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Updated | Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:08:20 +0300 |
| Description | Cannabis Information and Education :: XOOPS Community Bulletin Board | |
| Webmaster | webhead@hempembassy.net | |
| Category | Hemp Forums | |
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| Language | en | |
| John Jiggens view of latest psychosis claim. [by webhead] | ||
| Published: | Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:13:32 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: John Jiggens view of latest psychosis claim. The Archives of General Psychiatry March 2010 has an article on cannabis and psychosis by McGrath et al. You can find it at: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/2010.6 abstract http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/2010.6v1 .pdf The article is biased in its summary of the literature and only articles in a similar vein are referenced. Its research technique is likewise biased. The study author Psychiatrist John McGrath, of the Queensland Brain Institute has made sensational claims about cannabis and psychosis, which have received wide publicity in the past weeks. The following "Redressing the Bias" is my response to his article, sent to his publishers: In Queensland, politicians associated with Drug Free Australia are having an inquiry into cannabis and schizophrenia. Cannabis Culture reports similar moves in BC. Redressing the Bias. "This paper should be withdrawn, and the authors should be requested to finish the originally proposed research, broaden their investigation beyond cannabis, and resubmit. The present design is blatantly biased because cannabis use is the only factor examined. The study should be redesigned to measure the correlation of mental illness ("non-affective psychosis") with other mood-altering drugs. When there is only one suspect in the line-up, the procedure cannot be seen as fair. The study shows a correlation between cannabis use and mental illness and at contention is the explanation for this correlation. Is it because cannabis causes mental illness as McGrath et al. claims? Or is it simply that mentally ill people use mood-altering drugs more than the population in general? The only way to settle the dispute is to measure the correlation between mental illness and the other mood-altering drugs. If cannabis were the only drug to show a positive correlation, the matter would be settled in McGrath’s favour. If not, his conclusions are challenged. Why were the other drugs excluded from the study?? Why have only one suspect in your line-up? An impartial investigation would have examined the use of other mood -altering drug like ecstasy, tobacco, heroin, alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine, not just cannabis, to see whether they were positively correlated with mental illness. The current bias can be easily removed by measuring the correlation between mental illness and the other mood-altering drugs, as well as cannabis. This data has already been collected, and only requires analysis. You should do this, and resubmit the paper, drawing your conclusions from an expanded range of factors, rather than the prevailing tunnel vision. An unbiased study is needed that tests as many drugs as possible. The research is likewise incomplete. Curiously, only two third of the planned sample were surveyed. Why wasn’t the original study completed? Why the rush to publish? One result of this premature shortening of the study is that the present sample size is very small. There were only 65 classified with "non-affective psychosis" in the study, and they were divided into 4 groups of 26, 15, 12 and 12, which were then compared! This is supposed to be an important paper, yet what confidence can there be in conclusions drawn from a sample so small? Surely if it is an important piece of research, it should be finished? John Jiggens more... |
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| Economic Benefits of Medical Marijuana Reform in Oregon [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:06:12 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Economic Benefits of Medical Marijuana Reform in Oregon Economic Benefits of Medical Marijuana Reform in Oregon  Ersun Warnke Salem-News.com Business/Economy Reporter Comprehensive Marijuana reforms would increase revenues, create jobs, decrease law enforcement and incarceration expenditures, increase tourism, and create new educational opportunities in Oregon’s universities. (EUGENE, Ore.) - The existing medical marijuana program in Oregon has been highly successful, but is in many ways less than optimal. I am not personally a medical marijuana user, nor do I have any association with the organizers of the medical marijuana regulation campaign in Oregon. My opinions on these issues are my own, and should not be confused with the proposals of any of the other groups who advocate on these issues. Medical Marijuana Law Reform  Marijuana is different than other widely used illegal drugs for a number of reasons. Unlike cocaine or meth-amphetamine, for instance, it has a wide range of legitimate medical uses; it is less prone to abuse; and it has comparatively negligible side effects. Most importantly, Marijuana can be produced within the State. Marijuana is already produced extensively within the State, although under less than optimal growing conditions. The illegalization of Marijuana makes it impossible to openly sell locally produced Marijuana, and results in highly inefficient production methods. Further Marijuana law reform is an immediate necessity. This reform should allow for licensed outdoor marijuana production by Oregon’s farmers; licensed production of manufactured goods including cannabinoid oils, hashih, and food products; licensed operation of businesses that sell these products; reform of the rules for obtaining medical marijuana permits; and steps to prevent the diversion of Oregon produced Marijuana into the illicit wholesale market. The implementation of comprehensive Marijuana reforms would increase revenues for Oregon’s farmers, create new jobs, increase tax revenues for State and Local Governments, decrease expenditures for law enforcement and incarceration, increase tourism to the State, and create new educational opportunities in Oregon’s universities. Marijuana for Oregon’s Farmers  Growing Marijuana indoors is highly inefficient. It requires excessive capital investment, and wastes enormous amounts of electricity. The additional cost of indoor growing renders the plants produced uncompetitive for use in value added manufactured products. Allowing Oregon’s farmers to grow Marijuana outdoors would reduce the cost of production as well as the overall environmental impact of production, which is very high for indoor growing. It would also place Oregon production on a competitive basis with outdoor production elsewhere in the world, and lower the cost of production to a point where the manufacturing of value added secondary products would be profitable. The strict regulation of licensed production is an absolute necessity for a variety of reasons. Legalization without regulation would almost certainly result in over prodction. Over production would result in a collapse in prices, mass diversion to illicit wholesale markets, and a subsequent lowering of production standards and quality in order to compensate for lower revenues. A regulatory regime for legal marijuana production must set reasonable production quotas necessary to maintain stable prices. A method for assigning quotas to farmers based on a desire to participate and other factors must be arrived at. Strict quality standards and production guidelines must be created, enforced, and adhered to. Value Added Manufactured Products  Demand exists for high quality cannabinoid oil, hashish, and food products manufactured from Marijuana plants. Allowing for regulated outdoor farming of Marijuana would lower the prices for raw materials sufficiently to make small scale manufacturing of value added products profitable at prices low enough to insure sufficient effective demand. Use of raw Marijuana plant material for manufacturing would also serve to utilize available production capacity and discourage diversion of production into illicit wholesale markets. Small scale manufacturing of Marijuana based products would be a new source of employment for Oregonians. The number of jobs created would not be very large, but they would require and develop specialized skills in employees. As a result, these new jobs would result in living wages that would remain steady over time. Licensed Marijuana Dispensaries  The sale of Marijuana and Marijuana products from licensed production and manufacturing requires licensed retail distribution. Both new and existing businesses should be allowed to apply for retail licenses. Rules for the division of licensing between State and local authorities must be determined in a way that is suitable for all parties. The State has a strong interest in maintaining the integrity of the retail licensing program over all. Localities have a strong interest in setting their own rules for what types of businesses they want operating in their communities. It would probably be reasonable for local city governments to have the right to issue or refuse to issue a license to any business within their jurisdiction. If a city approved a license, then that license would be submitted to the State, which would have final authority over approval or rejection. Since prices for retail products will be essentially fixed, the State has an interest in limiting the number of retailers involved in distribution and preventing them from competing on price. Excessive competition will result in declining revenues and create incentives for diversion into illicit wholesale markets and other unsound business practices. Licensing for retailers should take into account community support, a demonstrated record of business experience, a demonstrated record of moral and ethical conduct, and the type of business requesting the license. Businesses that have a commitment to providing a safe, open, and inclusive environment for medical marijuana users should receive the highest priority in licensing decisions. Medical Marijuana User Permit Reform  The current system for issuing Medical Marijuana permits is insufficient in a number of ways. It makes demands on patients that many find unreasonable, and as a result limit the use of the program. Expanding access to the Medical Marijuana program is necessary. The primary obstacle to patient access to Medical Marijuana is cost. The requirement of a Doctor’s referral and the yearly fee for licensing create significant and unbearable costs for patients, especially among Oregon’s low income and uninsured populations. The requirement of a Doctor’s referral is also problematic because of the limited amount of scholarly research into Medicinal Marijuana, and the ongoing classification of Marijuana as a Schedule I substance with no legitimate medical purposes. Many doctors are in a position of not being able to refer patients for Medical Marijuana, simply because the scholarly research that would allow them to make that referral within the normal operating guidelines of their profession does not exists, or is not well established enough to be conclusive. In light of the high costs of obtaining a doctor’s referral and the difficulty for some doctors of giving such a referral based on the paucity of academic research on the subject it is necessary to make the doctor’s referral an optional element in obtaining a Medical Marijuana permit. Along with making a doctor’s referral optional, the cost of Medical Marijuana permits should be lowered. One option would be to allow for a shorter term permit, such as for one month, at a correspondingly lower cost. It is unreasonable to charge patients for a one year permit before they have even tried a medicine, which they may discontinue the use of after only a few weeks, if they find it to be inefficacious. A similar up front permit cost exists for no other medication, and is prejudicial to the use of Medical Marijuana. Finally, Medical Marijuana permits should be provisionally effective from the time of application. Licensed Medical Marijuana retailers should be allowed to accept applications, and if they certify that they are complete and have verified the identity and age of the applicant, a provisional permit should be issued on the spot. This would expedite the application process and reduce the overhead costs of processing applications for the State. Preventing Diversion of Medical Marijuana into Illicit Wholesale Markets  Preventing the diversion of Medical Marijuana grown in Oregon into illicit wholesale markets is a necessity of operating an effective program. Oregon’s freedom to set its own laws in this area is limited by the potential impact of Oregon’s laws on other States and Countries. If Oregon were to become a major source of wholesale Marijuana flowing to other States, this would almost certainly result in negative repercussions. The best way to limit diversion is through tight control of production quotas and maintenance of consistent retail prices for end user products. The purpose of licensing every aspect of production and distribution, from the field to the end user, is to fairly distribute profits amongst all parties. In the end, retail prices for consumers need to be competitive with illicit retail prices, but no person in the licensed distribution chain should have any incentive to compete with illicit wholesalers. Maintaining retail prices at current illicit levels, even as the costs of production are decreased and the quantity of production is increased, requires adding value to the licensed product through increased quality, regularity, and variety of product. Diversion of significant amounts of production into manufacturing of value added secondary products is an important element of this strategy. Production of licensed plant product for retail sale should adhere to strict guidelines requiring organic production techniques. Product for retail sale should be visually inspected and graded, as well as tested and graded for cannabinoid content. Only the highest grade plant materials should be allowed into the retail supply chain, with the rest being restricted to manufacturing use. Unique packaging for all retail plant product should be created, and required to be used for all licensed product sales. This packaging should be designed to prevent damage and degradation of the product in transportation and storage to the greatest extent possible. Labeling for all retail plant product should be consistent and uniform, and clearly state the essential information necessary for retail customers to make informed decisions about their medicinal purchases. All retail product should be marked with a seal indicating that it is licensed product. In addition, every unit should have a unique serial number applied to it. The serial number of each unit should be of the “scratch off” form, which would prevent seeing the serial number without defacing the label. A system for verification of serial numbers should be put in place, which would allow a retail buyer to scratch off the label, then verify the serial number via phone or internet. The combination of a uniform seal and unique serial number would provide the best possible guarantee of quality and authenticity for licensed retail product being sold for medical purposes. Economic Benefits of Marijuana Reform in Oregon  Broad reform of Marijuana laws would result in major economic benefits to the entire State. These benefits would flow to farmers, medical marijuana patients, the State government, local municipalities, job seekers, and even law enforcement. Farmers would benefit dramatically from the availability of a new cash crop. The shift in Oregon Marijuana production from indoor to outdoor growing would make production more efficient and result in increased production. This in turn would increase the share of local production vis-à-vis foreign production in local consumption, resulting in more money staying in the State. A shift to local production would decrease the illegal importation of illegally produced Marijuana, reducing crime by reducing the potential for criminal organizations to profit. This would allow for the reallocation of law enforcement resources to other priorities, while decreasing non-drug criminal activity that arises from drug related organized crime. Growing marijuana legally and openly does potentially create a target for thieves and other criminals. Local law enforcement agencies would play an important role in securing marijuana grow sites, and preventing the theft and diversion of Marijuana crops. Enforcing laws against the illegal importation of illegally grown foreign Marijuana would remain a law enforcement priority at the same level as it is currently. Medical marijuana patients would greatly benefit from licensed and regulated production that would guarantee them consistent access to a wide variety of uniformly high quality product at competitive prices. Lowering barriers to entry for obtaining medical marijuana permits would dramatically increase participation in the program. State revenues from permit fees would likely increase by several times over. The increase in State income tax revenue from licensed producers, manufacturers, and retailers would be an order of magnitude greater at least. This increase in revenues would accompany decreasing costs for law enforcement, incarceration, and health care. The creation of a comprehensive program for producing, distributing, and retailing medical marijuana would make Oregon, and especially Portland, a major destination for medical tourism. Medical Marijuana user permit reform would make it possible for patients seeking care to visit Oregon and immediately obtain a temporary permit at a reasonable cost. Medical tourism could be a major source of additional revenue for all of the business in a community. As Portland would be the most likely destination for out-of-State patients, the City of Portland and its businesses would receive increasing revenues over time from Medical Marijuana reform. Shifting Marijuana production to farms and creating new business opportunities in the manufacturing of Marijuana related products would create new jobs available to all Oregonians, and especially Oregonians in rural areas. These rural areas currently have the highest unemployment rates in the State. Reform of Medical Marijuana laws would immediately create new private sector jobs without any Government spending. Comprehensive Medical Marijuana reform would also create new opportunities for research and education into Marijuana that could be beneficial for Oregon universities. Oregon State University would be a natural fit for new research and education programs related to Marijuana production. The University of Oregon and Oregon Health Sciences University would be naturally suited to running programs that focused on the medicinal uses of Marijuana as well as other related subjects. Legal reform would make Oregon universities leaders in this field of research.  Conclusion Marijuana Prohibition is coming to an end. Currently, Oregon is obligated by Federal Law to stay within the framework of Medical Marijuana, but within that framework, Oregon should be a leader and an innovator. Comprehensive reform of Medical Marijuana laws, as outlined here, would result in a domestic industry with gross revenues on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This revenue would be spread broadly across many sectors of the Oregon economy, and flow proportionately to both rural and urban areas. Medical Marijuana reform would benefit all. The only real losers would be international drug cartels, and their illegal drug distribution networks. The legislature and the voters of this State should make this reform one of their top priorities. =================================== www.Salem-News.com Business/Economy Reporter Ersun Warncke is a native Oregonian. He has a degree in Economics from Portland State University and studied Law at University of Oregon. At a young age, his career spans a wide variety of fields, from fast food, to union labor, to computer programming. He has published works concerning economics, business, government, and media on blogs for several years. He currently works as an independent software designer specializing in web based applications, open source software, and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. Ersun describes his writing as being "in the language of the boardroom from the perspective of the shop floor." He adds that "he has no education in journalism other than reading Hunter S. Thompson." But along with life comes the real experience that indeed creates quality writers. Right now, every detail that can help the general public get ahead in life financially, is of paramount importance. You can write to Ersun at: warncke@comcast.net more... |
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| Pres Obama's Deputy Drug Czar Tom McClellan Comments [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:23:50 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Pres Obama's Deputy Drug Czar Tom McClellan Comments Pres Obama's Deputy Drug Czar Tom McClellan Comments President Obama's Deputy Drug Czar Tom McClellan Comments in USA TODAY Article; Endorses Non-Smoked Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems Identical to the First Product Cannabis Science is Developing for FDA Clinical Trials for PTSD Targeting Our Veterans, Active Duty Troops, and Others Suffering from Disasters World-Wide March 10, 2010 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., -- Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTCBB:CBIS), a pioneering US pharmaceutical cannabis company, notes that comments by President Obama's Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Tom McClellan, in yesterday's USA TODAY pinpoints the need for non-smoked medical cannabis products similar to those currently being developed for FDA clinical trials by Cannabis Science. Deputy Director McClellan said in the article that Obama administration still opposes smoking marijuana for its medicinal benefit. As well, he says more research is needed to deliver the medically useful ingredients in a non-smoked form. He then went on to say, "We have the safest medications in the world and it's not a coincidence. We have an enviable process by which we approve medications, and that's through the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)." Dr. Robert Melamede, President and CEO of Cannabis Science, "With an open invitation like this from the Obama Administration, we at Cannabis Science feel more confident than ever that our efforts to provide our "wounded warriors" with an alternative to treatments that are not working will be fairly examined, when we submit our non-smoked cannabis pharmaceutical products to the FDA for clinical trials. We are doing precisely the sort of scientific research that Deputy Director McClellan is calling for." Richard Cowan, Cannabis Science CFO and a former CEO of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), noted, "It is important that the Obama Administration is making such an open call that they want more FDA clinical trial research on the same types of drugs we are creating. Consequently, we will rapidly proceed with our development of a cannabis-based medicine for PTSD for FDA clinical trials. We hope they will share our sense of urgency, because PTSD is killing not only our veterans, but also our active duty troops. In January alone, more of our active US military troops died of suicide than were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined." Both Dr. Melamede and Richard Cowan, are long-term advocates of the full legalization of marijuana, and support the rights of patients to use the plant to medicate, including smoking. The article reported that support for full legalization is growing rapidly (now up to 44% nationally and a majority in some states). To view the USA Today article in its entirety, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-08-marijuana_N.htm to review. About Cannabis Science, Inc. Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of medical marijuana research and development. The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance. Forward Looking Statements This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing works such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements. CONTACT: Cannabis Science Inc. Dr. Robert J. Melamede, President & CEO 1-888-889-0888 info@cannabisscience.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it www.cannabisscience.com Peter Glaser Investor Relations 1-888-889-0888 info@cannabisscience.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it www.cannabisscience.com more... |
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| THE BLISSFUL WOMB [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:19:05 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: THE BLISSFUL WOMB Something  else people might not know about the Uterus, besides the fact that it has three spiral arteries, is that it also makes anandamide, a molecule almost identical to the active ingredient in marijuana.” In fact, it makes “ten times more of the cannabis equivalent than any other organ of the body ......does. See” http://www.ritualgoddess.com/the2012vortex/?tag=anandamide Podcast Version–The Blissful Womb Friday, March 5th, 2010 The Misunderstood Uterus Part 2: The Blissful Womb Something else people might not know about the Uterus, besides the fact that it has three spiral arteries, is that it also makes anandamide, a molecule almost identical to the active ingredient in marijuana.” In fact, it makes “ten times more of the cannabis equivalent than any other organ of the body does.”[1] Anandamide, produced by men and women, is similar in chemical makeup to the molecule in marijuana that makes us high—THC. In the female body the majority of THC is made by the uterus. Anandamide and THC use the same receptors (cellular proteins programmed to respond to particular molecules) to produce the desired effect—a feeling of bliss. Discovered in 1992 by Israeli scientist Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, anandamide is an endogenous (made by the body) cannabis-like molecule. Mechoulam named it anandamide after the Sanskrit word for bliss—ananda. It is often called the bliss molecule. Anandamide receptors, of which there are many in the uterus, are called bliss receptors. Anandamide, the molecule of bliss, is involved in the famous “runner’s high” that people experience at a certain point in their long-distance runs. Anandamide is also important in memory, emotion and pain perception. It is synthesized in the brains of women and men but its highest concentration is in the uterus just before embryo implantation. Most embryos contain more anandamide receptors than any tissue known in the brain. Research shows that anandamide helps the fledgling embryo to thrive. Anandamide is directly related to appetite as well. It makes us want to eat. It appears that this molecule of bliss may be connected to the will to live, instrumental in keeping us alive and moving forward. Many people associate chocolate with bliss, therefore, it may come as no surprise to discover that three different kinds of anandamide-like compounds have been discovered in dark chocolate. Maybe so many people love chocolate because they remember the time of bliss in their mother’s womb. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may bot be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. A wonderful source: http://www.ritualgoddess.com/the2012vortex/?tag=anandamide more... |
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| Report: Californians consume 16 million ounces of pot a year [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:09:49 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Report: Californians consume 16 million ounces of pot a year Weed Wars Dispatches from the California Marijuana Front March 9, 2010 Report: Californians consume 16 million ounces of pot a year So how much pot do Californians smoke? According to a recent state Board of Equalization report prepared for the Legislature, it's 16 million ounces a year. That's a little less than one-half an ounce for each resident in California, in case you're counting every man, woman and child. The analysis was prepared for legislation by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, that seeks to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for use by California adults 21 and over. Some other findings: * California is America's top pot producing state, with an annual yield of 8.6 million pounds of weed valued at $13.8 billion. That's more than one-third of the cultivation across the U.S. * Legalization of marijuana in California would cause the street price of pot to drop by 50 percent, but prompt 40 percent more Californians to turn to marijuana use. At least, that is, until a state tax kicks in. * Once Ammiano's plan to impose a $50 per ounce tax is in effect, it would reduce consumption by 11 percent. To view the BOE document, click here. Source: Peter Hecht The Sacramento Bee. more... |
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| Re: about marijuana today [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:03:43 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: about marijuana today Thanks for the post Guest_fabiola7386, and welcome to the Nimbin Hemp Embassy Forum. As you say, not every drug suits every person; so perhaps that very minute percentage of users who do have difficulties with cannabis, may need some assistance in the readjustment process as cannabinoids leave the body. An organisation such as in the link you posted, does serve a useful purpose (for some of that minute percentage who go through this process). I think you might appreciate this article being added to you post. Education is the key. UNDERSTANDING YOUR HIGH-The Effects Of Marijuana On Consciousness A marijuana high usually lasts two or three hours, during which a wide range of effects may occur, varying both in intensity and quality. The usual, most noticeable effect is intensification of sensation and increased clarity of perception. Visually, COLOURS are brighter, scenes have more depth, patterns are more evident, and figure-ground relations both more distinct and more easily reversible. Other sense modalities do not have the variety of visual stimuli, but all seem to be intensified. Sounds become more distinct, with the user aware of sounds he otherwise might not have noticed. Music, recorded and live, is heard with increased fidelity and dimension, as though there were less distance between the source and the listener. Taste and smell are also enhanced under marijuana. The spice rack is a treasure of sensation, and food develops a rich variety of tastes. Skin receptors are also effected. Heat, cold, and pressure receptors become more sensitive. Pain produces paradoxical effects. If attention is not on the area of pain, there is a reduced sensitivity to the hurt. But awareness of pain from a lesion, such as a burn or cut, will often persist for a longer period than usual, even allowing for the changed perception of time under marijuana. Awareness of proprioceptive responses is enhanced. The person using marijuana may become aware of usually automatic, non-conscious, muscle tensions, small movements, feedback and control processes, and feelings of physical comfort and discomfort. These can be perceived with great clarity and distinctness. Such effects vary with the individual and the situation. Sometimes one modality will predominate; sometimes a sequence of effects will occur; sometimes nothing will seem to happen. The direction or modality of effect can be often manipulated by the individual if he deliberately exposes himself to the stimulus, such as music, or paintings. However, such setting may not affect the perception if the person is not otherwise ready to respond in that way. Effects more often call attention to themselves; the user observes what he is experiencing in the situation and realizes it is not how he usually experiences the stimuli. On the other hand, some sense modalities may function in a straight pedestrian manner, neither being enhanced nor diminished. The person himself is the most important determinant of how the enhancement will appear. Some persons orient primarily to visual stimuli and visual thinking, others to sound, others to tactile impressions. Visual orientation seems to predominate among persons in our culture; audile and tactile thinking is less common. It seems likely that sensory enhancement of a marijuana high would be most noticed in the predominate sense modality of the user; it certainly should have a differential response in relation to less used ways of perceiving. Another factor which affects the response is that persons unfamiliar with the marijuana state frequently must "learn" that they are perceiving experience in a different way. That is, someone makes them aware of changed perception by showing them objects, playing music, and calling their attention to the difference in sights and sounds. Then they become consciously aware of the perceptual changes. This initiation procedure has led sociologist H. S. Becker (Becker, I963; partially reproduced in Solomon, I966) to suggest that most of the effects of marijuana are learned, not spontaneous. He says (accurately, I am sure) that the user must learn to notice the effects, categorize them, and connect them to the total experience of using the drug. What is learned in most cases is not a new way of perceiving, but the awareness of a change in perception. Few persons observe what they are doing in the sense of observing their seeing, and it is not surprising that many should have to learn how to become aware of themselves experiencing by checking current perception against memory and expectations. The user's internal psychological needs will also influence his response. A fear of being overwhelmed by too much input will often reduce any changes to only those which the user can cope with or to changes only in certain modes. A fear of losing control over the perception of experience may suppress most of the effects and even shut down responses to below normal. On the other hand, emotional involvement with some part of the environment may enhance its perception. Internal physical needs also affect the response, e.g., hunger may be intensified so the person finds himself ravenous on getting high. For a person using marijuana for the first few times sensory changes occur sequentially, rather than all at once. First he may notice increased brightness and clarity of colors, then sounds, then visual structures, such as paintings or designs. (Two dimensional photographs and motion pictures may be seen in three dimensions in the marijuana high, a perception which can be transferred to the normal state under certain conditions.) Then proprioceptive sensations may present themselves. Any order of the effects may occur during one high state or several. Often effects will develop to particular levels and then stabilize without further elaboration. I know some individuals who listen to music during a high, and this is their major use and apparently their only enhancement. There are two states of awareness which relate to these sensory effects. The basic one can be called pure awareness. In this state the person is completely and vividly aware of his experience, but there are no processes of thinking, manipulating, or interpreting going on. The sensations fill the person's attention, which is passive but absorbed in what is occurring, which is usually experienced as intense and immediate. Pure awareness is experiencing without associations to what is there. The other state of awareness is one which can be termed conscious awareness, in which the sensory experience is connected to meanings, plans, functions, decisions, and possible actions. This is our normal way of perceiving and how we usually go about our daily lives. We do not sense the world directly, but with the incorporation of our memories, meanings, and uses. In the state of pure awareness objects are experienced as sensory qualities, without the intrusion of interpretation. There are examples of this in normal life. The sensation of sexual orgasm may be (and hopefully is) experienced with pure awareness. Natural beauty, such as flowers, mountains, oceans, and sunsets, is sometimes experienced from a point of awareness without adding conscious thinking. These two processes of awareness have been described by Charles Solley and Gardner Murphy (1960, Chapter 14) as non-reflective consciousness and reflective consciousness. Alan Watts compares the awareness state to a floodlight of attention, which shows a broad area and lights up anything that is there. Consciousness awareness he compares to a spotlight, which is focused and can be directed, though on a narrower area. This is a good analogy in pointing out that no deliberate directing is done in the awareness state, although it is sometimes the case that the area perceived in awareness may be a small one seen in great detail. The awareness state can be called "choiceless" because choice is a part of consciousness functions. Decisions made outside of consciousness are not called "by choice" since choice implies conscious action. In a state of direct awareness there are no choices made and no decisions or actions occur. The stream of sensation flows and the person is aware of what is happening; if he acts he does so without consciously deciding to move. (That is, action is handled by some process other than the consciousness monitoring the awareness experience.) When complicated action becomes necessary conscious attention is activated and the sensation is used as stimuli, criteria, or information for the choices, plans, or action. The awareness is not always experienced purely under marijuana, but often is mixed with some, though reduced, conscious attention. Consciousness, conscious awareness, or conscious attention involves a connecting function which observes experience in relation to past experience, memory images, memory recording, expectancies, plans, goals, etc. This type of consciousness may intrude on the awareness state at a low level. However, when awareness fills the attention there is a "becoming lost" in the experience, in which there is often not even a memory of what occurred. This seems to be a state in which consciousness functions are not present, and all experience is at the level of awareness. Consciousness, attention, and memory recording are apparently not active. (It is possible that attention was present and either was not remembered or the memory is not accessible to consciousness.) Such a state of pure awareness is at one end of a continuum of varying degrees of conscious activity, with the other end at a state in which the contents of awareness are used for decisions, plans, inferences, etc., and are not experienced for their primary sensory qualities; they are information rather than experiences. This analysis suggests a reason for sensory enhancement under marijuana, a movement of attention from consciousness processes to awareness processes. We usually think of attention as synonymous with consciousness, but it is an uneasy synonymy. Consciousness seems to be more than attention, but we cannot describe a consciousness without attention. Perhaps it is possible for attention energy to move into sensory processes and operate less in the decisional, deliberative processes of consciousness. If this happens it would provide much more energy for attending to sense data, and we could expect the sensory experience to be more vivid and more detailed. Intensity of sensory experience seems related to the total proportion or amount of attention which is involved in the process. If attention is used in conscious or unconscious processes in making decisions, remembering, evaluating, etc., then this much is removed from the awareness of the sense experience. Thus it may be that one of the causes of sensory enhancement under marijuana is that attention energy moves from consciousness processes into awareness processes, which amplifies the experience. TIME DISTORTION Besides sensory enhancement, the other most immediate effect of marijuana is a change in the perception of time: events take longer to occur. Bach's first Brandenburg Concerto lasts hours. An hour seems to have passed, but the dock records 25 minutes. The person's internal fantasies are long and involved, but only a few minutes have passed in government time. In this state the fantasies and music do not move at a faster pace---they move at their own usual rate, though often more fluently and more dearly. The impression is that external time must have slowed down, while the internal experience continues at the same rate. There is not the impression of speed or rapidity, but that the time available to the user is magnified. There are similar effects in normal experience. Time spent at a boring talk seems to pass more slowly, and one thinks in dismay, "What, only five minutes have passed since I looked at my watch?" A method used by Linn Cooper (1956) to induce time distortion under hypnosis is useful to note here. A metronome set at one beat per second is used. The hypnotized subject is told that the metronome is slowing down to one beat every two seconds, every five seconds, once a minute. Verbally or conceptually we can now say that the subject's internal rate has remained the same, but external time relative to the subject has slowed down. Has the subject's own pace actually speeded up? I do not know, and I can think of no reliable criteria for determining this. Brain wave research shows that the basic alpha rhythm can be speeded up by a flickering light (called photic driving), but not very much, and not even to twice its normal rhythm. Cooper's subjects report that they do mentally imagine the amount of thoughts appropriate to the expanded time available, including counting imagined objects. This may be a convenient hallucination or it may be an accurate description of what they do. (Even calculation of real problems would not be a valid test because calculating geniuses can answer complex mathematical problems almost instantaneously, and this ability may be available under hypnosis, though it has never been reported to my knowledge under marijuana or hypnosis.) In this procedure under hypnosis and also in marijuana the subjective experience of time is disconnected from the marking of social or government time. The effect under marijuana is analogous to effects in visual and sound modalities. Visual scenes often have more depth, sounds are heard with more dimension; so too with time-there is an expansion of the fabric of time so there is a feeling of depth instead of the usual two dimensional flow. The explanation of this sometimes given by marijuana users is that more is happening: they are thinking faster or more thoughts are occurring in the same time period. This could cause external time to be relatively slower. Although it need not be the case that internal processes change at a faster rate it is possible that a person is aware of more perceptions in a given amount of time as a result of the enhancement of sensory data. With visual enhancement more details of the movements of the self and others are attended to. This means that more information is perceived in the same amount of time. This is also true of proprioceptive and tactile responses. Time is somewhat conditioned to a normal rate of information input in particular contexts. One has a "standard rate of intake" and if the amount of information is increased for a unit of time, then one of the responses may be that time is going slower. To be conscious of any change in experience there must be a comparison with previous similar situations. Thus if the time experience while high is compared with a similar normal experience, or with a time pace constructed from normal experience, it may be perceived as slower. A more important cause for time distortion under marijuana can be found by noting how persons normally judge the passage of time, then investigating the changes in these criteria caused by marijuana. This is rather difficult because no one knows how we judge time. Nevertheless there are some relevant observations which can be made.(1) Notice the situations in which time seems to alter for many persons in everyday experience and out-of-the-ordinary experience. These are situations in which the experience itself is the focus of attention, they are not means to extrinsic goals. Persons totally involved in making love seem to have no awareness of how much time may pass. Persons in a state of anger do not become aware of time lapse until the emotion subsides or ego controls are invoked. Psychotherapy hours in which emotional material is covered seem to be out of time awareness. Mystics become unaware of the passage of time during meditation, as do persons having peak experiences (Maslow, I964). In dreams, daydreams, fantasies, ecstasy, and strong emotional states, the sense of time is absent or changed. And in the state of pure awareness, as I have used the term, there is no perception of the rate of time. These are all personal experiences in which conscious attention is not dominant, and immediate experience, rather than goals, expectancies, plans, and decisions, is predominant. Time perception is a socially reinforced response. The experiences and states I have described are not states which are socially conscious; they are not internally subordinated to social time or schedules. Anger cannot be paced with conscious control, nor can ecstasy. Feelings, fantasies, dreams, and awareness do not incorporate the sense of time which is built up by and maintained in the consciousness. Thus when one is experiencing such content there is no marking of the passage of time, and to the extent this material is the content of awareness, the less social time is noted. Immediate experience is always timeless; time is perceived in relation to the uses of experience in controlling or predicting the future or interpreting the past, the present being perceived in relation to past or future. This is one of the major functions of consciousness. In a normal conscious state when the internal or external input is to be changed or manipulated the time required is automatically projected, based on past experience. This imposes the knowledge of time on the consciousness. One of the effects of marijuana is to reduce the strength of expectancies and goals which are socially reinforced. Thus non-time experiences are increased in relative strength and time oriented associations are decreased, which creates the sense that time is expanded. Some indication that this is what occurs may be seen in reports of marijuana users that time passes instantaneously. One girl reported that when high she suddenly discovered 45 minutes had passed without her realization of this. And there are reports of listening to music when the individual realizes the music had stopped, without his remembering hearing the selection as it was playing. What happens in these cases is that most of the person's attention is in non-time processes, so that time passage is not noted until the social consciousness returns. Then it seems that no time has passed, since there was no process noting its passage. Just as in sleep, amnesic hypnosis, or anaesthesia, there is no consciousness of the duration of the state, and the conscious time flow seems unbroken from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking. When observing sensory stimuli, listening to music, fantasying, etc., there is the feeling of expanded time because the outside experiences are overwhelmed by the mental, internal experience which is not marking time and there is no way to gauge their pace. The quantity of the time change varies. If the user is almost totally involved with the awareness processes, with little conscious attention, then there will be little sense of duration, and long periods of clock time will go by quickly. Events themselves are timeless, in that they are always in the present---they do not echo their past nor presage their future states; we alone do that to them, for ourselves. And we ourselves do not experience the past or the future; we experience memories or expectancies, which may be realistic or fantasies. So our experience of the passage of time is based on our comparison of present experience with our remembrance of the past, usually the immediate past, or our anticipation of the future and how we get there. Marijuana decreases the strength of the automatic memory, expectancy, and anticipation processes; thus the perception of an experience is not surrounded by the usual multitude of past encounters, future possibilities, and potential uses. In contexts requiring action on the basis of expectations and plans, such as driving an automobile, they are available and often with more focused attention. Given a situation not requiring activity or decisions, the penumbra of response patterns, functions, and potentials surrounding experience decreases, and the immediate experience per se is perceived, rather than its position in a pattern of change. This decreases comparison of the present with the past, and again reduces the feeling of duration or passing of time. ("Passing of time" is a curious phrase, because time passing cannot be empirically observed. One may conclude the passage of time by observing changes in experience, but it is not really an inference either. What seems to be described is the mental reviewing of the preceding changes which led up to the present point. Re-running the succession in memory from some point up to the present gives the sensation of passing time. We are aware of events which are different from the ones we now experience but that are connected by physical changes in which we have participated (directly or through observation). This awareness may be "awareness of the passage of time." In summary, under marijuana, the sense of time is distorted. First, because mental contents and awareness processes which are not connected to time needs or markers are strengthened. These include daydreams, fantasies, event memories, peak experiences, emotions, and the pure awareness state. Second, because goals, anticipations, and expectancies are decreased in prominence, reducing attention given to possible changes in the environment, which decreases awareness of future states. Third, memory of immediate past experience is decreased in strength, which reduces knowledge of change and moves attention to the present. If consciousness is completely passive, and non-time elements fill attention, then the experience seems timeless. If some consciousness processes and associations are maintained time will seem to have slowed, as attention moves among the various contents. EXPECTANCIES Both the intensification of sensory experience and the expansion of time are part of an increased attentiveness to immediate experience in contrast to memories of the past or plans for the future. Memories and plans are experienced but only as they arise out of the immediate content and needs of the person's internal and external experience; they do not automatically operate as in normal consciousness. Every action and potential action, in the normal state, is evaluated according to its consequences: what results will follow. Mental processes imagine as many consequences as they have experience to do so, both immediate and long range, testing these consequences against criteria or goals of valued states. The consequences which are most valued control the action. For example, if a person feels angry toward another he may want to insult him verbally. He mentally anticipates the possible consequences of this action, which may include the release and satisfaction of the anger, feelings of masculinity, enhanced self concept of strength, etc., on the positive side, and the anger or disapproval of the other person, loss of self control, fear of his own impulses, what his mother would think of the action, etc. on the negative side. Depending on the person's past experience, his needs and strengths of various values, the action will be taken, modified, or inhibited. Every action a person engages in is surrounded and extended mentally (consciously and unconsciously) by such expectancies, and every situation experienced by a person is responded to by anticipating its potential consequences and relating them to desirable and undesirable conditions. (Of course, the opposite of such action---its inhibition---is also subject to the same processes.) Some of this process is conscious, especially when the situation is new, unfamiliar, very important, or ambiguous, but most of the expectancy and anticipation process is done preconsciously. Normally persons are not aware of the activity which occurs to determine an action; expectancies have become incorporated into automatic responses. The mind is efficient in making its activities automatic. First an action is consciously made in response to a need or situation. If it is successful (reinforced) it becomes habitual, and is taken automatically without the need of conscious attention, much as driving a car, sewing, tying your shoes, and smoking a cigarette are all composed of large blocks of now automatic actions which once had to be done with conscious attention at every point. Later only the major elements must be controlled with conscious attention, such as changing lanes when driving, searching for an ashtray, etc. How can an action be released without conscious attention? What must happen is that criteria for action and the particular action are connected by the conscious mind; then the process can be made automatically. When the criteria are fulfilled, then the action is made.(2) This suggests that there is some process or energy which releases action but which does not need conscious attention. Similarly, most of the expectancies around experiences are not conscious---only the more important ones or ones which are so complex as not to be automatically used. Such expectancies and anticipations function to keep behavior consistent, goal directed, and reasonably integrated. They help avoid conflicts within the personality and with the environment, including other persons. They have obvious survival value and undoubtedly are reinforced by our society and our own needs. The function of reinforcement is clear: The reinforcement value of the projected consequences of an action come to affect our decision to take or not to take the action. These expectancies are responses to possible futures, and orient our actions to the future} not the present. One of the major effects of marijuana is to decrease the strength of these expectancies and anticipations, on both conscious and preconscious levels. Thus in the high state the expectancy processes decrease their influence on behavior. Since these are always oriented to future states, they take attention away from perception of immediate experience and turn it to following imagined states. Thus when attention given to imagined states is reduced, the perception of the present experience will increase in strength or intensity, either because more energy is available for such awareness or because there are fewer processes to attend to, and present experience becomes relatively more predominant in the mental field. This enhancement of immediate experience is reflected in the effects of marijuana on sense data and time perception. Indeed, the decrease in expectancies, which are connected to goals, may be one of the reasons for the change in the awareness of time, since time is perceived in terms of changes, including changes in relation to a potential state of affairs. If the knowledge provided by expectancies is reduced, then the immediate experience will not be seen as a point in time with a future, but more as an event, per se. The reduction in the strength of expectancies also contributes to the increase in intensity of sensory experience. Objects as well as situations and actions are surrounded by our potential responses to them, such as our past experiences with them, how we might use them, other forms they have taken, how they are made, their qualities in other sense modalities, etc. When we perceive an object, whether a fire in a fireplace, a photograph of a fire, a fire engine, or a fiery speaker, not only are we aware of the object, but also we have incorporated in our awareness these other elements which give structure and meaning to the sense data. Thus we know that the object is a bird cage or a rib cage, and we know its qualities, functions, and potentials. Usually these are keyed to our verbal response, our classification, but they are known non-verbally as well (e.g., we can have emotional responses or motor responses without verbal responses). FUNCTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS Particularly important to us is the function of objects.(3) One sees this in a child's definition: a hole is to dig. A bridge is to walk over to get to the other side. Someone said that home is "A place where when you go there, they have to take you in." There is an essential effect of these operational definitions: they force classifications rather than specificity. Any hole is to dig and how hole X differs from hole Y is not important so long as each can be dug. My home is not different from your home, since they will both take us in. Such definitions attempt to capture some particular criteria of whatever they define. The criteria of definition are the only characteristics which need to be observed in perceiving the object, and we are trained to perceive in this way. We learn as children to see the function of objects and to see the similarities of objects, rather than experience them in all possible ways. The advantage of this is obvious: we survive because we can use the environment, we can generalize, we can cooperate within a socially constructed reality. The disadvantages are obvious: we may not see reality except in terms of functions, which shuts out an enormous amount of reality (some of which would be functional in various contexts). And often persons see objects only in terms of their own functional needs, which narrows their perspective considerably. (Psychologists might see persons as experimental subjects, an insurance salesman might see one as a prospect, etc.) This leads, incidentally, to failures of discrimination in perception, illustrated by the classical occidental observation that all Chinese look alike, and no doubt Chinese observe the same about occidentals. One of my friends took an astronomy course and discovered that stars were not all the same color, as he had previously perceived, but were red, blue, yellow, and white. This led him to realize that all trees looked alike to him. Of course he would not have said that they were identical, but I doubt if he could have told the differences between an elm and an oak, even standing in front of them, because a tree is with leaves and to be shaded by. And after all, which of us could easily describe essential differences between two holes dug by a child in the sand at the beach? Though the child probably could. Under marijuana the functional associations of objects are decreased in strength. In addition to this specific association, other associations such as verbal labeling and memory constructs of such objects are decreased in strength. Normally all these elements are imposed on the conscious experience of the object, some incorporated into the perception (such as seeing the object as a teapot) and some claiming attention on the periphery of consciousness (such as knowing it is hot and not touching it). When these associations are decreased there are fewer mental impositions on the sensory perception of the object. Aspects which would normally be shut out (such as a blemish on the teapot or the shape of the handle) are given equal attention, and hence are seen instead of being ignored. When attention is directed by goals, as it usually is in the normal state, it is simply not given to non-functional stimuli, i.e., elements that do not have anything to do with what the person wants at the moment. The person under marijuana is not seeing this object as "flowers" with a mental image of flowers and his memories of flowers being confirmed by these flowers, which are to look at and smell and if one can look at and smell these one has confirmed that they are flowers and that settles that part of reality, and so on to another. Rather he has a great deal of time and it is not urgent what uses these have or what consequences could result and much more of his awareness is filled by these flowers.. And there are textures, colors, shades, shapes, feels, crevices, shadows, smells; all things that are there; experienced rather than used. An important principle is that you can experience something only if you do not think in terms of its function. You can know what it is only if you do not impose what it will be or could be or ought to be. This often becomes quite evident under marijuana. This suggests a principle regarding processes of attention. When attention is reduced for some elements in perception, the amount given to other elements increases, as though attention is a mobile amount of energy, and when a quantity is not needed at one point it moves to another point. This is consistent with Freudian theory, which holds that as energy is released from conflict points it becomes available to the general system. With marijuana, when association processes reduce their demands on attention, it flows to whatever else is in the consciousness. (I am using a fluid metaphor, but other models will do equally well. Electrically one can speak in terms of activation. Cybernetically we could refer to homeostatic balancing of elements. Or we could talk of homunculi leaving the study and going to the patio.) ASSOCIATIONS This reduction of associations is an important basic effect of marijuana. It contributes to the expansion of time, to sensory enhancement, and to the increase in attention which is given to the focus of consciousness. However, not all association patterns are decreased in strength in the high state. Well known are the flights of fantasy and dreaming stimulated by hashish and cannabis.(4) And in non-fantasy high states users have reported that they can perceive connections and associations of ideas that were not accessible to them in the non-high state (usually called "straight" by users). This seems inconsistent with what I have just said about the decrease in association strength. However, while associations, particularly those based on social learning, are reduced in strength, any association may gain in strength if it becomes the focus of the detailed attention possible under marijuana. Thus fantasies and creative thinking may have increased associations and may be more fully developed than in the normal state of consciousness. The associations which are reduced in strength seem to be those which are learned through social reinforcement: meanings and behaviors which are taught by society. Functions of objects are socially taught. Patterns of communication are social. Language and verbal knowledge (Columbus discovered America in 1492) is social in origin. Inhibitions and controls on behavior are socially reinforced, and are often incorporated into the verbal system through "should" and "should not" statements. When social norms are the same as personal needs, desires, and meanings, there is consistency in the response to a situation or object. When conflict between social and personal directions occurs it must be resolved, and usually it is resolved in favor of social meanings, functions, and approved behavior (usually called rational). Thus the social perception of a situation may exclude many of the potential meanings, behaviors, and emotions. Under marijuana this excluding function of socially learned associations is reduced in strength. The excluding function has certain survival value. It keeps our consciousness from being dogged up with unnecessary and distracting contents. Thus a scholar looks at a book and notices the title but not the binding; for a book binder the opposite is the case. Associations which contribute to the goals of society are learned by persons through social reinforcement, and one effect of these associations is to inhibit other associations. Marijuana decreases this inhibition and lowers the reinforcement value of the association. In effect this makes all associations more equal, and the network of associations is less guided or channeled in socially reinforced directions. A person who is high may be aware that an object is a pencil, but he may successively also see it as a shape, a phallic metaphor, a geometrical solid, the printing on it, etc. He has more associations once they are away from the strict control of social perception. INHIBITIONS The same pattern can be seen in expectancies and anticipations. Socially oriented behavior makes great use of expectancies to control behavior in an effort to maximize approval and minimize or avoid disapproval, which are social reinforcers.(5) Such behavior thus involves a large amount of inhibition. By inhibition I mean any kind of control to prevent activity from reaching a certain level. The activity can be thoughts, action, fantasies, or emotions. Inhibitions in Freudian terms are controlled by anti-cathexes, in learning theory by aversive stimuli, and in terms used here, by expectations of aversive stimuli. Inhibitions need not be on anti-social acts, but are often to direct behavior into patterns normal in our society. Persons maintain appropriate social distances (which are arbitrary), you do not tug at the beard of someone you have just met (though the thought may cross your mind), and a man does not cry in public. These may seem minor but they are controlled with great power by social reinforcement, as can be seen by the strong rejection of the behavior if it occurs. Of course, inhibitions are also placed on behavior which would be dangerous to society, such as aggressive or destructive acts. When behavior is inhibited, the psychological tendency is to inhibit any mental activity which might lead to such behavior. Feelings, impulses, images, fantasies, etc., may be inhibited and decreased in strength, or even prevented from entering consciousness. Such inhibited feelings and impulses may appear in consciousness in the high state, often without effort of the person. This may cause anxiety and the person may use ego defense measures to block their appearance or diminish their threat. On the other hand, he can also use methods of analysis and self-therapy in the high state to deal with conflict material, and may free himself from neurotic responses. The effects of the reduction of social inhibitions can be seen in various ways. At marijuana social gatherings persons may not feel pressure to participate in conversational games, play behavior increases, physical activity may increase. The decrease of socially reinforced inhibitions also accounts for the actions of users which claim public attention: jumping over fireplugs and parking meters, uninhibited dancing (erotic and non-erotic), and playful behavior (which is subtly taboo in our society). Here the person is expressing impulses in behavior which would usually be inhibited by expectancy of negative social reinforcement (frowns, rejection, blame, punishment and other expressions of disapproval). However, this reduction in strength of social inhibitions does not usually result in anti-social acts (unless jumping fireplugs is considered anti-social). This is curious because social inhibitions are usually considered the bulwark against committing crimes, aggressing against others, raping women, etc. But we do not have cases of contemporary users of marijuana burglarizing or attacking others, though such effects are evident in the use of alcohol, where users are much more likely to express violent and aggressive behavior. Why then if inhibitions are reduced in strength do not users become violent and aggressive? One reason may be that aggression is usually specific to situations and expectancies about situations, and the use of marijuana today rarely is in a conflict situation. With reduced pressure from memories and expectancies one would also expect less non-relevant feeling. Beyond this, one of the psychological effects of marijuana is euphoria. Thus anger and aggressive impulses are less strong and do not draw much support from the rest of the personality. This effect may also be related to the decrease in the strength of social reinforcers, since chronic anger is often the result of conflicts between social requirements and personal desires. ATTENTION The process of attention is clearly affected by marijuana. The most obvious effect is to narrow the amount of diverse contents in the focus of attention. The person under marijuana usually perceives fewer objects of attention, which may mean physical objects, actions, social elements, emotions, etc. We have already noted this effect: a person who is high may become absorbed in an object, event, or process to the exclusion of everything else. A train of fantasy may occupy all of a person's attention. This is a psychological analogy of tunnel vision, with the contents of the tunnel expanded. In the normal, straight state, conscious and non-conscious processes give continual attentiveness to many internal and external stimuli, with responses such as awareness, memories, expectancies, and the many associations we have already noted. Many of these are conscious, especially those on which decisions are necessary. Others, and probably the bulk of the responses, autonomously operate without being consciously attended to, and come to consciousness only when necessary. These are in a preconscious state, but nevertheless involve perception, associations, memories, and expectancies.(6) Such processes often regulate behavior when consciousness does not intervene (as in driving a car automatically). But whenever novel stimuli appear or more than routine decisions must be made, the contents become part of the conscious state. In the consciousness processes connections can be made among several types of information, and in different contexts of meaning---making connections with the many factors relevant to a decision or the resolution of conflict.. Conscious attention moves easily from one interpretation to another interpretation of information, with the various memories and expectancies which go with each interpretation, thus obtaining more information for the decision. These interpretations and associations are drawn from the preconscious processes, which, alone, cannot make interconnections among themselves as fluidly as can consciousness. Connections of ideas are made in preconscious states, but these seem based on almost any relation, from contiguity to puns. Consciousness can select the significant or realistic connections and systematize their use. We can regard the conscious system as the system which does just that: selects and interprets information in relation to a goal or purpose. It does this when it is activated by attention energy. It may be that attention is the activating energy of awareness. Attention usually is in the conscious system, which consists of processes which select information to make decisions. It can also be activated in preconscious contents, which contain information, emotional values, and random associations. Most of the time awareness is of the conscious processes. Under marijuana attention-awareness energy may move into the preconscious system and be less in consciousness processes. Since there are fewer elements in attention the person is more strongly aware of any individual element of meaning, memory, emotion, etc., and less of its relation to other elements which would be relevant in the conscious system. Whatever is in the center of attention occupies all of awareness: this may be sensory data, such as visual stimuli, or imagery, such as fantasies. The effect can be termed a unity of attention, in that all attention is focused on one subject. In normal conscious states, several channels can be used at once, e.g., reading a book while listening to music. Attention may alternate, but even so keeps all channels of input on the edge of attention. This does not occur with marijuana, which so far as awareness goes, fills the attention with one thing at a time. If one is recalling an experience from the memory, then almost all attention is on the event, and almost none on the external environment, expectancies or plans. Processes in normal states which seem to parallel this would be extreme concentration on a book or television, exciting conversations, and the state of romantic love. It is not the case that there is less attention, for the quantity seems at least the same. Analogically it is as though a portion of a photograph were blown up to the size of the original picture, thus maintaining the size of the print but increasing the magnification of a smaller relative section. Some of the processes which contribute to this effect are obvious. The reduction in expectancies and associations reduces peripheral contents of consciousness. Many of these elements are maintained continuously at a low level, appropriate to the environment and needs of the person. Some items are continuously monitored, much as a hostess may habitually check how each of her guests is getting along. Such monitoring takes some attention away from any central content, just as the hostess may not concentrate fully on her own conversation if she is attending to the state of her party. However, without the need for these side glances, attention flows to the central subject. This means that the plans, anticipations, etc., are not automatically attended to, although if such an element enters the central position it receives the intense central attention and is attended to in great detail. Peripheral attention and its contents are reduced in the high state; central attention receives the energy which would otherwise be used in peripheral attention. This could be because each type of attention is different, and thus differentially affected, or because the peripheral contents are reduced in strength because of the reduction in the strength of associations. The latter seems to be true; the former may be also. MEMORY One of the processes important in perception is the comparing of current input with similar past experience. When we see a friend, a memory image of his face is presented to our consciousness along with the sensation of his actual present appearance. This memory image (which can be called a schema) blends with the current sensation, so that the perception is a combination of the two. The relative strengths of each source of information probably vary from person to person. Some primarily perceive the memory image, with the sensory input serving as confirmation of the identification. For others, the memory image may be so weak that reorientation and identification is continually necessary. Though the construction and recall of this image is not clearly understood, it must be partially constructed from previous experience of the stimulus (including verbal knowledge) up to a point where the person knows all he needs to know for purposes of his response. After this, encounters with the stimulus do not add to the memory image appreciably; further discrimination is unnecessary and the image stabilizes. (Of course, the person may continue to make discriminations. One of the valued behaviors in science is to make perceptual discriminations for which we have no functional need, assuming that such information is valuable per se or may be valuable later.) Most persons rely principally on memory images in perception unless there are evident differences in the immediate situation, and their responses are keyed to the memory image. Consequently we do not respond only to immediate experience. We identify current experience according to past experience and then respond on the basis of past experience, modified by whatever differences we perceive to be significant in the current information. Our actions originate from past experience, they are connected to the structures built up in our memories, and these memories are elicited by the immediate stimulus. In unfamiliar settings, no memory image is available. Then we must deliberately and consciously act, randomly act, follow instructions or models, or act according to the most similar memory image. Any situation is a combination of elements, and may call for complex combinations of memories and response patterns, some new, some familiar. Marijuana has two effects on this process. The first is to reduce the general automatic availability of memory images; the second is to increase the strength of memories when they are relevant to central needs. We have already discussed the general reduction in strength of memories in response to current experience, which is principally in the automatic recall of memory schema. The strength or visibility of the mental image is reduced, with a resulting increase in the brightness of the data themselves (there being nothing else to look at). This explains also why experiences seem new: they are observed without the feeling of familiarity caused by memory images. For most persons in straight consciousness it is likely that sensation is checked against a memory image (at a preconscious level) and what is seen from the current stimulus is what is necessary to fulfill the criteria for identification, based on the memory schema. The relevant elements, the criteria, are affected by the goals or functions which are important to the person. We do not perceive dust on a typewriter when we look for something to type on. When we look for a friend in a crowd we do not look at his face, we identify it. Similarly, in conversation and daily life we generally know what we are seeing, so perception is more identification than observation. However, when fewer memory images are available, as when high, one must respond to the sense data as unfamiliar material. This may cause anxiety, depending on the individual and the environment, or it may result in pleasure at the enhancement or challenge of current perception. It may also increase the potential responses, since there is less pressure for a learned habitual response, which would normally inhibit other responses. (This may, incidentally, suggest an explanation for the jamais vu sensation, in which there is the feeling that a normally familiar situation is totally unfamiliar. Several experiences of jamais vu reported to me seem to have occurred when there are unfamiliar emotional elements present, as though the usual memory schema and their associated responses were not available.) At the same time, some memory images may be strengthened if they are emotionally salient. A person having paranoid fears, for example, may find his imagery increased in strength. One person reports that once when high he observed a friend sitting to one side of him staring directly at him. He turned to face his friend and found him looking in another direction, his face turned partially away from him. Apparently a fear activated the image of a full staring face, which was superimposed on the profile of the other person. It may be that psychotic or schizophrenic perceptual projections are partially caused by increased internal imagery. Under marijuana, at least, emotional force may activate internal imagery which is used to search for, identify, or interpret incoming stimuli. So also if the person deliberately attempts to recall past experiences there will often be increased recall, either of events in great detail or Hashes of experiences. This is particularly true if there is salient emotional content. Recall which appears to be eidetic may occur under marijuana, and images which are like playbacks of the original perceptual experience may become accessible at will to conscious attention. If the conscious attention is allowed to unfocus, so that only monitoring is going on, almost instantaneous images can be obtained of visual and sometimes auditory or tactile stimuli. The image must be seen when it occurs; if there is an attempt to hold it in consciousness a mental composite image takes its place. It is possible that what occurs is an activation of the actual memory record, selected from the stream of consciousness which is recorded in the brain.(7) Only one flash comes at a time. This ability, incidentally, has been transferred to straight, non-high control after it has been observed under marijuana. The essential feature seems to be in allowing the conscious attention not to try to hold on to the image when it appears. One must learn to see rather than look. Another type of memory which is strengthened is that for emotion-laden events. Strong emotional responses, such as grief, fear, guilt, etc., often arise under marijuana. These are responses to remembered events, responses which might normally be suppressed. Usually the person's sense of identity is functioning, so he can either accept the emotion and be a part of it, which is usually therapeutic, or reject it, which may produce dissonance and anxiety. "Bad trips" are sometimes caused by emotions or pressures which threaten the person's self concept or his sense of control. While suppression processes are usually not too effective as defenses, distraction is, because of the mobile flow of attention under marijuana. For this reason, movement such as dancing, running, exercise, showers, etc., will usually change the emotional tone. One other effect on memory should be noted. Normally we have a short-term recall process which holds memories in access for about 20 minutes, and then a long-term storage, which is permanent. In the high state, short-term memory becomes shorter, and in very high states the sequence of thoughts is not remembered past one or two transitions. The sequence can sometimes be recalled with an effort, or reconstructed, but there is no automatic remembering as there is normally. On the other hand, after the high, events within it can be remembered, indicating that at least some of the experiences are being filed in long-term memory. Partly due to the reduction in strength of memory there is less intellectual control over the stream of consciousness. Memory seems to be needed to maintain concepts or goals under which to manipulate thoughts. Another cause of the reduced control is the lowered inhibition processes, which are used in thinking to filter irrelevant material and keep it from cluttering the conscious attention. Logical ideas and connections may also be enforced by such inhibitions; these would be loosened by the decrease in association strength. VARIABLES In general for marijuana to have effects the user must cooperate with it and facilitate the effects. He must learn to allow himself to respond. There are some persons whose response to marijuana is almost unnoticeable; their consciousness seems not to change. These may be persons who have fears about and strong defenses against losing control, and elements of their feeling, thoughts, or action which threaten their control are strongly rejected. Such personality systems are endangered by marijuana effects and often maintain their structure against these effects. Sometimes they will respond, but what effects are occurring will be blocked from their conscious awareness. The most noticeable effect is often time distortion, indicated by long silences and broken often by a comment that nothing is happening. The effect of the physical and interpersonal setting on the response to marijuana is strong and usually controls the tone of the experience. The basic fact is that the individual creates the reaction, not the drug. If the person feels under pressure, then the drug will enhance his feeling of stress, and the effect will depend on how the person can deal with the stimulus. If he feels energetic, the drug will enhance his willingness to be active. Some persons become less self- conscious, others more self-conscious. Some move physically, others sit quietly. Some talk, others are silent. Users of marijuana are as individual as they are. For this reason, one must expect different effects to occur from different times and varying physical and interpersonal surroundings. For some the effect is quite different when smoked alone than with other persons, probably because social situations elicit different personality elements and present various pressures. These variable factors should be noted in considering research and investigation of the effects of marijuana. The plant probably does everything anybody has claimed for it, but only in a situation which enables it to do whatever is claimed for it. One highly respectable philosopher and author, who has explored a variety of chemicals, says that marijuana will take a person as far as LSD. To which I would add, especially if you can go as far as LSD on it. This is not tautologous, for it cannot be said of coffee or orange juice; even if you are ready, coffee will not take you there. There are further effects of marijuana which relate to complex structures of association, learning, values, intra-personality communication, interpersonal perception, and consciousness. It is difficult to separate the awareness of these effects from the effects of the awareness. It seems best to stop at this point, having discussed what seems verbalizable at present. Given facilitating conditions, the effects I have described will develop. Sensations are enhanced and clarified: sight, hearing, taste, touch. Time perception changes. Attention becomes more unified, and moves more into preconscious material and the state of pure awareness. The many broad processes of association, such as social meanings, memory images, expectancies, and plans are reduced in number and relevance. Inhibitions and suppressions relax, allowing emotions, thoughts, fantasies, and memories to How more freely. The development and strength of these effects will depend on the individual, the times he has used marijuana, how he has used marijuana, and the environment. References (1) See "Time and the Unconscious" by Marie Bonaparte (1940) for speculation on this problem from the framework of psychoanalysis. (2) This is the behavior structure described insightfully in Plans and the Structure of Behavior, by George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram (1960). (3) An excellent discussion of this and other relations of language to perception is in Semantics and Communication, by John C. Condon (1966, Chapter 3). (4) Accounts of such experiences can be found in The Drug Experience (Ebin, 61). (5) Julian B. Rotter (I955) discusses this process in "The Role of the Psychological Situation in Determining the Direction of Human Behavior." (6) By preconscious processes, I mean a state of mental functioning which goes on outside of conscious attention. Lawrence Kubie describes this foggy territory in Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process ( 1961 ) . (7) This kind of recall can be obtained by electrical stimulation of the brain. See Wilder Penfield and Larnar Roberts' book Speech and Brain Mechanisms (1959), Chapter 3. From: Altered States of Consciousness, edited by Charles T. Tart, Doubleday & Co., 1972, Chapter 22 more... |
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| ALS for 22 Years; Activism for 11 Years - Urgent Message! [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:42:36 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: ALS for 22 Years; Activism for 11 Years - Urgent Message! This touched my heart and made me cry. So I had to share.. more... |
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| Re: Highly Specialized International FDA Regulatory Compliance Firm Signs With Cannabis Science to Prepa [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:59:26 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Highly Specialized International FDA Regulatory Compliance Firm Signs With Cannabis Science to Prepa Dr Bob Melamede will be at MardiGrass 2010 speaking on his research and about his company cannabis science Inc. more... |
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| Cancer and Cannabis Science [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:27:38 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Cancer and Cannabis Science Cancer  Description Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. The branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is oncology. Cancer affects people at all ages with the risk for most types increasing with age. Cancer caused about 13% of all human deaths in 2007 (7.6 million). Cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may randomly occur through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus present in all cells from birth. The heritability of cancers is usually affected by complex interactions between carcinogens and the host's genome. Genetic abnormalities found in cancer typically affect two general classes of genes. Cancer-promoting oncogenes are typically activated in cancer cells, giving those cells new properties, such as hyperactive growth and division, protection against programmed cell death, loss of respect for normal tissue boundaries, and the ability to become established in diverse tissue environments. Tumor suppressor genes are then inactivated in cancer cells, resulting in the loss of normal functions in those cells, such as accurate DNA replication, control over the cell cycle, orientation and adhesion within tissues, and interaction with protective cells of the immune system. Definitive diagnosis requires the histologic examination of a biopsy specimen, although the initial indication of malignancy can be symptomatic or radiographic imaging abnormalities. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for different varieties of cancer. There has been significant progress in the development of targeted therapy drugs that act specifically on detectable molecular abnormalities in certain tumors, and which minimize damage to normal cells. The prognosis of cancer patients is most influenced by the type of cancer, as well as the stage, or extent of the disease. In addition, histologic grading and the presence of specific molecular markers can also be useful in establishing prognosis, as well as in determining individual treatments. The Cannabis Science J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2009 Nov 4. [Epub ahead of print] Antitumorigenic Effects of Cannabinoids Beyond Apoptosis. Freimuth N, Ramer R, Hinz B. University of Rostock. According to the World Health Organization the cases of death caused by cancer will have been doubled until the year 2030. By 2010 cancer is expected to be the cause of death number one. It is therefore necessary to explore novel approaches for the treatment of cancer. During past years the antitumorigenic effects of cannabinoids have emerged as an exciting field in cancer research. Apart from their proapoptotic and antiproliferative action, recent research has shown that cannabinoids may likewise affect tumor cell angiogenesis, migration, invasion, adhesion and metastasation. This review will summarize the data concerning the influence of cannabinoids on these locomotive processes beyond modulation of cancer cell apoptosis and proliferation. The findings discussed here provide a new perspective on the antitumorigenic potential of cannabinoids. PMID: 19889794 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2009 Aug;30(8):411-20. Epub 2009 Jul 14. The Endocannabinoid System of the Skin in Health and Disease: Novel Perspectives and Therapeutic Opportunities. Bíró T, Tóth BI, Haskó G, Paus R, Pacher P. Department of Physiology, University of Debrecen, Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Debrecen 4032, Hungary. biro@phys.dote.huThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The newly discovered endocannabinoid system (ECS; comprising the endogenous lipid mediators endocannabinoids present in virtually all tissues, their G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors, biosynthetic pathways and metabolizing enzymes) has been implicated in multiple regulatory functions both in health and disease. Recent studies have intriguingly suggested the existence of a functional ECS in the skin and implicated it in various biological processes (e.g. proliferation, growth, differentiation, apoptosis and cytokine, mediator or hormone production of various cell types of the skin and appendages, such as the hair follicle and sebaceous gland). It seems that the main physiological function of the cutaneous ECS is to constitutively control the proper and well-balanced proliferation, differentiation and survival, as well as immune competence and/or tolerance, of skin cells. The disruption of this delicate balance might facilitate the development of multiple pathological conditions and diseases of the skin (e.g. acne, seborrhea, allergic dermatitis, itch and pain, psoriasis, hair growth disorders, systemic sclerosis and cancer). PMCID: PMC2757311, PMID: 19608284 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE: The Endocannabinoid System of the Skin in Health & Disease J Clin Invest. 2009 May;119(5):1359-72. Cannabinoid Action Induces Autophagy-Mediated Cell Death Through Stimulation of ER Stress in Human Glioma Cells. Salazar M, Carracedo A, Salanueva IJ, Hernández-Tiedra S, Lorente M, Egia A, Vázquez P, Blázquez C, Torres S, García S, Nowak J, Fimia GM, Piacentini M, Cecconi F, Pandolfi PP, González-Feria L, Iovanna JL, Guzmán M, Boya P, Velasco G. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2alpha (eIF2alpha) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3-dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers. PMCID: PMC2673842, PMID: 19425170 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE: Cannabinoid Action Induces Autophagy-Mediated Cell... Source: http://www.cannabisscience.com more... |
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| Brain Trauma and Cannabis Science [by Moose] | ||
| Published: | Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:11:23 +0300 | |
| Description: | Medical Cannabis:: Brain Trauma and Cannabis Science Brain Trauma  Description Traumatic brain injury (TBI, also called intracranial injury) occurs when an outside force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism (closed or penetrating head injury), or other features (e.g. occurring in a specific location or over a widespread area). Head injury usually refers to TBI, but is a broader category because it can involve damage to structures other than the brain, such as the scalp and skull. TBI is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. Causes include falls, vehicle accidents, and violence. Prevention measures include use of technology to protect those who are in accidents, such as seat belts and sports or motorcycle helmets, as well as efforts to reduce the number of accidents, such as safety education programs and enforcement of traffic laws. Brain trauma can be caused by a direct impact or by acceleration alone. In addition to the damage caused at the moment of injury, brain trauma causes secondary injury, a variety of events that take place in the minutes and days following the injury. These processes, which include alterations in cerebral blood flow and the pressure within the skull, contribute substantially to the damage from the initial injury. TBI can cause a host of physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects, and outcome can range from complete recovery to permanent disability or death. The 20th century has seen critical developments in diagnosis and treatment which have decreased death rates and improved outcome. These include imaging techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Depending on the injury, treatment required may be minimal or may include interventions such as medications and emergency surgery. Physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy may be employed for rehabilitation. The Cannabis Science Postgrad Med J. 2004 Nov;80(949):650-3. Management of Traumatic Brain Injury: Some Current Evidence and Applications. Guha A. Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery and University Hospital Aintree, Longmoor Lane, Liverpool L9 7AL, UK. arpan1@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Traumatic brain injury remains a worldwide problem. Newer modalities in the management of such injuries include both drugs and therapeutic strategies. Continuing research in animal models has provided a better understanding of the pathophysiological processes that follow head injury, and this in turn has enabled workers to work on improved treatment targets. Although there are exciting and novel approaches emerging, there is no substitute for meticulous initial resuscitation. Additionally, some of the more well known management options are now better understood. These concepts are discussed in the article. PMCID: PMC1743133, PMID: 15537849 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE: Management of Traumatic Brain Injury. Pain Res Manag. 2001 Summer;6(2):67-73. The Cannabinoids: An Overview. Therapeutic Implications in Vomiting and Nausea After Cancer Chemotherapy, in Appetite Promotion, in Multiple Sclerosis and in Neuroprotection. Mechoulam R, Hanu L. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. mechou@cc.huji.ac.ilThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The present paper describes the historical use of cannabis, starting with its use in Assyria and China. Recent advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of cannabis action are explained, including the identification of the cannabinoid receptors CB(1) and CB(2), as well as the isolation of endogenous cannabinoids from the brain and periphery. The use of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol as an anti-vomiting and anti-nausea drug for cancer chemotherapy, and as an appetite-enhancing agent is described. Clinical work in multiple sclerosis, which may lead to the approval of tetrahydrocannabinol as a drug for this condition, is presented. Preclinical and clinical investigations with cannabidiol, a non-psychotropic cannabis constituent, are also described. Recent work with cannabidiol in animal models of rheumatoid arthritis may lead to clinical investigations. A synthetic cannabinoid, HU-211 (Dexanabinol), is in advanced clinical stages of investigation as a neuroprotectant in head trauma. The above clinical approaches may ultimately lead to the realization that cannabinoids are valuable clinical drugs in numerous fields. PMID: 11854768 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE: The Cannabinoids: An Overview. Source: http://www.cannabisscience.com/ more... |
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