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New Insights Into Cannabis Consumption; Abuses And Possible Therapeutic Effects, Daniela Luiza Baconi, Robert Daniel Vasile, Cristian Bălălău

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Cannabis is one of the oldest psychotropic drugs known to humanity. The paper assesses the current knowledge on the cannabis, including the mechanisms of action and the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids.

Three varieties of Cannabis plant are recognised: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. The variety indica is used predominantly to obtain the drugs. Cannabis herb is usually named marijuana, while the cannabis oleoresin secreted by the glandular hairs found mainly on the flowering or fruiting tops of the plant is known as hashish. More than 400 known chemicals are present in cannabis, at least 70 of which are …

Marijuana Use And Cardiometabolic Disease Risk Throughout Adulthood: An Analysis Of The National Health And Nutrition Examination Surveys, 2005-2010, Denise Christina Vidot

Open Access Dissertations

Background. Rates of marijuana use in the United States are the highest recorded over the past decade. Little is known about its relationship with Metabolic Syndrome. The aim of this study were to: Therefore, the aims of this study were to: AIM 1: Estimate the prevalence of cardiometabolic disease risk factors and metabolic syndrome among a nationally representative sample of marijuana users in early adulthood (20-to-30 years), adulthood (31-to-44 years), and middle-aged adulthood (45-to-59 years) using a nationally representative sample. AIM 2: Describe the relationship between marijuana use and metabolic syndrome at each stage of adulthood using a nationally representative …

Reflection Impulsivity In Adolescent Cannabis Users, K Jones, N Solowij, M Rozman, S Davis, Joseph Ciarrochi, Patrick Heaven, Daniel Lubman, M Yucel

joseph Ciarrochi

Abstract of a conference paper presented at the 2010 summer meeting of the British Association for Psychopharmacology.

Verbal Learning And Memory In Adolescent Cannabis Users, Alcohol Users And Non-Users, Nadia Solowij, Katy A. Jones, Megan E. Rozman, Sasha M. Davis, Joseph Ciarrochi, Patrick C. L Heaven, Dan I. Lubman, Murat Yucel

joseph Ciarrochi

Rationale Long-term heavy cannabis use can result in memory impairment. Adolescent users may be especially vulnerable to the adverse neurocognitive effects of cannabis. Objectives and methods In a cross-sectional and prospective neuropsychological study of 181 adolescents aged 16–20 (mean 18.3 years), we compared performance indices from one of the most widely used measures of learning and memory—the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test—between cannabis users (n=52; mean 2.4 years of use, 14 days/month, median abstinence 20.3 h), alcohol users (n=67) and non-user controls (n=62) matched for age, education and premorbid intellectual ability (assessed prospectively), and alcohol consumption for cannabis and alcohol …

Reflection Impulsivity In Adolescent Cannabis Users: A Comparison With Alcohol-Using And Non-Substance-Using Adolescents, Nadia Solowij, Katy A. Jones, Megan E. Rozman, Sasha M. Davis, Joseph Ciarrochi, Patrick C. L Heaven, Nicole Pesa, Dan I. Lubman, Murat Yucel

joseph Ciarrochi

Rationale Reflection impulsivity-a failure to gather and evaluate information before making a decision-is a critical component of risk-taking and substance use behaviours, which are highly prevalent during adolescence. Objectives and methods The Information Sampling Test was used to assess reflection impulsivity in 175 adolescents (mean age 18.3, range 16.5-20; 55% female)-48 cannabis users (2.3 years use, 10.8 days/month), 65 alcohol users, and 62 non-substance-using controls-recruited from a longitudinal cohort and from the general community and matched for education and IQ. Cannabis and alcohol users were matched on levels of alcohol consumption. Results Cannabis users sampled to the lowest degree of …

Verbal Learning And Memory In Adolescent Cannabis And Alcohol Users, N Solowij, K Jones, M Rozman, S Davis, Joseph Ciarrochi, Patrick Heaven, Daniel Lubman, M Yucel

joseph Ciarrochi

Abstract of a conference paper presented at the 2010 summer meeting of the British Association for Psychopharmacology.

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom

• Georgia Southern professor brings national attention to dangerous new drug trend

The Relation Between Self-Reported Alcohol And Cannabis Use And Prospective Memory In College Students, Emily Koberstein

Honors Theses

Emily Koberstein, Stephanie Clancy Dollinger, Ph.d, & Sherrie Parks, M.A.

Department of Psychology

The Relation between Self-Reported Alcohol and Cannabis Use and Prospective Memory in College Students

The aim of this study is to see if there is a relation between drug use and prospective memory performance. Prospective memory is the ability to remember to do something in the future and is a vital aspect of everyday living. Prospective memory can be broken down into short-term, long-term and event-based or time-based components. Most research on prospective memory has primarily examined differences between young and old adults (e.g., Einstein & McDaniel, …

Modulation Of Cannabinoid Receptor Activity By Allosteric Modulators, Inverse Agonists And Receptor Binding Partners, Mariam Mohamed Mahmoud

Doctoral Dissertations

The regulation of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) plays a fundamental role in physiologic homeostasis. There are two cannabinoid receptors: CB1, found on neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system and regulate neuromodulatory processes and CB2, found in peripheral tissues, particularly in immune tissues. In this research, three different modulation mechanisms of the cannabinoid receptors are studied. Chapter 2 focuses on the structure-activity relationships of novel allosteric modulators from the indole-2-carboxamide class of compounds. These novel allosteric modulators were optimized for their K_B (binding affinity to the allosteric site) and their cooperativity factor α (magnitude by which affinity …

Are Cannabis Expectancies Related To Subjective Drug Experiences And Schizotypy?, Emma Barkus, Tahlia Muddle, John Stirling, Shon Lewis

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective: There is an established literature on cannabis expectancies and how these relate to patterns of cannabis use and clinical outcomes. However increasingly we are becoming interested in how cannabis expectancies shape the subjective experiences people have during drug use, and vice versa. Here we present data reporting how cannabis expectancies relate to subjective experiences after cannabis. Additionally we will determine whether an index of psychosis proneness (schizotypy) is related to cannabis expectancies. Method: A sample of recreational cannabis users (n=137) completed the brief Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire and the Marijuana Effects Expectancy Questionnaire. Results: Cannabis expectancies …

Gross Morphological Brain Changes With Chronic, Heavy Cannabis Use, Valentina Lorenzetti, Nadia Solowij, Sarah Whittle, Alex Fornito, Daniel Lubman, Christos Pantelis, Murat Yücel

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

We investigated the morphology of multiple brain regions in a rare sample of 15 very heavy cannabis users with minimal psychiatric comorbidity or significant exposure to other substances (compared with 15 age- and IQ-matched non-cannabis-using controls) using manual techniques. Heavy cannabis users demonstrated smaller hippocampus and amygdala volumes, but no alterations of the orbitofrontal and anterior- and paracingulate cortices, or the pituitary gland. These findings indicate that chronic cannabis use has a selective and detrimental impact on the morphology of the mediotemporal lobe.

Medical Cannabis In The United States: Policy, Politics And Science, Jelica Grbic

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Historically, cannabis has been used as a pharmaceutical drug for a variety of conditions including rheumatism, depression, convulsions, and malaria. Since the 1970s, randomised, controlled clinical trials have shown cannabis to be effective in the treatment of debilitating medical conditions including nausea and vomiting resulting from cancer chemotherapy, wasting syndrome associated with HIV/AIDS, and chronic pain. Despite scientific evidence, as of 2011, when the material for this thesis was collected, only 17 states of the United States (U.S.) and the District of Columbia had enacted medical cannabis laws allowing patients with specific medical conditions to use cannabis without being criminally …

Perceived Harms And Benefits Of Parental Cannabis Use, And Parents’ Reports Regarding Harm-Reduction Strategies, Kathleen J. Donoghue

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research focussed on families in which at least one parent was a long-term cannabis user; I explored family members’ perceptions of the benefits and harms of cannabis use and the strategies parents used to minimise cannabis-related harm to themselves and their children. In depth, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 43 individuals from 13 families, producing a series of family case studies that enabled examination of multiple perspectives within each family. In Study 1, I used an interpretive framework guided by Miles and Huberman’s (1994) thematic content analysis technique to analyse interview data, while study 2 yielded detailed descriptive vignettes …

Distress Intolerance And Cannabis Use: An Initial Empirical Investigation, Julianna Brett Hogan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Within the United States (U.S.), one-third of those who use cannabis (the most commonly used illicit drug in the U.S.), exhibit cannabis use problems significant enough to warrant a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD; Compton, Grant, Colliver, Glantz, & Stinson, 2004). Data suggests that quitting cannabis is highly difficult (Copersino et al., 2006), yet, there is little empirical knowledge about the nature of factors that relate to quit processes (e.g., self-efficacy). One potentially promising variable of relevance to CUD is distress intolerance (Leyro, Zvolensky, & Bernstein, 2010). Distress intolerance is referred to as (a) the perceived capacity to withstand …

A Gateway To Future Problems: Concerns About The State By-State Legalization Of Medical Marijuana, Paul Lewis

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Before 2009, every American presidential administration had been uniform in its policy of consistently enforcing the nation’s drug laws. Pursuant to federal law, possession, use, or cultivation of any drug deemed illegal by Congress was, universally, a prosecutable offense. Notwithstanding this unwavering policy, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the marijuana industry continued to grow, and several states legalized medicinal marijuana despite the standing federal prohibition. Moreover, President Barrack Obama, shortly after taking office, broke precedent with his predecessors when he put forth a policy of non-enforcement through a publicly released memorandum authored by the then Deputy Attorney General, …

Effects Of Repeated Cue Exposure On Cannabis Craving, Jessica S. Fogel

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Craving is a key element of the cannabis withdrawal syndrome that has been associated with continued use and relapse. Although cue-induced cannabis craving has been established in single laboratory sessions, procedures to sustain craving over multiple sessions are needed. The purpose of the present study was to determine if cue-induced craving responses could be elicited in the same subjects across multiple sessions. It was hypothesized that exposure to cannabis cues would produce more robust craving responses than exposure to neutral cues and that elicited craving responses will be sustained across multiple cue exposures. Five experimental cue exposure sessions (1 neutral …

Social Anxiety And Cannabis-Related Impairment: The Roles Of Anxiety Sensitivity And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Emily Robin Jeffries

LSU Master's Theses

Cannabis use is associated with many negative consequences. Identification of factors associated with cannabis could inform prevention and treatment efforts. Social anxiety appears to be one risk factor for cannabis-related problems. Thus, it is important to identify malleable cognitive vulnerability factors that may play a role in the social anxiety-cannabis problems relationship. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations and is composed of three subfacets: physical, cognitive, and social concerns. AS is associated with greater social anxiety and may play a role in cannabis-related impairment. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) refers to a tendency to respond negatively to …