Puffing the Ganj... Guide to Cannabis... Part 2 Here's the rest of the info you need to know about cannabis.  What smoking a joint does to you:
You lose your inhibitions and become a lot friendlier, have a tendency to laugh about anything, talk about complete rubbish and it makes you more open to suggestions, often stupid ones. It also makes you really hungry, especially for crisps, biscuits and chocolates, you get what’s called ‘the munchies’. It also varies your emotional state, you feel really relaxed and can swing in mood, from being the light of the party to deep introspection. You can feel more aware of feelings in you and in other people, whilst your senses are heighten  especially to things like music. More seriously it increases your pulse rate, decreases your blood pressure, gives you bloodshot eyes, a dry mouth and affects your short-term memory, concentration and ability to do manual tasks. If you’re inexperienced with it, you can pull something called a ‘whitey’ where you go white a sheet; feel ill, confused and distressed. Even in regular users this can happen and you can also feel anxious, paranoid, confused, forgetful and depressed. What causes this:  The active chemical ingredient in weed is something called THC (Tetrahydrocannbiinols) and it’s mostly found in the leaves and flowers of the plant. When smoked the TCH quickly gets in the bloodstream and to the brain causing the above effects. It lasts for about 2-3 hours and is shorter and more intense than eating it, which can have effects on you for 24 hours.
What it does in the long-term:  Despite what you might read elsewhere, you couldn't realistically die from an overdose of cannabis, though it can have some lasting damage on your body. This is mainly because it’s often smoked with tobacco, so health problems with the lungs can happen and so can cancer, due to the tar from the smoke (see smoking article). Pot smokers often inhale more deeply than smokers' do and  this can cause a greater risk of disease. Also contrary to other sources cannabis isn’t physically addictive, there are none of the withdrawal symptoms you get with drugs like heroin. However some people develop a psychological addiction to it, as their body doesn’t need it but they feel they do.
What it leads to:  This is always the ‘big question’, if you take cannabis does it mean you will move onto harder drugs? Well there’s no clear answer to this but here are the facts. People who take other drugs usually started with taking cannabis BUT it does not necessarily or usually lead to using other drugs, as only a small portion of cannabis users move to other drugs, especially things like heroin.
 Where to get help:
If you or anybody you know are having problems with cannabis try the following places for help and support @ the Addictions Links Page. Read:
by ChrisM
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