Effects of Marijuana On The Brain

The debate over the positives and negatives of marijuana is an age old debate, one that certainly won't be solved by an article I recently ran across. The study I read about tested marijuana users and a control group and determined that the two main ingredients in the drug, THC and CBD appeared to effect the brain in different and opposite ways. Ingesting THC brought about irregular activity in two regions of the brain. Healthy indiviudals might give far more importance to details in their environment than they would have without the chemical in their brain. THC also prompted a significant uptick in paranoid and delusional thinking. The effect of the other main marijuana ingredient, CBD, was nearly the opposite, however. What this suggests is that marijuana may play both a good and bad role in the context of psychosis.

Marijuana is in the news constantly. Medical uses for marijuana are well known, thus the abundance of marijuana shops where people with a medical card can legally purchase marijuana. Pot has been proven to help cancer patients dealing with chemotherapy, due to its ability to relieve pain and nausea. It has also been shown to be helpful in glaucoma patients. (however, there are standard medications that have been shown to be far more effective in treating glaucoma than pot).

Marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that in chronic users, marijuana's adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. The conclusion is that someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal level all of the time.

Research into the effects of long-term cannabis use on the structure of the brain has yielded inconsistent results. Studies have, however,shown that chronic marijuana use may increase anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. In one study, heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement, including physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life and career status.

Unless you're undergoing chemotherapy or are in extreme pain, I do not see much on the positive side. The fact that marijuana might effect your mental health, distort perceptions (paranoia), and decrease sharpness in memory and learning, is reason enough for me to stay away. The results are not in on whether the brain cells that are destroyed from smoking marijuana are replaced or not.

I've been a non drug user my whole life (legal and illegal), unless absolutely necessary. I'll continue getting my highs from things like catching a great wave on a boogie board, watching a beautiful sunset, taking a run down a ski slope (can't do that anymore) or spinning on a Saturday morning at the Y. These kind of things get me high, and I like it that way.