Marijuana
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Marijuana is a plant (Cannabis spp.) that contains a complex of psychoactive substances. It has been selectively bred to increase - although not by as much as some media reports suggest - the concentration of these chemicals by many faithful adherents to its use. While it is usually eaten or smoked in hand-rolled cigarettes or various kinds of pipes, the active ingredients can be extracted and taken in pill form.
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[edit] Bio-neurological use
[edit] Low dosage effects
In low doses, marijuana induces mild euphoria followed by a sense of general relaxation and well-being. Users often report heightened perceptions of music, colours and taste. Its effects at these doses are best likened to those of moderate alcohol consumption, but without the same degree of motor impairment and without the disinhibition towards aggression. Indeed, it is virtually impossible to start a fight when stoned.
[edit] High dosage effects
In higher doses, marijuana can induce mild to moderate hallucinations. Unlike the direct distortions of sense perception produced by LSD or psilocybin these hallucinations are mostly functions of the user's hyper-stimulated imagination. There is a small risk of adverse side-effects and their likelihood increases with the dosage. They range from the merely inconvenient (short-term memory loss), through to the somewhat unnerving (paranoia/anxiety) and finally to the downright unpleasant (overwhelming disorientation/vomiting).
[edit] "Chronic"
Chronic misuse of marijuana has been widely identified as a significant risk factor for those with a predisposition towards developing various mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia. However, it should be noted that people with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder often "self-medicate" to relieve the symptoms of their disorders. Scientific studies of marijuana use, like the one released on 26 June 2007,[1] rarely take into account that the mental disorders of habitual users often go undiagnosed until after the patient has become a habitual marijuana user. It's possible that studies like the one mentioned above are politically motivated. People with pre-existing mental disorders also tend to abuse alcohol and tobacco. Yet, similar studies linking booze and cigarettes - both legal and heavily taxed - to mental illnesses are less common than those that focus just on marijuana. Therefore, the link between marijuana use and mental illness may be an instance when correlation does not equal causation.
Recent studies also indicated that brain structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus may shrink due to extremely chronic use, on the order of five "marijuana cigarettes" a day for upwards of twenty years, in the case of one study.
The term "chronic" is also used colloquially to describe marijuana of unusually high quality.
[edit] Boring
Even for people without a predisposition to mental illness, long-term habitual misuse often results in the user becoming both very bored and very boring. The key seems to be remembering what the word "recreational" means and moderating one's level of use accordingly.
[edit] Sam's ditchweed
In the U.S., research into such issues as marijuana for medical use is restricted to the supply of government-grown plants[2], which are of poor quality (potency), a sore point with many researchers in the field.
[edit] Travelling
When traveling, carrying any illegal drugs is ill-advised. While some sensibly refuse to travel with marijuana, traveling to marijuana is a different matter.
[edit] Reasons to visit The Netherlands
Marijuana, and its more concentrated cousin hashish, whilst still technically illegal in The Netherlands, are available in boutiques much like coffee or tea shops elsewhere. As long as you don't actually blow hash smoke in a police officer's face, the policy is one of non enforcement. There are also plenty of non hash-related reasons, such as legal prostitution– it's a pretty cool place.
[edit] Reasons to visit Zearing, Iowa
During the 1970s, to distract Americans from the Vietnam War and Watergate, President Richard Nixon declared marijuana a 'gateway drug' and instituted a program to eradicate the plant where it grew wild, especially in the Midwest and more particularly in the fertile farmland in central Iowa. Between Clemons and Zearing, near Marshalltown, Iowa, this became known as The Great Bonfire of 1971.[3]
[edit] Religion
In Rastafari, marijuana is a sacrament.
There is also some Biblical evidence that would allow marijuana use according to the big man himself:
"...every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." (Genesis 9:3).
"He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth" (Psalms 104:14)
Plus, God once talked to Moses out of a burning bush, which is crazy symbolic.
[edit] Slang
Like most "street drugs", marijuana has a proliferation of slang terms surrounding it. This is but a sample:
- reefer[4]
- dope
- pot
- chronic
- joint (for a marijuana cigarette)
- herbal jazz cigarette
- herb
- 4-20, 4/20, 4:20
- grass
- ganja
- bud(s)
- MJ or Mary Jane
- weed
[edit] Haiku
As a 5-syllable word, Marijuana is useful in Haiku;[5]
Marijuana
Marijuana is yum
Marijuana
[edit] See also
- Bill Maher
- Bob Marley
- Macca
- 4-20
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ "Smoking Marijuana Ups Risk of Schizophrenia: Study", Reuters Website, 26 June 2007.
- ↑ The plants are grown in a carefully concealed, undisclosed location.
- ↑ Granny and the Great Smoke-out
- ↑ attributed to Nixon as 'roofers' in Firesign Theatre skit
- ↑ Only if pronounced mar-i-`je-wan-na
