Marijuana: Ever Present, Ever Problematic

A quick stop over to Billboards website and you just might find “4/20 Songs: 20 Smokin’ Tunes About Weed.” A list that includes songs such as “Because I Got High” – Afro Man,  “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” – Neil Young, “Weed With Willie” – Toby Keith, “Marijuana” – Kid Cudi, “Smoke Two Joints” – Sublime and “Mary Jane” – Rick James to name just a few. Marijuana has been ever present in our culture for quite some time and though some of the songs found on Billboard’s list rave about it, there has all too often been a negative connotation towards it. The topic of discussion in this post is; Is Marijuana really that bad?
Marijuana, also known as Cannabis sativa, has the active ingredient delta nine-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is apart of a class of chemical components called the cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are produced naturally in the brain (at low levels), two most common being Anandamide (AEA), which helps control things such as motor activity and stimulate appetite, and 2-arachidonoylgkycerol (2-AG), which plays a part in being a messenger molecule in different systems such as the immune system. THC, AEA and 2-AG all bind to the same receptors in the brain, CB1 and CB2. The pathways that these three compounds have are very complex and not everything is completely understood about them and how they work, but we know they produce similar effects when bound to their receptors. Though not everything about THC is understood, the last week of class has really made me question if marijuana is really that bad because cannabinoids can do some great things in the body, not just “get you high.”
THC is neuroprotective, it can help treat dementia, obesity, diabetes and epilepsy as well as many others. The most surprising to me is that marijuana has been investigated as a possible treatment for cancer due to THC’s ability to induce apoptosis in cancerous cells. Apoptosis is just a fancy word that means programmed cell death. This is great! I thought, why are we not looking more into this?! Well it turns out that scientists are trying to better understand THC’s pathway in order to synthesize similar compounds that could produce that same positive affects it has without the negatives like hallucinations. Unfortunately, due to the little amount that is known about THC, there is no telling if synthetic drugs or medical use of marijuana will be all good news or if a dark horse will come riding in later. In example of the unknown of medical marijuana in particular is scientists do not know the long-term effects it has. So for example if a child is given medical marijuana to combat their epileptic seizures, we do not know if early use of this will affect them later in their lives.
Recreational marijuana has been legalized in the states of Washington and Colorado with various other states having legalized the medical use of it. So back to the beginning question, is Marijuana really that bad? The answer I think is best for this seemingly simple question is only time will tell. It has positive effects in the medicinal world, it would boost the economy of the US if legalized everywhere, but certain strains of it cause psychoactive affects and overall not much is known about it when compared to the grand scheme of things. Though marijuana is not great enough to be used as an excuse for anything like Afro Man tries to do in his “Because I Got High,” it has the potential to be great to our body if/when science is able to learn more about it.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/1558962/420-songs-20-smokin-tunes-about-weed?page=0%2C1