It is also now known that the active ingredient in cannabis products (THC) is deposited in the fatty tissues of the brain. It remains there for a considerable time, one authority indicating “at least three days in active form,” with some particles still being eliminated “for at least eight days.” Others speak of some retention for from 8 to 18 days in the brain cells. Thus, the effect is there beyond the time of immediate use, causing fluctuating impairment of the senses for days. With repeated use comes also the added danger of a gradual accumulation and the effect of the chemical on the entire system.

What will be the impact on the developing minds and bodies of adolescents using cannabis?

Dr. Robert Petersen of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the United States, after mentioning great concern about younger marijuana users, said: “They are far more vulnerable, psychologically and physiologically, to the effects of any drug, and there is potentially a greater risk to them than to fully developed, integrated personalities.” A study conducted at Bristol University, done on 10 consecutive cases of young marijuana users where behavioral changes had been noted, revealed that all suffered from cerebral atrophy. The degree of atrophy correlated with the duration of marijuana use.

How Much Evidence Do You Need?

The mounting evidence that marijuana is dangerous cannot be brushed aside. A person might try to argue that he knows his own case best and sees no undesirable effects in his own life, so why should he be concerned about reports of harm to others. But, if the THC has adverse effects on the brain, can he trust his own estimation of its effect? A doctor gives this as a serious reason for believing that marijuana is the most dangerous drug now being dealt with: “Its early use is beguiling. The user is given the illusion of feeling good; he cannot sense the deterioration of his mental and physiological processes.” But others notice.

In a Toronto Star article titled “You’re Kidding Yourself If You Think Pot’s Harmless,” writer Joan Sutton quotes Dr. Norman Doorenbos as saying about evidence of this effect: “The most immediate is that it affects the thought process. It is characteristic of marijuana smokers to begin a sentence, then not be able to end it because they forgot what they were talking about.”

Consider again the effects: Impairment of judgment of time and distance. Adverse effects on the memory, attention span, logical thinking. Damage to the immune system, the lungs and respiratory system. Danger of impairment of any children you may produce. Is that just the innocent use of a harmless relaxant that will make life easier?

Should there be those who would argue that the risks are worth it for the pleasures received, let them remember that all feelings of pleasure really occur in the brain. By a highly complex series of controls regulated by chemicals, the brain’s many marvelous functions take place. Thus, what is thought to be pleasurable when caused by a drug is really nothing more than a chemically induced disturbance of the normal functions of the brain.

“Molecule for molecule, THC is 10,000 times stronger than alcohol in its ability to produce mild intoxication,” says a doctor in Executive Health of October 1977. ‘Well,’ protest the drug advocates, ‘marijuana users simply don’t have to use a lot of the drug to get the same effect as does the heavy drinker. A little won’t hurt.’ But the same doctor adds: “It takes decades for irreversible brain changes to appear in the heavy drinker. In the marijuana smoker, irreversible brain changes may appear within three years.”