Smoke Alarm Launches New Cannabis And Tobacco Education Initiative

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 04 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Smoke Alarm, a new not for profit Community Interest Company, is launching a series of nationwide seminars to help Smoking Cessation Therapists understand more about the addictive interdependency of cannabis and tobacco.

Throughout Europe, and in many other countries, the favoured method of cannabis delivery is to smoke the drug together with tobacco, creating a powerfully addictive, carcinogenic cocktail. The risk to health from tobacco smoking is incontrovertible; the physiological risks from cannabis are more controversial and often less readily accepted. James Langton, Smoke Alarm Director and Founder of http://www.clearhead.org.uk the support website for cannabis users who want to quit their habit, comments:

"Cannabis and tobacco are intimately connected and although the science of nicotine addiction is well understood, much less is known about how to help cannabis smokers with the psychological and physiological aspects of their dependency, and how the two substances interrelate to compound the difficulties in quitting either or both, together or separately.

In addition there are also the increased risks to the respiratory system of smoking both cannabis and tobacco together to consider, and the seminars will examine the latest scientific evidence, as well as offering advice on working specifically with young heavy smokers. Smoke Alarm is dedicated to offering credible information to the estimated 3 million people who regularly smoke tobacco joints in the UK. This is done through direct education in schools and colleges and through tobacco cessation professionals, drug agencies, and youth services.

Profits from training seminars will be used to develop regional Cannabis Support Groups for those wishing to make positive changes about their use.

The first seminars will be held in September in Plymouth and Manchester with six further cities to follow by the end of the year.

Subjects covered in the one day seminars will include.

- Using NRT in a cannabis context.
- Cannabis and tobacco, the medical evidence.
- Understanding psychological addiction relating to cannabis.
- Physical withdrawal symptoms from cannabis, reality or myth.
- Strategies for working with young cannabis users.
- The mental health perspective (when, where and how to refer).
- Cannabis and ambivalence.
- Demographics of cannabis use.

- Tolerance and the risks associated with skunk, and stronger strains of cannabis.
- A uniform assessment procedure.
- Lapse and relapse prevention strategies.

Source
Smoke Alarm

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