Posted on January 20, 2008 in Teen Health
Myths and Explanations
- Marijuana Can Cause Permanent Mental Illness.
Among adolescents, even occasional marijuana use may cause psychological damage. During intoxication, marijuana users become irrational and often behave erratically. Explanation: There is no convincing scientific evidence that marijuana causes psychological damage or mental illness in either teenagers or adults. Some marijuana users experience psychological distress following marijuana ingestion. With very large doses, marijuana can cause temporary toxic psychosis.
Marijuana does not cause profound changes in people’s behavior. Marijuana has been shown to be effective in reducing the nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy, stimulating appetite in AIDS patients, and reducing intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma. There is also appreciable evidence that marijuana reduces muscle spasticity in patients with neurological disorders.
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Marijuana is highly addictive.
Long term marijuana users experience physical dependence and withdrawal, and often need professional drug treatment to break their marijuana habits.
Explanation: Most people who smoke marijuana smoke it only occasionally. Some people who smoke marijuana heavily and frequently stop without difficulty. Marijuana does not cause physical dependence. If people experience withdrawal symptoms at all, they are remarkably mild.
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Marijuana is more potent today than in the past.
Adults who used marijuana in the 1960s and 1970s fail to realize that when today’s youth use marijuana they are using a much more dangerous drug.
Explanation: Today’s youth use marijuana along with some other drugs, so though they are using the same drug used by youth in the 1960s and 1970s the blend of drug with some other elements can make it dangerous. But a small number of low-THC sample sized by the Drug Enforcement Administration are used to calculate a dramatic increase in potency.
Potency data from the early 1980s to the present show no increase in the average THC content of marijuana. Even if marijuana potency were to increase, it would not necessarily make the drug more dangerous. Marijuana that varies quite substantially in potency produces similar psychoactive effects.
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Marijuana Offenses are not severely punished.
Explanation: Few marijuana law violators are arrested and hardly anyone goes to prison. This lenient treatment is responsible for marijuana continued availability and use. Statistics say that marijuana arrests in the United States doubled between 1991 and 1995. In 1995, more than one-half-million people were arrested for marijuana offenses. Eighty-six percent of them were arrested for marijuana possession.
Tens of thousands of people are now in prison or marijuana offenses. An even greater number are punished with probation, fines, and civil sanctions, including having their property seized, their driver’s license revoked, and their employment terminated. Despite these civil and criminal sanctions, marijuana continues to be readily available and widely used. Money for the sellers and dependency of the users are helping the trade and use survive.
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Marijuana is more damaging to the Lungs than Tobacco.
Explanation: Smoking is dangerous for health and no doubt marijuana smokers are at a high risk of developing lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema but enough evidence is not there to prove this myth. Moderate smoking of marijuana appears to pose minimal danger to the lungs. Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke contains a number of irritants and carcinogens.
But marijuana users typically smoke much less often than tobacco smokers, and over time, inhale much less smoke. As a result, the risk of serious lung damage should be lower in marijuana smokers. There have been no reports of lung cancer related solely to marijuana, and in a large study presented to the American Thoracic Society in 2006, even heavy users of smoked marijuana were found not to have any increased risk of lung cancer. Unlike heavy tobacco smokers, heavy marijuana smokers exhibit no obstruction of the lung’s small airway. That indicates that people will not develop emphysema from smoking marijuana.
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January 20th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
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