USE AND EFFECTS OF CANNABIS, SEMINAR

Which effects do drugs have on our brain?

All the drugs create an illness called ADDICTION.

There are different kinds of drugs. the legal and the illegal ones, but this distinction is done by humans, the body recognises both as drugs, One of the most used by teenagers is cannabis.

The legal ones are: tobacco and alcohol.

The illegal ones are: cannabis, heroine, psico-stimulants and syntesi drugs.

Opium was highly consumed in the 80’s and its use is again increasing now.

Cocaine was widely used in Spain for some years, but statistics show its consumption is decreasing.

Drugs of syntesi are highly dangerous as one doesn’t really know what they are.

Alcohol is widely drunk among teenagers but the consumption is going down, as young people are well informed about its consequences.

All of them have a common characteristic: they activate the reward circuit, which is the circuit that makes people feel pleasure. These are usually related to actions such as eating or sex.

Explanation of an experiment: auto esimulation paradigma:

An electrode is put on a macacuressus’ brain which stimulates the reward circuit. If this presses the  lever, he gets an electric shock that activates its reward circuit. It was demonstrated that it usually pressed the lever so as to get this pleasure.

Even after some days without food, when he was given food he prefered to press the lever than eating. He also prefered to press the lever than having sex with a female. Finally the monkey died of dehidratation.

This is the level on which drugs act. they are located on the limbic system which control emotions and instinct, eating and sex, it may produce pleasure and avoid pain.

When we eat or practice sex, dopamine is secreted and that’s why we get pleasure; the same happens with drugs, all of them secrete dopamine.

But this circuit is designed for natural substances, not for chemical artificial products, so, not for drugs, so when we take a drug, we get an amount of pleasure, but the next time, so as to get the same amount of pleasure, we’ll need to take more drug, and this will go on and on, so tolerance and dependence appear.

so, drugs change the neurons shape and this means this is an illness that make the affected person to lose the control of his/her behaviour,

Marihuana copies the effects of endogenous canabinoids (anandamida, 2-araquidonil-glicerol), so, it acts at the same place as the endogenous work.