ANIMALS WILL SELF-ADMINISTER MARIJUANA, STUDY FINDS US scientists have found that laboratory animals will self-administer marijuana, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) said Monday. The self-administration behavior in animals had already been demonstrated for cocaine and heroin, and the new findings suggest "that marijuana has as much potential for abuse as other drugs of abuse," according to researcher Steven Goldberg. The research was conducted on squirrel monkeys that had already been exposed to cocaine and took it on their own by pressing a lever 10 times to receive an intravenous injection, according to a NIDA statement. At the start of the experiment, researchers substituted saline solution for cocaine, and the monkeys stopped pressing the lever. The saline solution was then replaced with a solution of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the component of marijuana which affects the brain. "The animals resumed self-administration, rapidly pressing the lever to obtain an average 30 injections of THC during each of a series of one-hour sessions," a dose comparable to that obtained by a human smoking a single marijuana cigarette, the statement said. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is part of the National Institutes of Health of the US Department of Health and Human Services. It supports more than 85 percent of the world's research on health aspects of drug abuse and addiction, according to the statement.
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