Consequences of cannabis (THC) use

Consequences of consuming Cannabis (THC) or Tetrahydrocannabinol

Short-term effects

• Serious problems with short-term memory
• Severe anxiety, including a fear of being watched or followed (paranoia)
• Strange, erratic behaviour, seeing and hearing things that do not exist, being unable to tell imagination from reality (psychosis)
• Panic
• Hallucinations
• Loss of the sense of identity
• Increased reaction times
• Increased heart rate (risk of heart attack)
• Increased risk of stroke
• Coordination problems
• Sexual problems in men
• Up to seven times greater likelihood of contracting sexually transmitted infections in women

Long-term effects

Physical effects

• In 2011, there were 1,252,000 emergency room visits in the United States due to illegal drugs. Marijuana was the cause of 455,668 of these visits, surpassed only by cocaine.
• It has been shown that marijuana increases the heart rate by 20 to 100 per cent after smoking it, lasting up to three hours. It is estimated that THC users are 4.8 times more likely to suffer a heart attack in the hour after smoking.
• A study by Monash University and the Alfred Hospital in Australia determined that pulmonary bullous disease occurs in Cannabis smokers 20 years earlier than in tobacco smokers. Frequently caused by exposure to chemical toxins or tobacco smoke, bullous disease is a condition in which air trapped in the lungs causes obstruction of breathing and the eventual destruction of the lungs.
• Researchers at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that frequent or long-term marijuana use may tend to significantly increase the male risk of developing the most aggressive variety of testicular cancer, nonseminoma.
• Consuming Cannabis produces changes in the lungs that can promote cancer growth. Smoking Cannabis deposits more tar in the lungs than smoking tobacco.
• Smoking three joints of hashish makes the user inhale the same amount of toxic chemicals as an entire pack of tobacco. Hashish smoke contains seven times more tar and carbon monoxide than tobacco smoke.
• Smoking Cannabis is implicated as a cause of tumours of the head, neck and lungs. The Cannabis smokers in whom this occurs are usually much younger than the tobacco smokers who are the usual victims of these malignant tumours.
• According to a 2005 study on the long-term pulmonary effects of Cannabis carried out by Dr Donald Tashkin at the University of California, Los Angeles, Cannabis deposits significantly greater amounts of tar and carcinogenic agents in the airways. In addition to pre-cancerous changes, smoking Cannabis is linked to the malfunction of components of the lungs' immune system.
• Cannabis greatly raises all the risks associated with tobacco. The smoke contains more than 400 chemicals and increases the risk of serious health consequences, including lung damage.
• Sexual disorders.

Mental effects

• A decline in IQ of up to 8 points.
• Poor intellectual performance.
• Impairment of thinking, the capacity to learn and to carry out complex tasks.
• Low life satisfaction.
• Problems in relationships.
• Financial difficulties due to poor decision-making and emotional-management skills.
• A strong amotivational syndrome and memory loss. Intellectual and cognitive capacity is so severely affected that significant changes in personality occur.
• The individual suffers from severe psychological disorders such as anxiety, confusion, panic attacks, psychosis, paranoia and fits of rage.
• Memory, speed of thought and other cognitive capacities worsen over time with Cannabis use.
• Regular Cannabis users perform worse than non-users on tests of cognitive skills, including divided attention and verbal fluency.
• Those who have used Cannabis for 10 years or more have more problems with their ability to think than those who have used Cannabis for 5-10 years.
• Structural abnormalities in the areas of the brain that govern memory, emotions and aggression. Brain scans reveal that the hippocampus is 12% smaller and the amygdala 7% smaller in men who have smoked more than 5 Cannabis cigarettes a week for 10 years.
• Researchers at Carleton University published a study in 2005 showing that active Cannabis users who smoke at least 5 joints a week perform markedly worse than non-users on neurocognition tests such as processing speed, memory and overall IQ.
• American scientists have discovered that THC interferes with the synchronised activity between neurons in the hippocampus of rats, which explains why Cannabis degrades memory and concentration.
• Cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in people vulnerable to this mental illness.
• Smoking Cannabis during pregnancy has been shown to have significant effects on children's intelligence and their capacity to learn.
• In addition, studies showed that people who smoked Cannabis experienced changes in the brain's blood flow even after a month of not smoking. As a result of Cannabis use, these people had significant abnormalities in the small blood vessels of the brain.
• The user progressively isolates themselves from other people, resulting in serious social disorders.

In conclusion, cannabis addiction makes the people who suffer from it incapable of maintaining friendships, family relationships and jobs.