TIME magazine has a new article in its Healthland section entitled “Why Pot Smokers Are Paranoid”. We all know the reasons – 850,000 of us will be arrested, thousands more will get tickets in decrim states which will cost the driver’s licenses of some, millions more will fear detection at work or in their public housing or dorm room and the risk of losing those privileges, and a few hundred of us will have our doors broken down by body-armored police with automatic weapons who will shoot and kill our pets.
But the TIME article references a new study out of Canada where rats given a cannabinoid-like compound exhibited greater levels of rat paranoia:
New research in rats may help explain the source of this distress. The study, led by Steven Laviolette at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, involved training rats to fear the scent of either almond or peppermint. The scents were delivered to rats in a cage either with black-and-white striped walls or with black polka dots on a gray background. (The rats were not pre-tested for their taste in interior design.) One scent was accompanied by an electric shock to the rodents’ feet, while the other scent was not.
At the same time, researchers experimented with the activity of the CB1 receptors in a certain region of the rats’ brains. These cannabinoid receptors are activated by the main psychoactive component of marijuana, THC. In some rats, the scientists blocked CB1-receptor activity; in others, they used a marijuana-like drug to enhance it.
When scientists blocked the CB1 receptors in a region called the basolateral amygdala — which is involved in the processing of fear and emotion — the rats that got strong electric shocks did not learn to fear the associated scent or the cage in which they received it. After getting shocked, they were just as happy as unaffected rats to explore the cage and smell the scent.
When rats were given a drug that enhanced cannabinoid-receptor activity, however, even receiving a minor shock was enough to cause them to freeze with fear when they were later exposed to the cage and its related scent. Without the marijuana-like drug, small shocks did not have the same effect.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/06/why-pot-smokers-are-paranoid/#ixzz1Im3pTpKA
These findings are being considered as an explanation as to why so many tokers are so enamored of conspiracy theories. I don’t buy it for a second. This report is obviously just another subversive bit of propaganda from the Illuminati to distract the sheeple from the few truthseekers who dare to point out the coming New World Order. See, after faking the moon landing, the scientists who worked on that soundstage were all transferred to the University of Western Ontario in Canada to work on a super secret psy-ops project…
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Honestly, I do not believe in any studies taken on animals. (I don’t believe in animal testing, either way).
I notice that it seems that studies on animals always seem to not go right. Anyone remember the one studied with the monkeys? Poor guys, died just to make it look bad.
I’d like to note, that ANY side effects from marijuana are only short side effects. Which means, if you do experience any side effects (there are some!) they wear off after the high, unlike pills. Pills have LONG TERM side effects while marijuana does not. There is a huge difference between the two. Marijuana’s side effects also aren’t harmful, unlike pills. (Hey, take this for your headaches! But, you may get a heartattack, suicidal, tumors, cancer, etc) It can make you paranoid, during the high. Sometimes I get paranoid, but only get scared of being caught (It only started to happen after getting arrested, fyi. I never had paranoia before that) – I also get scared thinking the cops will bust in my house declaring a raid, I’m not even kidding. It’s the only thing that has left me in fear. Sometimes, I get so scared that I won’t even go outside while I’m high since NY is rather strict with the laws. It’s the only thing that has caused me to be scared. I never seen anyone I was with, be paranoid on it. And I’ve smoked with all kinds of smokers. Luckily, none of them have been arrested for it.
But, no, mary jane will not hurt your brain. Not even at a young age. Though, I don’t agree with children taking part. It won’t make them slower, that’s a funny claim, Joshua.
I’m not saying there are no side effects but, seriously. The claims with it killing your brains cells need to stop, because it’s untrue. I’ve been really into the whole study of marijuana for years. So, please, don’t go around spreading false information – that’s the kind of stuff that puts marijuana on the back-burner.
I was thinking we should really put some effort into finding out just what amount of cannabis use is acceptable without any serious detrimental effects to your motor skills/memory, ect. I mean I think that the perception that is out there right now is that there is no amount of cannabis that can be consumed safely and that all use is abuse. For alcohol it’s something like 2 drinks a day before you’re considered an alcoholic. Should it be something like only use 2 times per week for cannabis? For me that seems to be a good limit…
Could someone like a doctor or a bus driver use cannabis safely at all? Maybe once per week or very sparingly… Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for legalization as my comments on this site should show you, I just think it would REALLY help allay some of the fears out there if we could begin discussion on this and give people a number.
I tell the kids I know who are under 20 not to smoke(preferably until they are around 23-25 years of age, which is when I started) too much or it WILL damage their brains and make them slower and have less potential in life, but I don’t know how much to tell them is too much.
Thanks for thinking about this!
[...] “Radical” Russ Belville via NORML Stash AKPC_IDS += [...]
It does increase your heart rate, and effects short-term memory in the hippocampus. The combination of both can obviously lead to a heightened sense of self-awareness, a comparably microcosmic scale of an individual with an extreme case of Alzheimer’s drinking too many energy drinks. Of course, the DEA says it also increases your chance of heart attacks… on the flip side, people say it fully cures all sorts of ailments, rather than having a simple management role. There is so much gray area with such studies, we won’t have the best of results or information until researchers are given safe legal access to quality marijuana with impartial sponsors.