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After alcohol and nicotine, marijuana is the most commonly used "recreational" drug in Western countries, though official positions among different countries vary widely. A debate about the medical applications of marijuana and other cannabis-based preparations has been brewing for years, and pressure to legalise such use continues to increase. In The Science of Marijuana Iversen explains the remarkable advances that have been made in scientific research on cannabis with the discovery of specific receptors and the existence of naturally occurring cannabis-like substances in the brain. Iversen provides an objective and up-to-date assessment of the scientific basis for the medical use of cannabis and what risks this may entail. The recreational use of the drug and how it affects users is described along with some predictions about how attitudes to cannabis may change in the future.
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The Science
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Marijuana
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The Science of Marijuana Second Edition
Leslie L. Iversen
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2008
OXTORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Capetown Dares Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2008 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data I versen, Leslie L. The science of marijuana / Leslie L. Iversen —2nd ed. p.; cm. ISBN 978-0-19-532824-0 1. Marijuana —Physiological effect. 2. Marijuana —Toxicology. [DNLM: 1. Tetrahydrocannabinol — pharmacology. 2. Cannabis —adverse effects. 3. Central Nervous System —drug effects. 4. Endocannabinoids —physiology. 5. Marijuana Smoking —epidemiology. 6. Tetrahydrocannabinol —therapeutic use. QV 77.7 I94s 2008] I/Title. QP801.C27I942008 615'.7827-dc22 2007021605
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Foreword By Solomon H. Snyder
The history of marijuana is one of déjà vu. One of the oldest drugs in clinical medicine, marijuana extracts were widely used in India and countries of the Far East for thousands of years as sleeping aids, apoptotic stimulants, anti-convulsants, anti-anxiety, and antidepressant medications. In the nineteenth century, the British imported these therapeutic strategies from their Indian colonies, and soon thereafter cannabis was employed extensively in the United States for medical purposes. Recreational use of marijuana expanded in the early twentieth century, leading to draconian suppression in the late 1930s, which essentially eliminated all medical research in the field for almost 30 years. This action was tragic for science, as chemists were extremely close to isolating the active chemical ingredient of marijuana prior to World War II. The identification of delta-9tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) had to wait for the elegant efforts of Raphael Mechoulam in the 1960s. This pattern of a few steps forward followed by a few steps backward in how societies deal with marijuana has been repeated even in the sevenyear int