Image of a bong, Photo Credit Kayleen Lopez
By Kayleen Lopez
Marijuana use reached an historic high among college students in 2020, according to a recent study by National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study found there was also a significant increase in the use of hallucinogens but a significant drop in alcohol use between 2019 and 2020.
“The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way that young people interact with one another and offers us an opportunity to examine whether drug taking behavior has shifted through these changes,” said Nora D. Volkow, an official with the NIH.“Moving forward, it will be critical to investigate how and when different substances are used among this young population, and the impact of these shifts over time.”
Are Edibles Safer Than Smoking? The health risks of cannabis vary on how you use the drug. There are risks for all alternatives but which works best? Should we even bother attempting to justify use of Marijuna/THC at all, considering the risks?
As a student who has sampled different forms, I can personally attest to the fact that the use of marijuana does help with unwinding after a long day at work or at school. It’s effective for decompressing after a long, overwhelming day and can be a great sleep aid.
There are many benefits to using marijuana according to an article in Medical News Today, such as relieving chronic pain and combating alcoholism and drug addiction. Researchers have also found that marijuana use aids people with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety and is effective against nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. And the list goes on.
CBD stands for cannabidiol, and THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, both of which are substances found in cannabis plants. CBD is often sold as an oil, is not psychoactive and has certain medicinal properties. THC, on the other hand, is the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana.
I have personally used both CBD and THC throughout my time as a college student. Over time, the negative effects of THC on my mental and physical health, persuaded me to take a break from smoking THC. Over time, I became dependent on smoking every night just to feel the high that comes from THC. I noticed my activity levels were suffering and I lacked the motivation to do anything.
Gaining weight is another symptom that comes from smoking THC, which causes an increase in appetite. Other side effects include altered visual and auditory senses, changes in mood, impaired body movement, difficulty with thinking and memory impairment, among many others. Once I noticed the side effects, I decided to shift my focus to CBD, which had a more mellow feeling than THC. There are no psychoactive properties, so it was more of a relaxing sensation that overcame me. I was still able to concentrate and not feel out of focus the way THC did. I enjoyed it a lot, then I started smoking THC again, thinking I wouldn’t slip back into old ways and I could control it. Needless to say, I am back to where I was, lacking motivation to do almost everything. I stopped working out, stopped meditating and became dependent on THC once again.
Edibles are harder to dose which can lead to hospitalizations. Edibles may have less addictive potential because in general, the quicker a person feels a drug’s effects, the greater the chance the user will become dependent.
Roughly one-fifth of people who use cannabis develop cannabis use disorder, according to a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The majority (42 percent) identified as solely medical users while 32 percent use both recreationally and medically and 25 percent identified as straight up potheads.
Professor Kevin Maccoll, an adjunct lecturer with York’s Department of Health and Human Performance, said that while edibles take longer to kick in, they are better health wise because of the lung damage caused by smoking and vaping. “My simple response would be that edibles are metabolized in the digestive system thus not impacting the respiratory system,” said Maccoll. “This, of course, would eliminate any respiratory distress caused by smoking and/or vaping. If you are looking for the rapidity of the effectiveness of the drug to the brain it would be smoking. Digesting the edible would take a longer time to work its way to the brain.”
