Posted on 04/09/2011 3:34:13 PM PDT by AustralianConservative
Paranoia is one of the most unpleasant "side effects" of marijuana. It's also a key experience shared by marijuana smokers and people with schizophrenia. But exactly how does smoking a joint cause the feeling that dark forces are conspiring to do you wrong?
New research in rats may help explain the source of this distress. The study, led by Steven Laviolette at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, involved training rats to fear the scent of either almond or peppermint. The scents were delivered to rats in a cage either with black-and-white striped walls or with black polka dots on a gray background. (The rats were not pre-tested for their taste in interior design.) One scent was accompanied by an electric shock to the rodents' feet, while the other scent was not.
At the same time, researchers experimented with the activity of the CB1 receptors in a certain region of the rats' brains. These cannabinoid receptors are activated by the main psychoactive component of marijuana, THC. In some rats, the scientists blocked CB1-receptor activity; in others, they used a marijuana-like drug to enhance it.
(Excerpt) Read more at healthland.time.com ...
LOL...I think of the most crazy and insane things I have done in my life, and alcohol is a common element...especially whiskey.
Don’t know why, but I think whiskey makes people even crazier.
Rat’s paranoid ?
They always have a rain day, tea party bastards are always taking their abortion dollars away, starving the seniors, stealing from the poor, never paying their fair share. Always starting wars they never pay for, take directions from their corporate masters.
They have their reasons for smoking dope, day in and out.
Tea party bastards. (sarc)
Amen.
Thats the worst of it.
Sure would beat Lunesta if it were legal
Big time.
BONGO!
Hmmmm, I have known potheads to be a lot of things, but paranoid is not one of them. And certainly if it were actually true that pot causes paranoia it would have been incorporated in the pot smoking subculture, but just the opposite is the case, instead of having a reputation of being paranoid they have a reputation of being mellow and apathetic.
This study seems like complete garbage.
No, it’s me man, I’M Dave....
I think I would probably have to agree. My dad was an alcoholic for at lest 45 years of his life...sober as a young teenager and sober as an old man, but in between, an alcoholic. Not a mean drunk, and it never affected his work, but he would always come home and begin drinking. It was common to see him passed out with his head down on his arms at night.
Funny. Until I was in my mid-twenties, some part of me thought EVERYONE’S father did that.
Alcohol is a lot of fun, but...when it gets you in its grip, it can be evil and nasty. The most unpleasant thing my dad ever said to me when he was drunk was when I was 14 years old and he walked in on my friend and I looking at a Playboy magazine...he slurred at us “You wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it...”
Not even nasty, but actually kind of funny (to me). Never raised a hand to any of us. He was a 30 year vet of the naval service; WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and I wondered what it was that had caused him to drink.
I have concluded it probably wasn’t anything. He was just someone who got nailed by alcohol, and that was that.
But he got sober 15 years before he died, and it was a wonderful thing. Like meeting a new person...
He just drank and got silent. Never talked.
Maybe its because its illegal and they are afraid of getting caught and going to jail.
It's biggest danger is that it makes you lazy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2FZgErvNTE
I am very happy you were able to enjoy your father sober.
What I really think this all boils down to is.....uh...uh....wow.....what were we talking about man?
I’m sure it being illegal has nothing to do with it.
Yeah...it was great. We had to do a family intervention when he was about sixty, and I was doing things like driving around to find out which bar he was in and bring him home so he didn’t kill someone on the road.
Thank God that never happened. But that was when it really hit me-”My dad is an alcoholic!” It was really humiliating to me to have to run him down in bars like that.
But when he got sober, it was like he was a new man. Not that he was bad before, he was just pretty uncommunicative and stone-faced. After he quit, it was fun to see how interesting and funny he could be. He had a completely irreverent sense of humor, and he was largely humorless for most of his life.
One of the greatest things in my life was him getting sober. For the last fifteen years of his life, he went to AA meetings, sometimes three a week, sponsored people, ran meetings and was an inspiration and help to a lot of people.
I carry his special AA coin around with me every day. When things get a little tough, I put my hand on it in my pocket and think about the “One day at a time” motto, and about him. It helps.
I know mariijuana can be bad too, but I have come to the conclusion there is no way it is as bad as alcohol. I have seen what alcohol does to people, and in my opinion, it is just as destructive as heroin or cocaine, even more so because it is much cheaper and easier to get.
I know others feel differently about pot, but I simply don’t see it as dangerous as alcohol. On the other hand, we have all known burnouts, so it isn’t without its risks as well.
Thats the crux of pot.
According to the Libertarian wing of FR, pot is benign and does not make you paranoid, depressed, irrational, or useless at all. Why, it’s just like a glass of wine with dinner.
Pot paranoid is NOTHING compared to crack paranoid.
“It’s biggest danger is that it makes you lazy”
And stupid.
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