{"id":2484,"date":"2020-05-01T13:33:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T03:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/cannabis-is-a-gateway-drug\/"},"modified":"2020-05-01T13:33:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T03:33:13","slug":"cannabis-is-a-gateway-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/cannabis-is-a-gateway-drug\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis IS a Gateway Drug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Cannabis really is a gateway drug that leads users on to harder illegal substances like cocaine by making users more sensitive to its effects<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, so the latest headlines peal out! This debate, often \u2018gate kept\u2019 by the pro-cannabis sector, has been dismissed, ignored, or denigrated by the same demographic, in attempt to further sanitize this modified, nasty and no longer \u2018natural\u2019 plant. With the increasing growth of research into brain physiology and cell workings, the evidence continues to confirm what we have all intuitively known \u2013 Weed is a \u2018Gateway\u2019 drug!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Smoking cannabis boosts brains&#8217; sensitivity to cocaine, US researchers report<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Young rats exposed to cannabis had &#8216;enhanced reaction&#8217; to cocaine exposure<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>In young humans cannabis abuse can enhance experiences with a different drug&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cannabis is a gateway drug that gives users a heightened sensitivity to harder illegal substances like cocaine, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n<p>US researchers found adolescent rats that had been pre-exposed to cannabis had an enhanced reaction to their first exposure to cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>Exposure to psychoactive cannabinoids during adolescence was found to &#8216;prime&#8217; the animal&#8217;s prefrontal cortex in the brain.<\/p>\n<p>If applied to humans, the study suggests smoking a lot of weed as a teenager makes people more sensitive to cocaine and can lead to continued use and addiction.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis abuse during adolescence can enhance a person&#8217;s initial positive experience with a different drug, such as cocaine, leading to sustained use.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabinoid exposure in rat adolescence reprograms the initial behavioral, molecular, and epigenetic response to cocaine<\/p>\n<p>For complete story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-8237973\/Cannabis-gateway-drug-leads-users-harder-substances.html\">Daily Mail Cannabis Gateway Drug<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>The Science &#8211; Significance<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The endocannabinoid system has a modulatory role in brain reward and cognitive processes. It has been hypothesized that repeated interference with endocannabinoid signaling (e.g., through abuse of cannabis or synthetic cannabinoids) can remodel the adolescent brain and make it respond differently to more addictive substances, such as cocaine. In the present study, we demonstrate that a history of synthetic cannabinoid exposure in adolescent animals results in distinct molecular and epigenetic changes following initial exposure to cocaine. These changes were pronounced in the prefrontal cortex and associated with an enhanced response to cocaine\u2019s stimulatory effects. The prefrontal cortex is a brain region that still undergoes maturation in adolescence and its dysfunction contributes to the development of addictions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For complete research <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2020\/04\/16\/1920866117\">https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2020\/04\/16\/1920866117<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">For a more robust overview of the gateway effect and other harmful impacts of this increasingly toxic substance go to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cannabisskunksense.co.uk\/uploads\/site-files\/Cannabis_combined_document_June_2019.pdf\">Cannabis: A General Survey of its Harmful Effects (SkunkSense UK)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cannabis really is a gateway drug that leads users on to harder illegal substances like cocaine by making users more sensitive to its effects Well, so the latest headlines peal out! This debate, often \u2018gate kept\u2019 by the pro-cannabis sector, has been dismissed, ignored, or denigrated by the same demographic, in attempt to further sanitize [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-phase-platform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}