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Marijuana without the high: A painkiller breakthrough

Scientists believe they can isolate the pain-easing benefits of medical marijuana — so sufferers can consume it without becoming foggy and paranoid

posted on April 5, 2011, at 2:26 PM

In a move stoners may consider irreverent, scientists may have figured out how to separate the pain-relieving and mind-altering effects of cannabis. Photo: CC BY: r0bz SEE ALL 40 PHOTOS

What is marijuana without the high? Still a very effective painkiller. And now, scientists believe they can harness the drug's anaesthetic action while doing away with its psychedelic effects. In a new paper published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, Professor Li Zhang and a team of scientists at the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism report that THC can potentially be used as a side-effect-free painkiller. Is a new class of "non-psychotropic cannabinoids" on the way? Here's a brief guide:

What is this breakthrough exactly?
Zhang and his team discovered that tetrahydrocannabinol (more commonly known as THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, produces different effects by bonding to different receptors in the brain. Scientists have known for years that THC bonds with a certain receptor to produce the classic disorienting marijuana high. But now researchers have identified precisely where THC targets the nervous system to lessen anxiety and dull pain. Hence, the potential to satisfy medical marijuana's desire for pure pain relief.

How'd they figure this out?
By experimenting on mice, naturally. Scientists blocked the pain-reducing receptors in the stoned rodents' brains, then subjected them to a "tail-flick test" — hitting mices' tails with "focused heat" — and counted how long it took for them to respond. The fact that the mice still felt pain, even when they were dosed with THC, "confirms that the drug's pain-relief and psychotropic effects can be decoupled," says Andy Coghlan at The New Scientist.

So... THC pain pills?
Quite possibly. "Soon," says Annalee Newitz at IO9, "people whose stomachs are too tender for aspirin or ibuprofin may be swallowing THC pills to get rid of headaches."

Could another result be THC pills that do nothing but get you high?
It's the question recreational users will be pondering: "Is there a way to create a synthetic form of THC that does nothing but get you high, without all those pesky 'medicinal' side-effects?" asks Newitz at IO9. Stay tuned.

Sources: Nature Chemical Biology, New Scientist, I09, LA Weekly, Ars Technica

[rowsdower 1]

I know this may anger some people but this is an amazing breakthrough. If this is true, and they can start making non psychoactive pain management pills from it with no risk of overdose, then it would be welcomed kick in the side to the widespread prescription pill abuse in this country. ( oxycontin, vicodin , etc) seeing elderly relatives turn into what are almost junkies moodswings and all is never a pretty sight

[Guest superbluehaze]

It is not a good thing for sure tio see people become addicted to opiates because they need pain relief;

but I do feel that part of why cannabis relieves pain is because it does take consciousness to another place;i.e. its psychotropic qualities are part of why it reduces pain.Pain and its affect upon consciousness is very complex, and why a particular substance helps to relieve that pain is something I do not think is fully understood.Therefore, I feel that this attempt to isolate the pain relieving aspects of cannabis from its psychotropic qualities is an exercise in futility.After all, when heroin was first discovered it was herald as a cure for morphine addiction.Personally I think the two can not be isolated from each other.The reason cannabis relieves pain I think has a lot to do with its psychotropic qualities, and its ability to transform consciousness.take care,john.

[Guest superbluehaze]

hi fuzzy,

I do not like to see a plant genetically altered, but here it is not the DNA of cannabis that will be altered, but the arrangement of the THC molecule.

personally I think it will go nowhere, for I cannot see how they can separate the pain relieving qualities of the THC molecule, from its psychoactive qualities.

Physiologically pain is the result of electrical impulses through the nerves;

pain has its physiological aspects that is true, but pain is also perceived as such by our consciousness.

Pain is a state of consciousness;

THC affects consciousness in numerous ways and I believe this helps to give THC its painkilling qualities.

THC may have physiological effects upon the body that help to reduce pain, but it also has an affect upon consciousness, and this I think helps the person to rise above the pain.

If they are successful in manipulating the molecule so that THC 's physiological effects upon the body are separated from its psychotropic affect upon consciousness, then I think that this new molecule will not have the same pain killing qualities as the THC molecules from the plant.

all the best,

john