Things You Need To Know

Marijuana is the most commonly used and controversial illicit (illegal) drug in America today. The term marijuana, as commonly used, refers to the leaves and flowering tops of the cannabis plant. 

A tobacco-like substance produced by drying the leaves and flowering tops of the cannabis plant. Marijuana varies significantly in its potency, depending on the source and selection of plant materials used.  The form of marijuana known as sinsimella (Spanish, sin semilla: without seed), derived from the unpollinated female cannabis plant, is preferred for it high THC content.   

Cannabis sativa L., the hemp plant, or marijuana, grows wild throughout most of the tropic and temperate regions of the world, including here in Tennessee.  Prior to the advent of synthetic fibers, the cannabis plant was cultivated for the tough fiber of its stem.  In the United States, cannabis is legitimately grown only for scientific research.  Cannabis contains chemicals called cannabinoids that are unique to the cannabis plant.               

One of these, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is believed to be responsible for most of the characteristic psychoactive ingredient. Marijuana contains more than 400 compounds, more than 60 cannabinoids, and many other ingredients.  Its potency is due to the concentration of THC, which varies among different batches or samples and different forms of marijuana. 

How Is Marijuana Used?

Marijuana is usually smoked in the form of loosely rolled cigarettes called joints or blunts.  Blunts are marijuana cigarettes rolled from cigar paper. (The tobacco is removed first.)  Joints and blunts may be laced with a number of adulterants including PCP, cocaine, substantially altering the effects and toxicity of these products.    

Marijuana is sometimes cooked in foods such as brownies, but in such cases the drug’s effects are felt less rapidly, and are less under the control of the experienced user, than when it is smoked.

What Are Marijuana’s Effects?

Marijuana intoxication may include an altered state of consciousness, mild euphoria, relaxation, time distortion, perceptual alterations, intensification of ordinary sensory experiences, and/or increased sociality.  Unpleasant psychological reactions can be anxiety, depression, panic, delusions, and/or hallucinations.  Cognitive functions such as impaired short-term memory, disruption of mental activity, and motor functions like altered reaction time and disruption of coordination can result from marijuana intoxication.

Þ    Recent research indicates that marijuana may play an important role in respiratory tract cancer.  The tar phase of marijuana smoke contains 50 percent more of some carcinogenic agents that tobacco smoke.

Þ    One marijuana cigarette deposits four times as much tar in the lungs as one tobacco cigarette, which amplifies the exposure of the lungs to carcinogens. 

Þ    Long after the “high” has gone, the drug remains in the brain and affects  memory and learning.  You will be less able to speak, read, compute, or reason.  It also slows down your reaction time, making it dangerous to perform complex tasks such as driving a car.

Þ    Marijuana causes hormonal changes that could alter normal patterns of growth and sexual development.  When marijuana is used by women during pregnancy, babies may be born prematurely, with low birth weights, or with other abnormalities. 

Þ    If you have high blood pressure or heart problems, smoking marijuana is risky because it increases your heart rate by as much as 50 percent.  Your heart has to work harder and your blood pressure goes up. 

 Þ    For people with a history of emotional problems or mental illness, regular marijuana use can bring on their symptoms or make them worse.

 Can You Become Dependent on Marijuana?

With regular use, people can become psychologically dependent on marijuana. They crave the “high” and become edgy and anxious if they cannot get the drug. People who use large doses on a daily basis can become physically dependent and suffer withdrawal symptoms when they stop using the drugs.  For a week or so they may have trouble sleeping, feel anxious and irritable, and lose their appetite. 

What is “Hash”?

Hashish, known as “hash”, is the dried caked resin from the flowers and leaves of the female plant.  It usually contains a higher THC concentration than marijuana, and is therefore more potent.  It is sold in either soft or hard chunks and ranges in color from light or medium brown to nearly black.  Hash is usually mixed with tobacco and smoked in pipes or joints.  The most potent preparation other than pure THC is hash oil, a reddish-brown or green oily extract of cannabis, also called weed oil or honey oil on the street.  Hash oil is usually dropped onto the end of a regular cigarette, or wiped onto the paper before it is rolled into a marijuana joint.  

Pure THC, which can be produced synthetically in laboratories, is not available to street drug users, because it is too difficult and expensive to make.

Source U.S.DHHS, ARF

Revised 10/00