Posted on 07/08/2006 2:48:58 AM PDT by neverdem
In what could be a coup for antimarijuana forces, new research shows that rats exposed to pot's active ingredient at an early age devour more heroin as adults than rats without early exposure. Some experts, though, say the jury is still out on whether the finding is enough to officially label marijuana a "gateway" drug.
According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most adults who take illicit drugs start doing so in their early teens. In addition, the earlier kids start smoking dope, the more likely they are to use harder drugs later on. For example, of people who first puffed weed before age 15, 62% went on to use cocaine and 9% to use heroin. But of those who started smoking pot after age of 20, only 16% moved onto cocaine and 1% to heroin. Some researchers think this means that marijuana is a gateway drug--one that leads to harder drug use. Others point out that such a claim is hard to prove because the same factors that lead people to use marijuana in the first place might also lead them to use other drugs.
To see through the smoke, neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd, now at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, gave 4-week-old rats THC, the most common psychoactive component in cannabis. The researchers injected the rats with the THC equivalent of about three-quarters of a joint (scaled down for a rat's size) every third day for 3 weeks until they reached mid-adolescence, about 7 weeks old. The dose probably created a mild buzz, but not high enough that the rats stumbled. After a week-long break, the rodents were allowed to self-administer heroin using levers that provide the substance.
Rats that had been exposed to THC as "teens" took about 25% more heroin than did their just-say-no peers. Biochemical tests of the adult animals showed that THC-doused brains had the same number of receptors that responded to THC as unexposed rat brains, but more receptors for heroin and more of a compound associated with reward behavior in their neurons, the team reports online 5 July in Neuropsychopharmacology. Whether this indicates marijuana is a "gateway" drug depends on the definition of "gateway," says Hurd. She says both groups of animals took the same amount of time to start taking heroin, suggesting THC use doesn't start them on the path to hedonism, but the THC-primed rats got more into it, suggesting it paves the way for increased use.
"The important finding is the fact that adolescence is a time of increased vulnerability to drugs," says neuropharmacologist Sari Izenwasser of the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida, who notes that such behavior may alter fundamental brain processes. But pharmacologist Aron Lichtman at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond inserts a note of caution. "The data really are very provocative," he says, but not conclusive. He questions whether other reward-reinforcing behavior, such as eating food, would also be increased under these conditions.
But you wouldn't like it.
No doubt water gives your typical druggy a mighty thirst for heroin injected straight up.
However, as the rest of us know, back in the "real world", no such thing happens to normal people.
I think this is the test you've always wanted ~ but you wanted different results. Bwwaaahahahahahahahahahahah~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!
It's not happening.
Clue.
This study reports on a neurologic condition, not a behavioral situation. Rats have the same sorts of nerves you do ~ just fewer of them ~ that's why they're so stupid eh.
BTW, concerning smoking natural plants, try poison ivy.
Didn't you read all the way through the article? They noted that heroin costs much more than MJ. Poverty protects druggies from hard drugs every single time eh!
Maybe I could sneak up on one of 'em and take his stash eh.
Over-stimulation of these receptors through exposure to cannabis may alter these cells so that the brain either feels intensely rewarded by subsequent heroin exposure, or needs an ever-increasing dose to feel the same pleasure — both of which could lead to addiction.
So any drug is a gateway to any other drug, including alcohol and tobacco.
She adds that two other drugs that also stimulate opioid cells, and could therefore also feasibly cause a gateway effect, are nicotine and alcohol. "If we turned back the clock with the knowledge we have now, these two drugs would never have been legalized," Hurd says.
"Gateway" or not, Prohibition was a ringing failure ... as is the war on drugs.
It says 3/4 of a joint "scaled down for a rat's size"
In a related story, 100% of adult rats that use heroin started by hanging out with lab researchers on government grants.
This study does not pass the "so what test".
I am here, but I'm not in the "drug trade". I don't have a stash, but I can get anything I want on the drive over the hill. so can anyone else. As for sneaking up, try, please try! I'm not hard to find. I pinged your buddies since I refer the same thoughts to them.
I sell land, and travel services (not necessarily in that order). I did take some ibuprophen before Spot and I went over to the mountain for our morning walk in the woods. I do about 3-5 miles, while he gets his fill. He probably runs 20 miles or more, up and down the side of the mountains. I just walk and think. Sometimes I smoke a cigar, sometimes other things. I've never taken herooin in my life. I have smoked lots of marijuana.
You think you are such a smart-ass. Try building a new business with no bank account! You have to get your ass out of bed efore dawn. That has never been a problem for me. I had the habit long before I earned a cute little green, yellow, and red ribbon for my uniform. It has always stayed with me. My wife likes to stay in bed half the day. She does not drink alcohol, does not smoke anything, and works 55-60 hours a week. I could care less if she likes to stay in bed. At least I know where to find her. She's just turned 35. I am 58.
I have repeated the bizbuilding process four times already. I could sleep until noon, and still produce income from 23 (increase of 5 from last year) INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS whom I created jobs for. We all pay lots of taxes to help fund our president and his cronies, while they fuel the demise of our country... I feel as if my grandchildren have nothing to look forward to but enslavement to a new world order! I vote, have donated thousands to Republican campaigns, and worked hard to get what? I get grief from propagandists like you guys. Get a life, and worry about that mexican guy mowing the lawn next door.
Your dictatorial attitude is revealing. Get your own life in order before you lump everyone into a category. Isn't that the definition of bigotry. Maybe you could just call us by the 'N" word. You can't see the forest, guys.
I grew up in a military family, have lived among black, white, filipino, asian, and hispanic. I finished my education in the south, where people take you at your face, until you prove them wrong.
I have built houses for people on a handshake, and have delivered value in every transaction I ever undertook. I went bankrupt trying to satisfy an Indian guy who decided to take ambiguity in a printed contract, and used a slick lawyer take away my own lievlihood. I started over again, and have managed to do alright.
I am sick and tired of you bigots showing up on these threads. the cali girl, and the wannabepaulsen dude, you give conservative politics a really bad face!What can you say for your life, and why should I not smoke a little herb now and then? Because YOU don't like it?
(you can see spot run in the mist... like this morning!)
Wrong; many of them turn to crime ... which is when YOUR nanny-statism costs ME (in addition to the taxpayer money wasted on the war on drugs).
Assuming by "drug trade crowd" you mean those who question the illegality of marijuana ... rhombus, Izzy Dunne, muir_redwoods, Schweinhund, Caipirabob, ARepublicanForAllReasons, coloradan, dawn53, hodaka, winston2, and Wolfie all posted before you this morning and expressed skepticism about this article.
Did you by any chance 'Irish up' your morning coffee before you logged on?
And if they were nearly the same, then what?
Moreover, they could have gave the rats an option between continued
marijuana use and the heroine.
Did all of you post on the thread about the article that said marijuana doesn't cause cancer? The report in the article even concluded that those who smoke marijuana are actually less likely to get cancer than those who don't smoke at all!
Did you post and call that junk science also? Or did you agree with it?
Why would you conclude that? She only mentioned alcohol and tobacco.
So, do you concede that marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco are gateway drugs?
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