Also...this is written from an economic perspective...so it can get a bit dry.
What are the health effects of marijuana?
From the reproductive system to the nervous system, marijuana use affects a wide range of systems in the body. Wayne Hall and Nadia Solowij wrote a comprehensive report in 1998 that aptly summarizes clinical evidence of the array of health effects that face users. Hall and Solowij’s analysis is a guide for determining whether marijuana is a harmful drug, and it highlights the important attributes of marijuana that are still unclear to the general public.
Hall and Solowij emphasize that cannabis dependence is the most common form of illicit-drug dependence in the United States (1998, p. 1614). Interestingly, the rate at which first time marijuana users become addicted occurs at a similar rate to that of alcohol. In the United States, about ten percent of people who ever try cannabis become daily users compared to that of alcohol at 15% and nicotine at 32% (1998, p. 1614). There is also clinical evidence that marijuana’s withdrawal effects are analogous to those of alcohol (1998, p. 1614). THC, the critical component in marijuana, affects the reward system in the body as alcohol, cocaine, and opioids such as codeine and morphine do (1998, p. 1614). Hall and Solowij advise doctors to warn patients that persistent/heavy use of marijuana affects an individual’s cognitive skills, ability to concentrate, and short-term memory during intoxication (1998, p. 1614). In the long term, heavy cannabis users are prone to respiratory problems such as chronic bronchitis and more seriously, aerodigestive and respiratory cancers linked to the inhalation of the carcinogenic smoke (1998, p.1613). Long-term use also subtly diminishes attention and memory that may not be reversible through prolonged abstinence (1998, p. 1614).
Hall and Solowij point to a number of statistics about marijuana that are similar to alcohol and tobacco. Considering the rates of addiction, marijuana is similar to alcohol, but the long term effects of heavy marijuana do not profoundly affect memory and cognitive function as chronic heavy alcohol use does (1998, p. 1614). Like tobacco smoke, the carcinogenic smoke of marijuana is linked to a higher risk of respiratory cancer, but addiction rates differ; one tenth of marijuana users become dependent while one third of tobacco users become addicted (1998, p. 1614).
Clearly, chronic, prolonged marijuana use harms the body in some way, but if that standard of prohibition is applicable to all goods, one would expect the government to prohibit the sale of tobacco and alcohol as well. Thus marijuana’s remaining implicit costs, the impact on human capital creation and the gateway effect, deserve careful consideration when considering legalization.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/11/133615747/researchers-link-marijuana-and-earlier-onset-of-psychosis
ReplyDeleteI came across this in researching the medical effects; Hall and Solowij mention this in their report on marijuana...I didn't put it in because it doesn't surprise me, but I'm glad you brought it up. Smoking weed brings out schizophrenia if you're prone to it...and it's pretty scary that people try to self-medicate by smoking more of it.
ReplyDeleteIt is frightening because there is the conundrum that even if legalization were to occur (which I am very much in favor of) there is no stopping this "self medication" as far as I can see. However, use of the drug by the mentally ill to self medicate might be curtailed if national legalization of marijuana were only to occur on a medical level whereby (theoretically) doctors could prevent people with mental illness from obtaining the drug. Of course, we know that this would NOT stop those intent on using, as current prescription drugs are readily available for illicit sale.
ReplyDeleteThen again, legalizing only for medical use seems rather farfetched, and goes against the ideal of full legalization. I'm afraid that were it to occur the populace would just have to suck up this unfortunate side effect. Many people suggest that we should treat cannabis as we do alcohol or tobacco. Alcohol increases depression, but we don't stop depressed people from buying it. The same would have to go for marijuana.
I hope that made sense. On a lighter note, Gawker had a rather tongue-in-cheek article today about marijuana and the adolescent male sex drive. While perhaps not to the point of your blog, the comment section alone was worth a small laugh. http://gawker.com/#!5759583/is-weed-making-you-sexually-dysfunctional