RESEARCH SUGGESTS POT NOT AS BENIGN AS MOST BELIEVE

May 20, 2014 - Ray Lozano - RayLozano.com -  CEO, Prevention Plus - 909-855-6871

 

 

 

 

Editorial by Ray Lozano  - View My Testimonials

Legalized pot continuously makes headway in most regions of the country.

However, this expanding culture of acceptance will ignore the actual science.

Plus, the science informs us that smoking pot is plain dangerous.

According to new evidence, this holds true even amongst casual users.

And, a second, brand new study highlights pot’s dangerous effects upon the heart.

In a minute, we’ll get more into both these new studies.

However, prior to us getting into the science, let us back up and take a look at the problem from a point of view that is logical.

And we will begin with a basic contradiction to the legalized pot argument…

If smoking a single burning plant leaf (i.e., tobacco) in excess is so poor for your health, how might smoking an additional burning plant leaf (pot) be beneficial for your health?

The harms of taking in combustion products are similar or the same.

It’s true, tobacco businesses place dangerous additives within many mass-produced cigarettes.

However, whole leaf, natural tobacco cigarettes are broadly available.

And whole leaf, natural tobacco is exclusively used in cigars that you do not inhale in any instance.

But the government has concentrated on the dangerous effects of taking in the smoke of a burning tobacco leaf [plus, lately, on nicotine] as taken in excess.

Not the additives.

No one may certify pot as ‘organic’ as we cannot know if artificial chemicals are present, even if it’s unintentional).

There’s an additional simplistic contradiction at the base of this politically correct argument…

If the nanny states have a desire to ban so many behaviors due to them supposedly harming your health, how can most of the same politically correct crowd extol the virtues of legalizing pot?

I personally am in favor of getting big government out of our lives and business of regulating morality and behavior via the tax code or penal code. It is a big waste of taxpayer money.

Plus, it will contribute to the incompetence, intrusiveness, and costs of government.

However, while we’re still stuck with big government–just attempt to be consistent.

Treat the smoke from a single burning plant the same as another.

Now–placing aside posturing and political correctness, what are the real scientific and medical facts regarding smoking pot?

For multiple years, we did not have enough studies concerning the effects of smoking pot…for one simplistic reason.

Individuals didn’t have a desire to disclose lighting up an illegal substance.

And, researchers could hardly produce research in which they asked the participants to consume an illegal substance.

Now that smoking pot is ironically legal in most places…we’re at last starting to see how harmful it actually is.

Earlier in the year, a report came out on the neuropsychiatric issues related to heavy pot use amongst the youth.

However, one new report from the ongoing research at Northwestern and Harvard and Universities is more worrisome.

It exhibits that 18- to 25-year-old youth who consume pot, even recreationally, have marked irregularities in regions of their brains which regulate motivation.

Shocked?

For the ones who believe smoking pot, even within moderation, cannot possibly be dangerous…they must rethink this (that is, if they’re still able to).

According to Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School, Anne Blood, within a TIME magazine feature story, there’s this general perspective available that consuming pot recreationally isn’t an issue–that it’s a safe drug.

We’re seeing this isn’t the case.

In the new study, scientists assessed the brains of forty students from the area of Boston who casually smoked pot–on average, 4 times a week.

The scientists compared these students to those who never smoked pot.

The researchers specifically assessed two important portions of the brain–the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala.

These brain regions affect judgment.

Also, they assist you in weighing the downsides against upsides of partaking within a pleasurable activity.

For instance, as you age you know ingesting a donut or staying up really late to watch your favorite television show may provide you pleasure.

However, it has consequences.

However, smoking cannabis destroys these brain areas.

As a matter of fact, the scientists found substantial brain changes to these regions within the students who consumed cannabis.

Even amongst the ones who smoked only one time per week!

Within the second new research study, scientists connect smoking pot with a greater risk of cardiovascular diseases.

This study was published recently within the Journal of the American Heart Association.

From 2006 to 2010, the nationwide Addictovigilance Network within France received almost 2,000 reports of severe marijuana-associated health issues.

And 35 of these reports were regarding cardiovascular complications.
 
This amount may not sound very high. However, here are a couple of intriguing points…

Between 2006 and 2010, the cardiovascular complication proportions associated with marijuana more than tripled.

And, the scientists estimate up to 95% of cases are never reported.

Therefore the numbers, realistically, are potentially a lot higher.

Cardiovascular complications which were reported are severe in nature.

They involved:

·        Lower limb peripheral vascular diseases

·        Cerebral artery spasms

·        Transient cortical blindness

·        Acute cerebral angiopathies

·        Heart rate disorders

·        Acute coronary syndromes

Therefore even if the new report is merely the tip of the iceberg, still, we ought to add severe cardiovascular complications to our list of well-known effects of smoking pot.

According to authors, practitioners ought to be alert to the fact that marijuana might be a possible triggering factor for cardiovascular complications within the youth.

Now, let us place all these research discoveries together.

(Not likely to occur in the medical or mainstream media.)

We have lung complications, brain complications, and currently cardiovascular complications.

I wonder if those serious and sudden cardiovascular complications are really producing permanent brain damage, by decreasing blood flow to sensitive tissues in the brain?

Indeed, decrease in brain blood flow typically does happen within a cardiovascular event.

Plus it may trigger permanent damage.

Now, let’s be clear–smoking pot for its relief of pain benefits ought to be weighed against the drug’s side effects. (As with any additional substance utilized as a medicine).

Therefore, an individual who has cancer who smokes pot for pain relief is not as concerned with its side effects, particularly at an older age.

However, the acceptance of medical cannabis has contributed to the thought that recreational use is fine…or even healthy…for everybody.

But, the facts are: Smoking pot is dangerous to your health.

Solid research currently connects its use with diseases of the heart, lung, mind, and brain.

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