HLTH-1050-F17

Professor: Ibarra
Steven Davis
October 23, 2017
Cannabis, When Smoke Clears

Cannabis usage has been around for thousands of years and the benefits from this plant

have been documented throughout history. It has only been made illegal within the past

century. Most of the information that caused this plant to become illegal was misleading and

sometimes was a down right lie told to the people to make them think it was a horrible drug. In

doing my research I came across different articles that supported the use of cannabis and some

that did not. My goal was to clear out some of the false information and have a better

understanding on how this plant can be used to help treat people. I am going to talk about

some of the ways it can be useful for medical purposes, acute and long-term effects of cognitive

functions, the effects of THC levels and performance, and overall effects it can have on the

human body.

Our society has recently started to change its view about cannabis and its potential to

help people who are suffering from many different types of medical problems. These problems

can range from anxiety to debilitating cancers that are terminal. I feel that this is just the tip of

the iceberg and with proper research we could find many more uses for this plant. I think that

our societies view of cannabis has changed and it will open up the opportunity to have fully

funded research that can look deeper into the chemical compounds of this plant. In the article,

Clearing Away the Smoke they look at how extracts and isolation compounds can provide

better effects and help for a person that is suffering from a specific medical condition. Cannabis

has many compounds in it and can be broken down into concentrates of that specific chemical.
 If we look at cannabis and break it down, we can see that there are many cannabinoids.

Two of them are the most used for medical treatment. The first is Delta-9-

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It is responsible for the psychoactive effects of the plant and is

responsible for the feeling of being high. This chemical is the main reason for the prohibition of

this plant. It was believed to be considered evil and caused people to become insane from using

it. This is where we get the name marijuana from. The actual name for this plant is called

cannabis and was changed so that people would not recognize the name when it came time to

make it illegal. Politicians and groups knew that most homes around the country at that time

had or has had some form of cannabis product in their homes. Changing the name was an easy

way for people to become misinformed and believe the propaganda. When in all actuality

cannabis was being used daily.

The other big cannabinoid is the Cannabidiol or (CBD). It has the most medical potential

of all the compounds of this plant. CBD is non-psychoactive and is believed to reduce the

psychoactive effects of THC. Our body has natural cannabinoid receptors in it and they come in

two types, CB1 and CB2. The CB1 receptors are prominently located in the brain and the CB2

receptors are found in the body. The CB2 receptors are mostly found in the immune system.

They have an effect on how our body responds to inflammation and pain.

These chemicals have some of the biggest benefits for medical purposes from this plant.

From some of the research they have learned that CBD can help people who are going through

withdrawals from cigarettes and also opioids. CBD is also being proven to help treat epilepsy

and other neuropsychiatric disorders. The chemical CBD has anti-seizure properties and has a

very low risk of side effects for people who suffer from seizures.
 THC like I stated earlier is responsible for the psychoactive properties of the cannabis

plant. It also has some medical benefits. THC can help with pain and is the most common

condition that is treated with medical cannabis. The THC compound is believed to help reduce

pain and can help without causing the potential for addition like opioids do. One of the biggest

upsides from this chemical is that it has the potential to cause cell death of some cancers. At

Harvard University they found that THC can reduce the size of human lung tumors that have

been implanted into rats. The tumor reduction has been found to be up to 50% in the body and

in the lungs up to 60%. This is an amazing find and is crazy to me to think that it has not been

shared around the world.

Researchers and some companies have been able to to isolate these compounds. They

have made concentrated amounts of individual chemicals that can be used without the side

effects of the other chemicals. CBD concentrates usually come in oils that can be taken orally.

THC concentrate comes in many forms such as, oils, hash, resin, and kef. Most of these

concentrates are smoked or vaporized to receive the desired effects. These concentrates are

important to research, because it will help us have a better understanding of exactly what the

THC or CBD will help with. If someone needs CBD but does not want the side effects from the

THC having an concentrate that is low in THC will make it so they can take their medicine and

still feel normal. Also having THC concentrate that is low in CBD can help the person suffering

receive relief faster without having to consume a lot of other chemicals that are also in the

plant. It also has more THC in it so it will last longer than just smoking the flowers.

Not everything is positive about this plant or its chemical compounds. THC has effects

on motor function, memory, fear, pain, pleasure, and mood. One of the other articles I read
about talked about the effects of THC and how, if it is increased over a time period, will have

effects on performance. They started off users with only one joint per day and then continued

to increase it throughout a twenty-eight-day long study. They would have the patients smoke

and then would have them do stuff that would test their motor skills, along with coordination

and memory retention. The conclusion of this study found that with the increase of THC in the

individual, it would have a stronger effect on all of the functions being tested. It was also found

that after they stopped using cannabis none of the effects were permanent. At one point of the

study some of the participants were smoking up to ten joints a day. I feel that this is en extreme

amount of cannabis and is most likely not used to that degree by the average user.

Another study that I looked at was the decision process of people who are high vs

people who are not. This test took people who were already users and people who have never

used cannabis in their life. They had each group of people take a base line test that was the

exact same. On average the results were about the same for both groups. Then once the base

line was figured out they wanted to test them again with the same kind of test. The control

group decision time stayed pretty much the same. Then they tested the cannabis users and the

results were drastically different. Adding almost two to three extra seconds per each decision.

This is something that was expected and not really a shock knowing that cannabis does effect

thinking process. After they finished the test some of the participants were a little bit shocked

to see how cannabis did effect their decision time.

This is one of the reasons that law makers are scared to legalize it. They feel that more

people will use cannabis and then go driving afterwards. This is also proven to be a

misconception. Most users understand that they are under the influence when they drive,
while people who drive while drunk tend to think of themselves as sober enough to drive. Tests

have been done in Colorado and the results tell the truth. Colorado has actually had more

accidents due to cannabis since it has been legal, but alcohol involved accidents have gone

down, and overall drug and alcohol accidents have gone down. The reasons for this again is

because cannabis users understand that they are high and in turn drive very carefully compared

to even sober drivers. Another thing to look at is that cannabis stays in the bodies system for up

to four weeks and the user will not feel any effects from the cannabis. This can skew the results

and can misrepresent some of the numbers.

I myself started using cannabis to help treat my anxiety and depression. I started

smoking when I was a teenager and used it regularly until I was in my early twenties. At that

time, I thought it would be better to stop and also my wife was not a big fan of it. I stopped

smoking it and it did not have any real side effects. I ended up becoming depressed and had a

lot of anxiety in my thirties. I ended up on a few different medications and did not like how they

made me feel or what they did to my thinking. I tried this for a few years with very little

success. One day my wife asked if I had ever thought about trying cannabis to treat my

depression and anxiety. I was able to get ahold of some and started treating myself with it. I

found the effects to start almost right away. I started to feel more engaged with life and

wanted to become more active. I ended up loosing 85 lbs. and finished getting my GED. From

there I started attending SLCC and have had a 4.0 the last two semesters. My wife and kids can

also see the changes and saw that they were positive.

In conclusion, I have found that the research speaks for itself. Cannabis definitely has

more medical health benefits than negative, but we are a long way from completely unlocking
this plants true potential. More testing and research is required and it has to be approved by

the government. More and more people are realizing the falsities that they have been told are

not true and that change is coming. When the smoke clears what side will you be on?
 Works Cited
Igor Grant, J. Hampton Atkinson, Ben Gouaux, Barth Wilsey. Medical Marijuana: Clearing Away
the Smoke. 4 May 2012. 26 September 2017.
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358713/>.
Johnston, OMalley, Miech R, Bachman, and J, Schulenberg. Marijuana. 1 August 2017. 28
September 2017. <https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana>.
K.I. Bolla, K. Brown D. Eldreth, K. Tate, J.L. Cadet. Dose-related neurocognitive effects of
marijuana use. 12 November 2002. 28 September 2017.
<http://www.neurology.org/content/59/9/1337.short>.
Rebecca D. Crean, Natania A. Crane, Barbara J. Mason. An Evidence Based Review of Acute and
Long-Term Effects of Cannabis Use on Executive Cognitive Functions. 1 March 2011. 25
September 2017. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/>.
Stephen J. Heisman, Maxine L. Stitzer, John E. Yingling. Effects of tetrahydrocannabinol content
on marijuana smoking behavior, subjective reports, and performance. 1 September
1989. 28 September 2017. <Science Direct>.