less enforcement, domestic production is up, forcing the Mexican cartels to ship more of their lesser quality, lower priced pot in bulk to replace revenues lost to domestic competition. Seizures in the Tucson Border Patrol Sector are up 40 percent over last year. Recently, agents seized 10 tons of pot at a checkpoint in Nogales, while on Monday an ultra-light aircraft dumped a large marijuana load just south of Tucson.

Said one agent who asked to remain anonymous, “We are seeing a ton of pot right now.”

Source: recreational flying