From: [p h z] at [cadence.com] (Pete Zakel)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.pot,alt.drugs.pot.cultivation,rec.drugs.cannabis,rec.drugs.psychedelic,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: So called "gateway drug" study
Date: 9 Jul 1997 03:35:03 GMT

In article <[a gn 0507971532140001] at [smisch.tiac.net]> [a gn] at [is.a.small.insect] (Samson) writes:

>I'm quite sure no one here has read the _Science_ article. Neither have I.
>But I'd venture a guess that it did not moralize.

Actually, I didn't read the _Science_ article, I did read the report on the
article in _Science_News_ (June 28, 1997, Vol. 151, No. 26), and that report
does NOT come from the publicity handout.

One study used a drug that blocks the receptor sites to study withdrawal
(note that with cannabis, this doesn't happen naturally), and found that
withdrawal responses in the amygdala structure of the brain were similar
to those associated with "alcohol, cocaine, or opiates".

The other study looked specifically at the dopamine action in the outer
layer of the nucleus accumbens (which is near the amygdala) and found that
two drugs that stifle this action with heroin also stifled it with THC.

Note that neither of these effects are associated specifically with the
anandamide receptors of the brain (which THC activates).

In the article from the second study (by Gianluigi Tanda fo the University of
Cagliari in Italy, et. al.), the group wrote that "although our results do
not provide direct evidence for a causal relation between [marijuana] and
heroin use, they are nonetheless consistent with this possibility", which is
an obviously meaningless statement and I can only conclude it was made to
further the political leanings of the group.

Also note that both studies used rats.

Here's the last four paragraphs of the Science News article (by Bruce Bower):

    The new rodent studies show clear biochemical actions of marijuana,
    but their implications for people remain unclear, comments Michael J.
    Brownstein, chief of the laboratory of cell biology at the National
    Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md.

    In some earlier investigations, rats given cannabis declined further
    opportunities to receive the drug, Brownstein notes.  Cannabis-exposed
    rodents may experience unpleasant effects, making them unsuitable as a
    model for human marijuana users, he holds.

    The new data support the suspicians of several researchers that the
    brain's dopamine system critically influences the reinforcing and
    addictive actions of many psychoactive drugs, says psychologist Rudy E.
    Vuchinich of Auburn (Ala.) University.

    "These drugs have a profound effect on neurochemistry, but drug taking
    occurs in social contexts, in which many other factors influence
    consumption patterns," Vuchinich remarks.

So it looks like the researchers were moralizing (or at least adding their
own biases w/r/t marijuana and other drugs).

-Pete Zakel
 ([p h z] at [cadence.com])

"Alcohol is not a drug, it's a beverage!"
                                                -Rush Limbaugh