Quantitative Autoradiography of Cannabinoid Receptors in the Human Brain Post-Mortem

Among the oldest drugs known to man, marijuana and hashish have been used for recreational and religious purposes for many centuries. They are probably the most popular recreational drugs in the US Although the active ingredient, cannabis, was identified a few decades ago as delta-9-tetra hydro cannabinol, it was only recently that specific cannabinoid binding sites have been identified and sequenced. Cannabinoid receptors were examined by quantitative autoradiography of sections of human brains obtained post-mortem, using [³H]CP 55,940 (N.E.N, specific activity 104 Ci/mmol) as a ligand. The distribution of cannabinoid receptors throughout the adult human brain was examined on sections from four normal brains. The subjects were three men and one woman. All were drug and neuropathology free at the time of death. The ages and causes of death were: 20/gunshot homicide, 25/accidental drowning, 17/suffocation, and 61/coronary.