Pros And Cons Of Weed

Don’t you love the ‘high’ after smoking weed (‘cannabis’, ‘marijuana’, ‘pot’ or ‘ganja’)? But you should also be aware of the pros and cons of weed. Check them out below!

Pros:

• Boosts energy

Wondering an alternative for your morning cup of tea? Go for weed. Though some marijuana strains cause couch lock, its sativa strains are energizing instead! They help you through your monotonous everyday tasks.

• Prevents Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

A recent study found that cannabis can multiply nerve cells in your brain. Smoking weed daily can protect your brain and slow down your susceptibility to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases as you grow older.

• Helps lose weight

Marijuana can cut down waist fat and prevent diabetes. How? Regular weed smoking builds a better carbohydrate metabolism and lowers insulin resistance which helps you maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

• Frees from opioids

A 2016 study in Michigan found that medical cannabis helped in 64% reduction in opioid usage. Know how? Weed helps cure all the medical conditions treated by these opioids and doesn’t have any side-effects. So it’s a better option than these harmful drugs.

• Helps with PTSD and anxiety

A 2016 paper in Clinical Psychology Review journal said that weed may help with social anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But that’s the case with only a few puffs. Slight higher amounts of TCH may worsen anxiety.

• Relieves nausea and chronic pain

Marijuana helps relieve your chronic pain, eases nausea and vomiting, calms muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis and helps you cope with sleep apnea and fibromyalgia, as determined by the National Academies of Sciences.

• Helps with epilepsy

A study by New England Journal of Medicine found that a derivative of marijuana- ‘cannabidiol oil’ caused 39% decrease in seizures in children having Dravet Syndrome, a rare kind of epilepsy.

• Helps prevent cancer

Studies have revealed that cannabiodiol oil can restrain the growth of cancer cells outside human body but there have been no real-life trials to support this research.

Cons:

• Affects verbal memory, short-term memory and IQ

Research has found that the verbal memory of regular weed smokers weaken as they attain middle age. Cannabis also affects your short-term memory and IQ.

• Grows addictive

As you keep chasing that ‘high’, you grow more addictive towards weed. A crucial problem of its addiction is its increasing dose. It changes the way your brain matures. After all, no addiction is good!

• Increases cardiac risks

Regular marijuana use may lower your blood pressure. But, a study found that it may raise your risk of hypertension. However, being the first study about the long-term effects of weed on the heart, its results can’t be taken as Gospel!

• Affects sexual health

Heavy use of weed may reduce sperm count and testosterone levels in men, causing infertility. The high CO levels in the smoke can harm pregnant women, causing lower birth weight.

Did this article help you become aware of the benefits and side-effects of weed? Let me know in the comments section below!