Yesterday I could watch, on TV, a disturbing story: an increase in cases of violence from children to parents happens every year in Spain.
These abusers are usually teenagers and young people. Only in 2013, there were more than 9,000 complaints.
The mean age at the beginning of violent conflict is often the age of 16, and in half the cases the aggressiveness of the children to their parents is translated into physical violence.
One of the most striking facts is that this violence is not confined to marginal environments, but on the contrary, because in more than half of the cases, either the father or the mother has a college degree.
Most parents receive insults and threats from their children, but in half of the cases resulting in physical violence. Another fact that shells is that more than half of aggressor children are habitual offenders of cannabis or alcohol.
The problem is usually a permissive education.
At this point, talking about cannabis and alcohol, I mean that I do not agree with those who advocate the legalization of drugs, because it is more than demonstrated that alcohol is a drug, is legal and yet still consuming much alcohol and it also causes many health problems, especially in young people. So I think that legalizing cannabis, for example, would not solve the problem of consumption.
It all depends on the education of children.
A team of researchers from the CSIC (in Spain) has found a mechanism by which the abuse of cannabis can cause nervous system disorders comparable to psychosis and schizophrenia.
This may occur because the cannabinoids control excitability of certain nerve areas. Thus, the disordered cannabis consumption active the mechanism, with more intensity required by the nervous system.
The study, published in scientific journals such as Frontiers in Pharmacology, helps to understand how the abuse of cannabis leads to negative effects, especially among the youngest people, whose nervous system is maturing.
The study, led by researcher of the CSIC (Superiior Center for Scientific Research), Javier Garzón Niño, from the Cajal Institute, indicates that abnormalities in glutamate neurotransmission and dopamine, when they coincide in certain areas of the brain, are manifested in behavioral changes, that are recognized as schizophrenia.
It adds that the systematic study of genetic and epigenetic alterations has dismissed developmental disorders of the nervous system as a primary cause of schizophrenia.
According to current scientific knowledge, schizophrenia is caused by a dysfunction of a glutamate receptor: the NMDAR. It produces increased dopaminergic function typical of psychosis and schizophrenia.
There are hereditary factors that determine that some individuals are more vulnerable to this disease. However, environmental factors or bad habits such as consumption of certain substances can accelerate its onset or increase their impact.
The endocannabinoid system is beneficial because it controls the excitability of the glutamate NMDAR, which in turn is essential in processes such as memory and learning.
The assembly functions as a physiological mechanism, in which the inhibition provided by the cannabinoid reduces arousal of the NMDA receptor, allowing performing its function but monitoring without compromising cell function.
Given this delicate balance, the abuse of cannabis, plus the endogenous cannabinoid system, disproportionately increasing the weight of the inhibition on the NMDAR system, leading to signs of psychosis.
To address this situation, endogenous mechanisms are recruited to release the NMDAR function of the inhibition. There is a risk that the system may not function properly disconnect. When that happens, the individual has a vulnerability that may lead it to schizophrenia.
"The abuse of cannabis breaks the precious balance among excitation (NMDAR) and inhibition (endogenous cannabinoids) and pushes the plate of the balance toward inhibition and thus allows greater activity of those other systems negatively controlled by NMDAR, such as dopamine”, explains the researcher Javier Garzón Niño.
Inhaled cannabis abuse usually leads to psychoses, that refer to proper treatment, so it is reversible. But the repetition of these behaviors can lead to lasting nerve damage. The risk is higher in individuals with genetic predisposition, as it can lead to schizophrenia.
The three published studies delimit the research of anomalies to the relationship of the cannabinoid 1 receptor with NMDAR receptor, which with genetic trait provide this vulnerability to marijuana. Given the therapeutic potential of cannabis, this knowledge will help to reduce the negative influence of cannabis in processes such as schizophrenia and to develop drugs to treat cannabis psychosis.
Going back to what I said at the beginning of this post, about education on young people, I insist that I find outrageous the possibility of legalizing drugs, because, as I said at the beginning of this post, alcohol is legal and young people increasingly begin to drink alcohol and on younger ages. Alcohol is frowned upon socially; therefore, all is celebrated with alcohol: weddings, baptisms, communions, business meals, the New Year, the end of a Formula One race (with Champagne) and .... all weekend afternoon and evening ... for example, this last night, at exactly 5:45 am, I woke up because a group of very young women were singing, under my house, but they were singing very high, in the silence of the night --no cars were heard, I only could hear them-- and I am sure that they had drunk too much alcohol, and cause of alcohol, they felt free of inhibitions themselves and they were not aware that there were many people sleeping.
I would like the authorities to take this issue more seriously and have more controls in the most frequented places by young people: bars, clubs, on the street with the called "botellón" (street drinking).
Till soon, kind regards,
Luis.
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