Cannabis Use and Genetics

Dr. Jim Applegate joins us to discuss a recent study linking genetics and cannabis use. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into West Michigan's Morning News. Schmidty in for Steve Kelly,
who is back Monday morning. Bretbikita is here, and every
Friday we have Doc Applegate join us on the liveline.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Doc, Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right. So this is a very interesting new study.
I got this right, cannabis effects and a link to
some kind of genetics. What have we learned here?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, this is they were wondering why some people and
thirty to forty percent of people who start using cannabis
goes onto what we call cannabis use disorder or addiction.
And we began to wonder why. So the University of California,
San Diego decided to dive into this and they used

(00:43):
an interesting database to look at the genetics of people.
They used the database of twenty three and meters, which
is I found fascinating because I know I'm on that database. Somehow,
They of course got permission and did all the correct
way to do research projects. But they looked at over
one hundred and thirty thousand people on twenty three at

(01:06):
NIS who may or may not have used cannabis, and
of those who did, the ones who got addicted to
it who had the cannabis use disorder, and they wanted
to look and see if there were any genes that
were tied through that entire population, and it turns out
there were, which is interesting because that helps us understand

(01:30):
better why people go on to cannabis use disorder and
it helps explain to the patient also, how did I
get addicted to this? Because not everybody does, but it's
thirty to forty percent of people who do. And they
found the two genes that they found linked. I'm going
to use their long medical names just to prove I
went to medical school. One of the genes is called

(01:50):
cell adhesion molecule two and the other is metabolic glutenate
receptor three, And those were the two genes that were
connected to cannabis use disorder in almost one hundred percent,
and they very much affect cognitive function of the brain.
The first one, the celtsion molecule two, helps the cells

(02:13):
in the brain talk to each other signals across the brain,
and dysfunction of that can lead to personality disorders, which
we see in cannabis use disorder. The second one, the
metabolic glutenate receptor three, was associated with what we call
brain plasticity and dysfunction in that gene can lead to
schizophrenia and bipolar So we see that there's a tie

(02:38):
in genetic problems with cannabis use disorder, and it may
explain why some people with cannabis use disorder their personalities
or thinking levels change. Their cognitive abilities are definitely affected.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
So, Doc, now that this has become pretty much legal,
I know it's not, I guess across the board, but
more legal than it was, do you see more research
being done from your stamp point on this like we
did with smoking and cigarettes back in the day.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Oh, there's there's a ton of research out there all
on cannabis and cannabis use disservice and the way that
it affects us. Two things to remember. Number one, the
amount of THHC that people consume in marijuana is significantly
higher than, for example, when I went to school. But

(03:25):
also we all knew that, you know, we all knew
people that came to you know, college that were a
lot smarter than you that became potheads and they just
dropped out, they got crazy, they had cognitive dysfunction, And
you know, these two genes may be at least a
factor in that because they got hooked on cannabis and

(03:45):
it really did affect their cognitive functioning. So although we
don't talk about it as much as we should, we
don't talk about it like we like we should because
this is indeed a dangerous drug. This is something that
can especial if you get hooked on it can't affect
your personality, kind of affect your cognitibility, and we're seeing

(04:05):
a lot of research into that right now. It's just
doesn't hit the mainstream press, and I'm not sure why not,
but there's a lot in the medical literature that I
read that talks about this.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
All right.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
My last one was Spacoli in the research. That's what
I want to know. I just had to get that
for Doc. I had to throw them off with he's
so good with the research.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, well, you know. And the other thing they found,
which also is interesting, is it's not just these two
big genes that are associated with us, because those are
associated with cognitive dysfunction and personality changes. They found over
forty genes that are at least lightly associated with cannabis
use disorder. So it's not just these two genes. There

(04:49):
are you know, probably over forty genes that may lead
you down to a bad past and get you hooked
on cannabis and you get personality changes, you get decreasability
to think, and it's you have to be cautious with us.
This is not as safe as some people will let
onto belief.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Wow, that's why we have you on DOC. That is
really good stuff. Thank you. Doc Applegate joins us every Friday,
eight thirty six. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
My pleasure.