Excerpt from Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire
by Michael Pollan

But then I asked Mechoulam,(Raphael Mechoulam in 1992 discovers what the endogenous cannabinoid is, and he names it anandamide, which is the Sanskrit word for inner bliss.) “Why would we evolve a chemical that would make us forget, that would affect our short-term memory?” That seems maladaptive. His answer was one of the great “a-ha!” moments I had when I was working on this book. He said, “Well, do you really want to remember all the faces you saw in the subway this morning, all the faces in the supermarket?” And I realized at that moment, well, of course, forgetting is not a defect of a mental operation, although it can certainly be that; forgetting is a mental operation. It’s almost as important as remembering. He believes that there is another see-saw there. There is a chemical that helps us lock in memory, and anandamide works on the other side to make us get rid of memory. This also relates to memory loss with regard to trauma. We need cannabinoids to forget horrible things that have happened. Scientists have worked with mice that got an electric shock every time they heard a certain tone. This conditioned them to be fearful when they heard the tone. When you play the tone for normal mice, the first time they react fearfully, but over time if you play the tone enough they forget and they just go about their business. And this is what happened. But these pre-conditioned shock-treatment mice that cannot use the anandamide their brains are producing never forget the fear—it is never extinguished. So I think it’s very interesting that if we didn’t have anandamide we might not ever be able to get over things like post traumatic stress phobias and neuroses of various kinds, even chronic pain. It’s often been observed that pain is the hardest of all experiences to summon with memory. You know something felt really bad, but it’s very hard to recreate that emotion the way you can recreate other emotions, and it may be that we have the cannabinoids to thank for that.

Cannabis and Forgetting PDF Document


Michael Pollan's Website

I forgot about those...

Sat Jan 25, 2003 Cannabis, the Importance of Forgetting by Michael Pollan  

Importance of Forgetting (Thread)

Michael Pollan's Website

Pot Blocks Painful Memories, Study Says

brain cells and spiritual enlightenment, or creativity are two different things. Brain cells store external knowledge which one gains though experience, Creative thoughts are always there, they just metaphoricly change to suit the situation. Getting hit in the head kills brain cells, hell even pulling out hair manages to kill some brain cells, so why wouldnt a massive molicule like THC quickly rushing to the cannabinoid receptor, some cells could be damaged, not much but long term abuse could lead to the classic 'stoner brain'.


Cannabis has a greater effect on stocked knowledge (notice i said stocked knowledge, not stored), then the ability to relate motion, and use mathematical/practical skills. By stocked knowledge i mean short term, new knowledge that you use to make your day more efficent.

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