Pubdate: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1556/a07.html MONKEYS DOPE UP IN STUDY ON MARIJUANA INGREDIENT Monkeys repeatedly dosed themselves with the main active ingredient of marijuana in a new federal study. The researchers say that result emphasizes the idea that people can get hooked on pot and provides a new way to test therapies. Lab animals will actively dose themselves with most drugs abused by people, but marijuana has been an exception, said researcher Steven Goldberg of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called NIDA. Some people might interpret that as suggesting it has little potential for addiction, he said. But the new work found that squirrel monkeys repeatedly pushed a lever to get injections of the marijuana ingredient THC, Goldberg and colleagues report in the November issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk