Marijuana Toxicities and Addiction

I am totally for full legalization of marijuana. All countries should follow the example of Portugal, which made drugs health problems instead of criminal problems. Yet with that said it is only fair to publish warnings about the toxic addictive side of marijuana.

It is also fair to say that marijuana prohibition and the criminalization of drugs was the canary in the coal mind for human evil; an advanced indication of many civilization destroying behaviors and attitudes that keep increasing. When they made marijuana, the safest and one of the best medicines available illegal, and the toxic pharmaceuticals legal, they did something to the field of medicine that has cost millions of lives. Its good to remember that in the United States alone over 100,000 people die a year from properly prescribed medicine.

Recently many are being exposed to wonderful stories about the use of marijuana for all the aches and pains one can imagine but sometimes it can cause aches and pains. That said, medical marijuana, being the natural drug it is, should be tried first for pain relief, before any pharmaceutical because of safety concerns. It is the first line of defense not only for pain but also for many disorders and even stress.

At least 50 conditions 1 are believed to be improved by CBD, including pain, seizures, muscle spasms, nausea associated with chemotherapy, digestive disorders such as colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), degenerative neurological disorders such as dystonia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, mood disorders, anxiety, PTSD and high blood pressure. With CBD one does not get high thus one does not have to worry about any addictive problems.

All prescribed pharmaceuticals come with warnings and contraindications. Medical marijuana does not. However, some people react badly to marijuana on mental and emotional levels and this is especially a problem the younger one starts. Some people have weak personalities are are easily overcome by the drug losing will for life in the process. Others do not experience this at all and remain strong and determined and use marijuana for stress, relaxation and slight changes of consciousness that give relief to the straightness or tedium of life.

“Marijuana has remarkably low toxicity and lethal doses in humans have not been described. This is in stark contrast to a number of commonly prescribed medications used for similar purposes, including opiates, anti-emetics, anti-depressants and muscle relaxants, not to mention legal substances used recreationally including tobacco and alcohol,” writes Dr. Gregory T. Carter, Clinical Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Notice Dr. Carter said low toxicity not no toxicity.

Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional pharmaceuticals but that does not mean we do not have to be careful with its long-term use. At Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, where a great deal of National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded research takes place, researchers have found that abrupt marijuana withdrawal leads to symptoms similar to depression and nicotine withdrawal. Meaning that no matter how helpful marijuana is as a medicine it is not without its own toxicity and addictive properties. Marijuana is a complex substance affecting each person differently.

For those who would use marijuana as a medicine the dynamics of toxicity and full discussion of side effects below should be taken with a grain of salt. If one is needing to take a drug of any type medical marijuana is the safest place to start. Just approach it with humility – it is a drug. The alcohol centered world is hypocritical when it comes to its attitudes on marijuana because alcohol is much more dangerous to one’s health and to other people’s lives, just think of all the people killed on the road by drunk drivers.

One can use marijuana safely for a long time and not suffer anything near the damage of using alcohol or most pharmaceuticals. Life is difficult enough on our planet and it is about to get even more difficult. Marijuana can help us endure but sometimes it does its job too well covering up stress that in reality needs to be dealt with. That is one good reason long-term users should take occasional breaks from using it. Such abstinence offers a break against dependency; and from needing higher doses or consuming more than is healthy for an individual.

Dosages

However, with people who use marijuana for pleasure and relaxation, for what is called recreational use, it is a totally different story. The more one uses marijuana the higher the dosages one takes each time one smokes. Just to give you an idea of the wide range of consumption rates one person I met admitted to smoking 20 joints a day. That is an extreme, probably equal to a person smoking at least 60 cigarettes a day.

A more normal person, who smokes multiple times a day, might smoke one or two joints, on average, yet if one practices abstinence, occasionally, they might find themselves able to get high with only three puffs. So even if they got high three times a day that would only add up to nine to lets say twelve puffs and that would be about half a joint a day. When one limits their intake they get to experience how strong marijuana actually is and how little one needs to ‘inhale’ to get high if that is the objective.

Eating marijuana raw as a food is an entirely different matter for one does not get high unless one heats marijuana which turns THCa to THC. Cancer patients who use marijuana oil with THC should work their way up to a gram a day for sixty days to get the full natural chemo affect.

In general people are not aware that marijuana has side-effects. From the above profile of dosages it should become obvious that many people are taking marijuana in ways that are harmful to them either on subtle levels that they do not understand or in big ways that can be pretty obvious. The point about dosages is that it is easy to consume more than a persons system can handle over the long haul.

Marijuana is a Powerful Medicine

Dr. Gabriel Cousens writes, “While marijuana may have many palliative qualities, the psychoactive species have some serious downsides. These are well outlined in the 800-page book titled Marijuana Syndromes by John Mini. His research validates what I have observed since the ‘60’s. As he points out, "Marijuana’s side effects increase over time" and are cumulative. He has clinically observed that "marijuana’s effects can have a drying and toxic quality. They tend to take a general progression from the lungs to the digestion and immune systems, then to the blood, heart and circulatory system, then on to the liver and nervous systems and finally to the sexual, endocrine systems and brain over time."

John Mini says that marijuana is a powerful medicine and as such it has powerful side-effects. From the standpoint of traditional Chinese medicine marijuana is spicy, warm to hot and slightly poisonous. And as such Cannabis has been used as a pest repellent and pesticide in a variety of formulations. It has been planted as a companion crop to deter insects, nematodes, fungi, and weedy plants. Dried leaves and flowers have repelled or killed insects, mites, nematodes, and weeds.

“This means that if a person uses it too much or in an unbalanced way it can disperse his/her energy, become increasingly toxic, dry up the fluids in his/her body and even damage the ability to produce those fluids over time.”

Mini writes, “The big problem is that marijuana makes you feel good when you take it. People like to feel good. Anything that makes you feel good is potentially addictive. Have you ever heard of somebody getting addicted to chemotherapy? I don’t think so.” 

“Almost none of the strong harmful side-effects of marijuana happen instantly. The exception to this rule is marijuana’s tendency to induce schizoid brainwave patterns. With this exception, the majority of marijuana’s deleterious side-effects, apart from the high itself, take time to develop. Most of them occur slowly and in progressive stages that can easily be turned around with modified or balanced use,” writes Mini.