Skin Cream High?
June 25, 2007
Teenagers looking for a good excuse to experiment with marijuana -- in its topical form that is -- may have one now. It turns out that granny’s over-the-counter cannabis ointment sold one hundred years ago to treat eczema, hives and other skin allergies, has a scientific basis after all.
In the 1930s, the household remedy was dismissed as a quack product and banned due to the intoxicating effects of its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which induces the marijuana high.
Now a research team from the University of Bonn has resurrected granny’s old herbal extract. It turns out that THC does in fact reduce the ugly zits and swelling from skin allergies. The Bonn team stumbled on THC’s anti-inflammatory benefits while doing a brain study on mice wearing ear clips.
Mice ear clips
The clips were originally used as ID tags to differentiate the little rodents from one another, but had unexpectedly caused an allergic reaction around the ears. Since the mice had been genetically engineered not to respond to cannabinoids, either THC or its natural equivalents generated in the brain, the researchers realized that they hit upon a discovery.
They realized that cannabinoids operate like the brakes of a car, and prevent the body’s immune system from triggering inflammatory red sores. For two decades, scientists have known that the brain produces cannabinoids naturally, but they are still trying to figure out how THC regulates the immune system.
The Bonn scientists then started dabbing a bit of granny’s concoction on the skin of the poor little mice, and bingo—the swelling and redness disappeared.
Professor Thomas Tuting, a member of the team, said: "If we dabbed THC solution onto the animals' skin shortly before and after applying the allergen (the ear clips), a lot less swelling occurred than normal.”
Tuting added that the amount of THC required to treat skin allergies wouldn’t be enough to induce a high though. In other words, cannabis skin lotion could make a comeback, but just don’t count on it as a recreational drug.