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Cannabinoids Induce Brain Cell Growth?
Harlan writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are claiming that high doses of cannabinoids have induced new brain cell growth in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, in rat subjects. There are some interesting potential implications in regards to high doses of cannabinoids found in substances like marijuana."
I mean, have you seen the complexity of some of those home-made bongs?
There's some serious brain power gone into engineering those bastards.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
This is just my observation but when a persons health fails in old age, a key factor seems to be failure in the nervous system. I had a great aunt who lived five years after a stroke. Her body went downhill because her brain wasn't running the show properly.
So I think treatments which can help revive the brain can also help other systems in the body.
And it is the only organ which can not be replaced in some way by machinery.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I always suspected... uhm, what were we talking about again?
Noise Is Music Podcast.
You might grow more brain cells, but all of these new cells will be dedicated to designing more complicated bongs and imagining conspiracies to unravel, so the net functional gain is minimal.
Same thing we do every night, Pinky - get baked and munch out.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
Now that my kids have read this we can argue about, "But DAD, Slashdot says!"
My ZooLoo
It, like, alters your mind! Wohoa!
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
The team injected laboratory rats with a synthetic substance called HU-210, which is similar, but 100 times as potent as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound responsible for giving marijuana users a high.
..or better yet, how do I make it?
Clearly my dealer has been lying to me. He swore there was nothing stronger than his stuff. Where do I get HU-210?
bite my glorious golden ass.
US Congress will make sure this is the case. Drugs may not harm the Canadians but they do harm American people.
The authors are far more cautious in their interpretation than some of the /. readers...but then this is not that much of a surprise.
PDF (a few MBs) http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid= 1253627&blobtype=pdf
Why are rats attending a hippocampus in the first place?
This article was posted 13 minutes too late.
The mentioned research used 'canaboids', which is a group of componds resembling those found in cannabis(THC). It was already known that the brain uses neurotransmitters that are in the form of canaboids and it contains several types of receptor for it, just like opiates have human equivalents in the form of endorfines.
But similar results done with THC (Tetra Hydro Cannabinol), the main compound in hash and weed have found no evidence for this cellgrowth stimulation. So let's not jump for joy yet. One experiment/paper does not mean it has been accepted as scientific fact yet.
Besides, you can be sure that with such a hot subject and the way research is financed/politiced there will be more research 'debunking' this even if it turns out to be true after all.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
If you're just going to talk, pass that over here.
If you read TFA you'd have read that the original publication is due to be released in JCI, a peer reviwed journal that is quite high impact. Not Nature or Science, but not the Ulan Bator Journal of Basket Weaving Medicine either.
Actual paper can be found here.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
What a surprise to click on Slashdot and see news about cannabinoids - I feel like I'm reading my own site ...
... shortcut url http://cann.com/
t ml
I operate CANNABIS.COM
Some informative pages to check out:
Lots of cannabis Research information *with sources listed*
http://www.cannabis.com/research/
TR-446 Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of 1-Trans-Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (CAS No. 1972-08-3) in F344 Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (Gavage Studies)
http://www.cannabis.com/research/tr446study.shtml
(mirror of the study published by the U.S. National Toxicity Program)
Cannabis News
http://www.cannabisnews.com/
And finally, Erowid's Cannabis Vault...
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis.sh
Ron Bennett
Fuck it all up by leaving a sig that suggests you enjoy alcohol abuse but justify it as medication. I have a lot of friends who have had marijuana problems but by the later stages of their lives they've left it behind. But anyone Ive ever known with alcohol problems struggles with it their whole lives until their liver pickles itself.
Two tears in a bucket. Motherfuck it.
i noticed the point of the alcohol-enduced-sig, and wanted to comment, but you beat me to it ... i've never known anyone to get high and oh, say, beat their wife, or wreck head-on at 90mph racing down roads, or even really do much of ANYTHING. the "party isn't over for hippies" ... but i do know a multiple-sclerosis patient or two that enjoy a good toke, and, and my-chemo-therapy-buddy, he likes it too ... not that i'm AGAINST alcohol in any real way/shape/form, but the evils associated therein are far more harmful to yourself, your family, your life, and everyone around you (especially when operating a motor vehicle) ... i'd rather there be 100 stoners driving 35mph in a 60, scared out of their minds, than a single red-neck drunk on jack daniels showing you exactly how manuverable his F-350 is.
you can't have everything, where would you put it?
While we're all thinking ... think of how many cannabis users could have done so much more if it wasn't for that pesky arrest record, jail time, etc.
The penalties are what create much of the problems, not cannabis itself.
Ron
I don't believe grass has any worse effect than any other freely available substance (cigarettes, alcohol).
God forbid someone smoke a joint to take the edge off. A lot of people on Paxil and similar drugs would probably benefit from a little grass. The difference is that the long-term effects of grass are well understood. Who knows what they'll find out about other antidepressants and anxiety medications in 10 or 20 years, and take about dulling the brain.
Around my way, it seems everyone is on one of them. I'm not talking about people who can't leave their house or want to kill themselves, I'm talking about people lacking a little direction or a tad bit too much angst.
The fact that grass is in the same class as heroin is ridiculous.
I'm going to rant here as this is something that really pisses me off.
When my mother was dying of cancer, they were trying to keep weight on her. Instead of giving her grass which would have some other beneficial effects, they gave her some drug they give to AIDS patients. I can't recall it's name, but I do recall that it was $300USD for a small jug and that the warning on it stated that the method of action was not known and that long term use could cause cancer. What the fuck?
My brother also got cancer around the same time. Diagnosed two weeks apart actually, no family history of it either, just one big kick in the balls from life, but I digress...
My brother was on about as much pain medication as you could be on without it killing you. His cancer was everywhere and I mean everywhere. They misdiagnosed for a long time. They figure it was spreading for at least 5 years.
He had a pump installed under his skin that constantly pumped painkillers into him, plus a heavy regimen of Oxycontin (100+mg) all day long and some other assorted painkillers. For him, the gave him a THC compound to keep his appetite up. It didn't' work.
On the other hand, when he started smoking tons of grass, it helped him tremendously. It helped him keep fighting, made him feel better and helped keep the anxiety at bay.
Horrible enough to be in constant agony, but imagine you're mother going through the same thing, watching her die and seeing your own horrible end.
My point is to anyone who thinks that grass is evil, is that grass isn't anyworse than anything else that's legal . It's almost certainly better than anything manufactured to play with your brain chemistry and it has lot's of positive effects and the fact that it's illegal, particularry for medical use is a friggin crime.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
Nearly every single large medical study of marijuana has had its funding denied, or its license for the controlled substance denied, or any of dozens of other reasons to keep the study mummied in red tape. If people are working so hard to hide something then the most logical answer is probably the opposite. In this case: marijuana has little or no effect on anything, all negative social perceptions are due to years of wrongful regulation, all ill effects are circumstantial correlations, and the only reason for the continued illegality is the complete inability to admit that the government has ever made a mistake. PR and ego--no different than telling your manager he's wrong.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
This one phrase out to put his mind into action.
Man brewed alcohol, God created marijuana. Who're you going to trust, Mr. President?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
When you have to struggle to remember what you and your bong bud have just been talking about, it makes sense that you'd have to exercise your brain's memory regions. Smoking pot is like walking with leg weights -- it's harder to do when you have them on, but when they come off you're stronger for the extra effort you exerted.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Your brain learns both by creating connections and by deleting them. If you create to many new connections you can't thnk straight. Everything gets too connected and you can't resolve your thoughts. You have to prune nodes to be able to think effciently and to focus.
Thus your comment is right on.
Clearly the only solultion is to first smoke loads of weed to build up your brains connecitons, and then huff gasoline to prune them back to a useful level. Then you will be a super genius.
Worked for me.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Ever heard of a vaporizer?
It heats the herbs of your choice, to a point that releases the medicinal compounds, without creating pyrolytic compounds.
A very affordable Vaporizer can purchased here I have one and am VERY happy with it.
-Myke
It seems that all the intelligent people I've met understand the the War on Drugs is a total snipe hunt.
w ho-index.htm
3 /jan/16/514528463.html?Marijuana%20Group:%20Feds%2 0Broke%20Law
As long as their is demand, there will be a market.
The fundemental question seems to be:
Is the government trying to punish marijuana smokers or educate them?
More than 60% of all drug incarcerations are for non-violent possesion of marijuana.
As a rational individual, it seems obvioius that their current tactics only succeed in punishing marijuana smokers. Actual use of marijuana is at the same levels or higher than it has ever been so as a preventive, prohibition has most definitely failed. The supply of marijuana is greater than ever and the potency is higher too. The DEA says this to scare the uninformed. They attempt to create the analogy that stronger means greater threat. In reality, stronger means that pot heads have to consume less marijuana to get high. So in reality, higher potency means healthier pot smokers. Who do you believe the DEA with their vested interest in maintaining the status quo or an independent organization of scientists and medical researchers, the esteemed World Health Organization. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/
If anything prohibition has made the problem worse. Prohibition tends to create a black market which opens the door for large scale criminal organizations. Examples of these are the Mafia ( very small organization until their massive growth thanks to alcohol prohibition), the Latin & South American drug cartels in the '80's, and of course the DEA.
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html
In fact the only voices that seem to be raised against the legalization of marijuana are those of the DEA and the penal system. That's only natural, without them maintaining their lies, their free ride is over. Even the politicians are afraid of the power of the DEA. Apparently the DEA thinks they don't have to obey the Constitution.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/200
http://www.leap.cc/ is a really interesting website put together by former Law Enforcement Officers that have seen that the Drug Laws cause more harm than good.
My more people that know the truth, the better our society becomes.
Just because you like being sober doesn't mean you have to hate those that want to smoke pot.
The United States is still a free country, right?
Laugh at my ignorance while I learn Rails - a Real ne
Well let's start with Fried et. al. [www.cmaj.ca], who concluded that ongoing heavy use of marijuana has a signficant negative impact on IQ.
(I think I can afford a few IQ points, better a little dimmer and a lot happier than a little brighter but a lot more misrable...)
And then we can in fact see the short term memory impairment,
Heyser, C.J.; Hampson, R.E.; and Deadwyler, S.A. Effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on delayed match to sample performance in rats: Alterations in short-term memory associated with changes in task-specific firing of hippocampal cells. Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 264(1):294-307, 1993.
(The research is not conclusive. We are not rats.)
And let's not pretend that smoking marijuana isn't going to have a negative effects on the lungs,
Tashkin, D.P. Pulmonary complications of smoked substance abuse. West J Med 152:525-530, 1990., and
Sarafian, T.A.; Magallanes, J.A.; Shau, H.; Tashkin, D.; and Roth, M.D. Oxidative stress produced by marijuana smoke. An adverse effect enhanced by cannabinoids. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 20(6):1286-1293, 1999.
(controlled vaporization reduces the carcinegens to nil. Smoking is bad for you, no question about that, no matter what you smoke.)
Or the immune system
Srivastava, M.D.; Srivastava, B.I.; and Brouhard, B. Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol alter cytokine production by human immune cells. Immunopharmacology 40(3):179-185, 1998.
(The research is also not conclusive. Also just about all research sponsored by the USA federal government has to be bent toward proving cannabis harmful. SO just about any research from the USA is politically tainted by its ideological war...pawn that you are you parrot it.
Marijuana capable of producing psychotic symptoms? Yes.
Fergusson, David M., John Horwood & Elizabeth M. Ridder, "Tests of Causal Linkages Between Cannabis Use and Psychotic Symptoms," Addiction, Vol. 100, No. 3, March 2005, p. 363.
(In already vulnerable persons. The threshold for 'psychosis' is very low... Evangelicals are a more psychotic sometimes...)
The original poster was talking about chronic use, implying ongoing, so let's also examine the effects of current intoxication: Learning and memory are in fact impaired by cannabis:
Grant, Igor, et al.,(2003) "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Cambridge University Press, 9, p. 685.
Long term permanent damage? Absolutely, but only to the lungs.
(I support legalising cannabis and even I wouldnt make that sweeping generalization. It is likely you are correct however.)
Negative impacts on the brain during ongoing use? Absolutely.
(Define negative impact? Obviously millions feel its acceptable.)
Maybe you ought to be familiar with the research yourself before attacking other people? This is just a tiny fraction of all the research conducted. A simple 5 second google search would have turned up all you needed to know to not look like the jackass you do now.
(Maybe if the state arbitrarily named you a criminal for burning some plant matter, you would be defensive when people parrot the drug war lies?)
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Dwight D. Eisenhower
From the conclusion of your first article:
Current marijuana use had a negative effect on global IQ score only in subjects who smoked 5 or more joints per week. A negative effect was not observed among subjects who had previously been heavy users but were no longer using the substance. We conclude that marijuana does not have a long-term negative impact on global intelligence. [emphasis added]
As for the hyperbole of your other claims, let's dispose of them by referring to the most-widely used medical textbook in the world, The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy entry on marijuana:
Critics of marijuana cite much scientific data regarding adverse effects, but most of the claims regarding severe biologic impact are unsubstantiated, even among relatively heavy users and in areas intensively investigated, such as immunologic and reproductive function. However, high-dose smokers of marijuana develop pulmonary symptoms (episodes of acute bronchitis, wheezing, coughing, and increased phlegm), and pulmonary function may be altered. This is manifested by large airway changes of unknown significance. Even daily smokers do not develop obstructive airway disease. Pulmonary carcinoma has not been reported in persons who smoke only marijuana, possibly because less smoke is inhaled than during cigarette smoking. However, biopsies of bronchial tissue sometimes show precancerous changes, so carcinoma may occur. In a few case-control studies, some tests detected diminished cognitive function in small samples of long-term high-dose users; this finding awaits confirmation. Studies in newborns have not found evidence of fetal harm due to maternal use of cannabis. Decreased fetal weight has been reported, but when all factors (eg, maternal alcohol and tobacco use) are accounted for, the effect on fetal weight disappears. delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol is secreted in breast milk. Although no harm to breastfed babies has been shown, breastfeeding mothers, like pregnant women, are advised to avoid using cannabis. [emphasis added]
Btw, I am not sure why you have to call the poster you are responding to names. Seems like your arguments should be able to stand on their own.