It’s 4/20. You know what we’re doing today, you goddamn hippies.
Today’s Moment of Science…a moment of science, but on weed, man.
Cannabis, weed, pot, marijuana, breakfast, whatever you want to call it, 4/20 is “the pot smoking holiday.” Or Dogeday, if twitter is to be believed. Let’s clear up some rumors. It’s not the number of cannabinoids or chemicals in the drug. It’s not the police code for cannabis related offenses.
Five teenagers in early the 1970s in California would get together regularly at 4:20pm, responsibly after their extracurriculars had ended. Not far from their San Rafael High School was Point Reyes Forest, allegedly home to an abandoned little garden of cannabis plants. They had a map and everything to guide them on their noble quest. The teens planned their clandestine get-togethers to seek out the field of gold with a code that was eventually abbreviated to ‘420.’ Because there are only ever like eight people on the planet, they used to get high with the Grateful Dead, and the rest is stoner history, memorialized on many a tie dyed shirt.
As for all those chemicals in cannabis, they’ve caused a bit of a ruckus over the years. Which is a shame because it’s both an amazing medicine and a delightful way to make the comments section marginally less annoying.
There’s always gotta be that one person who’s not so sure it’s legitimate medicine. “But Mrs. Auntie SciBabe,” I know the comment is coming, “don’t you think people who claim that they use it medically just want to get high?”
We should talk about dronabinol.
First, there are lots of legal hurdles involved in getting a drug to market. There’s a fucking heroic tale about Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey’s work pushing back on allowing thalidomide to enter the market in the US. It led to an amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that said “you gotta put in some fucking sweat to show us your shit works and it won’t make anybody too dead.” It’s pretty rare now that something gets approved that either doesn’t work or gives you a miserable day.
Tetrahydrocannabinol is one of the compounds in cannabis that makes you super fucking fascinated with your cat’s tail. It’s also an FDA approved drug, dronabinol (also sold under the brands Marinol and Syndros). It’s a common misconception that the cannabinoid in dronabinol is chemically dissimilar from what you get out of the plant. Same goddamn thing, but it’s made synthetically and not extracted from the “evil” plant. It’s prescribed to cancer patients for severe pain and nausea, probably because it works.
It’s also never caused an overdose. I mean, other than some minor dry mouth.
Just making sure we’re all on the same page, a federal agency has declared safe and efficacious a drug that’s also illegal at the federal level.
Second, even if I was absolutely sure that every last person who moved to California and “developed back problems” was in no pain whatsoever and actually just wanted to get high? I’m absofuckinglutely fine with it.
This has been your daily Moment of Science, wishing you the merriest of holidays.
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Another fine read. Thanks.