Black In Britain: Smoking weeds leads toharder drug use

CANNABIS NOT MILD OR MELLOW AS IT SEEMS

According to scientist, young people who experiment and smoke cannabis are making themselves more vulnerable to harder drugs like crack, cocaine and heroin. The fear is, they could even become addicts.
New research revealed that weed could act as a gateway to a multitude of harder drugs. "Cannabis has very long-term, enduring effects on the brain," Dr. Yasmin Hurd said writing in the online Neuro psychopharmacology journal.

Highs and lows

Dr Hurd's team looked at rodents exposed to regular small doses of the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, during a developmental period similar to human adolescence. As young adults, the animals were fitted with catheters that allowed them to self-administer heroin. They compared the amount and frequency of their drug use with rodents that had not been given THC previously.
The THC-exposed rodents were more sensitive to the effects of heroin, the researchers found, and consistently used larger amounts of the drug.

Soft to hard

They also found that the THC-exposed rodents showed disturbances in the brain's endogenous opioid system, which is popularly referred to as the "reward system" of the brain which in humans, is involved in experiencing pleasure.
"I was really surprised at how specific and enduring the effects of cannabis were," Hurd said. "The current findings provide direct evidence in support of the gateway hypothesis that adolescent cannabis exposure contributes to greater heroin intake in adulthood."

ENDS