What is Marijuana?

Marijuana is a greenish gray mixture of dried pieces of flowers and leaves that are derived from the hemp plant, Cannabis Sativa. There are numerous slang terms for marijuana including "skunk," "flower tops," "reefer," "blunt," "pot," "herb," "weed," "boom," "Mary Jane," "gangster," and "chronic," just to name a select few. Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (called a joint), or in a pipe, bong, or in the form of a blunt. Blunts are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and re-filled with marijuana; additionally, blunts are commonly combined with various other types of drugs, such as crack cocaine. Some marijuana users will mix marijuana into various foods or brew tea with the drug.

The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; during the 1980's, scientists discovered that the membranes of certain nerve cells contained protein receptors that bind THC. Once the THC is bound to these receptors, the chemical kicks off a series of cellular reactions; these reactions are what ultimately lead to the high that marijuana users will experience. The short term effects of marijuana use have been reported to include problems with both memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in concentration and problem-solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate. Chronic marijuana use has been reported to cause alterations to the brain, which creates changes in the brain's regulatory systems.

Scientists have found that the type of sensations that individuals have after smoking marijuana can vary, and have often been reported to be influenced by heredity. This genetic theory was later confirmed by a government funded study, which indicated that identical male twins were more likely than nonidentical male twins to report similar responses to marijuana use; this is most likely due to the fact that identical twins share all of the same genes, and fraternal twins only share about half of them. Environmental factors such as the availability of marijuana, expectations about how the drug would affect them, and the influence of peer groups, were also factors that were reported to have an effect on the type of sensations that a person would have upon using the drug.

Marijuana is not the harmless herb that many pot users would like to believe. Marijuana has been reported to be one of the hardest drugs to give up, and many individuals that have developed an addiction to the drug have admitted that they were unable to stop using the drug by themselves, no matter how hard they tried; instead, a person with a marijuana addiction will usually come up with all kinds of excuses as to why now would not be a good time to quit smoking pot.

Marijuana addiction affects millions of people throughout portions of the United States. Chronic marijuana use will inevitably lead to a powerful addiction to the drug. Statistically speaking, an individual, who smokes marijuana regularly, will be at a much higher risk for using more addictive and destructive types of "harder" drugs in the future, such as heroin and cocaine; thus, marijuana is commonly referred to as the "gateway drug".