Cannabis positive effects

Taylor, D. R. and W. Hall. Respiratory health effects of cannabis position statement of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. Intern MedJ 2003 33(7) 310-313. 

The novel compounds according to the present invention are substantially devoid of the undesired cannabis-type effects and can be used for the treatment of various diseases and disorders without undesired side-effects. As stated above, the novel compounds have an absolute stereochemistry at the 3- and 4-positions (terpene nomenclature) opposite to that of the natural series, i.e., they have a (3S,4S)-configuration. The compounds have a (-t-)-rotation of an absolute value approximately equal to that of the corresponding (-)-series compound. 

Perhaps the most consistent effect of cannabis is consolidation of information from short-term memory (Dornbush et al 1971 Murray 1986). In contrast, cannabis does not appear to impair access to information already in long-term memory (Parley et al. 1977 Parker et al. 1980). While cannabis and placebo groups performed equally well on a word list recognition task, the cannabis group made more false positive errors (Abel 1970, 1971). Another effect on memory reported in severeal studies is increased intrusion of irrelevant material (Abel 1970, 1971 Clark et al. 1970 Tinklenberg et al. 1970 Pfefferbaum et al. 1977). 

In summary, DMHP and some of its acetate Isomers produced various degrees of physical incapacitation due largely to the moderate to marked and prolonged orthostatic hypotension. Blood pressure was normal In the supine position. Mental effects of DMHP were much less severe than those of THC or cannabis at doses that produced similar degrees of orthostatic hypotension. Individual differences in intensity of response were considerable some subjects showed little or no response at doses that produced Intense symptoms in other subjects. 

In 9 HIV-positive patients on a stable regimen containing indinavir (mostly 800 mg every 8 hours), smoking a cannabis cigarette (3.95% tetrahydrocannabinol) three times a day before meals for 14 days resulted in a median 14% decrease in AUC and maximum level and a 34% decrease in minimum indinavir level. However, only the change in maximum level was statistically significant. Similarly, dronabinol 2.5 mg three times daily for 14 days had no significant effect on indinavir pharmacokinetics. ... 

Around 1940, cannabinol was isolated independently by Sir Alexander R. Todd (1907-1997) at the University of Manchester and Roger Adams at the University of Illinois. However, it was determined that this compound was not responsible for the psychotropic effects of cannabis, but actually an artefact, which originated by oxidation of THC dru-ing the isolation process. [125] An additional difficulty in determining the structure of THC was, that the double bond isomerises readily in presence of acid into the thermodynamically favoru-ed 8-position. The problem of isolation was simply technical in nature in contrast to the alkaloids, which are readily purifyable by salt formation as crystalline compounds, this is not possible with /4 -tetrahydrocannabmoL... 

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