Kaptain Kut's blog: "Drugs"

Best of Marijuana Marijuana • Stands as a junction of drugs that affect anxiety and are hallucinogenic o Anxiolytic and hallucinogenic, but for the most part Anxiolytic, hallucinogenic in higher doses • Showed up in the west in the 19th century prominent among artsy types Marijuana Consumption • Most people consume the weakest variety, the dried leaves and flowing top “Bong” • A mixture of dried leaves and resin • Hashish Marijuana Methods of action • Mood enhancement • Word play • Incoherent thinking • Keen acute thinking • Synesthesia • Distortion of the perception of time • Enhancement of sensory perception Synesthesia • Cross talk between sensory systems • Gives insight on the nature of consciousness • Synesthetics: People who don’t have to take any drugs to experience the phenomena of Synesthesia • Color Organs: Instruments that when played the music is accompanied w/ colors Sensory Enhancement • Many hallucinogens have an overlay of the color blue in the early stages • The mechanisms of the blue haze is unknown; possibly effects on the retina Marijuana in the US • 1629 marijuana introduced to new England and became a major crop • 1762 bounties for marijuana culture and manufacture, penalties for those who didn’t manufacture it • Hemp: The term for the use of marijuana for the creation of fibers and rope o Cannabis Indica is more potent than cannabis sativa o The genetic background is the link for potency for marijuana o Version of marijuana used for him is not very psychoactive o If fertilization occurs psychoactive potency drops: Washington was a pot head • Fitz Ludlow: The hashish eater o Took thirty grains of marijuana extract to get high 3 hours after ingestion o Intestinal absorption of marijuana is inefficient and slow The bad Seed • New Orleans antimarijuana education campains only led to an increase in marijuana usage • Harry Aslinger, commissioner of the FBN convinced that Marijuan is the scourge of the earth • 1937 46/48 states outlawed marijuana • Federal ban on marijuana didn’t work, but most states had already made it illegal anyway • 1960’s smoke ins • NORML- National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws • Libertarians- make all drugs legal Medicinal Marijuana • Marijuana has more carcinogens in it than a cigarette but less incidence of cancer among pot heads than general public • Some people get paranoid but most it has a calming effect • Testosterone Suppression: o Possibly some feminization: Voice Pitch goes up, breast growth Marijuana Cons • The most dangerous drugs to public health are the legal ones • Puritan heritage = marijuana BAD • Gateway drug o Rat data suggests that marijuana sensitizes the meso Accumbens o Marijuana usually listed as the first drug used by addicts to other drugs o Nicotine also sensitizes o Tobacco is as much if not moreso of a gateway drug as marijuana • Testosterone suppression (maybe?) • Carcinogens in smoke o Pot heads don’t usually show up with lung cancer though possibly cause they smoke less than cigarettes • Amotivational syndrome o The belief that marijuana use takes away an individuals drive perhaps via testosterone suppression o Could potentially already be an existing psychological disorder o Correlation doesn’t equal causation • Marijuaa in high doses can trigger psychosis o Again w/ correlation and causation Marijuana Pros • Calming tranqualizing • Medicinal o Arthritis/Analgesia o MS/ Analgesia  Placebo o Cancer- enhances chemopatients appetite o Glaucoma- lowers intra Glocular pressure in the eye Marijuana’s active ingredient • THC- Tetra Hydro Cannabinol (Delta 9-THC) o Doesn’t dissolve in saline, hard to do IVSA • Rats will lever press for THC at lower doses • Anything that acts like marijuana= Cannabinoids Cannabinoid Receptor sites • Hippocampus (memory) • Amygdala (Anxiolytic effect) • Motor system (Motor control Problems) Endo Cannabinoids • Best known is Anandimide • Works retrograde transmission o Postsynaptic cell presynaptic cell o Negative feedback o Presynaptic inhibition • Endo Cannabinoids synthesized in the post synaptic nerve • Released and plugs into CB1 receptors to turn down glutamate release and prevent cell death via calcification • CB1 receptors in brain, CB2 receptors in intestines o Over excitation of NMDA cells cause the release of endocannabinoid from post synaptic cell which travels retrogradely to the presynaptic cell Example of Marijuana presynaptic inhibition • Glutamate released on the hippocampus, could possibly cause LTP, endo cannabinoids prevent LTP causing memory problems • On the reward system thc would turn off gaba preventing the inhibition of the next neuron (remember opiates) • Glutamate must be the dominant chemical effected otherwise marijuana would cause seizures Q&A • People don’t die from the first time they smoke pot • No evidence that marijuana causes cell death in the brain o Research findings showing that is due to abnormally high doses • Marijuana smoke is more potent now than it was in the 60s • Marijuana does not stunt your growth More for cb1 receptor • Blocking cb1 receptor should theoretically decrease appetite since activating it increases appetite • French developed rimonabant o Anorexia o Smoking cessation o Drinking cessation o Not FDA Approved, caused depression in 24% of people

Nicotine: Historical background: • 1950’s 70% of adults smoked • 1960’s Surgeon general’s warning • Government attempts to cut down rate of smokers but cant get it below 25% • Smoking tied to lower socioeconomic groups • Tobacco companies emphasize smoking is just a habbit Tobacco company research • Health and government scientist focused otn the health risks of smoking • Tobacco companies research focused on nicotine o Found that rats would IVSA nicotine o Responding would go up when ½ dose given o In humans when given cigarettes with less nicotine IPI goes down puff rate goes up o When given cigarettes with more tobacco IPI goes up Puff rate goes down ACh: Acetyl Choline • ACh synthesized by taking choline and Acetyl CoA andvia an enzyme combining them • ACh is an excitatory Neurotransmitter • ACh acts on Cholinergic receptors o Nicotinic o Muscarinic • ACh is broken down by Acetyl cholinesterase (AChe) o Metabolites resulting are choline and acetic acid Cholinergic transmission • Anti-cholinesterase drugs o Block the breakdown of ACh  By blocking the effects of acetyl cholinesterase o Increase ACh transmission • Anticholinergic drugs o Decreases Ach transmission via competitive binding Anticholinergic Drugs • Drugs that block ACh so that it cant bind o Nicotinic Anticholinergic o Muscarinic Anticholinergic • Anticholinergic drugs & Smoking o If you five a nicotinic anticholinergic to a smoker  Low dose: The IPI would go up to compensate for the blocked receptors  High Dose: The person would quit smoking due to no reward Nicotinic cholinergic receptors nAChRs • Located on the projections from the PPT that release Glu onto the VTA o There’d be another neuron releasing ACh onto the nAChRs • They control the release of Glutemate onto the VTA which releases DA on the NaC • In the end the reward of nicotine is the same as cocaine: Meso Accumbens • Nicotine facilitates Glu release on receptors on the VTA= LTP Nicotine and LTP • Rats given nicotine and 2 weeks later given cocaine have behavioral responses that show sensitization o Future responsivity to psychostimulants increased • If a person smokes it neurochemically sets them up for cocaine and sensitization to other drugs • Nicotine the best gateway drug • Stress of poverty sensitizes the brain to nicotine Smoking and the PPT • If you destroyed the PPT a rat would not IVSA Nicotine o It would also have additional behavioral effects such as mood response to rewarding stimuli o 90% of schizophrenics smoke