Nowadays, there are many different types of drugs that people use to cope with pretty much everything. One of the most used ones is Marijuana. To better understand the subject, I interviewed one of our school's teachers, Malkhaz Makashvili, on everything we should know about Marijuana. How can it be used? What are the dangers of smoking it? And so on?
Let's start from the beginning. What is Marijuana?
Marijuana is a plant that consists of psychoactive substances. What is a psychoactive substance? Psychoactive substances are the ones, which target our brains, affect us psychologically. These substances affect the way our brains work. Even though not all of these substances in Marijuana are psychoactive, people are making new types of Marijuana in which the amount of the substances that affect our brains is higher. Moreover, usually not knowing the kind of Marijuana they smoke further increases the risks; thus, the dangers of overdosing.
Now how can someone overdose by smoking Marijuana? As I already mentioned, you never know which sort you're getting. If the drug has a lot of psychoactive substances, it might even result in death. Smoking Marijuana of any kind repeatedly for an extended period may also result in severe consequences. Long-term smoking might not exactly result in death; however, it still leaves a mark on one's mentality.
Now, why do people smoke Marijuana? Marijuana is considered a pretty safe drug, so people think it isn't that dangerous and smoke it for pleasure because, paradoxically, it merely brings them relief and relaxation. But people are wrong because Marijuana may not affect them physically, but it does mentally. Malkhaz told me about an observation they made in the university once. They watched the kids who smoked Marijuana and noticed that their vision got worse with time.
Another thing they found out during these observations was that these smokers couldn't identify others by their faces, only by emotional expressions. So we can say that Marijuana also causes some communication issues since identifying people is difficult. This phenomenon is called face matching by identity and face matching by emotion. Malkhaz also talked about observations from other countries, which showed that Marijuana also affects the brain's two regions the most. These are the brain's prefrontal region and the brain's temporal region. In this temporal region, there's a structure called the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory. Because Marijuana affects this region of the brain the most, a smoker would also have memory problems.
Furthermore, the prefrontal area is responsible for controlling your behavior. Therefore, if a person smokes Marijuana, they wouldn't be able to control themselves. This is why the people who smoke act uncontrollably and kind of drunk. Marijuana also affects our lungs like regular cigarettes, but the effect of smoking Marijuana isn't as bad as smoking cigarettes. To sum this up, the leading destination of Marijuana is the brain.
You may have heard that Marijuana is also used in hospitals, but why, if it's so dangerous? The difference between smoking Marijuana by yourself and getting it from a doctor is the dosage. Doctors know what dosage to use and whether it's necessary or not; they use the right amount to kill the pain a patient might have. Another reason could also be about the prefrontal region of our brains; when some people feel like their burden is too much to bear, the right dosage helps them to relax for a moment.
Can Marijuana usage lead to smoking other heavier types of drugs? Yes, absolutely, and the other way around as well. It doesn't matter how used a person can be to using other drugs; Marijuana will affect them just as severely.
I'm sure you have heard about people using Marijuana in cookies or drinks. A frequently asked question is, what's the difference between smoking Marijuana and getting it from cookies. As Malkhaz told me, the difference is again in the dosage of Marijuana in these foods. In these foods, the dosage is less, which makes it safer.
In many countries and states, Marijuana is legal despite its impacts. The logical reason for that is that people thought that legalizing it would make people stop smoking, but that didn't work out. On the contrary, legalizing Marijuana raised its usage around 4-5 times.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Malkhaz Makashvili for taking the time of the day to tell us about it. Marijuana isn't as harmless as people think. After all, it's still a drug, and we shouldn't use it without a doctor's or an authorized person's prescription. I hope this article explained to you all the dangers of using this drug!
- By Tako Akhobadze
Comments