Women’s Health May 2013
Hemp, pot, weed, grass, cannabis….whatever you call it, let’s not puff it, but talk about it.
Alzheimer’s disease, depression, diabetes,
epilepsy and rheumatoid arthritis, marijuana might highly drag them down all. At
press time, in the United States of America, medical marijuana is now legal in
18 states, and Colorado legalized it as any
use; regardless, pot is burning under a hot spotlight, especially when marijuana
is still mainly classified as Schedule 1 drug globally.*
According to Women’s Health May issue article, ‘Is Marijuana Good Medicine?’ narrates that ‘nearly 11.5 million women are toking (cannabis) for pain relief or for recreational purposes, as a healthier alternative’, (158) and from celebrities to grandmothers, a growing numbers of women encourage the inhaling for the sake of ‘health’. Nevertheless, like every pharmaceutical drug, marijuana isn’t a totally benign remedy. Users can experience side effects such as dry mouth, dizziness, paranoia, retard reaction, heart throbs and as expected, getting very high.
Which method
is more risky to lives, being addictive to marijuana or die after overdosing on
painkillers? In
2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds were found
next to a 2500~2800-year-old mummified shaman in the northwestern Uygur
Autonomous Region of China; the use of marijuana dated back earlier than
post-modern public common sense, while researches show that ‘pot cannabinoids
might have the ability to help prevent multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s, and
CBD compounds even kill breast cancer cells (158-59)’. When some parties and
individuals praise this appearance of new wonder cure-all, Bertha Madras, PhD,
a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School, points out marijuana ‘can
damage rapidly developing adolescent brains, cause mood and psychiatric disorders,
including schizophrenia’ (159), not to mention the pregnant women and high-drivers,
and around 9% of pot smokers become pretty hooked.
Perhaps the biggest issue for critics,
according to the article, is the use of marijuana lacks standardization as
morphine or other approved over-the-counter medication, also the legitimate
instruction for physicians to prescribe. My personal view is, since marijuana
articles still adapt too many ‘might’, ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’ adverbs, the insufficient
of information of marijuana should not be the biggest concern, but the public curiosity
is worthwhile wary, since human minds are naturally-born designed as irrationally
addictive. Comparing to alcohol or nicotine, yes, using marijuana won’t suffer
from hangover, aggressiveness or liver cancer; but while ‘no smoking’ signs limit
the zonked freedom worldwide, it seems some ‘marijuana persuaders’ just want to
swift to this new addictiveness from old habits, and shouts out so loudly in
the name of ‘organic’.
Marijuana can produce the stronger fibers (to
strengthen the substance of banknotes), its extracts and hash oil can
moisturize dehydrated skins (take a look of The Bodyshop marijuana products). The
plant is never wrong nor wonderful, but the wonder of longevity and the nature
of doping in human minds.
Puff the Pot, Fog the Future.
*In January 2007, a flat located at Taipei
shopping area, with no residence but hundred pots of marijuana. It was reported
by a deep throat that the major buyers/users are those celebrities/comedians at
Taiwan entertainment. Soon those who convicted were losing contracts and put to
rehab, and later exposed more household names to the court.
Works Cited and photography:
Jiang, Hong-En. et al. (2006). ‘A new insight into
Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae) utilization from 2500-year-old Yanghai tombs,
Xinjiang, China’. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 108 (3): 414–22.
Women’s Health. ‘Is Marijuana Good Medicine’? May 2013. New York: Rodale, 2013. p.156-61.
No comments
Post a Comment