WEBVTT - From the Vault: Humanity's THC Odyssey 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:08.160 Hey, welcome to Stuff to blow your mind. My name 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.240 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday. 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.239 Time to go on into the vault. That's right, it's 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.279 not just Saturday, it's it's four day It is no way, Yeah, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.279 it's a right. Well, I guess you all just saw 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.680 the man behind the curtain. We don't actually record these 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.480 on Saturday mornings. I'm I'm sorry to say. Yeah, we 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.360 bank these ahead of time. So this is an episode 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.360 you did with Christian about weed, right, yes, this is 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.520 so yes, technically this is an episode from back in May. 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.599 Often it was one of two episodes that we recorded 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.600 together about marijuana. This first one was a Humanity's th 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.400 HC Odyssey, which is kind of an overview on some 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.200 of the history of of marijuana usage th HC usage. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.000 We also did another one about medicinal marijuana. Um, but 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.000 we're not really re airing that one. I'm not I'd 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:54.560 have to look back and see, you like, where the 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.400 science is and everything. I feel like that's something we 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.400 would need to revisit as opposed to just simply you run. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.720 But but this episode, this has some fun stuff in it. 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.440 Some of the history of marijuana usage and it's legal 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.399 status in the United States, as well as getting into 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.959 some you know, ideas about how marijuana may or may 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:18.959 not have played into different ancient societies. Sounds great, Well, 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.680 you folks at home or wherever you are, even if 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:27.840 you're not at home, enjoy this classic episode. Welcome to 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:37.840 Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:39.480 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.120 Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Sager. Hey, Robert, who said 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:48.040 the following, The illegality of cannabis is outrageous and impediment 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.160 to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:56.040 serenity and insight, sensitivity, and fellowship so desperately needed in 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.280 this increasingly mad and dangerous world. Oh well, well, of 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.960 course a quote from Mr X from the early nineteen seventies. Yeah. 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.160 Mr X. He's that guy who was on The X Files. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.280 He replaced the deep throat character in like season three. Right, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.320 Is that true? There's a Mr X on there? Oh yeah, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.799 totally totally. He was like their inside informat. Uh, he's 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.359 the guy from twenty one Jump Street. He said that. No, No, 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.520 it turns out this was actually Carl Sagan what Yeah, 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:30.079 Mr mr X was his his his marijuana advocate pseudonym 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.720 back in the day. Well, Carl Sagan must have had 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.240 a contact high. That's my worst pot joke that I'm 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.160 gonna tell during this episode. But yeah, so Carl Sagan 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.080 said that, But we didn't find out about that until 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.680 after he died. You know, I learned about Carl Sagan 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.800 saying that listening to a podcast. I was listening to 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.320 the Dead Authors podcast with Paula Tompkins and Matt Gorley 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.480 was his guest pretending to be Carl Sagan, and they 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.040 talked about this quote at length. Yeah, and it's and 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.280 it's more than a quarte, like it's a full piece. Yeah, 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.799 and you know, in which he talks about his experiences 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:06.120 with marijuana, the effects marijuana had in his own life, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:11.720 on creativity, on making connections things outside of his out 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.840 of the scientific discipline. But he at least alluded a 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.760 little bit to it's it's used to make scientific connections 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.600 as well. So we figured we did a two part 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:22.640 on M D M A. There are a lot of 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.720 positive comments about that, and we thought, you know what, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.480 maybe we should do this as kind of like an 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:32.960 ongoing series where we explore different uh drug substances, the 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:36.840 cultures around them, but mainly the science of how they 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:41.960 work and the potential medical properties that they have. Right, Yeah, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.920 as well as you know, some cool historical and cultural 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.280 material as well. More way more so than M d 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.440 m A. Cannabis is a subject where you could easily 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.360 have a stuff to blow your mind esque show that 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.280 just covers nothing but marijuana. Like each day, you could 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.880 look at a different rent each week. You can look 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.320 at a different historical tidbit, some different cultural tidbit. You 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.920 could look at some new study about its applications. You 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.040 could look at some new study about it's uh you 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.000 know that that tackles it from a you know, drug abuse, 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.040 drug prevention angle. There's just so much material out there, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.560 uh that you could just go on forever, And we're 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.160 not going to go on forever. We're going to west 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.719 in two pieces here. Yeah, we we did our best 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.240 to condense is down. Robert's right. There's an absolute infinity 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.000 of pot research out there, and that's a good thing 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.960 because there's a lot of things that we have to 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.440 learn from this one plant that are our species has 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.920 become totally obsessed with. Yeah, I mean we stand it 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.760 in you know, an interesting place in history where um 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:50.279 acceptance of marijuana is growing in many circles. Uh. We 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.040 see a lot more research, scientific research going on right 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.200 now than we have in the past. And uh, yeah, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.839 it's it's hard to exactly predict where we'll be tend 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.000 oney thirty years from who knows. Yeah, but but yeah, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:04.960 we're gonna give it the old stuff to blow your mind. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:09.320 Shake here and if there, if you want more information 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.640 or you want a lot more of just a general overview, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.120 there are a couple of great articles over how Stuff 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.200 Works dot com, one on marijuana, how Marijuana Works, another 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.560 one how medical Marijuana Works, that will give you the basics. 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.919 You know, us, we're liable to maybe dwell on some 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.600 of the weirder, cooler things about the topic, and you 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.680 might very well want to then go back and explore 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:32.320 some of the basics. Yeah, I want to start the 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.320 episode with a disclaimer that, like, what we're going to 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:40.480 do isn't the standard how marijuana works type episode. Uh, 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.040 and in fact, our colleagues over at Stuff you should 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.520 know to how Medicinal Marijuana Works episode that you should 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.760 go listen to if you're looking for something like that. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.040 This is going to be more us really drilling as 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.640 far as we could uh into the science behind it, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.120 how it affects the brain, uh, some kind of otter 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:05.040 unknown cultural connotations of it through history, how it's evolved 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:06.920 over the years. And in particular, one of the things 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.160 I'm psyched to talk about is like it's migratory patterns 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.520 across the planet. Yeah. That that is some really fasting 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.839 material there. And then we're going to break and we'll 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.160 do another episode later this week that's going to be 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:24.040 solely about the health benefits and the medical properties of it. Uh. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.520 And so you know, this will be a little bit different. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.840 This is in our voice and as such, you know, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.320 it's a subjective experience. So Robert and I will also 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.640 probably bring our own experiences of growing up as adults 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.679 in America in a society that, uh, plenty of people 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.520 smoke marijuana and do do whatever they want with marijuana, 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.039 but it's sort of still illegal depends on where you 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.839 live now, yeah, yeah, and I imagine pretty much everybody 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:51.880 out there is gonna have some level of familiarity with 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.920 with marijuana, either you have tried it in the past, 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.880 you're an active user, you know somebody who fits either 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.040 these categories, or you've at least seen it on television. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.799 You've heard about it in the lyrics to two various 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:09.039 songs and um and in various hip hop tracks. You 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.240 probably know something about what we're talking about here, all right, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:17.640 So let's dive in then real basic Cannabis as an organism, 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:23.080 it is closely related to some other species plant species, 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.200 but really the gist of it is that it is 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:30.440 a plant that probably originally originated natively in India somewhere 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.240 just north of the Himalayas. We know that it can 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.520 grow somewhere between eight to twelve feet tall, almost in 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.520 some cases as tall as twenty five ft. I can't 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:44.000 imagine that. Uh. And then one thing that you know, 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:45.760 we'll just get out of the way, but this is 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.840 not going to be something we're gonna talk a ton about. 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.920 Of course, it has uses as a textile fiber, right, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.800 and hemp has particular woody fibers in it that have 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.720 industrial applications and that that could be again like that 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.920 could be its own podcasts. All the ways that you 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.560 can use hemp, right, uh, And I mean it is 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.720 important to hit because because essentially you have two very 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.640 common subspecies of cannabis. You have Cannabis sativa L. And 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.200 the L stands for Carl Linnaeus, Carl Linnaeus who named 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.320 it in seventy three, and this is the non psychoactive 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.640 hemp variety. This is the version of of cannabis that 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.440 is used to create these various textiles and has been 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.920 used for ages, as we'll discuss in a little bit 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.760 um and and and to put that in perspective, hemp 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.640 contains less than one percent th HC. Meanwhile, you have 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:44.160 Cannabis sativa, the psychoactive cannabis plant, and that when that 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.920 one you'll see t h t HC levels that range 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.520 from four to and the upper end of that the 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.040 twenty percent area. You're going to see that in some 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.760 of the specially strains that humans have cultivated. So then 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.679 there's also Cannabis indica and there's another one called Cannabis 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:06.760 rut alis, and these are different species. There's variants the subspecies. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.800 But one thing that's worth saying right up front about 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.960 these is that these categorizations sometimes get used over simplistically, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.040 and this is gonna be something that we keep coming 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.600 back to over and over again, especially with medicinal use. Uh. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.760 The idea, for instance, that indica makes you sleepy but 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.240 sativa makes you hyper. But then there you can find 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.040 strains of both that have totally opposite effects. Right. So 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.520 there's like there's a lot more going on here. And 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.760 the reason why is this plant is like incredibly dynamic 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.679 and complicated. It has more than five hundred chemicals in it, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.280 including th HC. A hundred and nine of those chemicals 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.880 are what we call cannabinoids, and those are the important 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:49.920 ones when we're talking about the effects on the brain. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.559 But this thing is really diverse. It's got a lot 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.600 going on inside of it. Uh. And depending on how 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.280 it's bread, depending on the different strains whatever, it's going 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.000 to have different effects, right. I mean, the effects of 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.800 th HC of consumption is going to depend down the strain, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.160 how much you took, how you took it, your your 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:11.560 individual makeup, your past usage, a number of different factors. Um. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.920 It's also worth a stressing here that the female cannabis 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.000 plant is the one that produces the sticky resin that 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:24.520 contains the cannabinoids, most notably delta nine tetra hydro cannabinal 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:30.160 which is th h h C. So th HC. Let's 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.880 let's start with just like a simple brain explanation. Okay, 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.440 here's this is the This isn't your brain on drugs. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:41.680 This is just your brain. Okay. Our gray matter contains neurons, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.880 and neurons are cells that talk to other cells with 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:51.040 electro chemicals. Right. The electro chemicals are called neurotransmitters, and 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.960 one type of neurotransmitter in our brains that exists without 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:01.839 smoking marijuana are called endocannabinoids. Yeah, endocannabinoids are in your 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:06.839 brain right now, regardless of if your past usage or 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.720 nine usage of marijuana. And there's one plant that also 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.520 produces them, and that's cannabis. So keep that in mind 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.240 throughout all of this, Right, is that, like the things 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.960 that are going on, the effects of cannabis on the 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:25.760 human body are basically mimicking things that we are already 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.640 going on right increasing or decreasing them. Yeah, I mean, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:30.600 because you can you can sort of say that for 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.839 from for pretty much any Yeah, that's true. Substance, it's 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.960 not like a magic hand, supernatural force reaching into your brain. 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:40.800 Is the substance that is causing your brain to do 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.720 things that it already does, though perhaps in different intensities 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:46.679 and in different ways. Yeah, I just kind of want 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.840 to dispel the notion of the and you and I 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.280 grew up with this the this is your brain on 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.720 drugs type commercials where it's like the drugs are doing 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.000 the things to you, and yeah, like and they are. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.720 I mean, it's a cause and effect relationship, but like 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.160 the chemistry sets already there in your skull, right, an 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.880 egg does not fry itself exactly, all right, So an 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.880 individual takes th HC it can We already mentioned that 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.600 the exact results are going to depend on strain, dosage, 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.040 delivery method, individual frequency of use, but the it's gonna 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.800 ultimately produce a variety of effects a both sensory and psychological, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.880 including uh, one of the sources listed its mild revery, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.160 which show we were just talking about about that off air. Well, 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.600 what's what's a more relatable term for that? Fun? Yeah, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:36.640 and that's what I would think of it as that's 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:38.520 that's another thing that like, I guess we should point 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.400 out as like along the way and the research of 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:45.040 this is of course academics who are studying marijuana or 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.160 cannabis and its effects like they're in this sort of weird, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.120 precarious situation right where they want to be as scientifically 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.520 accurate as possible to maintain their standing of this being 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.480 a serious study. Uh because and and I read this 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.280 in multiple pieces, they're like, well, there's a stigma on 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.800 people who study this as like, you know, we're just 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:07.720 a bunch of hippies who just want to smoke weed 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.000 or something like that, while while also holding professorship and 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:16.080 almost like they're paranoid about it. Almost Yeah, uh so 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:21.280 there is almost uh an impenetrable language use in some 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:26.640 of these, including uh frequent reverie. Yeah, and they rarely 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.719 use the word dank, but yeah. Some of the other 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:36.760 effects include a euphoria, a heightened sensory awareness, creativity, empathy, 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.439 impaired short term memory, altered senses of time and space, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.760 enhanced appetite and sexual desire, um not necessarily at the 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:51.480 same time, occasional drowsiness, and a tendency to enhance introspection. Okay, okay, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:53.040 and this this, these are all the kind of like 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.880 basic assumptions that we have as just like general people 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.880 who exist at least in America, of what happens when 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.439 you smoke weed. Yeah. I mean, if you just watch television, 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.040 you see varying levels. So like the guy in this 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.040 show he smokes a little Jess Pinkman on breaking back, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.760 suddenly he's a little more creative, creative. Or oh, this 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.560 character in this show aida pot brownie and then just 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.440 set there thinking about death for an hour, you know. 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.800 Then yeah, totally, a lot of people are gonna be 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:24.320 familiar with these these basic uh sensory and psychological effects. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:29.200 So back to the brain. Those cannabinoids work their way 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.440 up through our blood and into our brains, and they 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:38.520 mimic or block the neurotransmitters, interfering with our normal functions. Right, So, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:44.560 because there's high concentrations of cannabis, cannabinoid receptors in our 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:50.400 hippocampus are cerebellum and our basil ganglia. The THHC binds 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.560 with the receptors there and interferes with our recollection of 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.880 recent events. So this is the whole memory thing. We're 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.840 gonna talk a lot about this um. In fact, I 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.120 had previously written an up pisode for our video series 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.600 Brain Stuff on how much marijuana actually affects your memory, 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.040 so I was able to incorporate a lot of that 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.480 research here, and of course, as we also know, it 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.760 affects your coordination and your muscle movement. So okay, like 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.440 we said, our brains have already got these endocannabinoids in them, right, 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.920 and cannabis cannabis basically hijacks this process. Now, the system, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:26.360 the endocannabinoids system, influences our pain, our memory, our mood, 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.560 and our appetite, all those things that Robert just listed 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.960 as being affected by using cannabis, which is a nice uh, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.680 which nicely foreshadows the air eventual discussion on medical applications 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.600 because you can already see this is a substance that 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.640 is is already involved in a number of of the 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:49.800 things that are affected by various illnesses and diseases. Yeah. Absolutely, uh. 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.000 And one of the things that we're really getting into now, 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.760 and we're going to talk about more, but like research 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.520 is relatively recently in the last five years, is that 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.840 the end cannabinoid process also has a big role in 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.440 how our brains grow. Now, recall from when we talked 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.120 about m d M A and the m d M 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.960 A episodes, our brains are actually growing until we're twenty 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.480 five years old. Like it's easy to say like, oh, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.120 I'm I'm grown up, I'm eighteen, I'm done, But that's 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.840 not true, Like your brain is still evolving, and uh, 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.040 using marijuana definitely seems to have an effect on how 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.680 your brain grows if you use it in adolescence. But 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.720 I think like what they're referring to is like anything 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.920 before years old, and that that's on a regular use. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.440 But we'll get into that later. And the thing about 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.800 the end of cannabinoid system, we've only known about this 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.760 thing since the late nineties, so, uh, we know, okay, 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:47.360 we know it's a complex neural system. We know it 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.520 affects these couple of things that I just mentioned, but 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.000 we're only beginning to understand it. So it's weird when 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.240 you go down the rabbit hole on marijuana research because 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.120 there's tons of it. Like we mentioned, it's everywhere, but 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.560 a lot of it is the same, Like, here's this 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.919 endocannabinoid thing. We sort of get it, but not really. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:11.520 More research is needed. Uh. And then here's my fun 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.240 fact for the episode. The reason you can't overdose on 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:21.840 marijuana is because our cannabinoid receptors aren't densely packed inside 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:27.080 the medulla. The medulla controls our cardiovascular system. Right, So 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.679 if you use heroin and you overdose on heroin, that'll 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.600 shut down your respiratory control center. But pot can't do 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.000 anything like that. Do not mistake as when we say 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.199 you cannot overdose on marijuana, we are not saying that 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.080 you cannot take too much JA. You cannot. You can 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.879 take more marijuana than than is than you should or 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.560 is comfortable for the user experience. Um, but you can 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.280 say that about anything, right. You can say that about chocolate. Yeah, 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.359 I mean one, So you can say that about plenty 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.800 of things just in your on your spice rack that 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:00.520 take too much of it you and they can have 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.199 dire consequences. Bottom line being, you cannot overdose, but you 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:16.000 can't take too much. Okay, So we're gonna talk about 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.000 the positive effects. But I'd like to think that most 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.680 of the people out there, again, like whether you've had 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.359 personal experience with it or you've just watched it on 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.120 a TV show, you pretty much get what those positive 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.440 effects are, right, at least the positive recreational effects that 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.040 we're talking yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the the reduced of 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:37.600 pain and inflammation. Uh, and then the medicinal applications we're 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.159 going to talk about in the next episode and primarily 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.560 just you know, spoilers for that episode. It's primarily used 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.920 to treat epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, and of course we 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.400 also discussed some of its uses um for people who 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.440 are undergoing chemotherapy from cancer. Yeah, there's all kinds and 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.240 and PTSD as well. Just just like with m D 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.280 m A. Uh, that same Maps Search Institute is looking 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:06.520 at how marijuana can help with PTSD. So this leads 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.399 us though, let's talk about the adverse effects. Okay, and 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.359 this isn't I'm not gonna do like the Nancy Reagan 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.480 like sit here and tell you all the bad things, right. 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:18.879 I think the way that we need to approach this, 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:20.840 just like we we talked about with m D m A, 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.680 is like, let's be mature about it. This is a plant. 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.280 This plant does these things to the human body. We're 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:33.440 listing them. We can apply positive or negative connotations to them, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.600 but just it's important for us to walk through what 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:41.840 they are, right, all right? So memory is the big one, uh, 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.800 And then the answer like, does does marijuana affect your memory? Oh? Yeah, 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:50.080 it absolutely does. And the reason why is because the 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.720 th HC latches onto the cannabinoid receptor type CB one 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.320 in your brain. Uh. And this affects your short term memory. 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.760 In fact, we've done forty year's worth of studies that 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.479 show that THHC disrupt that disrupts our short term memory. 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.680 It also makes it difficult to remember what happened when 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.480 you were actually high. Uh. And yes, when you take 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.000 larger doses, like Robert was talking about, you can take 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.960 too much, it has an even even more of an 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:23.240 effect on your memory. However, you can also develop a tolerance. Uh. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.080 And so like if you are a chronic user, Yeah, 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.280 you can build up a tolerance and subsequently you'll have 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.680 less of the memory problems. But this also plays into 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:33.959 the medicinal stuff we're gonna talk about later in that 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.080 like the medicinal applications don't always work again because you 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.040 can build up a tolerance to it, right, And it's 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:40.679 and on the short term memory stuff. I do want 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.120 to mention here that like there's a difference between say, oh, 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.720 this user um consumes some marijuana and they can't quite 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.560 remember all the details of that that episode of of 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.080 Breaking Bad they watched, as opposed to an idea of 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.440 like somebody just having a complete blackout experience. There are 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.760 varying levels of memory disruption, and it's not just the 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.720 black and white I remember and oh I have a 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:10.040 black hole in my life. Yeah, yeah, totally totally, which 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.840 reminds me of like, you know, I mean, I have 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.600 friends who over the years used too much alcohol and 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.199 that was kind of their experience with that, which was 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.920 just like the the whole in in time and space. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.600 They don't remember what happened, or at least they say 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.760 they don't remember what happened. I have far less friends 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.880 who use marijuana that have said the same thing. So, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.560 but let's let's clarify too. Existing memories are not affected 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.280 by marijuana use. Uh. And this does not lead to 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.480 memory loss, you know, or dementia. Uh. That needs to 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.840 be clarified because there's I think, you know, a lot 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.560 of the scare campaigns about cannabis leads to sort of 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:56.640 these misunderstandings. Researchers do, though, hope that they can use 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:01.640 th HC to help people with forgetting add memories associated 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.879 with PTSD, and the reason why is because the end 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:10.879 o cannabinoid system regulates memory formation, but it also is 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:16.200 involved with how we quote make negative memories extinct. That's 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:20.280 a weird phrasing, but apparently there's has something to do 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.440 with us. Basically, Like I guess, like the metaphor would 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:25.560 be like putting a negative memory in a box and 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:27.320 shoving it in a closet way in the back of 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.439 your brain, right and just being like I'm done with this. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.760 But you know, this touches again on the complexity of 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:37.400 THHC because it's a substance that almost paradoxically involves sometimes 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.280 the like the the the overexamination of a negative element 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.160 in one's memories or in this case, we're discussing now 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:49.560 the potential eradication of of negative connotations for a memory. Right. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:52.600 And we didn't do a lot of like real deep 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:55.919 dive research into the PTSD application here, but I'm going 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:57.920 to guess based on all the stuff that we did 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.600 on m D m A and PTSD, they probably has 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.240 a similar use. And then it's done in conjunction with therapy, 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:06.600 and that you know, you use it a little bit 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.119 with a trustworthy therapist and then you talk your way 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.840 through the memories and the problems. Rather than it's it's 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.560 not like this magical thing where like you take a 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.120 certain amount of marijuana and your memory just goes into 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.040 the closet, right, Like, we need to stop thinking about 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.440