Scientifically Established Facts About Dangers of Pot Use
FIVE COMMON MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT MARIJUANA
01. MYTH: Marijuana is harmless.
01. FACT: Can lead to a host of significant health, social, learning, and behavioral problems at a crucial time in a young person's development. Getting high also impairs judgment, which can lead to risky decision making on issues like sex, criminal activity, or riding with someone who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, teen users are 5 times more likely to have sex than teens who do not.
02. MYTH: You can't get addicted to marijuana.
02. FACT: Research shows that marijuana use can lead to psychological addiction. Each year, more kids enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined.
03. MYTH: There are no long-term consequences to marijuana use.
03. FACT: Research shows that kids who smoke marijuana engage in risky behavior that can jeopardize their futures, like having sex, getting in trouble with the law, or losing scholarship money. Marijuana can also hurt academic achievement and puts kids at risk for depression and anxiety.
04. MYTH: Marijuana isn't as popular as other drugs like ecstasy among teens today.
04. FACT: Kids use marijuana far more than any other illicit drug. Among kids who use drugs, 60 percent use only marijuana.
05. MYTH: Young kids won't be exposed to marijuana.
05. FACT: Between 1991 and 2001, the number of 8th graders who used marijuana doubled from one in 10 to one in five.
HEALTH HAZARDS OF MARIJUANA USE
The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Short-term effects of marijuana use include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem-solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks.
Effects of Marijuana on the Brain. TLC changes the way sensory information gets into and is acted on by the hippo campus, a component of the brain that is crucial for learning, memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivations. Researchers have discovered that learned behaviors, which depend on the hippo campus, also deteriorate.
Effects on the Lungs. Regular use may lead to respiratory problems that tobacco smokers have. These individuals may have daily cough and phlegm, symptoms of chronic bronchitis, and more frequent chest colds. Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers. This may be due to marijuana users inhaling more deeply and holding the smoke in the lungs.
Effects of Heavy Heavy Use on LearLearning Social Behavior. A study of college students has shown that critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning are impaired among people who use marijuana heavily, even after discontinuing its use for at least 24 hours. Researchers compared 65 "heavy users," who had smoked marijuana a median of 29 of the past 30 days, and 64 "light users," who had smoked a median of 1 of the past 30 days. Marijuana users made more errors and had more difficulty sustaining attention, shifting attention to meet the demands of changes in the environment, and in registering, processing, and using information.
Longitudinal research on marijuana use among young people below college age indicates those who used have lower achievement than the non-users, more acceptance of deviant behavior, more delinquent behavior and aggression, greater rebelliousness, poorer relationships with parents, and more associations with delinquent and drug-using friends.
Sources: Journal of the American Medical Association, Prevalence of Marijuana Use Disorders in the United States. May 5, 2004.
Wilson M. Compton, MD, MPE, James D. Colliver, PhD and Meyer D. Glantz, PhD (National Institute on Drug Abuse NIDA); and Bridget F. Grant, PhD and Frederick S. Stinson, PhD (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism - NIAAA). Additional source: National Institutes on Health (NIH) research data archives.
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Marijuana Study Blows The Lid Off Pot
The lid has been blown off pot's popularity ... or, at least dispelled the myth that pot isn't harmful. Boomers who use marijuana for a number of years can become addicted, say researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC). The UCHC study is investigating the characteristics of 130 long term pot smokers who are participating in a three year research project.
Investigators said that when these marijuana smokers aren't using pot, they have a strong craving for it. They think about it. They want it. When they aren't using it they get jittery, restless, and irritable. "It's a common thread that contradicts the widespread assumption that pot is not addictive," said Ronald Kadden, Ph.D., Health Center professor of psychiatry and the study's principal investigator.
"What the participants tell us is they didn't know how hooked they were until they tried to quit." It's a vicious cycle. Because you become tolerant, you need to smoke more to achieve the desired effect, says Dr. Kadden. "The more you smoke, the more you need to smoke. The more you need to smoke, the more you need to stop," he said.
Researchers and health professionals have long maintained that marijuana is psychologically addictive. Research shows that marijuana is also physically addictive, although withdrawal effects are not as debilitating as with alcohol, heroin, cocaine, amphetamine or barbiturate dependence. Users who are familiar with the severe effects of physical addiction to other drugs tend to believe their marijuana use is optional and elective. That's simply not the case.
The psychological and physical addiction of the long term pot smokers interferes with leading a normal life because they can't cope or function adequately without marijuana. Dr. Kadden's study, which began in 1997, is a three-year project consisting of 130 subjects with an average age of 36, and an age range from the teens to late 50s. The subjects come from all walks of life, the unemployed to the six-figure manager, men and women alike.
Source: University of Connecticut Health Center
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Do Boomers Myth Marijuana? Science Thinks So
"Reefer Madness", the cultural icon of mindless scare tactics was a film many boomers laughed at for decades. The film's attempt to dramatize the mind-altering affects of marijuana went well beyond the bounds of common sense and logic. Well, decades later, the evidence is in. Critics are now armed with hard data, and the news isn't good.
You might say the myth about marijuana's harmless impact on one's mental state appears to have "gone up in smoke". And this news comes none too soon. The use of marijuana in America seems just as popular as the belief that the drug is neither addictive nor psychologically harmful. Marijuana is a mythed opportunity for many Americans, especially those in the boomer-age category. Take a look.
People who have smoked marijuana daily for many years display more aggressive behavior when they stop smoking the drug, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School. The study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, is further evidence that a withdrawal syndrome is associated with abstinence from long-term marijuana use, and suggests that aggressive behavior is part of this syndrome.
Human and animal studies conducted since the early 1970s have suggested the existence of a marijuana withdrawal syndrome, characterized by insomnia, restlessness, loss of appetite, and irritability. "This syndrome, although less dramatic than the withdrawal syndrome associated with alcohol, opiate, or cocaine withdrawal may contribute to relapse among those dependent on marijuana," says NIDA Director Dr. Alan I. Leshner. "People addicted to marijuana may continue to use the drug at least partly to prevent the onset of withdrawal symptoms. Identifying the exact nature of this syndrome is crucial to developing treatment strategies for those attempting to stop their marijuana use."
"Most of the studies that have been published on marijuana withdrawal symptoms in people have relied on self-report," says Dr. Elena Kouri, lead author of the paper. "In these studies, long-term marijuana users report that they feel irritable when they are abstaining from marijuana use, but these studies generally do not involve measurements of aggressive behavior to verify these self-reports. In our study, we demonstrated that long-term marijuana users do, indeed, exhibit more aggressive behavior during the first week of abstinence, and that this aggressive behavior can be measured."
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. More than 11 million people have smoked marijuana within the past month, according to the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction in some people. These marijuana-addicted individuals use the drug compulsively, and this use often interferes with family, school, work, and recreational activities. Individuals with cannabis dependence may also persist in using the drug despite knowing that it causes them physical problems, such as a chronic cough related to smoking, or psychological problems, such as excessive sedation due to high doses.
"Although it is difficult to be certain of the exact prevalence of cannabis addiction in the United States, I can tell you anecdotally that we had no difficulty recruiting dozens of people between the ages of 30 and 55 who have smoked marijuana at least 5,000 times," says Dr. Harrison Pope, Jr., principal investigator of the study. "A simple ad in the paper generated hundreds of phone calls from such people."
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Boomer Pot-Use Part of New Risk Trend
The sixties are over, boomers. Time to stop letting your health go up
in smoke. Smoking, in general, is harmful to your health. There's a
mountain of evidence to prove that point. So just putting a cigarette
in your mouth makes you look pretty foolish, even stupid. However,
smoking marijuana, according to a new study, makes you look like a real
butt head. Nevertheless, many baby boomers continue to abuse marijuana.
Is this risky business part of a new baby boomer trend that could be
labeled as "risk-dom"? AgeVenture News Editor and gerontologist, Dr.
David Demko thinks so. Here's one case in point.
Middle-aged and elderly marijuana users increase their risk
of a heart attack by more than 400% during the first hour after smoking
the drug, according to a new study presented at the American Heart
Association's annual conference on cardiovascular disease. Researchers
collected detailed information on marijuana use in 3,882 patients who
had suffered heart attacks. Some marijuana users reported smoking the
drug within 24 hours before their heart attack. Still others had used
it within an hour of the onset of symptoms.
"To my knowledge, this is the first study to document that smoking marijuana can trigger a heart attack," says
Murray A. Mittleman, M.D., Dr.P.H., director of cardiovascular epidemiology at Boston's Beth
Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. "It increases the heart rate by about 40 beats per minute," he says. "It also
causes the blood pressure to increase when the person is lying down, and then abruptly fall when the person
stands up, often causing dizziness. These effects may pose significant risk, especially in people with
unrecognized coronary disease."
"We found that during the first hour after use, the risk of a heart attack is 4.8 times higher than during periods
of non-use," says Mittleman. "In the second hour, the risk drops to 1.7 times higher than during periods of
non-use. This indicates a rapid decline in the dangerous effects of marijuana on the heart, but the short-term
risk is considerable, especially for patients with other risk factors."
Based on the study, the cardiac risks to individual users posed by marijuana appear to be much lower than
those associated with cocaine use, which causes much sharper rises in both heart rate and blood pressure,
Mittleman says. However, he adds that the overall public health threat from marijuana could be even greater
than from cocaine because marijuana use is believed to be more widespread.
The study's findings provide "possible new food for thought" in
the ongoing controversy over whether
marijuana use for medical purposes should be legalized, he says. In a
1996 referendum in California, voters approved the legal medical use of
marijuana, and since then, at least seven other states have passed laws
allowing physicians to prescribe the drug, although it is still
prohibited by federal law, Mittleman says.
A recent report by The Institute of Medicine, of the National Academy of Sciences, found no significant
marijuana-related cardiac risk among younger users, he says. "But part of the problem lies in the fact that we
now have millions of baby boomers who are reaching the age when the risk of coronary heart disease
increases for both men and women," Mittleman adds.
"Many of these people were users of marijuana when they were in
their teens and 20s, and a sizable
percentage of them may still use the drug, either frequently or
occasionally," he says. "They should at least be aware that their risk
of a heart attack suddenly soars each time they smoke the drug."
Mittleman says researchers still aren't sure whether it's the marijuana itself that causes the increased risk of
heart attack, or whether it's other components in the smoke such as carbon monoxide, or a combination of the
two. "This is an area that warrants further study," he says.
"Given the mounting evidence regarding the negative effects of both
marijuana and smoking in general, it's surprising that educated, mature
adults continue to take such risks", says AgeVenture News Editor, Dr.
David Demko. "This study doesn't exactly support the old notion that with age comes wisdom".
Aging boomers feel that with only a "few good years left", they might
as well indulge themselves, regardless of the health risks. If that's
the case, maybe that old notion about age and wisdom needs to be
updated. How does this sound, "with age comes risk-dom"?
It wouldn't be the first time baby boomers changed the world to suit their
own purposes. There's already evidence of what Demko calls the new
"risk-dom" trend among boomers. One case in point is the increasing
popularity of the new National Geographic "Adventure Magazine" that
documents plenty of boomer risk-takers constantly pushing the envelope,
sometimes with disastrous effects.
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Pot For Elders ? ... What is AARP Smoking ?
"Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use." That's the message delivered in a Fall 2004 opinion poll sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
Actually, the elders contributing to the poll sent a mixed message. The message consisted of two conflicting "truths". "Marijuana offers medical benefits, and marijuana offers severe health risks." Here's the lesson to be learned, "don't believe everything you hear, especially if it's a half-truth.
Seventy percent of respondents reported, according to AARP, that "adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it." That statement reads more like support for following a doctor's advice, rather than a blanket approval of an illegal drug like marijuana.
More importantly, the AARP survey found that 69 percent of those age 70-plus
believe marijuana had no medical benefits. Eighty-three percent of that age group also agreed that marijuana is addictive. 74 percent of all those surveyed say marijuana is addictive. This conclusion is supported in the research literature. For example, log on to studies at the National Institutes of Health and search for articles on mental illness and marijuana use. Additionally, peer-reviewed scientific research journals, such as the British Medical Journal, continue to report staggering relationships between pot use and increased incidence depression, schizophrenia, suicidal behavior, and other psychosis. Risk levels to mental illness run 50 to 300 percent higher among users of marijuana.
The old-old are not the only ones at risk. Middle-aged pot users increase their risk of a heart attack by more than 400% during the first hour after smoking the drug, according to researchers attending the American Heart Association conference as far back as year 2000. "We found that during the first hour after marijuana use, the risk of a heart attack is 4.8 times higher than during periods of non-use," said researcher Murray A. Mittleman, M.D.
"To my knowledge, this is the first study to document that smoking marijuana can trigger a heart attack," said researcher Murray A. Mittleman, M.D., specialist in cardiovascular epidemiology. "These effects may pose significant risk, especially in people with unrecognized coronary disease."
A sizable percentage of baby boomers use marijuana, either frequently or occasionally" said Mittleman. "They should at least be aware that their risk of a heart attack suddenly soars each time they smoke the drug." The risk, said Mittleman, is increasing for baby boomers reaching the age when the risk of coronary heart disease increases for both men and women."
"Given the mounting evidence regarding the negative effects of both marijuana and smoking in general, it's surprising that educated, mature adults continue to take such risks", says AgeVenture News Editor, Dr. David Demko. "These revelations don't support the old notion that with age comes wisdom". A thought that begs the question, "Pot for elders ... what is AARP smoking?"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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