• Question: What chemicals are in Marijuana ? Is the Redwood tree still alive ?

    Asked by to Amelia on 12 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      What chemicals are in Marijuana:

      Like all plants marijuana has hundreds of chemicals in it. However, only about 60 of these are what we call cannabinoids. These are the chemicals that cause the effects of smoking weed and make people high. The most active cannabinoid which has the biggest effect on the brain is called THC.
      There could of course be other cannabinoid chemicals in marijuana that we have not discovered yet.

      Is the Redwood Tree still alive:

      Yes there are definitely still giant redwood trees on the earth- this species is not extinct yet. However, they only grow naturally in California so that’s where you have to go if you want to see one! These trees can live for up to 2000 years and grow to around 378 feet, the same as 27 double decker buses stacked on top of eachother!

Comments

  • Photo: Sarah

    Sarah commented on :

    I think they also have some redwood trees in the UK at Longleat Center Parcs!! So if you ever go there on holiday you’ll see them, apparently they were planted in 1850 so they’re pretty old but not yet as tall as the record breaking ones in California!

  • Photo: Amelia

    Amelia commented on :

    hey Sarah I didn’t know they had them at Longleat! That is so near me I’ll have to go and see them! Would still love to go and see the huge ones in California one day though!

  • Photo: Ben

    Ben commented on :

    Former contestant and one of Isabel’s colleagues here… I’d just like to add that they have Giant Redwoods at Cambridge University’s botanical garden which are of a similar age to the Longleat ones.

  • Photo: Izzy

    Izzy commented on :

    Thanks for that Ben! He’s right – there are some in the Cambridge Botanical Garden – a great place to visit if you get the chance 🙂 I used to go eat my lunch in the rainforest greenhouse as an undergrad.

    Also, now I know about the Longleat Center Parcs, I will definitely go there (I love Center Parcs). I’d like to go visit the massive ones in California – it would be pretty amazing.

    As for the chemicals in marijuana, there are loads – all plants (and all organisms) have loads of different chemicals in them – cannabis has over 400 different chemicals that scientists have been identified. The ‘cannabinoids’ that Amelia describes are chemicals that are unique to cannabis – and THC is the one that causes the largest effects on the human bodies. As pointed out, there may be others that we don’t know about – at the moment we have found at least 60. THC travels in the blood to the brain, where it is recognised by ‘cannabinoid receptors’ and this starts the series of reactions that leads to the ‘high’ feeling that people describe. Different areas of the brain have different numbers of these receptors, which is why different brain functions respond differently to marijuana.
    Synthetic (made in the laboratory) chemicals similar to THC have been developed for use during cancer treatment. Scientists look at what the different parts of the THC chemical do and then can use this to design new chemicals that can be useful for medicine.