A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
In mammals, new nerve cells are constantly being produced in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Other recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress this new growth. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats’ brains.
They found that giving rats high doses of HU210 twice a day for 10 days increased the rate of nerve cell formation, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus by about 40%.
Zhang says more research is needed before it is clear whether cannabinoids could some day be used to treat depression in humans.
Excellent, this means further government research into this begins immediately! Or it would, if the scheduling of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug didn’t stop ANY government research into cannabis which has ‘no medical applications’. Oddly enough, the DEA lists cannabis as a narcotic. It isn’t. I’ll save you the click: Any of a group of highly addictive analgesic drugs derived from opium or opium-like compounds. Narcotics can cause drowsiness and significant alterations of mood and behavior. They can’t even tell the truth in the definition of what cannabis is.
The AMA has called for a re-scheduling of cannabis from it’s current Schedule 1 to something a bit more in line with reality. How long must we wait while the people are denied one of nature’s most wonderful medicines? How many more people should die for others twisted ideas of morality?
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[...] Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain | NORML Daily … [...]
Couldn’t help but notice that the date on this article is 22:00 13 October 2005…I mustve missed that one…happy to see it now though..
Russ is the TagMaster of the Stash. He reads all these replies so …
This is a very promising study. I’ve battled depression since I was a teenager, and tried 15 – 20 different pharmaceutical anti-depressants over a period of 10 years in an attempt to treat it. Some of them didn’t work at all, some of them had such bad side effects that I had to stop, and some of them made me feel like a different (and very loopy) person. 4 or 5 years ago I found a pill that was moderately effective (and certainly the most effective of the 15 – 20 I’d tried). However, I was unhappy with the side effects it was causing. About a year ago, after doing extensive reading about cannabis, I decided to give that a shot. WOW. No pill that I’ve tried in the last 10 years has been half as effective at treating my depression as cannabis. It’s been almost a year now since I stopped taking my pharmaceutical anti-depressant but I found that using cannabis once a day at bedtime keeps my depression in check — and by “in check” I mean I feel normal most days, whereas I felt continuous mild to moderate depression on “the best” pharma pill I’d found.
Maybe you guys here at NORML could start a new tag for articles like this such as “mental health” or “depression” or the like?
I thought I was getting smarter. lol