Drug Abuse, Cannabis

7/27/2019 Drug Abuse, Cannabis

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IntroductionA drug, roughly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the

body of a living organism, modifies normal physical function. There is no

single, exact definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law,

government regulations, medicine, and everyday usage.

They are made or grown at home by the user or dealer, made or grown in

internal labs or greenhouses, diverted (stolen or sold on) from valid sources

such as chemists, or imported - from producer nations such as Colombia or

from transit countries such as the Netherlands or Spain. Drugs can enter the

body in many ways. Some ways in which drugs enter the body is by it being

injected, swallowed, snorted, smoked, etc. In pharmacology, a drug is "a

chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or finding of

disease or used to otherwise improve physical or mental well-being. Drugs

may be prescribed for a limited period, or on a regular basis for long-lasting

disorder. Recreational drugs are chemical substances that affect the central

nervous system, such as opioids or hallucinogens. They may be used for

seeming beneficial effects on perception, awareness, personality, and

behavior. Some drugs can cause addiction and/or habituation.


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MARIJUANA (Cannabis)

Loose Marijuana

Marijuana Leaf


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What is Marijuana?

Marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves,

stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. You may hear marijuana called

by street names such as pot, herb, weed, grass, boom, Mary Jane, gangster,

or chronic. There are more than 200 slang terms for marijuana.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana (sometimes spelled "marihuana) among

many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis

plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug. The word marijuana comes

from the Mexican Spanish word, marihuana. According to the United

Nations, cannabis "is the most widely used illicit substance in the world."

The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending

leaves and stalks of mature pistillate of female plants. The adhesive form of


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the drug is known as hashish (or merely as 'hash'). The major psychoactive

chemical compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Cannabis

contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 60

other cannabinoids (CBD), and tetrahydrocannabivari (THCV), which can

result in different effects from those of THC alone.

HISTORY

Cannabis is native to Central and South Asia. Evidence of the inhalation of

cannabis smoke can be found in the 3rd millennium B.C, as indicated by

burnt cannabis seeds found in a ritual fire at an ancient burial site in present

day. Romania Cannabis is also known to have been used by the ancient

Hindus and Nihang Sikhs of India and Nepal for thousands of years.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its

psychoactive properties through the Aryans. Using it in some religious

ceremonies, they called it Qumbu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a

probable origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was also

introduced by the Aryans to the Scythians and Thracians, whose shamans


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(the kapnobatai"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis

flowers to induce a state of trance. Members of the cult of Dionysus,

believed to have originated in Thrace (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), are

also thought to have inhaled cannabis smoke.

In 2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds were

found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the

northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological

cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk

suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred

during the 5th to 2nd century B.C., confirming previous historical reports by

Herodotus.

Cannabis use has been found to have occurred as long ago as the 3rd

millennium BC In modern times the drug has been used for entertaining,

religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. The UN estimated that in 2004

about 4% of the world's adult population (162 million people) use cannabis

annually, and about 0.6% (22.5 million) use it on a daily basis. The

possession, use, or sale of cannabis preparations containing psychoactive

cannabinoids became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th

century.


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EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN

Marijuana interrupts on the central nervous system by attaching the brain's

neurons and interfering with normal communication between the neurons.

These nerves respond by shifting their original behavior. For example, if a

nerve is supposed to assist one in recovering short-term memory,

cannabinoids receptors make them do the opposite. So if one has to

remember what he did five minutes ago, after smoking a high dose of

marijuana, he has trouble. Marijuana plant contains 400 chemicals and 60 of

them are cannabinoids, which are psychoactive compounds that are

produced inside the body after cannabis is absorbed or is extorted from the

cannabis plant. Cannabinoids is an active ingredient of marijuana. The most

psychoactive cannabinoids chemical in marijuana that has the biggest

impact on the brain is tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC. THC is the main active

ingredient in marijuana because it affects the brain by binding to and

activating specific receptors, known as cannabinoid receptors. "These

receptors control memory, thought, concentration, time and deepness, and

matched movement. THC also affects the production, release or re-uptake (a

regulating mechanism) of various neurotransmitters." Neurotransmitters are

chemical messenger molecules that carry signals between neurons. Some of

these affects are personality disturbances, depression and chronic anxiety.


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Psychiatrists who treat schizophrenic patient advices them to not use this

drug because marijuana can trigger severe mental disturbances and cause a

decline. When one's memory is affected by high dose of marijuana, short-

term memory is the first to be triggered. Marijuana's damage to short-term

memory occurs because THC alters the way in which information is

processed by the hippocampus, a brain area responsible for memory

formation. "One region of the brain that contains a lot of THC receptors is

the hippocampus, which processes memory." Hippocampus is the part of the

brain that is important for memory, learning, and the integration of sensory

experiences with emotions and motivation. It also converts information into

short-term memory. "Because it is a steroid, THC acts on the hippocampus

and inhibits memory retrieval." THC also alters the way in which sensory

information is interpreted. "When THC attaches to receptors in the

hippocampus, it weakness the short-term memory," and damages the nerve

cells by creating structural changes to the hippocampus region of the brain.

When a user has a high dose of marijuana, new information does not record

into their brain and this may be lost from memory and they are not able to

retrieve new information for more than a few minutes. There is also a

decrease in the activity of nerve cells.

Marijuana also impairs emotions. When smoking marijuana, the user may

have uncontrollable laughter one minute and paranoia the next. This instant

change in emotions has to do with the way that THC affects the brain's


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limbic system. The limbic system is another region of the brain that governs

one's behavior and emotions. It also "coordinates activities between the

visceral base-brain and the rest of the nervous system." I am now going to

use Students B to describe how emotions are affected by marijuana. A

STUDENT B is an articulate and well-spoken young woman who has a

troublesome relationship with her best friends which gets her upset and

tense up. But after she smoked one high dose weed, her body was relaxed

however, she had trouble formulating her thoughts clearly and would talk in

pieces and was glad. It has been researched that a person needs to have

high dose of marijuana would be in the state of euphoria. High dose of

marijuana is measured as "15mg of THC can cause increased heartrate,

gross motor disturbances, and can lead to panic attacks." Thankfully,

Student A did not experience any of these extreme examples

Research into the effects of long-term cannabis use on the structure of the

brain has produced unpredictable results. It may be that the effects are too

delicate for reliable detection by current techniques. A similar challenge

arises in studies of the effects of chronic marijuana use on brain function.

Brain imaging studies in chronic users tend to show some constant

alterations, but their connection to impaired cognitive functioning is far from

clear. This uncertainty may stem from confounding factors such as other

drug use, residual drug effects, or withdrawal symptoms in long-term

chronic users.


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Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to

produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly

passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to

the brain and other organs throughout the body.

EFFECTS ON THE HEART

Marijuana increases heart rate by 20-100 percent shortly after smoking; this effect

can last up to 3 hours. In one study, it was estimated that marijuana users have a

4.8-fold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking the drug.

This may be due to increased heart rate as well as the effects of marijuana on heart

beats, causing trembles and arrhythmias. This risk may be greater in aging

populations or in those with cardiac vulnerabilities.

EFFECTS ON THE LUNGS

Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and

to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50-70

percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Marijuana

users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco

smokers do, which further increase the lungs' exposure to carcinogenic

smoke. Marijuana smokers show deregulated growth of epithelial cells in


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their lung tissue, which could lead to cancer; however, a recent case-

controlled study found no positive associations between marijuana use and

lung, upper respiratory, or upper digestive tract cancers.7 Thus, the link

between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unconfirmed at this

time.

Nonetheless, marijuana smokers can have many of the same respiratory

problems as tobacco smokers, such as daily cough and composure

production, more frequent acute chest illness, and a heightened risk of lung

infections. A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke

marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems

and miss more days of work than nonsmokers. Many of the extra sick days

among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

EFFECTS ON DAILY LIFE

Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana has the potential to cause problems

in daily life or make a person's existing problems worse. In one study, heavy

marijuana abusers reported that the drug reduced several important measures of

life achievement, including physical and mental health, perceptive abilities, social

life, and career status. Several studies associate workers' marijuana smoking with

increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers' compensation claims, and job

turnover.


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MARIJUANA and MENTAL HEALTH

A number of studies have shown an association between chronic marijuana

use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Some of

these studies have shown age at first use to be an important risk factor,

where early use is a marker of increased vulnerability to later problems.

However, at this time, it is not clear whether marijuana use causes mental

problems, worsens them, or reflects an attempt to self-medicate symptoms

already in existence.

Chronic marijuana use, especially in a very young person, may also be a

marker of risk for mental illnesses - including addiction - stemming from

genetic or environmental vulnerabilities, such as early exposure to stress or

violence. Currently, the strongest evidence links marijuana use and

schizophrenia and/or related disorders. High doses of marijuana can produce

an acute psychotic reaction; in addition, use of the drug may trigger the

start or relapse of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.

Marijuana Plant with flower


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CONCLUSION

While many people consider the effects of marijuana to be fun, marijuana

does have serious side effects that must not be ignored. Studies have shown

that marijuana kills brain cells, can lead to depression, loss of sex drive, loss

of motivation, loss of energy, loss of testosterone and increased irritability.

These are the long term effects that are difficult to prove.


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SUBJECT: FAMILY LIFE

DRUGS

CANNABIS


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Bibliography

1. serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1808

2.wiki.answers.com

3. wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)

Drug Abuse, Cannabis

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