Marijuana use is associated with numerous detrimental health effects, including frequent respiratory infections, increased heart rate, impaired memory and learning, anxiety, and panic attacks.

Effects on the Brain

Marijuana's effects begin as soon as the drug enters the brain and can last from 1 to 3 hours. As THC enters the brain, it causes the user to feel high by stimulating brain cells to release the chemical dopamine. When the euphoria passes, the user may feel sleepy or depressed and may also get feelings of panic, anxiety, paranoia or distrust.

Marijuana can cause short-term memory damage because of how THC alters the way information is processed by the hippocampus. THC disrupts coordination and balance by binding to parts of the brain that regulates balance, coordination of movement, posture, and reaction time.

Street terms for marijuana: grass, pot, weed, bud, Mary Jane, dope, indo, hydro.

Marijuana is a mixture of the dried, shredded leaves, seeds, stems, and flowers of the hemp plant, cannabis sativa. It is typically smoked in joints (hand-rolled cigarettes), blunts (cigars), pipes, or bongs (water pipes). The active ingredient in marijuana is THC, which is responsible for the potency and effects of marijuana. Over the past two decades, THC levels of marijuana in the United States have increased.

Commercial-grade marijuana contains parts of the marijuana plant such as stems and seeds that are not of high quality. "Sinsemilla", higher potency marijuana, contains only the leaves and buds of the cannabis plant, where THC is most concentrated.

Cancer-stricken folks on the Central Coast have been saved from the perils of the evil weed marijuana, thanks to the single-minded battle against the pernicious plant by our ever-vigilant federal government.

Of course, those who were using the herb said they needed it to reduce pain and other symptoms from cancer, glaucoma and other ailments.

But Uncle Sam’s minions apparently know the suffering these maladies cause better than those who are actually suffering.

Come to think of it, Washington thinks it understands this issue better than us dumb Californians, not to mention those in 11 other states, all of whom have voted to allow the sale of strictly regulated medical marijuana to relieve pain.

Apparently, the Feds believe in local control, all right. Until, that is, they don’t. But back to the ganja.

Last week, Drug Enforcement Administration officials indicted the former owner of a now-closed Morro Bay dispensary. They and the Sheriff’s Department had already raided the place and shut it down in April.

The Feds hit other places in the Los Angeles metropolitan area as well.

Now far be it from me to oppose the incarceration of bad people. And I’m not going to challenge the particulars of the indictment other than to say, as one always must, that the accused are innocent until proven otherwise.

But even if they’re guilty and the Feds nail a miscreant or two, I have to ask: Is this the best use of law enforcement’s time and my tax money?

That was a rhetorical question. These authorities have chosen to pursue a questionable law, using time they could have spent enforcing other laws and fighting other crime.

There is little doubt that their bosses have impelled them to make this choice for reasons having to do more with ideology than law.

If you don’t believe that, then explain why they sent letters to landlords who were thinking about renting to medical marijuana dispensaries, pointing out the federal laws they would be violating were they to do so.

These pot busts were about one thing: intimidation.

And it seems to be working. There is now no medical marijuana outlet here, and a proposal for a dispensary in Templeton also may go away, even though the county allows such places of business.

This is a dismal state of affairs, for two reasons in particular.

First, as I’ve written before, it subordinates the suffering of human beings to an argument over state versus federal authority. While the Feds strut about, flaunting their authority like juiced-up peacocks, people writhe in pain needlessly.

Second, at best, the federal quest to wipe out marijuana embodies an epic folly. Those pursuing it—the dogmatic true believers running the Justice Department—are tragic figures who are trying to repeal an era, the 1960s.

But they are distracting themselves—and us—with what amounts to a trifle in the larger picture, while ignoring the effluvia of the truly sinister toxins that had their start in those days.

Website: SanLuisObispo.com | 07/29/2007 | Bob Cuddy: Feds value ideology over compassion