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Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

newscientist.com

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Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#11

Post by RevRal »

patrickmclaren wrote: post #2

I wonder how many of these 'researchers' actually smoke marijuana on a regular basis. I definitely found that a prolonged use had the complete opposite effect of "reducing anxiety and depression". I understand that many professionals use marijuana, but how many marijuana users are able to maintain a professional career?

We flat out do not have a good understanding of how a brain is effected by drugs. And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal. There are, of course, devious reasons for that.

Whether we are aware it or not, everything that we perceive and consume effects us. One person will react differently to the sight of a bowl of cereal than another.

It is the same with drugs, but just more blatantly obvious. Even though there is no physical damage done, there is still a change occurring. Whether this change amounts to a damaged psyche or enlightenment is really hard to measure since the only precedent to hold our experiences against is anecdote.

Is there a reliable method to harness the positive effects of drugs? Probably, but it is a long way out there.

A person is indulging in a risk by taking drugs; but, there is an inherent perception of risk in most new experiences. Ever meet someone who is afraid of a new kind of food? Actually, I don't know if that's related, but whatever.

So, to answer your question. It is not always the case that drugs will effect a person negatively, or positively. There's a lot involved, but the laws simply do not allow us to understand the specifics of what's involved.

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#12

Post by MartinCron »

RevRal wrote: post #11
patrickmclaren wrote: post #2

I wonder how many of these 'researchers' actually smoke marijuana on a regular basis. I definitely found that a prolonged use had the complete opposite effect of "reducing anxiety and depression". I understand that many professionals use marijuana, but how many marijuana users are able to maintain a professional career?

We flat out do not have a good understanding of how a brain is effected by drugs. And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal. There are, of course, devious reasons for that. Whether we are aware it or not, everything that we perceive and consume effects us. One person will react differently to the sight of a bowl of cereal than another. It is the same with dr…

"And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal"

That's just wrong, a drug like coffee is a good example of "least harmful" and isn't anywhere near "most illegal"

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#14

Post by ojbyrne »

jsz0 wrote: post #6

This is great news for the pharmaceutical industry. The successful testing was done with a synthetic chemical very much like THC while real THC failed to get results. Sounds like a good way to monetize to me.

From wikipedia:

"Monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral containing rare earth metals and is an important source of thorium, lanthanum, and cerium. It occurs usually in small isolated crystals."

I'm guessing that's not what you meant.

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#15

Post by RevRal »

MartinCron wrote: post #12
RevRal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We flat out do not have a good understanding of how a brain is effected by drugs. And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal. There are, of course, devious reasons for that. Whether we are aware it or not, everything that we perceive and consume effects us. One person will react differently to the sight of a bowl of cereal than another. It is the same with dr…

"And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal" That's just wrong, a drug like coffee is a good example of "least harmful" and isn't anywhere near "most illegal"

Coffee has an LD50, whereas they haven't found one for marijuana.

I was speaking with that scope in mind.

The specific drugs I had in mind were psychedelics.

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#16

Post by joubert »

jsz0 wrote: post #6

This is great news for the pharmaceutical industry. The successful testing was done with a synthetic chemical very much like THC while real THC failed to get results. Sounds like a good way to monetize to me.

By monazite, do you mean the phosphate mineral containing rare earth metals?

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#18

Post by riffic »

MartinCron wrote: post #12
RevRal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We flat out do not have a good understanding of how a brain is effected by drugs. And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal. There are, of course, devious reasons for that. Whether we are aware it or not, everything that we perceive and consume effects us. One person will react differently to the sight of a bowl of cereal than another. It is the same with dr…

"And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal" That's just wrong, a drug like coffee is a good example of "least harmful" and isn't anywhere near "most illegal"

read up on caffeine then.

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#19

Post by thaumaturgy »

kidko wrote: post #3

I'm glad this article actually presents both sides. The latter paragraphs talk about another study in which THC did nothing to cell growth, and makes it pretty clear that the entire affair's still really uncertain. I don't think this shows up in many of the pro-marijuana (pseudo-)scientific articles on the web.

It would be great if I could read something like this without running into a comment in which someone describes it in terms of "sides".

This is not a debate. There are no sides.

There are just studies: one that found that particular chemicals assisted new cell growth in some parts of rat brains, and another that found that a different set of chemicals did not assist new cell growth in the brains of different rats.

It's interesting stuff. Trying to frame it in the limited context of a social debate really diminishes its value.

Re: Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

#20

Post by ekiru »

MartinCron wrote: post #12
RevRal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We flat out do not have a good understanding of how a brain is effected by drugs. And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal. There are, of course, devious reasons for that. Whether we are aware it or not, everything that we perceive and consume effects us. One person will react differently to the sight of a bowl of cereal than another. It is the same with dr…

"And, it is amazing that the drugs that are least harmful, or not harmful at all, are the most illegal" That's just wrong, a drug like coffee is a good example of "least harmful" and isn't anywhere near "most illegal"

While I disagree to some extent with your parent's point(that legality of drug use isn't strongly correlated with the danger of said drug use), one data point(not illegal, mostly non-harmful) is hardly enough to refute it. To refute it, it is better to point out that relatively few controlled substances in the US have any significant controversy over their criminalization(marijuana and ecstasy are the only two that I recall).
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