How marijuana affects the brain.

We all know that something happens to the brain if you consume cannabis. If you smoke it, eat it, inhale it , drink it, doesn’t matter how, but something changes up there. The effects are not similar for everybody of course. I myself sometimes become one with the couch, while other times my brain just goes berserk and with a speed of 1000 kph, it wants me to think of a million things and do a million more, very fast. But how does that work? How does THC affect your brain? And knowing that THC has been found to be helpful for therapeutic applications such as appetite loss, insomnia, depression and nausea and treatment of mild to moderate pain, what does CBD do then?

CBD (Cannabidiol) is not psychoactive as THC is and does not contribute to the process of getting stoned or high. THC, a key ingredient in marijuana, attaches to cannabinoid receptors throughout the body. Several areas of the brain have high densities of these receptors, which helps to explain the different effects of the drug. From a medical perspective THC and CBD have important effects each other when coming together in your body. CDB helps the THC to settle in your body and therefor helps the effect of it last longer.

How the cannabinoid receptors work.

Nerve cells communicate by passing chemical messages across contact points called synapses. The most active ingredient in marijuana, THC, attaches to cannabinoid receptors and modifies nerve action. Check out the full explanation on this great work of art! It does however look a bit scary. I personally do not believe that my memory really gets affected by smoking marijuana… or   what was I talking about again?

SOURCE: The National Comorbidity Survey, which included 8098 participants and was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse; results published in Experimental and Clinical Pscyopharmacology, 1994