cannabisnews.com: Living The High Life 





Living The High Life 
Posted by CN Staff on April 24, 2004 at 18:32:00 PT
By Ben Sweet
Source: Vanderbilt Hustler
41 percent of students say they have used marijuana despite negative side effects linked to the drug and students are beginning to compare smoking weed to drinking beer or smoking cigarettes, causing the illegal substance to become more accepted in the residential community, several students said.Marijuana or THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) as those who know it best, is rapidly becoming the most popular substance in use. Only tobacco and alcohol rival it on Vanderbilt’s campus, and according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 37 percent of Americans have tried it.
The drug, which travels to the bloodstream and attaches to cannabinoid nerve cells in the brain, has the most dramatic effects on coordinated movement, memory, learning, sensory and time perception and pleasure, since the cannabinoid receptors are most prevalent in those regions of the brain.Over 41 percent of Vanderbilt students say they have used the drug before, 18 percent in the last month, according to the Core Survey.“Weed’s no different than alcohol or like, cigarettes,” said one student. “If a chain (tobacco) smoker told me that weed was bad for me, that I should quit, I’d laugh in his face.”And so goes the typical response. Many people speak of a ‘culture of acceptance’ in modern society, to such an extent that some wonder if there is a difference between weed and other legal substances.“I think there are pockets of people on campus who are very accepting of marijuana use,” said Director of Alcohol, Tobacco, and other Drug Prevention Jeanine Atkinson. “It has the reputation of being a very mellow drug, and by appearance alone, no one sees the problem.”Those problems, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, range from loss of cognitive skills to increased risk of lung cancer and heart attacks, and as some experts have begun to stress, this is not your parents’ pot.THC content in commercial-grade marijuana has risen by 50 percent, from an average of 3.71 percent in 1985 to 5.57 percent in 1998. Higher concentrations of THC can make psychotic and other reactions to marijuana more likely, according to the NCASA.But all of that seems just window dressing for users, who say the medical concerns come last.“Being high is like the ultimate chill where you don’t have to worry about anything or anybody,” said a student. “You laugh at things you would never laugh at before, and you tend to notice things a lot more, which is why I like to get high before I go to a concert, because you can hear more in the music.”Vanderbilt “will impose disciplinary sanctions on students, ranging from a warning or reprimand, to disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion and referral for state or federal prosecution, for violation of its alcohol and controlled substances policy,” according to the Student Code.But most students agree that there is little risk in smoking marijuana on campus, depending on how attentive a resident adviser is.“I smoked a joint once walking around campus,” said a student. “It was late, and I really didn’t care, but no one else did either.”According to a user, the going rate at Vanderbilt is 50 bucks for an eighth of an ounce, or about enough to get a regular (once a day) user through a week.That may sound expensive, but many students say they spend twice that amount weekly on alcohol; unlike alcohol, though, weed just leaves you hungry, not hung over.As for where it comes from, most students don’t need to look farther than a few doors down.“My freshman year, there were three guys dealing it on the same floor,” said one student. “It’s not hard to find, even if you’re not looking.”Also unlike alcohol, though, marijuana can stay in your system for weeks, or even longer, and smokers may be feeling the effects without knowing it.“It’s hard for a marijuana user to see the negatives because their brain is impaired all the time,” Atkinson said. “THC accumulates in the lipid lining in your body, and the more you smoke, the more builds up—it’s so slow to leave the body.And though a typical ‘high’ will last no more than an hour or two, there’s no guarantee that THC won’t show up on a drug test a good month later, Atkinson said.There is hardly a general opinion on marijuana in the medical community right now, but many doctors see benefits only for the most ill of patients.According to the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy could reap considerable benefits from the drug, while at the same time increasing their risks of mental disorders, pulmonary infections and decreasing their immune system response in general.And though the chances that any students at Vandy use THC for medical reasons, the likelihood that they will be affected is no less real, Atkinson said.“We haven’t studied all the chemicals (over 400) in marijuana, and we still don’t know exactly what’s going on in there,” she said. “It’s a pretty complicated drug.”With marijuana use so widespread on campus, though, many say getting high has already become just another part of their college lives — and they don’t see a reason to give it up.“I get high after all my work is done,” said one student. “I mean, I would never go to class high — I try to keep school separate from all that.”Source: Vanderbilt Hustler, The (TN Edu)Author: Ben SweetPublished: April 23, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Vanderbilt HustlerContact: opinion vanderbilthustler.comWebsite: http://www.vanderbilthustler.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on April 24, 2004 at 22:26:26 PT
Make that "a lasting prohibition"
Usually I would not correct a mistake as the flow is there. Me mistaken.
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on April 24, 2004 at 22:23:21 PT
Nothing like some Saturday slander
How dare they slander cannabis, the ideal relaxant and mind bender. The cream always rises to the top and cannabis will not only be legal in short order, it will be number one. We need to get on the bandwagon and demonize alcohol for the prohibition-introducing demon that it is. When the federal government learned that prohibition could be repealled with the Constitutional route, they decided they better ignore the Constitution if they wanted a lasting Constitution. The Internet has taught us all well and the lies and the deception and distractions do not play well when people are focused on liberty and their unalienable rights. The jig is up and the cannabis age is coming sooner rather than later. The call to do something about alcoholism in America needs to get loud and demand a solution. Cannabis is the solution and not the problem. The problem is prohibition and the treason it rode up on and the corruption that feeds it our tax dollars.This comment at Hempcity on the cannabis climate in Paris and France seems fitting. This is the entire second comment in the thread at http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=400&highlight=Here in France in one of our left wing newspapers "Liberation" they said that the same study found that 21 percent of 18 year old boys smoked cannabis AT LEAST 4 TIMES A WEEK and that 22 percent of 18 year old boys drank alcohol regularly. For girls they found that 7 percent SMOKED CANNABIS AT LEAST 4 TIMES A WEEK and that AN EQUAL PERCENT drank alcohol regularly. BASICALLY FRENCH 18 YEAR OLDS DRINK ALCOHOL AND SMOKE CANNABIS REGULARLY AT THE SAME RATES. THis is huge, perhaps cannabis will become MORE POPULAR THAN ALCOHOL here soon. 
Basically the study says that 14 percent of 18 year olds are REGULAR CRIMINALS WHO COMMITT A CRIME PUNISHIBLE ON PAPER, but not in practice, WITH BETWEEN 1 AND 10 YEARS IN PRISON. Perhaps they will change the laws soon. There is also a large percentage that smokes less often and other people that do not admit smoking cannabis in these surveys. Walk around Paris and you will see and smell people smoking hashish and cannabis all over the place. It is so popular here that people even smoke it in the subway (métro) cars on occasion.
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Comment #3 posted by Petard on April 24, 2004 at 20:27:21 PT
So much facts, so little fact
The difference between metabolites and psychoactively active constituents, the lack of perception between a "difference" in immune response but not scientifically quantified as a detrimental nor beneficial effect, simply a difference (but then again Vanderbilt is in Tennessee where Black, Latino, Asian, etc., is different from white, and it ain't a simple difference in dem d'ere hills, iff'n ya know wut I mean Billy Bob). And still no mention of the lack of a body count, outside of prisons, for all these imagined detrimental effects.It's a plant, no a drug, no a plant, no a drug. And yet people laugh at a dog chasing it's tail. The rest of the world points and laughs at the USA chasing it's tail too.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on April 24, 2004 at 19:49:30 PT
Drug?
Who's zoomin' who?Cannabis is a plant.Look close.Plant.
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Comment #1 posted by AgaetisByrjun on April 24, 2004 at 19:31:16 PT
"THC builds up in the system"
When will these buffoons realize that THC metabolites DO NOT GET ONE HIGH? I've seen this in a few places; for some reason, many people seem to think that testing positive means being high. It does not. But I'm preaching to the choir here... =(
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