14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that cannabis is forbidden in most countries is only a recent event. In the past, starting centuries ago, people always smoked pot for various reasons, including leisure, resting purposes, going into trance, or for medicinal use. In Western societies, it has been mostly forbidden, even though not all of its effects have been fully understood up to this point. This is evidenced by the fact that only recently have researchers managed to identify a substance in cannabis that actually promotes cell growth and helps our bodies function properly.
Out of the 60+ active substances that can be found in the average cannabis or marijuana strain, science has only been able to analyze and assess the threat levels of just a few until now. Yet, there are strict laws in place in every country that forbid the use of the plant, even though you can, for instance, buy flamethrowers in the US, as they pose no danger to anyone.
A team of researchers from the University of Aberdeen describes the roles and functions of cannabidiol, a molecule that is naturally synthesized in the cannabis plant, publishing its finds in the Journal of Neuroscience. It appears that this substance, also known as CBD, has great potential to relieve pain, even though it's not the substance that gives pot its “high” label. Even though physicians have known for quite a long time that the compound can make pains felt by multiple sclerosis patients more bearable, they have never focused on harnessing this power to do good.
Now, UA School of Medical Sciences researcher Dr Bettina Platt, has found out that CBD doesn't actually act on the peripheral nervous system, like other drugs do, but on the brain cells, or neurons themselves, influencing the activity of mitochondria, which are a sort of mini power plants for the cells. Understandably, influencing such an important cellular component into producing more energy is not a bad thing, yet the plant remains illegal because some believe that the other components may indeed be dangerous. However, no one takes the time to actually check them one by one.
“We are hoping that our findings can instruct the development of cannabidiol based treatments for disorders related to mitochondrial dysfunction such as Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease. There are different strains of cannabis out there and many no longer contain cannabidiol. In fact, these have been deliberately bred out to enhance the THC content,” Platt says, while drawing attention to the fact that smoking cannabis will not necessarily cure these conditions.
In turn, she advocates the extraction of CBD from plants for scientific reasons. It could then be used to synthesize various drugs, which, with some luck, could offer much-needed pain relief for people suffering from some of the worse medical conditions known to man.