Cannabinoids

The mysteries of the brain’s own cannabinoid system exposed and explained.

Though cannabis has been used, for pain or pleasure, for over 4000 years, only lately have we learned, first, what makes it work and, more recently, how. Unraveling the mystery of the human brain’s special relationship with a psychoactive chemical derived from a plant—tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, specifically—neuroscientist Linda Parker recounts the discovery of the brain’s own THC, called endocannabinoids, and descr...