“A retrospective registry study and a prospective safety study of THC:CBD oromucosal spray are reported.
…no evidence of addiction, abuse or misuse.
The homogeneity between these observational studies supports the interest in THC:CBD oromucosal spray for management of MS spasticity in daily practice.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26901342
http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/multiple-sclerosis-ms/
“Although evidence suggests cannabis impairs driving, its driving-performance effects are not fully characterized. We aimed to establish cannabis‘ effects on driving longitudinal control (with and without alcohol, drivers’ most common drug combination) relative to psychoactive ∆9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) blood concentrations.
Current occasional (≥1×/last 3 months, ≤3 days per week) cannabis smokers drank placebo or low-dose alcohol, and inhaled 500 mg placebo, low (2.9%), or high (6.7%) THC vaporized cannabis over 10 min ad libitum in separate sessions (within-subject, six conditions). Participants drove (National Advanced Driving Simulator, University of Iowa) simulated drives 0.5-1.3 h post-inhalation. Blood and breath alcohol samples were collected before (0.17 and 0.42 h) and after (1.4 and 2.3 h) driving.
We evaluated the mean speed (relative to limit), standard deviation (SD) of speed, percent time spent >10% above/below the speed limit (percent speed high/percent speed low), longitudinal acceleration, and ability to maintain headway relative to a lead vehicle (headway maintenance) against blood THC and breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC).
THC was associated with a decreased mean speed, increased percent speed low and increased mean following distance during headway maintenance. BrAC was associated with increased SD speed and increased percent speed high, whereas THC was not.
Neither was associated with altered longitudinal acceleration.
A less-than-additive THC*BrAC interaction was detected in percent speed high (considering only non-zero data and excluding an outlying drive event), suggesting cannabis mitigated drivers’ tendency to drive faster with alcohol.
Cannabis was associated with slower driving and greater headway, suggesting a possible awareness of impairment and attempt to compensate.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26889769
“Stoned Drivers Safer Than Drunk Drivers” http://americanlivewire.com/2015-02-15-stoned-drivers-safer-drunk-drivers/
“Nicotine, the main psychoactive component of tobacco, and (-)-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, play major roles in tobacco and marijuana dependence as reinforcers of drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior.
Drugs that act as inverse agonists of cannabinoid CB1 receptors in the brain can attenuate the rewarding and abuse-related effects of nicotine and THC…
Recently-developed CB1-receptor neutral antagonists may provide an alternative therapeutic approach to nicotine and cannabinoid dependence.
These findings point to CB1-receptor neutral antagonists as a new class of medications for treatment of both tobacco dependence and cannabis dependence.”
“Cannabis is one of the most prevalent drugs used in industrialized countries.
The main effects of Cannabis are mediated by two major exogenouscannabinoids: ∆9-tetrahydroxycannabinol and cannabidiol. They act on specific endocannabinoid receptors, especially types 1 and 2.
Mammals are endowed with a functional cannabinoid system including cannabinoid receptors, ligands, and enzymes.
This endocannabinoid signaling pathway is involved in both physiological and pathophysiological conditions with a main role in the biology of the central nervous system.
As the retina is a part of the central nervous system due to its embryonic origin, we aim at providing the relevance of studying the endocannabinoid system in the retina. Here, we review the distribution of the cannabinoid receptors, ligands, and enzymes in the retina and focus on the role of the cannabinoid system in retinal neurobiology.
This review describes the presence of the cannabinoid system in critical stages of retinal processing and its broad involvement in retinal neurotransmission, neuroplasticity, and neuroprotection.
Accordingly, we support the use of synthetic cannabinoids as new neuroprotective drugs to prevent and treat retinal diseases.
Finally, we argue for the relevance of functional retinal measures in cannabis users to evaluate the impact of cannabis use on human retinal processing.”
“Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and its analogues are found to have particular application in psychiatry because of their antipsychotic properties suggesting a therapeutic use as neuroleptic agents in limiting psychotic diseases.
These treatments should not only aim to alleviate specific symptoms but also attempt to delay/arrest disease progression.
In the present review, we reported recent studies supporting the view that the cannabinoid signalling system is a key modulatory element in the activity of the striatum and temporal cortex that has been traditionally associated with psychosis and schizophrenia.
This idea is supported by different anatomical, electrophysiological, pharmacological and biochemical data.
Furthermore, these studies indicate that the cannabinoid system is impaired in different psychotic disorders, supporting the idea of developing novel pharmacotherapies with compounds that selectively target specific elements of the cannabinoid system.”
“Cannabis sativa is the most commonly used recreational drug, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) being the main addictive compound.
Biotransformation of cannabinoids is an important field of xenobiochemistry and toxicology and the study of the metabolism can lead to the discovery of new compounds, unknown metabolites with unique structures and new therapeutic effects.
The pharmacokinetics of Δ9-THC is dependent on multiple factors such as physical/chemical form, route of administration, genetics, and concurrent consumption of alcohol.
This review aims to discuss metabolomics of Δ9-THC, namely by presenting all known metabolites of Δ9-THC described both in vitro and in vivo, and their roles in the Δ9-THC-mediated toxic effects.
Since medicinal use is increasing, metabolomics of Δ9-THC will also be discussed in order to uncover potential active metabolites that can be made available for this purpose.”
“Public interest in the use of “medical marijuana” for the treatment of childhood epilepsy has burgeoned in the last few years. This has occurred in parallel with a growing interest in “medical marijuana” in general. Physicians and pediatricians must balance their patients’ desire for immediate access to these products with the tenets of evidence-based medicine. This review discusses the biochemistry of cannabis products (the phytocannabinoids) setting this in the context of the endogenous endocannabinoid system. The differing and potentially modulating effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are reviewed. The evidence-base supporting or not the use of cannabis products for the treatment of neurological disease and specifically epilepsy is explored. The potential for adverse effects and particularly of neurotoxicity is addressed. Finally, public health and sociocultural implications are touched upon. Specific recommendations for interested physicians are provided including advocacy for patients and for a change in the “scheduling” of cannabis in order to better foster much-needed high-quality scientific research in this important area.”
“Recently published systematic reviews came to different conclusions with respect to the efficacy, tolerability and safety of cannabinoids for treatment of chronic neuropathic pain.
Cannabinoids were marginally superior to placebo in terms of efficacy and inferior in terms of tolerability.
Cannabinoids and placebo did not differ in terms of safety during the study period.
Short-term and intermediate-term therapy with cannabinoids can be considered in selected patients with chronic neuropathic pain after failure of first-line and second-line therapies.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26830780
http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/neuropathic-pain/
“The endocannabinoids, endogenous lipid mediators of related chemical structure to the prototype exogenous cannabinoid Δ9-THC found in marijuana, have emerged as important mediators that regulate central and peripheral neural functions as well as immune responses.
Endogenous and exogenous cannabinoid ligands bind to cannabinoid receptors: the predominant central cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) and the peripheral cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2). CB1 and CB2 are members of the G-protein coupled receptor family.
Cannabinoids were shown to modulate the immune system and to affect the migration of blood cells, such as T-cells, monocytes and myeloid leukemia cells, through CB receptors.
Recent data indicate the potential role of cannabinoid ligands and receptors in the regulation of hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) migration and trafficking.
These studies may lead to clinical applications of cannabinoid-based compounds as new HSC-mobilizer agents for therapeutic intervention in bone marrow failure.”
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-2993-3_30
“Chronic pain is commonly and closely correlated with inflammation.
Both cannabinoid signaling and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been demonstrated to reduce inflammatory pain.
Although cannabinoid signaling is essential for mesenchymal stem cell survival and differentiation, little is known about its role in modulatory effect of MSCs on inflammation and pain sensitivity. Here we showed that mouse bone-marrow derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) expressed both cannabinoid receptor type 1 and 2 (CB1 and CB2). CB2 expression level in BM-MSCs increased with their maturation.
In addition, we found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) activated CB2 receptor and ERK signaling, consequently enhancing the modulation of MSCs on inflammation-associated cytokine release from lipopolysaccharides-stimulated microglia.
Consistent with in vitro data, THC pretreatment enhanced the immunomodulatory effects of BM-MSC on thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in chronic constriction injury model, by decreasing the release of pro-inflammation cytokines.
Our study revealed the crucial role of THC in promoting the immunomodulatory effects of MSCs and proposed a new strategy to alleviate pain based on stem cells therapy.”