is an $8.5 billion per year industry. The cultivation, distribution and sale totals about $6.3 billion yearly. [2] EFFECTS: The chief psychoactive ingredient in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Psychoactive drugs are those which influence or alter the workings of the mind. They affect moods, emotions, feelings and thinking processes. This major psychoactive component was not identified until the mid-1960s. Other cannabinoids have also been isolated, and at present their biochemical possibilities are being carefully studied. [1] As of 1985, over 400 different chemicals in 18 different classes have been identified in the marijuana plant. When it is smoked, some of its chemicals are further changed into different compounds. One hundred and fifty compounds have been identified in marijuana smoke, including benzopyrene. Benzopyrene is 70% more abundant in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. It is known to cause cancer. Marijuana also contains 50% more tar than tobacco. User critics point out that most of the tar and impurities are removed when it is smoked through a water pipe. This is a device which filters the smoke through a volume of water, enabling the user to take larger amounts into the lungs, due to the cooling effect of the water on the smoke. [2] The use of marijuana and other sedatives or hypnotic drugs may result in a state of physiological and psychological craving. Discontinuance creates withdrawal states of varying degrees within some users. In all fairness, it should be noted that the figures for dependence and withdrawal symptoms ameliorate when comparing marijuana use against the withdrawal and dependence statistics on any of the much more dangerous drugs with which it is legally grouped; i.e. heroin and LSD. It should also be noted that alcohol is at least as habit forming as marijuana, and is legal; and that the Surgeon General of the United States in recent years stated that nicotine, also legal in the...
