Marijuana Use

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the physiological effects that smoking marijuana has on the body. The paper relates that even though the dangers of marijuana use certainly do not rise to the level of crack cocaine or heroine, smoking pot certainly does present dangers. The paper describes some of the effects of smoking marijuana such as paranoia, infertility and other ailments such as heart disease, emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, and various types of cancer. According to the paper, the high one gets from smoking marijuana can impair judgment and cause other side effects such as paranoia in the short term and, in the long term, marijuana smoking can have much more complicated effects on the body.

From the Paper:

"When a person comes down off their high, they may think they are returning to normal. However, smoking marijuana has much more serious long-term effects on the body. Recently, Lani J. Burkman, PhD at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences did a study of marijuana-smoking college men. The study focused on the way marijuana effected the men's fertility. "The smokers weren't the only ones who got high. The drug affected their sperm, too. These stoned sperm party hard. And then? They burn out, researchers say" (DeNoon 2003). The marijuana made the sperm prematurely begin hyperactivation, a type of vigourous swimming that the sperm normally perform once they enter a woman's cervix. Each individual sperm can only perform hypoeractivation for a limited period of time. Because marijuana-effected sperm start this process too early, they wear themselves out long before they have a chance to reach the egg, thus lowering a man's fertility rate. Furthermore, the researchers found that men who smoked marijuana had significantly lower seman volume than normal. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• DeNoon, D. (2003, October 13) "Smoking Marijuana Lowers Fertility: Sperm Burn Out, Less Potent When Men - or Women - Smoke Marijuana." Web MD Medical News. http://www.webmd.com/content/article/75/89678.htm
• "Effects of Marijuana on the Body." http://www.innerbody.com/text/drug17.html
• "Facts and Myths." http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/
• "Marijuana Smoking Damages Sperm." (2003, October 13) BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3186686.stm

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