Interesting stuff on Marijuana
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Interesting stuff on Marijuana
Marijuana
Marijuana is the most widely abused illegal drug in the United States. It is often called pot, grass, joints, roaches, reefer, weed, and Mary Jane. Marijuana can be eaten, swallowed as a pill, brewed in tea, or smoked. In the United States, it is most often smoked in rolled cigarettes (joints), in pipes, or recently in hollowed-out cigars (blunts).
Immediate effects of marijuana depend on the strength and potency of its main active chemical, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Since 1975, the average potency of marijuana has increased 560%.1
Some people feel relaxed or high after smoking marijuana, while others feel nothing. The effects can be felt within seconds after inhaling and within 30 to 60 minutes after eating it. Effects last about 2 to 3 hours.
A person who has just had marijuana usually has dilated pupils and very red, bloodshot eyes. He or she may behave differently, such as seem dizzy and have trouble walking, or silly and giggly for no reason. After smoking marijuana, some people are thirsty and very hungry ("get the munchies") and then get sleepy. Sometimes people have negative effects from marijuana, such as sudden feelings of anxiety or paranoid thoughts.
Many people do not believe that using marijuana is a problem. However, marijuana is not a "safe" drug. It causes physical and psychological problems. Marijuana use is harmful because:2
Regular use of marijuana can cause problems with memory and affect problem-solving and learning. It can cause mood swings, anxiety, and depression.
It can damage the lungs, which may lead to breathing problems (such as wheezing and bronchitis).
It contains many cancer-causing chemicals and a mind-altering substance called THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol).
When under the influence of marijuana, a person may feel as if he or she can do anything. The person is more likely to take risks and to have an auto accident while under the influence.
It can cause lower sperm counts and increased breast size in males. In females, it can cause menstrual problems.
Frequent, heavy use of marijuana can lead to needing increasing amounts of it to get the same feelings (tolerance) and possibly to dependence (addiction). If daily use is stopped, flulike withdrawal symptoms and craving for the drug can develop within 24 to 48 hours and last about 2 weeks.
Long-term, regular use of marijuana may contribute to developing some kinds of cancer, breathing problems similar to smoking (cough and wheezing), and a weakened immune system. Long-term heavy use can lead to difficulty maintaining attention to what's going on around the person and to reduced motivation. Women who use marijuana during pregnancy may have babies that are shorter, weigh less, and have smaller head sizes than babies born to mothers who do not use the drug.3
Marijuana is strongly absorbed by fatty tissues in various organs of the body. The chemical THC usually can be detected in urine several days after marijuana has been smoked. If marijuana is used heavily, traces of THC may be detected in urine for weeks after use has stopped.
Signs of use
Changes in a person's behavior that may indicate marijuana use include:
Withdrawal, fatigue, and depression.
Carelessness with grooming.
Hostility and relationship problems.
Changes in academic performance and increased absenteeism or truancy. Regular use of marijuana affects short-term memory, learning, and attention span.
Loss of interest in sports or other favorite activities.
Changes in eating or sleeping habits.
When a teen is using marijuana, the parent may find evidence of the drug and drug paraphernalia, including pipes and rolling papers, in the teen's bedroom. There may be a noticeable sweet odor on the teen's clothing. The teen may burn incense or use room deodorizers to get rid of the marijuana smell. The teen may also use eyedrops to get rid of the bloodshot eyes.
Taken from:
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/hw/heal...?navbar=tp17750
Marijuana is the most widely abused illegal drug in the United States. It is often called pot, grass, joints, roaches, reefer, weed, and Mary Jane. Marijuana can be eaten, swallowed as a pill, brewed in tea, or smoked. In the United States, it is most often smoked in rolled cigarettes (joints), in pipes, or recently in hollowed-out cigars (blunts).
Immediate effects of marijuana depend on the strength and potency of its main active chemical, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Since 1975, the average potency of marijuana has increased 560%.1
Some people feel relaxed or high after smoking marijuana, while others feel nothing. The effects can be felt within seconds after inhaling and within 30 to 60 minutes after eating it. Effects last about 2 to 3 hours.
A person who has just had marijuana usually has dilated pupils and very red, bloodshot eyes. He or she may behave differently, such as seem dizzy and have trouble walking, or silly and giggly for no reason. After smoking marijuana, some people are thirsty and very hungry ("get the munchies") and then get sleepy. Sometimes people have negative effects from marijuana, such as sudden feelings of anxiety or paranoid thoughts.
Many people do not believe that using marijuana is a problem. However, marijuana is not a "safe" drug. It causes physical and psychological problems. Marijuana use is harmful because:2
Regular use of marijuana can cause problems with memory and affect problem-solving and learning. It can cause mood swings, anxiety, and depression.
It can damage the lungs, which may lead to breathing problems (such as wheezing and bronchitis).
It contains many cancer-causing chemicals and a mind-altering substance called THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol).
When under the influence of marijuana, a person may feel as if he or she can do anything. The person is more likely to take risks and to have an auto accident while under the influence.
It can cause lower sperm counts and increased breast size in males. In females, it can cause menstrual problems.
Frequent, heavy use of marijuana can lead to needing increasing amounts of it to get the same feelings (tolerance) and possibly to dependence (addiction). If daily use is stopped, flulike withdrawal symptoms and craving for the drug can develop within 24 to 48 hours and last about 2 weeks.
Long-term, regular use of marijuana may contribute to developing some kinds of cancer, breathing problems similar to smoking (cough and wheezing), and a weakened immune system. Long-term heavy use can lead to difficulty maintaining attention to what's going on around the person and to reduced motivation. Women who use marijuana during pregnancy may have babies that are shorter, weigh less, and have smaller head sizes than babies born to mothers who do not use the drug.3
Marijuana is strongly absorbed by fatty tissues in various organs of the body. The chemical THC usually can be detected in urine several days after marijuana has been smoked. If marijuana is used heavily, traces of THC may be detected in urine for weeks after use has stopped.
Signs of use
Changes in a person's behavior that may indicate marijuana use include:
Withdrawal, fatigue, and depression.
Carelessness with grooming.
Hostility and relationship problems.
Changes in academic performance and increased absenteeism or truancy. Regular use of marijuana affects short-term memory, learning, and attention span.
Loss of interest in sports or other favorite activities.
Changes in eating or sleeping habits.
When a teen is using marijuana, the parent may find evidence of the drug and drug paraphernalia, including pipes and rolling papers, in the teen's bedroom. There may be a noticeable sweet odor on the teen's clothing. The teen may burn incense or use room deodorizers to get rid of the marijuana smell. The teen may also use eyedrops to get rid of the bloodshot eyes.
Taken from:
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/hw/heal...?navbar=tp17750
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Originally Posted by tweder,Nov 30 2004, 02:42 PM
And you posted this, why?
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Originally Posted by kane.s2k,Nov 30 2004, 06:37 PM
It is often called pot, grass, joints, roaches, reefer, weed, and Mary Jane. Marijuana can be eaten, swallowed as a pill, brewed in tea, or smoked.
Never had marijuana pills or tea before, though. Sounds like stuff you'd do with shrooms, not weed.
Never had the effects last 2-3 hours either, although that would certainly be nice if it were true!
And of course, let's not forget the beneficial effects of our good friend marijuana, including decreased anxiety, stimulation of appetite in people who have GI problems (as well as other illnesses), and overall jolliness!
Finally, it should be noted that marijuana definitely can have some undesirable side effects, but the ones mentioned here are generally milder than the ones typically encountered from other legal drugs, such as alcohol and coffee, and far milder than the side effects of most prescription drugs. Yet oddly enough, those drugs are recognized as having legitimate value under certain circumstances (an idea the government refuses to even explore for marijuana), and the government isn't on a warpath against them.
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From: houston
No thanks. I'll get my information from recent research and not some mystical rumors and bullshit about the herb that have sprung from a tree of evil that has been rooted for the past 70 years because of money and politics.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1651/a06.html
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1651/a06.html
Newshawk: kirkmuse
Rate this article Votes: 4
Pubdate: Wed, 01 Dec 2004
Source: Scientific American (US)
Copyright: 2004 Scientific American, Inc
Contact: editors@sciam.com
Website: http://www.sciam.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/404
Author: The Editors
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
MARIJUANA RESEARCH
The human brain naturally produces and processes compounds closely related to those found in Cannabis sativa, better known as marijuana [see "The Brain's Own Marijuana," by Roger A. Nicoll and Bradley E. Alger.] These compounds are called endogenous cannabinoids or endocannabinoids. As the journal Nature Medicine put it in 2003, "the endocannabinoid system has an important role in nearly every paradigm of pain, in memory, in neurodegeneration and in inflammation." The journal goes on to note that cannabinoids' "clinical potential is enormous." That potential may include treatments for pain, nerve injury, the nausea associated with chemotherapy, the wasting related to AIDS and more.
Yet outdated regulations and attitudes thwart legitimate research with marijuana. Indeed, American biomedical researchers can more easily acquire and investigate cocaine. Marijuana is classified as a so-called Schedule 1 drug, alongside LSD and heroin. As such, it is defined as being potentially addictive and having no medical use, which under the circumstances becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Any researcher attempting to study marijuana must obtain it through the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ). The U.S. research crop, grown at a single facility, is regarded as less potent--and therefore less medicinally interesting--than the marijuana often easily available on the street. Thus, the legal supply is a poor vehicle for studying the approximately 60 cannabinoids that might have medical applications.
This system has unintended, almost comic, consequences. For example, it has created a market for research marijuana, with "buyers" trading journal co-authorships to "sellers" who already have a marijuana stockpile or license. The government may also have a stake in a certain kind of result. One scientist tells of a research grant application to study marijuana's potential medical benefits. NIDA turned it down. That scientist rewrote the grant to emphasize finding marijuana's negative effects. The study was funded.
Some may argue that researchers do not need to study the drug--after all, there is Marinol, a synthetic version of marijuana's major active compound, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC; it relieves nausea and stimulates appetite. But patients are often disappointed with Marinol as compared with marijuana. A 1997 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that "it is difficult to titrate the therapeutic dose of this drug, and it is not widely prescribed. By contrast, smoking marijuana produces a rapid increase in the blood level of the active ingredients and is thus more likely to be therapeutic."
The reasonable course is to make it easier for American researchers to at least examine marijuana for possible medical benefits. Great Britain, no slacker in the war on drugs, takes this approach: the government has authorized a pharmaceutical firm to grow different strains of marijuana for clinical trials.
This call for marijuana research is not a closet campaign for drug legalization--easing research barriers would not require that marijuana be reclassified, nor would it have any bearing on individual states' decisions to approve limited use of medical marijuana. As a 1995 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association said, "We are not asking readers for immediate agreement with our affirmation that marijuana is medically useful, but we hope they will do more to encourage open and legal exploration of its potential." After almost a decade of little progress, we reiterate that sentiment."
Do some research on why marijuana/hemp was made illegal in the first place. It's not hard at all to connect the dots on the Dupont corporation and their involvement with the Federal Government in getting hemp prohibited so that they could make mass amounts of money in the paper industry using a chemical Dupont created to convert wood pulp in to paper.
Don't be one of the puppet people that blindly believes anything they see, read, or hear from the establishment media.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1651/a06.html
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1651/a06.html
Newshawk: kirkmuse
Rate this article Votes: 4
Pubdate: Wed, 01 Dec 2004
Source: Scientific American (US)
Copyright: 2004 Scientific American, Inc
Contact: editors@sciam.com
Website: http://www.sciam.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/404
Author: The Editors
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
MARIJUANA RESEARCH
The human brain naturally produces and processes compounds closely related to those found in Cannabis sativa, better known as marijuana [see "The Brain's Own Marijuana," by Roger A. Nicoll and Bradley E. Alger.] These compounds are called endogenous cannabinoids or endocannabinoids. As the journal Nature Medicine put it in 2003, "the endocannabinoid system has an important role in nearly every paradigm of pain, in memory, in neurodegeneration and in inflammation." The journal goes on to note that cannabinoids' "clinical potential is enormous." That potential may include treatments for pain, nerve injury, the nausea associated with chemotherapy, the wasting related to AIDS and more.
Yet outdated regulations and attitudes thwart legitimate research with marijuana. Indeed, American biomedical researchers can more easily acquire and investigate cocaine. Marijuana is classified as a so-called Schedule 1 drug, alongside LSD and heroin. As such, it is defined as being potentially addictive and having no medical use, which under the circumstances becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Any researcher attempting to study marijuana must obtain it through the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ). The U.S. research crop, grown at a single facility, is regarded as less potent--and therefore less medicinally interesting--than the marijuana often easily available on the street. Thus, the legal supply is a poor vehicle for studying the approximately 60 cannabinoids that might have medical applications.
This system has unintended, almost comic, consequences. For example, it has created a market for research marijuana, with "buyers" trading journal co-authorships to "sellers" who already have a marijuana stockpile or license. The government may also have a stake in a certain kind of result. One scientist tells of a research grant application to study marijuana's potential medical benefits. NIDA turned it down. That scientist rewrote the grant to emphasize finding marijuana's negative effects. The study was funded.
Some may argue that researchers do not need to study the drug--after all, there is Marinol, a synthetic version of marijuana's major active compound, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC; it relieves nausea and stimulates appetite. But patients are often disappointed with Marinol as compared with marijuana. A 1997 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that "it is difficult to titrate the therapeutic dose of this drug, and it is not widely prescribed. By contrast, smoking marijuana produces a rapid increase in the blood level of the active ingredients and is thus more likely to be therapeutic."
The reasonable course is to make it easier for American researchers to at least examine marijuana for possible medical benefits. Great Britain, no slacker in the war on drugs, takes this approach: the government has authorized a pharmaceutical firm to grow different strains of marijuana for clinical trials.
This call for marijuana research is not a closet campaign for drug legalization--easing research barriers would not require that marijuana be reclassified, nor would it have any bearing on individual states' decisions to approve limited use of medical marijuana. As a 1995 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association said, "We are not asking readers for immediate agreement with our affirmation that marijuana is medically useful, but we hope they will do more to encourage open and legal exploration of its potential." After almost a decade of little progress, we reiterate that sentiment."
Do some research on why marijuana/hemp was made illegal in the first place. It's not hard at all to connect the dots on the Dupont corporation and their involvement with the Federal Government in getting hemp prohibited so that they could make mass amounts of money in the paper industry using a chemical Dupont created to convert wood pulp in to paper.
Don't be one of the puppet people that blindly believes anything they see, read, or hear from the establishment media.
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From: SF Bay Area
Also interesting that the new diet drug rimonabant, which is being heralded as the latest and greatest hope for sustained weight reduction (also supposedly effective for smoking cessation), binds to the cannibinoid receptors. Those receptors are there for a reason, they aren't evil, and sometimes good things happen when stuff binds to them.
Hell, it's recognized that even opiates like morphine have some legitimate uses. Seems rather silly to condemn marijuana as wholly destructive. Sure, it'll screw you over with misuse, but name one substance that this isn't true of.
Lung damage is one of the main dangers of marijuana use, and that could easily be minimized were it to be legalized. Even now, you can purchase vaporizers that produce no smoke at all. The cancer risk is hilarious - is it just me, or has just about everything been linked to cancer over the last ten years or so? I don't think marijuana is alone on this one...
Hell, it's recognized that even opiates like morphine have some legitimate uses. Seems rather silly to condemn marijuana as wholly destructive. Sure, it'll screw you over with misuse, but name one substance that this isn't true of.
Lung damage is one of the main dangers of marijuana use, and that could easily be minimized were it to be legalized. Even now, you can purchase vaporizers that produce no smoke at all. The cancer risk is hilarious - is it just me, or has just about everything been linked to cancer over the last ten years or so? I don't think marijuana is alone on this one...
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No thanks. I'll get my information from recent research and not some mystical rumors and bullshit about the herb that have sprung from a tree of evil that has been rooted for the past 70 years because of money and politics.