Marijuana Myths

[zummpeed]

Originally Posted by hstisgod

I am on and off..I bounce between once a day maybe twice a day...but sometimes ill put it down for a month or two. I have learned to take vitamins to stave off memory loss.. it kind of washes it out... makes a balance..if ya know what i mean..

But either way everytime you smoke...you are destroying brain capacity... just how much and how far...It also depends on the straind. Some ppl cant smoke certain weed. But me personally I believe ive been smoking for so long Ive smoked myself stupid lol...

peas out

what u say makes no sence

[MissPennyLane]

How can smokin pot put you at risk for a heart attack in the 1st or 2nd hour that you smoke it?

[DaMagoMan]

You have a pre-existing heart conditon.

[infoman]

thanks,,,,good facts,,,,use some for fliers i pass out,,(is that cool?)---pass out fliers at the u of akron,,,,,,,summer fun and of course--HIGH TIMES,,LOL
--F.G.S.---AKA INFOMAN---OHIO,,,,
CHECK OUT---WWW.NLQP.COM----

[evanescence]

Did you know that it is practically illegal to even research marijuana? Not only is the government/pharmaceutical company sponsored ads brainwashing the public with these retarded websites and commercials, but now, people with medical conditions are unable to receive treatment. Personally, it seems really strange that so much time and money is being wasted on campaigns against MJ. WTF??
It's politics and money, like everything else..

Federal Research Guidelines
By Jeff Levine
WebMD Medical NewsNov. 29, 1999 (Washington) -- A handful of demonstrators carrying signs and banners emblazoned with the phrase "Stop Arresting Patients for Medical Marijuana" on Monday angrily urged the federal government to overhaul regulations on cannabis research scheduled to take effect Wednesday.

Standing outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on a frigid November day, about a dozen members of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) complained that the new rules were both inhumane and unworkable. The group delivered its written protest in the form of a letter to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, co-signed by former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, 33 members of Congress, and a number of medical groups and celebrities, including actors Susan Sarandon and Woody Harrelson.

In another statement, the group says that unless the rules are softened to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana and for pharmaceutical companies to research the drug, "we will continue to change the laws on the state level, making sure that at least half a dozen state legislatures pass favorable medical marijuana bills next year." Currently, at least six states have approved the use of medical marijuana, including California and Maine. However, doctors who write a prescription for pot to treat symptoms like AIDS- or cancer-related wasting or vomiting could face revocation of their federal prescribing privileges.

"What they [the administration] are afraid of is that if they open the compassionate access program ... some of their staunch Republican opponents in Congress will give them a hard time," says Chuck Thomas, the MPP's communications director. The marijuana backers say they are particularly concerned about a provision in the rule that all but eliminates individual consent waivers for medical marijuana. The program currently provides marijuana to eight individuals who have a government-sanctioned prescription, but no more of these compassionate use exemptions are being granted.

At the demonstration, George McMahon produced a round tin of 300 marijuana cigarettes which the FDA has OK'd as a treatment for a genetic condition that causes him intense nerve pain and muscle spasm. McMahon tells WebMD that he's gotten relief from his condition using legally smoked marijuana for 10 years. Another advocate, liver failure patient Jim Haden, pleaded tearfully with federal officials not to make him a criminal for taking medical marijuana. "I don't mind the dying part, but I really don't want my sons and my wife and my family to see me suffer through it," Haden says.

Although the Institute of Medicine suggested earlier this year -- in a landmark report done for the White House -- that there was value in granting individual waivers to research, federal drug officials dispute the finding.

"According to the Institute of Medicine, smoked marijuana isn't going to be a medicine. So I think what we're looking at is: how do we investigate other chemical compounds that are in smoked marijuana that might have modest potential benefit?" Barry McCaffrey, director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy, tells WebMD.
Alan Leshner, PhD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, tells WebMD that four or five federally sponsored studies of medical marijuana are currently underway. "It's an attempt to expand research; but research, as opposed to what some other people want, is ... just another vehicle to distribute marijuana more readily," Leshner says.

Another beef the marijuana protestors have with the new regulations has to do with guidelines that detractors say "would still place a much greater burden on medicinal marijuana researchers than on drug companies that develop and study newly synthesized pharmaceuticals." The gripe is that marijuana protocols would face additional bureaucratic hoops in the form of a special HHS review panel.

According to neurologist Dennis Petro, MD, "There's actually no incentive for a pharmaceutical company today to do this research, because of these guidelines."

[DaMagoMan]

Yeah, why I did my own

30 years worth
works for me !

[fosterboys]

One of the primary studies NIDA uses to link myocardial infarction (heart attack) and marijuana smoking based their results on 9 people out of 4,000 having had a heart attack in the hour after they reported smoking marijuana. 3 of those nine reported having engaged in additional "triggering" behaviors in that hour -- with one subject having snorted cocaine, one engaging in sex, and the third doing both.

Source: Mittlemann MA, Lewis RA, Maclure M, et al. Triggering myocardial infarction by marijuana. Circulation 103(23):2805-2809, 2001.

This study and its finding is the basis for NIDA's claim. Look it up.

[Biscanna]

Marijuana Chemical (THC) Fights Hardened Arteries

But Smoking Marijuana Isn't the Answer, Says Study


[LUCKILY WE NOW HAVE VAPORIZATION - SMOKING IS AN OUTDATED ARGUMENT]


By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News
April 6, 2005 -- The active ingredient in marijuana that produces changes in brain messages appears to fight atherosclerosis -- a hardening of the arteries.
But puffing pot probably won't help. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, "should not be taken to mean that smoking marijuana is beneficial for the heart," says Michael Roth, MD, a professor of medicine at UCLA medical school.
It takes a very specific amount of THC -- marijuana's key chemical -- to help the arteries. That dose is too low to produce mood-altering effects in the brain, according to the new study.
"It would be difficult to achieve such specific concentrations in the blood by smoking marijuana," Roth explains in a Nature editorial.
Smoking Pot: Bad for the Heart?

Smoking marijuana can speed up the pulse and raise blood pressure (followed by a sudden fall upon standing or walking), Roth notes.
"These effects lower the exercise threshold for chest pain [angina], and are an independent risk factor for heart attack and stroke," he writes. Inhaling marijuana smoke can also impair oxygen delivery via the blood, says Roth.
The best way to take advantage of THC's artery-protecting effects may be by developing new prescription drugs "rather than using marijuana or oral THC as medicines," he writes.
Testing THC on Mice

The new study was conducted on mice, not people. First, mice went on an 11-week fatty diet designed to clog their arteries. For the last six weeks of the diet, some mice also got an orally administered low dose of THC along with the high-fat food.
Afterward, the mice who had received THC had fewer signs of atherosclerosis. None of those mice died during treatment or showed unhealthy behavior, says the study.
The results may be due to THC's anti-inflammatory properties, write the researchers, who included François Mach, MD, of the cardiology division at University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Inflammation has been shown to be associated with the development of atherosclerosis.
Tracing THC's Effects

The researchers took a closer look at THC. They knew the chemical has two receptors, called CB1 (mainly found in the brain) and CB2 (mostly found outside the brain).
When they used another drug to block CB2 receptors in the mice, THC couldn't protect the animals' arteries. As for the CB1 receptors, the THC dose used in the study was too low to affect them, so no "high" was created.
The study and editorial appear in Nature's April 7 edition.
View Article Sources [IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/CHRIST%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]
SOURCES: Steffens, S. Nature, April 7, 2005; vol 434: pp 782-785. Roth, M. Nature, April 7, 2005; vol 434: pp 708-709. News release, Nature.
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