Medicinal Uses of Marijuana

Marijuana is a second name of cannabis which is prepared from the cannabis plant for the use in the treatment as a medicine and a psychoactive drug. It is a powder of green, brown or gray color which is a mixture of leaves from the plant. Some people use this powder in their food and eat it. Marijuana is mostly consumed for the psychological and physiological effects it causes which consists the following behaviors: elevated mood or euphoria, reduction and an increase in hunger.

History of Marijuana

Modern uses of marijuana are for recreation and the treatment of diseases and by looking into the history it is been used since the 3^rd millennium BC. The rates of users of marijuana were stable till 1990’s but they have risen meaningfully over the same period and according to governmental studies more than 30% of the teenagers are smoking marijuana. From the beginning of 20^th century, marijuana was restricted to be preserved or sold for any purpose. The United States told that marijuana is the most illegal medicine, which is used in the world and about 4% of the adult world population is consuming this extremely illegal medicine and around 0.6% of the whole population consume marijuana daily which has many side effects which are discussed later on.

Types of Marijuana

There are various types of marijuana which are classified into two categories, that are, Indica and Sativa. Marijuana producers often cross breed to change the growing properties of the original. Of the two, Indica is much shorter, smaller, thicker and smelly buds of plants and these produce flowers much rapidly than the Sativas, for example, with flowering bed of 6-9 weeks. Whereas Sativas grows more rational, energetic and taller with greater buds which are not much thick and smelly and takes longer time to produce flower in comparison to Indica, that is, 9-10 weeks.

Effects of Marijuana

If marijuana’s use is for treatment, it may also cause some side effects concerning memory, learning or behavior of a person. Some people take powder of marijuana and start smoking it which may cause the same coughing and breathing issues which occur during smoking cigarettes. As marijuana is addictive, so many people get used to it so much that they can’t leave it for a day even, this may be because they have started it in their early teen ages.

The undesired effects of the drug consist of the reddening of eyes, short term memory, dry mouth and impaired motor skills. Apart from the perception and mood change, there are some common effects which are caused by the drug which are as follows:

1. Increased heart rate and increased appetite and food consumption,
2. Lowered blood pressure and impairment of short term/working memory,
3. Psychomotor coordination and concentration.

Another literature review in back year (2013) showed that extensive use of marijuana has various consequences which include medically-based somatic, emotional, communicative and community health and is also addressed of causing diseases of the liver co-existing hepatitis C, lungs, vasculature and heart. It is also used to lessen the effect of sickness and queasiness in chemotherapy and people who have AIDS (Acquired immune Deficiency syndrome), and it is also used to treat pain and muscular spasticity. In another study, it is noted that the increased use of this drug may cause schizophrenia, accidental pediatric ingestions, and lack of wrapping for therapeutic marijuana preparations. The therapeutic concept of marijuana is disputed as the plant fails to fulfill the standard supplies of the approved drugs.

Marijuana’s Intoxication

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United states tells that the herb marijuana consists of numerous extremely harmful health effects, and the production, content and source are free. There are only two products whose prescription is approved by the FDA, not for the smoking purpose, and they have pure THC in a controlled amount as an active substance.

Smoking this harmful drug can cause fast and foreseeable signs and indications whereas eating this drug may cause slower and lesser foreseeable symptoms. Marijuana causes undesirable symptoms with an increased dose of it like terror, grave psychosis or paranoia which are common in the fresh people who started using it for the first time in their lives compared to those who already have in-taken this drug. The amount which can cause any effect on a person is variable from person to person and the amount of the drug used. Marijuana is accompanied with hallucinogens and many other dangerous side effects which include sudden high blood pressure with headache, chest pain and heart tempo instabilities, extreme hyperactivity and bodily ferocity, heart attack, annexations, stroke, sudden breakdown, that is, cardiac arrest.

Treatment and Care

Treatment through marijuana can be for the prevention of injury, assuring that the people having ferocious behaviors due to drug. Medicines named as benzodiazepines, such as diazepam (Valium) or Iorazepam (Ativan) can be used for treatment. People or children with harmful and more serious side effects are kept under observation of the heart and brain for their treatment in the hospital. Less complicated intoxication of the drug rarely need medical assistance but serious symptoms needs the treatment by some other drugs mixed in marijuana.

When to contact a medical representative

If the user of this drug is facing the undesired effects of the drugs like one is having trouble in breathing or he or she cannot be awakened they should immediately contact the doctor. And if something more worse than this happen, for example, the person is not breathing or has no heart pulse then the CPR should be started and an ambulance should be called and the CPR should be continued until the help is arrived.

Neurological Effects Of Marijuana

In 2013 review, various organizational and purposeful imaging showed that morphologically brain alterations are seen in the users which have used the drug from a long time. Another review in 2010, it was found that that resting blood flow was lesses in the prefrontal areas of the brain in the people who uses marijuana whereas the non-users didn’t showed any such symptoms. It was also noted that the supply of this drug to any person causes the blood flow to increase and also facilitates the beginning of the anterior cingulate cortex when the users of this drug were provided with the assignments which required the using of cognitive ability. The reviews showed that the studies were not fully examined and they had methodological limitations, for example, they had less amount of sample and they were not able to differentiate between the marijuana users and the alcohol consuming people.

Physiological Effects Of Marijuana

According to the drug abuse institute, the effects of the drug on mood vary may also

includes calmness, anxiety and paranoia. Getting stoned is the purpose that most of the drug smokers use this drug. More short term emotional effects are: distorted sense of time, paranoia, mystic or casual thinking with short term recall loss, anxiety or hopelessness affecting the lives of the users. Although these symptoms are eased down after a few hours of intake of drug but the remaining effects may last for several days.

Risks of Marijuana’s Use

The risk of using this drug increases with the amount of the drug in-taken. Many doctors say that heavy smokers of the drug are at an increased risk of lung cancer. Heavy doses of the drug lessens the men’s testosterone levels and sperm production and their quality and it also affects the libido and fertility in heavy smokers in men. On the contrary, many of the users say that marijuana is addictive psychologically. Among various individuals can face the withdrawal symptoms if they can’t get high when they are willing to do so. The dependency rate is higher in heavy smokers. Experts also believe that the drug is addictive physically but it’s withdrawal symptoms includes a list of which some are mentioned:

1. Aggression, they become aggressive so much that they can be harmful to other people nearby,
2. Anxiety, people faces anxiety,
3. Depressed mood, they do not feel like doing any work or they do not want to talk to anybody,
4. Decreased appetite, they do not feel like eating anything, and much more.

And once one has had the taste of marijuana he goes on to another drug to taste it, therefore marijuana should be used under highly strict environment and only for the purpose of treatment.