Scientists have found out which part of marijuana eases nausea, and discovering this component may make chemotherapy a lot more bearable for cancer patients, a new study shows. By isolating the receptor through which marijuana suppresses vomiting, called cannabinoid 1 (CB1), scientists can now develop synthetic drugs that mimic the benefits of marijuana without the side effects of the illegal drug, says the study's author. "We hope to develop synthetic drugs that don't produce the [marijuana] high, but do produce anti-vomiting effects," says Nissar A. Darmani, a pharmacology professor at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri. The study, which appears in this month's Neuropsychopharmacology, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Ann's NOTE: I have asked for a copy of this paper. "It's a long way down the road," says Dr. William Ensminger, a pharmacology professor at the University of Michigan. "But I'm sure that if it could be developed to arrive at a pharmacological product that it would be valuable. We have a lot of drugs for chemotherapy nausea that are fairly good, but there are still 20 percent of patients that really need something beyond what we currently have." Darmani used shrews, which are the smallest animals to have vomiting tendencies, to conduct a series of experiments to identify which component of marijuana quells nausea. "This is the first study to show that the anti-vomiting effect is probably [due to] the CB1 receptor," he says. While marijuana has been used to ease the nausea of chemotherapy, it can also cause memory loss, reduced motor activity and reduced body temperature, Darmani says. Use of the illegal drug for medicinal purposes has had a long and controversial history, with a number of states supporting its use despite a federal ban. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the prohibition and a decision is expected in July. J Neuropsychopharmacology, February 2001 Thanks to Janice Billingsley, HealthScout Reporter British Medical Journal, 7/01 Breast Cancer has made me a criminal British J Pharmacology, 11/02 Source: Medline Plus, 11/06 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.