[Jack Herer]

Posted on: Monday, 6 July 2009, 11:33 CDT
Injections of THC, the active principle of cannabis, eliminate dependence on opiates (morphine, heroin) in rats deprived of their mothers at birth. This has been shown by a study carried out by Valérie Daugé and her team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (UPMC / CNRS / INSERM) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. The findings could lead to therapeutic alternatives to existing substitution treatments.

In order to study psychiatric disorders, neurobiologists use animal models, especially maternal deprivation models. Depriving rats of their mothers for several hours a day after their birth leads to a lack of care and to early stress. The lack of care, which takes place during a period of intense neuronal development, is liable to cause lasting brain dysfunction. Valérie Daugé's team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (UPMC / CNRS / Inserm) analyzed the effects of maternal deprivation combined with injections of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main active principle in cannabis, on behavior with regard to opiates.

Previously, Daugé and her colleagues had shown that rats deprived of their mothers at birth become hypersensitive to the rewarding effect of morphine and heroin (substances belonging to the opiate family), and rapidly become dependent
. In addition, there is a correlation between such behavioral disturbances linked to dependence, and hypoactivity of the enkephalinergic system, the endogenous opioid system.

To these rats, placed under stress from birth, the researchers intermittently administered increasingly high doses of THC (5 or 10 mg/kg) during the period corresponding to their adolescence (between 35 and 48 days after birth). By measuring their consumption of morphine in adulthood, they observed that, unlike results previously obtained, the rats no longer developed typical morphine-dependent behavior. Moreover, biochemical and molecular biological data corroborate these findings. In the striatum, a region of the brain involved in drug dependence, the production of endogenous enkephalins was restored under THC, whereas it diminished in rats stressed from birth which had not received THC.

Such animal models are validated for understanding the neurobiological and behavioral effects of postnatal conditions in humans. In this context, the findings point to the development of new treatments that could relieve withdrawal effects and suppress drug dependence.

The enkephalinergic system produces endogenous enkephalins, which are neurotransmitters that bind to the same receptors as opiates and inhibit pain messages to the brain.


http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/...ne_dependence/

[DreamSmoker]

Every single thing that you have tried to teach us about the truth. Has been based on Proof and Science.... You have been telling us the truth for years and years... You speak even louder today with more pure scientific proof...
Marijuana issues are not based on what is right, but Politics and religious beliefs as usual... No Facts... Just Fear Tactics.....
Thanks Jack.... I love the technical and scientific aspects you provide....... Nobody does it better...

[Atoodope]

I think its actually his wife that gives us these interesting news articles, but never-the-less very interesting and very insightful!:thumbup: Thanks for another great read!

ATooDope

[naimad1234]

someday maybe the masses will listen......love the news updates big reason i check WT, thanks Jack

[slutbumwaller]

I would be interested to see the statistics of adopted children with opiate addictions.

[Smilodon]

As a former CPS Investigator I can tell you there are far more children born with cocaine addiction than all other addictions combined. What a terrible first week of life.

I would be interested in how the researchers explain the growth in the multiplicity of receptor sites and how THC modified that growth. In order to stem the urge to use that growth in multiplicity has to slow or stop all together.