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.
"I would love to see a study on the amount of people that smoke marijuana that are actually self medicating."
I'm not entirely sure what you are getting at (I keep coming back to this thread, but I am not following it in its entirety, so forgive me if your point should already be clear to me), but mightn't it be better for people to be medicated with pot than prozac, or some other such drug?
I'm not asserting is would be better, just raising the question.
There was a time when FREEDOM reigned in the forum.... Now, I must say that I am dismayed. Unfortunately, many of our fellow Freepers seem to think just like the LEFT....They always take the opposite position of the opposition....regardless of the logical argument.
There are freedoms that both camps can agree to...without jettisoning their core beliefs.
I do not smoke dope...but if it would ease my wife's suffering I'd locate it, buy it, and administer it....
The weird part is that for all the hype, the people with a medicine cabinet full of half used bottles of antibiotics are a bigger public health threat than the ones with a bag of pot in their nightstand.
Fair enough.... i simply do not care about marijuana use among adults... I ask you...what would change? Dopers will be dopers...alcholics will be alcholics....gamblers will gamble...prostitutes will prostitute... We as reasonable men & women have choices....The police can't control human desire....only push it into the shadows.
Fair enough.... i simply do not care about marijuana use among adults...
I asked about DRUG LEGALIZATION.
The GAO report mentioned in there in HTML...
MARIJUANA Early Experiences with Four States’ Laws That Allow Use for Medical Purposes (GAO-03-189)
Why the impetus on self medicating? In the old days plenty of people went to the local herbalist for treatment and, once they found the cure to their ailment, continued to use the herb recommended.
Ain't ya never seen "The Outlaw Josey Wales"?
Granny Hawkins: I say that big talk's worth doodly-squat. Now, them poltices is laced with feathermoss and mustard root. Mind you drop water on 'em occasion to keep 'em damp. (Walks off) You can pay me when you see me again, Josey Wales.
I guess, by that reply, you are stating your unwillingness to refer to any actual peer-reviewed medical evidence. That's what I asked, and you respond with some canard about High Times magazine.
I'll amend that statement. Nobody at a .gov tld seems to be able to find a copy.
Note that the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health came out of the Texas Medical Algorithm Project (TMAP). Both TMAP and the Hazelden Foundation are funded by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
That figures. Notice that I never got an answer to Hazelden's position on the massive screening proposal for public schools.
Drug screening should be manditory in schools only after they are mandatory for ALL public officials. Officials should be screened as often as the students, and of course a few random tests as well. Would that pass in congress??
It probably wouldn't pass in Congress, but the proposal he's talking about is to do mental health screening on all school children.
The government has also stated that looking at a computer screen too long is bad for your eyes. Should we look for a law stating how long we can look at our computer screens??
Secondly, if pot were legalized for adults, what would you call the effort to keep it out of the hands of minors? Uhhhhhhh, war on drugs? Yes, you would STILL have a WOD, only now you are trying to sell it to part of the population and keep it away from another part. Ridiculous.
Why is it potheads never think these things through? Never mind...I know the answer...
But should they be manditory?? I think schools would have to have parental permission to draw blood or take any sample from a student. Big brother is here, and I don't mind him, but we have to draw the line somewhere!
But should they be manditory?? I think schools would have to have parental permission to draw blood or take any sample from a student. Big brother is here, and I don't mind him, but we have to draw the line somewhere!
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