A recent study in which rats could self-administer cannabis vapor may provide a useful research model for humans.
The study’s most significant finding was that the ingestion of cannabis resulted in drug-seeking behavior not unlike that common in human users of cannabis.
Another significant observation describes some familiar behavior the rats exhibited after receiving the cannabis vapor.
The rats consumed more food while under the influence, a phenomenon reminiscent of human “munchies,” and their activity levels were lower than they would normally be. Even so, they burned more calories than either of the other groups.
For Complete article
Female eggs exposed to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, have an impaired ability to produce viable embryos, and are significantly less likely to result in a viable pregnancy, according to an animal study accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting… The eggs' developmental rates and gene expression were measured. The researchers evaluated the ability of embryos to reach critical stages of development at specific time points. With higher concentrations of THC, they found a significant decrease and delay in the ability of the treated oocytes to reach these checkpoints.
For article
North America’s biggest companies have seen their market values lose billions, prompting comparisons to dotcom bust
18th March 2020
Cannabis may be legal in Vancouver but visitors looking to score are likely to run into a seemingly counterintuitive suggestion: try the black market. Recreational marijuana was legalised across Canada in October 2018. And yet on Reddit, the specialist forum website used by millions every day, many of Vancouver’s cannabis connoisseurs still swear by their underground supply. This is one of the major issues facing North America’s marijuana companies, which experts say are in the midst of a dotcom-style market crash. (SEE And Then There Were Three – Marijuana Markets)
For complete story
View Video
Abstract
Objectives: Cannabis is a known teratogen. Data availability addressing both major congenital anomalies and cannabis use allowed us to explore their geospatial relationships.
Methods: Data for the years 1998 to 2009 from Canada Health and Statistics Canada was analyzed in R. Maps have been drawn and odds ratios, principal component analysis, correlation matrices, least squares regression and geospatial regression analyses have been conducted using the R packages base, dplyr, epiR, psych, ggplot2, colorplaner and the spml and spreml functions from package splm.
Results: Mapping showed cannabis use was more common in the northern Territories of Canada in the Second National Survey of Cannabis Use 2018. Total congenital anomalies, all cardiovascular defects, orofacial clefts, Downs syndrome and gastroschisis were all found to be more common in these same regions and rose as a function of cannabis exposure. When Canada was dichotomized into high and low cannabis use zones by Provinces v Territories the Territories had a higher rate of total congenital anomalies 450.026 v 390.413 (O.R. = 1.16 95%C.I. 1.08-1.25, P = 0.000058; attributable fraction in exposed 13.25%, 95%C.I. 7.04-19.04%). In geospatial analysis in a spreml spatial error model cannabis was significant both alone as a main effect (P < 2.0 × 10) and in all its first and second order interactions with both tobacco and opioids from P < 2.0 × 10.
Conclusion: These results show that the northern Territories of Canada share a higher rate of cannabis use together with elevated rates of total congenital anomalies, all cardiovascular defects, Down's syndrome and gastroschisis. This is the second report of a significant association between cannabis use and both total defects and all cardiovascular anomalies and the fourth published report of a link with Downs syndrome and thereby direct major genotoxicity. The correlative relationships described in this paper are confounded by many features of social disadvantage in Canada's northern territories. However, in the context of a similar broad spectrum of defects described both in animals and in epidemiological reports from Hawaii, Colorado, USA and Australia they are cause for particular concern and indicate further research.
For complete research
