MARIJUANA - SOME FACTS

In The Healthcare Environment?

To Test Or Not To Test - Benign OR Dangerous? 

Millions are using (and abusing) marijuana every day. In fact, 1 out of 7 high school students smoke it more than once a day. Marijuana is thought by many to be benign and recreational, so it is one of the most highly used drug of choice. For this reason, society should know its short- and long-term effects on the brain.  Marijuana can affect these two areas emotionally or physically. Also, in some cases physical damages causes the emotional response. The brain is the most complicated part of the human body. To understand, let's explain certain parts and their functions to better understand our brain and thus the possibilities of chemical induced complications. The brain with its 15 billion neurons and nerve cells operates using chemical and electrical messages. This is how we perceive our senses. Differences in the way our brain translates these messages can impair perceptions. Hallucinogens prevent the brain from receiving all these messages in order. All the information that we receive is through millions of transactions of neurons, like a computer and marijuana alters these transactions.

After smoking, or consuming marijuana, it is distributed in the brain. The concentration of marijuana in the brain may be governed by an active transport process in the choroid plexus network of blood vessels in the brain which regulates intra-ventricular pressure by absorption and secretion of cerebral spinal fluid. One scientific experiment gave an example of how the distribution of marijuana in the central nervous system could affect man. At a high dose of 30 mg./kg, marked sedation and pronounced motor in-coordination peaked at the one-hour interval subsiding in 8 hours when overreaction occurred to external stimuli; man reveals incapacitation of cognitive and motor function. High concentrations of marijuana are usually found in the following parts of the brain: the frontal cortex (the general association area), and hippocampus (short term memory and orientation). As a result, perception of time, mood and general coordination is impaired. Yes, marijuana intoxication affects neurological function, but what appears to disappear in 24 hours, can become a permanent malfunction. THC affects the limbic system which is vital to some everyday functions. The brain is made up of 3 basic cerebral types differing in structure, chemistry and organization (MacLean, 1970).

These are:

1) Reptilian or brain stem responsible for instinctive (survival) behavior (and regulator of vital functions of the body)

 2) Old Mammalian (paleo-cortex) or limbic brain surrounding the brain stem (like a lap or limbus) having an important role in emotional behavior and motivation (contains opiate receptors)

3) New Mammalian (neo-cortex) brain (thinking cap) with the capacity for symbolic (written and spoken language).

The 3 subdivisions of the limbic cortical system or ring are linked by 3 pathways to the brain stem. The lower part (hippocampus memory information) of the ring connected with the amygdala insures self-presentation (survival). The upper part is connected to the septum which is the area for pleasure. These 2 are connected to the olfactory that deals with sense. In addition, there is a third passageway dealing with sexual behaviors and visual activities. Any limbic dysfunction can result in emotional and mood disturbances, alienation, distortions of perceptions, and paranoid states. THC can reduce the blood flow to the hippocampus, which is the controller of short-term memory and orientation.

To make a simple conclusion to all this confusing data, marijuana results in chemical damage effecting emotional, motivational and hormonal disturbances. After only 3 months of light, or moderate, or heavy use, evidence of irreversible damage can be detected. The effects of marijuana are mostly short term, meaning damages that can be restored to a seemingly normal state. Most symptoms from heavy usage vanish in about a year and a half of clean time.  But emotional and memory abnormalities are never fully restored. Since more evident and severe short-term effects take about a month of being clean to subside, one can see the potential for a problem in a weekend smoker. That means that consistent users (about twice a week or less) aren’t EVER sober.

The brain is one third fat. Cannabinoids are fat soluble, and not only do they collect in brain cells, but they also accumulate in billions of other cells in the body and are consistently being released into the blood stream. In the case of moderate twice a week use, before half of the cannabinoids that are being stored are released, new cannabinoids are being introduced. The cannabinoids release process is very slow and if there is continued use, it can make the user always stoned! Maybe not all the effects of intoxication will be evident, but noticeable differences in thinking and talking are evident. It takes marijuana about 2 to 4 weeks to get out of your system. So, if you are smoking marijuana 1 to 3 times a week - think of the implications.

Pot not only seems to disrupt normal learning functions but also contains emotion altering properties.  een as psychiatric outpatients, showed a decrease in attention, logical thinking, personal hygiene, performance in school, and participation in physical and social activities compared with their pre-marijuana status. These changes revised when marijuana smoking stopped.  The effects of always being stoned even if they haven’t smoked that day at all, can still include poor social judgment, poor attention span, poor concentration, confusion, anxiety, depression, apathy, passivity and often slow speech.

Most marijuana smokers also suffer from anxiety disorders. The most common among users is social anxiety disorder where the user is nervous around large groups of people. Some only can function on one to one basis. Isolation of users is also common. Many people with slight depression use the drug to feel better. Marijuana will do that at first then it can intensify the depression. So, they continue to use the drug at higher dosages’ which results in still more depression. One can see how cyclical use of marijuana to cure the depression that comes from using it begins!

One of the biggest controversies in marijuana abuse is: Which is causal?  Are problems caused by heavy smoking of marijuana, or is it just that people with problems are more likely to end up using marijuana heavily?

One last finding of note is interference with the maturation process. Yes, this deals with young people, but has also been found to have permanently stunted the maturation process in adults who not only ingested and smoked weed when young, but then also sealed the deal with vaping THC as an adult. Not only is the maturing process halted, it is known to make adults emotionally regress to a teen and even a preteen inability to make cognitively consequential choices. These noted symptoms of the usage of marijuana that take place can now be scientifically proven. Most findings conclude that it affects brain function, including emotions. This usually wanes in youth after approximately 3 months of being totally clean of cannabis. Unfortunately, in adults (long-term users) the regression can be permanent, and the more use continues, the less chance there is of any, much less complete, restoration.

This is how marijuana can now be shown to have long term effects, with irreversible damage. Most damage can be seen in chronic smokers who have built a tolerance and a degree of dependency to the drug. Effects physically and mentally are also exhibited. Tolerance to a drug develops when increasing doses are necessary to obtain the initial effect of a lower dose. Dependence may be psychological and/or physical. Psychological dependence refers to a craving for a drug often leading to compulsive drug use. Physical or physiological dependence is a state whereby withdrawal of the drug leads to undesirable effects in mood or the physical body. Marijuana is used to experience a high and as a person continually introduces this chemical into the body, they grow accustomed to it. Hence, in order to get the same high, you must smoke more potent marijuana. Cells in the pleasure center of the brain are being damaged and as more are damaged, more marijuana is needed. Also, the natural high is harder to achieve.

Many studies show how marijuana physically affects the brain. In one experiment, monkeys were used.  After making the monkeys smoke marijuana for 5 months, they then kept them clean for 3 months, and documented the differences in physiology and behavior with totally clean monkeys to compare to. Surprising abnormalities included (RER) chaos and synaptic vesicle clumping. RER or rough endoplasmic reticulum makes proteins so that each cell can function properly. RER is in neat strands in the cell’s interior. But, in the heavy smoking monkeys there was chaos in all the cells. Synaptic vesicle activity accounts for our thinking, feeling and doing. The heavy smoking monkeys had synaptic vesicles that were all clumped together. The vesicles were also filled with abnormal deposits of unknown material.

The conclusion was that long-term cannabis use in any form will produce irreversible effects in the brain. It causes a degenerative “marijuana abused” brain; much like long term use of alcohol can cause what is called an irreversible degenerative “wet” brain. The permanent symptoms of a marijuana abused brain are lack of empathy, bad short-term memory, apathy, inability to perceive consequences, lack of motivation, depression AND surprisingly…. permanent physiological changes in the brain and DNA!

Don’t fool yourself, marijuana in ANY form is not benign.