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Marijuana addiction and health complication linked to it

Marijuana addiction and health complication linked to it: Also known as cannabis sativa

Marijuana addiction

What you need to know about Marijuana addiction is that despite the myths around it, this drug is illicit and has serious health complications.

Many at times we are faced with certain misleading statements about illicit drugs, with their users making every effort to convince non-users of how good these illicit drugs are good and should be used freely. The truth is that once illicit it is bad and nothing can be good about it. Looking at the way drugs ruin families, societies and even nations, I cannot just sit and pretend that things will normalize with time without doing something about it. And that is the reason why doctor Dalal Akoury who is a renowned addiction expert of several decades made a very passionate decision to create a medical center (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center) whose main objective is to transform each individual’s life through increasing awareness about health and wellness and by empowering individuals to finding their own inner healing power and exercising it for total recovery about all kinds of addictions. Besides that it will interest you to note that Dr. Akoury’s practice primarily focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms. And now with such a professional on board we can proceed to sharing with you what you need to know about marijuana addiction so that you can separate between myths and facts. In this article our focus is going to be on marijuana and therefore if you have any concerns that you need clarification from the expert then you can call doctor Akoury on telephone number 843 213 1480 and she will gladly address your concerns professionally.

Now back to the discussion, marijuana is derived from the hemp plant, cannabis sativa and it is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves. Marijuana is one of the most commonly used and abused illicit drug globally with the U.S being one of the highly rated in is abuse. This substance is loaded with over 400 different chemicals with the main one being that which brings alteration to the mind known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The level of THC content in marijuana after cultivation can range from less than 1% to more than 30% and has been increasing dramatically, making marijuana increasingly potent and more addictive. This therefore defeats the myth that marijuana addiction is harmless because the fact is and according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), in 2010 there were over 572,000 marijuana-involved admissions to hospital emergency rooms. This is not a small thing that you can easily wish away, and in the same report it was also established that during the same timeframe, an estimated 11,406 emergency department visits involved a synthetic cannabinoid product, sometimes referred to as “synthetic marijuana” and commonly known by street names like “Spice” or “K2”.

Marijuana addiction and health complication linked to it: How is marijuana used?

Marijuana is a substance with very many street names and it is commonly known as pot, weed, herb, dope, reefer, grass etc., it is mostly administered into the body through smoking just in the same way cigarette (joint) is smoked or in a pipe, water pipe, bong or in a blunt (a cigar emptied of tobacco and refilled with a mixture of marijuana and tobacco). Besides that marijuana can also be taken in as a mixture of baked goods like cookies or brownies and also brewed as a tea. According to the experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, a more concentrated, higher THC content and resinous form of marijuana is called hashish and it comes in the form of sticky black liquid, hash oil. Doctor Akoury says that the smoke of this substance often has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor. Marijuana is sometimes laced with crack cocaine and hallucinogen phencyclidine (PCP), making marijuana even more dangerous. As we progress into the discussion, let us now dig deep into its effects in our lives.

Short-term effects: it is important to note that he effects of marijuana are generally felt within a few minutes and reach a peak between 10 and 30 minutes. Overall, most of marijuana addiction short-term effects wear off within 2 or 3 hours and that explains why users often take it repeatedly to realize the high.

How does marijuana addiction affect the brain? This is very important because when someone smokes marijuana, THC is absorbed by the lungs and into the bloodstream, which then transport the THC to the brain and to all other organs of the body, producing the “high” that users experience. The parts of the brain most affected include those that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, sensory and time perception and coordination of movement.

Long-term effects: According to NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), research has shown that, in chronic users, marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. Because of this, a daily user of marijuana may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time. Research has also shown poorer cognitive abilities than non-users, including memory capability, math and verbal skills and that explains why marijuana is very addictive in nature.

Even though users will tell you that marijuana is not addictive, the fact is that year in year our more teens are admitted in various health facilities for treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than all other illicit drugs combined. This according to the studies carried out by NIDA, long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction for about 9% of users and increases among those who start young to about 17% and daily users between 25-50%. Because of the addictiveness nature of the substance, long term users who are trying to quit always suffer withdrawal symptoms including irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving. The symptoms begin within a day after last use and peak at 2-3 days and latter subside within 1 or 2 weeks. Therefore if you still have some concerns even after reading this piece of information about “what you need to know about marijuana,” then you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for a one on one discussion with her and all your concerns will be addressed professionally.

Marijuana addiction and health complication linked to it: Also known as cannabis sativa

 

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Synthetic cannabinoid Receptor Agonists

Synthetic cannabinoid Receptor Agonists

Synthetic cannabinoid Receptor Agonists are also known as spice. These are a collection of herbs or plant material which has been sprayed with synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists, often referred to as synthetic cannabinoids, producing a cannabis-like effect when smoked. Today there are more than one type of cannabinoids that have been identified but they are all active as they mimic the psychoactive effects of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the active principle in cannabis. Most compounds come from the JWH chemical family, such as JWH-018.

For emphasis it is good to repeat that these synthetic cannabinoids are functionally similar to tetrahydrocannabinol often shortened as THC. THC is the most active principle of cannabis. Like THC, they bind to the same cannabinoid receptors in the brain and other organs as the endogenous ligand anandamide. More correctly designated as cannabinoid receptor agonists, they were initially developed over the past forty years as therapeutic agents, often for the treatment of pain. However, it proved difficult to separate the desired properties from unwanted psychoactive effects.

Synthetic cannabinoid

In the past years especially in the late 2008, several cannabinoids were detected in herbal smoking mixtures and incense as well as room odorisers. Typical of these were Spice Gold, Spice Silver and Yucatan Fire, but many other products later appeared. They do not contain tobacco or cannabis but when smoked, produce effects similar to those of cannabis. These products are typically sold via the Internet and in ‘head shops’. The spices are therefore as dangerous as cannabis and so should be avoided.

The fact that these spices are referred to as synthetic cannabinoids does not mean that they are similar to the real cannabinoids in all aspects in fact most of these synthetic cannabinoids are not related to the real cannabinoids in structure and hence though they can mimic the activities of the cannabinoids but they may work in a way that will cause more harm. The cannabinoid receptor agonists form a diverse group, but most are lipid soluble and non-polar, and consist of 22 to 26 carbon atoms. This therefore means that they would therefore volatilize readily when smoked. A common structural feature is a side-chain, where optimal activity requires more than four and up to nine saturated carbon atoms. The synthetic cannabinoids can be classified into seven major structural groups. These groups are;

  • Naphthoylindoles (e.g. JWH-018, JWH-073 and JWH-398).
  • Phenylacetylindoles (i.e. benzoylindoles, e.g. JWH-250).
  • Cyclohexylphenols (e.g. CP 47,497 and homologues of CP 47,497).
  • Classical cannabinoids (e.g. HU-210).

Other cannabinoid receptor agonists include substances such as oleamide. Oleamide is an endogenous substance that is also used in plastics manufacture. Another one is methanandamide. Oleamide and methanandamide are both related to anandamide in structure. Despite the similarities in structure with the anandamide the activities of these two synthetic cannabinoids have been questioned. It is thought that neither methanandamide nor other arachidonyl derivatives related to anandamide would be sufficiently volatile to be smoked. Certain fluorosulfonates exhibit agonist activity at cannabinoid receptors, as does naphthalen-1-yl-(4-pentyloxynaphthalen-1-yl)methanone, but the latter appears not to be psychoactive, at least when administered orally.

Physical state

SyntheticCannabinoidsMost of these synthetic cannabinoids are either solids or oils as they exist in pure state. Smoking mixtures are usually sold in metal-foil sachets, typically containing 3 g of dried vegetable matter to which one or more of the cannabinoids have been added. Typically, a solution of the cannabinoids has been sprayed onto the herbal mixture to give it the drug effect. Just like any other business oriented producer you will find a number of plants listed on the packaging but the plants mentioned on the packaging may not even be present. This is utmost dangerous as you may be using these spices thinking you are safe based on the ingredients wrote on the packaging while in real sense you are using substances you do not even know. These spices are often sold while containing high amounts of Vitamin E which is purported to be used in masking the analysis of the most active cannabinoids. The producers of these spices will put more cannabinoids in the samples to confound the forensic chemical detection.

The cannabinoid receptor agonists mimic the effects of THC and anandamide by interacting with the CB1 receptor in the brain. Several research studies have shown that some synthetic compounds bind more strongly to this receptor than THC as measured by the affinity constant Ki. All of the cannabinoids found in smoking mixtures have, like THC (Ki = 10.2nM), high affinity to the CB1receptor although small variations in Ki values occur between different publications. The substance HU-210 has a particularly low value of Ki (0.06nM), and it binds over 100 times more tightly to the CB1 receptor than THC.

However, little is known about the detailed pharmacology and toxicology of the synthetic cannabinoids and few formal human studies have been published. It is possible that, apart from high potency, some cannabinoids could have particularly long half-lives potentially leading to a prolonged psychoactive effect. In addition, there could be considerable inter-and intra-batch variability in smoking mixtures, both in terms of substances present and their quantity. Thus, there is a higher potential for overdose than with cannabis.

Finally, Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced doctor who has been in the frontline fighting drug addiction. He runs a website that equips readers of better ways to overcome not only drug addiction but also serious health problems that have caused nightmares to the world population. Get in touch with her today and learn more.

Synthetic cannabinoid Receptor Agonists

 

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