Smoke Signals
December 1990
page 8
HEALTH
Cocaine Speeds AIDS Growth
The Associated Press '
ATLANTA - Cocaine speeded the growth of the AIDS
virus in laboratory tests, prompting concern that it could
increase infected people's chances of developing the
deadly disease, researchers reported Monday.
Microbiologists at the University of Minnesota Medical
school exposed cells that are the primary target for the
AIDS virus to doses of cocaine-laced tests than in
control studies.
If what happened in the test tube happens in HIV
infected cocaine users, it could increase their risk of
developing AIDS, Dr. Ronald Schut, the lead re
searcher, said.
"In persons who are infected, if they continue to abuse
this drug it may have a significant impact on the devel
opment of clinical AIDS," Schut said.
While about 150,000 AIDS cases have been reported in
the United States, researchers say a million or more are
infected and at risk of developing AIDS.
Test-tube tests, however, don't always mimic what
happens in the human body. The question now for
researchers is whether drug use somehow modifies the
immune system to enhance HIV growth in humans.
"The initial in-vitro (test-tube) studies suggest that it's
possible," Schut said.
Schut presented the findings at the Interscience
Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemother
apy, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology-Further
studies are under way using immune cells from
drug users in a methadone program, where cocaine use '
is high, "to see if the virus grows easier," Schut said.
Dr. James Curran, director of the Division of HIV
AIDS at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said little
if any solid information was available concerning the
AIDS risk of cocaine users. He added that drug users
were notoriously difficult to study and many cocaine
users were involved in injectable drug abuse, which can
spread HIV by dirty needles.
Nearly one-fourth of the AIDS cases reported in this
country stem from intravenous drug use, according to
the CDC.
Curran said that while the Minnesota test results might
be correct, of greater concern was the practice of trading
cocaine for sex, leading to the spread of the AIDS virus
by sexual contact.
Still, as far as cocaine is concerned, Curran said, "I
think it's safe to recommend don't do it,"
Also Monday, Dr. Douglas Richman, an AIDS special
ist at the University of California, San Diego, predicted
that even without an AIDS vaccine, combination drug
treatments will enable infected people to live "normal"
lives and approach normal lifespans.
"A patient with HIV will be treated similarly to a
patient with diabetes or hypertension - prevent the
progression of disease and maintain the quality of life,"
Richman said.
Courtesy of The Statesman Journal
A Deadly Mixture: Cocaine,
Alcohol Boost Overdoses
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - People' who drink alcohol while using
cocaine create a third brain-targeting substance that may
help boost their euphoria and may contribute to a
puzzling form of overdose death, researches say.
The research may help explain a preliminary finding
that adding alcohol to cocaine use produced 21.5 times
the risk of an overdose death for people with severe
coronary heart disease, scientists said.
Drinking is frequently combined with cocaine, accord
ing to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
New studies show that a substance called cocacthylcnc,
formed in the liver from alcohol and cocaine, reaches
the brain and mimics some actions of cocaine there.
Further studies of cocacthylcnc may give leads for
medications to treat cocaine addiction by blocking
cocaine's effects, said Deborah Mash, a ncuropharma
cologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine
who co-wrote the study.
She and other researchers spoke about the work, which
was presented Monday at the annual meeting of the
Society for Neuroscience in St. Louis.
Scientists found that cocacthylcne affects a brain-cell
communication system thought to produce the euphoria
that leads to cocaine addiction, she said.
The new work shows that cocacthylcne also binds to
the transporters, suggesting that it may boost cocaine's
effect, Mash said.
Another possible role of cocaethylene deals with
cocaine overdose deaths in people with severe coronary
artery disease.
The study reported about 240 cases of fatal cocaine
overdose and a comparable number of deaths from
other causes in people who had taken cocaine, Ruttcn
ber said.
Mash said cocaethylene might play a role in the
elevated risk because it could cling to brain cell sites that
arc supposed to attract a brain-communication sub
stance called acetylcholine.
This may interfere with the brain's control of the heart
pumping rhythm, she said. If the heart is already
affected by heart disease, the result could be sudden
death.
For cocaine users, Ruttenber said, such cases suggest
that "even if they are careful about the quantities of
cocaine they use, they still may not be able to ward off a
fatal overdose."
Get
Hooked Oh
Fishing
Not On
Drugsi,
ALCOHOL AND DRUG
AWARENESS DAY!!!
December 1, 1990
WILLAMINA MIDDLE SCHOOL
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND
PLEASE CALL 879-5211 TO REGISTER
Lunch Will Be Provided
AGENDA:
9:00 - Anger Management
10:00 - Spirituality
11:00 - ACOACOA Issues
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Medicine Wheel
2:00 - Nutrition and Weight Control
3:00 - JAZZERCISE !!! (one hour)
There is NO fee to register for the day of workshops.
SPONSORED BY CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF
GRAND RONDE
ALCOHOL AND DRUG PREVENTION PROGRAM
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER
PLEASE CALL
CAMILLE VAN VLEET, 879-5211.
Contract Health Services
1-800-422-0232
Psalm of Alcohol
Addiction
King Alcohol is my shepard, I shall always want.
He maketh me to lie down in the gutters.
He leadcth me beside the troubled waters:
He destroyeth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of wickedness for the effort's
sake. "
Yea, I shall walk through the valley of poverty and will
fear all evil.
For though, Alcohol, art with me.
Thou strippest the table of groceries in the presence of
my family.
Thou robbest my head of reason.
My cup of sorrow runneth over.
Surely Alcohol addiction shall stalk me all the days of
my life. . '
And I will dwell in the house of the damned forever.