Marijuana Addiction can be beaten
Marijuana is generally thought of the least destructive of the prohibited drugs, and indeed, the short-term negative effects of marijuana consumption are not as evident as with other illegal substances.
But even if the damage done is comparatively minor, when we keep in mind the vast numbers of marijuana smokers, marijuana may in fact be doing more damage than any other drug on the market!
Lots of persons believe that marijuana is not a dangerous drug and that it should be as legal to buy and use as alcohol. Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the developed world and, besides liquor, marijuana is the most commonly used drug by young people.
Marijuana is a dry, shredded olive/brown mix of buds, sticks, seeds, and leaves of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. It is generally smoked as a cigarette (joint, reefer), or in a pipe (bong). It also is smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been depleted of tobacco and refilled with marijuana, often in combination with another drug. It might also be blended in food or brewed as a tea. As a more condensed, gummy form it is known as hashish and, as a thick dark liquid, hash oil.
Marijuana use has a pungent and distinct, usually sweet-and-sour odor. Some folk suppose that the smoke smells like burning rope. There are numerous street terms for marijuana including pot, herb, weed, grass, widow, ganja, and hash, as well as terms taken from trademarked varieties of cannabis, such as Bubble Gum, Northern Lights, Fruity Juice, Afghani #1, and a number of Skunk types.
The main effective chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The membranes of specific nerve cells in the brain contain protein receptors that bind to THC. Once securely in place, THC initiates a series of molecular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana.
Scientists have determined a copious amount about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many results. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the blood, which transports the chemical to organs throughout the body, including the brain.
In the brain, THC joins to specific areas named 'cannabinoid receptors' on nerve cells and acts upon the movement of those cells. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. Many cannabinoid receptors are found in the sectors of the brain that effect gratification, memory recall, intellectual thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated bodily action.
The short-term consequences of marijuana can include complications with memory and learning, distorted awareness, problems in thinking and problem-solving, loss of coordination and increased pulse rate. Research findings for long-term marijuana use indicate some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other well-known drugs.
Marijuana can also have an adverse influence on the heart. One study has indicated that an abuser's risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after inhaling marijuana. The scientists suggest that such an effect may result from marijuana's effects on blood pressure and heart rate and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.
A user's lungs are also affected. A research experiment of 450 individuals found that folks who use marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health difficulties and miss more days of work than nonsmokers.
Many of the additional sick days among the marijuana users in the research experiment were for respiratory illnesses. Even infrequent misuse can result in burning and stinging of the mouth and throat, often accompanied by a serious cough. Someone who uses marijuana regularly may have many of the same breathing problems that tobacco smokers do, such as everyday cough and phlegm development, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater predisposition to obstructed airways.
Smoking marijuana conceivably increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 fit people produced evidence that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.
Marijuana abuse also has the potential to advance cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it is comprised of irritants and cancer causing chemicals.
In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more cancer-causing hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. It also induces high levels of an enzyme that converts particular hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form - levels that may accelerate the variations that ultimately produce malignant cells.
Marijuana smokers commonly breathe in more intensely and hold their breath longer than tobacco users do, which elevates the lungs' exposure to cancer-causing smoke. These facts propose that, puff for puff, inhaling marijuana may be more harmful to the lungs than smoking tobacco.
Some of marijuana's unfavourable health results may occur because THC impairs the immune system's capability to resist infection. In laboratory experiments that exposed animal and human cells to THC or other marijuana ingredients, the normal sickness-preventing responses of many of the key types of immune cells were inhibited.
In other studies, mice exposed to THC or related substances were more liable than unexposed mice to contract bacterial infections and tumors. Research plainly demonstrates that marijuana has the potential to cause difficulties in daily life or make a person's current problems worse.
Depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances have been linked with chronic marijuana use. Because marijuana compromises the capacity to learn and remember information, the more a human being uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating educational, job, or social skills.
Moreover, investigation has found that marijuana's adverse impact on memory recall and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute consequences of the drug wear off. Students who use marijuana get lower grades and are less prone to graduate from high school, compared with their nonsmoking friends.
A research experiment of 129 college students discovered that, among those who smoked the drug at least 27 of the 30 days subsequent to being surveyed, fundamental skills related to attention, memory, and learning were drastically reduced, even after the students had not taken the drug for at least 24 hours. These "heavy" marijuana users had more trouble keeping and shifting their concentration and in chronicling, managing, and using data than did the study participants who had abused marijuana no more than 3 of the preceding 30 days.
As a conclusion, a person who smokes marijuana each day may be operating at a reduced intellectual capacity all of the time. More recently, the same researchers showed that the ability of a group of long-term serious marijuana abusers to recall text from a list remained impaired for a week after abstaining, but returned to normal within four weeks. Thus, some cognitive capabilities may be restored in individuals who quit inhaling marijuana, even after long-term heavy use.
Workers who use marijuana are more prone than their fellow workers to have complications on the job. Several experiments associate workers' marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, mishaps, workers' compensation claims, and job turnover. A study among delivery workers discovered that employees who tested positive for marijuana on a pre-service urine drug test had 55 percent more industrial accidents, 85 percent more injuries, and a 75-percent increase in nonappearance compared with those who tested negative for marijuana use. In a further research experiment, heavy marijuana smokers reported that the drug diminished many significant measures of life achievement including reasoning abilities, career standing, social life, and physical and mental health.
Research has shown that some children born to women who used marijuana during their pregnancies exhibit altered responses to visual stimulation, increased tremulousness, and a high-pitched cry, which may indicate neural complications in growth. During the preschool period, marijuana-exposed children have been observed to perform tasks involving uninterrupted attention and memory recall more poorly than non-exposed children do. In the school years, these children are more likely to show deficits in problem-solving skills, memory, and the capability to remain attentive.
Long-term marijuana misuse can lead to addiction for some persons. That is, they use the drug compulsively even though it interferes with family, school, work, and recreational activities. Drug craving and withdrawal indicators can make it hard for long-term marijuana smokers to stop abusing the drug. People trying to quit report touchiness, insomnia, and paranoia. They also show increased hostility on psychological tests, peaking around one week after the last use of the drug.
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