_________SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE TWENTY TWO: OCTOBER 1999 __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / Drugs: Cannabis the truth? \ / By -= Slasher =- \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi again this artical is an attempt to educate u all and the subject of drugs, there effects and what harm they will do to u, if any. This is going to be a fair representation of the drug culture as i am not biais to either banning drugs or taking them, at the end of the day its up to u but i like to know what the things i take r doing to me even household things like Anadin. I hope u find this useful and take it into concideration when u r about to take any of what i write about in this series of articals. I don't in anyway condone the use of illegal substances, this artical is for the prepose of information and entertainment only. I will first start with what cannabis is. Cannabis has various name some of these include joint, blow, hash, scunk, super scunk and bush. Cannabis is found in two forms it can be a brown block of resin or dried out leaves, i would say that resin is the more popular of the two. There are three main ways of taking cannabis:- 1) Rolling. This involves the use of tobacco. The cannabis is heated up with a lighter which makes it soft and easy to crumble. After heating it the cannabis is crumble evenly in the tabacco. Then it is smoked like a normal fag. 2) The Bong. There are many types of bong about but they all have the same aim which is to allow the cannabis to burn and produce smoke which is then directly inhaled in to the users lungs. Since nothing else is added then the effects are stronger and more intense. 3) Eating. This needs little explaination but it can be added to food or usually hot drinks like tea and coffee. This has the same effect as the other two except it take alot more to get u high or stone(term use to mean the user is under the infulence). The reason that alot more is needed to get u stone is because some of the THC is broken down by stomach acid. The chemical which gets u high is called Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC for short. The amount of THC in the cannabis will vary from block to block and also depends on the type of cannabis u have e.g. super scunk is stronger than scunk. The THC there is in the sample then the more effect it will have on u and the stronger it is. Cannabis is made from a plant called Hemp or `cannabis sativa' this plant is very use full in a range of areas but cannot be used as it is illegal. Hemp is used to make canvass which is a very tough cloth, also the pulp is used to make paper and fuel. The seeds are suitable of human and animal consumption, and also the oil from them makes a good base for paints and varnishes. There are a great many use in medicine for the blossom and leavse of the plant but these cannot be exploited because of the tight restrictions by the law. It is important to realise that everything a person takes will effect them differently than the effect the next user experences and this is the same with cannabis. The general effects of a good smoking session will make the person become talkative, will be laid back(feeling of well being), they could get intense hunger, can cause uncontrolable laughter and users can become very sleepy. These r some of the more well know effects. There are also effects such as increased heart rate which could cause the heart to stop, these effects have no evidence to support them and so i beleive that until further research has been done that these effects should be ignored, but let this be at your own peril. Most of the research into cannabis was done in the early stages of a project called Reefer Madness research with was performed on monkeys and was proven not to be a source for good information as the project was badly regulated and the results were discounted. There r a certain number of effect of cannabis which r untrue, like the supposide fact that cannabis kill brain cells well it doesn't unlike alcohol. Cannabis stimulates receptors in the brain as does alcohol but cannabis doesn't kill any brain cells but alcohol does. I is also a myth that people die from cannabis because there is evidence that cannabis is thousands of time safer than the most common household goods eg. alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene these kill far more people and they are all legal. Cannabis has never been linked to any death because it is virtually impossible for a person to overdose on it as they will become sick long before they r need the death limit. It has been said that cannabis will cause memory lose and this is true when the person is high but as soon as the THC is broken down the memory lose dissappears. There is also the issue that cannabis is a gateway drug and leads to the use of harder more addictive drugs. This is ture but only if the user has a weak mind, everyone should respect their body and should realise what the effects r of the substances they inhale, inject, ingest or smoke. This means that if u r a strong minded person then it will not be a gateway drug for u by this i mean that u didn't start to smoke cannabis just because your friends did, so again it totally depends on the persons, the fact that u r reading this artical tells me u have some repect for your body, so keep it up. In the case of drugs no one seems to be bothered about the facts there is just a big arguement for the use(drug users view) or against the use (antidrug societys), A good example of that antidrug part has arisen just recently in my area of Newcastle-under-lyme. A private school Called Newcastle School (Supprizingly) has found that a number of students in their fith form have been found in pocession of a small amount of cannabis and ofcourse the media(Sentinal- the local paper) r using this to there advantage saying how bad the drug is, not taking into account the facts of the drug. Anyway thats all for the moment speak to u all soon. If u would like to contact me mail me on slasher666@hotmail.com or icq me on 36156979. Bye for now.