Effects of Marijuana

| |Effects of Marijuana Marijuana is a mood altering or psychoactive drug that has many nicknames, such as pot, weed, ganja, sensi, herb, and others. The effects of this drug are constantly studied, and question what effects marijuana has on humans. Marijuana has both psychological and physical effects when used. Many people around the world use marijuana legally and illegally. Marijuana itself comes from the Indian Hemp plant. “It is the third most widely used drug in the United States” (Thomas, 1996), according to a survey taken in 1988, and is the number one illegally used drug in the United States. “Marijuana is so popular that an estimated one out of every three people in the US have tried it an around 44% of US high school students have smoked it.” It is known that it has various effects psychologically. The effects include euphoria, calmness, anxiety, or paranoia. Getting high or "stoned" is the reason most pot smokers use marijuana. There is chance that a person can become paranoid and worry about ideas they normally wouldn’t if sober. This is also called a “bad trip”. Most users of this drug are high school students. Also according to Thomas, “The main reason why most young people use cannabis is to experience a ‘high’mild euphoria, relaxation and perceptual alterations, including time distortion, and the intensification of ordinary experiences, such as eating, watching films, listening to music, and engaging in sex.” All these activities are almost everyday actions for most teenagers. It is easy to see why many young people use the drug because of the peer pressure also. For example, a student might want to fit in with the so called “cool kids” and be pressured into smoking.

Another psychological affect marijuana has is the feeling of relaxation. As study explains, “Motor skills, reaction time, motor coordination and many forms of skilled psychomotor activity are impaired while the user is intoxicated.” (Hall 1994).