Can Apes Learn To Smoke Weed

Marijuana Tied To Brain Change In Monkey Tests

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/13/archives/marijuana-tied-to-encephalon-change-in-monkey-tests.html

Marijuana Tied To Brain Change In Monkey Tests

Jan. 13, 1978

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Jan 13, 1978

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A prominent brain researcher said yesterday that his experiments on two rhesus monkeys trained to smoke 'the equivalent of one marijuana cigarette a day, 5 days a calendar week for 6 months, had institute what appeared to exist microscopic simply permanent changes in brain anatomy. The scientist, Dr. Robert Heath of Tulane University, has reported similar findings earlier but with far higher doses.

Dr. Heath, speaking at a news briefing at the New York University Medical School, said it was not known whether similar changes were produced in the brains of human beings who smoke marijuana. Neither, he said, was it clear what outcome the brain changes had on the behavior of the monkeys.

The news briefing was sponsored past the New York City affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism and a newly formed antimarijuana group chosen the American Council on Marijuana, and Other Psychoactive Substances.

Dr. Heath said the brain changes he establish in the monkeys included an enlargement in the "synaptic cleft," the gap across which" ane nerve sends its point to the next and certain other changes within the encephalon cells. He said the changes could be seen only with an electron microscope.

Although most scientists who have researched the question either consider marijuana to be without proved permanent effects on humans or believe that show one way or the other is incon. elusive, the new organization asserts that at that place is "hard evidence" that marijuana poses "serious wellness hazards."

Dr. Heath said that, despite his findings, he supported "decriminalization" of marijuana, a movement that would eliminate criminal penalties for possession of minor amounts of the drug.

Dr. Nicholas A. Footstep, president of the local affiliate of the alcoholism quango who is a professor at N.Y.U., said at the news conference that he considered marijuana to be more than dangerous than alcohol because the active substance in marijuana persisted in the body for more than a week.

All of the six physicians speaking atl the news conference conceded, however. that there was not one exam of effects past which it has been shown that marijuana is a greater chance than booze.