The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)

Hormone may aid cannabis treatment

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A naturally occurring hormone can be used to extinguish the “high” produced by cannabis, research has shown.

The discovery could lead to newapproac­hes to treating cannabis intoxicati­on and dependence. It may also assist in the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes while blocking its psychoacti­ve effects.

Researcher­s found that the steroid hormone pregnenolo­ne reduces the brain’s sensitivit­y to THC, the chief high-inducing compound in cannabis.

Scientists led by Dr Monique Vallee, from the University of Bordeaux in France, studied mice and rats to see how recreation­al drugs such as cocaine, alcohol and cannabis affected the production of steroids in the brain involved in nerve function.

The findings, published in the journal Science, follow the decision to legalise the recreation­al use of cannabis in the US state of Colorado.

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