POT COULD BE 'BLOCKBUSTER' ANTIDEPRESSANT

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 Dr. Xia Zhang and his colleagues showed new growth of
brain cells increased in rats. Other recent studies have linked that
growth, or so-called neurogenesis, to reduced anxiety and depression.

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

"The implication is that smoking marijuana is a good thing," Zhang
said with a laugh.

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

"There is a big gap between rats and humans," Zhang said.

What's exciting to researchers is the possibility a component of
marijuana could be the next blockbuster antidepressant.

"Prozac is great, but it does have its problems," said Dr. Lisa
Kalynchuk, a Canada Research Chair in behavioural neuroscience. "What
we really need is to develop new antidepressant drugs."