Is Marijuana Safe?
Make your own decision but get the facts first! The person selling you the drugs is likely not going to tell you the truth.
There are so many websites and blogs out there going on about how safe Marijuana is, I figured I would add a page or two on this website with some actual facts. Pot smokers are really the last to see the effects that the drug is having on them. To people around them that don't partake it is generally pretty obvious. Read through the material on these pages and make your decision. Either way, please consider others if you do decide to take this drug. If you drive, you are threatening others lives, not just your own.
1. First of all let's define a drug; What is a drug?:
"A drug is any substance (other than food that provides nutritional support) that, when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin, or dissolved under the tongue causes a temporary physiological (and often psychological) change in the body." (This definition compiled from Stedman's Medical Dictionary and Random House Dictionary.)
Basically, it changes the way you act, the way you feel, the way you think.
2. CBC Marketplace put out a very good video on an investigation they did in Colorado: CBC Marketplace They did some testing with people on marijuana using EKGs and other lab testing to actually discover what THC does to the human body. The video has great information on the relationship between THC and CBD* and their volumes and relationships in today's marijuana compared to that available during the 60s and 70s.
*CBD or Cannabidiol is a component of marijuana along with THC. THC being the ingredient that gets you high. CBD is believed to be the ingredient that handles pain and helps with some other physical issues. CBD does not get you high. It also mitigates (lessens) the effects of the THC.
3. Drug classifications: For the purposes of this article and your enlightenment, I am going to add a couple of classifications to drugs.
One is a water soluble drug like alcohol.
And another is a fat soluble drug like marijuana.
4. Pop quiz: Three questions here:
First Question: How long does alcohol (a water soluble drug) stay in the blood stream?
Answer: Alcohol will be washed out of your bloodstream and urine within 12-36 hours.
Second Question: How long does a fat soluble drug like marijuana stay in your bloodstream.
Answer: lots of varying opinions on this one but the fact is that THC levels can be found up to two weeks in the bloodstream. It will vary depending on how regularly one uses it.
Third Question: How long does marijuana stay in the fat tissues of your body?
Answer: No, it is not weeks or months, it is forever! You will find numerous places where the fact that marijuana stays in the fat cells but none say how long. Fat soluble drugs such as marijuana and LSD are absorbed into the fatty tissue surrounding the arteries and veins. As an aside, one of the organs in your body with the most fat tissue is the brain.
One other factor of THC staying in the fatty tissues of the body. The brain is an organ with one of the largest amounts of fat tissue. That is why it can affect long and short term memory, reaction time and other things.
Adipose (Fat) Tissue, Hormones and the Endocrine System
5. If you are not really concerned about fat soluble drugs sitting in the adipose tissues of your body, then you may want to read an article about what hormones are released from there. Some of these hormones released affect sex hormone metabolism, blood clotting, blood pressure and the body's sensitivity to insulin.
You can read the article here: You And Your Hormones
There is also more information later in this article on using marijuana pregnancy and sperm count.
6. Marijuana side effects, short term and long term. The majority of the information below is from https://www.drugabuse.gov a USA government website.
Short Term Effects:
Affects judgement
Reduces co-ordination
Reduces reaction time
Reduces blood pressure
Sleepiness
Attention problems
Alters sense of time and place
Impaired body movement
Impaired memory
Increased heart rate
Temporary hallucinations
Temporary paranoia
When taken in high doses:
Hallucinations
Delusions
Psychosis
Long Term Effects:
Affects brain development
Can be addictive
Impairs memory and thinking
Impairs learning functions
Weakens the ability to learn
Breathing problems/Lung illness
Worsening symptoms in patients with Schizophrenia
Other long term effects: (Again from https://www.drugabuse.gov)
Drugs, Minerals and Vitamins
7. Copious amounts of data exist on drug use and mineral and vitamin deficiency. Drugs of any sort, will deplete minerals such as magnesium, which is a known 'feel good' supplement. There are no shortage of articles and websites that show how magnesium's calming effect. Various B vitamins are often given to help with stress as well. Marijuana, which is often taken to relieve stress, depletes B vitamins. So, used for any length of time it can have the opposite of the desired effect.
Here is a study on how B vitamins reduce schizophrenia symptoms.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216103913.htm
Many of the drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia reduce B vitamins. And they also deplete minerals such as magnesium. If you are taking marijuana on a regular basis to get that calm relaxed feeling, just remember that you are at the same time changing your body's metabolism and reducing vitamins and minerals that would normally make you feel much better anyway. Over time not only do you need to keep up using marijuana because you are each time lessening the 'feel good' vitamins and minerals, you are also reducing these substances that are used to build a healthy body.
Babies, Pregnancy and Sperm Count
8. Marijuana use during pregnancy is linked to lower birth weight and increased risk of both brain and behavorial problems in babies. And if you want to have babies to begin with...This from InHaleMD.com and WebMD.com
"The bad news (if you want to become a father) is that marijuana appears to have negative effects on sperm count, sperm morphology[How many of a man’s sperm cells are deformed], and sperm motility[can they move] – all of which are important for getting pregnant."
And girls...: (This from WebMD)
"When women smoke marijuana, nicotine, or other drugs, their reproductive fluids contain these drugs," Burkman says. "The woman smoking marijuana is putting THC into her oviduct, into her cervix. If the man is not smoking but the woman is, his sperm go into her body and hit THC in the vagina, oviduct, and uterus. Her THC is changing his sperm."
Intense Nausea and Vomiting. Regular, long-term marijuana use can lead to some people to develop Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.
9. Why is marijuana being legalized? It is really all about the money. It has nothing to do with whether it is good for you or not. Drugs in general have been the underlying thrust of many wars. The Vietnam war was about gaining access to herion and marijuana. The British in China so many years ago was about access to the opium trade. Afghanistan was about harvesting the poppy plant to capture the heroin trade.
The link here is t a very long article but worth reading. It is about the three billionaires that, using their oodles of money managed to get laws passed over and over to get marijuana acceptable and legal in the USA: Tracking the Money that is Legalizing Marijuana in the USA
Here is a quote from the article: "Where’s the Money Coming From?"
"Americans seem to have been persuaded that cannabidiol (CBD), a marijuana component often called cannabis oil or Charlotte’s Web, cures intractable seizures in children stricken with epilepsy. Polls show 90 percent want medical marijuana legalized, especially for these children.
But listen to Michael D. Privitera, MD, president of the American Epilepsy Society and director of the epilepsy center at the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute, in a letter he wrote to a Pennsylvania legislator:"
10. And if you think it is any different in Canada check this out: NBC Canada Follow The Money
In this video you can see the trail of politicians and police that have smoothed their own way to making millions in the marijuana industry. One quote is that there is a possibility of upwards of 22 billion dollars that will be coming into various private coffers in Canada from the production of marijuana.
Is Marijuana a Gateway Drug?
11. There are some people that seem to function while using marijuana on a regular basis. And they may tell you that they have never used anything else. BUT you will find very, very few individuals using harder drugs such as heroin or cocaine and a myriad of other illegal and legal drugs that didn't start with marijuana. Not all, but the fact is that once someone is smoking pot, particularly at an early age, he or she will be around others that do drugs and often in an environment that introduces other, stronger drugs. The people making money from drugs, are going to go after those already doing some drug or other as an easier sale as opposed to a person that isn't doing any at all. And the individual or group trying to get you to try something like marijuana, whether it is your big brother, the school dealer or the government, will not tell you the truth...
They will lie.
"Drugs Are For Losers,
I Want to Be a Winner"
More on this subject:
Drug Storage in the body
Humans of New York(I hate pot)
Humans of New York(twenty years)