Study tackles marijuana addiction
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3/6/2008 - 3/7/08
Marijuana is a mind-altering substance in more ways than one.While hippies might argue they can use it to expand their minds, and some patients in New Mexico have medical licenses to use it to fight pain, there's another mind-altering category it falls into that's really not so good.
When it's used in adolescents, it can permanently change the brain's chemistry and how the brain functions, said Francesca Filbey, a research scientist at the Mind Research Network at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
"What other studies have shown in adolescents is that you see abnormal activation when you try to inhibit responses — in other words, it makes them more impulsive," Filbey said, adding that it's also been connected to poor memory in some people.
But there are still a lot of mysteries about what else it does to the brain, and there are indications that some people are genetically pre-disposed to becoming addicted to marijuana, Filbey said.
Filbey and another Mind research scientist, Kent Hutchison, have started a $930,000, five-year study to understand more about the complex workings of marijuana in adolescents.
They want to study the brains of 96 adults, about half of whom used marijuana in their adolescent years and half who didn't.
"What we want to look at is the long-term effects," Filbey said. "We want to look at adults and see how their brains have changed."
Once they understand how the drug changes the brain, it will be easier to come up with drugs that can help those who've become addicted to marijuana, Hutchison said.
"The idea here is that there is some genetic vulnerability to marijuana when the brain is developing," Hutchison said. "By knowing what happens, and seeing if connections in the brain are permanently changed, we can develop drugs to help overcome some of those changes."
One of the main features of addiction is that a person will feel cravings for marijuana, Hutchison said.
And that's one thing that seems to get hard-wired into the brain for life.
"That doesn't mean that you can't go back and change your behavior after you're addicted, but it does make it harder to fight," Hutchison said.
The researchers are looking for volunteers to participate in the study. All personal information will be kept confidential, Filbey said.
"We don't label anything with private information," Filbey reassured.
Participants must be over age 18. The researchers are looking both for those who smoked marijuana between ages 13-18 and those who didn't smoke marijuana between those ages for a control group.
For more information call 505-272-6059
