Ganja in Jamaica
Pubdate: Tue,  4 Sep 2001
Source: Jamaica Gleaner, The (Jamaica)
Copyright: 2001 The Gleaner Company Limited
Contact:  http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/493
Author: Eulalee Thompson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

THE FORBIDDEN HERB - IS GANJA BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

JUST BEFORE setting out to sea, some Jamaican fishermen use ganja and 
they experience remarkable improvement in their vision when they are 
out on the high seas. It was this chance observation of the herb's 
effect on vision, that led local scientist, Professor Manley West to 
team up with his colleague Dr. Albert Lockhart, to create the 
glaucoma treatment Canasol and more recently, Cantimol.

Many studies indicate that the use of ganja is deeply steeped in the 
folk culture, sometimes taking on a mystical imagery. Like the 
fishermen, a large proportion of people take ganja as tea or for 
smoking and they credit it with many healing properties. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that in its wide public consultation, leading 
to the recommendation to decriminalise ganja for private, personal 
use, the National Commission on Ganja had personal testimonies 
ranging from 'miraculous-like cures to relief from simple colds' when 
ganja was used. But the essential question is: 'Does ganja use 
negatively impact human health ?' There appears to be no controversy 
among medical experts on this issue; they say 'yes'. Ganja has 
medicinal properties that can be exploited and developed but 
recreational smoking can be bad for human health.

Ganja is no different from any other psychotropic drug in its 
physiological effect, said Dr. Winston Dawes, president of the 
Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ). Furthermore, all kinds of 
smoking, he said, will negatively affect health.

"There is no clinical advantage from smoking it outside of some 
terminally-ill patients who use it for nausea and also for medicinal 
use like glaucoma. It is implicated in low birth weight in women who 
smoke and there is also a psychological aspect, a condition known as 
ganja psychosis, has been recognised in some people who are 
susceptible to it," he said.

Nevertheless, the MAJ supports the decriminalisation of ganja use 
accompanied by a massive educational drive on the risk and dangers of 
smoking. "If an individual still insist on smoking in the privacy of 
his home, then he shouldn't be arrested because people are allowed to 
smoke other harmful stuff such as cigarette," Dr. Dawes said.

"When a substance such as ganja is smoked, the chemicals in it are 
burnt and unstable metabolites (or breakdown materials) are created. 
Some of these metabolites are toxic and can stay for long periods of 
time in the body's tissues," said Dr. Winston Davidson, former 
chairman of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA).

When the substance is burnt, the tar content, he said, is three or 
four times that found in cigarettes.

Dr. Davidson, who also supports the decriminalisation of ganja, said 
that not only smoking the herb will negatively impact health but also 
drinking 'ganja tea'.

"In the brewed tea, you have a more concentrated form of the 
psychoactive substance THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)," he said.

THC is the most abundant of the 60 cannabinoids found in ganja. It is 
the THC that is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream when ganja is 
smoked. The Commission said that it is now recognised that THC 
interacts with a naturally occurring system in the body, known as the 
cannabinoid system. THC affects the body by acting upon the 
cannabinoid receptors: CB1 and CB2 receptors. CB1 receptors are found 
on nerve cells, in the brain, spinal cord and in some peripheral 
tissues. CB2 receptors are found mainly in the immune system and are 
not present in the brain. THC is believed to affect the brain's 
processing of information, memory, motivation and the experience of 
emotion.

Dr. Davidson said that some people are predisposed, even after first 
use, to develop acute ganja psychosis. This is a state of panic, a 
distortion of time and space. Ganja use can precipitate existing 
psychotic illnesses, he said.
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MAP posted-by: Josh