Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis
Close-up of flowering cannabis plant
Pronunciation
Source plant(s)Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, Cannabis ruderalis
Part(s) of plantFlower and fruit
Geographic originCentral or South Asia
Active ingredientsTetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, cannabinol, tetrahydrocannabivarin
Main producersAfghanistan, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
Legal status

Cannabis,[a] also known as marijuana[b] or weed among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.

Cannabis has various mental and physical effects, which include euphoria, altered states of mind and sense of time, difficulty concentrating, impaired short-term memory, impaired body movement (balance and fine psychomotor control), relaxation, and an increase in appetite. Onset of effects is felt within minutes when smoked, but may take up to 90 minutes when eaten (as orally consumed drugs must be metabolized). The effects last for two to six hours, depending on the amount used. At high doses, mental effects can include anxiety, delusions (including ideas of reference), hallucinations, panic, paranoia, and psychosis. There is a strong relation between cannabis use and the risk of psychosis, though the direction of causality is debated. Physical effects include increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, nausea, and behavioral problems in children whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy; short-term side effects may also include dry mouth and red eyes. Long-term adverse effects may include addiction, decreased mental ability in those who started regular use as adolescents,[3] chronic coughing, susceptibility to respiratory infections, and cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.

Cannabis is mostly used recreationally or as a medicinal drug, although it may also be used for spiritual purposes. In 2013, between 128 and 232 million people used cannabis (2.7% to 4.9% of the global population between the ages of 15 and 65). It is the most commonly used largely-illegal drug in the world, with the highest use among adults in Zambia, the United States, Canada, and Nigeria. Since the 1970s, the potency of illicit cannabis has increased, with THC levels rising and CBD levels dropping.

Cannabis plants have been grown since at least the 3rd millennium BCE and there is evidence of it being smoked for its psychoactive effects around 500 BCE in the Pamir Mountains, Central Asia.[4] Since the 14th century, cannabis has been subject to legal restrictions. The possession, use, and cultivation of cannabis has been illegal in most countries since the 20th century. In 2013, Uruguay became the first country to legalize recreational use of cannabis. Other countries to do so are Canada, Georgia, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. In the U.S., the recreational use of cannabis is legalized in 24 states, 3 territories, and the District of Columbia, though the drug remains federally illegal. In Australia, it is legalized only in the Australian Capital Territory.

  1. ^ "cannabis noun – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com". www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  2. ^ "marijuana noun – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com". www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  3. ^ Shrivastava, Amresh; Johnston, Megan; Tsuang, Ming (2011). "Cannabis use and cognitive dysfunction". Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 53 (3): 187–191. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.86796. ISSN 0019-5545. PMC 3221171. PMID 22135433.
  4. ^ Ren, Meng; Tang, Zihua; Wu, Xinhua; Spengler, Robert; Jiang, Hongen; Yang, Yimin; Boivin, Nicole (12 June 2019). "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs". Science Advances. 5 (6): eaaw1391. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.1391R. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6561734. PMID 31206023.


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