If the system gets disrupted, your brain doesn't work as well as it could. The brain uses the endocannabinoid system to fine-tune how neurons talk to each other. (Supplied/Radical Gardens) System interruptedĭavies said most people realize cannabis plants make cannabinoids but don't realize their own brain produces them, too. In other words, in trying to figure out why pot makes people high, researchers "basically stumbled onto this entirely new pathway that had yet to be discovered."Ĭannabis disrupts certain brain functions, which scientists say leads to the 'symptoms' of being high, such as the munchies, euphoria and memory loss. Edmonton Girl Guide sells out of cookies in cannabis store lineupĪnd that led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, a network that affects key functions of the human body, including how a person feels, moves and reacts.That was a huge clue that these receptors played an important role in brain function. Researchers starting looking around and discovered receptors everywhere in the animal kingdom - inside the brains of fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and more, Davies said. "At that point, the question was still, 'Why do our brains have receptors for a plant chemical?' It made no sense," he said. And that explains why you get some sedation and why there's a bit of memory loss and some of the other things that are common to everyone's experience of using these plants."ĭavies said that discovery led to more questions - and more research. "When THC physically binds to this target, this receptor, it really inhibits the ability of neurons to talk to each other. Cannabis is legal in Canada - here's what you need to know."We call it the cannabinoid receptor because it receives molecules of cannabinoids that are circulating in our blood and get to our brain," Davies said. The THC physically binds to the CB1 receptors in a person's brain. When you smoke cannabis, an acid in the plant is transformed into a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (or, as most people call it, THC). Inside the brain are something called cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptors.
"A bunch of scientists thought it was really strange how this plant can affect the way our brains work, and the way we experience the world and make us feel hungry and things like this," Davies told CBC's Radio Active on Friday.Īnswering that question led researchers to some remarkable new findings about the brain and the body.
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Martin Davies, an associate professor of pharmacology, said it's a question scientists first started asking in the mid-80s. The legalization of cannabis this week prompted an outpouring of questions from Canadians wondering everything from how and where to buy it, whether they can grow it and what to do when crossing an international border.īut at a public Q&A in Edmonton this week, a University of Alberta professor talked about a very different question: "What is weed doing to my brain?"