MONKEYS DOPE UP IN STUDY ON MARIJUANA INGREDIENT

Monkeys repeatedly dosed themselves with the main active ingredient of
marijuana in a new federal study. The researchers say that result emphasizes
the idea that people can get hooked on pot and provides a new way to test
therapies.

Lab animals will actively dose themselves with most drugs abused by people,
but marijuana has been an exception, said researcher Steven Goldberg of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, called NIDA.

Some people might interpret that as suggesting it has little potential for
addiction, he said. But the new work found that squirrel monkeys repeatedly
pushed a lever to get injections of the marijuana ingredient THC, Goldberg
and colleagues report in the November issue of the journal Nature
Neuroscience.