The Truth About Tobacco and Marijuana
WHAT ARE THEY?
Substances
Are
non food, mood-altering substances that are not deemed medically necessary but
that are used in an effort to escape from the problems of life, to get a dreamy
feeling, or a sense of well-being or of elation.
Tobacco-An
addictive substance containing toxic substances with eventual harmful effects
when ingested into the body. Tobacco contains thirty different substances such
as nicotine, arsenic, alcohol and ammonia. Nicotine is one of the oldest, the
most widely used, and, in the same amounts, stronger and more addictive than
cocaine. The euphoric effect of nicotine is the same as morphine and cocaine. vape
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According
to one researcher, "tobacco contains as nice a collection of poisons as
you will find anywhere. The tobacco used in pipes and cigars contains more
nicotine, more cancerous tars, and produces more dangerous carbon monoxide gas
than that used in cigarettes.
Marijuana
(Also known as pot, reefer, grass, ganja, or weed) has been the focus of much
controversy among experts. best vape juice uk
Marijuana
is a drug prepared by drying the leaves, flowering tops, stems and seeds of the
hemp plant known as Cannabis sativa. Hence, the name sometimes used for it-
'Cannabis' Its common name is "pot." In India it is called bhang.
Hashish is another form of cannabis, made from the resin of the plant and usually
pressed into the form of blocks or chunks of varying potency. Hashish and an
oil made from it are of greater strength than marijuana. vape
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For
one thing, marijuana is extremely complex; a marijuana cigarette contains over
400 chemical compounds in its smoke. It took doctors over 60 years to realize
cigarette smoke causes cancer. It may likewise take decades before anyone knows
for sure just what marijuana's 400 compounds do to the human body. kik
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Marijuana
smoke, like the smoke from tobacco, consists of a number of toxic substances,
such as tars which are only soluble in fat and stored in body tissues,
including brain, for weeks and months, like DDT. The storage capacity of
tissues for these substances is enormous-which explains their slow deleterious
effects in habitual smokers. kik e cig
WHY TAKE IT?
-Some
take these substances to escape from their problems: Failure to develop the
skills needed for coping with problems may eventually force an individual to
smoking.
-To
satisfy curiosity
-To
ease depression or boredom
-Peer
pressure
-For
the pleasure of it-
-To
be with the crowd-to feel, cool, grown-up, sophisticated.
-By
smoking, teenagers feel independent, whereas they are capitulating to peer
pressure.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
-The
quality of family life or rather the lack of it may affect whether young people
take it or not
-Family
breakdown (divorce and separation); Eighty percent of drug addicts have serious
family problems. They come from a very repressive or a very permissive family
or from a home without a father."
-Emotional
conflicts: adolescence is an emotionally turbulent period; hence young ones
take drugs to escape the turbulence
-Substance
abusers are also being manipulated by the tobacco companies. The companies know
that their future is with the youth. If youths can be made addicts in their
teens, they will likely be good customers for life. v
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WHAT EFFECTS?
Vascular-
Researcher have further linked smoking with the hardening and general
deterioration of small arteries. The doctor concluded. Smoking damages these
particular arteries and makes their walls stiff. So when a pulse of blood comes
down, the vessel can't expand (to ease its passage). That would happen in old
age anyway, but it happens twice as fast in smokers."
Blood - Cigarette
smoking causes immediate and damaging changes in teenagers' blood, the kind of
changes that lead to early artery problems and heart disease.
Hearing - Smoking poses
a "special risk of hearing loss" for "people who work or live in
high-noise-level environments. Researchers found that the hearing of smokers
who were exposed to loud noise for several minutes "took much longer to
return to normal" than that of non smokers.
Skin - Smoker's
Face- Many doctors believe that smoking may make a person's facial skin look
older. The faces of smokers and non-smokers are not very different at age 30.
But by 40 and 50 the differences are apparent.
Tooth and bone loss-
Smoking is one of the biggest factors in teeth loss. Smokers suffers a greater
incidence of tooth and bone loss. They also had a greater build-up of plaque
and tartar, which collect on the teeth and contribute to gum disease and decay.
Smoking causes constriction of the blood vessels in the gum tissue, thus
reducing the circulation and speeding up the disease process."
Heart- Cigarette
smoking as the cause of a rare but lethal heart disease named cardio-myopathy.
This disease weakens the whole heart muscle, thereby inhibiting proper blood
circulation. The result is eventually heart failure.
Respiratory-
Smokers have a much higher risk of pulmonary complications from surgery than do
non-smokers. These include lung collapse and infections leading to such
diseases as pneumonia. Some suffer sore throats from smoking cannabis while
others suffer from bronchitis. Marijuana users were also found to have
bronchial lesions characteristic of the early stages of cancer.
Nervous- Marijuana is
damaging to the brain, impairing mental functions, even when a person is not
under its immediate influence.
It
can be said with confidence that marijuana produces acute effects on the brain,
including chemical and electrophysiological changes." Although at present,
there is no conclusive proof that marijuana permanently damages the brain.
Nevertheless, the possibility that marijuana might in any way do harm to
"the golden bowl" should not be dismissed lightly.
Marijuana
is known "to cause birth defects when administered in large doses to
experimental animals." Whether it has the same effects on humans is thus
far unproved. It should be remembered, though, that birth defects (such as the
one caused by the hormone DES) often take years to manifest themselves. So,
what the future holds for the children-and grandchildren-of marijuana smokers
remains to be seen.
Cancer- Tobacco causes
cancer in the cheeks, gums, and throat. These findings do not surprise experts.
One study notes: "Snuff has the highest level of cancer-causing agents of
any product taken into the body." No wonder that "long-term snuff users
have a 50% greater risk of developing oral cancer than nonusers.
For
example, those who regularly chew or dip can get cracked lips, stained teeth,
bad breath, and sore gums-nothing to smile about. In addition, their ability to
taste and smell decreases while their heartbeat and blood pressure increase.
Whether
one chew or suck on moist snuff held between cheek and gum (called dipping),
oral cancer, gum disease, and nicotine addiction are inevitable consequences.
Cancer develops where the tobacco touches cheek and gum, and the malignancy
often spreads to other parts of the body. Smokeless tobacco contains 20 or more
cancer-causing nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Nutritional-
Smoking destroys the vitamin C that a person takes in from food and drink.
Nicotine decreased the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) content of the blood by 24 to
31 percent. Thus smokers are in much greater need of this essential vitamin.
This explains why those who smoke generally are more prone to infections than
those who do not. For example, smokers are more likely to catch the flu during
an epidemic and they usually have it worse than non-smokers. Marijuana produces
lower resistance to disease, as well as damage to chromosomes and genes. vape shop
Reproductive-
Marijuana use has resulted in lower levels of male sex hormones, which has
produced problems related to the male reproductive system
Fetal damage-
Smoking during pregnancy damages fetal arteries. This damage is evident with
the high incidence of congenital malformations, low birth weights and premature
separations among babies of women who smoke.
Even
father's smoking may harm fetus. Studies show that when a non-smoking pregnant
woman is exposed to the cigarette smoke of other people [such as the father],
the fetal blood contains significant amounts of tobacco smoke by-products. best
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Infants- Because the brain's
barrier to drugs and the liver, which detoxifies nicotine, are less well
developed in infants than in adults, passive smoking is particularly harmful to
them. Damages could range from aversion to certain foods, due to nausea caused
by tobacco smoke, to sudden infant death syndrome.
Tobacco Hinders Sleep and Memory-
Smokers generally find it harder to sleep than non-smokers do, and sleep habits
of smokers who suddenly quit improve dramatically according to researchers.
Life expectancy-
Smoking-related diseases are important causes of disability and premature
deaths.
And
as regards cigarette-related fires, not a few of the deaths and injuries in
residential fires is started by smoldering cigarettes.
Social effects
Accidents-
Driving a car under the influence of marijuana can be every bit as dangerous as
driving under the influence of alcohol. Not surprisingly, drug users are also
three or four times more likely to be involved in accidents at work.
Home- Parents who
are distracted by their craving for drugs rarely provide their children with a
stable home life. Infant-parent bonding-so vital during the first weeks of a
child's life-can even be inhibited. Many children who grow up in this
environment take to the streets or even get involved in drugs themselves.
Employment-
Addicted individuals frequently get into debt or may end up losing their jobs
either due to absenteeism, truancy or negligence.
Physical Abuse-
Drug abuse can also lead to physical abuse-of the spouse or of the children.
Cannabis especially when combined with alcohol can provoke violent behavior in
a person who may otherwise be quite gentle.
Effect on Others
- More than ten studies last year showed that passive smoking-inhaling the
smoke from the cigarettes of others-caused lung cancer in the non-smoking
spouses of smokers. Research indicates that "spouses of smokers are two or
three times more likely to get lung cancer than those of non-smokers." One
study "estimated that passive smoking in the United States causes more cancer
deaths than all regulated industrial air pollutants combined. The more smokers
one has lived with, the higher the risk".
Children
with parents who smoke have more colds, influenza, bronchitis, asthma, and
pneumonia. Learning ability is damaged in children of mothers who smoke. In
India, 39 percent of the women chew tobacco. Underweight babies are the result.
Society- A far greater
cost, however, is the social damage drugs do to the community. No price could
be put on the disintegration of so many families, the abuse of so many
children, the corruption of so many officials, and the premature death of so
many people.
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