Endocannabinoids

The endogenous ligands the rest of this subject imitates. Anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol are lipids built on demand from membrane phospholipids, released backwards across the synapse and broken down within seconds by FAAH and MAGL, so they signal locally and briefly instead of circulating like a hormone. 2-AG is a full CB1 agonist and anandamide a partial one, which is part of why a full-agonist synthetic is not simply strong cannabis.

Filed with them are related lipids whose targets are not only the CB receptors: palmitoylethanolamide, oleamide, virodhamine, noladin ether and NADA. Nothing in this family is taken as a drug. It exists so the receptor pages have their reference points, and so that anything acting by raising endogenous levels rather than by binding the receptor directly has somewhere to be read against.