Study: Marijuana eases traumatic memories

Seattle Times ^ | 08/01/02 | Faye Flam

[bat-boy]

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists have known for years that the brain makes substances almost identical to the active ingredient in marijuana, but the function of these "cannabinoids" remained mysterious. Researchers now say they help to extinguish traumatic memories.

"In certain situations, being able to forget is very important for emotional survival," said George Kunos, a neurobiologist at the National Institutes of Health.

The research, published today in the journal Nature, is not an endorsement for pot smoking, scientists said. Instead, the findings may help scientists develop new drugs to treat anxiety, post-traumatic-stress disorder and phobias.

"This paper is not saying you should go ahead and smoke marijuana," said Pankaj Sah, a neuroscientist at the Australian National University in Canberra who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal. "It's saying that it's worth thinking about these specific actions of these compounds."

In the 1980s, scientists were surprised to find the brain has special receptors for the psychoactive elements in cannabis, Kunos said. An Israeli scientist named Rafael Mechoulam then found that the brain made its own versions of these cannabinoids.

To figure out why, authors of this latest study, from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, decided to examine mice that had been engineered genetically so that they lacked cannabinoid receptors.

Neuroscientist Beat Lutz said he and his colleagues conditioned the mice to associate a mild shock with the sound of a bell. Normal mice eventually lost the association between the bell and the shock. "They figure out that the tone is not dangerous anymore and say, 'I don't have to freeze,' " Lutz said.

But the mice lacking the cannabinoid system never readjust, always freezing in terror at the sound.

Researchers also found that normal mice produce the natural cannabinoids when they are extinguishing their traumatic association with the bell.

It's not clear whether the cannabinoid system helps the mice to forget the traumatic association of the bell and the shock, or just gives them enough mental flexibility to adjust to a new situation, Lutz said. It's possible that the cannabinoids are important for the ability to relearn and readjust in a number of situations.

Kunos, from the National Institutes of Health, said that the cannabinoids probably play other roles. Using similar methods to Lutz, he found that they help regulate appetite.

Sah, of the Australian National University, said the latest findings may explain why some people with psychiatric problems try to find relief with marijuana. Although experts often have labeled marijuana use as a contributor to these people's mental illness, he suggested that people with certain psychiatric problems perhaps are self-medicating in an attempt to help their brains extinguish some painful or traumatic memory or thought.

Lester Grinspoon, a pro-marijuana psychiatrist at Harvard University and author of the 1971 book "Marijuana Reconsidered," said he would like to see cannabis made into pills that could be prescribed, but said the drug is not patentable and therefore would be unattractive for drug companies to manufacture and market.

Lutz suggested that, instead of supplying extra cannabinoids, a drug might enhance the effects of natural ones.

He also suggested such a drug might need to be taken in conjunction with psychotherapy, during which patients would work on getting rid of fearful associations.

"Just smoking marijuana all day won't help," he said.

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

[rond]

All the things the WOD tramples under cloven hoof ...

But hey, at least it keeps some people working. Imagine what would happen if marijuana — and only marijuana — was legalized. Thousands of police officers, prosecutors, judges and jailers would have to focus on violent-crime perps.

We wouldn't want that now, would we?

[EBUCK]

Thousands of police officers, prosecutors, judges and jailers would have to focus on violent-crime perps.

Add to that the loss of "WOD-inflated" revenue the economy would suffer and you have a recipie for total disaster!! The sky is falling!!!CRIED CHICKEN LITTLE

EBUCK

[dcwusmc]

Bump for your answer to the question...

[PhilDragoo]

The film "Reefer Madness" is a satire of itself, yet reflects the hysteria of the times.

At a meeting of MENSA, an "expert" from the FDA told us, "Tests have shown marijuana causes short term memory loss."

I raised my hand and asked him, "Which tests?"

He replied, "I don't recall, but they exist."

I laughed aloud, alone, and left.

The use of drugs would be a peripheral were it not for their exorbitant cost and profitability.

One can't help but think their prohibition is insured by a) that very profitability; and b) the inordinate power exercised ostensibly in enforcement of drug laws.

Drugs are prohibited precisely in order to profit a power elite--which also relishes the exercise of inordinate power in the enforcement of drug law.

Concurrently, the drunk driving epidemic continues unabated--with its perfect recent punctuation by the bust of the insufferably pious snot, Bill Moyers.

Yet boys by the millions are diagnosed with nonexistent disorders and emasculated with Ritalin.

It's a brave new world where a gram is better than a damn--but the gram must bear the government's tax stamp.

[dcwusmc]

Understood about Reefer Madness... it DID reflect the times and still reflects the attitudes of a lot of drug warriors today.

How do I get someone from Mensa to return a call so they can look up my records and I can rejoin?

The remainder of your post is a strong argument in favor of reason and good sense, thanks for it!

[A CA Guy]

We don't need new vices to drag our culture down.

I've been busy working and paying my taxes so I can support 10 like you.
When I have time I would be pleased to enjoy a spirited debate.

Things like drugs are mostly an ethical problem for our culture.
It is almost as bad as abortion in what it does to our culture.
IMO!

[dcwusmc]

Well, now, that was not even CLOSE to what I posted, studly. Isn't your program up to reading yet? You do not in any way support me or any LIKE me.

Now, address the lies, half-truths and distortions that surround the war on Americans and the Constitution known by you and yours as the war on (some) drugs. Tell me why the lies told by Harry Anslinger don't matter in the overall scheme of things and that he lied to some nobler purpose than to expand his bureaucracy and save his job. You'll be wrong, of course, but tell me about that. ANSWER the point I made and keep in mind that hemp has been around for centuries, even MILLENIA... so "new" is not the word to use. Our Constitution was written on hemp paper, though it's not politically correct to say so in the days of war on Americans...

[A CA Guy]

I wasn't going into all your side issues. I was making a simple explanation of where I am coming from about illegal drugs.
It is a vice and unethical.

Now you can claim line 7 of some freedom, or some claim by an ex-addict that it is not addictive and all, but the issue remains mostly that it is an unethical vice no matter how you dress it up and try to sell it dcwusmc.

[dcwusmc]

Numbnuts, I am not trying to sell it. I want YOU to justify KEEPING it, in light of the fact that the whole foundation for the war on drugs is built on lies, on fabrications, on sheer, unadulterated racism of a particularly UGLY sort. Respond to that, if you please, and leave your "unethical vices" at the door. Or are you CAPABLE of framing an intelligent answer?

[A CA Guy]

Since when can a drug pick which race of people it will go to, and when does it force open that person's mouth and make it take the illegal drug in?

Kind of an odd statement.
Are addicts looking for reparations and seeking Al Sharpton out to play the race card now?

Illegal drugs are unethical vices and you CAN'T leave it at the door. It is the point of the whole issue.

It's like glue sniffing, child porn and other vices, it doesn't fall on the nice or good side of the line.

[dcwusmc]

No, studly, YOU can't pick and choose who does what drug... but Harry Anslinger, patron saint of WODDIES could. In his 1937 testimony to Congress getting the hemp tax act passed he allowed as how marijuana was used primarily by 100,000 jazz musicians, blacks and white women who then sought sex with black men. Earlier, the evils of opium were laid at the door of Chinese immigrants... when the British fought the Opium Wars with China so that the Royal Family (as some say it) or Britain, in any case, could CONTROL the flow and SELL opium in China over the wishes of the Chinese government. Do ANY of these lies justify keeping ANYTHING government does that has its basis on them? The whole war on drugs is a tissue of LIES and you like it that way, as it's so convenient not to have to think for yourself; not to have to THINK...

By the way, just the same sorts of arguments were used to institute the first victim disarmament laws... because the ruling white class didn't want blacks, chinese, italians, irishmen and so forth to be able to defend themselves... amazing what a little research can turn up, huh? But it's so much easier to depend on gooberment for all your truths, isn't it?

[A CA Guy]

There is nothing saintly about illegal drugs.

[dcwusmc]

Nor does anyone I know claim saintliness for drugs. What I want is one rational argument from you as to why we should keep drugs, including hemp, illegal in light of the deceptive, lying start to the war on Americans guised as a war on drugs. Just ONE, studly. No preaching. No hyperventilating. Just a reasoned and rational argument explaining why we should keep them illegal despite the lack of medical data proving drugs "bad" for you... there was none when this started, only the lies. The harm from drugs now can be directly traced to the impurities allowed into them due to Prohibition itself. So ONE argument based on reason and not your usual BS. Can you do it? Are you CAPABLE of doing it?

[headsonpikes]

See Phil Dragoo's #64 for the answer to your query.

"Drugs are prohibited precisely in order to profit a power elite--which also relishes the exercise of inordinate power..."

You'll never get a straight answer from the apologists and teat-suckers.

[dcwusmc]

I know Phil's response is correct. I just want to see if A CA Guy can form words to make complete sentences that make sense. I suspect not and I know NONE of the others I have flagged to these posts has answered or even tried. One such dufus said that it's all history so stay modern, implying that he can't justify anything but doesn't want to lose his mantra.... I love being able to bait some of these WODDIES with facts they are afraid to face.... It's grand fun to watch them squirming in their seats as they read the facts and lie to themselves about it...

And the really good part is that I have only the axe of the Constitution to grind. Just as I am still a POLITICAL smoker, having mostly quit tobacco, so am I a POLITICAL druggie, not having used any illicit substances at all... nor having a desire to do so, but only to see my country return to its glory days of being a true Constitutional Republic.

[headsonpikes]

You can't be real serious.

There is no chance any of the WODders would have the intellectual honesty or moral courage to deal with the foundations of the government's misguided policies.

Founded in lies, justified by hypocrisy, maintained by greed, the WOD is now an institution of American society, like public schools and welfare moms.

Luckily, socialism is a religion of peace. ;^)

[dcwusmc]

I know that, but there are lurkers and newbiies who will notice the rather telling silence of the drug warriors and then draw the correct conclusions... so by forcing the issue sometimes we can point out that their silence and refusal to answer speaks volumes about the "rightness" of their cause.

The WODDIES are their own worst enemy, losing adherents daily, if not hourly, with all the BS talk they do about tougher measures and more jails and trying to link drugs to terror and trashing the Constitution more and more. All we are doing here is helping them self destruct by pointing out the obvious... and they keep falling for it because they are so shallow they have NOTHING to bolster their invective and no facts to fall back on. Their whole world is built on lies, distortions and half-truths, they know it but can never admit it to themselves let alone aloud... It's so funny!

[maxwell]

When I first smoked weed, I was in college and it seemed to help me understand the world around me. It also helped me understand calculus. I loved doing calculus when I was stoned. Now It makes a little more since. Weed helped me readjust to my new life away from home and to relearn mathematical theories studied but not understood in HS.

BWAHAHA! Quick, what's L'Hopital's rule, dude...

Yeah and booze helps you forget too, y'all. Millions of heartbroken cowboys from all space and time have known that for ages. "There's a tear in mah beer..."

I think 20, 30 years from now, folks will look back on this as another Prohibition era. What difference does it make if you mellow out on JD or on weed? I don't understand the random hangups folks have in this regard...

[maxwell]

Good rant, dude. Solid.

[PhilDragoo]

Gary Johnson, New Mexico's current second-term governor and champion triathlete, has been unsuccessful in bringing a discussion of current drug law to the fore.

New Mexico is known for its epidemic DWI problem--many are brought up on their tenth charge, yet promptly released.

The parade of state, county and local officials busted is an embarrassment.

Christmas Eve, 1992, Gordon House had thirteen beers, drove his pickup truck eighty miles an hour the wrong way on the Interstate and hit a car carrying a family and its gifts head on, killing the mother and her three daughters and causing the husband and father severe brain damage. House, a native American, was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 22 years.

This past year another native American had boo tany meers, got in his (U.S. Government) pickup, drove at a high rate of speed the wrong way down the Interstate and hit a car carrying two retired, vacationing couples head-on, killing all four. Again, the drunk driver survived.

I lived thirteen years in the county in the state bearing the distinction of the highest heroin overdose death rate in the nation. The multiagency task forces stage their annual "massive drug raid", parading a caravan of sedans down the twisting two-lane blacktop, "busting" three dozen sleepy sadsacks who bond and plea out in short order.

In other news, the poppy fields of Afghanistan may lie fallow for a season, the slack being taken up by the Wei Army of Burma/Myanmar with the (covert) aid of the Peoples Liberation Army of China.

Peru and Colombia produce cash crops with the (clandestine) support of Hugo Chavez, as well as the overt protection of FARC, Shining Path and no doubt the other side as well.

A U.S. Army colonel (ret.) of my acquaintance described a time in Vietnam when he was ordered by his superiors to provide protection for a drug caravan passing through his sector: one instance among many, according to this veteran whom I trust.

An incident to demonstrate that the trade has the vertical (up and down the chain of command) as well as the horizontal (across borders and ideologies) support and protection.

The games of cops and robbers are important eye candy for the evening news, evidence that the various members of AFSCME and the armed militarized police forces of a myriad of agencies and jurisdictions are earning their share of the tax bite.

The prison populations have doubled several times in recent decades.

The illegitimate status of drugs profits a few and employs many.

The world still waits for the medical records of William Jefferson Clinton, waits in vain.

That he overdosed on cocaine during his governorship is a surety. That he is a cocaine user to this day is a given.

Terry Reed has an interesting perspective on the Mena operation in Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, SPI, 1994.

Mike Ruppert of CopVCIA and John Carman of CustomsCorruption have tales to tell.

More and more are looking behind the curtain to see the man working the levers is a charlatan.

One claiming knowledge or skill that he does not have.