Medical Marijuana: Drug of Abuse!

Phil Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist.

Image courtesy: firedupmissouri.com

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - There appear to be many people out there who don’t seem to know or accept the fact that the body produces marijuana like substance called Anandamide.

Ananda is Sanskrit for bliss! There is also another called 2-Archididonyl glycerol (2-AG). There are probably a few others. They are released and act as hormones in the body as a response to stress or pleasure. In fact they may cause pleasure. After all, one of the purported adverse side effects of marijuana is said to be euphoria or feeling good, just like pleasure.

There is a hormone in the body called dopamine which is a relative of adrenaline which is also called stress hormone.

Dopamine is the “pleasure hormone” released during pleasurable activities and possibly stress. Sex relations and the so called distance runners “high” cause the release of dopamine.

There are others. The unusual fact is that dopamine in turn releases the bodies own cannabinoids: Marijuana or THC, the plant produced. Cannabinoid, causes euphoria which can be closely related to pleasure or bliss. THC also causes anandamide to release and it may be that this is the mechanism by which THC and other cannabinoids such as CBD and CBN work.

The above information has been extracted from the article “The Brains Own Marijuana,” in the Scientific American magazine, December 2004 by R.A. Nicoll and B.E. Alger.

For anybody to continually state that cannabis is a drug of abuse is stretching rationality. I guess that they must feel that coffee and aspirin are drugs of abuse because they both make people feel better.

While I’m discussing this, remember nicotine from tobacco is a poison and “Black Leaf Forty” from tobacco was a widely used insecticide and homicidal agent for many years. Drug of abuse!?

I’ll admit as a toxicologist that a person can overdose on cannabis as well as almost all other medications. Any adverse effects from this are usually minor with short term anxiety or panic attacks probably the worst. Sometimes a person will make it up with sleep.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR DR. LEVEQUE? Email: newsroom@salem-news.com or simply write a comment at the bottom of the page. You do not have to use your real name if you are not comfortable doing so. We will do our best to have your questions addressed in upcoming segments.

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S. LaMarche; September 4, 2007 11:51 pm (Pacific time)

Legalize It.

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