Rats taking cannabis get taste for heroin
Study suggests cannabis-users may be vulnerable to harder drugs.
Neuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs.
Read the story here.
Comments
Apart from the fact that people are not rats, how on earth can anyone infer from this study that "cannabis leads to heroin addiction" as the Daily Mail wrote today.
Let's get this straight: rats exposed to a single compound present in cannabis self-administer 50% more heroin than rats which aren't. And this has what to do with addiction exactly? Were any of the rats addicts? How do you know? Were the cannabinated rats and the control groups attaining equivalent levels of heroin intoxication? How do we know? So how come the headlines don't read "cannabis protects against heroin addiction!" That's no less a legitimate conclusion than what the authors are suggesting.
This is dogmatic prejudice, not science.
Note to ivory-tower "scientists": How about a study whereby you get together 1000 heroin addicts and ASK them which drugs they first consumed? And how about then roundly condemning alcohol, tobacco, sugar, caffeine, ice-cream etc. as "gateway" drugs?
Posted by: Darryn, London | July 6, 2006 12:27 AM
Frankly, I have a very difficult time taking this research seriously.
Rats have to be forced to use either THC or heroin... they won't use THC at all on their own and they won't use heroin unless they're already addicted. No comparison of these data has been attempted with those obtainable
from murine experience with other pleasure-producing substances or activities. Finally, the conclusion that early cannabis use "leads to heroin addiction" from these data is absurd, since both THC-exposed rats and THC-naive control rats became addicted to heroin once forced to do so.
I have an absurd hypothesis of my own that I think Hurd should test for comparison with her recent results:
Subject rats to endo-opioid release by forced sexual stimulation exactly as early and frequently as you did with THC administration... then see if those rats are more likely than controls are to self-administer opioids.
My best guess? Frequent, early, sexually-induced endo-opioid exposure would be vastly more likely than THC to produce increased heroin self-administration in addicted rats.
Ergo: early masturbation and teen sex lead to heroin addiction.
... and of course, the rats would probably enjoy it more.
--
Michael Muirhead
Queen Charlotte, BC
Canada
Posted by: Michael Muirhead | July 7, 2006 08:21 PM
This study is just an attempt to experimentally test a hypothesis that has been proposed from epidemiological perspectives. Obviuosly the leap between rats and humans is big, but not bigger in this case than any other study in the field of psychobiology or behavioral neuroscience, and provides some interesting neurobiological data to back their claims. You know, it´s always good to have pieces of information coming from each side of the debate...
Posted by: Alejandro Higuera | July 17, 2006 08:10 PM
if rats are used for medical experimentation why should this story not be feasible?
Posted by: sue strudwick | July 18, 2006 03:51 PM
Funny Ive been smoking the herb for over 20 years, cant say as Ive ever been drawn/interested/compelled to take up the brown guess I must be the exception to this rule
Posted by: stinky | October 12, 2006 10:20 AM
the heroin is very highly addictive so never ever tried heroin or else your brain (the control centre of your body) will be destroyed!!!
Posted by: joshua | March 8, 2007 10:28 AM
Thank god I'm not a rat.
Posted by: Dan Nachbaur | April 7, 2007 09:25 PM
if rats are used for medical experimentation why should this story not be feasible?
Posted by: adsl | May 23, 2008 05:24 PM
Heroin is used as a recreational drug for the profound relaxation and intense euphoria it produces, although the latter effect diminishes with increased tolerance. Its popularity with recreational drug users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. However, this perception is not supported by the results of clinical research studies. In controlled studies comparing the physiological and subjective effects of injected heroin and morphine in individuals formerly addicted to opiates, subjects showed no preference for either drug. Equipotent, injected doses had comparable action courses, with no difference in their ability to induce euphoria, ambition, nervousness, relaxation, drowsiness, or sleepiness
Posted by: Pharmacy | August 12, 2008 04:09 AM