What is The Endocannabinoid System?

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The endogenous cannabinoids system, or endocannabinoid system (ECS), is the network of cell receptors throughout the body that interact with cannabinoids. Without the system, cannabinoids would do nothing for our bodies and cannabis would be irrelevant as a drug. Although, they are still quite useful as a crop.

It would be a mistake, however, to think that the ECS only exists to react with the cannabinoids in marijuana. The human body, in fact, produces its own cannabinoids, called endocannabinoids.

Interestingly, we know less about the cannabinoids our own bodies produce than we do about those the marijuana plant produces. And that’s because the discovery of cannabinoid receptors didnÂ’t take place until 1988. It was this important discovery that initiated the search for our bodies own endocannabinoids.

Until then, scientists believed a kind of generic interaction between cells and plant cannabinoids caused the psychological and physiological effects of marijuana. Now, we understand that there are highly specific chemical mechanisms responsible for those effects.

Two decades later, though, we still know very little about the how our bodies actually make their own cannabinoids. But we do know what some of them are. Studying how our bodiesÂ’ endocannabinoids interact with the ECS and what effects these interactions is crucial for advancing our understanding of the therapeutic and recreational effects the phytocannabinoids in marijuana produce.