DUDE, WHERE’S MY CANNABINOID RECEPTOR?

Fascinating and highly timely story in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times about research into the medical properties of marijuana. It turns out that your basic pot may give you an all over high, but if you analyze it more closely, it’s actually affecting several discrete points in the brain and body. In fact, the brain has several “cannabinoid receptors” affecting all sorts of human functions, including higher thinking and perception, learning and memory, body movement coordination, nausea and vomiting, and appetite. Scientists in Israel, after studying the effect of marijuana (sorry: volunteers no longer needed, folks), found a particular natural chemical in the brain which latches onto the same cannabinoid receptor as pot. They called it “anandamide,” from the Sanskrit word for “bliss.” The point, and I do have one, is that illegal drugs aren’t inherently illegal. They’re just drugs. Like any compound, they can do good and harm, depending on dosage and application. But they can also be very helpful in combating disease and understanding the human brain and body. Like new research into Parkinson’s, which was sparked by observing a Parkinson’s patient on Ecstasy, research into cannabinoid receptors would not have been possible without observing the effects of pot. Other drugs that stimulate appetite, reduce obesity, calm anxiety, and so on, will now perhaps be possible, thanks to the weed. One day, I think we will look back and be completely embarrassed that we made this essentially benign and curative plant an object of prohibition.

TASTELESS HEADLINE AWARDS: Two close competitors today out there. Slate’s “CARTOON INDEX: Timothy McVeigh execution cartoons, and more.” And Jonah Goldberg’s piece on the latest McVeigh news and commentary: “Just Kill Him.”

BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: “Unfortunately, there’s no media frenzy to cover what happens when the state, in effect, routinely kills many Americans simply by inaction — not enforcing workplace-safety rules, or not reducing air pollution that menaces people chronically short of breath, or not providing health care for the uninsured. With the corporate-dominated state functioning as a serial killer every day, news outlets should shine a bright light on its innocent victims.” – Norman Solomon, from FAIR.