According to The National Institute of Drug Abuse scientific studies of the active chemicals in marijuana are called cannabinoids has led the FDA to develop two approved medicines and is leading to develop pharmaceutical that control the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids while diminishing the harmful side effects which includes the high either eating or smoking the leaves. Currently, there are two main cannabinoids that are therapeutically of interest which are (THC) Tetrahydrocannabinol and (CBD) Cannabidiol which are found in various ratios within the marijuana plant. THC stimulates ones appetite and reduces nausea (which there are other approved THC medications for that purpose), and it may decrease pain, spasticity and inflammation. The CBD is considered a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that may also be useful in decreasing pain, inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures and it may treat psychosis and addiction. A June 2014 article in the New England Journal of Medicine has presented research that supported the existence of short and long term consequences in marijuana use.
• Short-term: marijuana users may have experienced impaired short term memory, impaired motor skills that interfere with driving, altered judgement that has increased risk of engaging in sexual behaviors and high induced paranoia and psychosis.
• Long-term: addiction, altered brain development, cognitive impairment, poor educational outcomes, diminished life satisfaction and achievements, severe chronic respiratory symptoms and increased risk of psychosis and schizophrenia.
Criminal Justice drug policy making and drug law enforcement
According to the National Drug Control Strategy of 2014, President Barack Obama introduced a n...
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Although this is typically seen with recreational marijuana. Although some effects of patient’s using marijuana, can be that they lose motivation to participate in activities, and they may become tired, because the effects can cause your body to slow down. Marijuana mainly affects the neurons in the brain and the pathways, and when a patient uses marijuana they are inhibiting the normal brain development and the normal function. Effects of medical marijuana will be decreased because it is less potent than recreational marijuana, but may still affect the person. Some short term effects can be impaired memory, inability to problem-solve, and altered sense of time. Long term effects can be learning dysfunction from abnormal brain development, especially in teenagers. Studies have shown that although tobacco is usually the drug that leads to lung complications and problems, patients who smoke medical marijuana can also have lung issues because the drug is irritating to the alveoli. (Morrow,
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...are bad short term memory, apathy, lack of motivation and depression. Most findings do conclude after smoking marijuana for periods of time cause them afterwords to be disconnected from social activities and have noticeable differences in memory. But, most surveys or studies don’t usually ask the marijuana smoker to be clean for a year. This would probably prove more of the long term effects. It is somewhat disturbing that with all of the new technology, we cannot exactly prove that marijuana has long term effects. Short term effects have been pretty much proven.
There is a major debate in today’s world about the legalization of cannabis, especially, in the United States. States such as California and Illinois have already moved forward in their open-minded thinking about the drug and are allowing people to use marijuana as an alternative to other prescribed drugs in treating the effects of certain ailments. The idea of legalizing marijuana is a touchy subject for many people; on the one hand its properties are beneficial to many people who suffer from many different illnesses, on the other hand, it is an illegal substance that has many addictive qualities. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s website, “Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the treatment, in the...
Brownstein, Joseph. "Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Really Worse for Your Health?" 21 January 2014 . LiveScience. Web. 10 April 2014.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse marijuana causes the user to feel euphoric by acting on the brain’s reward system. The euphoria is caused by the release of dopamine it to the user system. Other effects can include heightened sensory perception (e.g., brighter colors), laughter, altered perception of time, and increased appetite. Marijuana also inhibits the formation of new memories and causes coordination and balance to be degraded. These reactions are caused by binding the receptors in the cerebellum and base ganglia. The effect is similar to the impairments that are normally associated with consuming alcohol. Habitual users can also develop acute psychosis, a fundamental derangement of the mind (as in schizophrenia) characterized by defective or lost contact with reality especially as evidenced by delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech and behavior (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The IQ level of a marijuana users also decreases over time according to a Duke University study conducted by clinical psychologist Madeline Meier “people who bega...
Cannabis, which is mainly referred to as marijuana, is a widely used psychotropic drug. There are a variety of species of cannabis, including, "Cannabis salvita, C. indica, and C. ruderalis" (Amar, 2006). Cannabis is made up of several different types of compounds known as cannabinoids. The main component in these compounds that is responsible for cannabis' psychoactive qualities is "∆9 - tetrahydrocannabinol", or THC (Amar, 2006). Cannabinoids function by binding to two receptors, CB1 and CB2. These receptors inhibit cAMP formation and calcium channels, as well as initiate the opening of potassium channels (Meyer and Quezner). There are three different types of cannabinoid receptor antagonists that have been discovered, including endocannabinoids, which are a natural part of an organism, phytocannabinoids, which originate in plants, and synthetic or man-made cannabinoids (Fisar, 2009). These antagonists play an important role in regulating the effects of cannabinoids.
As I attempt to present the psychological effects of marijuana, we must first consider the concept of being psychologically dependant. When you are dependant upon something, you are not necessarily unable to do without it. Rather, you begin to rely on it. That is not to say that dependency is not addiction because I do believe dependency is a form of addiction. However, marijuana does not cause the same physical withdrawal symptoms as with drugs that are considered addictive. Drugs, such as crack and heroine require extreme measures to break the body's dependency or addiction. This is the conventional understanding of what constitutes an addiction to a drug. Given the information that marijuana use lacks the ability for the body to develop a physical addiction in the vast majority of individuals, the concept of psychological addiction (dependency) becomes clearer.
Marijuana has many bad side effects that harm the body. According to Szara Braude, marijuana slows down reactions causing problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking, and loss of coordination (Marijuana as a medicine 53). Many people use this drug not knowing wh...
“Marijuana Abuse.” National Institute on Drug Abuse: The Science of Drug abuse and Addiction. NIH, n.d. Web. 4 Feb 2014.
Marijuana/ weed affects the brain development, being thought teens use this drug it may reduce thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how the brain builds connections necessary to function. Study shows that people that started smoking weed heavily as a teen have an ongoing use and lost an average of eight IQ points between 13 and 38 and it doesn 't fully return when they quit smoking when their adults. Weed also affects people’s breathing, the reason being is because it irritates the lungs and people that smoke weed heavily have the same breathing problem as tobacco smokers. The symptoms of having this problem is daily cough and phlegm, more frequent lung illness, and a high risk of lung
Shohov, T. (2003). Medical use of marijuana: Policy, regulatory, and legal issues. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
4. Some short-term effects of marijuana include distorted perception, increased heart rate, and a loss of motor coordination.