Draft of Research Paper

Edison Enciso

Professor Bailey

English 120-016

28 Nov. 2014

Draft of Research Paper

Marijuana and its Consequences

           Marijuana is referred to the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant, and its botanical name is Cannabis sativa. It is also known with other names: pot, herb, dope grass, Mary Jane, and other 200 street names. Marijuana is used for recreational use because of its psychoactive component that alters mind, and for medical use because of its application on treatment of some sicknesses. Currently, for medical use, marijuana is legal in 24 states included New York, and for recreational usage is legal in Colorado and Washington State and is being debated in other states, but marijuana is still considered an offense under Federal law. According to the last Gallup poll in the population of the United States, 38 percent have ever tried marijuana in their life, and 51 percent have supported the legalization of marijuana. However, how much do we know about the effect of marijuana in our body after smoking, or what is the consequence in our health of smoking marijuana?  Although many people think that smoking marijuana is not harmful, marijuana is very bad for our health.

           The production of hemp plant in the United States was encouraged in the early 1600’s until the early 1900’s when it was replaced for new materials in many products, and the use of hemp changed to medicinal use. In the early 1900’s, marijuana for recreational use was brought across the border by Mexican immigrants, and by the 1920’s it was adopted by jazz musicians.

During the Great Depression, the reputation of marijuana was diminished and associated with crimes, and it was portrayed as a drug that induced criminal activities. By 1931, twenty-nine states criminalized use of marijuana, and the federal government encourage all states to enact laws to control marijuana use. Over the years later, governments enforce rules and laws to reduce the use of marijuana, until in 1996, California became the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use, and in this year, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use.  

Many people consider marijuana like a soft drug; on the contrary, this drug is completely dangerous for our health. There are many reasons why people smoke marijuana such as curiosity, peer influence, to relax the stress, anxiety, fear related to personal or family issue, or to enter into certain social circle. However, many ignore the  consequence of smoking marijuana because according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), marijuana is a product of a plant that contains more than 400 chemicals, having as its principal active component the THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) that is psychoactive ingredient (DrugFacts: Marijuana). Using of marijuana changes the way the brain works, and has effects such as impaired short-term memory making it difficult to retain and learn information, slowed reaction time affecting driving skills, altered judgment and decision, increased heart rate by 20-100%, and altered mood leading to euphoria, calmness or in high doses anxiety, paranoia (Topic in Brief: Marijuana). Also, for many years, marijuana has been considered for the department of Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule I. This means marijuana is a substance that has no approved medical use and has a high potential for abuse. Currently the marijuana is classified in the same level of drugs as heroin and Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and it is even considered more harmful than morphine and cocaine (Drug Fact Sheets: Marijuana Cannabis).

Although many people start smoking marijuana for recreational use, they might become in dependence of marijuana, and the effects on their brains will be harmful. In his book The Secret Addition Dr. Tony Deramus describes how marijuana affects the short-term memory of heavy marijuana user:

Marijuana’s damage seems to occur, because THC alters the way in which information is processed by the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for memory formation. For example, laboratory rats treated with THC display the same reduce ability to perform tasks requiring short-term memory as other rats showed after nerve cells in their hippocampus were destroyed. I know you are not a rat, but the brain does function in very similar ways (130).

In addition, when marijuana is heavily used by young people, its effects on thinking and memory might last long time or even be permanent. According to NIDA, in New Zealand, a long-large study showed that “people who began smoking marijuana heavily in their teens lost and average of 8 points in IQ between age 13 and age 38…the lost cognitive abilities were not fully restored in those who quit smoking marijuana as adults.” The study also adds that” people who started smoking in adulthood did not show significant IQ declines.”  

           Also, marijuana affects the cerebellum that is associated with movement such as balance and coordination, or motor control, and the amygdala that is associated with memory of emotional reactions such as anxiety and stress. Deramus states that the CB1 (Cannaboid-1) is found in part of the brain known as the cerebellum and when someone smokes marijuana, the receptor will be saturated with exorbitant mount of THC. Deramus in his book points out , “ in a study by the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital (Limperopoulos et al., 2005), researchers found that 61 percent of children with cerebellar injury had global development delays, including deficits in language, visual reception and social/behavioral function, in addition to motor control problems”(131).  Regarding to the effect of marijuana on the amygdala, which is associated with hormones that produce anxiety and stress, has as a principal function “…in the formation and storage of memories associated with these types of emotion” (135). According a study by Anna Blood PhD, from the Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, after assessing brain morphology using MRI in 40 young adult aged 18 to 25 years recruited from Boston-area College, 20 used marijuana recreationally (11.2 joints per week) and 20 did not use the drug at all. She stated “These abnormal changes in the amygdala…could indicate that the experience with marijuana alters brain organization and may produce changes in function and behavior” (Brooks). Also, in the Deramus’s book stated according to a study (Katona, et al., 2001) showed “the amygdala had approximately less volume in men who smoke heavily (five cigarettes daily for an average of 20 years) compared to nonusers” (135).

Many people think smoking cigarette is more dangerous than smoking marijuana However, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in a study led by Dr. Donald Tashkin at University of California, smoking marijuana is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. Because although smoking marijuana cause the similar damage respiratory than smoking cigarettes, the probability of develop a cancer of people who smoke marijuana is higher than people who smoke cigarette. This is “because smoker typically hold their breath four times as long as tobacco smoker after inhaling, marijuana smoking deposits significantly more tar and known carcinogens within the tar”. His studies also add “marijuana smoking is associated with a range of damaging pulmonary effects, including inhibition of the tumor-killing and bactericidal of alveolar macrophages the primary cells within the lung.”