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Science

Breathe Easy: Pot Doesn’t Cause Brain Damage

November 18, 2016 by Randy Robinson Leave a Comment

You’ve probably heard the ol’ scare tactic before: Smoking cannabis causes brain damage.

That’s a complete myth. The most recent research suggests cannabis may actually regrow brain cells rather than destroy them.

How the Myth Started

All of the documentaries and websites that cater to cannabis love talking about Harry Anslinger and his Reefer Madness in the 1930s. His anti-pot campaign claimed that marijuana made people go crazy. That it turned them into axe murderers. That it made people lazy and stupid.

Of course, Americans like to think we invented everything. But even that kind of prohibitionist rhetoric didn’t start with us. It started with British imperialists in Egypt.

Yeah, Egypt.

In the 1890s, Egypt was a British colony. The British weren’t terribly popular in the Middle East at that time, and Egyptian nationalists wanted independence from their European masters. Typically, the British governors would just throw nationalist rabble-rousers in prison. But sometimes those nationalists would be dubbed “insane” and tossed in an institution.

Cue John Warnock, a British doctor chosen by the British to lead Egypt’s “Lunacy Department.” He started with the country’s only asylum, then went about affecting several national reforms.

Instead of learning the local languages and customs, as any shrink should, Warnock decided to just wing it. After a year in Egypt, he concluded the local custom of smoking, drinking, and eating hashish – a preparation made from cannabis – was to blame for Egypt’s crazies. Without question, British medical journals parroted his claims.

In 1924, the League of Nations (known today as the UN) met for the global Geneva Conference on Opium. This conference formed to combat the world’s opium epidemic, and Egypt sent delegates. One of those delegates was Dr. El Guindy, who presented Warnock’s non-peer-reviewed notes to our world leaders. El Guindy told the Geneva Conference that “about 70 percent of insane people in lunatic asylums in Egypt are hashish eaters or smokers.”

Overnight, the world associated cannabis with dangerous narcotics like opium and heroin. Things have never been the same ever since.

Ten years after El Guindy’s alarm bells, Reefer Madness swept across the US. American law enforcement and legislators jumped on the weed-causes-lunatics bandwagon. In 1937, the US government passed the Marihuana Tax Act, effectively outlawing marijuana until 1969, when the US Supreme Court overturned the law as unconstitutional.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon used his emergency powers to outlaw cannabis again. And the rest is history.

What the Science Says

Long story short, marijuana doesn’t cause brain damage or insanity. Even the US FDA, which has advised the DEA to keep marijuana illegal at the federal level, recently admitted that cannabis does not lower IQ, cause psychosis, or anything of that nature.

What we do have is ample evidence that cannabis may facilitate something called neurogenesis. Neurogenesis is a process where the body grows new brain cells. We used to think that the brain stopped regenerating after we reached our 20s, but that turned out to be a myth, too.

Although we have no clinical studies showing that smoking cannabis causes neurogenesis, we do have controlled studies that show isolated cannabinoids (like THC) can do this in animal models. The brain region that’s especially sensitive to cannabinoid-facilitated neurogenesis is the hippocampus, a region responsible for learning and memory. The hippocampus can also direct our nervous system to repair itself, so the suspicion is if we can regenerate brain cells in the hippocampus, it could cascade to regeneration in other parts of the brain and spinal cord, too.

These neurogenesis studies are so promising that the US government holds a patent on a pot-based pharmaceutical for treating neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I’m not making this up. You can check out the patent here.

As a responsible cannabis user, I should note that some studies show cannabis can disrupt short-term memory formation. Anyone who’s ever smoked a doob can attest to this. But that disruption is temporary, and simply abstaining from smoking for a short period will restore your brain’s normal functions.

Filed Under: Cannabis Culture Tagged With: Brain Health, Cannabis, cbd, Health & Science, Legalization, Research, Science, thc

Purple Squid Google Eyes

August 18, 2016 by CCT Staff Leave a Comment

First there was the Purple Blob. Evidently the purple blob got hold of some LSD and grew tentacles. Perhaps someone evolved the Purple Orb-emon and now it has more CP. Seriously, this has to be an elaborate troll by the “researchers”the Nautilus E/V, because this crazy looking creature is too much.

The Nautilus E/V is a research vessel that provides live streaming footage from ROVs that explore the sea floor. Researchers are currently making their way up the coast of California. This time they found a stubby squid that was quite literally staring them down as the ROV moved over it.

 

“You lookin’ at me buddy?! I’m swimmin here!”
 

What TF is going on? The reason it’s eyes are sticking out is because of the way the stubby squid inhabits the seafloor. It has a mucous jacket that suctions it to the bottom, leaving its eyes peeled back to spot prey swimming above.

I can’t wait for the creature Nautilus Live finds next. Purple is so last week, perhaps they can start finding creatures with polka dots? Quick, someone put a wig on a starfish and toss it into the Pacific. This team is bound to come across it eventually.

Filed Under: blog, Couch Tours Tagged With: 420 Entertainement, Research, Science, Underwater

Marijuana Missionaries

July 13, 2016 by CCT Staff Leave a Comment

Marijuana Missionary

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably experienced the feeling of connectedness and spirituality that arises after that first toke of cannabis. And if you’ve consumed regularly with a group of friends, you’ve probably noticed that you collectively adopt certain rituals when smoking together. Call it history and human nature. We like to assemble and get high together.  Occasionally we like to spread the word of our experiences with others, although bring a missionary for marijuana is still pretty rare. The link between ritual, cannabis and spirituality throughout history and culture is nothing new.  So it should come as no surprise that now there is an official church organized around cannabis, the First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reason.

When I first spoke to Jeremy Hall, my first question to him was to ask about his religious background. He is originally from Tennessee, and grew up in an “extremely Christian” creationist household, where the Bible was taken literally. Although he enjoyed the community and fellowship of the church he attended, he started thinking for himself at the age of eleven, and began a difficult journey of undoing the programming from his early youth. He started studying all religion, but never found another one that matched his personal beliefs. At a certain point, he said, he decided to just be okay with his own spirituality. And this premise is what the First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reason is founded on.

Jeremy is an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, as well as a Pastafarian.  He claims that he did not start the FCCLR with the intention of being rich and famous, but in order to redefine church in the same vein as redefining cannabis. He understands that going to church may not be something a lot of people look forward to, so he started his organization as an alternative to the typical requirements of church where parishioners are expected to have a specific set of beliefs. He wants to promote a concept of theology that is inclusive, and that encourages people with similar views to “gather in fellowship”.

Cannabis is central to his church, because he believes that the plant promotes peace. When he was 16 he began consuming cannabis daily, and has continued ever since. In addition to consuming for spiritual and recreational reasons, Jeremy also uses cannabis medicinally. He and his wife moved to Michigan in order to take advantage of medical marijuana laws, so that they could grow cannabis to treat his wife’s lupus and his own chronic headaches. They donate their excess crop to the community.

No tithing or revenue is required from members of the church. But he is exploring ways to generate revenue in order to stay in existence. This may include eventually charging people to become an ordained minister by the church, (similar to The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Reverend Hall says it is far too early in the beginning stages to know what it will all look like yet. “We need to get through at least the 2nd service”.

Parishioners of the church haven’t settled on a name yet. There are plans to send out a poll through SurveyMonkey to figure out the best name. Meetings in Lansing are temporarily being held in a space donated by the local Farmer’s Market. Lansing allows adults over 21 to lawfully consume cannabis on private property. This could technically allow the church to donate cannabis and allow people to smoke during services, but for now they wish to remain respectful and only allow med card holders to do so in a separate space.

Components of a Cannabis Church

It turns out that the First  Cannabis Church of Logic and Reasoning isn’t actually the first after all. There is a Cannabis Church in California, and the more well-known Cannaterians of Indiana. Jeremy says they provided inspiration for his own church.  The main difference between the Cannaterians and his own church is that since the City of Lansing allows recreational consumption of cannabis for adults over 21, it implicitly allows for his parishioners to consume cannabis. In Indiana cannabis is still illegal, so the Cannetarians had to establish their church as a way for their members to even access cannabis. Jeremy said he was grateful that this allows the focus of his church to be about doing good.

Their are certain components of any genuine church.  Here are how the FCCLR and the Cannetarians compare:

Pastoral leaders:

The First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reasoning is led by the Reverend Jeremy Hall. The Cannetarian congregation has “poohbahs” and ministers.

Tithing:

If you want to be a Cannaterian, plan on paying $4.20 a month. This gets you a membership card that doesn’t provide much other than bragging rights.  No tithing is required to be a member of the FCCLR. Both have a place to worship, although the FCCLR is currently looking for a permanent home.

Moral Code that addresses moral and existential concerns:

Church Codes

It should be noted that “thou shall not be an internet troll” is clearly the best commandment ever written.

But is a Church Necessary?

When I was able to interview Jeremy, I was pleased to find out that he and I had similar religious backgrounds. He had broken out of a deeply indoctrinated religion in his youth, and had confronted the programming that independent thinking meant condemnation to Hell. Being an ex-Mormon, I can relate to how soul-crushing that is for a person, and I have tremendous respect for Jeremy and his goals. His motivations seem to be completely genuine, and I’m impressed that he embraces the scientific method as a central tenet of the religion he has founded.

But the skeptic in me wonders whether these good intentions will be sustainable over time. Is there really a need to worship cannabis and be together? History shows that once religion becomes organized, humans tend to lose sight of the reasons why they started the church in the first place. Here’s hoping this latest church keeps the faith.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 420, Cannabis, Church, Science

Adolescent Cannabis Use Declines

June 7, 2016 by Brittany Driver Leave a Comment

A recent study including over 215,000 adolescents spanning the 50 states is giving cannabis consumers good news. While the moral majority assumed and asserted that marijuana legalization would lead to an increase in use among children and teens, the study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis discovered a very different story coming together. Cannabis problems are declining in states that have legalized – and beyond.

The study took place over a 12-year span of time. During that time , participants ranging in ages 12 -17 were questioned on how often the used cannabis. The data collected was examined to determine if marijuana legalization (medical or otherwise) was having a positive, negative or neutral effect on today’s youth.

In those 12 years, scientists did see a trend. Between 2002 and 2013, the amount of adolescents who reported having problems with marijuana declined a whopping 24 percent. There was also a noticeable decline (10 percent) in the number of adolescents that reported using the drug at all in the past year during the 2002-2013 time frame.

With a decline in problems associated with marijuana came a decline in problematic behavioral issues as well.   As the number of cases of adolescents selling drugs, fighting or stealing declined, so did the chances that those adolescents would have issues with cannabis. Washington University’s The Source quotes one author of the study, Richard A Grucza, PhD and associate professor of psychiatry, as saying,

“We were surprised to see substantial declines in marijuana use and abuse…We don’t know how legalization is affecting young marijuana users, but it could be that many kids with behavioral problems are more likely to get treatment earlier in childhood, making them less likely to turn to pot during adolescence. But whatever is happening with these behavioral issues, it seems to be outweighing any effects of marijuana decriminalization.”

How do you think marijuana legalization will affect the use of marijuana among youths? Do you think this is just an issue of recognizing mental health issues early on and treating them? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!

Filed Under: News and Events Tagged With: Adolescent Cannabis Use, Cannabis, Science, Study, Teens

Our favorite excerpts from Carl Sagan as Mr. X

April 7, 2016 by Brittany Driver Leave a Comment

Our favorite excerpts from

Carl Sagan as Mr. X

 

Much like today, it wasn’t super acceptable for community leaders to come out as proponents for cannabis when Carl Sagan was bouncing around. So when Sagan had something to say he said it under the pseudonym, Mr. X.  Here are some of our favorite excerpts from that something he said.

 

“This account was written in 1969 for publication in Marihuana Reconsidered (1971). Sagan was in his mid-thirties at that time. He continued to use cannabis for the rest of his life.”

1.  I had become friendly with a group of people who occasionally smoked cannabis, irregularly, but with evident pleasure. Initially I was unwilling to partake, but the apparent euphoria that cannabis produced and the fact that there was no physiological addiction to the plant eventually persuaded me to try.


2. My initial experiences were entirely disappointing; there was no effect at all, and I began to entertain a variety of hypotheses about cannabis being a placebo which worked by expectation and hyperventilation rather than by chemistry.


3.  After about five or six unsuccessful attempts, however, it happened. I was lying on my back in a friend’s living room idly examining the pattern of shadows on the ceiling cast by a potted plant (not cannabis!). I suddenly realized that I was examining an intricately detailed miniature Volkswagen, distinctly outlined by the shadows. I was very skeptical at thisperception, and tried to find inconsistencies between Volkswagens and what I viewed on the ceiling. But it was all there, down to hubcaps, license plate, chrome, and even the small handle used for opening the trunk.


4. When I closed my eyes, I was stunned to find that there was a movie going on the inside of my eyelids. Flash . . . a simple country scene with red farmhouse, a blue sky, white clouds, yellow path meandering over green hills to the horizon. . . Flash . . . same scene, orange house, brown sky, red clouds, yellow path, violet fields . . . Flash . . . Flash . . . Flash. The flashes came about once a heartbeat. Each flash brought the same simple scene into view, but each time with a different set of colors . . . exquisitely deep hues, and astonishingly harmonious in their juxtaposition.


Carl-Sagan-marijuana-cannabis

5. I can remember another early visual experience with cannabis, in which I viewed a candle flame and discovered in the heart of the flame, standing with magnificent indifference, the black-hatted and -cloaked Spanish gentleman who appears on the label of the Sandeman sherry bottle.


6. Looking at fires when high, by the way, especially through one of those prism kaleidoscopes which image their surroundings, is an extraordinarily moving and beautiful experience.


7. The cannabis experience has greatly improved my appreciation for art, a subject which I had never much appreciated before.


8. There also have been some art-related insights … For example, I have spent some time high looking at the work of the Belgian surrealist YvesTanguey. Some years later, I emerged from a long swim in the Caribbean and sank exhausted onto a beach formed from the erosion of a nearby coral reef. In idly examining the arcuate pastel-colored coral fragments which made up the beach, I saw before me a vastTanguey painting. PerhapsTanguey visited such a beach in his childhood.


9. Improvement in my appreciation of music has occurred with cannabis. For the first time I have been able to hear the separate parts of a three-part harmony and the richness of the counterpoint. I have since discovered that professional musicians can quite easily keep many separate parts going simultaneously in their heads, but this was the first time for me.


10. The enjoyment of food is amplified; tastes and aromas emerge that for some reason we ordinarily seem to be too busy to notice. I am able to give my full attention to the sensation. A potato will have a texture, a body, and taste like that of other potatoes, but much more so.


11. Cannabis also enhances the enjoyment of sex –on the one hand it gives an exquisite sensitivity, but on the other hand it postpones orgasm: in part by distracting me with the profusion of image passing before my eyes. The actual duration of orgasm seems to lengthen greatly, but this may be the usual experience of time expansion which comes with cannabis smoking.


12. I do not consider myself a religious person in the usual sense, but there is a religious aspect to some highs. The heightened sensitivity in all areas gives me a feeling of communion with my surroundings, both animate and inanimate.


carl-sagan

13. Cannabis brings us an awareness that we spend a lifetime being trained to overlook and forget and put out of our minds.


14. When high on cannabis I discovered that there’s somebody inside in those people we call mad.


15. When I’m high I can penetrate into the past, recall childhood memories, friends, relatives, playthings, streets, smells, sounds, and tastes from a vanished era. I can reconstruct the actual occurrences in childhood events only half understood at the time.


16. Many but not all my cannabis trips have somewhere in them a symbolism significant to me which I won’t attempt to describe here, a kind of mandala embossed on the high.


17. There is a myth about such highs: the user has an illusion of great insight, but it does not survive scrutiny in the morning. I am convinced that this is an error, and that the devastating insights achieved when high are real insights; the main problem is putting these insights in a form acceptable to the quite different self that we are when we’re down the next day.


18. I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down. One idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics.


19. If I find in the morning a message from myself the night before informing me that there is a world around us which we barely sense, or that we can become one with the universe, or even that certain politicians are desperately frightened men, I may tend to disbelieve; but when I’m high I know about this disbelief.


carl-sagan

20. I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs.

20. I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs.


21. Cannabis enables nonmusicians to know a little about what it is like to be a musician, and nonartists to grasp the joys of art.I have on a few occasions been forced to drive in heavy traffic when high. I’ve negotiated it with no difficult at all, though I did have some thoughts about the marvelous cherry-red color of traffic lights. I find that after the drive I’m not high at all.


22. I have on a few occasions been forced to drive in heavy traffic when high. I’ve negotiated it with no difficult at all, though I did have some thoughts about the marvelous cherry-red color of traffic lights. I find that after the drive I’m not high at all.If you’re high and your child is calling, you can respond about as capably as you usually do.


23. If you’re high and your child is calling, you can respond about as capably as you usually do.


24. ..I don’t advocate driving when high on cannabis, but I can tell you from personal experience that it certainly can be done.


25. My high is always reflective, peaceable, intellectually exciting, and sociable, unlike most alcohol highs, and there is never a hangover. Through theyears I find that slightly smaller amounts of cannabis suffice to produce the same degree of high.


apple-pie-carl-sagan26. The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.

 

Filed Under: News and Events, Visit Denver Tagged With: Cannabis, Carl Sagan, Concentrates, Parenting, Sagan, Science

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