Cannabis

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Originally uploaded by The Stranger.

A study by University of Saskatchewan researchers suggests beneficial aspects of smoking marijuana atleast among rats, who appear to have sprouted new brain cells and besides benefiting from reduced depression and anxiety. The study's results ' have actually given a flip to the traditional and mythological view that associates the addictive weed in some ways with immortality.

The Canadian researchers , suggested that the illicit substance marijuana actually may promote new brain cells in region of the brain called the hippocampus that is associated with memory. They concluded that marijuana was possibly “the only illicit drug whose capacity to produce increased neurons is positively correlated with its (anti-anxiety) and anti-depressant-like effects”.

Unlike most addictive drugs that are known to inhibit the development of new neurons, causing loss of memory and impairing learning on chronic use, it appears that marijuana or ganja may actually be the mythological “elixir of eternal life” that Indian gods churned from the oceans. A sharp contrast from ordinary addictive substances, the researchers suggested that marijuana's neurogenetic properties may actually be unique given that the rats showed some correlation between their cannabinoid treatments, the increased nerve genesis and their altered stress or anxiety levels.

Marijuana that has traditionally been used by many cultures over centuries “for medical and recreational purpose”, as the researchers suggest appears to be able to modulate pain, nausea, vomiting, epilepsy, stroke, cerebral trauma and variety of other disorders both for humans and animals alike. But it maybe several more studies before the mysterious benefits of marijuana that currently stand shrouded in tradition and mythology, become accepted by the modern scientific world.