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Brain Chemicals Suggest Marijuana's Effects Natural Substances May Mirror Pot's Effects on the Brain
By Miranda Hitti
Sept. 15, 2004 -- Marijuana is well known for its widespread effects on the brain. The key to understanding its impact may come from the brain's own pharmacy.
Brains make their own calming substances called cannabinoids, which are similar to marijuana's active ingredients.
Cannabinoids are made in the brain's cortex, an area which processes sensory information and orchestrates movement, thinking, learning, and emotions.
Scientists already knew that the cells in this area of the brain can make their own cannabinoids.
These cells (pyramidal) normally work to excite neighboring cells; using their homemade cannabinoids temporarily allows more information to be processed by lowering the brain's inhibition of excess information processing. By lulling other brain cells, cannabinoids temporarily leave the pyramid cells free to fire away.
Now, researchers at Stanford University in California have found that other type of brain cells -- LTS cells -- can also make cannabinoids.
LTS cells ordinarily keep pyramid cells in check. This process works to guard too much information being processed from pyramidal cells to neighboring cells within the brain region.
But when LTS cells make their own cannabinoids, they tune themselves out from surrounding cells.
As a result, the brain's pyramid cells are temporarily freed from inhibition. They then process excess information to other cells.
The effects can last up to 35 minutes.
Marijuana's active ingredients may behave the same way, latching on to these cannabinoid receptor sites allowing information to be process in an altered way.
"A loss of inhibition in pyramid cells could produce changes in perception, in motor function, and in everything the cerebral cortex does," researcher David Prince, MD, says in a news release.
Studying cannabinoid receptors may one day lead to drugs for conditions such as epilepsy, says Prince, the Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley professor of neurology and neurosciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
During seizures pyramidal cells fire out of control, one reason may be that neighboring cells get shut down. Targeting and blocking cannabinoid receptors might quiet pyramidal cells activity.
Prince and Stanford colleagues based their study on lab rats. Their report appears in the Sept. 16 issue of Nature.
"Just the facts maam." So dont go crying about so and so didnt give this or that. Bring your facts then someone else will bring facts to coutner yours or support yours and thats how we discuss things on this board.
insein said:Yes the effect from ones own brain last 35 minutes. You have to read that carefully. Just like alcohol, marijuana when consumed can very greatly to the length of time it intoxicates you.
However, the effects on the brain are not as harmful as many people would have you believe.
rtwngAvngr said:The bigger concern for me actually is the effect of smoking on the lungs. That's bad.
GunnyL said:I can agree, but then again, maybe not. The long-term affects of pot don't seem to be any more harmful than the long term affects of alcohol. Or sitting in rush hour traffic with your window down ....
CivilLiberty said:The long term affects of marijuana are pretty minor - alcohol, on the other hand, kills 110,000 people a year do to its toxic effects.
1) Alcohol is a neurotoxin - Marijuana is not.
2) Alcohol is very damaging to you liver, Marijuana is not.
3) Alcohol can create a physical dependancy (physical addiction) so strong that sudden withdrawal can be fatal. Marijuana does not.
4) You can DIE from an alcohol overdose. In America, 2000 people die each year from alcohol overdose. In Russia, (where hard alcohol is widely used) over 12,000 people die a year from alcohol overdose. (adjusted for population, this would be like 24,000 AMericans dying). Marijuana CAN NOT result in an overdose - it is non-toxic.
5) The *worst* side effect that Marijuana can cause is due to inhaling the burned smoke - but this too can be mitigated. Modern users often use "vaporizers", which atomize the THC oils, resulting in a vapor inhalant that has NONE of the health issues associated with smoking.
Hope this information has been helpful.
Andy
GunnyL said:http://cannabisclub.drugpolicycentral.com/articles/1998_hall_lancet_1.pdf
Try something a tad more objective than that propaganda you have posted.
CivilLiberty said:The long term affects of marijuana are pretty minor - alcohol, on the other hand, kills 110,000 people a year do to its toxic effects.
1) Alcohol is a neurotoxin - Marijuana is not.
2) Alcohol is very damaging to you liver, Marijuana is not.
3) Alcohol can create a physical dependancy (physical addiction) so strong that sudden withdrawal can be fatal. Marijuana does not.
4) You can DIE from an alcohol overdose. In America, 2000 people die each year from alcohol overdose. In Russia, (where hard alcohol is widely used) over 12,000 people die a year from alcohol overdose. (adjusted for population, this would be like 24,000 AMericans dying). Marijuana CAN NOT result in an overdose - it is non-toxic.
5) The *worst* side effect that Marijuana can cause is due to inhaling the burned smoke - but this too can be mitigated. Modern users often use "vaporizers", which atomize the THC oils, resulting in a vapor inhalant that has NONE of the health issues associated with smoking.
Hope this information has been helpful.
Andy
GotZoom said:Vaporizer.
Even the marijuana community has politically-correct terms.
Vaporizer = Bong
GotZoom said:Vaporizer.
Even the marijuana community has politically-correct terms.
Vaporizer = Bong
archangel said:and andy says he is not a pot head...humm!
CivilLiberty said:Nope, not at all. A "Bong" and a "Vaporizer" are completely different devices.
A "bong" is a water filled device which passes the smoke from BURNED marijuana through the water as a filter.
A VAPORIZER is a very different device - the Marijuana is NOT burned at all, but the oils from the marijuana are vaporized without combustion, making no smoke, but a oil vapor, like an inhaler.
Regards,
Guilty-Guilty-Guily..and you deny not being a "Pot Head" sure know alot of the terminolgy...then again it may have something to do with your "Hollywood" Script reading job....Dunno???????
CivilLiberty said:I do NOT use marijuana - nor any other drugs save an occasional glass of wine with dinner.
The fact that I'm knowledgeable on the subject is due to my job as the Libertarian columnist for About.com.
Regards,
Andy
CivilLiberty said:????
Did you bother to read it? I'm familiar with that report - there is NOTHING in it that contradicts my post.
Andy
GunnyL said:Wasn't meant to be contradictory. It merely illustrates the lack of objectivity/one-sidedness of your post.
It isn't WHAT you posted .....it's what you left out.
CivilLiberty said:Gunny, I didn't "leave out" anything - I was making a direct comparison to alcohol, in response to your statement that a still previous statement that I made that WAS objective that you claimed was "bullshit".
In context, I am overall objective.
But again, let's examine the big picture:
How many people die from the health effects of marijuana use each year? Zero.
How many die from aspirin? 1,200
All other illegal drugs combined: 4,500
Percentage of illegal drug deaths where alcohol was a factor: 70%
All NSAIDs (pain relievers like Advil)? 8,000
All prescription drugs combined? 64,000
Alcohol? 110,000
Tobacco? 350,000
Cite: NIDA/CDC/US Census death statistics.
According to Surgeon General Koop, what is the order of physical addiction, from most to least?
Nicotine (tobacco)
Heroin
Cocaine
Alcohol
Caffeine
Marijuana
"Addiction" is a weighted and often misused term. Really, "addiction" describes a psychological condition that occurs in some individuals. Physical Dependance refers to the conditions that case physical "withdrawal symptoms" upon ceasing use of a substance. Addiction and physical dependance are two separate issues. While physical dependance can support addiction, one can be addicted without physical dependance, and conversely, one may develop a physical dependance and not become addicted.
From a point of observation, one might be interested in the number of people that try or use a substance occasionally, and those that may become "abusive" and/ or "addictive" in their behavior.
See also:
http://www.peele.net
According to NIDA and CDC studies the percentage breaks down to approximately:
15%-20% of the people that use cocaine or heroin become abusers/addicts. The rest are recreational.
10%-15% of the people that use alcohol become abusers/addicts.The rest are recreational.
5%-10% of the people that use marijuana become abusers/addicts.The rest are recreational.
All for now.
Andy
