Effects of MarijuanaDescovery of marijuanaHeirloom Plant: Cannabis has every nutrient the human body requires. You can live solely on this plant.Cannabis (Cannabaceae) has been a source of fiber, food, oil, medicine, and inebriant since prehistoric times (Chopra, 1969?; Schultes, 1973?; Abel, 1980?).The oldest known written record on cannabis use comes from the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C.
Ancient Greeks and Romans were also familiar with cannabis, while in the Middle East, use spread throughout the Islamic empire to North Africa.In 1545 cannabis spread to the western hemisphere where Spaniards imported it to Chile for its use as fiber.In North America, cannabis, in the form of hemp, was grown on many plantations for use in rope, clothing and paper.The Virginia Company, by decree of King James I in 1619, ordered every colonist to grow 100 plants specifically for export for fiber. Thus, England’s only colony in America began to grow hemp in order to meet this obligation and, soon, to serve a growing demand in other colonies.Hemp fiber was so important to the new American Republic that farmers were compelled by patriotic duty to grow it, and were allowed to pay taxes with it. George Washington grew hemp and encouraged all citizens to sow hemp widely.
The American Declaration of Independence is written on a Hemp product.Sailors used to smoke hemp on the long voyages.Medicinal preparations of cannabis became available in American pharmacies in the 1850s following an introduction to its use in Western medicine by William Brooke O’Shaughnessy a decade earlier in 1839.
4Uses of marijuana Marijuana is a combination of shredded leaves, stems and flower buds of the Cannabis sativa plant. Marijuana can be smoked, eaten, vaporized, brewed and even taken topically, but most people smoke it. The intoxicating chemical in marijuana is tetrahydracannabinol, or THC. According to research from the Potency monitoring project, the average THC content of marijuana has soared from less than 1 percent in 1972, to 3 to 4 percent in the 1990s, to nearly 13 percent in 2010. Today, some retail marijuana has 30 percent THC or more.
The increased potency makes it difficult to determine the short- and long-term effects of marijuanaMarijuana is also taken by mouth for medicinal purposes. A cannabinoid from marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is used in the prescription-only, FDA-approved product dronabinol Marinol for the treatment of weight lost or appetite loss due to AIDS and for nausea and vomiting caused by cancerchemotherapy. Cannabinoids are at least as effective as some conventional medications for nausea, including prochlorperazine (Compazine), metoclopramide (Reglan), chlorpromazine (Compazine), and thiethylperazine (Torecan).Cannabinoids from marijuana also appear to be similar to codeine for treatment of pain. However, extreme sleepiness and other central nervous system effects make cannabinoids undesirable as painkillers.
Effects on brain of MarijuanaMarijuana, Memory, and the HippocampusDistribution of cannabinoid receptors in the rat brain. Brain image reveals high levels (shown in orange and yellow) of cannabinoid receptors in many areas, including the cortex, hippocampus, cerebellum, and nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum).Memory impairment from marijuana use occurs because THC alters how the hippocampus, a brain area responsible for memory formation, processes information.
Most of the evidence supporting this assertion comes from animal studies. For example, rats exposed to THC in utero, soon after birth, or during adolescence, show notable problems with specific learning/memory tasks later in life. Moreover, cognitive impairment in adult rats is associated with structural and functional changes in the hippocampus from THC exposure during adolescence.As people age, they lose neurons in the hippocampus, which decreases their ability to learn new information. Chronic THC exposure may hasten age-related loss of hippocampal neurons.
In one study, rats exposed to THC every day for 8 months (approximately 30 percent of their lifespan) showed a level of nerve cell loss at 11 to 12 months of age that equaled that of unexposed animals twice their age.That’s all thank you for readingName:James Eduard A. Cezaldo Grade 10-Einstein
