What are the effects of marijuana?

Answer 1

Marijuana contains a very harmful substance called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol which is just one of the few variations of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC for short).

THC

THC attacks various sites and receptors in the brain, blocking them off and causing the "high" that users experience. Although a "high" person may feel good on marijuana, their brains are actually taking damage.

While "high" the THC causes:

- Distorted perceptions

- Difficulty thinking

- Inability to solve problems

- Memory and learning complications

The memory and learning complications can take days or weeks to wear off, depending on how much marijuana the user takes. So, someone who uses marijuana daily most likely operates at a below-normal level of intellect.

Heavy users can suffer permanent memory damage.

Addiction

Marijuana is very addictive. Once addicted, the user will suffer further side effects:

- Irritability

- Aggression

- Insomnia

- Loss of appetite

- Anxiety

- Uncontrollable urges or cravings

- Paranoia Syndrome

These effects may be with the user for a lifetime. Even after s/he has long given up the drug.

Relationships

Users of marijuana or cannabis (any drug containing a variation of THC) will always suffer from paranoia side-effects, no matter how much they use. An addict may develop Paranoia Syndrome, which is mostly irreversible.

Because of the aggression and paranoia, users of marijuana find it extremely difficult to find and stay in a relationship, since their aggression and paranoia often drive partners away.

This causes a snowball effect, as the marijuana user will then use more of the drug to deal with the emotional effects of a negative relationship.

Mental Health

It's only recently that scientists are beginning to learn about the effects of THC-drugs on mental health.

It has recently been learned that marijuana can cause:

- Depression

- Suicidal tendencies

- Anxiety attacks

- Paranoia Syndrome

- Schizophrenia

While depression and suicidal tendencies can be countered with extensive therapy and counselling and anxiety attacks can be controlled to an extent with lifetime-prescription medication, the paranoia syndrome and schizophrenia, if the user is affected by either, is usually irreversible.

The Heart

Marijuana effects the heart in a hugely negative way too.

When marijuana enters the system, the users heart rate increases rapidly, as the brain "orders" the heart to pump blood to the brain quicker to combat the effects of the drug.

This can cause:

- Permanent palpitations

- Damaged or split heart valves (causing internal bleeding then death)

- Permanent arrhythmias

- Cardiac arrest (heart attack)

The underlying heart problems can also be passed on genetically to any children the addict or former addict may have.

The Lungs

Marijuana smoke contains a gas called Carcinogenic Hydrocarbon.

This Carcinogenic Hydrocarbon is very "heavy" and can cause irritation to the lungs. In fact, they cause three times more damage to the lungs than tobacco smoke.

Other effects on the lungs are:

- Drop in growth of epithelial cells (leading to the growth of cancers)

- Regular to chronic cough

- Phlem blockages

- Chest-related infections - Respiratory illness

- Respiratory arrest (in long-term addicts)

Pregnancy

Women who smoke marijuana during pregnancy or have a partner who smokes marijuana around her, will be passing on health complications to her unborn child. These include:

- Undergrowth

- Premature birth

- Breathing complications

- Genetic heart conditions

- Non-genetic heart conditions

- Brain underdevelopment

- Physical disabilities (deafness, blindness, etc)

- Mental disabilities (autism, schizophrenia, etc)

- Miscarriage or stillbirth

Marijuana has also been proved to complicate pregnancies and prolong labour. Many pregnant women who smoked marijuana during pregnancy have undergone emergency caesarean, often many months premature, for the sake of the child.

In some countries or states, it may be in the best interests of the authorities to remove the child from the mother in these cases, since she has put her child's life at extreme risk.

Death

Many supporters of the drug will claim that marijuana is not lethal and that there are no statistics for marijuana deaths in existence.

The last part is true, the first part is false.

Marijuana has led to deaths. But the official cause of death are listed as "carbon monoxide poisoning", "heart attack", "lung cancer" and so on, just as deaths caused by smoking tobacco are recorded.

Medical And Law

Marijuana is often prescribed for medical reasons in some countries, including some states in the USA.

However, especially recently due to the advancement in knowledge of how marijuana effects people negatively, marijuana as a medical use is being hugely argued against all over the globe.

Many countries, particularly in Europe, have acted on the new research and toughened laws against marijuana.

Most notably in the United Kingdom, where previously marijuana use would get you a "slap on the wrist". Whereas nowadays you'd be sent to jail and ordered to attend drug-therapy sessions. If you refuse to attend the sessions, your jail sentence will just get longer, forcing the user into a "cold turkey" state.

Some European countries have tightened their requirements for prescribing marijuana for medical uses, while others have banned it completely.

Some underdeveloped and developing Asian, African and Arabic countries have gone to the extremes, raising the penalty of marijuana possession to the same penalty as cocaine possession. Life imprisonment.

All of these health effects will not happen all at the same time. And not every user will suffer all of these effects. It relies greatly on how much the user takes and whether the user is addicted or not.