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ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, DR. HAZEL LAWS, TO CHAIR NATIONAL COMMISSION ON MARIJUANA

http://sknis.kn/acting-chief-medical-officer-dr-hazel-laws-to-chair-national-commission-on-marijuana/ #

Published: 5 April 2017

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, April 5, 2017 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, announced the establishment of a National Commission on Marijuana/Cannabis sativa, to be headed by acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Hazel Laws.

Prime Minister Harris, speaking at his monthly press conference, said the establishment of the National Commission is a follow through of a commitment made by the Team Unity Administration to facilitate national engagement on the issues surrounding the production and use of marijuana in St Kitts and Nevis.

According to the prime minister, the other members of the Commission will be named publicly after discussions have been held with them. Membership is expected to be drawn from education, health, law enforcement, the banking association, religious bodies, the Rastafarian community and youth, among other stakeholders.

Understanding the impact any decision on this highly controversial matter would have on St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Harris noted that broad based national discussions; covering health, religion and legal implications; are critically important.

“We wish that the Commission would conduct or utilize research to guide an exhaustive consultation both in St Kitts and in Nevis on this subject matter and make recommendations for consideration by the Cabinet,” the prime minister said. “I expect a vigorous enquiry into the social, economic, health and legal issues surrounding production and marijuana use in St Kitts and Nevis as a precursor to a determination on the current drug classification of marijuana.”

The honourable prime minister pointed out that in 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs; now referred to as the Convention on Psychotropic Substances; described marijuana as a schedule one drug in the same serious category as opium, coca, their derivatives heroin and cocaine.

He further stressed that “one hundred and about eighty plus members of the 193 United Nations body has signed on to this convention, which means the majority of 180 plus of 193 member states of the UN have agreed with the classification of this drug, firstly as a schedule one and now as a schedule two drug, so we are part of a responsible community.”

Dr. Harris used the current situation in Jamaica, where that country’s government has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, to strengthen his point of the need for serious consultations.

“We await the outcomes of the consultation on this matter which will have far reaching implications for our health system, our judicial system, our international reputation and perception, and our financial system as banks can be penalized and are being penalized; if we are to draw on the Jamaican experience that has been reported to us; if they accept clients they know are trading now in marijuana, and this follows naturally from the dangerous drugs act which has been passed in many countries and it is a natural follow on from the classification at the UN to which so many countries have become party,” the nation’s leader continued.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Harris reminded all that the use of marijuana in St. Kitts and Nevis is still illegal and called on citizens and residents to abide by the laws of the land.

Education, Health, International news, News

Climate Change Solutions Can’t Wait for US Leadership

Published April 5, 2017

By Desmond Brown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Wednesday April 5, 2017, (IPS) – From tourism-dependent nations like Barbados to those rich with natural resources like Guyana, climate change poses one of the biggest challenges for the countries of the Caribbean.

Nearly all of these countries are vulnerable to natural events like hurricanes.

Not surprisingly, the climate change threat facing the countries of the Caribbean has not gone unnoticed by the region’s premier financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

“We are giving high priority to redressing the fallout from climate change,” the bank’s president Dr. Warren Smith told journalists at a press conference here recently.

“This is an inescapable reality, and we have made it our business to put in place the financial resources necessary to redress the effects of sea-level rise and more dangerous hurricanes.”

CDB has also tapped new funding for renewable energy and for energy efficiency.

For the first time, the bank has accessed a US$33 million credit facility from Agence Française de Développement (AFD) to support sustainable infrastructure projects in select Caribbean countries and a 3 million euro grant to finance feasibility studies for projects eligible for financing under the credit facility.

“At least 50 percent of those funds will be used for climate adaptation and mitigation projects,” Smith explained.

“We persuaded the Government of Canada to provide financing for a CAD$5 million Canadian Support to the Energy Sector in the Caribbean Fund, which will be administered by the CDB. This money will help to build capacity in the energy sector over the period 2016 to 2019.”

In February, CBD also became an accredited partner institution of the Adaptation Fund, and in October 2016, the bank achieved the distinction of accreditation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

“Why is this such a big deal? The Caribbean is facing a climate crisis, which we need to tackle now – with urgency,” Smith said.

“The Adaptation Fund and the Green Climate Fund have opened new gateways to much-needed grant and or low-cost financing to address climate change vulnerabilities in all of our borrowing member countries (BMCs).”

The financing options outlined by the CDB president would no doubt be welcome news to Caribbean countries in the wake of United States President Donald Trump’s recently proposed budget cuts for climate change funding.

The proposed 2018 federal budget would end programmes to lower domestic greenhouse gas emissions, slash diplomatic efforts to slow climate change and cut scientific missions to study the climate.

The budget would cut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding by 31 percent including ending Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan – the Obama administration’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

At the U.S. State Department, the budget proposal eliminates the Global Climate Change Initiative and fulfills the president’s pledge to cease payments to the United Nations’ climate change programmes by eliminating U.S. funding related to the Green Climate Fund and its two precursor Climate Investment Funds.

The Green Climate Fund is the U.N. effort to help countries adapt to climate change or develop low-emission energy technologies, and the Global Climate Change Initiative is a kind of umbrella programme that paid for dozens of assistance programmess to other countries working on things such as clean energy.

The proposal would also cut big chunks out of climate-related programmes of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The USAID is the American agency through which the countries of the Caribbean get a lot of their funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“We would be foolish to have taken a lead role in getting the world to move on climate, to put innovation at its core and then walk away from that agenda,” Dr Ernest Moniz said on CNN. “Some of the statements being made about the science, I might say by non-scientists, are really disturbing because the evidence is clearly there for taking prudent steps.

“I would not argue with the issue that different people in office may decide to take different pathways, different rates of change etc., but not the fundamental science,” added Moniz, who was instrumental in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement.

Throughout his election campaign, Trump consistently threatened to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate deal.

Moniz, a nuclear physicist and former Secretary of Energy serving under President Obama, from May 2013 to January 2017, said he would wait and see how this develops, but said of the threat to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, “obviously, that would be a very bad idea” noting that every country in the world is now committed to a low-carbon future.

“There’s no going back. One of my friends in the industry would say ‘you can’t keep the waves off the beach’. We are going to a low carbon future.”

Since being sworn in as president in January, Trump’s administration has been sending somewhat mixed signals about climate change. While Trump himself has described climate change as a hoax, he also said he had an open mind toward efforts to control it.

Caribbean countries, meanwhile, are watching with keen interest the developments in the United States.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Milton Haughton said fisheries is one of the industries being impacted by climate change.

“Climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification and disaster risk management are major challenges facing the fisheries sector and the wider economies of our countries,” Haughton said ahead of a two-day meeting in Kingston to discuss measures for adaptation to climate change and disaster risk management in fisheries as well as the status of and recent trends in fisheries and aquaculture in the region.

“These issues continue to be high priorities for policy-makers and stakeholders because we need to improve capacity, information base and policy, and institutional arrangements to respond to these threats and protect our future.

“At this meeting, we will be discussing the USA-sponsored initiative to provide risk insurance for fishers, among other initiatives to improve and protect the fisheries sector and ensure food security,” Haughton added.

Education, Health, News

Smoking Ganja Increases Risk Of Stroke And Heart Attack, New Study Warns

Published April 5, 2017

WASHINGTON DC, USA, Wednesday April 5, 2017 – New research has revealed that cannabis is harmful to cardiovascular health and increases the chance of early death irrespective of related factors such as smoking tobacco.

Data taken from the records of more than 20 million people at over 1,000 US hospitals found that those who used the herb had a 26 percent greater chance of suffering a stroke than those who did not, as well as a 10 percent higher chance of having a heart attack.

The findings indicate that there is something intrinsic about cannabis that can damage the proper functioning of the human heart.

This conclusion remained unchanged after taking into account unhealthy factors known to affect many cannabis smokers, such as poor diet, obesity, alcohol overindulgence and tobacco smoking.

According to Dr Aditi Kalla, Cardiology Fellow at the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and the study’s lead author: “Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in these patients, so that leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity or diet-related cardiovascular side effects.

“It’s important for physicians to know these effects so we can better educate patients.”

The researchers analysed the records of young and middle-aged patients aged between 18 and 55 who were discharged from 1,000 hospitals in 2009 and 2010 at a time when marijuana use was still illegal in most states.

The study identified 316,000 patients, or 1.5 percent, where marijuana use was diagnosed in the notes.

Their cardiovascular disease rates were compared to those who did not use cannabis, and the difference was revealed.

The research, which was published last week at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Washington DC, built on previous research in cell cultures that has shown that heart muscle cells have cannabis receptors relevant to contractility, or squeezing ability, suggesting that those receptors might be one mechanism through which marijuana use could affect the cardiovascular system.

Health, International news, News, Sci/Tech

Scientists Make Breakthrough That Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water

Published April 5, 2017

MANCHESTER, England, Wednesday April 5, 2017 – The water surrounding the Caribbean already provides food and enjoyment for people living in the region and elsewhere. But now it could also be a source for unimaginable quantities of clean drinking water.

A UK-based team of scientists has created a graphene-based sieve capable of removing salt from seawater, a development that could aid the millions of people grappling with water shortages.

It has previously been difficult to manufacture graphene-based barriers on an industrial scale, but scientists from the University of Manchester, led by Dr Rahul Nair, solved some of the challenges by using a chemical derivative called graphene oxide. Its unusual properties, such as extraordinary tensile strength and electrical conductivity, have earmarked it as one of the most promising materials for future applications.

It has reportedly been difficult to produce large quantities of single-layer graphene using existing methods, and current production methods are costly, however.

Writing in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, Dr Nair nevertheless explained that graphene oxide can be produced by oxidation in the laboratory.

“As an ink or solution, we can compose it on a substrate or porous material. Then we can use it as a membrane,” he told BBC News.

“In terms of scalability and the cost of the material, graphene oxide has a potential advantage over single-layered graphene.”

Graphene oxide membranes have already proved their worth in sieving out small nanoparticles, organic molecules and even large salts. But until now, they couldn’t be used to filter out common salts, which require even smaller sieves.

Previous work had shown that graphene oxide membranes became slightly swollen when immersed in water, allowing smaller salts to flow through the pores along with water molecules.

Now, Dr Nair and colleagues demonstrated that placing walls made of epoxy resin on either side of the graphene oxide membrane was sufficient to stop the expansion.

Restricting the swelling in this way also allowed the scientists to tune the properties of the membrane, letting through less or more common salt, according to the BBC report.

When common salts are dissolved in water, they always form a “shell” of water molecules around the salt molecules.

This allows the tiny capillaries of the graphene-oxide membranes to block the salt from flowing through along with the water.

“Water molecules can go through individually, but sodium chloride cannot. It always needs the help of the water molecules. The size of the shell of water around the salt is larger than the channel size, so it cannot go through,” Dr Nair said.

By contrast, water molecules flow exceptionally fast through the membrane barrier, which makes it ideal for use in desalination.

“When the capillary size is around one nanometre, which is very close to the size of the water molecule, those molecules form a nice interconnected arrangement like a train,” Dr Nair explained.

“That makes the movement of water faster: if you push harder on one side, the molecules all move on the other side because of the hydrogen bonds between them. You can only get that situation if the channel size is very small.

“This is our first demonstration that we can control the spacing [of pores in the membrane] and that we can do desalination, which was not possible before. The next step is to compare this with the state-of-the-art material available on the market,” Dr Nair said.

Access to clean water is a major issue for many people across the Caribbean and around the world, and the UN expects that as climate change continues to reduce supply, 14 percent of the global population will experience water scarcity by 2025.

Health, News, Regional News

$209m blow Govt counts the cost of NCDs

Added by Marie-Claire Williams on April 3, 2017.

The struggling Barbados economy is losing $145 million a year as the cost of treating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continues to soar, according to Minister of Health John Boyce.

Boyce Monday morning told a consultation on a National Strategic Plan for Health that the treatment of hypertension and diabetes alone accounted for 58 per cent of expenditure by the Barbados Drug Service last year.

In addition, he said the losses due to lost productivity took the cost of fighting cardiovascular diseases and diabetes well above the $200 million mark.

The minister quoted from a report on the Investment Case for NCD Prevention and Control in Barbados commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization in 2015, which estimated that “while BDS$64 million was spent on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, it was indicated that our economy may be losing as much as BDS$145 million annually due to missed work days, low productivity and reduced workforce participation.

“In other words, the direct and indirect economic cost of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes was over BDS$209 million annually, or about two per cent of Barbados’ gross domestic product,” Boyce said.

He added that end stage renal failure was also a growing public health concern, driven primarily by high levels of hypertension and diabetes in the population.

He noted that while Barbados can boast of significant health improvements in the post-independent period, and communicable diseases were no longer the leading causes of illness and death, health officials now faced outbreaks of new diseases, the re-emergence of infectious diseases in other countries, as well as the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, which dictate the need for surveillance measures to prevent outbreaks from occurring here.

“In January 2016, Barbados like other countries in the region, recorded its first cases of Zika. Rapid international travel and trade, population movements, water management practices and climate change are among the factors that create opportunities for the global spread of such diseases,” he said.

He also highlighted the progress made so far in the treatment of HIV, through the ministry’s Treat All initiative, which allows people infected with the virus to access treatment.

According to Boyce, the programme will also assist Barbados to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target, which seeks to increase to 90 per cent, the proportion of people with HIV who know their status; increase the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment to 90 per cent; and increase the proportion of people under treatment who have an undetectable viral load to 90 per cent by 2020.

“To support these and other objectives, a new laboratory is currently under construction at the Ladymeade compound. This new facility when completed, will amalgamate the existing Public Health, Leptospira and Ladymeade Reference Unit,” Boyce stated, adding that those were some of the areas to be discussed at this week’s consultation.

He said that the National Strategic Plan would ensure that Barbados had universal health coverage and meet its international obligations, particularly with respect to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

“This will include the need to identify appropriate models of care, the human resources required, the appropriate governance structure with supporting regulatory frameworks and cost containment mechanisms, with particular emphasis on sustainability, access to care and quality improvements,” he said.

This week’s talks will focus on health sector reform, health system efficiency and cost containment, patient experience and access,