Marijuana: A Crude Drug with a Spectrum of Underappreciated Toxicity

Abstract

The unthinkable happened to our family. Our son Keith, aged 15 years, experimented with marijuana and quickly became obsessed with getting "high." Keith soon sought out only those friends of a similar ilk and within a few months we began to notice progressive fatigue, disinterest in family life and school work (grades plummeted), loss of academic and vocational goals, a couldn't-care-less attitude, and compulsive dishonesty. Keith had always been a difficult child but we were hopeful that time and love would help him outgrow his poor self-image and impulsive behaviors. Perhaps, without marijuana, we might have seen him mature and become a motivated selfsufficient citizen without the need for intensive drug rehabilitation. For the past 8 months, Keith has been a client at a unique drug rehabilitation program, Straight, Inc, where he is learning that he is a worthwhile, basically good person; that his family loves and needs him; and that he will have a life-long fight against the seductive malignant influence of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. He is making progress. We take one day at a time. The word marijuana derives from the indigenous Mexican or Central-American word maraguango, a general term meaning any intoxicating substance.1 Marijuana, the dried particles of leaves, small stems, flowers, and achenes (seeds), is a crude drug which owes its psychoactive properties primarily to Δ9-THC, a mixture of nine psychoactive isomers produced by resin-secreting glands of the medicinal varieties of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa).2 These glands are particularly abundant in the upper leaves and flowering tops of plants of both sexes but are highest in the pistillate (female) plants.