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Effects of Alcohol, Marijuana & Psychedelic Drugs

Within the human brain is a system of memory powerful enough to capture quick images, retaining them forever, and versatile enough to trigger associated sights, sounds, smells, tastes and emotions related to past scene. Such a potent force is vulnerable to outside influences including injury, disease and surgery. It also is subject to changes due to self-induced influences such as drugs and alcohol. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how memory is effected by these substances including marijuana, alcohol, P.C.P. and other psychedelic drugs.

Memory originates as a sensory impression stored in the brain through the central visual system beginning at the primary visual cortex. The visual cortex is an area on the back surface of the brain that receives information about the visual world from the retina by way of the optic nerve and an intermediate state (the lateral geniculate body) deep in the brain (Mishkin, 1987, p. 80). These complex faculties encompass and effect different kinds of memory, comprising experiences and learning habits.

All drugs, including those listed above, have side effects, some desirable and some unwanted. They can be physically or mentally damaging as well as frightening and potentially deadly. A sixteenth century physician, Parcelsus wrote: "All drugs are poisons. What distinguishes a poison from a remedy is the right dose" (Goodman, 1988, p. 53). Regarding their impact on the memory function, this holds true as well. The "right dose" takes into account a person's sex, height, weight, general physical condition and age.

Marijuana is a wild tobacco grown so that users can smoke its dried leaves and flowering tops that contain "cannabin" as a cigarette or in a pipe for its intoxicating effect. THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is considered by many to have medical value with regards to alleviating pain and the torturous side effects of chemotherapy. As a result, thirty-three s...

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Effects of Alcohol, Marijuana & Psychedelic Drugs. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:14, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682253.html