New Jersey Drug Rehab Center Marijuana & Drug Abuse

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Many of Our Clients have Asked "is Marijuana Really that Bad?" Since 29 States Legalized it for Medicinal or Recreational Use Reports a NJ Drug Rehab Center

UNION, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / January 22, 2017 / When is the last time that you heard about someone who is high on marijuana assaulting someone unprovoked? Or totaling their car? Or overdosing? Or choosing to check into a drug rehab center? Chances are your answer is never.

Most people who smoke marijuana don't end up doing the bad things that people who abuse alcohol and other drugs do. Not to mention the fact that marijuana use in some form has been legalized in twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia.

California, Massachusetts, and Nevada recently joined seven other states and D.C. in adopting expansive laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use. The laws that passed allow adults age 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use. Other states have passed laws that allow for marijuana use for medical reasons. The scope of the legalization is varied, but there is a definitely a pattern of acceptance of marijuana use.

Doesn't the fact that over half of the states in the U.S. allow for marijuana use prove that marijuana must not be that bad for you? Well, in a word, no. Much like alcohol and tobacco products are legal but can be dangerous, marijuana use does come with significant risks.

Risks Associated with Marijuana Use

While smoking marijuana may not be as dangerous as some other drugs and it may be legal in your state, it does have some serious negative ramifications, the biggest of which is addiction.

Marijuana use can negatively affect your health and your life in the short-term and long into the future, and it's more than just the obvious – munchies and being apathetic. In fact, research shows that getting high affects your academic life and career. After a review of 48 different studies, the National Institute on Drug Abuse1 found that marijuana use is associated with reduced educational attainment (reduced chances of graduating). Another study found that workers who had a positive drug test for marijuana had 55% more accidents, 85% more injuries, and 75% more absences than other drug-free employees.

While the high from marijuana doesn't last all that long, the effects on memory can last days or weeks, even when you stop smoking. So the impairment you suffer while using can continue to have adverse effects on your life in the short-term.

Long-term effects are more serious. Cognitively, marijuana can affect your intellect – especially if you start using it when you're a teen. It affects brain development, thus the memory, learning, and thinking issues that may seem short-term, can last for a long period of time or even be permanent because it hampers the brain from building the necessary connections for those functions.

In other words, if you're brain isn't fully developed (and it isn't until you're in your mid-twenties) when you start using marijuana, and you continue to use, by the time you quit when you are an adult, it may be too late. According to a study3 performed in New Zealand, long-time marijuana users who began using in adolescence suffered a 6 to 8 point loss of IQ.