Here’s a story about another Dr. Scientifical Meanie Pajamas taking all the fun out of life:
A new type of drug could alleviate pain in a similar way to cannabis without affecting the brain, according to a new study published in the journal Pain on Monday 15 September.
The research demonstrates for the first time that cannabinoid receptors called CB2, which can be activated by cannabis use, are present in human sensory nerves in the peripheral nervous system, but are not present in a normal human brain.
Drugs which activate the CB2 receptors are able to block pain by stopping pain signals being transmitted in human sensory nerves, according to the study, led by researchers from Imperial College London.
Previous studies have mainly focused on the other receptor activated by cannabis use, known as CB1, which was believed to be the primary receptor involved in pain relief. However, as CB1 receptors are found in the brain, taking drugs which activate these receptors can lead to side-effects, such as drowsiness, dependence and psychosis, and also recreational abuse.
[…]
“Our new study is very promising because it suggests that we could alleviate pain by targeting the cannabinoid receptor CB2 without causing the kinds of side-effects we associate with people using cannabis itself.”
(thanks, Cindy)
So why (why why why) do doctors always want to take the fun out of these things? Why can’t we giggle and eat crap as well as be free of pain? It’s that whole Puritan streak coming out again: no delight allowed. Tuh. Oh, and I also read this story about cannabis crops:
One 2006 study called cannabis the top cash crop in the nation, worth more than corn and wheat combined. It was the leading crop in 12 states, outstripping grapes in California and tobacco in North Carolina, and one of the top three in 18 others, coming in just behind apples in Washington and cotton in Georgia…
The Puritans have a lot to answer for. Prohibition was stupid. The ‘war against drugs’ is stupid. Small dogs are stupid (okay, that last one was a bit random but, hey, it’s true). Well, fuck that. Time to go giggle and eat rubbish…
Nicola Griffith 
You know it is amazing how easy it is to grow that “cash crop” on your own.:)
rory, yes, indeed, I do know how easy it is to grow the giggling plant. And it smells like heaven.
What is up with that? Humans can easily get the same results legally through loss of sleep, pain killers, muscle relaxants, caffeine..the list goes on. Why bother with weed? It’s less addictive than the coffee I drink every morning. Honestly.But hey. I’m preachin’ to the choir.Tra la.
Let me amend that….why put all the trouble into making weed less…giggly? Just let it be and enjoy the silly plant.
Because Puritans love to deny people pleasure.
Coming from my Puritan-like family (fundamentalist Roman Catholics…shudder…), I can understand that if one is miserable, one might want to ensure that others are miserable along with them. After all, if there’s a party, we must either .be. the party or extinguish it. Ahh, memories.*sigh*Historically speaking, do we know the justification the Puritans used as they sought/seek to deny people pleasure? Was it based on The Harsh Life? I must do some research on this.
I didn’t know Catholics could be anything like puritans. Huh. I grew up very, very Catholic. It always seemed like a pomp and circumstance religion to me, full of fab clothes and mind-boggling ritual.As for The Harsh Life, can you explain what that is?Puritans love piety. They’re all about controlling the church members’ private lives and behaviour. No dancing, no singing, no laughing. Piety, purity, simplicity…misery. I spit upon their notions; they are the antithesis of human joy.
I’m not sure what’s up with the Catholics I was raised around–a whole city full of depressed, ultra-conservative, sin-counting, 3-rosary-a-day-praying people. It’s sad, really. My mother was told by my grandmother that to wiggle her butt was a sin. My mother told me that to .think. about masturbation was a sin. My siblings count their sins and the times they say the rosary, as though to tally up their brownie points with god. Catholic accountants. Sin auditors.I grew up low class; my family knows what it means to go hungry. The image in my mind when I wrote The Harsh Life was of my family. Nothing in life is easy, and you’re most likely to be kicked when you’re down then spat on. The focus of my family and the Catholics in all the churches I went to was on the afterlife–endure what you must in this world, but spend your days preparing for heaven. You suffer now, but offer it up to god. Yeah, that’s a big one…you’ll go to heaven .faster. if you offer it up.So I thought, yeah…Puritans…they had a tough time of it. Rather than focusing on how much your life sucks, focus on how good you’re going to have it later. But over time, it seems to have been twisted out of control.One good thing is that I was allowed to sing and laugh. Dancing was iffy, though.
janine, Christianity began as a religion of slaves and women. What made it so attractive to that constituency was the promise of heaven: it didn’t matter how downtrodden they felt in the now, in the eternal life they would be happy and equal and loved.My mother was Irish Catholic, and for her the same promise obtained: just hang in, basically, and when you die all will be well. But her belief was leavened with kindness–the biggest god points were for *doing* good not *being* good. And joy was most definitely allowed. You could offer up joy just as easily as sorrow. And prayer wasn’t a huge part of our lives. Prayer, the way we were brought up, was more about self-soothing and personal protection than about putting deposits in the heaven bank. Interesting, how Catholic culture is different all over the world.Thanks for being willing to talk about this.
nicola, my pleasure.Thank you for listening.Had I been raised with your version, I think I might have left Christianity a bit more gracefully, (rather than screaming like my clothes were on fire).Ultimately, I celebrate that we’re all on our own path…so let’s say we all sit down for a while, giggle and eat rubbish.
I think the puritans had some kind of idea that suffering was a good thing, a holy thing. To suffer was to be worthy of god; somehow linked Jesus’ suffering, I think.Most of the religion I was exposed to growing up was about those kinds of things; living for the afterlife and the justification for suffering while on earth. And the other thing they always say; look at the wonders of the world, how could it be here unless god made it?They don’t seem to ever wonder who created their god.Whatever works for them is fine with me as long as they don’t try to impose it on me and teach it in schools.In CA apparently it is possible to get a permit to grow medical marijuana in limited quantities. There was an article in the LA times earlier this year about how do so profitably. The only problem is the feds sometimes interfere.
janine, it’s a plan.jennifer, I honestly don’t get the ‘suffering is good’ idea. But clearly the Feds get it. Tuh.
I don’t get that suffering thing either. It’s always struck me as completely looney tunes. But I’ve known people who believe it.
I always like to see a little Brain Science. It seems to me it would be useful to distinguish between cannabis receptors and opioid receptors, and what kind of pain and pain relief they work with, for those of us who are taking various pain meds anyway. And what’s up with the carbohydrate rush? and for that matter, prayer? How to spell “relief”.
jae leslie, there are all kinds of cannabinoid and opioid receptors–and as the article shows, yes, it is very useful to distinguish between the varieties.I couldn’t tell from your comment whether you thought prayer helped with pain or not.
Well, actually I’ve had some success with yoga (very mild stretching asanas and breath practice) to get off the hard stuff. And I see some parallels there with prayer, at least in some traditions, not that I am familiar with them. But it’s so much easier to take this simple little pill! For some reason this reminds me of Franny in Salinger’s Franny and Zooey with her “pray without ceasing” that drives her somewhat around the bend. But with chronic pain you’re already halfway around there anyway.
jae leslie, anything without ceasing will drive a person round the bend :)I empathise with the pain thing, though. Joy and absorption in something else are, for me, the best remedies but, oof, sometimes pain can make both next to impossible. Then I turn to beer.
What? Does no one realize the evil hand of politics in this mix? Fan the fear, win the election, that’s the mantra. The Puritans got used and abused just like the rest of us. And don’t forget the benes the War on Drugs brings to the POLICE and the Mexican Army. Ain’t no Puritan virtue in all of this, in fact it is just the opposite.
<>rhbee1<>, you’re right. I guess the reason it didn’t even cross my mind is that such level of conspiracy is too sophisticated for me. When they want to distract us in Latin America, they give us soccer. Or a new folktale with nasty legendary cryptids. Like the < HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra" REL="nofollow">chupacabras<>.
rhbee1, karina, don’t you think that chupacabra looks like McCain?