The first and what I believe to be the greatest outcome of this research has been this small (It's fairly long) article written profoundly well by a keen observer:
To quote one of my favorite segments,
LinkAbove said:
What one society or group or individual takes for granted as self-evidently harmful, others view as obviously beneficial, even necessary. In crucial ways, the issue of harm or danger to society as a result of the drug pivots on moot points, totally unanswerable questions, questions that science is unable to answer without the resolution of certain basic issues. And for many crucially debated marijuana questions, this modest requirement cannot be met. In other words, before we raise the question of whether marijuana has a desirable or a noxious effect, we must first establish the desirability or the noxiousness to whom.
For anyone wanting the hard facts about it's effects:
The plain, simple truth at the end of any debate on cannabis and its' effects on the human body are that it varies immensely from person to person. If you are worried, ask your doctor. Everything said is confidential when you visit him/her.
I believe children should not be smoking cannabis. There is a higher risk from pre-pubescent to mid teens for developing schizophrenia. Think of a 13 year old smoking, Spice, they are simply too young; mentally and physically not developed enough, despite the differences between being shot into the universe and forever a million times, and simply being relaxed.
How ever many reports there may be of marijuana causing schizophrenia, this is currently unsupported factually.
Addiction is not physical, as stated in one of the previous links,
Whitman.edu said:
The effects of marijuana on the human brain are numerous and complex. The psychoactive constituent of cannabis, delta-9 THC, affects the brain in a fundamentally different way than many other drugs, such as cocaine and opiates. These drugs are associated with the dopamine pathways within the brain and are subject to high rates of abuse, as seen with self-administration experiments done with animals.
Early research on cannabis' effects on the brain was limited by the technology of the time and was thus subject to influence by observations of behavior, rather than neuropharmacology. This lack of concrete knowledge about THC's effects allowed cultural biases to maintain fallacy that marijuana acted similarly to heroin. Research done during the past decade, since the discovery of a THC receptor in the brain, has refuted such claims. The congressional Office of Technology Assessment found that recent research findings, especially those done by Dr. Miles Herkenham of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have proved that marijuana has no effect on the dopamine-related brain systems.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with pleasure. The neural systems that are associated with dopamine are known as the "brain reward system." These systems are intimately involved with limbic system, an area of the brain which is associated with the control of emotions and behavior. Highly addictive drugs, such as cocaine, affect these pathways and cause an effective increase in the amount of dopamine in the brain. Cocaine and amphetamines block the reabsorbtion of dopamine, thus prolonging and intensifying the effects. Opiates activate production of dopamine by blocking the inhibitory signal, gamma-aminobutyric acid, which would ordinarily slow or stop dopamine production.
It is in all fact, very much possible for an individual to become mentally addicted to marijuana. I have personally experienced this, and the only reason I stopped is because I went broke.
Not to stray from the already off-topic thread, but I began smoking daily again. The main difference was an entirely new perspective on life which is allowing me to experience everything in a well balanced manner. I do not smoke throughout the day, I smoke toward the end of the day. Mostly.
What people need to remember is that it isn't the plant causing the addiction, there
has to be an underlying problem to it that needs to be resolved.
