Clinton didn’t inhale, Obama did—and maybe Reagan should have. New research suggests that THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its mind-bending properties, kills developing neurons, yet oddly, the same chemical saves neurons in adults with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Marijuana is not the ‘soft drug’ people like to think it is,” says neuropharmacologist Veronica Campbell of Trinity College in Dublin, whose latest study uncovered the harmful effects of THC on young neurons. When Campbell and her co-workers treated brain cells from newborn or adolescent rats with THC, the neurons died, but THC did not have such deadly effects on neurons taken from adult rats. In fact, work from other labs shows that THC benefits adult neurons. “We don’t know why,” Campbell says. Several possibilities are being investigated for this “Jekyll and Hyde” effect.
Marijuana, like tobacco and opium, has powerful effects on the brain because certain compounds in the plant happen to have a chemical resemblance to naturally occurring substances in the body. Called endocannabinoids, these natural chemicals regulate important brain functions by controlling synapses in neural circuits that process thought and perception. According to several recent studies, these chemicals have many other functions in the brain and immune system, too—including regulating development and aiding survival of young neurons, as well as controlling the wiring of neurons into circuits for learning and memory. Smoking marijuana during the period of life when the brain is still developing obscures these critical chemical signals, Campbell suspects.
The slaughter of young neurons by THC could explain the developmental cognitive impairment seen in children born to women who smoked marijuana during pregnancy. In addition, some research on adolescent marijuana abusers shows brain damage in neural circuits that are still developing at that age.
In older brains, however, THC seems to have a protective effect. Campbell’s findings indicate that the biochemistry of neurons changes as the cells mature. The role of endocannabinoids shifts to regulate different functions—most important, assisting in the survival of aged neurons. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, THC protects neurons from death in several ways. THC boosts depleted levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which, when diminished, contributes to the weakened mental function in Alzheimer’s patients. THC also suppresses the toxic effects of the so-called a-beta protein that may kill neurons in Alzheimer’s disease. It stimulates secretion of neuron growth by promoting substances such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and it dampens release of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, which kills neurons by overstimulation. THC and other cannabinoids also have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant actions that protect neurons from immune system attack.
Despite these benefits, THC and other compounds in marijuana also have many undesirable side effects on the brain. The trick for scientists will be to isolate the active ingredients in marijuana that are beneficial and develop drugs that can be applied in the proper dose for the specific age of the patient. Campbell finds that the beneficial effects of THC are seen in much lower concentrations of the chemical than are found in the plants people use to get high. “It’s a matter of trying to balance that low concentration within a nice safety margin,” she explains. Synthetic THC-like drugs are already available, as is a naturally derived drug called Sativex that contains THC and other cannabinoids, approved in Canada for treating pain from multiple sclerosis and cancer.
In contrast to these well-controlled drugs, the weed itself is a complex witches’ brew of many brain-altering chemicals. The cannabis plant contains about 60 different cannabinoids, so the challenge lies in trying to tease out which are the important ones for protecting neurons, Campbell explains, echoing the views of other marijuana researchers. “Depending on how the plant is cultivated, the relative proportion of the different types of cannabinoids changes,” she says. “The ‘joints’ that are available now are much stronger in terms of their THC content than those that would have been around when people were thinking of cannabis as being quite a soft drug.”
See what we're tweeting about
65 Comments
Add CommentYeah let's have another drag.. What's a little time dilation between friends.. along with prolonged being in this world.. Bring on the combination..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBig Pharma is very afraid of medical marijuana. The sooner they can convince people that herbs are bad and pills are good, the better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis sort of research is also often cited to justify the otherwise irrational laws proscribing cannabis cultivation and possession. The cited dangers to the fetus are no doubt real, but they are also minor compared to the damage caused by alcohol. In Canada, FAS disorder accounts for nearly two thirds of our prison population. Canada has a very high rate of cannabis use, but zero corresponding problems.
I am a member of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition www.leap.cc), an organization of active and retired police, prosecutors, and judges. We believe that cannabis should be legalized and regulated.
That is the best way to ensure that cannabis is not made available to children. I note that it is far easier in Canada for minors to access illegal cannabis than tobacco or alcohol.
This is an interesting article, but the underlying agenda must be examined critically. Nothing in this article would support continued prohibition, and on the contrary, I would conclude we should legalize and regulate cannabis to reduce the likelihood that children are exposed to it.
Despite the monumental amounts of evidence, that alcohol contributes more to social ails than this illicit plant-born compound... isn't this a slippery slope into sanity? Are we sure we ready to embrace a world based on harm-reduction principles, tolerance and the willingness to investigate possible benefit? What will we do with our needless fearing then? I shudder at the thought... and I'm only 27 years old. Well, no time's too soon to protect some neurons!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRe: Leading Cause of Alzheimer's = Sin
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOMG that is just too funny...that's the best comedy of the day.
Love this debate. The sane (Colin) vs the insane (joel). Probably the reverse of 'conventional' (though misguided) wisdom. The change is coming, be patient.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Mind-bending"? Get out! There have been many conclusive studies made here in the U.S. that were thrown out because they promoted it's use, and did'nt conform to desires of the government. {ie: Big Pharm, Textiles, Monsanto}
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUCLA conducted an eight year study that showed absolutely none of the findings of this irish charlatan.
Try: Marijuana use excites the brain to be attentive and focused. IF, you have the sense to make it do so. Yeah, thats the ticket, YOU are controlling the drug. Make it so.
I think this is a great article about...wait, what was it about again...?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, that's what we should do! Take a perfectly good, perfectly natural plant. Carve it up. Dissect it. Heavily process it and reduce it to its basic compounds. Then make pills out of it! That way instead of people using a natural herb, they can just use synthetic fake pseudo-herb formula x in pill form. Ludicrous and disgusting! Why must we destroy and desecrate everything of beauty on this planet?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, that's what we should do! Take a perfectly good, perfectly natural plant. Carve it up. Dissect it. Heavily process it and reduce it to its basic compounds. Then make pills out of it! That way instead of people using a natural herb, they can just use synthetic fake pseudo-herb formula x in pill form. Ludicrous and disgusting! Why must we destroy and desecrate everything of beauty on this planet?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank God for that true christian - joeldooris that god has spoken to and made him the vessel of divine truth. That all Alzheimer victims are sinful in the eyes of god and deserve what they have and let there be no more testing of anything that might help sinners. Marijuana is a tool of the Devil and anyone who might receive alleviation from the pain of cancer and advanced HIV are all destined for joeldooris' idea of hell.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm sure god will make sure he will be there to stoke the fires.
They have been trying for at least 40 years that I know of to find something seriously harmful about marijuana. Tobacco kills AT LEAST 400,000 in this country alone each year, yet it is legal and marijuana is not. What does that tell you!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have been trying for at least 40 years to find something harmful about marijuana. Tobacco kills at least 400,000 people each year in this country alone! Yet tobacco is legal and marijuana is not!! What does that tell you??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe can't allow anything than might expand the human consciousness to be legalized. It would threaten the control systems of our corporate/comsumer society which pull the strings of government. It's astonishing that reading, mediation, and breathing exercises haven't been prohibited.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjoeldooris' comments are extremely insightful. However, one need to understand sarcasm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Marijuana is a gateway drug..." Hey, Joel doofis, we have progressed past Reefer Madness, but you obviously have not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"It has no medical benefit to anyone" - just plain false.
"it's just common knowledge " like the belief in a flat earth was...
@joeldooris Wow. You are an ignorant person. And a promoter of untruths. Marijuana has no medical benefits? false. Gateway drug? Possibly... but how about these for gateway drugs: Caffeine , nicotine, Tylenol, Ritalin, alcohol. Do the world a favor and get yourself drooling on some synthetic compounds permanently. The fact that alcohol is legal and this plant isn't, is beyond stupefying for any rational person. As if I needed a reason... but neuron protection is a pretty good one.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile there are pills available that contain some of marijuana's ingredients, the drug Marinol costs over $1,000 per month. Meanwhile, medical marijuana can be grown by the patient as needed and no cost to the patient, the insurers, or the government. Isn't that the kind of solution we need in today's economy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile there are pills available that contain some of marijuana's ingredients, the drug Marinol costs over $1,000 per month. Meanwhile, medical marijuana can be grown by the patient as needed and no cost to the patient, the insurers, or the government. Isn't that the kind of solution we need in today's economy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMedical marijuana could be grown by the patient for little to no cost. Marinol, the popular marijuana based drug costs over $1,000 per month. Isn't medical marijuana the type of health care solution we need in this economy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNaw, GodWhacker, let's just let a pharmaceutical company handle it for us...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMbdsta wondered what this article was really about - very valid question...I think it's about Fear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFundamentalists are threatened by any facsimile of "free thinking"
Big-Pharma's scared of any bona fide healing modality that doesn't involve a billion dollar laboratory
Sorry about the over posts everyone, first time I've used this particular comment system.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissafeway just emailed me and said that hemp milk is not available. but I know it is
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/ExecMacro/livingharvest/home.d2w/report
it is very usefull to me after having a stroke and they carry it aat QFC stores but safeway seems to think I mean marijuana not hemp!
hemp milk has helped me recover from a stroke
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit is great! I wish all stores carried hemp milk!
I requested starbucks to carry hemp milk but they have just giggled and have not carried it yet
maybe if more people asked their store managers for it they would forget the connection to marijuana
i have a lifetime of personal experience showing that most families of adults with developed brains and kids with still developing brains. it's better to learn the skills and to acquire the tools that our brains are so so capable of. self medicating is just that. if you love someone, or care about people in general...teach them about the tremendous power of our own brains. it seems that delayed gratification is easy to teach, but it's the idea of getting high that gets in the way of choosing life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat's wrong with teaching people the power of their own brains to create the lives they want, instead of trying to escape all the time. kids with developing brains could learn what we know about their own brains, and adults could seek the knowledge. self medicating experimentally always leads to chronic use. i have much experience and personal history with both youngsters using pot all the way into adulthood. None of my family escaped the traps that go along with getting recreationally. all usage turned into exactly what i have whitnessed other families that use or self medicate. either moving on to more dangerous drugs, or just plain ol' "arrested development" either of the brain, (cognition) or the emotional development. none of which helps in "life" goals or successful marriages, or education, or productivity. i've seen what slowing down reaction time does to ability to drive, and i would hate to think of taking a flight with a "high" pilot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscan our culture really afford another depressant? it's probably not any more harmful in some ways as what's already available both legally and illegally. have you ever known an entire family that practices pot smoking from the children all the through adulthood, with parents partaking as well? track their lives...how's that working for them and their kids?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBecause the Vitamin C in a Centrum is the same as the Vitamin C in an Orange and the pill is easily a substitute for the fruit. I'm sure the benefit of a THC pill will be exactly the same as smoking a joint, just like the Centrum analogy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm totally serious, definitely, under no circumstances, could I be sarcastic. I'd have to look up the definition of sarcastic before I could be that. Could someone just save my overworked self some time and define sarcasm?
People like this joel are why science has had difficulty in history of advancing; small narrow-minded people pass judgements then when something may really help they won't see anything besides what they want. I personally don't believe in doing any drugs for any reason but this RESEARH (scientifically done) may have benefits that WE DO NOT have the right to deny ANYONE of care. Suppose I was a doctor and because I don't believe in your opinions I deny you needed medical care or because your disease is EVIL. Is this fair to these people? NO NO NO! Keep your uneducated radical opinions to yourself since someone you love may get Alzheimer's and then what? Are you going to condemn them to death since that is essentially what you are doing? I am all about anything that can help and I am reasonable enough to set aside my beliefs in lieu of helping others and not denying them the chance to live. Tell some small child who has cancer they are evil and deserve no help! I also understand that this is more of a chance for those who abuse to gain access to this drug but research suggests that there really are not many harmful effects like tobacco and alcohol. People who abuse are going to get in any way they can so why make it illegal and allow them defiance and the need to go underground so to speak. Did prohibition stop the sale and use of alcohol? Uh...No. So why do we think that it will work now any better? People will abuse no matter what so you can only decrease the amount of users and stop the worst: children gaining access to it easily! Make educated opinions on an article of a scientific nature not a puritanical small-minded opinion!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am trying to show that while I don't believe anyone should take drugs I am open-minded and believe if there is enough scientifically rigourous research that is does have some good then why should we necessarily disregard it? I may have come off hard and I apologize it is just that some people need to see the big picture and not what we want since we don't have to deal with the diseases but others do so if you don't like marijuana then don't smoke it, simple as that but don't prevent others from benefiting. It isn't about children or adults getting the drug easier, the plants being destroyed, the disease being a sin, or legalization it is about sick people who have help available but are denied simply because of propaganda placed on the drug and its illegal standing. Please help others, doctors must set aside their opinions to keep their oath to save and serve everyone no matter who or what they are! THANK YOU
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMarijuana is not a gateway drug. It has absolutely no chemical similarity to any of the other drugs, period. If it has no similarity, then how is it connected to any of the other drugs? The connection was created by our society and its drug laws and the propaganda about the drug. Our society made it illegal, so it is purchased from the same people that people get other drugs from. That is were the connection is and our laws created that connection. Also people have been told over and over that it is a very dangerous drug. People then have tried it and found out that they have been lied to over and over. This has contributed to people trying other drugs. Also, alcohol is often consumed by teenagers before trying other drugs. Does that make alcohol a gateway drug? Lets use some logic here, you do have a brain, correct? I would suggest that you do some serious research on your own and not just regurgitate what you have been told. As far as marijuana having no medical benefits, the article that you are responding to states otherwise. There is also significant other research that states there are other benefits of marijuana. Are you able to take in any new information at all, or are you capable only of spewing out propaganda that has been out there for decades. Your ignorance is pathetic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe you're on the Scientific American web site and not the celibacy club's web site.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUm, pop is not the best. Opium has the chill factor of pop, but a total body high. Much ups for the poppies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSarcasm is a disease caused by SIN
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this;)
Yeah a real gateway drug. I have been using it for 30 years now. I have NEVER been unemployed or addicted to any other drug. I have been able to put it aside anytime that I felt like it then pick it back up if I felt the need. My son is not allowed to touch it and is on the honor role in middle school. Legalize the stuff and tax the hell out of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah a real gateway drug. I have been using it for 30 years now. I have NEVER been unemployed or addicted to any other drug. I have been able to put it aside anytime that I felt like it then pick it back up if I felt the need. My son is not allowed to touch it and is on the honor role in middle school. Legalize the stuff and tax the hell out of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a woman who has had to deal with cancer twice and the ongoing ravishes of arthritis, I can tell you that smoking pot is a great relief for pain. No doubt about it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"freshorses" is beating a dead horse hemp and marijuana will never dissapear they were put here by GOD
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjoeldooris I guess science doesn't do much for ya, right? Do facts seem to just get in the way of good 'ol common? sense? It sounds like you only read one book at a time. You might try joining the military.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience is find by me and scientific research is just fine, but when you look into illegal, immoral, and elicit drugs then you've crossed a line. If these things were OK to use, then why are they illegal? See, I got you on that point!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrugs are bad, umkay?
"Drugs are bad umkay? No, drugs aren't bad! That's crazy, your broad strokes here are ludicrous. They give you morphine when the pain is too bad, ain't that a 'drug'? Yes it is and it's illegal (not immoral) in most situations, except for when the doc thinks you need it. Are you going to take those tools away?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSugar and Alcohol are drugs too, are you not aware of that? Are they immoral, they're both legal? . .. The good folks don't need laws and the bad one's won't obey them anyway.
The use of plants is NOT immoral or criminal. Criminal is what the government makes something when it disagrees with it's use, it's NEVER voted on, it's mandated. Immoral is the governments propaganda over the evils of drugs. ...And I believe the government about as much as I believe that food prices will go down. This is a fascist autocracy that is bent on only corporate gain, now that's immoral if anything is. btw illicit and illegal are pretty much the same thing.
...And you didn't get me on ANY point, and I can't even "cross the line" "to look"? I know what you are saying but you don't make your point very well, try being a little clearer.
Morals have to do with how you treat and respect other individuals. Your way shows no respect for anyone.
K is for Kompressor and Komporssor is for me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCompressor wins the prize!
I see funny bright lights,,,and,,,,and why is that bus leaving? Wow!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis study was conducted in Ireland you imbecile. Not that it matters anyway because it is completely legal. If controlled substance testing was against the law there wouldn't be any pharmaceutical drugs. Oh, and since when did sinning become a cause for Alzheimer's? Last I was aware of one of the more prominent risk factors for developing Alzheimer's was traumatic brain injury. Keep your uneducated biases to yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis study was conducted in Ireland you imbecile. Not that it matters anyway because it is completely legal. If controlled substance testing was against the law there wouldn't be any pharmaceutical drugs. Oh, and since when did sinning become a cause for Alzheimer's? Last I was aware of one of the more prominent risk factors for developing Alzheimer's was traumatic brain injury. Keep your uneducated biases to yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of these comments are so irrelevant to the issue that marijuana can damage brains which are developing. What parent would want his or her child's brain damaged before maturity? The scientists are also saying that the plant with higher potency does not have the protective effect. We need to create a medication, not to use raw marijuana. Not everything that is "natural" is benign, and not all medications are harmful. This study shows that we need more research before we legalize marijuana for recreational use, but for now, it is not good for developing brains.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI used pot for forty years> It was a God send for me. The sickness in this world was very harm full for me and many others in society that I've lived through.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome people who used it that I had met through the years because they had a bazaar almost allergic reaction to THC.
There is more that I can tell you about it but in a nutshell, the use of pot as a recreation drug could be used to withdraw society alcohol addiction. It is a superior drug.
I stopped using it because the street quality became so poor the THC content became negligible. Everybody was trying to rip you off.
Have you ever thought about deprogramming in relationship to your religous fanatism?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy brain may well have been addled by some 40 years of regular cannabis use, but i think i have enough neurons still clicking to detect that our friend Joel is being a tad sarcastic/ironic - good work Joel, several punters seem to have taken your bait.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally i think no weed for under 25 year-olds; plenty of good evidence that the brain still has some maturing to do until then. But after that, the herb seems an utterly benign drug for grown-ups. I have met plenty of people who 'freaked out' smoking the weed as youngsters but none (zero, zilch) who had adverse psychological effects as adults.
But good sense rarley prevails, i suspect this argument will have progress no further 100 years from now.
Joel, if knowledge is so common, where is yours? You do know this plant was here before the likes of us. Tell a cancer patient and countries of this planet who already benefit from Earth's plant that they are going to hell. Oh, there is a hell. Your living in it right now - ignorance and blindness with sight.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"“The ‘joints’ that are available now are much stronger in terms of their THC content than those that would have been around when people were thinking of cannabis as being quite a soft drug.”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisB.S.! The weed when I was in grade school was much stronger than what we have today. Somebody needs to study the difference between sativas and indicas. If you go to a pot grow site right now and form a questionaire about what is the strongest weed today they will invariably say the Hazes, which were developed in California in the 70's. Pot not for children, sure. Leave adult use out of it unless the nanny state idiots want make alcohol and cigarettes illegal too. We already know how well that will work.
Let's see what kind of findings "scientific" studies will conclude AFTER marijuana is legalized and we stop spending trillions of dollars on a "war on drugs". The benefits of marijuana far outstrip the negative. For a comparison, have you ever heard of a doctor prescribing alcohol and tobacco to a patient? Yet, they are legal! Marijuana is used for many medical conditions, and, yes, is prescribed by doctors, and yet, it is illegal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're bible-banging antics are the gateway to nausea. I think I'll light up now to settle my stomach!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat are you doing here? Trolling I presume. If you can say my dad has alzheimer's disease because of his sin then you are an idiot. You back to some religious website where you belong, but i guess it gets old preaching to the choir.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article states that this research could explain "developmental cognitive impairment seen in children born to women who smoked marijuana during pregnancy"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat developmental impairment?
This contradicts prior studies which have shown the opposite is true.
"Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study", PEDIATRICS Vol. 93 No. 2 February 1994, pp. 254-260
shows that babies born to mothers who smoked marijuana heavily during pregnancy "...showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy marijuana using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers."
Perhaps Veronica Campbell should conduct a more thorough review of the literature and get her science straight.
Additionally Campbell is is quoted as saying "The joints that are available now are much stronger in terms of their THC.." This myth about marijuana remains popular among prohibitionists and culture warriors, but it's utter nonsense. She has no data set to support this claim. Since she is parroting the same rhetoric that is so popular with ideologues, I am suspect that her research may be funded by those who expect a predetermined result.
I urge you to stop printing this garbage as science.
Re: Leading Cause of Alzheimer's = Sin
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no mention in the bible that says smoking marjuana or anything of that nature is a sin. god. if you believe in that put all plants on this earth for people to use not to spread isles stupid propganda.
Re: Leading Cause of Alzheimer's = Sin
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no mention in the bible that says smoking marjuana or anything of that nature is a sin. God. Should you believe in that put all plants on this earth for people to use and not to spread useless stupid propganda. And it is not a gateway drug either. that's like saying beer is a gateway to hard alcohol. just more propoganda...
Re: Leading Cause of Alzheimer's = Sin
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no mention in the bible that says smoking marjuana or anything of that nature is a sin. god. if you believe in that put all plants on this earth for people to use not to spread isles stupid propganda.
The person who said is has no medical benefit to anyone has not a clue what they are say ing, or they are propagandanists perhaps. Joeldoories menthions marijuana is a gateway drug also. joeldooris you are very one sided and vain judging by your comments i have asthma and cannabis has provided effective relief everytime i have self tested for they past 6 years and i continue to research in the hope of some day becoming an activist to nail people likle you. Have a good day x
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet�s GO GREEN!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's also indication that marijuana can help slow down the progression of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I have ALS and since its legal to use medical marijuana in my state, I will soon be using it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi have an axe and a joint....be afraid, be afraid...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi have an axe and a joint...be afraid, be afraid !!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispuf, puf... bro, you should put that axe somewhere, it could hurt someone...puf, puf.
First off, I hate when people state that pot is such a great medicine bc its all natural. The poppy is a great plant. Still causes OD and significant health problems like addiction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, I am for medical marijuana. If the drug is of value to neurodegenerative diseases. HIV positive people, and cancer patients, great. But for gods sake, lets be careful about it. People can develop tolerance to the drug, become habituated to its effects, and can have withdrawal effects when the drug is discontinued. Furthermore, most addicts cant admit that there addicted, claim they can stop at any time, but cannot abstain for long periods of time bc of the withdrawal symptoms that occur over several months.
Finally, there has to be a better system of controlling medical marijuana. There is a HUGE problem with cannabis abuse in Colorado that started after legislation was passed for the use of marijuana as medicine. Heres a great article, the addictionologist also had an interview with NPR a while back.
http://www.cannabisnews.org/united-states-cannabis-news/smoke-and-mirrors-colorado-teenagers-and-marijuana/
For christs sake. The drug is addictive. Use of CB 1 antagonist can cause precipitated withdrawal showing that the drug induces some physiological dependence. n=1000 50% of those who use and wanted to show they could stop anytime they wanted to couldnt make it 2 weeks.n=500 4 weeks, 50% of that 50% dropped out. n=250 after three months, only 10% of original n remain (those that could abstain for the initial two weeks which were part of experimental parameters so the ending n=50 people out of 1000 could stop using pot when "they wanted to" (Meyer & Quenzer, 2005) The drug is reinforcing through mu receptor activity, exacerbates depression/anxiety/schizophrenia and I dont even wanna hear that its a useful psychotropic. It covers the symptoms of condition immediately and therefore a person doesnt learn coping skills to deal with shit like if they were on SSRIs. It covers up the symptoms and impairs ones ability to work at helping themselves manage a chronic disease by means other than smoking every day regardless of consequences. Induces withdrawal, is rewarding, and cognitive dissonance is at its finest. Those who are pot heads could even conceive that MAYBE the drug has detrimental effects if smoked during adolescents but blindly accept that it enhances BDNF in hippocampus and oversimplify those findings.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt could be therapeutic for a number of conditions. But legal is a joke. People have enough trouble managing their lives now and trying to handle everything. Add pot to the mix, a lot more people will fail thanks to their inability to do their job until they state-dependent learn the skills needed and have a ton of negative consequences since jobs still wont hire you if you have THC in your system even if govt makes it legal because it is impairing and those who can function only do so thanks to state dependent learning and have to stay high for that reason and avoid withdrawal from VTA brain area/mu receptors after being abstinent for 7-13 days (Meyer & Quenzer, 2005). They would never accept that the reason they have a less than ideal job might be bc they screwed up and pot has negative consequences.
Again, amen to those who need it medically. Same with opiates. But lets get serious, there are risks to using it. Those very sick deserve the meds and the benefits greatly outweigh risks. Normal people should try to just make the most out of life doing things other than getting high.