Drug Facts: Marijuana

Over the next few weeks I will be discussing the drugs most commonly used in the United States. The first common drug I will discuss is marijuana.

Marijuana comes from the cannabis sativa plant. It is a mixture of the dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers from this plant. The mixture can be green, brown, or gray. Marijuana also has over 400 chemicals in it. The most psychoactive chemical, also known as mind alterering, is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). The THC content of marijuana determines marijuana’s potency and it has been steadily increasing since the 1970s.

Street names, or slang terms that refer to marijuana, include; pot, grass, herb, weed, Mary Jane, reefer, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, chronic, and ganja.

Marijuana can be used in many ways. The most common is smoking loose marijuana rolled into a cigarette known as a joint or nail. Marijuana can also be smoked through a water pipe called a bong. It could also be smoked through a hollowed out cigar known as a blunt. Other users brew marijuana as tea or mix it with food.

Within minutes of inhaling, a user of marijuana begins to feel “high”. This is because THC activates the chemical dopamine in the brain which creates good feelings but these feelings are short lived. Marijuana affects memory, judgment, perception, and decision making. Many factors contribute to how a person will be affected by marijuana. These factors include; a person’s genetics, whether they’ve used marijuana or any other drugs before, how much marijuana is taken, and its potency. Combining marijuana with other drugs is not only unpredictable, but is dangerous.

THC affects the brain in more ways than just activating dopamine. It also interferes with learning in memory by affecting the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays a critical role in certain types of learning. This leads to problems studying, learning new things, and recalling recent events. Another part of the brain affected by marijuana is the cerebellum which controls balance and coordination, resulting in slower reaction times, impaired judgment, and problems responding to signals and sounds.

Long-term use of marijuana leads to higher risk of psychosis. Psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which there is a loss of contact with reality, including false ideas about what is happening (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations). Marijuana has also been known to increase depression and anxiety, particularly when a user tries to stop using the drug.

Currently there are no medications that treat marijuana addictions. There are many treatment programs that claim to help with breaking the addiction but they focus on behavioral therapies rather than treating the addiction itself. Marijuana is known as a “gate-way” drug because users of marijuana are more susceptible to trying “harsher” and more addictive drugs like cocaine. This susceptibility is not because of a direct cause of the marijuana but because the user has a higher likelihood of being exposed to the harsher drugs and therefor more likely to try them.

Next week I will be discussing the facts about stimulants such as cocaine, methamphetamines, and ecstasy.