1. I tin can't become addicted to marijuana

Marijuana Addiction
In 2010, marijuana's addiction rate meant that four.v meg Americans met the criteria for abuse and dependency. That accounts for more than marijuana addicts in the United states of america than Americans fond to prescription pain relievers, cocaine, tranquilizers, hallucinogens, and heroin combined.

Marijuana may not exist as addictive every bit tobacco or heroin, merely i in every 6 teens (and one in every 11 adults) who always try marijuana volition become addicted to it. Just as with alcohol and tobacco, most chronic marijuana users who attempt to cease 'common cold turkey' will experience an assortment of withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, restlessness, anxiety, low, indisposition, and/or cravings. These are classic signs of dependency. Marijuana is about as addictive as alcohol. Teens are specially vulnerable to addiction, since their brains are beingness primed and are nether rapid evolution until age 25. So it's no surprise that more than youth are in treatment for marijuana dependence than for alcohol or any other drug combined.

2. Today's marijuana is the same quondam Woodstock weed my parents used

Although your parents may have smoked once, twice, or even fifty times during their adolescence, the marijuana they smoked was over ten times weaker, and therefore less harmful, than the marijuana constitute today.-Kevin A. Sabet

The main psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana, THC, has significantly increased in potency during the by 50 years: in the 1960s and 1970s, THC levels smoked by baby boomers averaged effectually 1%, increasing to just under 4% in 1983, and more than tripling in the subsequent 30 years to effectually 14% in 2011. This increment in potency is similar to comparing a 'lite' beer a solar day to a dozen shots of vodka. What are the consequences of intensified marijuana potency? Emergency Room admissions for marijuana-related reactions increased nearly twenty five-fold between 1991 and 2008, while the actual number of users stayed the same. Although your parents may accept smoked one time, twice, or even l times during their adolescence, the marijuana they smoked was over ten times weaker, and therefore less harmful, than the marijuana found today. In fact, the kind of marijuana often smoked by today's teens – which has up of twenty-30 percent THC – was totally unheard of just two decades ago.

iii. Smoking marijuana once in a while won't damage me as a teen

Teen Risk
In a report of over 1,000 people in 2012, scientists found that using marijuana regularly before the age of xviii results in an boilerplate IQ of six to eight fewer points at historic period 38 relative to those who did not use earlier eighteen. These results still held for those who used regularly every bit teens, but stopped after 18.

Less than half of American teens perceive a "cracking risk" in smoking marijuana in one case or twice a week. Yet, regular marijuana apply can have serious consequences on adolescents. Research shows that teens who fume marijuana once a week over a 2-year period are almost six times more likely than nonsmokers to drib out of schoolhouse and over 3 times less likely to enter higher. Even more seriously, marijuana use is strongly associated with stunted emotional development. In detail, females who smoke marijuana show a peachy vulnerability to heightened adventure of anxiety attacks and depression. According to a study published in the British Medical Periodical, daily use amidst adolescent girls is associated with a fivefold increase in the gamble of depression and anxiety. Moreover, youth who begin smoking marijuana at an before age are more than likely to have an impaired ability to feel normal emotional responses. The link between marijuana utilise and mental health extends beyond feet and depression. Marijuana users have a vi times higher risk of schizophrenia, are significantly more likely to evolution other psychotic illnesses.

4. Marijuana is non tobacco – information technology won't harm my lungs

For most people, mutual sense would propose that drawing smoke into the lungs isn't natural, and whether information technology's tobacco smoke or marijuana smoke, there are bound to be some health consequences. The fact is, co-ordinate to the American Lung Association, marijuana fume contains 50-70% more than carcinogenic smoke than tobacco. In addition, marijuana users oft inhale more securely and concord their breath longer than tobacco smokers practise, further extending the lungs' exposure to dangerous smoke. Other respiratory consequences of marijuana use include airflow obstruction, increased prevalence of acute and chronic bronchitis, and a potential disposition to developing lung cancer (though a precise link to cancer has not been found). Moreover, a 2007 study found that the airflow obstruction effects of smoking a marijuana joint are comparable to smoking 2 and a one-half to five cigarettes. Marijuana is not tobacco – information technology many ways it just might exist worse.

v. I tin't die from marijuana employ

marijuana hash oil

Dabbing
Dabbing involves inhaling very strong concentrates of marijuana, called Butane Hash Oil, which often exceed 80% of THC content. Users can inhale so much concentrated fume at once that they pass out. Fifty-fifty regular cannabis smokers, who accept been using the drug for years, often express daze and astonishment subsequently dabbing, often referring to information technology every bit 'the scissure of marijuana.' Read More

Our notion of drug-related deaths comes from people overdosing on large amounts of drugs such as crack/cocaine, heroin, or prescription drugs, and so dying shortly after. Like tobacco, one cannot "overdose and die" from marijuana, only it is possible to suffer acute panic attacks and other major brusk term wellness risks from smoking or eating marijuana (that is why almost 400,000 emergency room admissions a year are related to marijuana ). Additionally, an alternating form of inhaling marijuana, called 'dabbing', which has recently grown in popularity, is responsible for a rising number of marijuana-related overdoses and 911 calls.

vi. Marijuana is medicine

Many plants, including marijuana, accept medicinal properties. But that doesn't mean that in order to derive those medicinal benefits, nosotros should smoke or ingest its raw, rough course. After all, nosotros don't smoke opium to get the benefits of morphine. A distinction must be made between raw, crude marijuana and marijuana's components. Merely 'medical' marijuana, as it stands today, has turned into a pitiful joke.

pill bottle filled with marijuana

FDA Canonical Medicines
Though smoked or ingested marijuana is non medicine, marijuana has medicinal properties that have been developed into FDA-canonical medicines. Dronabinol (also known as Marinol®) is a sheathing containing lab-made THC and is widely bachelor at pharmacies to treat nausea/vomiting from cancer chemotherapy. Also, an orally administered spray to treat spasticity from MS (called Sativex®) is already approved in Canada and in Europe, and is currently being studied in the US. The process of developing marijuana-based medicines is underway, although it needs comeback.

The average medical marijuana 'patient' in California is a 32-year old white male, with a history of substance corruption, and no history of life-threatening illness. Of all these patients, 88% had tried marijuana earlier age nineteen, and 75% and 50% had used cocaine and methamphetamine, respectively, in their lifetime. In Colorado and Oregon, less than iv% reported using medical marijuana to treat cancer, HIV/AIDS, or glaucoma. Furthermore, the proportion of patients in theses states using medical marijuana to treat 'chronic pain' are 96% and 91%, respectively. These statistics are consistent throughout the country.

The expansion of medical marijuana laws throughout the US in the last few decades has borne with it dissentious consequences. Research shows that residents of states with medical marijuana laws have abuse and dependence rates most twice as high as states with no such laws, and teen utilise rates are significantly college in states with medical marijuana laws compared to other states. Moreover, youth perception rates of the harmful effects of marijuana have significantly decreased in states that accept legalized medical marijuana. Just who can arraign them? The current system of medical marijuana in the Us is sending out the message to teens that 'If smoked pot is medicine and sanctioned by the state, so it must exist safe to use.'

seven. Marijuana will make me a more than focused and ameliorate driver

A mutual misconception, peculiarly amid youth, is that cannabis utilize does non impair one's performance. But in reality, getting high on marijuana and operating a vehicle isn't much different from getting drunk and trying to bulldoze. A recent written report on marijuana use and driving over the past two decades concludes that high drivers are twice as likely as other drivers to exist involved in a car accident, and this risk increases with increased frequency of use and higher doses of marijuana. Some other written report constitute that regular marijuana users are nearly ten times more probable to be in a car crash than nonusers. Marijuana use impairs a driver's sense of spatial location, time, and speed, making them more like to follow cars also closely and to swerve in and out of lanes. Marijuana utilize may impair 1's performance differently than alcohol use does, only it impairs it nonetheless.

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