Is Marijuana Addictive?

Controversy abounds in modern times about marijuana. Should it be legal? Is it addictive? Does it really make you sterile? Why do you get the “munchies”? What is THC? Can you drive and use marijuana? What is “cotton mouth”? Can you over dose on marijuana? Does marijuana decrease a person’s intelligence quota? Smoking marijuana is safer than smoking cigarettes…right? Question after question can be asked about this one simple native plant scientifically called Cannabis sativa, but commonly called pot, Mary Jane, weed, dope, grass, ganji, smoke, whackee tobackee, killer bud, dagga, moss, skunk, tampiko and the good herb.

The buds, stems and leaves of the marijuana plant are dried and either eaten, such as being baked in the ever popular college delicacy known as brownies, or smoked by rolling the dried plant material in cigarette papers, putting it in a bong or stuffing a pipe. Some folks mix and blend marijuana with other drugs creating a dangerous and potential life threatening situation. The fibers and commercial products of the plant, also known as hemp, are found in almost all health food stores and people’s co-op shops in the form of clothing, purses, shoes and jewelry and have been used for centuries as an excellent rope making fiber.

Let’s return to the question, “Is marijuana addictive?” The blanket statement would be that almost anything can be addictive if it is abused and the body and the mind become dependent upon it. The common street perception is that there is no connection between marijuana use and addiction to the substance. Research would not agree with that way of thinking.

Common signs that an individual may be addicted to marijuana could be the inability to control or cut back on marijuana use even though the person knows that it is having a negative affect on their life with social withdrawal and interruptions in work related activities, daily use of marijuana, increasing the amount of marijuana used because of a tolerance to the drugs effects, spending more for the drug then the income will allow for, leaving friends and family behind who do not approve or use the drug, brain fog and memory loss with a decrease in ability to learn new tasks, large amounts of time spent using marijuana and compulsive activity seeking marijuana to use.

Why does this happen? Science is learning more about the way marijuana works on the chemical pathways of the human body. The most readily identifiable chemical is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). THC is a rapidly dispersed chemical once it enters the body whether it is smoked or eaten. It gets into the bloodstream very quickly and travels to the brain where it triggers responses in the person’s brain lobes responsible for pleasure, memory, thought, sense, ability to concentrate, both gross and fine motor skills (coordination) and perceptions of time. This happens when the THC, like a boat coming into port, docks with special nerve receptor points and message impulses that normal travel very fast are slowed and the information is possibly distorted mildly or radically.

Marijuana