The Marijuana issue

[Bendito]

Do you think its bad?

I sure don't, in fact God doesn't either.

Even God himself tells us that it was made for us.

I refer you to this scripture,

Genesis 1:29


Want more proof?

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco kill people. Marijuana does not.

Oh yeah!!! Marijuana is a wonderful thing!
What are marijuana's long-term effects on the brain?

Substantial evidence from animal research and a growing number of studies in humans indicate that marijuana exposure during development can cause long-term or possibly permanent adverse changes in the brain. Rats exposed to THC before birth, soon after birth, or during adolescence show notable problems with specific learning and memory tasks later in life.32–34 Cognitive impairments in adult rats exposed to THC during adolescence are associated with structural and functional changes in the hippocampus.35–37 Studies in rats also show that adolescent exposure to THC is associated with an altered reward system, increasing the likelihood that an animal will self-administer other drugs (e.g., heroin) when given an opportunity (see "Is marijuana a gateway drug?").


Imaging studies of marijuana’s impact on brain structure in humans have shown conflicting results. Some studies suggest regular marijuana use in adolescence is associated with altered connectivity and reduced volume of specific brain regions involved in a broad range of executive functions such as memory, learning, and impulse control compared to people who do not use.38,39 Other studies have not found significant structural differences between the brains of people who do and do not use the drug.40


Several studies, including two large longitudinal studies, suggest that marijuana use can cause functional impairment in cognitive abilities but that the degree and/or duration of the impairment depends on the age when a person began using and how much and how long he or she used.41


Among nearly 4,000 young adults in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study tracked over a 25-year period until mid-adulthood, cumulative lifetime exposure to marijuana was associated with lower scores on a test of verbal memory but did not affect other cognitive abilities such as processing speed or executive function. The effect was sizeable and significant even after eliminating those involved with current use and after adjusting for confounding factors such as demographic factors, other drug and alcohol use, and other psychiatric conditions such as depression.42


A large longitudinal study in New Zealand found that persistent marijuana use disorder with frequent use starting in adolescence was associated with a loss of an average of 6 or up to 8 IQ points measured in mid-adulthood.43 Significantly, in that study, those who used marijuana heavily as teenagers and quit using as adults did not recover the lost IQ points. People who only began using marijuana heavily in adulthood did not lose IQ points. These results suggest that marijuana has its strongest long-term impact on young people whose brains are still busy building new connections and maturing in other ways. The endocannabinoid system is known to play an important role in the proper formation of synapses (the connections between neurons) during early brain development, and a similar role has been proposed for the refinement of neural connections during adolescence. If the long-term effects of marijuana use on cognitive functioning or IQ are upheld by future research, this may be one avenue by which marijuana use during adolescence produces its long-term effects.44


However, recent results from two prospective longitudinal twin studies did not support a causal relationship between marijuana use and IQ loss. Those who used marijuana did show a significant decline in verbal ability (equivalent to 4 IQ points) and in general knowledge between the preteen years (ages 9 to 12, before use) and late adolescence/early adulthood (ages 17 to 20). However, at the start of the study, those who would use in the future already had lower scores on these measures than those who would not use in the future, and no predictable difference was found between twins when one used marijuana and one did not. This suggests that observed IQ declines, at least across adolescence, may be caused by shared familial factors (e.g., genetics, family environment), not by marijuana use itself.45 It should be noted, though, that these studies were shorter in duration than the New Zealand study and did not explore the impact of the dose of marijuana (i.e., heavy use) or the development of a cannabis use disorder; this may have masked a dose- or diagnosis-dependent effect.


The ability to draw definitive conclusions about marijuana’s long-term impact on the human brain from past studies is often limited by the fact that study participants use multiple substances, and there is often limited data about the participants’ health or mental functioning prior to the study. Over the next decade, the National Institutes of Health is funding the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study—a major longitudinal study that will track a large sample of young Americans from late childhood (before first use of drugs) to early adulthood. The study will use neuroimaging and other advanced tools to clarify precisely how and to what extent marijuana and other substances, alone and in combination, affect adolescent brain development.

You get to choose! Dead or Brain dead space cadet! Wonderful!

 

[Jesus_is_LORD]

We can prove many things with the literal Bible, but that does not mean that they are always proven in the eyes of God. Consider this verse:

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good..." Gen 1:31

Yes, He created it all very good, but, what has happened? The goodness was in God's creation. The evil came with men who used God's creations in ways which God told them not to use them.

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov 14:12

Is marijuana bad? If it was created in the beginning then according to Gen 1:31, it was "very good". Is the way a person uses it the Way God would want it to be used? If not, then is it not to be found in the "ways of death"?

So then, when in doubt, would it not be better to consult with God to see how He wants us to use something within His creation? We walk along our own pathway, but without God to guide us, it will surely lead to death.

Wisdom is a beautiful thing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jesus_is_LORD]

It is sad how much of a role money has to play in the whole process.
At least in the United States, from my observations it was illegal due to being
labeled a public health issue. Now it seems that since the government figures that they can tax it,
give out medical marijuana licenses and make money off it, all of a sudden they are comfortable making it legal.

I think @amadeus2 makes a great point about God's creation being good and he asked are we using it the way he intended it to be used.
@B-A-C makes a good point about the issue of being under the influence of a substance. And Seth Hall brings up a good point about his personal experience.

I personally have never smoked it and am not denying that is may have medicinal purposes, however from my professional perspective
of working in mental health (therapy), I can attest to two negative side effects.

One, it definitely kills motivation and two, I've seen many clients who are suffering from panic attacks who use it.
Many many many clients. Unfortunately they don't see the connection and only focus
on the short term benefits and have difficultly seeing that long term anxiety is definitely a problem.

Concerning motivation, I use to work in the past at the department of Social Services trying to help kids in foster care age out of the system and transition in to adulthood. I worked with
so many youth who we literally give them jobs, free education, or job training programs and it would fail for them because their motivation
was too low from the marijuana smoking. We would give them a job but they wouldn't go to work. Pay for job training but their attendance
was poor so they were disqualified from the program, etc. They may have not been out killing people because they were on marijuana but it
sure was killing their dreams, at least the ones I worked with .

Another good point was raised about people using it to treat the pain instead of dealing with the root cause. Which it a whole other discussion but
I think that is also often the case with many pharmacological drugs. We are treating the symptoms but are we truly getting at the root and the core
of the problem? I think the answer is simple because most of these drugs if not all, don't cure or heal, they just treat, meaning dependency. You
have to continue to use it over and over and over. And if you stop using it, you end up worst than before, which for me points to the fact that it is not
healing the problem just treating the symptoms.