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What are drugs that contain cannabis?
- Marijuana—The dried leaves and buds of the cannabis sativa or commonly called hemp plant.
- Hashish—The cured resin scrapped from the live leaves of the cannabis plant.
- Hash Oil—Dark liquid resembling motor oil-looking, which is solvent-leached cannabis resin.
- THC—Pure Delta-9 Tetra Hydro Canabinol, called "tick" on the street; it is very rare and usually bootleg PCP.
- Marinol—Government approved medicine used as an anti-nausea drug.
History of marijuana abuse in America
Marijuana and its associated refined products have been called "the poor
man's opium" as it produces a dreamy sedated mental and physical effect
similar to opium smoking. In fact, a marijuana smoker
when intoxicated or
"stoned" looks very much like an opium smoker when intoxicated. Most
people
think marijuana is a separate class of mildly intoxicating drug; however,
it is really a poor quality
natural hallucinogen.
Marijuana came into American use from two routes at about the same time; 1910 in the port of New Orleans brought in by sailors from Cuba, Mexico, and South America where cannabis was known as "muta" smoking, and 1917 in south Texas brought in by Mexican laborers. In New Orleans, cannabis was primarily used by black jazz musicians and patrons of New Orleans's Storyville neighborhood brothels and moved north to New York and Chicago with the popular spread of jazz style music. At about the same time, marijuana smoking moved west and north from Texas with the migrant Mexican farm workers. In 1915 the federal government stopped all legal importation of marijuana where it had been legally used as a medical treatment for migraine and glaucoma. Louisiana made marijuana illegal in 1927 when the drug moved out of the brothel district and became widespread in the city of New Orleans and beyond. Officials from Texas and Colorado convinced Congress in 1937 to ban marijuana under federal law.
Today, 10 million Americans illegally abuse marijuana in its many forms.
Research has shown that
nearly one-third of traffic crash injuries and deaths are
marijuana related. It is one of the most abused illicit drugs in America.
The dangers of marijuana abuse
Marijuana is not a water soluble drug like alcohol or cocaine. Rather, it is fat soluble, which means the body rids it's self of the drug not by flushing the drug out of the body with other waste in the urine but rather by storing the drug in the body fat. Therefore, marijuana use is cumulative in its effects on the body. This cumulative effect explains why long-term heavy users look "burned out" and "spaced out" even when they have not been using the drug recently.
In the work place and on the roadway, marijuana intoxication can be very dangerous as the drug destroys the brain's ability to perceive depth perception. Without depth perception serious accidents can occur. For example, a Conrail train engineer high on pot crashed into a commuter train killing two people. In another famous incident a commercial airline pilot high on marijuana crashed an air cargo plane at Newark airport. One of the most costly cases was in 1985 when a computer operator high on marijuana crashed the American Airlines reservation system causing 19 million dollars damage.
The FAA found that this impairment lasts for days after the pleasurable intoxicating effects wear off. Two Lear-jet pilots being studied by the FAA showed significant operational errors three days after smoking marijuana even though the two pilots both said they felt fine and thought they were safe to fly.
Costs and potency of the drug
One of the little know problems with marijuana use is the dramatic increase of potency of the drug. In 1980 the average TCH content of marijuana was just above 2%. In 1996 street grade marijuana tested at over double the strength, 4.62%. In addition, illicit drug producers have used cross breeding techniques to produce a strain of marijuana called Sesemilla which has tested as high as 8.9%. Recently, federal agents discovered an indoor hydroponics operation in Alaska where the marijuana tested at 29.8% THC content. At that level, smoked marijuana will produce hallucinations like Peyote and Mescaline.
The price of cannabis varies based on the THC content of the drug. Average
grade street marijuana
costs $200 per pound in quantity purchases. High
potency Sesmilla marijuana can fetch as much as $4,000 per pound.
How do you recognize someone under the influence of marijuana?
- Marked red cast to the whites of the eyes caused by dilation of the tiny capillary blood vessels.
- Pupils will be dilated and both will not track a moving object in perfect unison,.
- Slight muscular tremor in the eye lids, fingers, stomach muscles, and even the legs.
- Silver coated tongue.
- Mental disorientation with markedly slow internal body clock perception.
- Paranoia and anxiety psychosis at high doses or with some new users.
How can drug recognition training help?
Many workers who would never consider using heroin or cocaine while on the job think nothing of getting high on marijuana during their lunch break. Though years of lobbying for legalization of marijuana by such groups as NORML, (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), both users and non-users alike have mistakenly come to believe marijuana use is not much different than alcohol use, some in fact claiming it is safer than alcohol. Given the widespread abuse of this drug and the well documented accidents caused by impairment from marijuana, businesses and school personnel should be alert for persons under the influence of marijuana.
Drug recognition training conveys non-body invasive eye clues to alert someone to the possibility of drug impairment and to identify what broad class of drugs may be causing the impairment. All recreational drugs taken at abusive levels affect the user's eyes. Knowing these eye clues gives the observer important information as to the potential for drug-impaired safety concerns.
Drugs containing cannabis like marijuana produce a red cast to the white of the eyes and dilated pupils that are very easy to recognize once effective training has been accomplished. Video tapes showing actual stimulant drug-impaired subjects and classroom led training has been proven to be an effective control program.