Juniper Publishers- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  JUNIPER PUBLISHERS - OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL & DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES   Introduction Cannabis has a long history in Central and South Asia, as it was used to produce hemp fibre for rope, clothing and paper, but was also consumed both for recreational and medicinal purposes. The two major neuro active components in cannabis are the psychoactive A9-tetrahydro-cannabinol (A9-THC) and the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD). Recent years have seen a resurgence in interest in the therapeutic potential of compounds derived from cannabis, due to significant advances in our understanding of cannabis ingredients and endogenous brain cannabinoid (ECB) system, which consists of G-protein- coupled cannabinoid (CB) receptors, endocannabinoids such as N-Arachidonoylethanolamide (Anandamide) and 2-Arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), synthetic and degradative enzymes, and transporters. Common medical conditions for which marijuana is allowed in the US (...

  JUNIPER PUBLISHERS - OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL & DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES   Opinion The ageless faux controversy of nature v. nurture continues to haunt the otherwise scientific literature of behavioral biology. One classic example-the evolutionary value of the opposable thumb-encapsulates the essence of unnecessarily conflicting attitudes in this useless confrontation. The standard saw offered by anatomists is that the pseudo-opposable thumb of New World anthropoids (e.g., Cebus) monkeys is mechanically limited to movements in one dimension-left and right-and thus limits the behavioral range of monkeys condemned to secondary evolutionary status by this structural inhibition. By way on contrast, Old World anthropoids were blessed with opposable thumbs which permitted swivelling action which in turn opened the way for humans to develop tool use as the pathway to biological predominance. Unfortunately, this is not true. A concerted...