“Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self esteem.”- Kurt Cobain Marijuana is the most used drug in America, but do all of these people know what’s happening to their brain? Marijuana is known for being a fairly innocuous drug. All chemicals have an effect on our brain, some good, some bad, and some more harmful than others. Scientists and researchers are looking into marijuana and finding many underlying consequences. The purpose of this paper is to examine marijuana's short-term effects, long-term effects, physical and mental effects, and the impact it has on the teenage brain. Marijuana is derived from the cannabis plant. Marijuana contains THC which is …show more content…
Right after smoking marijuana the THC passes from the lungs into the bloodstream. After THC starts to take effect a person will start to experience their senses heightened, relaxation/fatigue, incapacitated movement and memory. A person may also encounter paranoia, hallucinations, and psychosis (NIDA). Marijuana is not known for not being very harmful. With excessive use of marijuana a person will start to face long-term effects. Scientists are seeing structural changes in the brain, mainly the corpus callosum (Lland 2017). As people intake high levels of THC they start to see cognitive issues like memory and concentration problems. There is also evidence in a person's IQ dropping as much as eight points! So is marijuana usage making the world dummer? Marijuana also has physical and mental effects. Marijuana can cause bronchitis, breathing problems, and even cause problems with child development during pregnancy. Mentally, smoking marijuana can cause risk of psychosis. People who have used it excessively are more prompt to be diagnosed with a mental-health condition like schizophrenia (Blaszczak-Boxe 2016). Even though marijuana might not be that extreme and cause death like many other drugs, it causes our basic abilities to be