The truth about marijuana.

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 am not an advocate for the use of marijuana. It's an unhealthy habit.

Look, when you write and publish an article titled "The Truth About Marijuana," you are holding yourself out as an authority on the topic and you need to be prepared to defend the claims you make. The claim that the average THC content of marijuana on the streets in this country today is 15% is patently false. I called you on that and you got defensive and surly and cut and ran without addressing or even acknowledging the proof I presented that you were wrong. The fact of the matter is that even if you had looked into it you would not have found anything even approaching proof that the average marijuana on the street in the country is 15% THC, because there have been very few studies where representative samples of marijuana from across the country have been collected and analyzed to determine average THC content. The only long running study of that type is the government funded Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project. They've been testing samples provided by law enforcement from all over the country for thirty years or so and and the average THC content of all of the marijuana they test hasn't been anywhere close to what you claim it is.

The claim you posted has its roots in what I can only think of as a dishonest spin people like John Walters of the ONDCP are fond of employing where they mention a low THC percentage from the past like that of commercial grade marijuana from 1970's and then talk about the new "crack cocaine" of marijuana today that is up to 25% in THC content. What they are hoping for is that the masses will take from that that all of today's marijuana is that strong, even though the fact is that buried in their web pages even the ONDCP admits that the average of all marijuana being sold on the streets in this country, including the strong stuff, is actually less than 6% THC.

When I saw that you were making the 15% claim, I thought you might be intentionally trying to mislead people, but I suspected the more likely scenario was that you fell for the spin being pushed out there on "today's new super weed." Since I suspected the latter, naturally I concluded that there was a high likelihood that you didn't do much if any background research on any of the "scientific" claims you seemed to be just parroting in your article. Instead you just did like perhaps an eighth grader writing a research paper might have done and spent a few minutes looking for articles similar to what you wanted to write and paraphrased a bit from this one and a bit from that one, without doing any in depth research, or any fact checking.

You have to admit, you barely did any research. If you did, you wouldn't have made simple mistakes like claiming that "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." The Monitoring the Future Surveys do not survey a cross section of Americans twelve and older. They survey 8th graders, 10th graders, and 12th graders, and they do some follow up surveys on college age people. It's the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) who does the surveys on Americans twelve and older. Their annual survey is called the National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NHSDA), which up to a couple of years ago was called the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA).

You say we need to "discourage vulnerable young people from using marijuana." I agree with that sentiment. But if you really want to do that, the next time you hold yourself out as an authority on the "truth about marijuana" you need to do your homework and actually tell the truth. Young people are more clever than you think. When they see supposed authority figures making glaring mistakes and false claims about marijuana, many of them write off what that authority figure said as scare tactic propaganda and they use it to show their less astute friends that what the authority figures say about marijuana is a bunch of hooey. Then they are more likely to buy into the hooey from the opposite end of the spectrum where people are claiming that marijuana is harmless or even good for you. Whether their parents give them your article to read so they'll know the real "truth" about marijuana or if their parents just parrot your claims, the message that marijuana is not good for people and the authority figures who deliver it end up losing credibility because you didn't check your facts before you took on the responsibility of being an authority on the truth about marijuana.

I see, so you want the government in the pot business, to make sure it's good quality stuff. No thanks, I don't want my government in the drug dealing business.

Why, oh, why do the POT NOW people keep comparing alcohol and pot? Is that really the best they can do? It is a completely lame argument, as it's a comparison of apples and oranges. Alcohol use was already widespread and had been since Adam left the grape juice out too long. It was a few thousand years too late to put that genie back in the (wine) bottle. Now then, pot use is nowhere near the use of alcohol use, nor is it "socially acceptable" by any decent standards. Make it legal, and many people who would have never used it before will start.

And, pleeeze, most teenagers have no problem getting their hands on booze.

The WOD will NEVER end drug abuse. I know and fully accept that as a fact of life. We don't live in a Utopia. I know this to be a fact, just as surely as I know the War on Murder, War on Theft, and War on Rape will NOT end murder, theft, and rape.

It's really quite simple. Either you have a government that supports and provides the means for drug abuse, OR you have a government that tries to limit drug abuse and its destructive effects on society. The idea that the former would even be considered is mind boggling.

  http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/02058/02058.html#6

MARIJUANA
  1998 - 2001 PRICE AND POTENCY DATA
  National Average in US Dollars

1998 1999 2000 2001
Commercial Grade
  Pound $250 - $3,200 $100 - $6,000 $100 - $4,000 $70 - $1,200
  Ounce 30 - 450 35 - 750 50 - 650 25 - 600
  THC Content 4.21% 4.19% 4.68% 4.72%

Sinsemilla
  Pound $850 - $6,000 $500 - $7,000 $900 - $8,000 $600 - $4,000
  Ounce 160 - 600 160 - 600 100 - 600 80 - 1,200
  THC Content 12.33% 13.38% 12.82% 9.03%

Source: The potency data for both commercial grade and sinsemilla marijuana are provided by the Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project, conducted by the University of Mississippi, and sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:8XWyuOiNC1kJ:www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/01001-intellbrief.pdf+BC+Bud+The+U.S.+Drug+Enforcement+Administration+Intelligence+Division+December+Report+2000&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

1
Introduction
Marijuana and other cannabis
products are the most widely
abused and readily available illicit
drugs in Canada. Canadian law
enforcement intelligence indicates
that marijuana traffickers there
increasingly are cultivating
cannabis indoors. Such indoor
grow operations have become an
enormous and lucrative illicit
industry, producing a potent form of
marijuana that has come to be
commonly known as “BC Bud.”
Canadian officials estimate that
cannabis cultivation in British
Columbia is a billion-dollar industry and that traffickers smuggle a significant portion of the Canadian
harvest into the United States.
Indoor Cannabis Cultivation Rises in Canada
Canadian growers produce cannabis plants with powerful buds, often using sophisticated hydroponic
cultivation techniques. While the term “BC Bud” literally refers to the bud of the female cannabis plant
grown in British Columbia, the term has become synonymous in the popular media for high-potency
Canadian-grown marijuana. Such marijuana has a THC
1
content ranging from 15 percent to as much as
25 percent, far more potent than the naturally grown cannabis plants of the 1970s, which had a THC
content of only 2 percent.
Marijuana traffickers in Canada employ the most current methods of growing cannabis. Growers isolate
and clone selected female plants for sinsemilla production, and they use high-tech equipment to
electronically regulate temperature, light, and nutrients in hydroponic greenhouses that enable them to
grow up to six marijuana crops per year. According to the Canadian Government, a cannabis grower
operating a 50-plant hydroponic operation that harvests three crops of 15-percent potency can realize an
annual profit of Can$225,000.

I'm not sure what that was all about. I've seen Canadian government data that contradicts the 15 to 25% claim finding average potency in Canada in reality considerably lower than that. But all of this is irrelevant. We aren't talking about "BC Bud." We are talking about the average potency of marijuana found on the streets in this country today (Most of which by the way is cheap Mexican marijuana, not the potent expensive stuff. That's why the average potency in 2001 for all types of marijuana wasn't closer to the 9.03% average of sinsemilla, but instead was so close to the 4.72% average for commercial grade marijuana.) The average potency of all seized marijuana tested according to the Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project was 5.02% in 2001. Your 15% claim was about three times the actual average.

We've gone over this enough. Just know that in reality the vast majority of the marijuana on the street in this country today isn't the incredibly strong stuff. And whether it is 15% or stronger or just 4.72%, it will get you high as a kite if you smoke enough of it. You just have to smoke more of the weaker stuff to get to that point. Three to five puffs of the regular commercial grade stuff will do the same as one or two puffs of the stronger stuff. And I can tell you from experience from my younger days in the late seventies and eighties, there was really strong pot available back then too. From all accounts I've heard people were getting as high as they wanted to be with the stuff they were smoking before that too. They may have had to smoke a little bit more to reach whatever level of buzz they were looking for, but they were getting just as high as people get today.

I think the difference between the marijuana out there today and that people were smoking twenty or thirty years ago is mostly hype anyway. Obviously today's pot isn't all 15 or 20% THC like some of the powers that be seem to want to trick people into believing. And I doubt there is even as much difference as the actual numbers suggest between the pot people were smoking 30 years ago. They were seizing far less marijuana in the seventies and testing far fewer samples back then. Law enforcement tactics were not nearly as aggressive or sophisticated as they are today. Back then they were probably busting mostly the chuckle-heads that stand on street corners selling crappy pot to tourists out in the open. These days the narcs are out in force infiltrating all strata of drug markets, busting people left and right and coercing many of these people into becoming informants who get them in deeper and deeper into the drug underworlds.

I'm a criminal defense attorney and I know a lot of these guys and their methods. They can get anything they want today and are very interested in finding the sources for the high quality expensive bud out there. Busting people with less than several pounds of cheap Mexican is too easy for the task force guys and it doesn't win them as many pats on the back as locating even a smaller quantity of the hydro weed. (Besides the guys with the expensive pot usually have more assets law enforcement can seize.) They focus mainly on that and the hard drugs while the patrolmen working the highway with the dogs and the electronic sniffers and their density meters and fiber optic scopes for looking in gas tanks and false compartments find the huge loads of Mexican brick weed and the occasional big load of ice or coke (or cash). We're in a small town but our local drug task force and highway interdiction officers are so flush with cash from government grants and asset forfeiture proceeds that they are extremely well trained, well staffed, and well equipped. Things were a lot different 30 years ago.

Here is an AP report about driving while high.

Millions In U.S. Do Drugs, Drive
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2003
An estimated 11 million Americans, including nearly one in five 21-year-olds, have driven while under the influence of illegal drugs, the government says.

The numbers announced Tuesday were especially high for college students. Eighteen percent of students surveyed said they drove while on drugs last year, compared with 14 percent of their peers who weren't in college.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the statistics show a failure to convince drivers that drugs impair driving as much as alcohol does. His office is kicking off an ad campaign titled "Steer Clear of Pot" to warn teens about driving while smoking marijuana.

"Marijuana is not the soft drug. Marijuana is not the casual rite of passage," Walters said at a news conference. "We have been sending the wrong message."

Walters said marijuana can affect concentration, perception, coordination and reaction time for up to 24 hours after smoking it.

Citing a separate study, the Office of National Drug Control Policy reports approximately one in six high school seniors in the U.S. admitted to driving under the influence of marijuana.

And 41 percent of teens surveyed by Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) and Liberty Mutual said they were not concerned about driving after using drugs.

In an effort to raise public awareness of the problem of drugged driving, television advertisements will run during September and October, to impress upon teens the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana.

Nineteen-year-old Theodore Stevens of New Jersey told reporters that he believed smoking pot and driving wasn't dangerous despite getting into four accidents in three years. He says he's lucky none of those incidents caused serious injuries.

"Sometimes I believed it increased my driving performance," said Stevens, who has been in drug treatment for four months after being charged with possession of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Stevens began smoking pot when he was 14.

The report, compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, used 2002 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey questioned 68,000 people. Researchers then extrapolated the percentages to the population as a whole. A federal statistician said the margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

For 21-year-olds, the rate of those who reported driving under the influence of drugs was 18 percent, the highest of any age group. That dropped off to 14.5 percent for 22-year-olds. Unemployed adults age 26 to 49 also had a high frequency of driving while drugged — 9.3 percent, compared with 5.1 percent for drivers employed full time.

Among racial or ethnic groups, American Indians reported the highest rate of driving while drugged, at 6.3 percent compared with 5 percent of whites, 4.5 percent of blacks, 3.7 percent of Hispanics, 3.1 percent of Pacific Islanders and 1.3 percent of Asians.

Dr. Jeffrey Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said there were approximately 38,000 crashes last year involving drivers impaired by marijuana. But Runge said he didn't know how many fatal accidents were caused by drugged drivers. State data collection is spotty, Runge said, and many drivers who are driving while drugged are also drinking.

"While we don't have fixed data, impairment is impairment," he said.

http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/Pages/detox.html

Detoxing from Marijuana

What is Detoxing?

Detoxing is the way in which your body gets rid of the toxins accumulated from years of using. It happens the first few days or weeks after getting clean and/or sober. It is also the very beginning of getting used to dealing with reality and real feelings with no numbing agent.

Can there be physical effects from quitting marijuana?

In spite of numerous years of being told that there are no physiological effects from marijuana addiction, many of our recovering members have had definite withdrawal symptoms. Whether the causes are physical or psychological, the results are physical. Others have just had emotional and mental changes as they stop using their drug of choice. There is no way of telling before quitting who will be physically uncomfortable and who will not. Most members have only minor physical discomfort if any at all. This pamphlet is for those who are having trouble and wonder what's happening to them.

Why do some effects last so long?

Unlike most other drugs, including alcohol, THC (the active chemical in marijuana) is stored in the fat cells and therefore takes longer to fully clear the body than with any other common drug. This means that some parts of the body still retain THC even after a couple of months, rather than just the couple of days or weeks for water soluble drugs.

Can this affect a drug test?

The experiences of some members have shown that if you quit marijuana and expect to take a drug test you should not go on a crash diet at the same time. Fasting, or a crash diet, can release the THC into the bloodstream very rapidly and can give a positive reading. This has happened to several of our members, but each time only with crash diets and major weight loss, not with just eating less than usual.

What are some of the more common symptoms?

By far the most common symptom of withdrawal is insomnia. This can last from a few nights of practically no sleep at all, up to a few months of occasional sleeplessness. The next most common symptom is depression (that is, if you're not euphoric), and next are nightmares and vivid dreams. Marijuana use tends to dampen the dreaming mechanism, so that when you do get clean the dreams come back with a crash. They can be vivid color, highly emotional dreams or nightmares, even waking up then coming back to the same dream. The very vivid, every-night dreams usually don't start for about a week or so. They last for about a month at most and then taper off. "Using" dreams (dreams involving the use of marijuana) are very common, and although they're not as vivid or emotional as at first, they last for years and are just considered a normal part of recovery.

The fourth most common symptom is anger. This can range from a slow burning rage to constant irritability to sudden bursts of anger when least expected: anger at the world, anger at loved ones, anger at oneself, anger at being an addict and having to get clean. Emotional jags are very common, with emotions bouncing back and forth between depression, anger, and euphoria. Occasionally experienced is a feeling of fear or anxiety, a loss of the sense of humor, decreased sex drive, or increased sex drive. Most all of these symptoms fade to normal emotions by three months. Loss of concentration for the first week or month is also very common and this sometimes affects the ability to learn for a very short while.

What about physical symptoms?

The most common physical symptom is headaches. For those who have them, they can last for a few weeks up to a couple of months, with the first few days being very intense. The next most common physical symptom is night sweats, sometimes to the point of having to change night clothes. They can last from a few nights to a month or so. Sweating is one of the body's natural ways of getting rid of toxins. Hand sweats are very common and are often accompanied by an unpleasant smell from the hands. Body odor is enough in many instances to require extra showers or baths. Coughing up phlegm is another way the body cleans itself. This can last for a few weeks to well over six months.

One third of the addicts who responded to a questionnaire on detoxing said they had eating problems for the first few days and some for up to six weeks. Their main symptoms were loss of appetite, sometimes enough to lose weight temporarily, digestion problems or cramps after eating, and nausea, occasionally enough to vomit (only for a day or two). Most of the eating problems were totally gone before the end of a month.

The next most common physical symptoms experienced were tremors or shaking and dizziness. Less frequently experienced were kidney pains, impotency, hormone changes or imbalances, low immunity or chronic fatigue, and some minor eye problems that resolved at around two months. There have been cases of addicts having more severe detox symptoms, however this is rare. For intense discomfort, see a doctor, preferably one who is experienced with detoxing.

How can I reduce discomfort?

For some of the milder detoxing symptoms, a few home remedies have proven to be useful:

* Hot soaking baths can help the emotions as well as the body.
* Drink plenty of water and clear liquids, just like for the flu.
* Cranberry juice has been used effectively for years by recovery houses to help purify and cleanse the body.
* Really excessive sweating can deplete the body of potassium, a necessary mineral. A few foods high in potassium are: melons, bananas, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables, and tomatoes.
* Eliminate fat from the diet until digestion is better.
* Greatly reduce or eliminate caffeine until the sleep pattern is more normal or the shakes are gone.
* The old fashioned remedy for insomnia, a glass of warm milk before bedtime, helps some people.
* Exercise not only helps depression and other unpleasant emotions, it helps the body speed up the healing process.

Conference Approved Literature

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