Anandamide, that's the chemical I was trying to think of.
Anandamide is an antipsychotic drug naturally produced by the brain. it can even be produced in levels great enough to keep a schizophrenic's symptoms down.
Schizophrenics normally have elevated levels of anandamide, but it's been demonstrated that the schizophrenics with high levels of anandamide expierence reduced symptoms, while those with low levels of anandamide experience severe symptoms.
Cannibinoids bind to anandamide receptors, and the brain responds by shutting off production of anandamide temporarily, in a best case scenario. in a worst case scenario your brain thinks to itself, "Well, I shut off anandamide production, yet something is still triggering my anandamide receptors, maybe I should halt production permanently? It doesn't seem to be needed anymore."
On top of this, not only do cannibinoids trigger the anandamide receptors, but THC actually destroys them, lessening the brains own natural defences to psychosis permanently (even if it WAS producing full anandomide amounts). Couple this with reduced anandamide production, and things get a little crazy, literally.
Thank god for kids. Most of the above was brought to my attention by my daughter from medical school. The only thing I was ever able to tell my kids was "It's bad because it makes you lazy, so just don't do it.", now they're explaining it to me. ;-)
Did a websearch for anandamide, and came acrossed this.
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19393.shtmlThe pro-cannabis people are somehow seeing this as good news for marijuana users, because their drug of choice mimicks one naturally produced by the brain. Jesus. So does heroin. :roll: (or come to think about it, any drug taken for it's effect) I don't think they get it.
