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Reefer kills brain cells???

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metal420

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Jan 17, 2004
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I've heard it does, and I've heard it doesnt... can we just have a definite answer? Also try to back up your info with a link.

PS: Mods, please add a poll to this thread.
 
Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer. THC kills brain cells when they are grown in culture, and it kills the quick, and at physiological concentrations. However, its obvious that THC isn't that potently neurotoxic in whole animals, because all you people who blaze 24/7 would be vegetables.

Most studies which look, show that there is cellular disturbances caused by THC, but those were done in rats. There are two studies done in primates one shows disturbances, one doesn't.

From what the study done in cultured neurons shows, if THC is neurotoxic, taking an aspirin should protect against neurotoxicity.

So basically, we don't know yet, though I hope to look at it for my PhD.

P.S. if anyone wants references, just give me a Private message.
 
*Taps head with 2 fingers*
I just killed some brain cells.

From my own experiences, and being inside my own brain after smoking, I deduce that smoking weed kills brain cells.
 
metal420 said:
I've heard it does, and I've heard it doesnt... can we just have a definite answer? Also try to back up your info with a link.

PS: Mods, please add a poll to this thread.
Click to expand...

A poll will only show people's opinion, which is hardly a good answer to this question.

The short answer is: THC by itself does not kill brain cells (indeed it is similar to chemicals already found in the brain and body) , but smoking it does kill brain cells. Carbon monoxide is found in most smoke including cannabis and tobacco smoke, as well as car exhaust. It is known to kill brain cells. If you eat a cannabis cookie, you will not kill any more brain cells than if you ate a plain cookie.
 
BilZ0r said:
Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer. THC kills brain cells when they are grown in culture, and it kills the quick, and at physiological concentrations. However, its obvious that THC isn't that potently neurotoxic in whole animals, because all you people who blaze 24/7 would be vegetables.
Click to expand...

can you include a source for this info? a long time ago i participated in a thread on another board about this topic and it seemed that i couldnt find anything saying thc killed brain cells. i'd be interested to know what else killed brain cells in this experiment.. like if water also killed the cells too because of the petri dish environment then the study wouldnt be very legit.. but if it was a good simulation i'd be interested to see
 
I will try and find a study and source, but from what I've heard THC and related cannabinoids don't kill brain cells, they only "stun" them. As frizz said, theres chemicals in the brain very simular to THC etc.. so if those natural brain chemicals killed brain cells, then I guess cannabis would too. But I'm more thinking too that it is the smoking that would kill it. But really, sneezing, coughing, is sure to kill brain cells too.. I mean you do have a fair amount of them ya know :p
 
Yeah sure. There are several studies which show that THC kills cultured neurons, the first one being:

Chan GC, Hinds TR, Impey S, Storm DR. Hippocampal neurotoxicity of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol.
J Neurosci. 1998 Jul 15; 18 (14): 5322-32.

The studies which look at the cellular changes that THC induces are review in:

Scallet AC.
Neurotoxicology of cannabis and THC: a review of chronic exposure studies in animals.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1991 Nov; 40(3): 671-6

Thats okay logic Splatt, but you forget that when anandamide is released in the brain, it is released for short periods, in a highly controlled manner, and although probably activates cannabinoid receptors more often than THC from cannabis, only does so for a very short period of time. Also, we can't assume that CB receptors are the only ones that THC is effective.

Also frizzantik, pure water would kill brain cells growing in culture, but it would also kill them growing in your brain. No one has so far found a flaw with the Chan study I cited above, and there have been a lot of people looking for them.
 
Thanks for that, and I guess you are right.
But how much cell damage would it really do compared to drinking coffee?
 
In the USA Today this summer there was a study which concluded that marijuana doesn't kill brain cells. I believe it was either from UCLA or UCSD.
 
Wether weed kills brain cells or not, killing a few brain cells every once in a while is good for you. Take this analagy:

When a heard of buffalo gets attacked by some wolves, it is the slow and weak buffalo that get killed. This strengthens the heard. Hence, the periodic killing of the slow buffalo actually makes the heard stronger. The same is true for braincells, no?
 
Didnt a study dis-prove the fact that your brain cells never grow back, ie they actually DO regenerate?

IE.. even if you wrecked your brain cells with weed, after a week or a month they would probably be back to the levels that they were normally at anyway

weed makes me feel dumb, although im not really, if i dont smoke for a few hours im that much on the ball it aint funny

good point malice, everything you do will kill brain cells, if you enjoy your weed, dont let a few scientific studies stop you, i'd be more worried about lung cancer and other illnesses from it rather than a few shitty brain cells.. :) *bangs head on desk and probably kills more doing that, than in a while nights smoking!*
 
They proved that brain cells never do grow back. It's a complicated process that DNA undergoes, which is basically after 50 generations (around 50 years, depending on what nutrients you got) you stop producing brain cells. Then, you lose brain cells as normal, but after these 50 generations are up, you stop making more brain cells to make up for the lost ones.

But new studies are pointing to the idea that THC itself doesn't kill brain cells or have any other effects.
 
this article is talking about CBD which is found in cannabis. indica dominant strains tend to have more CBD than their sativa cousins

[size=big]Cannabinoid Antioxidant Protects Brain Cells -- Without the High[/size]

CONTACT:
Jules Asher
(301) 443-4536
[email protected]

July 2, 1998



National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists have discovered that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive, naturally-occurring substance in the marijuana plant, is a potent antioxidant which can prevent brain cell death in an experimental stroke model. The cannabinoid's neuroprotective properties matched or surpassed other antioxidants in the cell culture model, report National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) researchers Aidan Hampson, Ph.D., Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., and NIH colleagues.

As an antioxidant, cannabidiol might hold promise for preventing brain damage in stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and perhaps, heart attacks, say the researchers.

"Cannabidiol is a desirable candidate for a side-effect-free therapeutic agent because it does not activate cannabinoid receptors, which mediate marijuana's high," explained Hampson, of the NIMH Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation. "It does not produce euphoria."

In disorders like stroke, neurotoxic levels of the brain chemical messenger glutamate are released, overstimulating glutamate receptors, which opens the floodgates to a massive influx of calcium and formation of toxic reactive oxygen species, or free radicals. Antioxidants can protect against this process. Cannabidiol protected cultured rat brain cells against damage from glutamate and reactive oxygen species, performing better than vitamins C and E and as well as the potent antioxidant BHT. Although the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana (THC) known to activate cannabinoid receptors also protected the neurons, neither cannabinoids' antioxidant properties were mediated by cannabinoid receptors.

Preliminary results from studies now underway using cannabidiol in live animal models of stroke are looking promising, said Hampson. He noted that the substance passes readily from the blood into the brain and in the past has been tested in humans over several weeks, at high doses, with no apparent side effects reported.

Hampson, Axelrod and colleagues Maurizio Grimaldi, M.D., Ph.D., National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and David Wink, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute (NCI), report on their findings in the July 7 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NIMH, NINDS and NCI are components of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Read Original
 
 
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They proved that brain cells never do grow back.
Click to expand...
actually that was believed in the 20th century... now there's evidence that nerve cells actually do grow back...sorry i'm way to tired to find a link right now but i will later today...
 
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I think a lot of people are getting confused between how THC can protect from other neural insults, while it is possible that it is neurotoxic.

For one, THC and other cannabinoids are antioxidants, so they protect you against damage from strokes and other oxidative processes. They also inhibit glutamate release, so that protects you against excitotoxic insults (strokes again, some shelffish poisons).

At the same time, it is possible that THC, by itself, when there is nothing else going on, could causes damage. Not saying it does, just that it might. For those that are intrested, it would be through the release of PGE2.
 
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