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Cannabis improves the mind.

by Open-Publishing - Monday 17 October 2005
17 comments

Edito Health Sciences

Cannabis boosts brain power in rats

by Medical Research News

Scientists now say that Cannabis, the third most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco, could boost brain power.

Canadian researchers found that experiments on rats which were given a potent cannabinoid, showed the drug stimulates the growth of new brain cells.

It appears that the drug caused neurons to regenerate in the hippocampus, an area that controls mood and emotions, after one month of treatment.

Apparently its effect was similar to that of the antidepressant drug Prozac, which also stimulates nerve growth in the hippocampus. The rats were less anxious and more willing to eat in a novel environment that would normally make them fearful.

The new research suggests that the size of the dose may be crucial. The results showed that regular injections of high, but not low, doses of the artificial cannabinoid HU210 were associated with anti-anxiety and antidepressive effects.

The researchers from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, say that most drugs, including alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine, have been shown to destroy nerve cells in the hippocampus. This study suggests that cannabinoids are the only illicit drug that can promote adult hippocampal neurogenesis following chronic administration.

This new finding does of course contradict previous research highlighting the risks of cannabis use, including a heightened degree of psychosis in vulnerable users, and an increased risk of lung cancer similar to that in tobacco smokers.

The authors agree that regular cannabis users are known to suffer acute memory impairment, as well as dependency and withdrawal symptoms, but the new research suggests that the size of the dose may be crucial.

The results showed that regular injections of high, but not low, doses of the artificial cannabinoid HU210 were associated with anti-anxiety and antidepressive effects.

The scientists say that these complicated effects of high and low doses of acute and chronic exposure to cannabinoids may explain the seemingly conflicting results observed in clinical studies regarding the effects of cannabinoid on anxiety and depression.

The study emerged from the recent discovery that, unlike other parts of the brain, the hippocampus can generate neurons throughout the lifespan of mammals, including humans.

The team says that natural selection has conserved cannabinoid receptors in animals that have been separated by evolution for 500 million years, suggesting they have an important biological role.

Cannabinoids appear to alter the effects of pain, nausea, tumours, sclerosis and other disorders in both animals and humans.

In the experiment the rats were given regular injections of HU210 for a month. At the end of this time, hungry animals showed significantly less reluctance to eat in a novel environment. Rats are normally neophobic - wary of new situations.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=13765

Forum posts

  • I think that’s a really good....shit what did you say? Oh yeah its true, man , weed makes evrything.... its all clear now...

    What ?

    Yeah ok.

  • I tried it once.

    But I never exhaled.

  • fuck yeah

    this is good news all round
    time for a spliff i think
    ;D

  • an all natural plant that like anything can be a good thing or bad if abused..like patatoes. But actually lsd could save the world. We all need to do a trip.

    • What a waste of good grass man -giving it to rats. Did you dry and smoke the rats ?

    • There are so many medicinal uses of cannabis, Multiple schlerosis, Parkinsons, epilepsy, insomnia, arthritis, ADHT, and so on.....
      Corporate drug peddlars denigrate cannabis, whilst busilly trying to patent their own synthetic versions.

      http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showforum=135

    • Improve your mathematical mind.
      If...each ounce of cannibis contains 100 seeds and
      if 1 million people plant these seeds everywhere, (parks-river banks etc.)
      that will become potentially 100 million plants.
      If the number of smoker/planters is ten times as much,
      it will become 1 billion potential plants.
      If the average smoker buys 10 ounces a year and plants the seeds,
      there will be 10 billion potential plants to harvest.
      How much time and money will it take, for the powers that be, to remove 10 billion potential plants?
      Perhaps they will give up on their insane policies regarding medicinal cannibis.

  • Dude, where’s my car?

    • I’m sorry, I think you’ll find I ordered a cheeseburger..

    • Two rats escaped, and were later found at a Toronto cafeteria, sipping mocca, and arguing over the principal points of Zorastrian philosophy, and whether or not communism was a product of the industrial revolution, or a non-starter in social phil;osophies, the idea that a small minority could control the majority, or was that capitalism, or.....
      " No, wait", said the one rat, "All this caffeine is proving too much".
      "Do you serve weed?" said the other rat,
      "And do you get many rodents in here?,"
      "I`m lonely".said the first rat.
      "What" said the waiter, "Do we get many lonely, hungry, politically motivated and socially aware rodents here?"
      "No sir, not here, out on the coast, Vancouver maybe."

      So the rats decided to return to the lab, where at least there was a chance of some good weed, and maybe an intelligent conversation, and anyway, too much caffeine was sending them mad.

      Alfred E. Neuman. (Rodent-in-chief to the president).

      http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=2001

    • Well done. It’s so good to see some humour on this dreary site.

    • Glad to see you’re contributing to the humour.

  • Cheech and Chong films never received the acclaim they deserved.

    • It’s about £140 an ounce for good stuff here in the UK. But , hey man it’s brain food.

      Isn’t it ?

  • I smoked it from 1969 to 2004.

    35 years.

    Never had any problems from the weed itself, but got tired of dealing with the negative social factors. The expense and hassle of purchasing it, hiding my stash, sneaking around trying to smoke it without getting caught by police and neighbors. I lived in a small town where it would be a major scandal if I got caught. I am a responsible person that lives an otherwise quiet and conservative life and I grew tired of having this "secret life" that I had to hide.

    So I quit and life is a lot easier. If I want to cop a buzz, I can take a few bucks and go to any store in town and legally buy a couple bottles of Rolling Rock beer and Its no big scandal if someone sees me drinking some. The high I get is not as great as the weed but thats the way life is when you live in a Fascist dictatorship.

    I hope to move to Belize in a few years to escape from the Bush Nazis. If I can buy some without a lot of expense and hassle and smoke it without having to worry about getting shot by a SWAT team, I might take it up again.