Showing posts with label smoking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smoking. Show all posts

Thursday, January 22, 2015

How Cannabis Helps with Creativity

One common trait of famous people in society is their ability to be creative. Marijuana has been known for enhancing creativity. There is scientific basis evidence to support the correlation to cannabis and thinking outside the box. Many famous artists have admitted to the use of marijuana.

Alice Flaherty from the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School researched how creativity worked in the brain. Different parts of the brain work on creativity in different ways to give balance. The Frontal Lobe judges ideas and decides the values of the idea and divergent thinking. The Temporal Lobe gives idea generation with no concern about quality.(Source)

Research has shown that the frontal lobe activity increases with a rise in cerebral blood flow (CBF).(Source) Smoking cannabis increases Cerebral blood flow. Studies have shown that the CBF peaks thirty minutes after smoking.(Source)

An increase in dopamine allows for the mind to have more inhibited and novel thoughts.(Source) Cannabis has been shown to increase dopamine levels.(Source) Dopamine allows the brain to disregard outside “white noise” stimulus. This allows the brain to focus on a certain thought and enhance all of the possibilities giving to creativity.(Source)

It's not a surprise that popular figures in society benefit from the use of cannabis. On the TV show 60 Minutes Lady Gaga told the reporter “I smoke a lot of pot when I write music.” Marijuana residue was found in pipe fragments of William Shakespeare's garden. Carl Sagan was a big advocate to marijuana and the decriminalizing of it in society. Bill Gates was known to smoke weed in college and a strong advocate for legalizing marijuana in his state of Washington.(Source)


Source:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/7-successful-famous-cannabis-smoking-geniuses

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Edibles vs. Smoking


How cannabis is ingested to receive the medicine is subject to each patients preferably. Whether it is smoked or taken orally in an edible has some differences like the time it takes effect, the ability to dose effectively, the duration it lasts, the way it is metabolized, and the difficulty regulating the amount of THC in an edibles ingredients.(Source)

Smoking shows a faster effect than edibles for relief. A study in 2013 looked at the differences of marijuana that was smoked versus the THC pill dronabinol. Smoking showed a relief in symptoms and feeling of it working in 15 minutes, where donabinol showed effect after 60-90 minutes.(Source) Patients suffering from pain tend to prefer faster relief than a prolonged wait period.(Source)

For the extended length of time it takes edibles to take an effect, dosage could be administered too low or too high. A faster effect from smoking could allow patients to give the correct amount from feeling the effects quickly. Patients during a study reported that while smoking gave fast effects, the psycho-active high usually lasted longer than the relief of pain. The study also showed most patients felt more high when smoking rather than using the edible.(Source) On the flip side with a delayed effect on edibles, an overdose can occur and make patients uncomfortable. The effects of the overdose can be agitation, anxiety or hallucinations.(Source)

The duration of smoked cannabis can last a couple hours where edibles once they take effect can last 3-4 hours. With pain sufferers a faster effect is desired, however a longer duration is desired as well. For some patients finding a time and a place to smoke every couple of hours can be unfeasible, making it more convenient for a longer lasting effect to be preferable. (Source) 

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is a neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent weighed in on the subject and said that he would argue that vaporizers are the best way to deliver marijuana by activating it without burning it. Edibles, Dr. Gupta went further to say, can lead to uneven absorption which can lead to undesired effects. (source)

The way edibles are metabolized can effect the way THC is absorbed unevenly. Kari Franson, PharmD, PhD, Clinical Pharmacologist and Associate Dean for Professional Education, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, at University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy studied the metabolism of THC. “The THC will compete for metabolism in the liver with other drugs. Things that are inhaled can go directly to the brain and not have these interactions. So even confident users can get surprised with an edible.”
Kari Franson also warns about the unregulated standardization of edibles. The package may say in contains a certain amount of THC, but not be correct. Laboratory tests of the products can register the THC higher or lower in concentration, not making for a consistent way to administer the medicine properly.(Source)

Source: