DdC

Reefer Sanity By Meredith Wadman November 17, 2003

The Brain's Cannabinoid Receptor Is The Target Of A Rush (Ha!) To Develop New Drugs.

If you're among those of us who did inhale, you'll recall one of the weed's enjoyable side effects: intense attacks of the munchies that sent you scurrying for baked beans and Moon Pies faster than Pooh after honey. So you may appreciate this tasty irony: Drug companies are racing to develop pills that plug into the same brain-signaling system that once had boomers flying high--this time to help them lose weight.

Experimental drugs that block the brain receptor activated by marijuana--called the cannabinoid receptor--are showing clear promise in fighting obesity. And that's not the only vice that may soon be treatable with this new breed of mind medicine. Predilections for Marlboros and martinis are also targets of a new drug now in human trials and nearing the clinic, with imitators hot on its tail.

Farther from the pharmacist's counter but still firing up a lot of interest are experimental compounds that work not by blocking cannabinoid receptors but by activating them. These are squelching strokes, allaying anxiety, and easing pain in lab animals. There's even a suggestion that drugs that stimulate cannabinoid receptors in sperm may one day yield a contraceptive for men. If only they'd remember to take it! (All is not lost on this score--the cannabinoid system is important in the function of memory as well.)

"The cannabinoid area is getting ready for prime time," says Daniele Piomelli, a leading researcher at the University of California at Irvine. "What makes it particularly promising is that there are a lot of companies working on these classes of compounds."

It's hard to overstate just how important--and rare--it is to identify an entirely new class of brain receptors, the neurotransmitters that act on them, and the molecules that ferry those neurotransmitters or break them down. Consider the pharmaceutical and cultural revolution launched with the discovery of the transporter for serotonin, which led to the development of Prozac, Zoloft, and other antidepressants. The body's home-grown cannabinoid neurotransmitters and their receptors--discovered only in the past 13 years--could give rise to a whole new generation of blockbusters. "It's one of the hottest areas in neuroscience," says George Kunos, scientific director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The big players now in the lab with cannabinoid-related experimental drugs include Merck, Pfizer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. But the undisputed leader is the French company Sanofi-Synthelabo, which is in late-stage human trials for its drug Rimonabant. Sanofi's pill is helping fat people slim down and quit smoking at the same time.

Rimonabant works by blocking CB1, the brain receptor that marijuana's active ingredient plugs into. It turns out that nerve cells in the brain make their own neurotransmitters that plug in here too, called endogenous cannabinoids. When we enjoy steaks, stogies, or Scotch, these chemical messengers are pumped out and bind to CB1 receptors in a key "reward" area of the brain. This sets free a different neurotransmitter: dopamine, the pleasure queen. So by blocking endogenous cannabinoids from docking at CB1, Rimonabant snuffs that dopamine buzz and takes the fun out of our worst habits.

In an early round of the Sanofi trials, which wrap up late next year, obese people on the highest trial dose of Rimonabant lost an average of ten pounds in just under four months. Twenty percent of smokers taking the drug didn't light up during a ten-week trial and lost 2.6 pounds in the bargain. Trials of Rimonabant in alcoholics are in earlier stages, but in lab mice with drinking problems its effectiveness is clear.

Sanofi scientists in the late 1980s applied a logic that now seems obvious: If marijuana brings on the munchies, why not make a molecule that blocks its action, on the theory that it will fight obesity? Scientists had long been operating on the faulty theory that the brain didn't have specific receptors for marijuana's active ingredient. They didn't figure out until 1988 that those receptors existed. CB1 was identified in 1990. All of a sudden, the cannabinoid system was the hot new kid on the brain-transmitter block. And Big Pharma, normally shy about reefer-related research, snaps to attention when the subject is diet pills.

Ultimately, the cannabinoid system could yield therapies that go well beyond helping people shrink their beer bellies and pitch the Pall Malls. Compounds that activate cannabinoid receptors are also presenting exciting possibilities. For instance, it's well established in animals that drugs that stimulate cannabinoid receptors can limit brain damage in trauma and stroke. Other promising applications seem to emerge by the month.

Of course, man-made drugs that turn on cannabinoid receptors are bound to freak out the drug police. So scientists are trying to develop compounds that fight disease without giving users the giggles. Scientists at the University of Arizona and the University of Connecticut have used an experimental drug to increase pain tolerance in rats and mice with nerve-injured paws. The drug binds to a class of cannabinoid receptors that occur only outside the brain, meaning that the furry guys get pain relief without getting high. The applications aren't trivial: Neuropathic pain from nerve injury affects millions of Americans and doesn't respond well to existing painkillers. AlexiPharma, a Connecticut startup, is hoping to move the drug into human trials within a year.

Pain sufferers have been toking up for as long as hemp has been used for rope. Similarly, the calming effects of low-dose ganja are now being harnessed--without the high--in experimental drugs that boost levels of one of the brain's key cannabinoid neurotransmitters, damping down anxiety in lab rats. That's what Daniele Piomelli is working on at UC-Irvine. "Rimonabant is the beginning of a chapter, not the end of it," he says. And he's not just blowing smoke.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- President John F. Kennedy

Testimony of Lester Grinspoon
before the Crime Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee [October 1, 1997]
Marihuana is particularly useful for patients who suffer from AIDS because it not only relieves the nausea but retards weight loss by enhancing appetite. When it helps patients regain lost weight, it can prolong life.

Safe Use of Cannabis" by Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D.

Marijuana improves appetite in Alzheimer's patients

Natural, Marijuana-like Chemical May Provide Treatment for Obesity

Lester Grinspoon M.D.

DdC

Journal Nature
Straight Dope on the Munchies
Obesity worsening diabetes epidemic

Marijuana Munchies May Hold a Key to Obesity
Source: WebMD_ April 11, 2001
Excerpt:Those who try marijuana (and inhale) know that smoking it can bring on an acute snack attack known as "the munchies." Scientists from Italy, the U.S. and Japan now say that pot may stimulate the appetite by interacting in the brain with a key hunger-controlling hormone.

Diabetes study points to treatment through single gene By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service Saturday, November 8, 2003
Excerpt:(SH) - Boosting activity of a single gene in the brain of obese mice cures their diabetes, suggesting a new treatment approach for humans, New York researchers reported Thursday. The researcher noted that drugs that mimic POMC are already in development to treat obesity, "but it may turn out they're even more effective for treating diabetes."

NEW MOLECULAR TARGETS FOR THE TREATMENT OF OBESITY
Excerpt: CB1 cannabinoid receptors are also attractive central obesity targets67. CB1 cannabinoid receptors and the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonyl glycerol are present in the hypothalamus , and marijuana and anandamide stimulate food intake.

Vernalis R&D Centre > Obesity: 5-HT2c
Excerpt: Vernalis is investigating the potential use of selective 5-HT2c receptor agonists to treat obesity and related disorders. In 1999 Vernalis partnered this programme with Roche, the world’s leading pharmaceutical company in sales of prescription treatments for obesity, and granted Roche exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise compounds discovered in the programme.

Excerpt: Robust increases in food intake are widely reported after acute administration of cannabis sativa (marijuana), or its principal active ingredient the CB receptor agonist, -THC, in a number of species including humans. In pre-clinical studies administration of endocannabinoids leads to robust increases in food intake that can be preventedby pre-treatment with a selective CB receptor antagonist. Furthermore, sub-chronic treatment with a selective CB receptor antagonist reduces both food intake and body weight in animals and humans.

THE BENEFITS OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
Excerpt: Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant,
specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia.

Accepted medical use in the United States
Excerpt: Results from clinical research demonstrate that both dronabinol and whole plant cannabis can offer a safe and effective treatment for the following illnesses: muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis, Tourette syndrome, chronic pain, nausea and vomiting in HIV/AIDS and cancer chemotherapy, loss of appetite from cancer, hyperactivity of the bladder in patients with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, and dyskinesia caused by levodopa in Parkinson's disease.

Marijuana patch
Excerpt: (A) non-traditional strategy being explored to alleviate treatment-related nausea and vomiting is a marijuana patch. The American Cancer Society recently awarded a grant of $361,000 to a New York researcher to see if cannabinoids—the active ingredient in marijuana—could be delivered through a skin patch to help relieve these symptoms.



Keep Your Brain From Going To Pot By Kristen Philipkoski
Source: Wired Magazine November 17, 2003
Excerpt: The active chemical in marijuana can do more for your head than give you a high -- it could protect your brain in emergency situations. An altered version of cannabis could be the first drug ever to shield the brain from the cascade of injury that follows head trauma.

Excerpt: When the brain is injured in a fall or car accident, the damage does not stop after the impact. When cells in the brain die, they send signals to nearby cells to die also, causing continued, uncontrollable injury. Researchers have been trying to find a way to stop this domino effect for decades, but nothing has worked well yet.

Pharmos Compounds Demonstrate Neuroprotection

Marijuana Ingredient Helps Head Injuries

Compound May Reduce Brain Trauma Damage

Marijuana: Good for The Brain

Cannabis Blocks Irreversible Brain Damage

Cannabis prevents brain damage



The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers, which are cited to justify it.
President John F. Kennedy Address to newspaper publishers April 27, 1961

Medical Marijuana Information Links

Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica:An Ethnographic Study

Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974
The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys

Cannabis Less Harmful Than Aspirin, Says Scientist

Marijuana Doesn't Cause Lung Cancer

Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74

Marijuana May Offer Protection Against Tumors!

Marijuana Ingredient Helps Mice Overcome Arthritis

Cannabis treating Parkinson

Compounds from the marijuana family can lower eye pressure
Excerpt: Researchers from the University of Arizona are studying cannabinoids as a potential treatment for glaucoma. William Stamer and Robert Noecker, both assistant professors of ophthalmology, have been researching the ability of cannabinoids - a family of compounds that includes the active component of marijuana - to lower high pressure in the eye, which causes glaucoma. "There's no doubt that smoking pot lowers eye pressure. The idea is to` eliminate the side effects," said Noecker.

What the WHO doesn't want you to know about cannabis

DdC

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
-- Helen Keller

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Oakland Pot Cafes Under Fire

Medical Marijuana: Breathing Uneasy

Synthetic Marijuana Reduces Agitation in Patients

Medical Marijuana Used To Treat MS Patients

Marijuana May Help MS Patients

Jim Busted, Cheryl Put Back in Chair!



Monsanto and the drug war
Excerpt: During the Vietnam war, the U.S. used a series of chemical defoliant "agents" named for the green, pink, blue, purple, and orange colored rings around their oil drum containers. The concept was to remove cover-foliage from the guerilla enemy to make it vulnerable to attack. One of the herbicides used was called Agent Orange (a 50/50 mixture of herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T), and it proved very effective. However, there was a problem: varying amounts of a breakdown product of the "dioxin" class called TCDD was part of the mixture.

Excerpt: TCDD was shown to have various, very serious toxic effects. According to the 1994 Seventh Annual Report on Carcinogens, Agent Orange causes "toxic effects in animals includ[ing] the wasting syndrome, gastric ulcers, immunotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, hepatoporphyria, vascular lesions, chloracne, teratogenicity, fetotoxicity, impaired reproductive performance, endometriosis and delayed death."

Excerpt: The application of Agent Orange and TCDD not only deforested large areas of Vietnam, but it also caused over 50,000 birth defects and hundreds of thousands of cancers both in Vietnamese civilians and soldiers, as well as in former U.S. troops serving in South East Asia. The effects of Agent Orange are still being experienced, 26 years after the end of the war.

Spraying Misery

WoD on the Environment

The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber

Ditchweed Update: DEA Numbers

Annual Ditchweed Eradication Boondoggle Underway Again

FEDERAL MARIJUANA ERADICATION PROGRAM
SEIZES NOTHING BUT DITCHWEED,STATE AUDITOR'S REPORT SAYS



"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind"
-- John F. Kennedy

Poison Pot

99.28% ditchweed

State patrol/DEAth/FBI all on the persuit of the dangerous schedule#1 narcotic heathern devil weed....NON-PSYCHOACTIVE ROPE?

Spraying Ditchweed Devastate Midwest Game Birds

State Patrol on prowl for ditchweed harvesters

Urgent Warning about Industrial Hemp...

Drug Czar Seeks To Ban All Hemp Products

Genetic fungus



"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
Excerpt from Atlas Shrugged
Beginning on page 411 of the 35th Anniversary Edition

The Agenda

__________________

guru the third

They're gonna start pumping this stuff through our water! BLOCKS THC-RECEPTORS?!?! AAAAACK!!

__________________
O0o. (^o^)y=~ "Supporting terrorists" since 1998


It's music in the air, a lots of loving everywhere
Everybody, gettin' right, everybody, gettin' right
It's smoke all in the air, everybody wanna share
Niggaz is gettin' high, niggaz is gettin' high