Effect of Marijuana on Driving

The use of marijuana is growing fast through out the U.S. Driving the vehicle under the influence of marijuana kills many people in accidents. Marijuana is a mixture of dried and shredded leaves, flowers and stems of cannabis sativa. Most of the people use this in form of cigarettes. These are available as cigarettes and pipes. In marijuana cigarettes, half of the portion of tobacco is replaced with the marijuana.

Driving the vehicle under the influence of marijuana leads to accidents. Driving under the influence of marijuana is an illegal offense.

How does marijuana impair driving performance?
There is a relationship between marijuana and driving performance. Driving the vehicle while taking marijuana leads to accidents. This is mainly due to the effect of marijuana on individuals body.

• Impairs judgment and motor coordination: Marijuana causes mental and physical impairment that makes an individual unable to drive safely. Marijuana effects the skills used in driving. Cerebellum and basal ganglia are the parts of the brain involved in the coordination and judgment of things. Marijuana reaches brain and binds to the receptors present on cerebellum and basal ganglia and impairs their functioning. Thereby it reduces the motor coordination.

• Slow down the response time in emergency situations: As marijuana enters into the brain it stimulates the brain cells and release dopamine. It makes the individual to feel euphoria. It makes an individual to relax there by response will slow down.

• Decreases the learning ability: Marijuana use impairs individual thinking ability and diverts focus from driving. Use of marijuana while driving prone to accidents. Marijuana reaches brain and makes the neurons in hippo campus to loss their sense there by ability to learn new things will be decreased.

• Reduces the ability to concentrate: Marijuana use while driving effects driving by reducing the ability to concentrate of driving as it cause euphoria in individuals. It stimulates brain cells and dopamine will release in more levels. This makes the individual to relax thereby concentration will be lost on driving.

Using marijuana while driving is illegal. If you get arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana, the punishment will be same as DUI case. So it is better to consult an attorney. Select an attorney who has experience in defensing this type of cases.

How do Club Drugs Effect Brain?

According to the researches done by University of Florida abusing of club drugs like GHB, Rohypnol, Ketamine, Ecstasy and Methamphetamine, show a similar kind of reactions on the brain, which leads to the death of brain cells and loss of memory. According to their studies, the organ that gets affected the most due to drug intake is the brain when compared to other organs. One of the club drugs named GHB, affects at least two sites of the brain namely the GABAB receptor and the GHB binding site. High doses of GHB, results in sleep, coma or even death.

A series of studies from the past five years have shown that every drug is affecting and damaging the brain cells in the same way which results in cell loss and protein fluctuations in brain. Rophynol, also affects the brain in the same way as the other drugs. The main effects of this drug are at the GABAA receptor. It also produces a kind of amnesia which makes the individual to forget the things which happened during the influence of those drugs.

These drugs damage certain protein cells in the brain, which lead to the fluctuation of protein levels in the brain. Once the proteins are damaged brain cells will be damaged. It may also result in inflammation in brain which can be deadly. Another drug named ketamine, acts as a dissociative anesthetic, which causes distortion in the perception of sight and sound. It also produces impaired attention, detachment from the environment and self. When taken in high doses ketamin causes hallucinations, amnesia, and delirium.

Repeated use of these club drugs may lead to addiction and physical dependance. They also show signs of tolerance and craving for drugs.

Club Drugs and their Long Term Effects

The drugs usually found in night clubs, parties, pubs, dance clubs are termed as club drugs. They are widely used by teenagers and young adults and are strongly affecting the present community.

The little excitement and anxiety which the drugs offer when abused made a lot of people get attracted to them. It may be fine when they started using them but what about the later stages? Is it really going to harm them? The answer is yes, of course. The people under drug influence may not encounter any problems when they are using them. They even don't know how they are getting affected because the drugs directly affect their brain giving them no chance to think. Let us have a look on some of the long term effects caused by these club drugs

• Serotonin, is a hormone released by neurons of the brain. It helps in regulating the memory functions of the brain. Some drugs like Ecstasy harms the neurons which affects on the production of Serotonin. This results in memory loss in prolonged abusing. They also damage the cells which help in judgment and coordination.
• Club drugs damage the nerve endings by blocking the neurotransmitters and the serotonin.
• Prolonged usage of these drugs affects the liver causing inflammations and also affects the metabolism of the body. These inflammations further lead to jaundice and hepatitis.
• Serious addiction may sometimes lead to violence and aggressive behavior among the teenagers. They don't even hesitate to do anything for the sake of drugs, which include criminal activities, robbing for money etc.,
• Apart from all these we can find so many behavioral changes in the addicted person which may harm different parts of the society.

A harm is a harm, whether it is for a short time or for a longer time. The thing is that why should we face harmful consequences for tiny pleasures. They are adversely affecting not only you, but also your family, your community and the whole society. It is better to get rid of such kind of attractions which seem interesting for a while but affects your life for a greater time.

Ideas to Quit Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is a result of excess consumption of drugs, which leads to chronic intoxication. It has many detrimental effects on individual as well as society. It is better to prevent drug addiction rather than taking treatment after an individual addicted to drugs. Here are some ideas to prevent the drug addiction:

Main reason for the people to abuse drugs is the stress that they experience in their life and the other reasons for drug abuse may be physical and mental stimulation, insufficient sleep, etc.

Here are some ideas to prevent the drug addiction:
Detoxification Center:
Checking into a detoxification center is the first step to quit drug addiction. It requires two weeks, during this time addict is monitored by doctors and nurses as the drug to which he is addicted leaves his system.

Rehabilitation center:
Rehabilitation center is the other way of quitting from drugs and the addicts need to spend time in individual and group counseling session. These activities helps in determining the reasons for addiction and helps to come up with alternative ways to handle the desire for the drug.

Narcotics Anonymous Meetings:
Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings work like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings and these are very helpful for the addicts who left the rehabilitation centers and are trying to cope with everyday life again. These meetings are run by recovering drug addicts and for each addict a sponsor is appointed to discuss his feelings for the drugs, the sponsor himself is an addict recovering from the addiction.

Family Support:
Though support from former addicts is helpful, it is also important for the friends and the family members of the addicted person to give their support for the addicts.

Apart from all the above ideas, an individual also needs to have incredible amount of will power to overcome drug addiction.