Cannabis
How it works
Cannabis
is mainly the dried leaves (marijuana) or resin (hash) from a plant called
Cannabis Sativa. The resin (which is scraped from the plant) looks like hard,
greenish Oxo cubes. You can smoke the leaves directly, or crumble a bit of the
resin into a roll-up cigarette to make a spliff. Which ever way it’s smoked,
Cannabis is really pongy – heavy and sour-sweet, like last week’s footie
socks.
The
most active chemical in Cannabis (and one of many, many) is called
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC for short. Scientists are still trying to
figure out just how it works, but it looks like THC mimics some natural
chemicals in the brain which soothe you and allow you to forget things. But THC
is much stronger so you drift around and forget things you shouldn’t.
What will happen to a person
found with a small amount of cannabis?
In the majority of cases, when a young person is
found with a small amount of cannabis, the cannabis will be taken away and they
will be told off (reprimand) or given a formal warning. If they keep on getting
caught with small amounts of cannabis; or try and get away with it by not giving
the right name or address; or smoke cannabis in public, then they may get
arrested and even have to go to court.
What will happen to dealers?
The people selling to young people (dealing)
will be considered to have committed a serious offence, and those dealing near
schools will receive severe sentences.
What are the good things about
cannabis?
- There do appear to be some medical uses for
cannabis, like decreasing the feelings of sickness when using very toxic
anti-cancer drugs.
- If you use cannabis irregularly, unlike
tobacco, it does not appear to be very addictive.
- It makes you feel different, rather detached
and lazy, with a what appears to you to be a heightening of the senses –
smell, taste etc.
- If you were feeling good before you had the
cannabis then it tends to make you feel even better.
- People tend to only smoke the odd spliff and
give up after the age of about 24, so that overall you are much less likely
to get cancer from smoking spliffs than if you spend a lifetime smoking
tobacco.
- Many people die as a result of using alcohol
and cigarettes, few die because they use cannabis, because most people stop
using it early on.
- Smoking cannabis doesn’t make people
violent in the way that alcohol seems to.
What are the bad things about cannabis?
- Three to four cannabis spliffs are equivalent
of smoking 20 fags as far as the damage done to your lungs is concerned.
- The concentration of lung cancer causing
chemicals is higher in cannabis smoke than it is in tobacco smoke.
- There appears to be an association between
cannabis use and schizophrenia.
- Cannabis can precipitate attacks of ‘mad’
(psychotic) behaviour even in those with no previous psychiatric history.
- Regular cannabis use can cause upsets in your
attention span and in your understanding of what is going on around you,
even after the habit has been stopped.
- All these facts seem to make it very likely
that cannabis has a strong, long lasting action on your brain.
- Cannabis chemicals accumulate in your body
for days if not for weeks
History fact:
It’s one of the oldest known
drugs. The Romans,
ancient Chinese and Indians used the plant as a medicine over 2000 years ago.
Amazing thing about it
The fibres of the plant are called hemp, and
they are used worldwide to make ropes, clothing, cooking oil, fuel, fishing
nets, cosmetics... however, if you try to smoke hemp you will get nothing but a
bad headache!
