Medical Discount Blog

Font Size A A A

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next »

• Marijuana Index
• Glossary

Marijuana

Marijuana is the most commonly abused unlegalized drug in the United States. It is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves derived from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; THC for short.

How is marijuana abused?

Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana. Because the blunt retains the tobacco leaf used to wrap the cigar, this mode of delivery combines marijuana’s active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a green tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form it is called hashish, and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil.* Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.

How does marijuana affect the brain?

Scientists have experienced a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the material part.

THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or not a part. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are base in parts of the brain that influence animal gratification, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s unprosperous impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks on the model of the acute effects of the physic wear off. As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level totally of the leisure.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other greater drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress (relief)-response method and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine. Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse.

Addictive potential

Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite its known harmful effects upon social functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities. Long-term marijuana abusers trying to depart from report testiness, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of what one. make it uphill to quit. These withdrawal symptoms institute within about one day following abstinence, peak at brace to three days, and tend downward within one or two weeks following drug cessation.

Marijuana and mental health

A number of studies have shown an association betwixt chronic marijuana use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and schizophrenia. Some of these studies have shown age at first use to be a factor, whither early use is a marker of vulnerability to later problems. However, at this time, it not clear whether marijuana use causes mental problems, exacerbates them, or is used in attempt to self-medicate symptoms already in existence. Chronic marijuana application, especially in a excessively young person, may also exist a marker of risk for mental illnesses, including addiction, stemming from genetic or environmental vulnerabilities, such as early exposure to stress or violence. At the present time, the strongest evidence links marijuana use and schizophrenia and/or related disorders. High doses of marijuana can produce some acuminate psychotic reaction, and research suggests that in vulnerable individuals, marijuana use may be a factor that increases risk for the disease.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next »

• Marijuana Index
• Glossary

Next: What other adverse side effects does marijuana have on health? »