BODY HAS ITS OWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- Amid this year's clamorous battles to legalize medical
marijuana stands this little-known fact: Our brains and bodies are flooded
with a natural form of the drug.

Called cannabinoids, this family of compounds blocks pain, erases memories
and triggers hunger. Studies show they may also regulate the immune system,
enhance reproduction and protect the brain from stroke and trauma damage.

Discovered in humans just a few years ago and, until recently, virtually
unstudied, the compounds have become one of the looming mysteries of the
nervous system.

Already, scientists are testing cannabinoids with hopes of harnessing the
medical power of marijuana to treat pain without its high, smoke or
political baggage.

A key challenge is separating the curing power of the compounds from their
mind-altering side effects.

Because cannabinoids are so numerous in the brain, they also could help
explain the workings of some of our body's most complex, and least
understood, systems.

"It's obviously important because there's so much of it. And we never knew
it existed before," said J. Michael Walker, a Brown University psychologist
who has conducted some of the first studies of how cannabinoids block pain.

There has always been evidence, from the intoxicating effects cannabis
evokes in smokers, that it contains powerful compounds.

The sticky, flowering buds of the plant have been harvested as medicine for
centuries.

Now, scientists are beginning to understand just what natural cannabinoids
might be doing in the human body.

For example:

Cannabinoids have been found to both suppress and enhance the body's
defenses against diseases and tumors, a duality that has researchers
puzzled. "It's a science clearly in flux," said Thomas Klein, an
immunologist at the University of South Florida.

While pot warnings -- "This is your brain on drugs" -- have long
spotlighted the drug's damaging effects on the brain, research last summer
from the National Institute of Mental Health shows cannabinoids protect
brain cells from stroke or trauma damage.

Last year, scientists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego showed
that cannabinoids block the formation of new memories in slices of animal
brain tissues. This power to forget might keep the brain from filling up or
getting overwhelmed with unimportant memories.

Researchers' largest hopes are focused on using a synthetic form of
cannabinoids to block pain, including chronic nerve pain that can't be
adequately blocked with existing drugs.

Animal studies show cannabinoids can block other kinds of pain almost
before they begin -- stopping the pain signals before they reach the spinal
cord or brain, working as well as morphine.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski