January

Happy New Year!!

A new year brings new happenings. January is Marijuana month. Did you know that the Marijuana today is as much as ten times stronger than the Marijuana used in 1970? (dmhas)

I have friends that smoke Marijuana and I have heard a lot of things as to how it doesn’t harm the body like alcohol or cigarettes. Now to some extent there’s probably truth to that statement. People don’t realize that Marijuana does in fact, harm the body.

Marijuana is a combination of mind-altering ingredients called Cannabinoids. Cannabinoids remain in the fat cells of Marijuana users. Since one-third of the brain is fat, cannabinoids are stored in the brain. Marijuana can slow learning by impairing thinking, reading comprehension and verbal and math skills. It also can affect your short term memory.

THC (delta-9-tetrahydroconnabinol), the main ingredient in Marijuana, can remain in the tissues of the body for days or weeks!

Here is a very interesting fact that I got from Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Marijuana smoke contains more cancer-causing ingredients than tobacco smoke. Researchers found that Marijuana cigarettes release five times as much carbon monoxide into the bloodstream and three times as much tar into the lungs of smokers as tobacco cigarettes.

So to the people that say Marijuana is ‘healthier’ than cigarettes, they’re wrong!

I started thinking about how people are trying to really stop the use of Marijuana. I don’t understand how this isn’t already somewhat solved. I think that there needs to be harsher punishment for people caught selling or using Marijuana, and any drug for that matter. If there was a harsher punishment people would be scared to sell or use drugs. If people just set an “automatic” jail time then maybe there would be a reduction in the amount of Marijuana and drugs used. Of course with sending everyone to jail come the factor of money and room in jail for everyone.  Maybe instead of jail time they have a fine to pay, a large fine to pay.

Does anyone think maybe that would help with the drug problem? How do people learn if they are continuously being able to use their ‘get out of jail’ free card?

Something else I found very interesting is, each year; more kids enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illegal drugs combined. Research also shows that the earlier kids start using pot, the more likely they are to become dependent on it or other illicit drugs later in life.

I have heard that before, that pot is the stepping stone for other drugs.

Just curious as to what you think about Marijuana. What do you think about parents that smoke Marijuana? Anything else! I’d love to know 🙂

I got my facts from:

www.ctclearinghouse.org, usa.gov, www.prevlink.org, www.dmhas.org