Overview of the Endocannabinoid system.
Medicinal cannabis is routinely recommended for a wide variety of conditions. For example, in California, patients can qualify for cannabis medicine if they have AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cachexia, cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma, migraines, muscle spasms, seizures, nausea, or other chronic symptoms. This begs the question – how can cannabis be recommended for so many different […]
Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say
Compared with other recreational drugs — including alcohol — marijuana may be even safer than previously thought. And researchers may be systematically underestimating risks associated with alcohol use. Those are the top-line findings of recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature. Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with […]
Comparative risk assessment of alcohol,tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs using the margin of exposure approach
This originally appeared at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4311234/pdf/srep08126.pdf A comparative risk assessment of drugs including alcohol and tobacco using the margin of exposure (MOE)approach was conducted. The MOE is defined as ratio between toxicological threshold (benchmark dose)and estimated human intake. Median lethal dose values from animal experiments were used to derive thebenchmark dose. The human intake was calculated […]
Daily Marijuana Use Is Not Associated with Brain Morphometric Measures in Adolescents or Adults
Barbara J. Weiland, Rachel E. Thayer, Brendan E. Depue, Amithrupa Sabbineni, Angela D. Bryan and Kent E. Hutchison Journal of Neuroscience 28 January 2015, 35 (4) 1505-1512; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2946-14.2015 Abstract Recent research has suggested that marijuana use is associated with volumetric and shape differences in subcortical structures, including the nucleus accumbens and amygdala, in a […]
Effect of marijuana use on outcomes in traumatic brain injury
Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Several studies have demonstrated neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids. The objective of this study was to establish a relationship between the presence of a positive toxicology screen for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and mortality after TBI. A 3-year retrospective review of registry data at a Level […]
The pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and ease of use of a novel portable metered-dose cannabis inhaler in patients with chronic neuropathic pain: a phase 1a study
ABSTRACT Chronic neuropathic pain is often refractory to standard pharmacological treatments. Although growing evidence supports the use of inhaled cannabis for neuropathic pain, the lack of standard inhaled dosing plays a major obstacle in cannabis becoming a “main stream” pharmacological treatment for neuropathic pain. The objective of this study was to explore the pharmacokinetics, safety, […]
Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects
Abstract The hippocampal dentate gyrus in the adult mammalian brain contains neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) capable of generating new neurons, i.e., neurogenesis. Most drugs of abuse examined to date decrease adult hippocampal neurogenesis, but the effects of cannabis (marijuana or cannabinoids) on hippocampal neurogenesis remain unknown. This study aimed at investigating the potential regulatory capacity […]
No, marijuana use doesn’t lower your IQ
A 2012 Duke University study made international headlines when it purported to find a link between heavy marijuana use and IQ decline among teenagers. Other researchers questioned the findings almost immediately: Columbia University’s Carl Hart noted the very small sample of heavy users (38) in the study, leading him to question how generalizable the results […]
Short Definitions
Abhidharma Literally meaning “higher knowledge,” Abhidharma refers to a collection of Buddhist scriptures that pertain to psychology, phenomenology, and cosmology. anatman Literally meaning “no-self,” anatman refers to an important Buddhist teaching according to which any notion of an eternal principle that is thought to constitute the real self of our existence is rejected. arhat Literally “foe destroyer,” arhat […]
The Chinese Room Argument
The argument and thought-experiment now generally known as the Chinese Room Argument was first published in a 1980 article by American philosopher John Searle (1932– ). It has become one of the best-known arguments in recent philosophy. Searle imagines himself alone in a room following a computer program for responding to Chinese characters slipped under […]
