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classifiacation of drugs >>> cannabis >>>

Cannabis

Toxicity and chronic effects

For centuries people have argued whether cannabis is harmful or not. In many societies cannabis is thought to be responsible for unsociable behavior. Many believe that it is not a coincidence that its usage is most widely spread among those who say “no” to the trivial round and to the traditional moral values. The daoistic monks, the dervishes, the European brain-workers from 19^th century and the hippies from the 60’s of 20^th century were, in the societies where they live, people who opposed the traditions. People could rather think that many from those, who reject the generally accepted values, are apt to search for new challenges. In this case cannabis is not a reason for a certain type of behavior but it is its consequence.  

Earlier, in the old scrolls, people have written that the usage of cannabis leads to committing crimes; this was first remarked in the stories about the “Assassins”. Thinking clearly, any person can say that in such pleasant state people could hardly be violent. When we compare the effects of cannabis and those of alcohol we should say that alcohol is much more harmful. Although it is illegal cannabis is very cheap. For example in Bulgaria one cigarette costs less than a dollar.  

The first time people tried to prove the damage that cannabis may cause, was about 100 years ago. This attempt was made by the English administration in India. The venomous tongues say that this research was to prove the Indians that the whiskey, from which the government received incomes, was less harmful than the traditional cannabis. This hemp was growing, without being excised, in the yard of almost every house. In spite of that the Indian Hemp Commission worked with the typical British conscientious punctiliousness. The result was a report, 3000 pages long, published in 1894 and according to which the moderate usage of cannabis leads to mental and moral damages in much higher degree than the moderate usage of whiskey. A member of the Commission made a statement that cannabis is so deeply involved with the customs and the culture of the country that its ban now would cause only unhappiness and suffering. According to another research made in the 30’s of 20^th century in America there were no essential side-effects concerning the chronic (several cigarettes per day) marijuana smokers. 

Problems may cause only AMP – one relevantly new form of marijuana. The usage of AMP may cause extremely strong salivation and in the next couple of days there may be disorder of the mental abilities and those concerning the way a person speaks. Inability to concentrate and escalating nervousness, are also typical. It is still unclear why AMP had to be invented, when there is nothing added to the pleasant effects of marijuana, but only strong unwanted side-effects.  

It is obvious that the negative effect of smoking marijuana is concerning namely the respiratory system. In this sense marijuana has the same properties as tobacco. The cannabinoids suppress the immune system, but still there is no data that those who use cannabis get ill more frequently than those who don’t. On the other hand the lowered production of macrophages makes people who suffer from multiple sclerosis feel better. It has also been estimated that the cannabinoids also decrease the concentration of testosterone and some other sexual hormones, and in this way they decrease the fertilizing abilities of the sperm. These changes are not so pronounced and that’s why the statements that smoking of marijuana makes men sterile or homosexual are ungrounded. 

It is not known someone to have severely suffered from the lack of cannabis. It has been estimated that in real conditions it doesn’t develop physical dependency, and its psychic dependency is very weak. Actually a person cannot develop tolerance towards cannabis. And the experienced smokers need even smaller and smaller doses. This strange effect of reverse tolerance is explained by some as a result of the highly proficient skill of the advanced smokers to extract more efficiently the needed active substances. Some less pronounced symptoms may be called (although far-fetched) "abstinent syndrome". This syndrome may be examined only in lab experiments with people and animals that had been previously given extremely high doses of the substance.