THE FORBIDDEN HERB - IS GANJA BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

JUST BEFORE setting out to sea, some Jamaican fishermen use ganja and
they experience remarkable improvement in their vision when they are
out on the high seas. It was this chance observation of the herb's
effect on vision, that led local scientist, Professor Manley West to
team up with his colleague Dr. Albert Lockhart, to create the
glaucoma treatment Canasol and more recently, Cantimol.

Many studies indicate that the use of ganja is deeply steeped in the
folk culture, sometimes taking on a mystical imagery. Like the
fishermen, a large proportion of people take ganja as tea or for
smoking and they credit it with many healing properties. It is not
surprising, therefore, that in its wide public consultation, leading
to the recommendation to decriminalise ganja for private, personal
use, the National Commission on Ganja had personal testimonies
ranging from 'miraculous-like cures to relief from simple colds' when
ganja was used. But the essential question is: 'Does ganja use
negatively impact human health ?' There appears to be no controversy
among medical experts on this issue; they say 'yes'. Ganja has
medicinal properties that can be exploited and developed but
recreational smoking can be bad for human health.

Ganja is no different from any other psychotropic drug in its
physiological effect, said Dr. Winston Dawes, president of the
Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ). Furthermore, all kinds of
smoking, he said, will negatively affect health.

"There is no clinical advantage from smoking it outside of some
terminally-ill patients who use it for nausea and also for medicinal
use like glaucoma. It is implicated in low birth weight in women who
smoke and there is also a psychological aspect, a condition known as
ganja psychosis, has been recognised in some people who are
susceptible to it," he said.

Nevertheless, the MAJ supports the decriminalisation of ganja use
accompanied by a massive educational drive on the risk and dangers of
smoking. "If an individual still insist on smoking in the privacy of
his home, then he shouldn't be arrested because people are allowed to
smoke other harmful stuff such as cigarette," Dr. Dawes said.

"When a substance such as ganja is smoked, the chemicals in it are
burnt and unstable metabolites (or breakdown materials) are created.
Some of these metabolites are toxic and can stay for long periods of
time in the body's tissues," said Dr. Winston Davidson, former
chairman of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA).

When the substance is burnt, the tar content, he said, is three or
four times that found in cigarettes.

Dr. Davidson, who also supports the decriminalisation of ganja, said
that not only smoking the herb will negatively impact health but also
drinking 'ganja tea'.

"In the brewed tea, you have a more concentrated form of the
psychoactive substance THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)," he said.

THC is the most abundant of the 60 cannabinoids found in ganja. It is
the THC that is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream when ganja is
smoked. The Commission said that it is now recognised that THC
interacts with a naturally occurring system in the body, known as the
cannabinoid system. THC affects the body by acting upon the
cannabinoid receptors: CB1 and CB2 receptors. CB1 receptors are found
on nerve cells, in the brain, spinal cord and in some peripheral
tissues. CB2 receptors are found mainly in the immune system and are
not present in the brain. THC is believed to affect the brain's
processing of information, memory, motivation and the experience of
emotion.

Dr. Davidson said that some people are predisposed, even after first
use, to develop acute ganja psychosis. This is a state of panic, a
distortion of time and space. Ganja use can precipitate existing
psychotic illnesses, he said.