POT AFFECTS MOTIVATION, MEMORY

Once again we seem to be on the theme of legalizing marijuana. I was
a youth in the 1960s so I have some knowledge of the subject and I
even remember seeing the grainy images of beatniks in the 50s
lounging in coffee houses in Greenwich Village. They always looked a
little "far out," as the saying goes.

Those days seem rather far removed from the reality of our current
drug-saturated society. As a whole we have more experience and more
information about the use of drugs now, both legal and illegal.

At the same time, the drug product itself has matured. Marijuana and
hashish are laced with poisons that one would not even consider
keeping in the house let alone ingesting. As my daughter has told me,
"Mom, this is not the flower-power weed of old."

One thing we definitely know about marijuana is that it is
amotivational. Adding that little 'a' at the front of the word gives
it the opposite meaning. It is the total lack of motivation that
signals marijuana use to teachers and counsellors in the school
system and to the parent who is paying close attention to their
child's behaviour in the home.

You don't have to follow your child around every day to figure out
what is happening. All the signs are available to you in your own
home if you pay attention.

Poor memory is a by-product of smoking marijuana. In days gone by we
all laughed uproariously at the Cheech & Chong depictions of the
forgetful stoners and their laid-back antics. Now the laughter seems
rather pathetic.

Not that we didn't have this information many years ago. As far back
as the mid-1800s a man name Schroff experimented with the use of
hashish. His idea was to smoke the hash and then make notes. Can you
guess what went wrong? Exactly! He realized that when he was under
the influence he could not take notes so he planned to do it the next
day. On the following day he couldn't remember a thing.

There is enough evidence to establish that marijuana use takes away
motivation and seriously affects memory. We also know that every
youth who smokes marijuana does not become a drug addict, contrary to
the fear-mongering message of that classic documentary 'Reefer Madness.'

If we imagine for a minute the effect a motivation-reducing drug that
extinguishes memory has on a growing brain, I think we can come up
with a reasonable answer to the campaign to legalize marijuana.
Marijuana may not lead directly to addiction for some, but it is the
gateway drug for others. The 60s and 70s proved that beyond a doubt.
But even if addiction doesn't necessarily follow, what is the lasting
effect on the brain, on the executive functions that support
problem-solving and decision-making?

Legalizing marijuana is not a good thing, folks!