Tolerance vs Addiction

[Wrangler556]

Found this article whilst surfing the net,

 

Its fairly old, but still a interesting read none the less. In particular for people who don't know much about how marijuana affects the body/brain and addiction vs tolerance stuff.

 

http://www.ukcia.org/research/gettman3.htm

 

THE TLDR version for people that can't be bothered clicking the link or reading the entire thing:

 

Cannabis works differently than most other drugs. Most hard drugs, and common drugs etc, ie: Cocaine, Heroin, amphetamines, Alcohol, Tobbaco etc work by adjusting the dopamine levels in your body, which gives you that high/pleasurable feeling, although most often, with extended use, your body naturally resets/or changes the dopamine outputs to to try and normalise things, hence you have to use more/use more often to get the same effect as your body is trying to fight it. Your body builds up a tolerance to whatever it is, and thus you develop an addiction. If you don't know what dopamine is = its basically a chemical that your brain produces, its always present, but certain substances alter the output, even things like chocolate, or intensive exercise can alter dopamine output.

 

With Cannabis however, it interacts with the body in a completely different way. It doesnt effect dopamine levels at all. Its been discovered that the brain actually has specific receptors to monitor and interact with cannabinoids. Its said that your brain/receptors have an absolute set limit of amount of cannabinoids they can process and use. Once that level is reached, the receptors simply start shutting down, or simply starts not interacting with the drug anymore. So the more you smoke, you are actually doing nothing other than wasting good smoke.. The motto : less is more.

 

In regards to Tolerance and addiction:

 

You do build a tolerance to Cannabis so to speak, but its more of an equilibrium in your brain, ie: your brain has had enough, and starts shutting down receptors so it can go no further. You moreso develop a tolerance to the depressant effects, ie: poor co-ordination, altered speech etc. People who like to get "high" tend to smoke more often, and maintain modest tolerance to the depressant effects. But this is not an indefinite continuum. Just as joggers encounter limits, regular users of marijuana eventually confront the wall of receptor down-regulation. Smoking more pot doesn't increase the effects of the drug; it diminishes them.

 

You'll see arguments from anti drug people that say Marijuana is becoming more potent these days, and hence more dangerous, but in actual fact, the more potent it is, the less you can use of it before you hit that Set level....

 

As for addiction, it more falls into a lifestyle / mental addiction to smoke cannabis, they like the taste and effect, but don't realise the more they smoke, the less benefit they get from it. This is also an interesting point, from my understanding, you can't actually overdose on marijuana unlike other drugs, as your body has a self sufficient system to deal with it.

 

Anyway, thats my short take on it, if you do find it interesting, I suggest you give the full article a read, it explains it alot better than I do

 

Wrangler

Edited October 15, 2008 by Wrangler556