FINAL Flashcards
Marijuana Prevalence
Most abused drug in the US
Almost 50% of HS seniors report having tried it at least once
Debate of its effects being beneficial
Cannabis (or marijuana / hemp)
A plant
-Hemp is the agricultural product (containing little THC or CBD)
-Marijuana/cannabis is the drug form
*Name used to stigmatize it with Mexican folk
-All the same species of plant
Cannabinoids / Main psychoactive chemicals in cannabis
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol / 9-THC / THC
-Agonist at the CB1 and CB2 receptors
8-THC / CBD - cannabidiol that is a less potent psychoactive version
Synthetic cannabinoids - Spice, K2
World History of Cannabis: Plant to product
-First agricultural product cultivated
-Grown easily in a range of environments (Causing slang of weed/grass)
-Cultivated to make bags, rope, ect
*Made from fibrous stem. Seeds produce oils
World History of Cannabis: Origin
-Thought to originate in E or S Asia (C/W China specifically), then spread through Europe and Africa
-Shen Nung described psychoactive & medicinal properties in 2737 BC
-Greek historian Herodotus, 500 BC, tells of peoples from Scythia and the Araxes River, grew hemp to throw on fire and inhale
-1545, cannabis in the W hemisphere, Spanish introduced the plant to Chile in order to make fiber
Hashish
Preparation of cannabis
-Use of marijuana not known to Europe until the 1800s when Napoleon’s army smoked in N Africa
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report
British govt concerned about India’s marijuana use b/c of effects on their $
-Wanted to criminalize and benefit from addiction treatment
-Report of the Commission, released in 1894, was over 3,000 pages, most extensive study on it ever, concluding
*Traditional medicine use (Indian hemp)
*NBD aside from heavy usage
American History of Marijuana
More commonly used to made products, not originally thought of as a drug
-1619 permitted and required by King James I to grow hemp
*used in PA and other colonies as money
-Little evidence of recreational or industrial use during colonial times
-1840s, drugs w/ cannabis sold in US and UK, Irish doctor and scientist named William O’Shaughnessy
-Laws put in against those who used w/out prescription
Anslinger and “Reefer Madness”
Movie dramatizing the effects of weed, blaming it for changes happening. Anslinger went of using to suddenly against it.
Marijuana Tax act (1937)
Similar to Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, to control/limit who could grow, possess, or sell weed.
LaGuardia Report (MJ)
Committee of doctors studying weed after the tax act
-Did not show the effects of “Reefer Madness”
1963 Unconstitutional (MJ)
-Grown during WWII for hemp
-Leery showed to follow the tax act, they would have to break the 5th amendment
-Tax act was deemed unconstitutional
1970 marijuana is put onto Sched. I
1973, decriminalization by state follows
-1973 Oregon decriminalized
-1990s San Francisco did too, CA entirely following by 1996 under Proposition 215: Allowed use w/ doctor permission
2005 Gonzalez VS Raich (MJ)
DEA would come in and arrest people despite it being legal for the area
-Fed govt had constitutional right to ban it
2012-2018 State Legalization (MJ)
-States begin legalizing marijuana with restrictions (Washington and Colorado started)
-Only about 10 consider it to be illegal
-2014, Rohrabacher–Farr amendment prevents Dept of Justice from prosecuting in legalized states
-2018, hemp derived CBD is legal
Marijuana types and percents
Marijuana - Plant material that is dried and smoked. 6.7% (now 15-28% THC)
Sinsemilla 11.1% - Sexually immature female plant
Hashish 27.7% - Dark resin oil stuff
-THC is very lipophilic
-Kief - Steel wool and brush to get trichomes
-Most potent
Hash Oil 24.9% (can be almost 100% now)
-Dabs, HBO, Wax
-Extremely potent!
Bhang - Legal form (milkshake)
Synthetic Cannabinoids (sCB’s)
Used in vaping or in plant
-Similar effects
* OD or EXTREME effects
-Can be dirty
-Pyrolytic compounds: heating and metabolism causing adverse effects
-Can be laced
Trichome
Small hairlike growths, producing THC
-Delta 9 and Phyto-cannabinoids
-Warmer grow environment = INC THC
Pharmacokinetics of marijuana
11-OH-THC
-CB1 agonist
-Body turns THC into “super weed”
-Crosses BBB faster than THC
THC-COOH
-Carboxy-THC
-Inert substance
Made from 11-OH-THC
Lipophilic, which is why it stays in the body’s fatty tissue for so long, up to 95 days
Peaks after 10 minutes when smoked
Drug testing Marijuana
-Looking for the metabolites of marijuana, only in the system w/ ingestion or smoking
-Cannot test how high but how many metabolites
Pharmacodynamics of MJ
CB1 and CB2 receptors
-1 causes psychological effects
-2 causes immune response
*anti-inflammatory effects, little found in the brain,
2-AG and anandamide
-Endocannabinoids
Acute Psych effects of MJ
Motor Control: Basal ganglia and cerebellum, sedation and DEC movement
Euphoria
Paranoia, psychosis, sociability, and relaxation
Attention, judgment, decision making
Memory: Impairment of STM, acting on CB1 receptors in hippocampus
Appetite: CB1 receptors in the hypothalamus
Is marijuana the gateway drug? Sequence, association, and causality
By sequencing, yes. If someone has done hard drugs, they likely tried MJ first
-1/5 support this claim
Association: Using MJ is correlational to other drugs but its small
-Those who use more than 50 times/yr, 140x chance of using harder
Causality: no
-INC use, INC time w/ other users, INC chance of going harder
-Possible + outlook for other drugs
-Environment and sociocultural outlook
Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD)
It is addictive
-9% of 22.2M past month users
-Withdrawal: Opposite of effects
-50% of US has tried weed (but thats likely actually higher)