What’s At Stake
What’s At Stake
There’s More To Weed Than What The Ads Tell You
It’s Not a Safe Alternative
Since marijuana is ‘natural’, you might think it is safer than alcohol or other drugs. Just like tobacco, marijuana is also a plant, that contains extremely harmful components that are bad for your health. In fact, marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals1, some of which are addictive and harmful – such as pesticides.
Your brain is still undergoing important development until you’re about 24 and marijuana interferes with this development process. Using marijuana can actually change the structure of your brain, specifically the areas dealing with memory and problem solving. In fact, regular marijuana users performed worse on tests of learning, memory and other brain functions. It’s also been shown to actually lower your IQ.
Using marijuana can also affect the amount of oxygen getting to your brain, make it harder to feel good when you aren’t using marijuana, and impact your athletic, educational or career opportunities.
What Could It Hurt?
Today’s marijuana is very potent and can contain more than 3 times the amount of THC than it did in the 90s – making it much more harmful to your developing brain.
THC in marijuana mimics the neurotransmitter that makes you feel good – reducing the amount your body makes on its own. Once you’ve become dependent on THC, you’ll feel good when you’re using it, but you won’t have enough of your own chemical messengers to feel good when you are not using it2.
Using marijuana also impacts athletic performance, decreasing endurance and slowing down response times and decision making.