Posted on 11/21/2004 9:15:23 PM PST by april15Bendovr
The truth about marijuana. Me
Posted on 11/21/2004 9:00:46 PM PST by april15Bendovr
I was asked to write this for my hospital newsletter. I hope it will help people here to understand a little bit better.
The truth about marijuana As a psychiatric counselor, many clients report to me that at an early age they suffered from anxiety, stress, agitation and depression. In an effort to avoid or treat their problems, many decided to medicate themselves with alcohol, marijuana or other street drugs. And while the problems of alcohol addiction are well-known, there is a popular myth that marijuana is an innocuous and harmless drug. Unfortunately, marijuana's addictive repercussions can be just as devastating as alcohol.
The Hazelden Foundation, which runs treatment centers for chemical dependency, has produced an educational documentary videotape titled "Marijuana, the Escape to Nowhere," about addictive issues, side effects and marijuana's use as a mood altering substance. Participants in the video report resorting to acts of desperation, such as scraping bongs and pot pipes and pulling their bedroom dresser out from the wall, to retrieve just enough marijuana to give them their next high. Many of my clients as a psychiatric counselor have recounted the same kinds of behavior.
I believe it's imperative that our society understand the addictive nature of marijuana and its harmful side effects. The drug has gained support from people with various ailments who praise the drug for its potential use in treating pain and nausea medically. Although there's a synthetic prescription pill developed for this purpose (Marinol), advocates for smoking the leaf continue to push for marijuana cigarette legalization. Advocates also argue that pot has few and short-term--side effects, if any. I believe such a claim is dangerously wrong.
In Oldsmobile car ads, the slogan was: "It's not your father's Oldsmobile." Well, the same can be said for marijuana today. Hazelden reports the amount of THC (the main active chemical) in marijuana has increased 5 times since 1974, with the typical strength today being 15 percent. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Intelligence Division December Report 2000 states that a form of marijuana called BC Bud (British Columbia), with Canadian growers using sophisticated cultivating techniques, has increased THC levels from 15 percent to 25 percent, compared with 2 percent in 1970.
There's evidence to support claims of long-term damage. Studies referenced in the Hazelden booklet "Marijuana: Current Facts, Figures and Information," by Brent Q. Hafen, Ph.D., and David Soulier, show long-term and permanent damage. This book cites research using instruments to trace brain waves, showing slight changes in the brain's electrical activity from marijuana use. Other studies cited in the book, using electrodes placed deep inside the brain stem, showed that the effects of marijuana use lingered. Researchers at Tulane University studied long-term effects, revealing damage to brain cells and nerve synapses in monkeys. A 2-month to 5-year study at the University of California Davis revealed, via CAT scan, damage to the brains of monkeys from long-term use.
Visual signs of long-term pot smoking are poor motor coordination, uncontrolled laughter, a lag or hesitation between thoughts, and unsteady hands. At one time, these were all thought to be short-term side effects--now known in many cases to be long-term with frequent use, according to a 1968 study by researchers W.H. McGlothin and L.J. West, published in the Hazelden booklet mentioned above. Other linked side effects include a symptom called amotivational syndrome, in which people become passive, apathetic, unmotivated, hedonistic, unconcerned about the future, unable to make plans and increasingly introverted.
A marijuana information fact sheet from the National Institute on Drug Abuse states that THC kicks off a series of cellular reactions that lead to the high after smoking. It rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to organs throughout the body, including the brain. THC travels inside the brain, where it connects with THC receptors on nerve cells. The areas of the brain with the most THC receptors are the cerebellum, the cerebral cortex, and the limbic system, which includes the hippocampus. This is why marijuana affects thinking, problem solving, sensory perception, movement, balance and memory. (For a more detailed image of the brain and acute side effects of marijuana, visit www.drugabuse.gov/ResearchReports/marijuana/marijuana3.html.
In 2001, 12 million Americans aged 12 and older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in its 2001 Monitoring the Future Surveys. Students who smoke pot get lower grades and are less likely to graduate from high school compared with their non-smoking peers. Researchers studying the survey compared test results of marijuana-smoking 12th graders and non-smokers; in standardized tests of verbal and mathematical skills, the pot smokers scored significantly lower. The same NIDA Monitoring the Future survey of 129 college students found that someone who smokes pot once daily may be functioning at a reduced intellectual level all of the time.
Other Hazelden-reported side effects include damage to the lungs: Marijuana cigarettes have 15 times more tar content than tobacco cigarettes and 50 percent more cancer-causing hydrocarbons than cigarettes. Liver biopsies of long-term marijuana users show significant damage. It effects the heart due to reduced oxygen to the blood stream. It causes cell damage--tests on animals show changes in gene structure. These effects are becoming more apparent to the public. Information in the National Institute on Drug Abuse marijuana fact sheet shows that marijuana-related hospital emergency department visits in the United States recently experienced a 15 percent increase.
If all these negatives are not enough, I recently discovered more: On Nov. 23, 2002, The British Journal of Medicine published a study linking frequent marijuana use at a young age to an increased risk of depression and schizophrenia later in life.
Without knowledge, education, and an understanding of the problems and myths of marijuana, it is dangerous to advocate for such a drug. If we do not discourage vulnerable young people from using marijuana, the future could be very grim for our country. With the increase of THC levels and the apathy about marijuana, I unfortunately see a preview of that future and fear more mental health and overall health problems as a result.
It seems like some of the WODdies have found that hobby - posting to these threads!
A heavy smoker puts away 1 or 2 packs a day, or more....40+ cigarettes. Pot smokers don't consume nearly that amount do they, even if the above numbers are correct.
I would love to see a study on the amount of people that smoke marijuana that are actually self medicating.
Where in the report is there an analysis of the efficacy of the existing laws? There is only a consideration of how the law as it existed should be applied based on the evidence. They were not charged with evaluating the efficacy of the law, and in fact at the time they did this study the law had just been passed. They had no historical data to judge it's efficacy on. Veracity counts. You get points deducted for spin.
Would you use the "pain and suffering" of a loved one to push a drug legalization agenda? Speak out right now. Are you for drug legalization or is this just a "pain and suffering" issue for you?
The results are going to be dependent on how you define "self medicating", but I'll wager if you apply the same criteria to alcohol users you get similar results.
"Our mandate was a broad one, covering, for example, the nature and scope of use, the effects of the drug, the relationship of marihuana use to other behavior and the efficacy of existing law.
Maybe. I'm willing to restrict freedom if the danger is sufficiently great. With cocaine you could make a plausible argument that it is, but marijuana doesn't even come close to the line. There are far stronger arguments for banning cigarettes, alcohol, and fattening foods. And of course, even if I decided that some hard drugs should be illegal, law enforcement would actually respect the rights of the citizens, and not go around seizing their property without charging them with a crime.
Well, everybody needs a hobby. Too bad blacksmithing has fallen out of fashion. You get beat the hell out of something with a hammer, and have something to show for it when you're done.
Okay, I stand corrected. That was part of the mandate. What is your opinion on judgements made on the efficacy of an existing law given little or no historical background to base that determination on, and by what standard do issues of efficacy render questions of constitutionality moot?
While we're at it, if the report was so supportive of the WoD, why were they so quick to reject the conclusions and recommendations?
What is your and Hazelden's position on the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's recommendation that all kids in public school be screened for mental health problems?
They need to be educated more than they need to be screened. Let them learn what the problems are before the problems become self medicated.
I am curious though how many Freeper marijuana smokers are against the patriot act though?
Doctors Group Fights Prescription Reporting Bill
Newsmax.com ^ | 11/22/2004 | Dave Eberhart
Posted on 11/22/2004 1:55:48 PM CST by Born Conservative
The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) is warning all who will listen that “Big Brother will be soon snooping around your medicine cabinet!” The Arizona-based association has come out strongly against the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act. Already passed by the House, it is working its way through the Senate. “Do you want the government to have a record of every prescription you get?” asks the association in its campaign of flyers and e-mails reaching out to physicians and their patients around the country. “Every painkiller? Every anti-depressant? Every sleeping pill? And then to pass that information along to law enforcement to prosecute you and your doctor if they don’t like what they find?” AAPS is arguing that while masquerading as a law enforcement tool to help control the illegal use of painkillers, the national bill would “cast a net so wide that tens of millions of suffering patients & doctors will be snared in suspicion.” Not limited to prescriptions for painkillers, AAPS adds, the bill would create a central database affecting tens of millions who are not even suspected of a crime -- and the information will be shared with state and local law enforcement. “Prosecutors and law enforcement already second-guess doctors and prosecute them for prescribing ‘too much’ or if they decide the patient doesn’t ‘deserve’ treatment,” a spokesperson for AAPS told NewsMax. “Overzealous prosecutors have already frightened many doctors out of prescribing pain treatment for the almost 50 million patients who suffer from pain,” the spokesperson added. “We can’t let them do it to the rest of us as well.” In its current campaign the organization highlights: The National All Schedules Prescription Reporting Act allows government and law enforcement to monitor your prescriptions; Treats tens of millions of patients as potential criminals; Gives prosecutors & law enforcement power to decide who is “deserving” of medicines. AAPS emphasizes that in its opinion the bill as presently worded would potentially target every prescription that involves any type of scheduled drug for anxiety, depression, insomnia, or pain – “making the suspect doctors’ scripts readily accessible to the police and potentially to employers, newspapers, and blackmailers.” Kathryn Serkes, public affairs counsel for AAPS, pointed out that more than 48 million people who suffer chronic pain in the United States are "having difficulty finding doctors to treat them as a result of misguided drug policy, law enforcement, and overzealous prosecutions. “The ‘war on drugs’ has turned into a war on doctors and the legal drugs they prescribe and the suffering patients who need the drugs to attempt anything approaching a normal life,” added Serkes.
Does that mean you are against the New Freedom Commission's recommendation? What is Hazelden's position on that?
Let them learn what the problems are before the problems become self medicated.
Not sure what you're saying there. Could you restate that?
The truth about marijuana is that any article titled "The Truth About Marijuana" is bound to be full of lies and propaganda.
Sometimes talking to a Marijuana smoker about side effects and symptoms to their use is like trying to convince a liberal that there is no left wing mainstream media.
If you are willing to do that, then we can talk. If not, one can assume you are simply going to rely on silly hyperbole like comparing tar in cigs to tar in a joint - as if the amount of consumption were anywhere near the same.
The "Truth About Marijuana", to use your phrase, is that it has significant demotivational effects coupled with changes in perception, and long term smoking can have other adverse health effects. Heavy use makes you lazy and slow. And its harsh on your lungs. And that's it. Anything else you want to claim about it is simply not supported by the evidence.
As far as the schizophrenia crap goes, I'm sure you got far enough in school to know the difference between correlation and causation. And I bet you got far enough to know how to be deceptive by confusing the two.
What credible source is there to a marijuana smoker that they want to believe other than High Times Magazine?
As far as patients who need symptom relief, give them whateve they want. we already do not do enough to alleviate terminal patients' pain because of our moralistic attitude about drugs and fear "they will become addicted"( like they have time?).
Legalize drugs, all drugs.The WOD is a total fiasco, waste of tax payor money, contributes to organized crime and personal violent crime; puts people in jail that could be contributing members of society and we pay the price tag.
I, too , have worked in the substance abuse field and making alcohol or drugs illegal has never helped anyone into treatment when it comes to jailing them or putting them in prison. If someone commits a crime ( like driving while drunk) the legal aspects do have a possibility of getting someone into treatment. We now have almost no treatment for prisoners. We just warehouse them.
Neal Boortz had a great concept for driving a motorcycle without a helmet..make the person put up the money or complete insurance coverage so I don't have to pay for their treatment or disability.
We tried prohibition; didn't work. We legalize alchohol, cigarettes, pain meds..etc. I can't believe we still think making drugs illegal will work.
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