ON the list of commonly abused substances, marijuana or cannabis enters the top three spots of illegal drugs mostly abused by 1.3 million drug users in the country as estimated by 2012 Household Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse in the Philippines conducted by DDB with the Philippine National University (PNU).
With these hefty numbers, manifestly, many people are more likely to experience distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor coordination, and increased heart rate and palpitations as harmful effects of the unlawful drug on people’s health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated, “Cannabis is by far the most widely cultivated, trafficked, and abused illicit drug. Half of all drugs seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures. The geographical spread of those seizures is the global, covering practically every country of the world. About 147 million people or 2.5 percent of world population consume cannabis.”
The illegal drug, often called as weed, jutes, pot, grass, damo, or chongke in the streets, has been long considered a central subject of debate or contention of whether the Philippines will spearhead measure legalizing marijuana because of the assumed and potential health and therapeutic benefits. However, as some affirmative claims put accent on the healing powers, the damaging consequences of abusive intake should be equally reckoned before the government takes crucial consequent steps.
On this darker note, marijuana is believed to spoil a person’s ability to sense and generate fresh memories and to shift focus. Tetrahydrocannabinol (HTC), the active component presents in the drug, interrupts coordination, balance, posture, and reaction time — an experience also recognized as ‘spacing out’.
Moreover, constant use of marijuana also trim downs a person’s cognitive capacity and competence in performing a complicated assignment. “Cannabis impairs cognitive development including associative processes, free recall of previously learned items if often impaired when the drug is used both during learning and recall periods”, the WHO stressed. “It also impairs psychomotor performance in a wide variety of tasks, such as motor coordination, divided attention, and operative tasks of many types.”
In an article by Jerry Shaw wrote, “The same risks smokers of tobacco face may also threaten marijuana users over a long period of time. There are cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana that can be in higher concentrations than tobacco, the PDFA says, adding that smoking five joints a week is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, may cause lung disease, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center. Marijuana use can reduce the immune system’s ability to fight disease.”
Thus, alongside the verity that cannabis can unfortunately lead to lung cancer and respiratory and immune systems complications as what some studies reveal, the WHO added that persistent health effects may perhaps include intensification of schizophrenia in affected individuals, epithetial injury of the trachea and major bronchi, airway injury, lung inflammation and impaired pulmonary disease, and stern bronchitis.
According to an article posted in healthycanadians.gc.ca, physical effects of short-term marijuana utilization may comprises red eyes, increase heart rate, drop in blood pressure, light-headedness or fainting, heart attack and stroke. Long-term physical affects, on the other hand, largely affects the brain and the heart.
“Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is mix of toxic substances. Marijuana smoke irritates the throat and the lungs, causes coughing, and is associated with symptoms of bronchitis. Marijuana smoke also contains many of the same cancer-causing materials as tobacco smoke,” wrote the healthycanadians.gc.ca. “The heart normally beats about 70 to 80 times a minute, but using marijuana can double that rate. This increased rate can put a lot stress on the heart. Smoking marijuana can also cause an increased risk of stroke. The risks of heart attack or stroke from marijuana use appear to increase with age and with pre-existing heart or blood circulation problems.”
Furthermore, pregnant women may predominantly develop destructive health problems linked with marijuana consumption. The healthycanadians.gc.ca added, “Marijuana smoking during pregnancy has been associated with long-lasting harm to the exposed child’s memory and other brain functions as well as hyperactive behavior. Like alcohol, the toxins in marijuana are carried in the mother’s blood to her unborn child. Marijuana use mainly affects the development of the fetus’ nerves and brain.”
Additionally, some studies disclosed that infants who were born from drug-using mothers during pregnancy tend to have deferred visual responses, shaking, a shrill cry, and decreased body weight. Also, the toxins of the prohibited drug are besides carried in breast milk and can be passed to her baby.
2 comments
“The same risks smokers of tobacco face may also threaten marijuana users over a long period of time.” — then why is the tobacco industry allowed to remain legal, while demonizing cannabis? I understand the fear, but if it’s a matter of concern against abuse, cigarettes should be recategorized as illegal drugs as well. For all their supposed economic benefits, this ‘legal’ product has caused more health problems not just among users but for everyone else exposed to their hazards as well.
we should ban alcohol and tabaco outright if you use these excuses to justify the id io tic restrictions against cannabis use.