The first in a 5-part series, offers an understanding of the brain, how the reward center works, and what happens in the brain when a person uses cocaine, opioids (heroin), or marijuana.
The objective of the presentation is to inform students (high school) how 3 drugs of abuse (cocaine, opiates, marijuana) actually work in the brain. The presentation is arranged in 3 sections. The first section introduces the brain and presents some basic neurobiology, the second introduces the reward pathway and the third presents the mechanism of action of each drug and how each affects the reward system.
Like many drugs, marijuana in the short-term will increase the dopamine level in the brain. This happens in an indirect way. Cannabis does not purposely do this. What THC does, is bind to CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain. Dopamine neurons do not contain any cannabinoid receptors, therefore cannabinoids cannot act directly on this. What is interesting, is that GABA neurons are used to limit the dopamine neurons in the reward pathways. But these GABA neurons do contain cannabinoid receptors which in turn inhibit them. And just like in mathematics, two negatives will equal a plus. By inhibiting what inhibits dopamine neurons, cannabinoids indirectly increase the dopamine level in the brain.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough information out there for any decisive conclusions, but research is coming. A lot of information is still based on clinical animal studies, which have a lot of limitations when it comes to real-world applications. Humans are also thought[5] to have a genetic component that influences this relationship between the marijuana plant and dopamine.
Hopefully, with the legalization happening at a global scale, we'll start seeing more research going into this relationship. And especially the relationship with the different cannabinoids.
In 2006, many of us in medicine were shocked when a review of research to date did not show an increase in lung cancer related to marijuana use.2 There was even a suggestion that marijuana had a protective effect against lung cancer. More recent studies, in contrast, do appear to link smoking marijuana with lung cancer, although the results are mixed, and much uncertainty remains.
The future of marijuana industry
It is the hell prime deal no computers in the jungle....Capitalism crisis number one along with cars.
