Can Marijuana Improve Your Emotional State? New study suggests yes

[limpyhobbler]

Study says THC could play an important role in how we process negative emotions

Specifically, the study's authors found that participants given THC in a controlled experiment showed lower brain activity in response negative stimuli than did those given placebo. A bias toward negative stimuli has been linked to mental illnesses like depression, and evidence that THC reduces this effect suggests that the endocannabinoid system could play an important, beneficial role in how humans experience emotions and mood.

Researchers measured test-specific effects of THC administration on about a dozen men who had used marijuana at least four times in the past year, but no more than once a week. Half of them were given THC, the other half placebo; the researchers then showed all the men images of faces with expressions that appeared either "fearful" or "happy." They found that participants given THC showed significantly decreased accuracy in matching facial expressions with negative emotion, but showed about the same accuracy for positive associations. Using brain imaging technology called fMRI, they were also able to watch the effects of THC on the parts of the participants' brains that process emotion – identifying a "network-wide shift from a bias for negative emotional content towards a bias for positive emotional content."

more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/can-marijuana-improve-your-emotional-state-20130821

[Warren Stupidity]

1. They don't want our emotional state improved.

They want us anxious, stressed out, depressed, fearful and hopefully addicted to multiple expensive corporate profit center substances.

[limpyhobbler]

2. Yep.

Scared people work harder and don't complain as much.

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. yep...Happy people get complacent...which to them means lack ambition.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. And they buy less shit.

At least, they're less susceptible to advertising that tells them that buying ridiculous shit will make them happy.

[tridim]

5. Yep. Stress causes money transfer to big pharma.

It's a terrible side-effect of Cannabis prohibition.

[CanSocDem]

7. Fight Back!!!

Stay High!!

.

[tridim]

6. A happy endocannabinoid system is a big key to happiness.

It is every bit as important to life as any other major system in the mammalian body, yet if your natural endocannabinoid levels are low and you choose to self-supplement you can be arrested.

Get off your asses, congress and DO SOMETHING about this nightmare.