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‘Gateway’ Drug May Actually Break Cocaine Addiction
Incredible to believe: that the “smoke of hell,” that reefer madness condemned for almost a century might actually be the new big anti-addiction therapy.
The study announced in Nature Neuroscience found that the component in marijuana called cannabidiol can turn off a brain receptor that’s stimulated by cocaine, without causing inebriation.
It is also rumored that marijuana is used to break smoking addictions. Whatever the case, we implore science to find some resolution and stop giving cocaine to mice!
~Health Freedoms
Study: Marijuana compound helps mitigate cocaine addiction in mice
Researchers in Maryland and Beijing have learned that a component marijuana helps mitigate cocaine addiction in mice, leading some to hope that marijuana may one day become the next big anti-addiction therapy.
The discovery was announced in the July 2011 edition of Nature Neuroscience.
The study found that cannabidiol, an active component of marijuana that does not produce an inebriating effect, effectively turns down a receptor in the brain that is stimulated by cocaine.
Scientists used a synthetic version of cannabidiol, called JWH-133, to see how mice given regular doses of cocaine would respond. They found that mice given JWH-133 dramatically reduced their cocaine intake by up to 60 percent.
Their success in reducing cocaine consumption in mice may lead to new drug replacement therapies for cocaine and crack addiction, helping addicts detox and overcome withdrawal symptoms much like methadone therapy sometimes prescribed to heroin addicts.
As a recreational drug, marijuana produces less dependence and withdrawal effects than even caffeine. Cocaine is much more intoxicating and produces a strong reinforcing effect that makes a user more likely to use the drug again.
JWH-133 is closely related to JWH-018, which has been the subject of recent controversy for its appearance in “Spice” and other herbal smoking blends purported to produce marijuana-like highs. While JWH-133 does not produce such effects, JWH-018 and other similar test chemicals do, leading the Drug Enforcement Administration to place a series of them on their list of controlled substances.
The International Narcotics Control Board, an independent agency set up by the United Nations,said recently that banning JWH-018 was a positive step in drug control efforts, but urged industrialized nations to go further and also adopt blanket bans on new substances to prevent the rise of new designer drugs — a policy recommendation that, if adopted, would also apply to JWH-133.
(H/T: Time)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/26/study-marijuana-compound-helps-mitigate-cocaine-addiction-in-mice/
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“As a recreational drug, marijuana produces less dependence and withdrawal effects than even caffeine.”
That may be true from a physical standpoint, but the amount of friends and family I have seen suffer from the extreme psychological addiction and dependence that marijuana causes says otherwise. I understand the benefits that this drug provides, for pain, etc… but am not convinced it outweighs the fog of confusion and debilitating inertness it creates in those who become habitually addicted. It frustrates me that many talk about pot like it’s this wonder drug and ignore the negative aspects.
There are, no doubt, negative effects with marijuana. However, when you consider it is a natural substance, and compare it’s effects to that of “legal” prescription medications, I think you’ll agree that these “debilitating” side effects you mention are quite small. Besides, you are talking about people that have become habitual users. No psycho active substance should be used habitually, but if you had to pick one that was the absolutely least harmful and actually has beneficial properties, well, you’d be left with marijuana. Make it legal, put controls on it similar to alchohol, and you’ll see far fewer people having problems with it, since the majority of problems related to it are all due to it being classed with far more dangerous substances like heroin, resulting in otherwise law abiding citizens doing jail time and paying large fines to the government (it is in a class considered more dangerous than cocaine…….does that make any sense at all???).
The reason it’s negative aspects are not emphasized is precisely because they are so minimal.
Non-users are incorrect in their presumption that when inactivity arises in correlation with cannabinoid supplementation that it is a blind inactivity. The person becomes deeply aware that being “successful” is essentially fruitless and that the continuation of that kind of lifestyle is responsible for the damage and death of countless men, women, and children. It is activity that has ruined this planet, it is very noble to do nothing.
Please bear in mind that studies in mice quite often bear no reflection on what actually happens in human beings. They’ve “cured cancer” aq number of times in mice, haven’t they? The only way to know what a drug is going to do to a human being is to try it in a human being.