Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade with serious implications for users. Holland probably the most liberal country towards drugs has classified a lot of new cannabis variants alongside heroin!
Average levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient) in marijuana sold in America rose from 3.5% in 1988 to 8.5% in 2006.
In the same period the number of admissions to psychiatric hospital caused by the drug soared by 85 per cent due to the fact that those who smoke the drug regularly are more than twice as likely to suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions later in life.Teens using marijuana to alleviate feelings of depression just compound the problem.
People who smoke "skunk" are almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses.
As well as psychotic illness cannabis can cause affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Even worse it is linked to cancers.
The toxic substances in marijuana smoke, especially the toxicity of acetaldehyde, causes damage to DNA. Because of its lower combustibility it contains 50% more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene, benzanthracene, and benzopyrene, than tobacco smoke. Ammonia levels are 20 times higher while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher. Users tend to inhale more deeply than cigarette smokers, which increases respiratory burden.
It has been shown that the damage usually starts from the first one!!
THC increases the activity of a pathway that promotes protein synthesis in the brain. This transient increase of protein synthesis is mediated specifically by cannabinoid receptors expressed on the brain’s inhibitory neurons, and correlated with long-term memory deficits.
Cannabis users display neuropsychological dysfunction (relative frontal lobe functioning deficits, cognitive inhibition) and attentional deficits similar to those found in schizotypal or schizophrenia patients.
Regular use can shrink the parts of the brain which control memory, emotion and aggression. The hippocampus, which is thought to govern emotion and memory averages 12 percent smaller and the amygdala, which has a part in controlling fear and aggression, 7 percent smaller. This suggests that heavy daily use may be toxic to human brain tissue.
Blood flow velocity is significantly higher in users and they have higher values on the pulsatility index (PI), which measures the amount of resistance to blood flow. This is thought to be due to narrowing of the blood vessels that occurs when the circulation system's ability to regulate itself is impaired. This leads to abnormalities in the small blood vessels in the brain.
The active chemical in MJ called delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) binds to cannabinoid (CB) receptors located on several cell types in various organs. This greatly increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory.
It can also effect physical health. Three to four cannabis cigarettes a day cause the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. Thus there are rising levels of lung diseases such as emphysema.
It can also effect the unborn child. Scientists have identified that endogenous cannabinoids, molecules naturally produced by our brains are functionally similar to THC from cannabis and play significant roles in establishing how certain nerve cells connect to each other. Maternal cannabis use allows THC to travel through the placenta and impair fetal brain development and impose life-long cognitive, social, and motor deficits in affected offspring.
Low doses of Ä-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), equivalent to that in the bloodstream of an average marijuana smoker facilitate infection of skin cells and can cause these cells to turn into malignant sarcoma. Men who regularly smoke cannabis have a 70 per cent increased risk of testicular cancer.
And then there are all the car crashes caused by people driving under the influence of drugs that are at this moment being quantified. But they already show one in five drivers killed is under the influence of drugs and that more drug drivers kill than drink drivers!!