Cannabis - A Way To Wonderland?

Cannabis is a psychoactive substance which creates a feeling of euphoria, affects thinking and motor reflexes and it can sometimes lead to hallucinations. The cannabis plant had been cultivated from ancient times for its psychoactive effects. The dried flowers and leaves are used to produce marijuana, the most used form in the United States. Marijuana is usually smoked but is can also be ingested by getting it mixed with tea or foods. The active ingredient is THC. In small doses (5-10 mg) THC produces a slight feeling of euphoria and in high doses (30-70 mg) produces intense and prolonged reactions, which resemble to those produces by hallucinogen substances. Like the alcohol, the reaction usually has two stages: a period of euphoria and stimulation followed by a period of stillness and sleep.

When marijuana is smoked, THC is rapidly absorbed by the huge quantity of blood passing through the lungs. From here, the blood goes directly to the heart and then to the brain, inducing in only a few minutes the feeling of euphoria. Nevertheless, THC also accumulates in other organs such as the liver, kidneys, spleen, etc. Once this substance reaches the brain, the THC connects to the receptors most of them located in the hippo-campus. Because this special part of the brain has a significant importance in forming new memories, it is not surprisingly that marijuana represents an obstacle in forming new schemes.

Those who regularly use marijuana say that a series of perceptual transformations occur: a general state of euphoria and well-being, some space and time distortions and changes of the social perception. Not all marijuana experiences are pleasant. Sixteen percent of those who use the drug regularly admit having episodes of anxiety, fear and confusion and approximately one third declares that they occasionally have symptoms of acute panic, hallucinations and unpleasant distortions of the body image. Besides these symptoms, those who use it daily complain they suffer from physical and mental lethargy, easy forms of depression, anxiety and irritability. The smoke obtained from marijuana contains bigger quantities of cancerous components than the tobacco.

Furthermore, the usage of marijuana disturbs the level of performance in complex tasks. Motor coordination is significantly affected even by small doses and the reaction time to stimuli is again significantly increased. These discoveries clearly indicate that driving after smoking marijuana is dangerous. Though, the number of road accidents caused by the consumption of marijuana is hard to be established because, unlikely the alcohol, the level of THC in the blood lowers rapidly. The reason is that THC tends to go to the adipose tissue and to the organs in the body, as it was stated above. A blood analysis made two hours later after the ingestion of marijuana may lack any sign of THC in the blood, even though an observer can clearly say that the certain person is affected. The effects of marijuana can go for a long time even after the feeling of euphoria and sleepiness had gone.

In addition, marijuana has two obvious effects on the memory. Firstly, this drug affects the short term memory and it makes it susceptible to perturbations. Individuals under the influence of marijuana can lose words in a sentence or they can forget what they intended to say. This thing can happen in the middle of a conversation because their attention was distracted for a few fractions of second by other insignificant stimuli. Secondly, marijuana disorganizes the learning process, interfering in the transfer of new information from the short term memory to the long term memory. These findings show that learning under the influence of marijuana is not such a good idea; the ulterior reproduction of the material will be very weak and inefficient.

Here were presented only the short term effects of this drug because the long term ones are almost entirely unknown. But because we see the devastating effects of other psychoactive substances, such as nicotine and alcohol, we should be concerned about the usage of marijuana for a long time. The effects cannot be too good, especially on the cognitive system and on the social frameworks. In conclusion, if we put into balance the positive effects of marijuana (euphoria, pleasant hallucinations) and the negative ones, we can say for sure that drugs are not the best choice when it comes to stimulate our brain. Life has better options to offer.