Human Body Found To Produce Its Own Version Of Marijuana



Pubdate: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 



Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) 



ubject: HUMAN BODY FOUND TO PRODUCE ITS OWN VERSION OF MARIJUANA 	



Scientists hope to isolate the pain-killing powers of the natural compounds 	



Amid the various battles to legalize medical marijuana stands this little-known fact: Our brains 

and bodies are flooded with a natural form of the drug.	



Called cannabinoids, after the euphoria-inducing plant Cannabis sativa, this family of compounds 

blocks pain, erases memories and triggers hunger. Newer studies show they may also regulate the 

immune system, enhance reproduction and even protect the brain from stroke and trauma 

damage.	



Discovered in humans just a few years ago and, until recently, virtually unstudied, the compounds 

have become one of the looming mysteries of the nervous system and a field of exploding 

scientific interest.	



Already, scientists are testing cannabinoids with hopes of harnessing the medical power of 

marijuana to treat pain without its high, smoke or political baggage. A key challenge is separating 

the curing power of the compounds from their mind-altering side effects. 	



"That's the holy grail of this field," said Steven Childers, a pharmacologist at the Wake Forest 

University School of Medicine in Winston- Salem, N.C.	



Because cannabinoids are so numerous in the brain, they also could help explain the workings of 

some of our body's most complex, and least understood, systems.	



"It's obviously important because there's so much of it. And we never knew it existed before," said 

J. Michael Walker, a Brown University psychologist who has conducted some of the first studies 

of how cannabinoids block pain. "It could help us understand movement, it could help us 

understand memory, it could help us understand pain. We don't really know how any of these 

things work." 	



There has always been evidence, from the intoxicating effects cannabis evokes in smokers, that it 

contains powerful compounds. 	



The sticky, flowering buds of the plant have been harvested as medicine for centuries. Five 

thousand years ago, Chinese physicians used the plant to treat malaria, absentmindedness and 

"female disorders." African tribes used it to treat snakebite and the pain of childbirth, while Indian 

physicians prescribed it for headaches. 	



Sifting through the plant's chemical stew in the early '60s, Israeli pharmacologist Raphael 

Mechoulam discovered more than 60 cannabinoids in marijuana, including the famous and 

psychoactive compound THC. In 1992, a team led by Mechoulam and William Devane trumped 

that discovery by showing that humans produced their own cannabinoids. They called the 

substance anandamide, Sanskrit for eternal bliss. 	



Our brains contain receptors that interact with the anandamide we produce. In an accident of 

nature and chemistry, compounds in pot are shaped similarly and therefore trigger similar but more 

potent effects. The same is true of the plant drugs nicotine and cocaine. 	



Now, scientists are beginning to understand just what natural cannabinoids might be doing in the 

human body. 	



"We're opening doors now we couldn't even have predicted existed," said Childers, president of 

the International Cannabinoid Research Society.	



For example:	



Herbert Schuel and Lani J. Burkman of the University of Buffalo have reported that cannabinoids 

help control the exquisite synchrony of timing during reproduction by slowing anxious sperm if 

they try to approach an egg before it's ready for fertilization. This may also explain why heavy pot 

users, both men and women, are sometimes infertile. 	



Cannabinoids have been found to both suppress and enhance the body's defenses against diseases 

and tumors, a duality that has researchers puzzled. "It's a science clearly in flux," said Thomas W. 

Klein, an immunologist at the University of South Florida. "The more we learn, the more confused 

we are."	



While pot warnings "This is your brain on drugs" have long spotlighted the drug's damaging 

effects on the brain, research last summer from the National Institute of Mental Health shows 

cannabinoids protect brain cells from stroke or trauma damage. 	



In 1997, scientists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego showed that cannabinoids block the 

formation of new memories in slices of animal brain tissues. This power to forget might keep the 

brain from filling up or getting overwhelmed with unimportant memories. 	



Researchers' largest hopes are focused on using a synthetic form of cannabinoids to block pain, 

including chronic nerve pain that existing drugs block inadequately.	



Animal studies show cannabinoids can block other kinds of pain almost before they begin 

stopping the pain signals before they reach the spinal cord or brain, working as well as morphine. 

That power suggests they could be substituted for morphine, which is addictive and must be used 

in increasing doses over time.	



Cannabinoids enhance morphine's power; combining the drugs could vastly reduce the dosages 

needed to kill pain, offsetting problems of addiction and drug tolerance. Cannabinoids also 

counteract nausea, another plus for patients with cancer and AIDS. 	



"It might be possible to manipulate levels of the body's own cannabinoids. You could create drugs 

like Prozac that block the body's reuptake of cannabinoids or inhibit their breakdown so they stay 

active longer," said Andrea Hohmann, who previously worked with Walker and now researches 

pain at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.	



"These kind of manipulations may not have the unwanted side effects of marijuana and aren't 

going to carry the same kind of political baggage."