Where Does Marijuana Come
From?
Image Caption: A - flowering male B - seed-bearing female plant 1 - male flower cluster, enlarged detail 2 - pollen sac (anthers) 3 - trichome covered leaf, enlarged detail 4 - trichome 5 - female flower with cover petal (calyx) 6 - female flower, calyx removed 7 - female fruit cluster, calyx removed, longitudinal section 8 - fruit (seed) with (calyx) 9 - seed, front view 10 - seed, side view 11 - seed, cross-section 12 - seed, longitudinal section 13 - seed without hull 14 - stigmas
Image link: http://ninnescahlife.wichita.edu/node/477
Unlike most drugs involved
in pharmacotherapy, marijuana grows from the ground. The female plants, which are the flowering
plants that produce pear-shaped bracts at the nodes (the area where the leaf
meets the main stem) and small white hair-like projections that produce
trichomes, make up the usable versions of marijuana. Unlike the females, the males are generally
useless for any purpose other than reproduction. Medicinal marijuana can be classified as one
of these two types, cannabis sativa
and cannabis indica. Traditionally, sativas are used for medicinal
applications and hemp purposes. On the
other hand, indicas are used for making
hashish, which is an extract of the cannabis plant, containing concentrations
of the psychoactive resins. Among these
two general types of marijuana, the classifications and the symptoms that
accompany them, there are hundreds of strains each dealing with a different
composition of chemicals.
What is Marijuana
Made of?
Image link: http://www.ncsm.nl/english/what-is-medicinal-cannabis/active-ingredients
Cannabinoids
are the unique chemical structures that can only be found in the cannabis
plant. They are generally accepted as the main medicinal ingredients of
cannabis. The most commonly known cannabinoid of marijuana is
tetrahydrocannabinol, THC. The most important cannabinoid is
cannabidiol, CBD (noted in the last section of this post). There are more than 70 different cannabinoids
that have been identified, which scientists have been studying and ascertaining
the chemical properties of.
How Does Marijuana
Affect Your Brain?
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeF6rFN9org
This video
describes the affects of marijuana on the brain and what exactly occurs when
someone consumes cannabis. This is a
great visual example to help you further understand what exactly is going on
when THC and other cannabinoids enter the human body.
What Could
This Mean for Science & Psychology?
Cannabidiol
is the chemical structure of marijuana that scientists have been researching
the most. Researchers have discovered
that CBD can play two crucial roles in medicine, as an anti-cancer and an
anti-psychotic. There are a few other examples in which prevalent studies have
focused on other cannabinoids that have similar functions of CBD; including tetrahydrocannabivarin
(THCV) and cannabigerol (CBG). The knowledge of possibilities, that medical
marijuana encompasses, is constantly expanding and such therapeutic techniques
have been implicated to treat mental illness.
Sources:
