万花筒 2008-07-06&-07-07 大麻治痤疮（在线收听）

Well, most of us know that marijuana is an illegal mind-altering substance. But could it also be a miracle cure for everything from acne to skin cancer? According to a new study, it's possible. And the good news is, you don't even have to smoke the drug to get its benefits. Joining us now, Dr.Rob Ashton.Hi,Dr.

Good morning, Megan.

All right. So the reason you don't have to smoke the drug is because you make the drug in your own body?

Well, there are what they call endogenous cannabinoids in our body, um, and these substances were actually found many years ago around 1992 that they found these substances when they were studying sort of the effects of marijuana on our body. And its, the structure is similar to that, that found in the marijuana plant.

All right. So we make something that is akin to marijuana and it is helpful to our skin in many different ways, ah, the question is, how can we make more of it? Can we bottle it? Can it be bought？I mean what can we do to sort of capitalize on our own pot-making hormones?

Well, first of all, I mean, this was a study that was done in a, in what we say, the Petri dish, so the question is, you know, can it work in our body and doesn't have an effect on skin? They are not sure, I mean, they look at some glands in the Petri Dish and see how the oils were affected by it. So, we don't really know what the effects are. This is incredibly early bench-top research that was just being published now. So what the long-term use of it is, we don't know. I wouldn't go out and buy marijuana illegally and put it on your body, because right now, we have no, no-known effects of that.

Well, that’s the other question, that is, it's a, well don't wanna encourage me to take drugs,(correct), but if this is true, and there is this form of marijuana that can be helpful to your skin, ah, well, what is the means of ingesting it? It, Does one smoke, or does one, or are they gonna put it in a cream that we can rub on ourselves?

Yeah, well, first of all, they would break down the products and use parts of it that would be able to be used to put on the skin. If that's it all possible, it wouldn't be taking the plant probably breaking it down, I mean, like we do from many plants,  I mean, all of our, all of our medications do come in many ways from plant-arised substances which are then synthesized in different ways. So, again, they would not be taking the plant and selling it to be rubbing on your body. There would be a pharmaceutical company that would be able to break it down and do something with it.

You know, my esteemed co-anchor is telling me that the men he knew in college, who were engaging in this, all had bad skin.

Well, as we say, it has lots of effects from, you know, the lung damage to everything else. So, again, we do not recommend in any way, shape or form.

So you still look great, but your lungs look awful.

Absolutely.

Does the cream give you the munchies too?

No.

Alright, Dr.Rob Ashton, thanks some much for being here. (You are welcome.) And Happy 4th July. (You too.)

Seeya. 

All the stoners had acne in, you know, the 70s.

But you were pointing out maybe it would have been worse if they hadn't been doing that drug.

Here you go. The gon you had might have been worse then.

I'm thinking, you know what, just stick with like a nice moisturizer and dab so, better that I use.

Yep, you’ve gotta hydrate your skin, that's key, OK.

Yeah, you do? Ah...