cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Has Potential for Misuse Marijuana Has Potential for Misuse Posted by FoM on October 20, 2000 at 07:05:48 PT By Abi Berger, BMJ Source: British Medical Journal Marijuana has the potential for misuse, according to a study from the United States. New evidence that monkeys self administer the active component of marijuana has been shown by Dr Steven Goldberg and his team at the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore (Nature Neuroscience 2000;3:1073-4). One of the criteria used to help decide if a drug has the potential for misuse is whether animals will work to obtain it. This is known as self administration. Virtually all psychoactive drugs misused by humans, including nicotine, have been shown to be self administered by animals, but up to now a positive self administration test has been elusive whenever THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active part of marijuana, has been tested. This has led to some people concluding that marijuana is less likely to lead to drug misuse than other illegal substances. Dr Goldberg, a pharmacologist at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, has shown now that monkeys can be trained to self administer THC. In this study the team used a lowbut clinically relevantdose of THC administered intravenously in a clear solution. This solution rapidly distributed THC to the brain. Previous attempts to show self administration, using much higher doses of THC held in a suspension, failed. One reason for this may be that, although higher doses were used, the suspension resulted in less brain penetration. In this study the monkeys had previously been trained to self administer cocaine by pressing a lever 10 times. When saline was substituted for cocaine, self administration stopped. When THC replaced the saline, the monkeys quickly started to press the lever again. The monkeys gave themselves about 30 injections during an hour long session, which equates roughly with the dose received by a person smoking a marijuana joint. The team went on to confirm that giving the monkeys a second drug that directly blocks cannabinoid receptors in the brain could prevent self administration. This suggests that THC antagonists may be useful in combating marijuana addiction in humans. Dr Goldberg's team will next be trying their approach in "naive" monkeys (animals that have not previously been exposed to other psychoactive drugs) to see if this alters the animals' behaviour. Dr Goldberg's team concludes from its observations that THC "has as much potential for abuse as other drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and heroin." Reactions To The Cannabis Study: Martin Jarvis, professor of health psychology at University College London said that to suggest that the potential for misusing marijuana is as great as with drugs such as cocaine and heroin is probably overstating the case. He said that misuse is "a judgment best made by looking at patterns of actual human use." He continued: "We shouldn't assume that unreasonable behaviour in society follows from the observation of brain reward behaviour in animals alone". Ian Stolerman, professor of behavioural pharmacology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, agreed: "This is an important study because for the first time it provides a method for studying directly the intake of THC by a laboratory animal and thus models a key behavioural feature of addictive states generally. It will lead to studies of how and where THC works in the brain to generate drug abuse. It does show that THC shares properties with other drugs of abuse, but whether it is really as potentially abusive as cocaine and heroin is not so clear." http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7267/979/aBy Abi Berger, BMJ BMJ 2000;321:979 - October 21, 2000 © BMJ 2000 Related Articles & Web Sites:Nature Neuroscience: http://www.nature.com/neuro/National Institute on Drug Abuse: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Marijuana Monkey Off Your Backhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7383.shtmlCannabis as Addictive as Cocainehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7360.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #16 posted by observer on October 25, 2000 at 13:02:34 PT Can Curry Be Addictive? Wednesday October 25 7:00 AM ET Can Curry Be Addictive?LONDON (Reuters) - The curry has long been Britain's favorite ethnic food and now scientists have found out why -- the spices are addictive.Researchers at Nottingham Trent University found that eating a spicy curry prompts the kind of physiological symptoms addictive substances often provoke, including increases in the heartbeat and blood pressure.And those who eat curries often build up a tolerance to spices, and crave hotter and hotter dishes, the experts found.``What we are seeing is physiological and psychological effects combining to create an addiction,'' Professor Stephen Gray, who spearheaded the research, told the Times newspaper on Wednesday.``Curry gives you a natural 'high' much more powerful than anything you get with traditional British foods,'' he added of the study, based on the responses of 100 volunteers aged from 10 to 80. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20001025/od/curry_dc_1.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by FoM on October 22, 2000 at 14:50:57 PT: Thanks Freedom fighter Thanks Freedom Fighter! I agree that is should help! From now on any articles posted if they have an email address, it is now a clickable one! That's another feature tht we needed here and now we have it!Peace, FoM!PS: Just checking to see if the email will work in the comment section too. comments cannabisnews.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by freedom fighter on October 21, 2000 at 23:29:25 PT Niek, love your writing I meant it. FoM, I think your 30 articles is such a good idea, we will get alot more debates! Next step is to advertise every conservative sites about this site! We are making a difference everyday! \/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Niek Sprakel on October 21, 2000 at 19:30:44 PT: here's what I wrote to mr. Goldberg Hello.As a cannabis enthusiast I'm utterly disgusted by your 'research'on the potential for abuse of THC.How does self-administration of THC show that it has the samepotential for abuse as drugs like cocain and heroin?!Those monkeys would probably self-administrate food as well, soby the same line of reasoning I'd be able to conclude thatfood has a potential for abuse comparable to cocain and heroin.I think the sole purpose of your 'research' is to associatecannabis with drugs like cocain and heroin and I reckon you aren'tthe least bit interested in the nature of cannabis (or the natureof abuse and addiction for that matter).I urge you to refrain from similar research in the future or I'llmake it my purpose in life to expose your phoney 'research'.I guarantee you that you won't get away with harassing cannabisusers as easily as you get away with harassing those poor monkeys. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on October 21, 2000 at 17:37:56 PT: New Cannabis News Addition Hi Everyone, I wanted to jump in and tell you something that I think will make is nicer here. Normally CannabisNews holds 20 articles on the front page. I often pass on articles so I don't push articles off the front page even though you can find them with View Next 20.http://www.cannabisnews.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/cnews/newsread.plNow the front page will hold 30 articles! I think I will then be able to do more news and keep articles that are being discussed around longer and easier to find. Hope you like it! I sure know I will!Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by freedom fighter on October 21, 2000 at 17:22:22 PT I wondered what happend to that poor monkeys? Did the "doctors" put them to sleep? Or did the monkeys overdosed? Indeed, this is a monkey voodoo business as Dan B pointed out. So the "doctors" are cramming this SCience-Regilious based reality on average citizen. Down with this tryannny! [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Mr_Wizzard on October 21, 2000 at 14:06:38 PT NIDA Researcher's Email If you have any questions about this study, you may write to Mr Goldberg yourselfS R Goldbergsgoldber intra.nida.nih.gov [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Dan Hillman on October 21, 2000 at 12:41:54 PT scientists: don't taint yourself Please let it be known that any publication deeming NIDA's ridiculous "research" as credible immediately subjects itself to a loss of credibility concerning all other research presented in that same journal. "British Medical Journal", consider yourself somewhat less credible after repeating yet another of NIDA's endless, pointless monkey studies. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Tups on October 21, 2000 at 02:50:06 PT This is not science For end-readers of Latvia this topic was named "Marijuana Is As Addictive As Heroin" ;)))))))As I understood, when monkeys took THC they already were cocaine addicts???Then this research shows us that THC could possibily used by cocaine addicts to ease cocaine after effects. Saline obviously could not be used for this purpose. :(Tups ;-) [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Dan B on October 21, 2000 at 01:22:09 PT Red Herring It seems that this study is working exactly the way the prohibs intended for it to work: it is focusing our attention on the relative addictiveness of marijuana by blatantly stating as fact that which is fiction, thereby diminishing our focus on the heart of the issue, which is that people are being arrested, incarcerated, robbed (via now-legal seizure laws), and sometimes killed as a direct result of the war on drugs. Frankly, whether marijuana is addictive or not is not the issue, and I suspect that this study was released in order to get the response it is getting. That is, many are now writing letters to the editor, etc. responding to this study by saying that marijuana is not physically addictive. While it is true that marijuana is not physically addictive, these letters may actually serve the ONDCP, PDFA, DEA, and other anti-drug hate groups' assertions that marijuana "addicts" are so entrenched in their "addictions" that they can't face the "fact" that their drug of choice is "addictive." (Notice my judicious use of quotation marks. I am not implying that these assertions are correct.)My suggestion is not to stop sending letters refuting the claims made in this study, but to perhaps include in those letters a rebuttal to the claims the antis will certainly try to make about "potheads" not being able to face the antis' version of reality.And always try to train the reader's attention back on the real issue: the drug war is far more dangerous and counterproductive than the drugs themselves.Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Xibalba on October 20, 2000 at 17:32:08 PT This is not science. The study did not demonstrate addiction at all. The lab monkeys were stuck in a situation that was certainly boring, at best uncomfortable, at worst, painful. The THC surely offered some degree of mental stimulation and physical relief.If anything, the monkey study demonstrates to me that primates are smart enough to appreciate marijuana, unlike most other test animals. Rats will get off on "dumb" drugs like heroin, which affect lower brain functions, but they stay away from both THC and psychedelics.I'm also reminded of a study I read about where monkeys would self-administer DMT cigarettes when kept in a sensory-deprivation environment with no other form of entertainment. Well, so would you. And the fact that these experiments demonstrate that the monkeys can experince boredom and suffering and take steps to alleviate it, should be telling the resarchers to stop experimenting on them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Josh on October 20, 2000 at 17:15:53 PT STOP TESTING ON ANIMALS!!! Who the hell cares about this bullshit? I self-administer THC to my brain repeatedly and habitually, so who the fuck would care about whether or not a monkey will do the same?Stop harvesting animals for this idiotic and meaningless "research". [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Fred Meyer on October 20, 2000 at 15:07:10 PT: ARRRRRRGG WONDER WHY THE RESULTS DIDNT WORK ON HIGHER APES SUCH AS CHIMPS BABBOONS AND GUERRILAS AND HUMANS///THEY HAD TO KEEP TRYING DIFFERENT MONKEYS TILL THEY FOUND THAT WOULD GIVE THE REQUIRED RESPONCE. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by observer on October 20, 2000 at 08:59:24 PT Tween-80 ... looks like Tween-80 (the stuff they mixed with alcohol, saline and THC) is probably inert in the concentrations used.Tween-80 data sheethttp://intranet.michener.on.ca/msds/tchem/tween.htmWell, there's your "hippy crack" ... a recipe for injectable THC, courtesy the US Government. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by observer on October 20, 2000 at 08:38:32 PT Solution Shy In this study the team used a low but clinically relevantdose of THC administered intravenously in a clear solution. This solution rapidly distributed THC to the brain. Previous attempts to show self administration, using much higher doses of THC held in a suspension, failed. See? The solution used is extremely relevant here. But they coyly refuse to share with us what, EXACTLY, this "a clear solution" is. What is it? This is a relevant piece of information. WHat is "this solution"? Here, in this report, we now learn that a) previous attempts had failed, due, probably to not using "this solution". b) "this solution" rapidly distributes THC to the brain. Whatever it is, the fact that previous attempts "failed" due to using a different THC soluton tells me that the choice of a "solution" for injecting THC isn't obvious (even to previous researchers) and isn't so trivial that the identity of this mystery "soluton" is so elementry that questions about the soluton used can be dismissed.Neuroscience press release http://www.nature.com/neuro/press_release/nn1100.htmlhere's the abstract:November 2000 Volume 3 Number 11 pp 1073 - 1074Self-administration behavior is maintained by the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana in squirrel monkeysGianluigi Tanda1, 2, 3, 4, Patrik Munzar1, 4 & Steven R. Goldberg11. Preclinical Pharmacology Section, Behavioral Neuroscience Branch, NIDA, NIH, 5500 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore , Maryland 21224, USA2. Department of Pharmacology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, 3900 Reservoir Road, Washington, DC, 20007, USA3. Department of Toxicology and CNR Center for Neuropharmacology, University of Cagliari, Viale A. Diaz, I-09126 Cagliari, Italy4. The first two authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence should be addressed to S R Goldberg. e-mail: sgoldber intra.nida.nih.govMany attempts to obtain reliable self-administration behavior by laboratory animals with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, have been unsuccessful1-5. Because self-administration behavior has been demonstrated in laboratory animals for almost all other psychoactive drugs abused by humans6, as well as for nicotine, the psychoactive ingredient in tobacco7, these studies would seem to indicate that marijuana has less potential for abuse. Here we show persistent intravenous self-administration behavior by monkeys for doses of THC lower than doses used in previous studies, but comparable to doses in marijuana smoke inhaled by humans.[Nature Neuroscience, Oct 2000]http://www.nature.com/neuro/ (have to register, etc.)Even the abstract omits what soluton was chosen. For that, we have to read the paper....Most previous studies of THC self-administration 1–5 used intravenous unit doses higher than those calculated from clinical studies. Moreover, due to the lipophilic nature of THC, its very low solubility in water, and the high THC doses usually used, many studies were done using THC in suspension. Here we used low, clinically relevant doses of THC in a clear solution that rapidly distributed THC to the brain after intravenous administration 8 . THC was dissolved in a vehicle containing 0.4–1.0% Tween-80 and 0.4–1.0% ethanol in saline (using a modification of previous procedures 9,10 )....[Tanda, Munzar, Goldberg, Nature Neuroscience 2000;3:1073-4]I suspected they were using alcohol ... THC won't dissolve in water. So it is "Ethanol" and (tween ... whatever that is, assuming it is inert. ethanol -- ethyl alcohol, the stuff that gets drunks drunk -- isn't inert.)So all the "addiction" headline screamers and their breathless "latest research" hype "just accidently" happened to tell us a few little facts. Like the fact that the monkeys were self administering ALCOHOL as well as THC. Why didn't the reports mention this I wonder?Oh, and by the way, the propagandists that hyped this piece of political "research" forgot to tell you some other things, too. The "news" reports on this also forgot something else. They forgot to tell you that the monkeys' responses began to drop off when the THC dose began to go above a certain level. In other words, they only like a little THC; too much and they stop pressing the lever.You could drive a truck through the other assumptions made in this study. For example:... For human subjects smoking a marijuana cigarette containing 15 mg of THC, actual THC intake 12 is about 3 mg. Assuming that humans take 10 to 15 puffs per cigarette, each puff contains 200 to 300 µg of THC, or 2.9 to 4.3 µg/kg THC (for an average body weight of 70 kg). This in perfect agreement with the 2 to 4 µg/kg injection doses that maintain THC self-administration in squirrel monkeys.I'm not sure that's a valid assumption. Many smokers report that only a few inhalations are needed, and that "15 puffs" would be too much. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by legalizeit on October 20, 2000 at 07:52:50 PT Typical prohib "research" >Virtually all psychoactive drugs misused by humans, including nicotine, have been shown to be self administered by animals, but up to now a positive self administration test has been elusive whenever THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active part of marijuana, has been tested. Prohib testing regimen: If you can't produce a positive test and successfully villify [prohibited substance], keep trying , changing conditions until you get the positive test, whatever it takes.If cannabis were really as addictive as hard drugs, this would have been determined in research many years ago. Only after years of desperate wrangling with the innocuous substance by prohib researchers have they come up with this result.Of course, unless you are a NIDA researcher, it is almost impossible to get MJ for research purposes. This is absurd. Although I am opposed to any more animals being sacrificed for this pointless nonsense, it would be interesting to see if the study could be duplicated outside NIDA laboratories.>Dr Goldberg, a pharmacologist at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, has shown now that monkeys can be trained to self administer THC. If they were trained to self-administer, that is a trained response, not an addictive reaction. They can be trained to self-administer sugar. Should people be jailed for sugar use?>It will lead to studies of how and where THC works in the brain to generate drug abuseHere we go again with the old prohib equation, use=abuse unless you are talking about tobacco/alcohol. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: