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Doesn't Marijuana cause brain damage?

The short answer: No.

The long answer: The reason why you ask this is because you probably heard or read somewhere that marijuana damages brain
cells, or makes you stupid. These claims are untrue.

The first one -- marijuana kills brain cells -- is based on research done during the second Reefer Madness Movement. A study attempted to show that marijuana smoking damaged brain structures in monkeys. However, the study was poorly performed and it was severely criticized by a medical review board. Studies done afterwards failed to show any brain damage, in fact a very recent study on Rhesus monkeys used technology so sensitive that scientists could actually see the effect of learning on brain cells, and it
found no damage.

But this was Reefer Madness II, and the prohibitionists were looking around for anything they could find to keep the marijuana legalization movement in check, so this study was widely used in anti-marijuana propaganda. It was recanted later.

(To this day, the radical anti-drug groups, like P.R.I.D.E. and Dr. Gabriel Nahas, still use it -- In fact, America's most popular drug education program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, claims that marijuana ``can impair memory perception & judgement by destroying brain cells.'' When police and teachers read this and believe it, our job gets really tough, since it takes a long time to explain to children how Ms. Jones and Officer Bob were wrong.)

The truth is, no study has ever demonstrated cellular damage, stupidity, mental impairment, or insanity brought on specifically by marijuana use -- even heavy marijuana use. This is not to say that it cannot be abused, however.

3b) If it doesn't kill brain cells, how does it get you `high'?

Killing brain cells is not a pre-requisite for getting `high.' Marijuana contains a chemical which substitutes for a natural brain chemical, with a few differences. This chemical touches special `buttons' on brain cells called `receptors.' Essentially, marijuana tickles' brain cells. The legal drug alcohol also tickles brain cells, but it will damage and kill them by producing toxins (poisons) and sometimes mini-seizures. Also, some drugs will wear out the buttons which they push, but marijuana does not.

[This message has been edited by FreakMonster (edited December 18, 2000).]

The effect of marijuana on memory is its most dramatic and the easiest to notice. Many inexperienced marijuana users find that they
have very strange, sudden and unexpected memory lapses. These usually take the form of completely forgetting what you were talking about when you were right in the middle of saying something important. However, these symptoms ONLY occur while a person is `HIGH'. They do not carry over or become permanent, and examinations of extremely heavy users has not shown any memory or thinking problems. More experienced marijuana users seem to be able to remember about as well as they do when they are not `high.'

Studies which have claimed to show short-term memory impairment have not stood up to scrutiny and have not been duplicated.
Newer studies show that marijuana does not impair simple, real-world memory processes. Marijuana does slow reaction time slightly, and this effect has sometimes been misconstrued as a memory problem. To put things in perspective, one group of researchers made a control group hold their breath, like marijuana smokers do. Marijuana itself only produced about twice as many
effects on test scores as breath holding. Many people use marijuana to study. Other people cannot, for some reason, use marijuana
and do anything that involves deep thought. Nobody knows what makes the difference.

Don't people die from smoking pot?

Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance, there are bound to be some people who have allergic reactions. With marijuana this is extremely rare, but it could happen with anything from apples to pop-tarts. Not one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana itself. In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The biggest danger with marijuana is that it is illegal, and someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.

Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to overdose on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by measuring how
much it takes to kill a person (they call this the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which is usually taken (ED50).
This makes marijuana hundreds of times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According to a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance known to mankind.

I already know alot of what marijuana does.
I was not asking for opinions on the subject! I was just asking for a web site that could back up the factual information that I was trying to relay to the girl that I am dating.

The information I posted were FACTS and not opinions.

Bro, sometimes judging on self experience and observation is misleading.

Havoc: when you are high do you think your as quick witted, bright, intelligient, whatever than when your not high?

Now please keep this civilized you genetic freak, I know its a personal thing to you - but Im just speaking from what I know.

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Neither is steroids or twinkies or the million other things that people consume!!
Give me a fucking break!! Did I ever say that pot was good for you?

Thermo. I smoke pot regularly and I'm not fat and lazy. I think you are just making a generalization about pot.

If you are a responisble adult pot will not make you lazy. Ask the U.S. Army. They did a study and showed no effect. If this were true, why would many Eastern cultures, and Jamaicans, use marijuana to help them work harder? `Amotivational syndrome' started as a media myth based on the racial stereotype of a lazy Mexican borracho. The prohibitionists claimed that marijuana made people worthless and sluggish. Since then, however, it has been scientifically researched, and a symptom resembling amotivational syndrome has actually been found. However, it only occurs in adolescent teenagers -- adults are not affected.

When a person reaches adolescence, their willingness to work usually increases, but this does not happen for teenagers using marijuana regularly -- even just on the weekends. The actual studies involved monkeys, not humans, and the results are not verified, but older studies which tried to show `amotivational syndrome' usually only suceeded when they studied adolescents. Adults are not effected.

The symptoms are not permanent, and motivation returns to normal levels several months after marijuana smoking stops. However, a small number of people may be unusually sensitive to this effect. One of the monkeys in the experiment was severely amotivated and did not recover. Doctors will need to study this more before they know why.

what does any kind of smoke do to your lungs?
keep thinking.

i think the best place to look for correct info on weed is from a pro-hemp forum.

users are losers, and losers are users, so don't do drugs, DON'T DO DRUGS!!!