P S Y C H E D E L I C S:
Marijuana
What is it? Also known as "cannabis," "grass," "pot," "weed," herb," "Acapulco gold," "joint," reefer," "dubie," marijuana is a plant whose stems, leaves, and flowers can be dried and smoked or eaten. The power of the drug depends on which part of the plant a person uses. The stems and lower leaves ("bhang") are not as strong as the flowers and upper leaves ("ganja").
The most powerful part of the plant is the sticky resin. When it's pressed into chunks it's called hashish (or "charas") and it can be smoked in pipes.
How does it make you feel? Within 5-20 minutes of smoking, marijuana users experience a dream-like feeling, as if they were observing a movie that they themselves are in. It produces a feeling of confusion where everything seems familiar but really isn't. Many marijuana users say their sense of time is altered by the drug so that five minutes might seem like five hours or an entire day might go by in a moment. It can also make users feel very hungry, though after they've eaten the hunger is still there. All psychedelics have a strong effect on the user's mood and emotions. Marijuana can also exaggerate any mood the user happens to be in.
What are some of marijuana's side effects? Some of the common mental/emotional side effects are:
- Trouble remembering things
- Sleepiness
- Anxiety
- Paranoia (feeling that people are “out to get you”)
- Altered time perception
And some of the common physical side effects are:
- Tremors (shaking)
- Nausea
- Headache
- Coordination becoming worse
- Breathing problems
- Increased appetite
- Reduced blood flow to the brain
- Changes in the reproductive organs
What does it do to your body? Because marijuana can act as a stimulant or a depressant — depending on the kind and the amount that is taken, users can react differently each time they take the drug. Most often, though, marijuana makes users sleepy, more in their own heads, and less interested in being social.
Marijuana has a damaging effect on the lungs.
Long term marijuana smokers increase their risk for getting lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Why? Because a single joint (marijuana cigarette) has the same amount of toxins as about 15 filtered tobacco cigarettes. (Because marijuana smoke is usually inhaled very deeply and "held" in the lungs for 5-10 seconds before exhaling, risk for lung infections is high.) There is some evidence that heavy marijuana use can also lower resistance to colds, flues, and other viral infections.
Mentally, marijuana makes it hard to concentrate and remember things, so it can make it very difficult to study.
NOTE: Most marijuana research was done in the '70's when the drug was about half as powerful as the marijuana that can be bought on the streets today. The more powerful the drug, the stronger the effects.
How easy is it to become "used to" the drug? All drugs are poison to your body. But because your body is so amazingly devoted to keeping you alive, it can become "tolerant" to having poison in it. Tolerance to marijuana happens quickly. Long term users can handle higher doses of the drug without some of the emotional and mental effects experienced by first time users. Like cocaine, heroin, alcohol, nicotine, and other addictive drugs, marijuana does have the ability to make the user want to do more and more of the drug. But rather than a true physical addiction, marijuana users report an emotional addiction to the drug.
What is an overdose like? There is no medical evidence that the body will shut down from too much marijuana. THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is not toxic to the degree of heroin and amphetamines. The marijuana user is most likely to fall asleep when he/she has had enough. But check out the side effects section above — the more THC in your body, the more pronounced these could be.
What's withdrawal like? There are some mild physical effects of withdrawal after long term marijuana use. These include: headaches, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, crankiness, craving for the drug, and changes in brain waves. These symptoms may continue for several weeks after quitting the drug.
Is it legal? In the U.S., it is illegal to grow marijuana, possess it, or use it (except for medical purposes with a doctor's prescription in a few parts of the U.S.).
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