Dennis RomeroQ: What do you call marijuana without the high?
A: A waste of time.
But seriously, results of a new study published at NewScientist suggest that the pain relieving qualities of weed can be isolated from the psychedelic qualities, rendering a more medically focused remedy.
You down for that, L.A. dispensaries?
Let's watch as all the retailers in this here pot shop capital of the nation get on-board with high-free cannabis. Right?
Because in this town it's all about distributing medicine to the seriously ill on a nonprofit and collective basis. True?
High-free weed?; Credit: DEA
(We kid, obviously).
Here's what the research suggests, according to NewScientist:
This could open the way to cannabis-like drugs that provide pain relief without causing unwanted highs.
Cannabis is taken as a painkiller – to dull pain in cancer for example – but it can produce unpleasant side effects such as hallucinations and impaired mobility.
Now, a team led by Li Zhang of the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland, has shown that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the active component in cannabis that makes people high but that is also thought to dull pain – binds to different molecular targets on cells to produce these two effects.
Stop giggling over “unwanted highs.” This is serious business.
But think of the devastation a buzz-free weed would do to the burgeoning medical marijuana game in the United States. Would people sign up to get their “green” cards just to get another pain reliever?