Marijuana as a social drug

Marijuana as a social drug is one of the most critical substance abuse problems in the United States today. The use of marijuana and alcohol has risen to the point where almost every facet of society has been touched by the use of both. In addition, marijuana as a substance affects several aspects of human performance, including perception, memory, psychomotor skills, and social behavior. Marijuana, like tobacco and other drugs, does not have a single effect upon humans, but does have some similar properties which cause certain types of behavior to occur in most users (Kinfe, et al., 1989). One additional problem is social, in which many believe past marijuana use should be publicly documented for certain professions. Others see this as phony, moralizing, or counter-productive (Kinsley, 1990).

Marijuana, or cannabis sativa, has been linked with human culture for more than 4,000 years. In fact, the first written account of use of marijuana occurred in Chinese literature around 2700 B.C. (Smith, 1970, p. 3). As an historical phenomenon, the use of marijuana appeared in the literature of many ancient societies, and even from the earliest accounts, was noted to have a profound effect upon the human organism.

Marijuana has many names - it has been called hemp, hashish, dagga, bhang, loco weed, grass, and a myriad of other terms. It was formally named cannabis sativa in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist and developer of the modern system of taxonomy and biologi

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of the memory loss is irreversible, but the brain attempts to compensate and unless there is a great deal of damage, it is usually only marginally noticeable (Marijuana Mangles Memory, 1989). Socially, marijuana is a problem because of its addictive nature. In 1937, the United States passed the Marijuana Tax Act, and established the norms of the way the drug was handled by the agencies of the federal government. At that time, people began to suspect a linkage between marijuana use and sociological behaviors. In many cases, the early use of marijuana centered in the poorer areas of major urban areas where minority populations lived. This, in itself, like alcohol abuse, gave the early use of marijuana a distinctly racial character (Solomon, 1966, p. xv). In the 1960s, though, marijuana use moved into the social stratum of students and other radicals. As these groups aged, marijuana became as popular as alcohol in many circles, and by the 1980s became the drug of choice in a wide variety of social and demographic strata., Economically, marijuana use has been linked to crime. one of the earliest views was that marijuana actually caused criminal behavior; however, most social psychologists have now dismissed that hypothesis.

Category: Medical - M