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BackgroundCannabis Use Disorder (CUD) is an emerging and diverse challenge among older adults.MethodsThe Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health, with financial support from Health Canada, has produced evidencebased guidelines on the prevention, identification, assessment, and treatment of this form of substance use disorder.ConclusionsOlder adults may develop CUD in the setting of recreational and even medical use. Clinicians should remain vigilant for the detection of CUD, and they should be aware of strategies for prevention and managing its emergence and consequences The full version of these guidelines can be accessed at www.ccsmh.ca.

\"Ecstasy\" (MDMA) and related drugs are amphetamine derivatives that also have some of the pharmacological properties of mescaline. They have become popular with participants in \"raves,\" because they enhance energy, endurance, sociability and sexual arousal. This vogue among teenagers and young adults, together with the widespread belief that \"ecstasy\" is a safe drug, has led to a thriving illicit traffic in it. But these drugs also have serious toxic effects, both acute and chronic, that resemble those previously seen with other amphetamines and are caused by an excess of the same sympathomimetic actions for which the drugs are valued by the users. Neurotoxicity to the serotonergic system in the brain can also cause permanent physical and psychiatric problems. A detailed review of the literature has revealed over 87 \"ecstasy\"-related fatalities, caused by hyperpyrexia, rhabdomyolysis, intravascular coagulopathy, hepatic necrosis, cardiac arrhythmias, cerebrovascular accidents, and drug-related accidents or suicide. The toxic or even fatal dose range overlaps the range of recreational dosage. The available evidence does not yet permit an accurate assessment of the size of the problem presented by the use of these drugs.

Jorge Mardones, one of the pioneers of modern biomedical research on alcoholism, died on Nov 3, 1998. Mardones's life and career are discussed.

A review of this subject nine years ago (1) dealt mainly with six topics: the question of alcohol and “empty calories,” and the effects of alcohol on nutrient absorption from the intestine, vitamin storage, vitamin activation, nutrient utilization, and nutrient excretion. The progress of knowledge in this field during the past nine years is demonstrated rather strikingly by a comparison of that list with the topics covered in the present review, reflecting the major content of the recent literature: “empty calories” vs obesity in alcohol users effect of alcohol on vitamin metabolism, especially vitamin A and retinoids alcohol metabolism and

It is frequently stated that alcoholism is one of the principal causes of nutritional disturbance in the adult population of North America and the rest of the developed world. This assertion appears to be consistent with the commonly held concept of the alcoholic as a “skidrow” drinker, grossly undernourished, and suffering from a variety of nutritional disorders such as beri-beri, peripheral neuropathy, macrocytic anemia, and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This picture of the alcoholic is often “explained” by two assumed “facts”: 1. that the alcoholic spends all day drinking and not eating and is therefore grossly undernourished, and 2. that ethanol provides

Drug policy should strike the right balance between reducing the harm done by psychoactive drugs and reducing the harm that results from strict legal prohibitions and their enforcement. It is concluded, from a costbenefit analysis based on pharmacologic, toxicologic, sociologic, and historical facts, that radical steps to repeal the prohibitions on presently illicit drugs would be likely, on balance, to make matters worse rather than better. Specific recommendations are offered for ameliorating the dangers to users and to society that are posed by each addictive drug.

Dr. Kalant begins by addressing the question of a legal state of automatism as reflected in various scientific disciplines. This literature is related to scientific evidence that might be considered by criminal courts in cases involving automatism relating to alcohol and other psychoactive drugs.