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Complete 9 page APA formatted essay: Is marijuana a dangerous drug.Download file to see previous pages... The effects of cannabis vary greatly depending on the dose and the quality of the drug as well
Complete 9 page APA formatted essay: Is marijuana a dangerous drug.
Download file to see previous pages...The effects of cannabis vary greatly depending on the dose and the quality of the drug as well as the users' experience with cannabis and their expectancy about the effects of the drug.
About 10% of people who start using cannabis will develop dependence, and frequent use is associated with a higher risk of dependence. Long-term use of cannabis damages short-term memory. The use of cannabis is sometimes associated with violence. It is increasingly being acknowledged that cannabis it is not a safe recreational drug as it was once thought to be. There is increasing evidence that cannabis withdrawal after prolonged use is associated with restlessness, irritability, anger, and sleep problems. Exposure to cannabis use and especially heavy use during adolescence and young adulthood increases the risk of psychotic symptoms later in life. As many as 15% of cannabis users report transient psychotic symptoms directly after use. A number of recent studies investigated prospectively whether cannabis use, at baseline, increases the risk of subsequent development of psychotic symptoms (Howlett et al. 2004). Cannabis use in young people moderately increased the risk of developing psychotic symptoms. The risk for the onset of symptoms was much higher for those who began use at an early age and with a predisposition for psychosis. There is some evidence that early cannabis use facilitates the progression to using drugs such as heroin and cocaine independent of genetic factors (Lundqvist, 2005).
The first observed medicinal benefits of cannabis encompassed anesthetic, airway opening, antihypertensive, eye pressure reducing as well as antiemetic actions, but for decades, the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms were unknown. Important advances have been made in the past decade in understanding how cannabis affects the brain. Research on the psychopharmacology of a plant-derived drug led to the discovery of a naturally occurring cannabinoid system in the brain (Mechoulam and Hanus, 2000). Although tetrahydrocannabinols (THCs) and cannabidiols were discovered and isolated from hemp extracts earlier, the structure and stereochemistry of the naturally occurring active substances in marijuana and hashish were discovered in the 1970s. The major phytocannabinoid structure was identified as a tricyclic ring constituted from a phenol ring, having a 5-carbon alkyl chain meta to the hydroxyl, a central pyran ring, and a mono-unsaturated cyclohexyl ring (Mechoulam and Shvo, 1963). Due to this inherent chemical nature, the active ingredients of cannabis interacts with the cannabinoid system in the brain, and the drug affects psychomotor, cognitive, perceptual and appetitive functions (Sarne &. Mechoulam, 2005).
Although about 66 different distinctive phytocannabinoid constituents of cannabis have been identified, THCs proved to be the most effective among all phytocannabinoids, whereas among THCs, 9-THC seems to be responsible for the vast majority of effects such as motor disturbances and catalepsy, corneal areflexia, scratching, euphoria and dysphoria, anxiety, drowsiness, altered time and audiovisual perceptions, panic attacks and impaired memory. Later it was shown that the more psychotropic a cannabinoid substance is the greater motor disturbances it causes.
