Marijuana Addiction

Marijuana

What is Marijuana?

Marijuana – frequently called pot, grass, reefer, weed, herb, mary jane, or mj – is a greenish-gray combination of the dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of Cannabis Sativa, the hemp plant. The majority of users smoke marijuana in hand-rolled cigarettes known as joints, among other names. Some use pipes or water pipes known as bongs. Marijuana cigars known as blunts have also become popular. To create blunts, users slice open cigars and exchange the tobacco with marijuana, frequently combined with a different drug, such as crack cocaine. Marijuana is also used to brew tea and is occasionally mixed into foods.

The chief chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which produces the mind-altering effects of marijuana intoxication. The amount of THC (which is also the psychoactive element in hashish) determines the potency and, therefore, the effects of marijuana. Between 1980 and 1997, the amount of THC in marijuana obtainable in the United States rose significantly.

How does marijuana affect the brain?

Scientists have discovered a great deal about how THC performs in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC quickly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to organs throughout the body, including the brain. In the brain, THC attaches to specific sites called cannabinoid receptors on nerve cells and thus manipulates the activity of those cells. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. Numerous cannabinoid receptors are found in the parts of the brain that induce pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.

What are the severe effects of marijuana use?

Marijuana’s effects begin directly after the drug penetrates the brain and last from one to three hours. If marijuana is consumed in food or drink, the temporary effects begin more slowly, typically in 1/2 to one hour, and last longer, for as long as four hours. Smoking marijuana deposits several times more THC into the blood than does eating or drinking the drug.

Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, a person’s heart starts beating more quickly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes spread out, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana.

As THC penetrates the brain, it causes a user to feel euphoric – or “high” – by acting in the brain’s reward system, sections of the brain that respond to stimuli such as food and drink as well as most drugs of abuse. THC activates the reward system in the same way that nearly all drugs of abuse do, by stimulating brain cells to release the chemical dopamine.

A marijuana user may experience pleasant feelings, colors and sounds may seem more intense, and time appears to pass very slowly. The user’s mouth feels dry, and he or she may suddenly become very hungry and thirsty. His or her hands may tremble and grow cold. The euphoria passes after awhile, and then the user may feel sleepy or depressed. Occasionally, marijuana use produces anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic.

Marijuana use impairs an individual’s ability to form memories, recall events and shifts concentration from one thing to another. THC also upsets coordination and balance by binding to receptors in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, parts of the brain that regulate balance, posture, coordination of movement, and reaction time. Through its effects on the brain and body, marijuana intoxication can cause accidents. In many of these cases, alcohol is discovered as well.

Marijuana users who have taken high doses of the drug may encounter acute toxic psychosis, which includes hallucinations, delusions, and depersonalization – a loss of the sense of personal identity, or self-recognition. Although the specific causes of these symptoms remain unknown, they appear to occur more frequently when a high dose of cannabis is consumed in food or drink rather than smoked.

How does marijuana use affect the physical condition?

Marijuana use has been shown to increase users’ difficulty in trying to quit smoking tobacco. This was recently reported in a study comparing smoking cessation in adults who smoked both marijuana and tobacco with those who smoked only tobacco. The relationship between marijuana use and continued smoking was particularly strong in those who smoked marijuana daily at the time of the initial interview, 13 years prior to the follow-up interview.

A study of 450 individuals found that individuals who smoke marijuana regularly but do not smoke tobacco have more health troubles and miss more days of work than non-smokers do. Many of the extra sick days utilized by the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

Even infrequent marijuana use can produce burning and stinging of the mouth and throat, often accompanied by a heavy cough. Individuals that smoke marijuana frequently may have many of similar respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as daily cough and phlegm production, frequent acute chest illnesses, an increased risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency toward obstructed airways.

Cancer of the respiratory tract and lungs may also be promoted by marijuana smoke. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced strong evidence that smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck, and that the more marijuana smoked, the greater the increase. A statistical analysis of the data suggested that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.

Marijuana has the capability to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract due to containing irritants and carcinogens. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. It also produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form, levels that may accelerate the changes that ultimately produce malignant cells. Marijuana users typically inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do; this increases the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. These facts suggest that, puff for puff, smoking marijuana may enhance the risk of cancer more than smoking tobacco does.

Some adverse health effects caused by marijuana may occur because THC impairs the immune system’s capability to fight off infectious diseases and cancer. In laboratory experiments that exposed animal and human cells to THC or other marijuana ingredients, the normal disease preventing reactions of many of the key types of immune cells were inhibited. In other studies, mice exposed to THC or related substances were more likely than unexposed mice to develop bacterial infections and tumors.

What treatments are offered to marijuana abusers?

Treatment programs directed at marijuana abuse are rare, partly because many who use marijuana do so in combination with other drugs, such as cocaine and alcohol. Though, with more individuals searching for help to control marijuana abuse, research has focused on ways to overcome problems with abuse of this drug.

No medications are presently available to treat marijuana abuse. However, recent findings about the workings of THC receptors have raised the likelihood that scientists may eventually create a medication that will block THC’s intoxicating effects. Such a medication might be used to stop relapse to marijuana abuse by reducing or eliminating its appeal.