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What is Marijuana?
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names (weed, herb, pot, grass, ganja) is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. The cannabis plant has been grown since the 3rd millennium BCE, but evidence suggests it was being smoked for psychoactive effects at least 2,500 years ago in the Pamir Mountains.
In 1970, Marijuana was classified as a schedule 1 drug in the United States, the strictest designation possible making the use of marijuana completely illegal. For decades this persisted, which made research and mechanism on marijuana harder to study.
Today, a large number of nations have legalized marijuana use in terms of medical purposes. Marijuana is the most commonly used addictive drug after tobacco and alcohol.
What is Marijuana made up of?
The marijuana plant is native to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinents. It is made from dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica plant.
The marijuana plant contains 400 different chemicals, but Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC has the greatest effect on our body. The other is Cannabidiol or CBD. The THC is primarily responsible for marijuana’s psychoactive effects on Behaviors, cognition, and perception. While CBD is responsible for the non-psychoactive effect.
Why do we smoke Marijuana?
We feel euphoric and have an altered perception of time. Some people use cannabis to deal with withdrawal symptoms from other legal or illegal drugs.
There is a growing body of evidence that shows marijuana has many medical conditions to improve the quality of life. Medical use is linked to managing physical and mental problems and to preserving health.
A person’s social environment can be particularly influential when it comes to experimenting with marijuana. The normalization uses within the social group makes it more likely that they will use it.
Some people perceive marijuana as harmless, potentially making it more appealing than tobacco or other illicit drugs. This can develop into substance abuse disorder and with severe use can lead to addiction.
Young people may also use marijuana to feel good, ease boredom, relieve tension or frustration, seek deeper insights, escape problems, or increase or decreases the effect of other drugs.
What are the ways marijuana is consumed?
It can be consumed by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.
Smoking: This involves burning and inhaling vaporized cannabinoids (smoke) from small pipes, Bongs (a portable version of Hookah), paper-wrapped joints, or tobacco-leaf-wrapped blunts.
Vaporizer: This heats cannabis to a high temperature causing active ingredients to evaporate into vapor without burning the plant material. This extracted vapor may be collected in an inflatable bag or inhaled directly through a hose or pipe.
Within Food: A cannabis edibles or cannabis-infused food is a food product that contains cannabis extract as an active ingredient. Cannabis edible may affect people for a longer period of time than smoked cannabis. Bhang is one of the edible preparations in India during the time of Holi.
Extract: Tincture of cannabis, known as green dragon, is an alcoholic cannabis concentrate. Cannabis tinctures are used in the production of specific extracts like nabiximois. The various forms of the extract are hash oil or honey oil (concentrated gooey liquid), wax or budder (a soft solid), and shatter (a hard amber-colored solid).
What happens in our brain when we smoke Marijuana?
Marijuana acts on our body’s cannabinoid system. When marijuana enters our body through inhalation, it acts on the receptors called cannabinoid receptors or endocannabinoids causing a decrease in the release of Gaba and glutamate neurotransmitters. Let’s understand this further.
Most neurotransmitters travel from one neuron to the next through synapses to send a message. But endocannabinoids travel in the opposite direction. When a message is received in the receiving neuron, endocannabinoids are released and travel backward to influence the sending neuron essentially giving feedback from the receiving neuron. We can understand that this can have adverse effects in 2 ways, it can amplify some signals and dimmish others.
For example, slowing down the smell receptors can actually make the smell more intense.
The THC slows down the signal by binding with the cannabinoid receptors. But this binding depends on many external factors such as brain chemistry, genetics, and previous life experiences. That’s the reason each person reacts differently to marijuana. So, the harmful effect also varies from person to person.
What are the side effects of Marijuana?
A 2010 study showed there wasn’t any evidence relating the use of marijuana to lung function. Even higher doses didn’t show any negative effects on lung function.
In people aged less than 25, cannabinoid receptors are more concentrated in the white matter than in people over 25. This white matter is involved in communication, learning memory, and emotion. Frequent use of marijuana can disrupt the development of white matter affecting the brain’s ability to grow new connections. This can cause problems in long-term learning and problem-solving abilities.
Marijuana can also cause hallucinations or paranoid delusions known as marijuana-induced psychosis. But these usually subside once the person stops using marijuana. But in some cases, it doesn’t subside causing a persistent psychotic disorder. This can trigger schizophrenia if a family is having a history of psychotic disorders.
As we age, our brain and body become less sensitive to marijuana after repeated uses, which means we need to consume more to get the same effect. But, unlike other drugs, there isn’t any fatal use of marijuana and a heavy dose doesn’t lead to life-threatening withdrawal symptoms if use stops.
Other short-term effects include sleep disturbances, irritability, and depressed mood which usually pass after few weeks of stopping use.
Long-term marijuana use can lead to Cannabis use disorder or CUD. Symptoms of CUD include lack of motivation, disturbed sleep, decreased appetite, decreased concentration and loss of interest in other activities, tolerance, and dependence.
Some studies found that Cannabis has been effective to kill several cancer types including lung cancer.
A study of more than 45,000 Swedes, followed for 15 years, found no increase in mortality in those who used marijuana after controlling for other factors.
Alcohol Vs Marijuana
Alcohol causes cancer, liver failure and has a wide variety of long-term effects on our bodies. Tobacco causes lung cancer and other related diseases and has a list of long-term effects. Both these have many withdrawal problems. But still, millions of people use it daily, and thousands of people die each day consuming alcohol or tobacco. Both these are legalized in almost every country but are regulated.
Marijuana doesn’t have any persistent long-term effects. Studies found no evidence of marijuana-linked to any cancer-related disease or any defect in our body functionality. In fact, marijuana is found to have medicinal properties. There haven’t been any fatalities by the consumption of marijuana. But still, marijuana is illegal in almost every country.
Marijuana should be regulated just like alcohol or tobacco in countries all around the world and the freedom for us to consume marijuana just like alcohol and tobacco should extend.
To know more about tobacco and its side effects, click here, and to know more about alcohol and its side effects, click here.
How can we stop smoking Marijuana?
Cannabis dependences develop in about 9% of the users, leading to cannabis withdrawal symptoms. Increasing the strength of the cannabis taken and increasing the use of other effective methods of delivery often increases the progression of cannabis dependency.
But most symptoms begin during the first week of abstinence and resolve after a few weeks.
Most treatments for stopping the users fall into the category of psychological or psychotherapeutic, intervention, pharmacological intervention, or treatment through peer support and environmental approaches. No medication has been found effective for cannabis dependence.
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