Marijuana in Biological News

Growing evidence of marijuana smoke's potential dangers

... the increasingly popular belief that smoking marijuana is less harmful to health than smoking tobacco, ... and colleagues note that people often view marijuana as a "natural" product and less harmful than tobacco. As public attitudes toward marijuana change and legal restrictions ease in some ...

American Chemical Society weekly presspac -- June 10, 2009

... ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New tests: marijuana damages DNA and may cause cancer Chemical ... Europe are reporting "convincing evidence" that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways ... However, there has been uncertainty over whether marijuana smoke has the same effect. Scientists are ...

Our brains make their own marijuana: We're all pot heads deep inside

... the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself. This ... pain, stimulating appetite, and preventing marijuana abuse. "Ideally, this development will lead to ... has been making proteins that act directly on the marijuana receptors in our head. The next step is for ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Sept. 3, 2008

... ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE marijuana ingredients show promise in battling superbugs Journal of Natural Products Substances in marijuana show promise for fighting deadly drug-resistant ... out that scientists have known for years that marijuana contains antibacterial substances. However, ...

The body's own 'cannabis (marijuana)' is good for the skin

... compounds similar to the active ingredient in marijuana (THC), but these play an important part in ... that we may have something in common with the marijuana plant," said Gerald Weissmann, MD. "Just as THC is believed to protect the marijuana plants from pathogens, our own cannabinoids may ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 12, 2007

... ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE marijuana smoke contains higher levels of certain toxins ... off the grass. Researchers in Canada report that marijuana smoke contains significantly higher levels of ... comprehensive to date on the chemical content of marijuana smoke, is scheduled for the Dec. 17 issue of ACS ...

Opium and marijuana research go underground

... into the countrys ultra high-security medicinal marijuana growth facility. Its certainly unusual for a ... Prairie Plant Systems produces medicinal marijuana under contract with Health Canada in this ... virtually none of the mind-altering chemical of marijuana but can be grown for hemp fibre, oil and food. ...

The endocannabinoids: Functional roles and therapeutic opportunities

... become an illicit drug apparently cannabis users prefer the plant-based marijuana and hashish. Two decades later it was found that THC binds to specific ... initiates a cascade of biological processes leading to the well known marijuana effects. It was assumed that a cannabinoid receptor is not formed for the ...

Can happiness be inherited?

... and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception. Brain chemicals such as endorphins, and drugs, such as marijuana and heroin are known to have significant effects on sperm and eggs, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them. "It is well known, of ...

Lab study shows THC exposure as adolescents linked to negative effects of THC as adults

... University had found that estrogen or more precisely, having ovaries made adult rats exposed for the first time to THC, the primary ingredient in marijuana and hashish, less sensitive to THC's negative effects on tests of learning and memory. A new study, reported at the Experimental Biology 2009 ...

February 2009 highlights from Biology of Reproduction

... unsuspected pathways regulating sperm function. But perhaps more importantly, they are of great clinical significance: because sperm of chronic marijuana users, as well as sperm in Faah -mutant males are exposed to enhanced cannabinoid/endocannbinoid signaling, clinically beneficial effects of ...

Scripps research team defines new painkilling chemical pathway

... marijuana kills pain by activating a set of proteins known as cannabinoid receptors, which can also regulate appetite, inflammation, and memory. The body also ...

Study finds possible connection between marijuana abuse and stroke or heart attacks

... Long-term harmful effects of marijuana (MJ) include risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory. The active chemical in MJ called ...

Your baby's brain on drugs (and alcohol and tobacco)

... imaging (MRI) brain scans, led by Childrens Hospital Boston neurologist Michael Rivkin, MD, suggests that prenatal exposure to cocaine, alcohol, marijuana or tobacco (alone or in combination) may have effects on brain structure that persist into early adolescence. The findings, published in the April ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 15, 2007

... the law. Preliminary tests conducted in 10 U.S. cities show the method can simultaneously quantify methamphetamine and metabolites of cocaine and marijuana and legal drugs such as methadone, oxycodone, and ephedrine, the researchers said. Because our method can provide data in real time, we anticipate ...

Migration played key role in HIV spread in South Africa

... Long-term exposure to marijuana smoke is linked to many of the same health ... by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the ... sought to find the relationship between marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory ...

Long-term marijuana smoking leads to respiratory complaints

... Long-term exposure to marijuana smoke is linked to many of the same health ... by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the ... sought to find the relationship between marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory ...

New DNA 'fingerprinting' technique separates hemp from marijuana

... first to unequivocally separate hemp plants from marijuana plants with genetic markers. Hemp, a crop ... where the cultivation of hemp is permitted but marijuana is illegal, as in Canada and Europe. The work ... this technique has the potential to distinguish marijuana varieties as well," said Weiblen. "It has ...

New study examines 'brain's own marijuana'

... is widely accepted that one of the major reasons that people use and abuse marijuana is to relieve stress,?according to Samir Haj-Dahmane, Ph.D., neuroscientist and principal investigator on the RIA study. “However, because marijuana can be addictive, it cannot be used to treat stress-related mood disorders ...

Enhancing activity of marijuana-like chemicals in brain helps treat

... chemicals found in the brain that are similar to the active compounds in marijuana and hashish, helped trigger a dramatic improvement in mice with a ... But Kreitzer and Malenka cautioned that their findings don't mean smoking marijuana could be therapeutic for Parkinson's disease. "It turns out the ...

Scientists discover the body's marijuana-like compounds are crucial for stress-induced pain relief

... or stress conditions. Importantly, it would not require people to smoke marijuana to obtain relief or wrestle with the legal issues surrounding the drug. ... phenomenon," said Hohmann, "because blocking the receptors where marijuana acts virtually erased this opioid-independent form of stress analgesia." ...

Brain's own cannabis compound protects against inflammation

... Some clinical studies have indicated that marijuana or its active cannabinoid ingredient alleviates symptoms of the inflammatory disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Also, researchers have found that the ...

Good news for the medical marijuana movement: pot proliferates brain cells and boosts mood

... Most drugs of abuse decrease the generation of new neurons in the brain, but the effects of marijuana on this process, called neurogenesis, had not been clear. In a paper appearing online on October 13 in advance of print publication of the November ...

FDA Warns Consumers Not to Use Home-Use Diagnostic Kits Marketed by Globus Media

... kits are labeled as: Rapid HIV Test Kit. * Rapid Syphilis Test Kit * One Step Cassette Style Cocaine Test * One Step Cassette Style marijuana (THC) Test * One Step Cassette Style Amphetamine Test * Rapid Dengue Fever Test * One Step Midstream Style HCG Urine (Home) * ...