Marijuana, known then to alter moods, was brought in 3000 BC from Central Asia and China to India and the Near East, then to the West via Asia. China used hemp fibers by 3000 BC for ropes and clothes. Greece and Rome used marijuana as medicine and used marijuana seeds for soap, paint and birdseed. In the 1800s people used marijuana as an analgesic (painkiller), anti-spasmodic, antidepressant, appetite stimulant, antiasthmatic, and antibiotic. Addiction occurred in the Orient 1000 years ago. Use was recreational during Prohibition as an alcohol substitute. Used since earliest times for highs, marijuana was not used in the U S until 1900. It was legal then.Mature hemp plants are 4 - 20 feet tall. Stalks and stems are used for rope and for hemp cloth, similar to burlap. Originally from Asia Minor, it's now cultivated worldwide in temperate zones. Its fruit is incorrectly thought of as seed, used for birdseed and as a quick-drying oil used in paint. Marijuana leaves and flowering tops have resin, containing its active ingredient cannobin, a glucoside of the drug. Marijuana's chemical makeup is unique, not resembling any other drug. It's unstable because it's mixed with other things. Morphine is to opium what cocaine is to the coca plant and what cannobin is to marijuana.
Marijuana growers today breed more potent plants to retail higher. Under controlled growing conditions marijuana contains 10 times as much THC, Tetro Hydro Canabinol, the active ingredient made from resin of cannabis flowers. Marijuana growers occupy national forest land, spreading poison around plants to kill rodents feeding on them, also poisoning animals preying on rodents. Fertilizers used to grow marijuana contain poisons and chemicals that wash into streams. Marijuana growers shoot deer grazing on the plants. Despite marijuana laws, marijuana grows well in California. Marijuana, needing lots of water, is irrigated when rainfall is scarce.
Marijuana slows down your sense of time. You percieve minutes as hours. Marijuana impairs judgement, speech, coherence, memory, spatial perception. Time, space and distance distort. Like cocaine, marijuana produces intoxication, exhilaration, stimulation and release of inhibitions. Marijuana has toxic effects on brain cells. Marijuana causes memory loss and euphoria. Disease risk is 5 times higher with marijuana than tobacco. Marijuana use eventually starts LSD-like reaction patterns. Psychological dependency leads to use of other drugs. 1st time use it does nothing. 2nd time, you're dizzy. 3rd time, you're giddy. 4th time, mild hallucinations. Effects are gradual with use. Changes are subconscious. Gradual, subtle changes occur until suddenly you're addicted and have to smoke it to maintain normalcy rather than to get high. Tolerance and habituation increase. Effects vary with the same user, according to mood or personality, from excessive affability to manic frenzy. Marijuana use can lead to violence and to use of other more addictive drugs. Used with alcohol it produces uncontrollable intoxication and mental deterioration. If you let yourself come down you find you're a mess. To break out you change to hard drugs for faster, higher high, needing more and more for maintenance.
****UNITED STATES
Mature female plant. All stalks, stems removed. Leaves, flowering tops dried in indirect heat e g under barn roofs. Seeds shaken from flowering pod. Flowers, leaves crushed or "manicured" by rubbing between the hands. Results packed:
*Most common - 1 kg (2.2 lb) brick
*Packed in ordinary tobacco cans
*Loosely stuffed in a paper bag
Marijuana cigarettes are rolled with ends tucked in to prevent spilling. Double paper prevents cigarette breakage as they're handled by many people before reaching consumers. Double paper also holds the flakes. Dry, harsh flakes have sharp edges which puncture paper when handled. Average cigarette is 4 grains
***MIDEAST and ORIENT
Eaten. Leaves, flowering tops rolled in shag rug. Resin sticks to rug. Leaves, flowers discarded, resin scraped from nap. Gelatinous mass made into a sort of candy. Resin collected into cakes to form hashish. The word assassin comes from the word hashish because assassins used it before going out on assignments. Resin mixed with solvents forms hash oil.
Praise God for our inquisitive press, free to print this story of a well-known fact. If Caret and others interviewed took the zero-tolerance stance we citizens want they'd be assassinated. Staff urges students refusing illicit drugs to take medication and enforceably punish them for refusing, and no guarantee. Do it to them instead. It's political. It's typical of schools everywhere and worse in other countries. Notice most of the world's drugs are shipped to the U S. It's a Communist plot. Remember how Charlie saw to it our GIs in Viet Nam got all the heroin they wanted? If they came home at all they came home with a monkey on their backs. An old lady in San Francisco who fought drugs on her street was assassinated for her efforts.
Schools with onsite mental health are poison. Visit their bookstores, museums or other facilities or events if you want but keep invisible. When in doubt stay away. It's not worth the risk. Stay close to lawyers. Anything you hear, they should hear!
Smoke-filled halls . . .
Students say drugs, e g marijuana, appear in dorms
Dray Miller, staff writer March 12, 2002 Spartan Daily
Despite assurances of no drugs in dorms residents saying there's no problem finding illegal substances where they live call marijuana the most prevalent substance in dorms besides alcohol. Acknowledging its regular occurrence but mostly unaware of anyone caught with anything, students feel drugs aren't an issue in dorms because of their overall availability everywhere else. Students grow accustomed to occasional drug use.
STUDENTS
"Drugs are floating around. Its use doesn't bother me as long as I'm not affected. I see people openly toking. People get caught. I guess other students narc them out."
"I didn't think drugs was a major issue when I lived in the dorms."
"Lots of people smoked and drank. People get busted sometimes. Going to the corner or down the hall for drugs, it's the same thing."
"You smell marijuana, you get used to it. We smell it and accept it. As long as it doesn't affect me it's all good."
"Drugs are a matter of choice and unavoidable."
"It's socialization. If you want to be around it you can find it. It's in the dorms no matter what. It's no problem for me personally because I have enough willpower to stay away from it. Weed is everywhere like breakfast."SJSUPD administrative division Lt Bruce Lowe
21 Residence Hall drug cases since Sept 2001. SJSUPD undercover arrested someone for possession and transport of ecstasy, probably brought to campus for sale. An outsider loitering in stairwells under the influence of methamphetamine was arrested. "People smoke pot together. Sit with 6, 8, 10 people in a room smoking, you'll smell."Deanna Peck, SJSU assistant director for resident life
"Despite reported incidents, drugs don't appear overwhelming in the dorms. When drugs are suspected police are immediately called. If it's found the accused then goes through SJSU judicial process. Punishment for drug offenses vary depending on priors, behavior and drug quantity."Lt Lowe
"The level of the crime and the accused's history are factors in dealing with the crime. All cases are referred to the DA. SJSU then does what it sees fit for each case. SJSUPD does not downplay other drugs but since marijuana is more rampant it's more practical for us to focus on it. SJSUPD responds to and enforces laws regarding marijuana in dorms. We take possession for selling more seriously."SJSU President Robert Caret at a press conference
"SJSU doesn't expect the majority of students will abstain from all substances. SJSU supports social norming and rationing alcohol. This approach should be taken toward illegal drugs. What we do with alcohol we can do with drugs. We can't be people's parents. We can only take our educational mission and try to educate students." Caret also opposes discontinuing financial aid to people convicted of drug possession.DEAD HEADS - and you thought 6 feet under was morbid
Many drug users flirt with death. Now some inhale it. The new craze: marijuana cigarettes soaked in embalming fluid, then dried and sold on the street for $20 apiece. Shuddering at the thought? So are morticians and drug abuse counselors. Embalming fluid, a compound of formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol, and other solvents, can burn the eyes and nose fiercely. Can it also deliver a high? It's so flammable it wouldn't survive in a joint. Although embalming fluid burns away it still makes joints more potent. Many dealers combine embalming fluid with phencyclidine (PCP), a drug producing a psychotic high. Formaldehyde in embalming fluid helps PCP adhere to the cigarette, says Holland. As a result, embalming fluid and other formaldehyde-laced chemicals increasingly disappear from funeral parlors, hospitals, and morgues.