HAVING trouble giving up that nasty marijuana habit? A drug might soon be
available that stops you getting high when you smoke dope.
Marijuana’s psychoactive effect is thought to come about when its key
ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, binds to CB1 cannabinoid receptors in
the brain. A Paris-based company, Sanofi-Synthelabo, has now developed a
compound dubbed SR141716, which prevents chemicals from binding to these CB1
sites. A recent study looked at the drug’s effect on appetite
(New Scientist, 14 April, p 6),
but Marilyn Huestis and her colleagues at the National Institute on
Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Maryland, set out…
