WEBVTT - Cannabis Files: Humanity's THC Odyssey 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stop 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:15.000 dot com. Hey, wasn't the stuff to blow your Mind? 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.959 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Sager. Hey, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:23.040 Robert who said the following, The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.560 an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:31.440 produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:35.840 needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. Oh well, well, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.440 that's of course a quote from Mr X from the 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.000 early nineteen seventies. Yeah. Mr X. He's that guy who 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.600 is on The X Files. He replaced the deep throat 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.800 character in like season three, Right, is that true? There's 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.239 a Mr X on there? Oh yeah, totally totally. He 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.080 was like their inside informant. Uh, he's the guy from 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.760 twenty one Jump Street. He said that. No, no, okay, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.920 turns out this was actually Carl Sagan. Why yeah. Mr 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.959 mr X was his um, his his marijuana advocate pseudonym 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:09.600 back in the day. Well, Carl Sagan must have had 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:14.120 a contact high. That's my worst pot joke that I'm 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.040 gonna tell during this episode. But yeah, so Carl Sagan 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:18.959 said that. But We didn't find out about that until 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.600 after he died. You know, I learned about Carl Sagan 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.679 saying that listening to a podcast. I was listening to 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.240 the Dead Authors podcast with Paula Tompkins and Matt Gorley 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.400 was his guest, pretending to be Carl Sagan, and they 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.959 talked about this quote at length. Yeah, and it's and 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:34.839 it's more than a court like, it's a full piece 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.720 and you know, in which he talks about his experiences 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.000 with marijuana, the effects marijuana had in his own life, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:47.640 on creativity, on making connections things outside of his out 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.680 of the scientific discipline. But he at least alluded a 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.640 little bit to it's it's used to make scientific connections 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.520 as well. So we figured we did a two parter 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.520 on M D M A. There are a lot of 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.600 positive comments about that, and we thought, you know what, 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.440 maybe we should do this as kind of like an 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:08.880 ongoing series where we explore different UH drug substances, the 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.760 cultures around them, but mainly the science of how they 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.839 work and the potential medical properties that they have. Right, Yeah, 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.800 as well as you know, some cool historical and cultural 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.160 material as well, more way more so than M D 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.320 M A Cannabis is a subject where you could easily 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.239 have a stuff to blow your mind esque show that 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.200 just covers nothing but marijuana. Like each day, you could 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.799 look at a different uh each week, you could look 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.200 at a different historical tidbit, some different cultural tidbit. You 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.799 could look at some new study about its applications. You 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.040 could look at some new study about it's you know 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.920 that that tackles it from a you know, drug abuse, 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.960 drug prevention angle. There's just so much material out there, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.440 uh that you could just go on forever. And we're 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.120 not going to go on forever. We're going to listen 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.679 two pieces here. Yeah, we we did our best to 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.520 condense this down. Robert's right. There's an absolute infinity of 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.520 hot research out there, and that's a good thing because 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.240 there's a lot of things that we have to learn 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.640 from this one plant that are our species has become 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:17.960 totally obsessed with. Yeah. I mean, we stand it in 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.680 a you know, an interesting place in history where um 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:26.160 acceptance of marijuana is growing in many circles. Uh. We 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.960 see a lot more research, scientific research going on right 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.079 now than we have in the past. And uh, yeah, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.640 it's it's hard to exactly predict where we'll be ten 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.280 years from who knows. Yeah, but but yeah, we're gonna 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.360 give it the old stuff to blow your mind. Shake 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.360 here and if there if you want more information or 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.080 you want one more of just a general overview, there 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.360 are a couple of great articles over how stuff Works 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.240 dot Com, one on marijuana, how marijuana Works, another one 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.520 how medical marijuana Works, that will give you the basics. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.800 You know, us, we're liable to maybe dwell on some 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.480 of the weirder, cooler things about the topic, and you 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.560 might very well want to then go back and export 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.200 some of the basics. Yeah, I want to start the 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.200 episode with a disclaimer that, like, what we're going to 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:16.360 do isn't the standard how marijuana works type episode. Uh, 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.960 And in fact, our colleagues over at Stuff you should 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.160 know to to how medicinal marijuana Works episode that you 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.640 should go listen to if you're looking for something like that. 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.920 This is going to be more us really drilling as 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.560 far as we could, uh into the science behind it, 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.000 how it affects the brain, uh, some kind of odder 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:40.920 unknown cultural connotations of it through history, how it's evolved 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:42.800 over the years, and in particular, one of the things 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.080 I'm psyched to talk about is like it's migratory patterns 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.360 across the planet. Yeah, that that is some really fasting 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.880 material there. And then we're gonna break and we're gonna 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.040 do another episode later this week that's going to be 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.960 solely about the health benefits and the medical properties of it. Uh. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.400 And so you know this will be a little bit different. 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:04.719 This is in our voice and as such, you know, 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.159 it's a subjective experience. So Robert and I will also 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:11.560 probably bring our own experiences of growing up as adults 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.559 in America in a society that, uh, plenty of people 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.480 smoke marijuana and do do whatever they want with marijuana, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.919 but it's sort of still illegal. Depends on where you 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.760 live now, Yeah, yeah, And I imagine pretty much everybody 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:27.800 out there is gonna have some level of familiarity with 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.839 with marijuana. Either you have tried it in the past, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.760 you're an active user, you know somebody who fits either 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.960 these categories, or you've at least seen it on television, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.679 you've heard about it in the lyrics to two various 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:44.919 songs and um and in various hip hop tracks. You 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.120 probably know something about what we're talking about here, all right, 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:53.520 So let's dive in then real basic cannabis as an organism, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:58.960 it is closely related to some other species plant species, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.120 But really that just of it is that it is 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:06.320 a plant that probably originally originated natively in India somewhere 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.120 just north of the Himalayas. We know that it can 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.400 grow somewhere between eight to twelve feet tall, almost in 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.400 some cases as tall as twenty five ft. I can't 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.920 imagine that. Uh. And then one thing that you know, 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:21.640 we'll just get out of the way, but this is 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.720 not going to be something we're gonna talk a ton about. 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.840 Of course, it has uses as a textile fiber, right, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.680 and hemp has particular woody fibers in it that have 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.839 industrial applications that that could be again like that could 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.960 be its own podcasts, all the ways that you can 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.920 use hemp, right, Uh. And I mean it is important 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:46.080 to hit because because essentially you have two very common 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.520 subspecies of cannabis. You have a Cannabis Sativa L and 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.200 L stands for Carl Linnaeus, Carl Linnaeus who named it 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.560 in three and this is the non psychoactive hemp variety. 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.120 This is the version of of cannabis that is used 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.200 to create these various textiles and has been used for ages. 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.800 Will discuss in a little bit um and and and 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.120 to put that in perspective, hemp contains less than one 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.840 percent th HC. Meanwhile, you have Cannabis sativa, the psychoactive 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.720 cannabis plant, and that when that one you'll see t 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.360 ch th HC levels that range from four to and 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.960 the upper end of that the twenty percent area. You're 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.600 going to see that in some of the specially strains 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.400 that humans have cultivated. So then there's also Cannabis indica 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.560 and there's another one called Cannabis rudder alis uh. And 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.480 these are different species. There's variants, there's subspecies. But one 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.040 thing that's worth saying right up front about these is 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.640 that these categorizations sometimes get used over simplistically, and this 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.240 is gonna be something that we keep coming back to 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.120 over and over again, especially with medicinal use. Uh. The idea, 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.440 for instance, that indica makes you sleepy but sativa makes 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.560 you hyper uh. But then there you can find strains 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.200 of both that have totally opposite effects. Right. So there's 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.520 like there's a lot more going on here. And the 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:12.880 reason why is this plant is like incredibly dynamic and complicated. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:18.120 It has more than five hundred chemicals in it, including THHC. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.720 A hundred and nine of those chemicals are what we 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.280 call cannabinoids, and those are the important ones when we're 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.160 talking about the effects on the brain. But this seems 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.280 really diverse. It's got a lot going on inside of it. Uh, 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.840 And depending on how it spread, depending on the different strains, whatever, 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.199 it's gonna have different effects, right yeah, I mean the 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.240 effects of th HD of consumption is gonna depend down 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.360 the strain, how much you took, how you took it, Uh, 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.920 your your individual makeup, your past usage, a number of 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.360 different factors. Um. It's also worth a stressing here that 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.400 the female cannabis plant is the one that produces the 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:58.280 sticky resin that contains the cannabinoids, most notably delta nine 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:04.840 tetra hydro a banal, which is th h so th HC. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.760 Let's let's start with just like a simple brain explanation. Okay, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.360 here's this is the This isn't your brain on drugs. 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:17.600 This is just your brain. Okay. Our gray matter contains neurons, 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.800 and neurons are cells that talk to other cells with 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:26.960 electro chemicals. Right, the electro chemicals are called neurotransmitters, and 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.920 one type of neurotransmitter in our brains that exists without 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:37.760 smoking marijuana are called endocannabinoids. Yea, endocannabinoids aren't in your 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:43.040 brain right now, regardless of your past usage or nine 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:47.360 usage of marijuana. And there's one plant that also produces them, 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.040 and that's cannabis. So keep that in mind throughout all 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.400 of this, right, Is that, like, the things that are 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.640 going on the effects of cannabis on the human body 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.040 are basically the king things that we are already going on, 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.199 right increasing or decreasing them. Yeah, I mean you can 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.559 you can sort of say that for from for pretty 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.520 much any Yeah, that's substance. It's not like a magic 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:15.360 hand supernatural force reaching into your brain. Is this substance 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.840 that is causing your brain to do things that it 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.920 already does, though perhaps in different intensities and in different ways. Yeah, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:23.760 I just kind of want to dispel the notion of 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.880 the and you and I grew up with this the 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.800 this is your brain on drugs type commercials where it's 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.880 like the drugs are doing the things to you, and yeah, 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:34.760 like and they are, I mean, it's a cause and 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.920 effect relationship. But like the chemistry sets already there on 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.040 your skull, right, an egg does not fry itself exactly, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.240 all right, So an individual takes th HC it can. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.240 We already mentioned that the exact results are gonna depend 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.000 on strain, dosage, delivery method, individual frequency of use, but 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.599 the it's gonna ultimately produce a variety of effects of 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.920 both sensory and psychological and looting. Uh. One of the 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.080 sources listed it is mild reverie, which show we were 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.559 just talking about about that off air. Well, what's what's 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.319 the more relatable term for that fun? Yeah, And that's 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.120 what I would think of it as that's that's another 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:14.720 thing that like I guess we should point out as 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:16.680 like along the way and the research of this is 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.600 of course academics who are studying marijuana or cannabis and 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.640 its effects, like they're in this sort of weird, precarious 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.520 situation right where they want to be as scientifically accurate 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.560 as possible to maintain their standing of this being a 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.280 serious study. Uh, because and I read this in multiple pieces, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.080 they're like, well, there's a stigma on people who study 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.040 this as like, you know, we're just a bunch of 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.280 hippies who just want to smoke weed or something like 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:49.400 that while while also holding professorship, and they're paranoid about it. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:55.920 Almost yeah, uh so there is almost uh an impenetrable 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:01.400 language use in some of these, including uh equent reverie. Yeah, 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:06.240 and they rarely use the word dank, but yeah. Some 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:12.640 of the other effects include a euphoria, heightened sensory awareness, creativity, empathy, 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.360 impaired short term memory, altered senses of time and space, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.640 enhanced appetite and sexual desire um not necessarily at the 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:27.360 same time, occasional drowsiness, and a tendency to enhance introspection. Okay, okay, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:28.960 and this this, These are all the kind of like 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.760 basic assumptions that we have as just like general people 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.600 who exist, at least in America, of like what happens 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.400 when you smoke weed? Yeah, I mean, if you just 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.600 watch television, you see varying level. So like the guy 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.000 in this show he smokes a little breaking back and 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.480 suddenly he is a little more creative, creative, or oh, 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.040 this character in this show Aida Pott Brownie and then 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:52.240 just set there thinking about death for an hour. You 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.640 know that. Yeah, totally a lot of people are gonna 0:12:54.640 --> 0:13:00.240 be familiar with these these basic uh sensory and psychological effects. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:05.079 So back to the brain. Those cannabinoids work their way 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.360 up through our blood and into our brains, and they 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:14.440 mimic or block the neurotransmitters, interfering with our normal functions. Right. So, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:21.559 because there's high concentrations of cannabis cannabinoid receptors in our hippocampus, 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:26.400 our cerebellum, and our basil ganglia, the THHC binds with 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.160 the receptors there and interferes with our recollection of recent events. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.160 So this is the whole memory thing. We're gonna talk 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.319 a lot about this um. In fact, I had previously 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.439 written an episode for our video series brain Stuff on 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.719 how much marijuana actually affects your memories, so I was 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.760 able to incorporate a lot of that research here. And 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.520 of course, as we also know, it affects your coordination 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.199 and your muscle movement. So okay, like we said, our 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.440 brains have already got these endocannabinoids in them, right, and 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:57.000 cannabis cannabis basically hijacks this process. Now, the system of 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:02.400 the endocannabinoid system influences pain, our memory, our mood and 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.600 our appetite, all those things that Robert just listed as 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.880 being affected by using cannabis, which is a nice uh, 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.600 which nicely foreshadows the air eventual discussion on medical applications 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.480 because you can already see this is a substance that 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.960 is it is already involved in a number of of 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:25.720 the things that are affected by various illnesses and diseases. Yeah. Absolutely, Uh. 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.520 And one of the things that we're really getting into 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:31.800 now and we're going to talk about more, but like 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.360 research is relatively recently in the last five years, is 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.720 that the endocannabinoid process also has a big role in 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.320 how our brains grow. Now, recall from when we talked 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:43.960 about m D m A and the m D m 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.840 A episodes, Our brains are actually growing until we're twenty 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.400 five years old. Like it's easy to say, like, oh, 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.000 I'm I'm growing up, I'm eighteen, I'm done, but that's 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.720 not true, Like your brain is still evolving, and uh, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.960 using marijuana definitely seems to have an effect on how 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.560 your brain grows if you use it in adolescence. But 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.600 I think like what they're referring to is like anything 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.800 before years old, and that that's on a regular use, 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.320 but we'll get into that later. And the thing about 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.400 the endocannabinoid system, we've only known about this thing since 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.840 the late nineties, so, uh, we know, okay, we know 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.040 it's complex neurosystem. We know it affects these couple of 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.600 things that I just mentioned, but we're only beginning to 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.920 understand it. So it's weird when you go down the 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.720 rabbit hole on marijuana research because there's tons of it. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.760 Like we mentioned, it's everywhere, but a lot of it 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.800 is the same. Like, here's this endocannabinoid thing. We sort 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:46.160 of get it, but not really. More research is needed. Uh. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.400 And then here's my fun fact for the episode. The 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:54.000 reason you can't overdose on marijuana is because our cannabinoid 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:59.920 receptors aren't densely packed inside the medulla. The medulla control 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:05.040 our cardiovascular system, right, So if you use heroin and 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.480 you overdose on heroin, that'll shut down your respiratory control center. 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.240 But pot can't do anything like that. Do not mistake 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.240 us when we say you cannot overdose on marijuana. We 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.240 are not saying that you cannot take too much. You cannot. 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.200 You can take more marijuana than than is than you 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:27.160 should or is comfortable for the user experience. Um, But 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:28.960 you can say that about anything, right. You can say 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.680 that about chocolate. Yeah, I mean one, you can say 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.040 that about plenty of things just in your on your 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:35.960 spice rack that take too much of it, you can 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.880 they can have dire consequences. Bottom line being you cannot overdose, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:51.360 but you can't take too much. Okay, So we're gonna 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.280 talk about the positive effects. But I'd like to think 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.880 that most of the people out there, again, like whether 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.960 you've had personal experience with it or you've just watch 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.000 a TV show, you pretty much get what those positive 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.280 effects are, right at least the positive recreational effects that 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.879 we're talking Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the the reduce of 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.480 pain and inflammation. Uh. And then the medicinal applications we're 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.040 going to talk about in the next episode and primarily 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.440 just you know, spoilers for that episode. It's primarily used 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.800 to treat epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, and of course we 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.240 also discussed some of its uses, um for people who 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:30.320 are undergoing chemotherapy from cancer. Yeah, there's all kinds and 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.119 and PTSD as well. There's just like with m d 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.160 m A, uh, that same maps research Institute is looking 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.399 at how marijuana can help with PTSD. So this leads 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.280 us though, let's talk about the adverse effects. Okay, and 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.240 this isn't I'm not gonna do like the Nancy Reagan 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.360 like sit here and tell you all the bad things, right. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:54.760 I think the way that we need to approach this, 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.720 just like we we talked about with m d m A, 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.520 is like, let's be mature about it. This is plant. 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.160 This plant does these things to the human body. We're 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:09.320 listing them. We can apply positive or negative connotations to them, 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.439 but just it's important for us to walk through what 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:17.720 they are, right, all right, So memory is the big one. Uh. 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.640 And then the answer like, does does marijuana affect your memory? Oh? Yeah, 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.960 it absolutely does. And the reason why is because the 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.600 th HC latches onto the cannabinoid receptor type CB one 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.159 in your brain. Uh. And this affects your short term memory. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.639 In fact, we've done forty years worth of studies that 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.320 show that th HC disrupt that disrupts our short term memory. 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.520 It also makes it difficult to remember what happened when 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.360 you were actually high. Uh. And yes, when you take 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.880 larger doses like Robert was talking about, you can take 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.840 too much, it has an even even more of an 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:59.120 effect on your memory. However, you can also develop a tolerance, uh, 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.880 and so like if you are a chronic user, yeah, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.159 you can build up a tolerance and subsequently you'll have 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.560 less of the memory problems. But this also plays into 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:09.840 the medicinal stuff we're gonna talk about later in that 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.920 like the medicinal applications don't always work again because you 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:14.880 can build up a tolerance to it, right, And it's 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:16.560 and on the short term memory stuff. I do want 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:21.040 to mention here that like there's a difference between say, oh, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.560 this user um consumes some marijuana and they can't quite 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.479 remember all the details of that that episode of of 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.960 Breaking Bad they watched, as opposed to an idea of 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.120 like somebody just having a complete blackout experience. Like there 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.520 are varying levels of memory disruption and it's not just 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.480 the black and white I remember and oh I have 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.080 a black hole in my life, right you know, Yeah, yeah, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.399 totally totally, which reminds me of like, you know, I 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.119 mean I have friends who over the years used too 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.439 much alcohol and that was kind of their experience with that, 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.200 which was just like the the whole in in time 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.880 and space. They don't remember it happened, or at least 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.960 they say they don't remember what happened. I have far 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.720 less friends who use marijuana that have said the same thing. So, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:12.440 but let's let's clarify to existing memories are not affected 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.119 by marijuana use. Uh. And this does not lead to 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.320 memory loss, you know, or dementia. UH. That needs to 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.760 be clarified because there's I think, you know a lot 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.399 of the scare campaigns about cannabis leads to sort of 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:33.119 these misunderstandings. Researchers do, though, hope they can use THHC 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:38.360 to help people with forgetting bad memories associated with PTSD, 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.439 and the reason why is because the endo cannabinoid system 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.640 regulates memory formation, but it also is involved with how 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:53.320 we quote make negative memories extinct. That's a weird phrasing, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.000 but apparently there's has something to do with us basically, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.880 like I guess like the metaphor would be like put 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:02.000 a negative memory in a box and shoving it in 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.920 a closet way in the back of your brain, right 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:05.960 and just like I'm done with this. But you know, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.600 this touches again on the complexity of PHC because it's 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:14.120 a substance that almost paradoxola involves sometimes the like the 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:18.000 the the overexamination of a negative element in one's memories 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.000 or in this case, we're discussing now the potential eradication 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.760 of of negative connotations for a memory. Right, And we 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.080 didn't do a lot of like real deep dive research 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.600 into the PTSD application here, but I'm gonna guess based 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:34.240 on all the stuff that we did on m D, 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.280 m A and PTSD that probably has a similar use 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.399 and that it's done in conjunction with therapy, and that 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.360 you know, you use it a little bit with a 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.359 trustworthy therapist and then you talk your way through the 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:50.080 memories and the problems, rather than it's it's not like 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.080 this magical thing where like you take a certain amount 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.080 of marijuana and book your memory just goes and close it. Right, Like, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.600 we need to stop thinking about it as being like 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.560 this just magic wand thing. Okay. The chronic use effects 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.760 are important to consider as well, because as we age, 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.719 chronic use of marijuana can hasten the loss of neurons 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.399 in our hippocampus. So teens, and this is where it 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.840 comes into the like growing up and how it affects 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.919 your brain. Thing. Teens who smoke it for three or 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:27.080 more years may have abnormally shaped hippocamp i, and they 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.600 get more abnormal the longer they use it chronically. Now, 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.280 these deformations are connected to poor performance on memory tests 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.800 and they don't go away either. Uh. They've been observed 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.680 in individuals who are in their early twenties who stopped 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:47.040 using marijuana up to two years before. So it's like, 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.560 there's this window in your life and let's be honest, 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:53.320 for a lot of us, that's the window when we're 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.240 most likely to use marijuana. Uh and and it if 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.600 it's used on enough of a regular basis, it can 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.480 affect the shape of your brain. Yeah. I mean this 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:05.600 is the period of time in our development where we're 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.680 hardwired really to to break out and uh and and 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.960 attached to different peer groups. It's like a survival instinct 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.480 to to take more risk as a survival instinct. Uh. 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.880 So it's it's unfortunate this is also the time where 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.800 we should we should probably not be experimenting with a 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.000 whole bunch of different substances. Yeah. I know, like reading 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:28.600 this like I almost thought like wow, like in a 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:31.399 in a mature society it would be. And I wonder 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:34.760 if there's like some kind of uh like smaller micro 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:37.080 culture somewhere where it's like this where it's like, yeah, 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:39.720