EFFECTS OF DRUG USE CAN BE DEADLY

From impaired vision and short-term memory loss to infertility and lung
cancer, the addiction to and effects of marijuana can be overwhelming.

And it becomes lethal when laced with more powerful narcotics, such as
cocaine and heroin, said Dale Hilton, a recovery care provider with the
Tuscarawas County Alcohol & Addiction Program.

"It depends on what you're lacing it with (because) you don't know what the
potency rate is," he said. "So you might be smoking some pot and it's laced
with PCP and you're not expecting to go off on this trip.

"Next thing you know you can't feel, you can't see and people go into shock."

Hilton said amphetamines, opium, formaldehyde and even embalming fluid also
are substances used by people to lace a marijuana joint. With embalming
fluid, a substance closely associated with phencyclidine (PCP), a person's
body can go numb.

He told a story about one of his clients who smoked a marijuana cigarette
soaked in embalming fluid. He said the client lost feeling in both legs
while driving a car.

The client pulled into his driveway and crashed the car into his house
because he couldn't feel his legs while applying the brakes.

"It's real bad," Hilton said. "(But) I haven't heard any of it (happening)
in our area."

But he said it's not very often he has clients who smoke marijuana
exclusively. Often his clients, who are generally court-ordered to seek
drug evaluation and treatment, also use other illicit drugs.

The primary reason people become addicted to marijuana can be found in a
chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (TCH), which mostly affects the brain
and can cause cancerous tumors.

"TCH levels are so much higher in marijuana today," said Pat Kelly, a
prevention recovery specialist with the county's alcohol and addiction program.

During the 1960s and '70s, she said the TCH level in marijuana was
typically between 3 and 5 percent. Now, it's climbed to between 10 and 20
percent.

Marijuana doesn't just attack brain cells, but it also can do severe damage
to a person's lungs. Hilton said one marijuana joint contains between seven
to 20 times as much tar as one cigarette does.

"... And if you smoke a cigarette you inhale and exhale," he said. "Well
with a joint you hold it, you want the smoke to get in, so it burns your
trachea tubes (and) gets into your lungs."

Not only is marijuana smoked but also it can be eaten in cookies, brownies
and other baked goods.

Lung cancer, bronchitis, asthma, brain damage, heart damage, lower sperm
counts, infertility and a coma are all examples of what prolonged marijuana
use can do to a person's body.

As for short-term affects, marijuana can impair vision and decision- making
skills, increase heart rate, change sex drive, lower blood pressure, slow
down reaction time, distort perception of reality and cause a person to
suffer short-term memory loss.

Hilton said most people don't realize that marijuana is classified as a
hallucinogen, like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which means a person's
time and reality can be distorted when it is used.

Although she didn't have the figures to prove it, Kelly said she sees many
more adults - between the ages of 18 and early 40s - using marijuana now
than teen-agers.

That doesn't mean teen-agers don't use it, but she said alcohol and
cigarettes have become more popular options for most teens nowadays.

Both counselors agreed marijuana is a huge problem in Tuscarawas County and
the primary reasons are it's cheap and readily available.