Present NDA application before the FDA with a story line, while
thumbing through the Doctor's office stack of references, there,
a most excellent scientific peer review, Reader's Digest, no less.
January 1997 pg. 84-89
Acknowledgment: Prof. David H. Farb Ph.D., chairman of the
Department of Pharmacology, Boston U. School of Medicine.
info@compuPharma.com
</POT HEAD>
"It's not a drug," he said. "It's only pot." Heather decided to give it a try. "Just one puff."
Marijuana contains around 60 compounds
called cannabinoids. The most psychoactive
of these is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Differences among plants cause the potency of
marijuana to vary widely. But as a result of
selective breeding, some of the marijuana
smoked today can contain ten to 20 times
more THC than there was in the pot smoked
in the 1960s and early '70s. More than 400
other chemicals are also found in the plant.
Many of their effects are still unknown.
When Heather pulled the smoke into her
lungs that evening, the THC molecules slipped
through tissue-paper-thin air sacs in her lungs
and entered her bloodstream. Within minutes
a hefty dose of THC was headed for Heather's
brain.
A biological barrier in the brain admits
the oxygen, nutrients, hormones and sugar it
needs while blocking out unnecessary some-
times harmful, compounds. Certain psycho-
active drugs, however, can pierce this shield.
Fat-soluble, the THC, and other cannabinoids
dissolve in the brain's cellular membranes,
which are composed of fat molecules; then,
like wet bars of soap, they slip through the
barrier.
Heather felt a deepening glow of contentment. Her high lasted four hours.
The THC and other cannabinoids would remain
in her body for weeks. The molecules dissolve
not only in the brain but also in the liver,
lungs, kidneys, testes and ovaries.
Unlike alcohol and other water-soluble
drugs that are eliminated from the body fairly
rapidly, cannabinoids slowly leach from the
fat and re-enter the bloodstream before finally
being purged via the urine.
Inside the brain, each neuron (nerve cell)
generates tiny electrical signals. Biochemicals
called neurotransmitters shuttle between the
neurons to pass along these signals until all the
circuits needed to process and store a message -
an image, sound, thought or sensation - have
been completed.
Certain neurons, especially those that
mediate balance, glucose craving and the
perception of time, sound and color, have
receptors that readily bind with THC. The THC
molecules that distort part of the brain's
information processing system, altering
perception of time, while amplifying sounds
and visual images.
Heather didn't worry that she needed more and more of the stuff.
The interaction of THC with brain receptors
triggers intracellular signals that produce the
high experienced by marijuana users. Among
chronic users, continued bombardment of the
cells by THC may lead to a tolerance for the
drug. When this happens, the user needs more
and more pot to get high.
The alcohol made Heather feel more mellow than ever. It also amazed her how much
she would drink without ever getting sick.
THC and alcohol together have it greater effect
than either by itself. While marijuana distorts
information processing, alcohol enhances the
effects of a neurotransmitter called GABA,
which binds to neurons and slows their rate
of firing, producing a sedative effect.
THC also can reduce nausea. Vomiting is
the body's natural way of purging toxic sub-
stances. If the vomit message is suppressed, as
it is during marijuana use, dangerous amounts
of alcohol can remain, in rare cases causing
alcohol poisoning, organ damage and even
death. While Heather considered it a "perk"
that she could down so much beer while
smoking pot, her body was like a guitar string
about to snap.
In her journal she wrote, "Pot is a motionless sea of destruction. I'm drowning." She
also noticed that her menstrual cycle had become irregular.
Some studies show that deep inside the brain.
THC may suppress the neurons of the hippocam-
pus - where short-term memories are processed
and sent to other brain areas for storage. As a
result, the ability to learn and to remember
events may be hampered.
Smoking marijuana can deliver three times
more tar than smoking tobacco. Its irritating
smoke dilates blood vessels; it also reddens the
eyes and inflames delicate nasal tissues. Regular
use can lead to chronic bronchitis.
Based on animal and in vitro studies using
both human and animal material, it's possible
that pot may impair the capacity of the white
cells to fight invading infection.
Moreover, the drug stimulates the appetite
center in the brain stem, which causes bouts of
the "munchies" - a craving for sugary food.
Marijuana's final insult is to the pituitary
gland, which regulates sex hormones. In men,
some studies show sperm production can drop.
And in women, ovulation may be inhibited.
Through it all, however, marijuana remained her "drug of choice."
Studies show that there are developmental
stages in drug use, though one drug doesn't
inevitably lead to the next stage of abuse.
A marijuana user most likely started with
alcohol and cigarettes. Researchers say few
people experiment with other illicit drugs with-
out having tried marijuana first. A 1994
analysis showed that adults who used pot as
children are 17 times more likely to become
regular cocaine users.
Numbed by alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, Heather was oblivious to her own
injuries as she helped her friend from the tangled wreck.
When a person is suddenly injured, neurotransmit-
ters called endorphins lock on to natural opiate
receptors in the brain and temporarily block out
pain. Marijuana is an analgesic, which provides
another method for muting pain.
She smoked a few joints to "mellow out," but instead she became more jumpy
[from several lines of cocaine].
Pot is a double-edged sword: it raises the heart's
oxygen needs while lowering its supply, Just ten
drags on a marijuana cigarette can overstimulate
the heart muscle enough to push the heart rate
from a normal 70 beats a minute to 100 beats
and higher. The heart then needs more oxygen.
Yet marijuana also elevates carbon monoxide
levels in the blood, diminishing oxygen supply.
Cocaine, meanwhile, causes the heart to beat
inefficiently and its vessels to narrow. With
Heather, the combination of drugs made her
heart race dangerously out of control.
For four full weeks, Heather was shaky, nervous and sweaty as her body adjusted
to a healthier lifestyle.
Heather will always bear scars from her dance
with the devil. She still has back pain from the
accident, and occasionally she sees after-images
trailing behind moving objects, a legacy of her
drug use.
"It was a close call," she says today. "I almost
let my dreams go up in a cloud of sweet-smelling
smoke."
[Despite the negative press, marijuana is a potent drug by all
accounts with definite actions, ad nauseum, as a soporific
without peer, while stimulating appetite.]
Pharmacology = Discovery = Medjuana = Smokeless medical marijuana Rx.
THREE VIEWPOINTS
Give strong drink [intoxicant] unto him that is
ready to perish. Proverbs 31:6 (KJV)
"I always did believe that God never did make no mistakes. He never
made anything He didn't make a remedy for. The Lord's put something
out there if we would only get out there and hunt it.
I have found that God has put an herb here that will give temporary
relief for man's ills. I don't claim a cure, but the doctor don't claim a
cure for the drugs he tells you to take. Remember, herbs work slow.
Just give them time to work and they will do the job. Please
remember to see your doctor often for I don't down the doctors.
They do a good job with what they have to work with. In a few years
they will find out about what herbs will do. When God made the world,
I understand He worked six days and rested on the seventh. The fact
of the business is, there he had all the world made with all the plants
and the fishes in the sea. He did all this before he made anybody to
take care of the world. That's the way I understand it. He went ahead
and he didn't do like the pharmaceutic companies and try to make
something out of nothing. He took something that He had already
created and made man out of the dust. So, we are made of the
ground and we have to look to the ground for herbs to make our
body tick."
- Mountain Medicine:The Herbal Remedies of Tommie Bass
pp. 12-13 A.L. "Tommie" Bass, Leesburg, AL (1908-1996)
[Washington State and Colorado may become "laboratories of democracy," then]
"Marijuana is a vegetable," and should be sold in Boulder CO farmers'
markets, says Pot Venture Capitalist. MedicalDaily.com (8-2-2013)
[Maybe venture capitalists should ask Heather before the Department of Agriculture.]
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