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
