Cannabis was outlawed because of a massive lobbying effort on the part of paper companies, aided by Hearst's publishing empire, who realized that hemp paper would put wood pulp paper out of business. Now it's a matter of habit to keep it illegal for most, and the anti-drug zealots backing them up loudly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by grolsch
ANYTHING that triggers (I might misuse some terms, but I know the gist is right) the pleasure
centers in the brain leads to harm. The brain's ability to regenerate the receptors required
becomes atrophied, leaving you in a constant state of depletion. You stop, your brain
eventually comes back to normal (that's called neuroplasticity).
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Anything that binds to a particular receptor will affect your brain chemistry, but it's only when your brain habituates artificial receptor saturation and develops more receptors because the foreign substance is a receptor antagonist that a substance is physically addictive. Anything else is psychological habituation.
Caffeine, for example, binds to adenosine receptors and prevents your brain from getting the message that you need to sleep; in response your brain constructs more adenosine receptors to compensate and you need more caffeine to stay awake. THC, cannabidol, and the gang bind to endogenous cannabinoid receptors but do not lead to receptor construction. Same goes for cocaine, which is a CNS stimulant (fun fact: ritalin binds to the same receptor as cocaine) but not physically addictive. Non-physically addictive substances can be psychologically habit-forming, which is why potheads and coke "addicts" are around.
Fun fact 2: Tylenol is deacetylized to the primary amine and conjugated wtih arachidonic acid to N-arachidonoylphenolamine, also known as AM404, an endogenous cannabinoid which produces its analgesic effects. Unfortunately, this does not translate to Tylenol helping my chronic back pain like smoking does.