Thread: Legalizing Mary-Jane Yes or No?

LOL, CBD actually acts as an antagonist at some THC receptors.

CBN (Cannabinol) is produced as THC ages and breaks down, this process is known as oxidization.

Remember that part I said about Marinol being metabolized because it's taken orally?

Oxidation is a form of metabolization.

Originally Posted by DAVIDSDIVAD

Yes, dronabinol is exactly the same as "natural" cannaboids in its effects. The pharmackinetics are very different, but the effect of the drug is exactly the same.

Maybe you are using some very specific pharmacological definition of the word "effects", but barring that, what I've read suggests that they are NOT exactly the same in their effects; again, Marinol use is apparently more likely to cause unpleasant or undesirable psychoactive effects than "natural" marijuana use. Again, unless you are using some particular specialized definition of the word "effects", that seems like a difference in effects to me. Yes, the reasons for the different effects are pharmacokinetic in origin (breakdown of THC into the more strongly psychoactive compound 11-hydroxy-THC when ingested Marinol is processed through the liver); that doesn’t have anything to do with the basic fact that ingesting Marinol has different effects than smoking marijuana.

Originally Posted by DAVIDSDIVAD

The reason it has a longer onset is because it has to go through the gut, to the liver, and then be circulated. This allows the body to change the drug to whatever structure it wants. (The same reason Heroin has such profound effects in humans, the body changes it to 4 structures, each with huge effects)

These are all, believe it or not, considered to be good things.

What I've read seems to suggest that the slow onset time is not considered to be a good thing for people who are using the drug for relief from unpleasant symptoms of some sort. They want it to start working ASAP. Marinol’s slow onset time is not desirable in such cases. Plus, again, there is the cost issue.

Just to be clear, I’m not a big medical-marijuana proponent, and as I said earlier, I don’t think that medical use should be the main impetus behind marijuana legalization. But it does seem to be the case that Marinol doesn’t offer some of the benefits of “natural” marijuana, so I think it’s misleading to suggest that Marinol is equivalent to “natural” marijuana in every way and thus obviates the medical argument for marijuana usage.