Is Cannabis Safe to Use?

Cannabis does have multiple risks, but also has at least an equal amount of benefits. Some of these will be stated below:

Benefits and Usage of Cannabis

1. Cannabinoids are active ingredients that are found in cannabis. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) are two of these active ingredients which are also found in Sativex, which is a prescription drug. These ingredients have been known to relieve pain caused by muscle spasms which is very helpful and effective almost immediately.
2. Nabilone, which is another cannabidiol drug, is also used to cure the sickness some people may have during post-chemotherapy.
3. There are multiple clinical trials going on to assure if drugs based on cannabis can be used to cure problems like pain due to cancer, glaucoma, the loss of appetite in people suffering from AIDS and HIV and epilepsy.

Cannabis, or also known as weed, marijuana, pot, etc., it is one of the most used drugs in today’s day and age. With the differing anatomy of every person and the different way every person’s body may react to it, there are multiple effects that cannabis can have on someone. These effects include the following:

1. The feeling of sudden calmness, happiness or relaxation may come over you.
2. There is a chance of having hysterical outbursts.
3. You can become more talkative and not realize what you say.
4. There may be an experience of having hunger pangs.
5. The intensity of the brightness of colors may increase.
6. Spatial sense and sense of time may be deteriorated.

Some other effects of cannabis, which are more common are as follows:

1. A novel user may feel nauseous and sick when he consumes it.
2. Sleepiness and lethargy are extremely common.
3. You can have a deferred memory and not have the memory of what happened while you were under the influence of the drug.
4. Cannabis also makes some people feel very anxious, paranoid and confused. It may cause hallucinations and frequent panic attacks.

Regular usage of cannabis can make a person extremely uninterested and unmotivated about daily things in life, like a profession and education. The use of cannabis for a long term can also result in the loss of the ability to concentrate and learn.

The Safety of Cannabis

As a medicine, cannabis has been used as far back as 1000 century BC and has been infused into food items and drinks and is still being done that way as of today. Used as a medicine in ancient China and India, cannabis made its way through to the Western hemisphere of the world in approximately the 19th Century. Cannabis was served in its edible form to cure multiple problems like digestive disorders and chronic pain, to name a few. It has also been used to give stress relief and to bring about euphoria in the users. A beverage made from a concoction of the flowers and leaves of the plant of marijuana has been drunk by people for several centuries now, in India, to mark the Hindu festival of Holi. Items like oils, gummies, capsules, teas, candies, chocolates, etc., are a few of the edible products which contain cannabis. These products are sold on a very wide span, illegally or legally depending on the laws of that particular country and state.

Although smoking cannabis (weed) has been known to show signs of lung diseases like bronchitis, the impairment of one’s brain function and the inflammation of the lungs, eating weed does not show any of the similar effects. It has not been known to destructively affect the lungs and cause any type of cancer. Thus, if the thought of the downsides of smoking weed crosses your mind, you can consider the relatively very safe option of consuming edible weed instead. Even though the consumption of edible cannabis is known to be safer than that of smoking the same, there are clinical trials going on to understand the long-term effects of the former.

It is important to consult a medical professional before you consume any edible weed because effects can differ based on body anatomy, age, physique, drug tolerance, etc. Though 33 states in the United States of America have legalized medical marijuana, only 10 states have ratified and sanctioned the usage of cannabis, specifically the recreational marijuana. Large numbers of people have been contesting this law and want to make the availability more widespread.

To make sure that the cannabis you are consuming is safe, it is important to understand how much cannabis you must consume and to stick to that dosage only. Being privy and sticking to the dosage that has been prescribed is the best way to reduce any health risks which may occur. It ensures that you are not on the receiving end of any negative effect related to over consumption. It is also important to remember that you must only purchase cannabis from a dealer who is trustworthy and is a licensed dispensary. Another piece of advice is to purchase cannabis which is laboratory approved and sealed for the purpose of sale.

Investigators of the Institute of Medicine do consider the relative risks of cannabis and they’ve concluded that although it has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes in the past and even today, it is not fully a benign consumption. As a powerful drug, it definitely has a lot of differing effects which vary from each person’s body type, anatomy and age. What we can comprehend from the multiple reports published by the Institute of Medicine, regarding the topic in question, is that the effects of long term usage of cannabis with tens of thousands of users over the period of multiple decades, have shown no such negative effects on the function of a user’s lungs. Even those people who have previously consumed approximately 10,000 joints have not fallen prey to any respiratory problems or lung diseases and infections.

Multiple studies conducted by other researchers of this field also have given the hypothesis and strongly suggest that CBD found in cannabis is not toxic and has never been found to make any dietary changes to a consumer’s diet and food intake levels. It also has been studied thoroughly and not been known to affect the physiology of the user, for example temperature of the body, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. Long term, chronic usage of 1,500 mg of CBD is apparently tolerated very well in humans. On the basis of the recent studies and researches done on cannabis over humans and animals, it can be safely deduced that safe administration of cannabis over these categories of living beings will not be of any threat to the bodies and general health of the beings. Nonetheless, further elaborated studies may be necessary to understand some side effects which may be present with the regular intake of cannabis.

An herbal product of cannabis that has standardized quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol (12.5 %) was given out to a few of the individuals for a period of one year. This dispensing of the herb resulted in temporary relief from chronic pains in individuals who were not the regular users of cannabis consumers.

The above abstract of a recent study deduced the hypothesis that cannabis was relatively safe amongst patients who were sufferers of chronic pain for well over a period of one year. The study found out that a higher rate of hostile effects was found amongst the users of cannabis who indiscriminately consumed the herb, those people who consumed regularly with a particular amount only, that is of, 2.5 grams of herbal cannabis each day.

A major boulder in the way of safety research for cannabis is the safety issues itself due to the usage of cannabis and cannabinoid medication. This was all for the purpose of clinical trials and medical breakthroughs. Cannabis, which is mostly herbal may only be classified as safe on the basis of its information which is derived from the recent studies on the use of cannabis for recreational purposes. But as we know, the exposure of cannabis and its parallel effects may be differing from person to person and also depends on their usage for the same, i.e. recreational or medicinal.

Cannabinoid products that are standardized and have a positive quality check on them are mostly only available in Canada. These products also have profiles of protection that have been approved as a medication by the Canadian formulary. In this entire discussion that is stated above, the only proof which stands bolstering the safety concerns are those that are related to the consumption of cannabis and are present with the aim of endorsing a conversation between those who consume cannabis and the doctors or other medical professionals who prescribe cannabinoid as a form of therapy for various illnesses.

There is of course some subjectivity when one is understanding the data and interpreting in his own language or experience. This is solely because of the experience with clinical trials of cannabis usage is still in its relatively newer stages and still has a long way to go before any of this is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other medical authority. There is a dire requirement for safety for long-term purposes of cannabis consumption and the monitoring of the changes a body undertakes is essential for a wide variety of therapeutic callings.