HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY MARIJUANA IS HARMFUL TO BODY

Marijuana is made of the crumbled leaves, stems, seeds and flowering
tops of the hemp plant, according to the American Council for Drug
Education.

It contains more than 400 chemicals and when smoked produces more than
2,000 chemicals, all of them harmful, according to the ACDE.

The chemical that results in the "high" is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
or THC.

According to the ACDE, smoking one joint "can leave traces in the body
for three or four weeks. A habitual user is never free of the
chemicals and actually builds them up with continued use."

Local health leaders say marijuana isn't as innocent as some people
think.

Fond du Lac County Public Health Nurse Darlene Hanke and
psychotherapist/drug counselor Mary Arndt of St. Agnes Hospital
Behavioral Outpatient Services say people who care about their health
should think twice before smoking pot.

Here's what they have to say about how marijuana can affect a person's
body and life:

Lungs: Marijuana smoke contains more tar, carbon monoxide and known
cancer-causing agents than tobacco, according to the American Council for
Drug Education.

Brain: "It will affect the brain chemistry; it interferes with learning and
intellectual performance; it impairs thinking, reading comprehension, verbal
and arithmetic problem-solving and can result in short-term memory loss with
chronic use. It's associated with distortion of reality, perception,
thinking, mental confusion, lack of concentration, decreased attention span
and difficulty forming ideas and completing thoughts. It adversely affects
the ability to judge the passage of time, and interferes with depth
perception," said Arndt. "Those who use it heavily over long periods of time
have difficulty distinguishing between abstract and concrete thinking."

Liver: THC collects in the liver and other fatty organs.

Heart: It can dramatically increase the heartbeat and affect the blood
pressure, even lowering it to unhealthy levels, Arndt said.

Social: Some negative aspects of long-term use include antisocial behavior,
hostility, suspiciousness, impaired family relationships, and it can lead to
a loss of inhibition, poor work adjustment, Arndt said.

"Amotivational syndrome": "It's very, very typical to long-term users
and is characterized by apathy and severe lack of motivation, being
unconcerned about the future, unable or unwilling to make long-term
plans or tasks, introverted and isolated and unrealistic in their
thinking," Arndt said.

Hormones: "It can lower testosterone in males; there are some men who
develop breasts as a result. In women, it may cause abnormalities in
menstrual cycles," Arndt said.

Driving performance: "People have told me they don't believe it is as
dangerous as alcohol. However it does affect a person's driving
abilities," Arndt said. "The eyes of a marijuana user are slower to
recover from oncoming headlight glare than someone who is not under
the influence. The ability to follow a moving object with the eyes is
diminished for up to eight hours beyond the feeling of intoxication.
And it will also delay a driver's response to sights and sounds.
Consequently, a driver under the influence of marijuana is slower to
react to a dangerous situation," she said.

Arndt said she's had clients tell her they drive better after smoking
pot.

"They may think they are driving more carefully but they are not, so
they are incorrectly perceiving the situation," Arndt said. "But
someone with altered perception probably would make that judgment."