Who should you believe when there's reports that go both ways? I think there's a huge push on to legalize pot, so just like homosexuality, the pot heads are beginning the campaign to legitimize pot starting with finding doctors and scientists, THAT ARE POT HEADS THEMSELVES, to publish so called "studies" that conclude smoking pot is GOOD for you. Homosexuality was/is and always will be a mental illness, but the homo's successfully waged war on those facts with their own homo doctors and such and got it removed from the mental illness list. The pot heads are doing the same thing with weed now. Frankly I don't give a ****. I think booze is far more harmful than pot, and if I had my choice which one had to be legal, I'd say weed, so why not legalize it? Go for it, but don't lie about it...
HOW DOES MARIJUANA AFFECT THE BRAIN?
Submitted by SerendipUpdate on Thu, 01/10/2008
AKUDO EJELONU
Pot, weed, grass, ganja and skunk, are some of the common words used to describe the dried leaves drug known as marijuana. Marijuana is a cannabis plant that is "usually smoked or eaten to entice euphoria." (1). Throughout the years, there has been research on the negative and positive effects of marijuana on the human body and the brain. Marijuana is frequently beneficial to the treatment of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain. However, researchers such as Jacques-Joseph Moreau have been working to explain how marijuana has harmful affects on the functions of central nervous system and hinders the memory and movement of the user's brain. The focus of my web paper is how the chemicals in marijuana, specifically cannabinoids and THC have an effect on the memory and emotions of a person's central nervous system.
Marijuana impinges on the central nervous system by attaching to brain's neurons and interfering with normal communication between the neurons. These nerves respond by altering their initial behavior. For example, if a nerve is suppose to assist one in retrieving short-term memory, cannabinoids receptors make them do the opposite. So if one has to remember what he did five minutes ago, after smoking a high dose of marijuana, he has trouble. Marijuana plant contains 400 chemicals and 60 of them are cannabinoids, which are psychoactive compounds that are produced inside the body after cannabis is metabolized or is extorted from the cannabis plant. Cannabinoids is an active ingredient of marijuana. The most psychoactive cannabinoids chemical in marijuana that has the biggest impact on the brain is tetrahydrocannibol, or THC. THC is the main active ingredient in marijuana because it affects the brain by binding to and activating specific receptors, known as cannabinoid receptors. "These receptors control memory, thought, concentration, time and depth, and coordinated movement. THC also affects the production, release or re-uptake (a regulating mechanism) of various neurotransmitters."(2) Neurotransmitters are chemical messenger molecules that carry signals between neurons. Some of these affects are personality disturbances, depression and chronic anxiety. Psychiatrists who treat schizophrenic patient advice them to not use this drug because marijuana can trigger severe mental disturbances and cause a relapse.
HOW DOES MARIJUANA AFFECT THE BRAIN? | Serendip's Exchange
