Casual marijuana brings not so casual side effects

“I’ve never done hard drugs.” Is that your mantra? Do you feel safe from the bad effects of drugs—hard-core addiction, drugs’ effects on your body, and the criminal and immoral acts that addiction drives some people to—because you “only” smoke weed and wouldn’t dream of “messing with the bad stuff”?

            

            You may be fooling yourself. A just-published study, reported on FoxNews’s website, lays out the details of a surprising risk for cannabis smokers. Before you light up that next joint, read the report, which we’ve reprinted in its entirety, below:

Casual marijuana use may come with some not-so-casual side effects.

            For the first time, researchers at Northwestern University have analyzed the relationship between casual use of marijuana and brain changes – and found that young adults who used cannabis just once or twice a week showed significant abnormalities in two important brain structures.

            The study’s findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, are similar to those of past research linking chronic, long-term marijuana use with mental illness and changes in brain development.

             Dr. Hans Breiter, co-senior study author, said he was inspired to look at the effects of casual marijuana use after previous work in his lab found that heavy cannabis use caused similar brain abnormalities to those seen in patients with schizophrenia.

           “There were abnormalities in their working memory, which is fundamental to everything you do,” Breiter, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told FoxNews.com.  “When you make judgments or decisions, plan things, do mathematics – anything you do always involves working memory.  It’s one of the core fundamental aspects of our brains that we use every day.  So given those findings, we decided we need to look at casual, recreational use.”

            For their most recent study, Breiter and his team analyzed a very small sample of patients between the ages of 18 and 25: 20 marijuana users and 20 well-matched control subjects.  The marijuana users had a wide range of usage routines, with some using the drug just once or twice a week and others using it every single day.

            Utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers analyzed the participants’ brains, focusing on the nucleus accumbens (NAC) and the amygdala – two key brain regions responsible for processing emotions, making decisions and motivation.  They looked at these brain structures in three different ways, measuring their density, volume and shape.

            According to Breiter, all three were abnormal in the casual marijuana users.

“For the NAC, all three measures were abnormal, and they were abnormal in a dose-dependent way, meaning the changes were greater with the amount of marijuana used,” Breiter said.  “The amygdala had abnormalities for shape and density, and only volume correlated with use.  But if you looked at all three types of measures, it showed the relationships between them were quite abnormal in the marijuana users, compared to the normal controls.”

            Because these brain regions are central for motivation, the findings from Northwestern help support the well-known theory that marijuana use leads to a condition called amotivation. Also called amotivational syndrome, this psychological condition causes people to become less oriented toward their goals and purposes in life, as well as [to] seem less focused in general.

            Given these eye-opening results,  Breiter said that more research is needed to look into marijuana’s effects on the brain – even in those who use the drug only once or twice a month.

            “We need to see what happens longitudinally,” Breiter said. “What happens as you follow people over time?  What happens if they stop using – do these bad effects continue? What happens if you can intervene early?...My worry is we haven’t studied this compound and here we are looking to change legislation on it.”

            Although Breiter’s team members did not examine the patients’ cognitive symptoms, they do believe that the brain abnormalities seen in their study could lead to substantial effects on brain development and behavior, especially given the young ages of the participants.  Breiter also acknowledged the problems of analyzing a very small study sample – but said that their findings should still serve as a wake-up call to others.

            “This study is just a beginning pilot study, but at the same time, the results that came out are the same as a canary in a coal mine,” Breiter said.  “...The interaction of marijuana with brain development could be a significant problem.”

If you’re ready to do your body and your brain a favor and stop toking marijuana—even casually—we stand ready to help you. We’re specialists in coping with drug and alcohol issues of all types and all levels. What’s stopping you from calling us? A better tomorrow is waiting for you. It’s not too late. Act now. CallSatori Waters at 855-972-8674. http://satoriwaters.com/

The Danger of Taking Opiates such as Heroin

Nobody likes taking opiates.  It can cause you to throw up.  But how come people take it?  How come people get addicted to it?  How can you overcome opiate addiction?

What are opiates?

Opiate is a narcotic drug derived from the opium poppy.  They include drugs like morphine, codeine, Vicodin, Percodan, heroin, and oxycodone.  They are meant to be used as medicine for the treatment of pain.  Other people, however, abuse it by using it without the prescription of a doctor.  And this can lead to opiate addiction.  

How come people take opiates?

Usually people start taking opiates when they are prescribed by their doctors.  For instance, those who suffer fibromyalgia or chronic widespread pain.  You cannot imagine how it really feels to be living in pain and not knowing how to cope with it.  So they see the doctor and sometimes they are told to take opiates.

Others, however, take it even without consulting a doctor in the first place.  They just heard from their relative about how a certain drug, say, morphine, has helped that relative cope with pain.

Still others, out of curiosity, try taking the opiate.  They have heard of the “high” that it gives.  They were told of the feeling of pleasure or the sense of well being that it gives.

Opiates are dangerous to your health:

Whether you are using opiates for medicinal purposes or recreational purposes or just to get a high, opiates are dangerous.  Some of its ill effects include rapid heartbeat, restlessness, speech that is slurred, depression following a sense of euphoria, severe mood swings, etc.  The most dangerous part could be that of its being addictive. There are reliable drug treatment centers in almost all cities in the world and you can certainly be helped.

Opiates are addictive by nature:

Opiates directly work on the brain.  Even if you take a small amount, you can easily get addicted to it. Our brain becomes dependent on them.  The nerve cells in the brain will get so used to the opiate that once you stop taking them, you will crave for them.  You will have withdrawal symptoms.  And you will not be able to control your wanting for them even if you know the health risks that are involved in taking them. 

Help is available:

There is a way out of the rut.  Learning the bad effects of opiates is a start.  You have to make a decision.  Then you can see your doctor or a doctor in a drug treatment center.