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| True Effects of Marijuana are Still Unknown |
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Posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 10:11:13 PT By Michael Woods Source: Toledo Blade 
Marijuana shook off its "weed-with-roots-in-hell" reputation decades ago, after scientific studies punctured old myths and challenged popular misconceptions about the drug.Folklore about marijuana dates to a classic 1936 film, Reefer Madness: Devil’s Harvest. It showed marijuana causing instant addiction, a craving for heroin, crime sprees, and insanity. Newer studies gradually painted a different portrait of marijuana as a drug that rarely leads to addiction or serious crime by users. Marijuana found a niche in medicine. Although rarely used, it is a second-line drug that can relieve nausea and vomiting and certain other problems when other drugs fail. Millions of Americans have tried marijuana. A 1999 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report estimated that one-third of the U.S. population over age 12 - 69 million people - had tried marijuana at least once. Most used marijuana for brief periods in their teens or 20s, and stopped. The growing acceptance of marijuana has fostered a new misconception, especially among younger people: That all the scientific uncertainties about marijuana’s safety have been resolved. Marijuana, they believe, is a totally harmless substance persecuted by overly zealous law enforcement officials. In reality, serious scientific questions about marijuana’s effects and safety remain unanswered. They extend beyond possible health problems from inhaling marijuana smoke into the lungs. As NAS noted, marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, contains carcinogens and other harmful chemicals. Inhale smoke containing those substances, and the toxic materials go into the blood and circulate throughout the body. One of the most serious unanswered questions involves marijuana’s effects on brain cells. Here’s the situation: Marijuana interferes with the normal workings of brain cells. That’s why marijuana produces its "high" and causes changes in the way a user thinks and senses the world. Computerized brain images of heavy marijuana users show different patterns of blood flow and nerve cell activity. Psychological tests of long-term users also show unusual problems with "cognitive functioning." That means problems with memory, focusing attention, performing complex tasks, and other problems. A scientific debate is under way - largely hidden from public view - on the importance of those changes. Do brain cells fully recover after a person stops using marijuana, with the memory impairments disappearing? Or does marijuana have a toxic effect on nerve cells that slowly causes lasting damage that worsens after years of use? Studies in animals reinforce the concerns. They show that marijuana’s active ingredient alters the activity of a brain system critical for normal memory. Experts agree that cognitive changes last for hours or days after a person uses marijuana. But they disagree on whether those problems last longer and grow worse over time. The disagreements are sharp, and one study may reach conclusions exactly the opposite of another. Early in March, for example, an international research group reported that cognitive impairments do last and worsen. They studied 102 people who had used marijuana almost daily for years. "The kind of impairments observed in this study have the potential to impact academic achievements, occupational proficiency, interpersonal relationships, and daily functioning," they reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Mental impairments, researchers said, develop silently and may be apparent only after 10 or 20 years of heavy marijuana use. A year earlier, equally distinguished researchers found no lasting ill effects after studying 108 heavy marijuana users. "We still must live with uncertainty," Harvard University’s Dr. Robert G. Pope, Jr., summed up the situation in a JAMA editorial. Today’s marijuana users will do the same - with their own long-term health at stake - as unknowing subjects in a huge, real-life experiment. Their fate will help scientists paint marijuana’s final portrait. Michael Woods is the Blade's science editor. His column on health appears each Monday. Source: Blade, The (OH) Related Articles & Web Site: Ethan Russo M.D. - Chronic Cannabis Use Research With Pot Smokers Shows Uh, Oh Yeah Long-Term Pot Use Takes Toll on Brain Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #13 posted by Lehder on March 30, 2002 at 06:56:48 PT |
| Psychological tests of long-term users also show unusual problems with "cognitive
functioning." That means problems with memory, focusing attention, performing complex
tasks, and other problems. Really? I smoked a joint one day at noon, midway through the comprehensive exam ("the comps") in physics. Sometime later people quit calling me "Mr." ( except for physicians - "doctors" - who still call me "Mr.") I'll admit that I cheated on the exam, though: along with that reefer I had a tuna fish sandwich. But maybe the exam did not require using any "memory," and maybe it did not require my "focusing attention." I would agree that none of the problems seemed like "complex tasks" - I was a "long term user" and just happened to know how to do the problems, excepting one which seemed an "unusual problem" - maybe that one is what Michael Woods means here by "other problems"? One of us doesn't know what he's talking about. Of course the exam was not a "psychological test" - it was a six-hour physics test. I would probably fail his psychological test. I am certain that I have benefited from marijuana, though I offer only anecdotal evidence. But I have also heard much anecdotal evidence that prison would interfere with my work. Not all the evidence is in yet on death and prison, but I could tell you many anecdotes about how the War on Drugs interferes with people and their good works and how, in fact, it can screw people up financially and psychologically and even physically ( you can be inflicted with AIDS or tuberculosis in an American prison ) so that they can't pass any test at all. If you are killed in prison or shot in the face by a drug warrior for doing mathematics while smoking weed then it's even harder to succeed. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by DdC on March 29, 2002 at 21:43:43 PT |
| Maybe I eat a proper diet. ¶8) [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by qqqq on March 29, 2002 at 15:20:23 PT |
| ...I've been hidin' my big ol' set of tits since 1981,,I think Lehder ,,or was it Goneposthole finally had to have theirs liposucked!.....If you have still not sprouted tits,,then maybe you've been getting burned with crummy weed....If you look closely at old photos of Bob Marley,,you will see that he had a set of knockers that would make Al Bundy blush!.... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by qqqq on March 29, 2002 at 14:59:07 PT |
| ... True Effects of Marijuana are Still Unknown ... ..in other news; ....True Effects of Regular Daily Hamburger Consumption Remains a Mystery....
[ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by goneposthole on March 29, 2002 at 14:50:11 PT |
| After 8,000 years of history of hemp and how man has used it, we still don't know the true effects? The true effects of marijuana being illegal are too well known, unfortunately. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by DdC on March 29, 2002 at 14:39:20 PT |
| And those flashback's Nixon promised... DMT Everybody's Busted! Captain Kangaroo reefermadness minies Terence McKenna Land LUNG CLEANER AND EXPECTORANT Cannabis and Asthma Organic Cannabis/Tobacco vs Chemical Cigarettes [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #7 posted by freddybigbee on March 29, 2002 at 12:55:07 PT:
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| With the advent of efficient and user-friendly vaporizers, the "lung-damage" argument would go away. Without prohibition, GE and Sony would be fighting it out for the vaporizer market, and you can bet we'd have fine, efficient, long-lasting, user-friendly vaporizers within two years. The lung-damage argument is just one more prohibitionist smoke-screen. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by Dark Star on March 29, 2002 at 11:46:48 PT |
| If drugs were legal, regulated and safe, who would bother with the black market? [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo MD on March 29, 2002 at 11:45:06 PT:
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| Cannabis led the way to a truer understanding of our own neurophysiology and biochemistry. Cannabinoid receptors are evolutionarily ancient. This is discussed in an excellent article by John McPartland in Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 2(1), 2002. Prohibition creates strange bedfellows. If you have a heart attack in the UK, you may receive "diamorphine." That's short for diacetylmorphine, better known under its original brand name in Germany, heroin. It is a powerful painkiller with less tendency to provoke nausea than morphine. It is medically useful, but Schedule I on this side of the pond says it has no medical utility. Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a prohibited Schedule I substance that is widespread in nature, even growing in Phalaris spp. that may be among the grasses in your lawn! Even more striking, there is evidence that DMT occurs as a natural neurotransmitter in our own cranial vaults! Maybe they should be sniffing that out and arrest their own brains for possession of trace illegal compounds. It is simply that absurd. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by bruce42 on March 29, 2002 at 11:28:41 PT |
| argument for prohibition? "Psychological tests of long-term users also show unusual problems with "cognitive functioning." That means problems with memory, focusing attention, performing complex tasks, and other problems." How does this justify the jailing of hundreds of thousands of American citizens every year. No one has died yet. No waves of ex-hippies with lung cancer are filling hospital beds. Big tobacco knew cigarettes to be harmful almost form day one. It didn't take a handful of wishy washy studies to show that. Antis keep on insisting for more research in the vain hope that one well done and unrefutable study will come along and prove them right. Cannabis isn't going to just suddenly become toxic. People aren't getting sick and people are not dying from pot smoke. No amount of wating will change that. Has anyone else wondered why cannabis is? From an evolutional standpoint, there are a number of plant and animal species that are dependant on each other for survival, and are so because of millions of generations of successful coexistence. Many people wonder why we have cannabanoid receptors in our brains, why cannabis seeds and oil are good for our health. Maybe its because cannabis is the one plant that humans are interdependant with. Cannabis is succesful as a sepcies because of human interaction. Perhaps vice versa is also true? Just a thought. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #3 posted by krutch on March 29, 2002 at 11:18:18 PT:
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| I don't think anybody believes that "all the scientific uncertainties about marijuana’s safety have been resolved". In fact, I don't think the scientific uncertainties about any drug's safety will be completely resolved. We can not look at MJ in a vacuum. We have to compare it to other substances. MJ has no acute(short term) toxicity. You can not die from an overdose of MJ. The chronic(long term) effects are a subject of controversy. The evidence that MJ produces any kind of brain damage is scant. Some studies show long term effects on the brain, others show no effects. It seems reasonable to assume that it is not healthly for the lungs. Dr. Russo observed some negative effects in his work. Now lets compare it to a legal drug; Alcohol. Alcohol is acutely toxic. I don't have any numbers, but I am confident that many people die each year from alcohol overdose. It is a scientific fact that long term use damages both the liver and the brain. Many people die from the long term effects of booze each year. If Michael Woods wrote this piece to convince the reader that smoking MJ may have some health risks, his cause is noble. If his purpose is to convince the reader that it should stay illegal, he is misguided. Because when we compare it to the health risks of alcohol, the risks are miniscule. Therefore it is preposterous to keep MJ illegal. Far more lives are ruined by the prohibition then by the health effects of the drug. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Dark Star on March 29, 2002 at 11:16:01 PT |
| We can also say that there is no proof that Martians did not really invade the Earth as Orson Wells reported in 1939---. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on March 29, 2002 at 10:40:13 PT |
| They'll never be satisfied. Meanwhile people die from aspirin overdoses and get sick from the side effects of long term use, but of course we all know that aspirin is safe. [ Post Comment ] |
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