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Buzzby

Cannabis Not-So-Soft Drug
Sally Grover | Courier-Mail | 08/19/2006

Warning: Reefer Madness ahead! The author has managed to collect almost every prohibitionist lie in a single article.

CANNABIS is usually referred to as the soft drug, worse than tobacco but not as dangerous as heroin or cocaine.

(BuzzNote: Tobacco kills millions around the world every year. Cannabis kills no one. Which is more dangerous?)

Often exploited because of its ability to relax the mind and body, its users can frequently be found lying on a couch in front of a TV surrounded by snack food, sometimes for days at a time.

Most people are aware of the consequences of smoking marijuana, such as laziness, weight gain and the inability to make positive decisions.

(BuzzNote: The "Amotivational Syndrome" myth has long been disproved.)

In a recent report issued by the NSW health department, new dangerous and long-term effects relating to cannabis use have been found.

Damage to cardiovascular, respiratory and immune systems, short-term memory loss and slow brain development have been reported when the drug is used from a young age.

Professor Wayne Hall, from the School of Population Health at UQ, confirms that new risks are constantly being discovered to attack all users.

"Cardiovascular problems are more of an issue for adults, people who have started smoking cannabis in their 20s and are now in their 40s and 50s," he said.

Like smoking tobacco, cannabis is lethal to the lungs and the harm can vary depending on the instrument employed.

(BuzzNote: BS! Smoking marijuana does not cause lung cancer and few people smoke enough of it to have any major negative effect on the lungs.)

The most common form of inhaling cannabis is through rolling a joint. Like cigarettes, this directly affects the lungs and causes the same problems by limiting the air supply.

Using a bong, usually a home-made device made by habitual smokers, creates cold smoke which goes further into the lungs, thus causing destruction on the respiratory system than the warmer smoke from filters.

While these problems take time to occur and are sometimes treatable, Professor Hall says that there are more negative side effects that are often forgotten.

"The under-appreciated risk is depression," he said. "The evidence is getting reasonably strong that people susceptible to mental problems are developing disorders."

Professor Hall also lists poor concentration as a direct setback from cannabis use and its effects on young people at school.

"Teenagers losing interest at school because they have been using marijuana is the quickest problem to develop from use," he said.

(BuzzNote: Over-use and inappropriately timed use can be a problem. Moderate use at appropriate times rarely is.)

Mark Brown, manager at the Logan House drug rehabilitation centre, agrees that memory loss is a major concern.

"Short-term memory can be devastated by marijuana," he said.

(BuzzNote: Only while you're high…)

"Long-time use of the drug can also affect your long-term memory."

(BuzzNote: Studies of long-term smokers show no difference in mental function after a month of abstinence.)

Mr Brown works with 30 people who have become addicted to the drug.

(BuzzNote: If he worked with 30 Skid Row alcoholics, would that tell him anything about the effects of social drinking?)

He says that the reasons why each of them chose cannabis is different, but the general attitude of people initially is that it is not as dangerous as Class-A drugs such as heroin.

"A lot of people perceive marijuana as a harmless, social drug. But in reality it is not like that at all."

Mr Brown likens early cannabis use with alcohol consumption.

"People use a drug because they like it or enjoy the feeling they get from it," he says. "It is like alcohol in that you drink it because the feeling is good at first. Marijuana is the same."

However, the body quickly adapts to the feeling and the person is left feeling agitated and consume more, thus becoming eaddicted.

(BuzzNote: A far smaller percentage of marijuana users become psychologically addicted than users of alcohol become alcoholics.)

"When you increase the intake and regularity, that's when the risk starts," Mr Brown said. "The body says, 'I'm not feeling as good as I should' so the person does more to get rid of that feeling."

(BuzzNote: Except for the vast majority of us who use it moderately and continue to do so throughout our lives.)

Schizophrenia has also been associated with cannabis addiction. Much research has gone into proving its relation with various results.

"It is a bit like the chicken and the egg," Mr Brown said. "What came first, the mental-health problem or the cannabis use?"

Mr Brown said research has shown that use of the drug can mask pre-existing mental disorders, unlock genetic problems previously undetected and aid in deteriorating the mental state of a person.

"Most of the time, if you take the marijuana away and the problem will go away," he said.

(BuzzNote: So if a marijuana user is schizophrenic and he stops using marijuana he stops being schizophrenic? Give me a break! Do they just make up this stuff as they go along?)

 

Drag

wow...whats really amazing is how many people will read this and believe every word.

TheNewGuy

If the UK and Australia are so far ahead of us when it comes to drug law reform, why does the worst propaganda come from them?

__________________
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." ~P.J. O'Rourke

Clover

^^^i dont know about that^^^ I know 2 people who have mental illnesses very much like schizophrenia who smoked pot regularly… I personaly think that marijuana can badly harm people who have some sort preexisting mental disorder. even bring out what might have stayed away the rest of thier lifes.

if only the author dident add the crap about it going away after you take MJ away, i would agree with that quote. as much as i dont want to...

the Viper

We shouldn't make laws and policies based on "the lowest common denominator" anyway. so what if pot helps bring out the latent schizo? alcohol is known to bring out the latent wife beater too, but thats no reason to stop the 98% of the world that don't have the problems from enjoying a beer, or a scotch.

WHAT? school kids on pot can't concentrate? no crap. school kids shouldn't be on dope anymore than they should be drinking alcohol in school, and the vast majority don't. I don't think anyone would argue that kids shouldn't smoke pot. except kids anyway

yeah, its disturbing to know that people have read this and believed every word.

 

Tokamak

The percentage of the population of any given country who now has, or at some point will develop schizophrenia, is currently 1%. The percentage 50 years ago? 1%. 100 years ago? 1%. Cannabis use DOES NOT cause schizophrenia. If someone is unlucky enough to have the genes for schizophrenia, they WILL develop it. If they do not have the genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, smoking pot every second of every day from birth til death, WILL NOT cause it.

That being said, the reason people are trying to link cannabis with schizophrenia is two-fold: 1) Schizophrenics often self-medicate with cannabis (maybe it's an effective treatment?); and 2) The most common age of onset for schizophrenia, late adolescence/ early adulthood, is also the most common age for experimentation with cannabis. Parents find out that their teen is smoking pot, and then a few months later he starts getting psychotic -- of course they're going to try to connect the two. People making money from, or otherwise employed by the Drug War (the media, politicians, law enforcement, rehab personnel, some psychiatrists/psychologists, some government researchers) are only too happy to confirm and spread the ignorant assumptions of the parents as the truth. However, as Buzzby is fond of saying, "Correlation is not causation" -- just because two events seem to occur simultaneously does not mean that one caused the other.

Note: For all those questioning where I got my information, I am a 3rd year psychology major. The above information was taken largely from the cannabis portion of a class I took called "Behavioral Effects of Psychoactive Drugs".

Peace.

__________________
"He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know."
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Clover

.

i think a better way to say that quote would be: correlation is not always causation.

just because the majortity of people with schizophrenia had nothing to do with marijuana, or the majority of people with schizophrenia did not have any negiative effects from marijuana dose not make it fact that evey single case is the same.

the author is saying the its all bad
you are sayign its all good
thats a messed up thing to say...

im saying SOME people with mental illnessess ( like my best friend ) have had marijuana to make it worse, or even bring it out. of couse its not the majortity of cases.

this is from my personal experiance and what his psychologists have told me.

__________________
The frog agrees to carry the scorpion across the river because the scorpion promises not to sting the frog. Halfway across the river the scorpion stings the frog. The drowning frog asks the drowning scorpion why he stung him. The scorpion says that it is just his nature to sting.

Buzzby

I've seen estimates that 60% of schizophrenics use marijuana. I'd say that validates the statement "Schizophrenics often self-medicate with cannabis". For some of them it's an effective treatment, according to reports on these forums from people with schizophrenia who use cannabis.

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