Writer's Block: 420 friendly?

[pandaemonaeum]

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1. I am in the UK, not the US. This doesn't even apply to me.

2. In the course of my degree, we examined the effects of various psychotropic substances, both at the cellular level and upon the whole body. I find marijuana a particularly thorny issue, as two of my friends at school committed suicide after imbibing a large amount of marijuana (one threw himself off a roof, another took a whole bottle of painkillers and died in agony). Several more progressed to hard drugs. It's all very well to look at marijuana as a recreational drug from the viewpoint of the occasional user from a nice home; the reality is vulnerable people in the worst areas. I have seen the actual, peer-reviewed, scientific papers on the effects of marijuana, and it's not easy reading. I have never touched the stuff and have no intention of doing so.

Besides which, if we're working on banning one kind of smoking, what point is there in encouraging another?

I should probably point out that there is no worse trigger for my asthma than marijuana smoke...

Although, the one thing it would do is deprive organised crime of an income stream. That's the only positive I can think of right now.

If a government legislature must legalise it, then controls must be rigorous. It's an individual's choice and I don't agree with the state dictating what we do to our own bodies, but I do think that some substances need to be controlled.

Comments

[saturnial.livejournal.com]

Hello, I found you from the writers block thing - is there any way you could point me towards the scientific papers on the effects of marijuana on the body? It's remarkably hard to find decent information on what the actual risks are.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that they're the kind of thing you are unlikely to find online. I read them in my University library, in things like the BMJ (British Medical Journal) and various other scientific research papers. It's possible to find extracts online, but you then have to apply for, and often pay for, the paper itself, and without a knowledge of the terminology used they may baffle you.

The UK has a government sponsored website http://www.talktofrank.com/ which is largely aimed at young persons and their parents, but which has good, common sense advice for people.

Basically, the psychotropic element of marijuana can, like any other psychotrope, have a negative effect on the human brain, leading to paranoia, mood swings, violent outbursts, delusions, and even long-term mental illness (the brain recovers very slowly from any chemical imbalance perpetrated upon it). Although not in and of itself addictive, the effects upon the body encourage further useage, and a tolerance can build up, meaning that people require more of the drug to get the initial effect (also seen with psychociliban (sp?), the active ingredient in 'magic mushrooms'), which can lead them to seek out hard drugs, or stronger forms of marijuana.

Your best bet might be to Google the active psychotrope (you know, I just can't recall what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's on the talktofrank site!) and look at the extracts of science papers which come up, this will give you a very good place to start.

If you're already at Uni, you will be able to look the scientific papers up in your library.

Good luck!