Smoke it up!...Face the consequences!

Marijuana is one of the most infamously used drugs in the United States, despite the fact that use of it is illegal in this country. It is basicaly an herb grown in very tropical places in the world. It is a dry shredded green and/or brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds and leaves of the hemp plant cannabis sativa. It is usually smoke like a cigarette or in a pipe or bong. People who smoke marijuana may also buy and empty a cigar of all its Tobacco and replace it with marijuana and many times in combination with another drug such as angel dust; this is called a blunt.

There are also many different street names for marijuana. Some of the most popular are weed, pot, herb, grass, widow, ganja, bud, Mary-J and hash. The active chemical in marijuana is THC. the "high" that people experience when smoking marijuana is caused by this chemical. The THC binds to the nerve cells, which has protein receptors, in the brain. (http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html)

There are many young people in the U.S. that use marijuana or have used marijuana. Research shows that in 2004 14.6 million Americans age 12 and older used marijuana atleast once in the month before being surveyed and 6,000 people a day tried marijuana for the first time. Scientists have learned many things about THC and its effects. When smoking marijauna, THC is distributed through the lungs and enters the bloodstream quickly which then is sent throughout the body to different organs including the brain. The short term effects of marijuana is problems with memory and learning, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, loss of coordination and increased heart rate. A study also found that 450 people who smoke marijuana frequently but don't smoke tobacco, are absent from work more often and have more health problems than non-smokers. Marijuana abuse has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains irritants and carcinogens. Marijuana contains about 50%-70% more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke.

Smoking marijuana is not less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Actually marijuana is more harmful. The best thing to do would be to quit smoking and become healthier. There are different ways to stop smoking marijuana but it is up to the person and how much they truly want to quit.