Ray a Day: 27

Today’s questioner from Ray Comfort’s new book asks why God created marijuana. Ray responds by saying that hemp is useful, and “Marijuana is often called ‘weed’ and weeds came about as a direct result of the curse of God, following Adam’s sin.” He says that if the questioner is really asking why we shouldn’t smoke marijuana if God created it, he has an answer. His answers is that his god also created sand.

He goes on to say that man has chosen to “kill his brain cells” by burning marijuana, and that breathing in the burning fumes of anything is harmful, and, “Another word for marijuana is ‘dope’. I wonder why?”

Actually, I have a better question. Why would God create marijuana, and then specifically create cannabinoid receptors in the brain? Why would God create us to grow THC (the psychoactive compound in pot) in our brains?

There is a specific receptor for THC in the human brain (and in what appears to be all mammalian vertebrates and even some non-mammalian vertebrates). They are

one of the most abundant G-protein coupled receptors in the brain. It has its highest densities in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, cerebellum, basal ganglia, brain stem, spinal cord and amygdala. This distribution explains marijuana’s diverse effects. Its psychoactive power comes from its action in the cerebral cortex. Memory impairment is rooted in the hippocampus, a structure essential for memory formation. The drug causes motor dysfunction by acting on movement control centers of the brain. In the brain stem and spinal cord, it brings about the reduction of pain; the brain stem also controls the vomiting reflex. The hypothalamus is involved in appetite, the amygdala in emotional responses. Marijuana clearly does so much because it acts everywhere.

 So, it’s really not just a matter of god creating marijuana and humans “misusing” it. It’s a lot more complicated then that.

I don’t think I have to mention that smoking is not the only way to gain mind-altering effects from marijuana. It’s active ingredients can be imparted into a carrier oil which is ingested, it can be baked into brownies, or folded into milk chocolate bars, thus eliminating all of the negative effects on your lungs from smoking it.

There is absolutely zero evidence that marijuana “kills brain cells“. Of all groups of people, even the government agrees.
 
Finally, here’s why a slang word for marijuana is “dope”.  “Dope” has been used as slang for Marijuana, heroin, meth, and cocaine.

Cocaine is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor (and a serotonin and nerepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) which is addictive because it affects the mesolimbic reward pathway - which is the pathway in the brain that is involved in behavioral responses to stimuli that activates feelings or reward and reinforcement. Meth also affects dopamine, as does heroin. It was originally thought that marijuana also had an effect on dopamine, hence the slang “dope”. Research, however, has shown that it does not have an effect on dopamine.

The sand analogy doesn’t work – sand is not pleasurable to eat, does not have any health benefits when you eat it, and we don’t have specific sand-receptors in our brain. We don’t grow sand in our heads.

As far as the “theory” that weeds came about as a direct result of Adam’s sin…

1. Whether a plant is considered a “weed” or not is entirely based on human subjectivity -a weed is a plant in an undesired place. Dandelions are weeds on your perfectly trimmed Kentucky Bluegrass lawn, but are cultivated elsewhere.

2. All “weeds”, even if they are in a place a human doesn’t want them – still have their place in the ecosystem.

3. Is Comfort really saying that before the fall, no plants grew in “unwanted” places? I normally try not to be insulting, but if I roll my eyes back any further than they are currently rolled, I’m going to pass out. Comfort is always going on and on about how “unscientific” evolution is. Up until this point I have forgotten to mention how “unscientific” most of Comfort’s third-grade theories are. How scientific is it exactly, that all plants grew in only the places Adam wanted them to grow, and once he sinned, they no longer bowed to his every wish and grew only where he wanted them?