STUDY SUGGESTS MARIJUANA GOOD FOR YOU

Researchers Caution Benefits To Rats May Not Apply To Humans

SASKATOON - A University of Saskatchewan team has shown a
marijuana-like drug reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression in rats.

Using injections of a synthesized substance called HU210, which
mimics one of the active ingredients in cannabis, associate professor
of psychiatry Xia Zhang and his colleagues showed new growth of brain
cells increased in rats. Other recent studies have linked that
growth, known as neurogenesis, to a reduction in anxiety and depression.

The results were published yesterday on the website of the Journal of
Clinical Investigation.

"The implication of this paper is that smoking marijuana is a good
thing," Mr. Zhang said with a hearty laugh in his Saskatoon office.

Well, good for rats anyway.

"We hypothesize cannabis or marijuana can produce a similar effect,"
Mr. Zhang added.

The group, including researchers at Xijing Hospital in China and at
the University of Maryland in Baltimore, have yet to test the effect
of real marijuana on rats' neurogenesis, Mr. Zhang said. He also
cautions against the assumption that the drug will have the same
effect on humans.

"There is a big gap between rats and humans," Mr. Zhang said.
"Realistically, we cannot judge these results from rats and apply
them to a human situation. There's a huge difference. Our results can
give (only) some indication or implication."

Although previous studies have shown alcohol, nicotine, opiates and
cocaine reduce the growth of new brain cells, Mr. Zhang's paper is
the first to show marijuana could have the opposite effect.

Because rats can't say how depressed they are, researchers used tests
such as putting the rats in a swimming pool with no escape to
determine how quickly they would give up swimming and resign
themselves to a likely fate of drowning. The rats were plucked out of
the pool before they actually drowned.

What's more exciting to researchers than the potential connection
between smoking marijuana and easing lethargy and frayed nerves, is
the possibility that a component of marijuana could be the next
blockbuster antidepressant.

"Prozac is great, but it does have its problems, and its mechanism of
action is similar to antidepressants we were using 40, 50 years ago,"
said Lisa Kalynchuk, an associate professor of psychology at the
University of Saskatchewan.

"What we really need in the field is to develop new antidepressant
drugs that are acting in new ways. Certainly, if we could get a drug
that would act on these (cannabis) receptors and could actually
alleviate depressive symptoms, that would be fantastic. It would be
the next Prozac -- the next company to make billions of dollars."

There are problems with antidepressants currently on the market, she
said, including side-effects such as dizzy spells, insomnia and
impaired sex drive. Some drugs take a month to start working and
others don't work on some people at all, she said.

But researchers would have to develop a better understanding of the
mechanism by which HU210, or cannabis, work in the brain before they
package them into pills, Mr. Zhang said.

Ms. Kalynchuk also questions whether the cannabis-like drug would
have an effect on anxiety, since only one major study has shown a
connection between increased neurogenesis and the reduction of anxiety.

HU210 is a purified substance, concentrated 100 times stronger than
marijuana's active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol