Brain

Medical cannabinoids are here to stay, but intellectual honesty is imperative if we are moving toward exploiting their potential benefits. Owing to rising THC concentrations of products, "medical" marijuana is rarely good medicine. This review has identified the dangers associated with whole­plant marijuana, whether used for recreational or for supposedly medical purposes.

What Do I Need to Know about Marijuana?   Podcasts   Answers all the myths with science and facts.  Is it safe to drive using marijuana?  If it is a medicine, how can it hurt me?  What does marijuana use do to my brain? ....

Here are just a few of the health effects you may want to know:

• Marijuana use directly affects the brain—specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, and attention.
• The compounds in marijuana can affect the circulatory system and may increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
• Smoking marijuana can lead to a greater risk of bronchitis, cough, and phlegm production.
• Marijuana users are significantly more likely than nonusers to develop chronic mental disorders, including schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a type of mental illness where people might see or hear things that aren't really there (hallucinations).
• Eating foods or drinking beverages that contain marijuana have some different risks than smoking marijuana, including a greater risk of poisoning.
• About 1 in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. For people who begin using before the age of 18, that number rises to 1 in 6.
• Some research shows that using marijuana while you are pregnant[288 KB] can cause health problems in newborns—including low birth weight and developmental problems.
• Marijuana use can slow your reaction time and ability to make decisions when driving[271 KB].

“We see specific morphological changes in the brain to important neurotransmitter systems, and individuals who are exposed to THC early in life show greater sensitivity to opiates than others do,” she said. “We know that the brain definitely adapts to marijuana. It is profoundly changing the receptors and receptor signaling that impact gene expression. And the changes it makes last through adulthood and even into the next generation. So we see that there’s something about the ongoing processes in the developing brain that this drug somehow sensitizes—in the cells, the receptors, and in the signaling cascades—that makes kids more vulnerable to addiction and other problems later.”

“There is a lot of optimism for what components of the marijuana plant may offer on a medicinal level but, like all other drugs, the caveat is that you have to know what it does, what population it can be used for, and who could be vulnerable to its effects. We need a lot more research before we can say anything concrete about its future as a treatment.”

An increased risk of psychosis, changes in the brain's reward system and the scrambled neuron signals that may underlie "the munchies" are just some of the many potential effects of marijuana use on the brain.

“This is not a war on drugs , it is a defense of our brains!” Dr. Bertha Madras, PhD

"We found that frequent use of high-potency cannabis significantly affects the structure of white matter fibres in the brain, whether you have psychosis or not," 
The main psychoactive ingredient in weed, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is much more concentrated in modern skunk strains as compared to traditional pot and hash -- up 14 percent as compared to 4 percent.

Participants in a study who had used the drug daily for around three years in their teens had an abnormally shaped hippocampus by the time they were in their early 20s.
They also performed around 18 per cent worse in long-term memory tests than individuals who had never touched the drug.

The damaging effects remain even if the person stops smoking the drug
·         Teenagers are at particular risk because their brains are still developing
·         Smoking cannabis affects critical thinking and memory
·         Researchers warn that stronger varieties today are causing more damage 

For the first time, researchers at Northwestern University have analyzed the relationship between casual use of marijuana and brain changes – and found that young adults who used cannabis just once or twice a week showed significant abnormalities in two important brain structures.

 cannabis use during pregnancy can increase the risk for ill‐behaviors (Goldschmidt et al, 2004; Day et al, 2011
Data suggest that administration of THC during pregnancy can induce long‐term structural and functional modifications of the cortical circuitry.
Maternal cannabis use during pregnancy reduces SCG10 in human fetal cerebrum

In radioactive tracing studies, scientists found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, binds to specific receptors called cannabinoid receptors, many of which coordinate movement. This may explain why people who drive after they smoke marijuana are impaired. The hippocampus, a structure involved with memory storage and learning, also contains many receptors for THC. This finding provides some insight into why heavy users or those intoxicated on marijuana have poor short-term memory and problems processing complex information.