Is Synthetic Marijuana bad for you?
The whole premise for making our communities safer by discouraging the use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs, and prosecuting their use was a plot of ingenuity. John Ehrlichman, trusted confidant, and counsel under President Nixon, parlayed this sentiment to a tee (Sharp, 1994). The subsequent conception of propaganda campaigns attempted to discourage its use. Furthermore, the establishment of acts such as, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, along with the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act criminalized the distribution, and use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs (Rosenberger, 1996). The rise of propaganda campaigns, along with the establishment of anti-drug laws, gave rise …show more content…
However, before I start, I would say to anyone reading this, “Does JWH-018 ring any bells?” For all of you who answered yes, you know your stuff. For all of you who answered no, no worries. JWH-018 is actually the name for one of the chemicals found within synthetic marijuana (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). JWH are the initials for Dr. John W. Huffman, a researcher, who with the help from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, along with various other organizations, found a way to mimic the therapeutic effects of marijuana (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). Naturally, the question might arise, why not use marijuana in the first place? Even today, with states passing laws allowing for the medicinal, and even in some cases the recreational use of marijuana, marijuana is still a Schedule 1 substance. That is why Huffman’s research was of great significance. Even so, one of the compounds that he synthesized, JWH-133, was able to fight non-melanoma skin cancer in mice (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). This particular fact interested me the most while I was researching about synthetic marijuana. In fact, it baffled me. Any who, we need to ask ourselves how did all his research lead to the synthetic marijuana craze that we have today? Even Huffman said that a person with a somewhat basic understanding of chemistry would be able to synthesize his compound (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). Thus, the craze for synthetic marijuana began. The high potency of Huffman’s synthetic compounds, with some of his compounds containing ten to one-hundred times the potency of THC, combined with the stringent laws on marijuana, led Huffman to compare smoking synthetic marijuana to playing a game of “Russian roulette” (Garber-Paul, 2006). His poignancy particularly interested me, and led me to the conclusion that synthetic marijuana was never meant to be used in the same space as
The whole premise for making our communities safer by discouraging the use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs, and prosecuting their use was a plot of ingenuity. John Ehrlichman, trusted confidant, and counsel under President Nixon, parlayed this sentiment to a tee (Sharp, 1994). The subsequent conception of propaganda campaigns attempted to discourage its use. Furthermore, the establishment of acts such as, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, along with the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act criminalized the distribution, and use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs (Rosenberger, 1996). The rise of propaganda campaigns, along with the establishment of anti-drug laws, gave rise …show more content…
However, before I start, I would say to anyone reading this, “Does JWH-018 ring any bells?” For all of you who answered yes, you know your stuff. For all of you who answered no, no worries. JWH-018 is actually the name for one of the chemicals found within synthetic marijuana (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). JWH are the initials for Dr. John W. Huffman, a researcher, who with the help from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, along with various other organizations, found a way to mimic the therapeutic effects of marijuana (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). Naturally, the question might arise, why not use marijuana in the first place? Even today, with states passing laws allowing for the medicinal, and even in some cases the recreational use of marijuana, marijuana is still a Schedule 1 substance. That is why Huffman’s research was of great significance. Even so, one of the compounds that he synthesized, JWH-133, was able to fight non-melanoma skin cancer in mice (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). This particular fact interested me the most while I was researching about synthetic marijuana. In fact, it baffled me. Any who, we need to ask ourselves how did all his research lead to the synthetic marijuana craze that we have today? Even Huffman said that a person with a somewhat basic understanding of chemistry would be able to synthesize his compound (“The Surprising Origins,” 2013). Thus, the craze for synthetic marijuana began. The high potency of Huffman’s synthetic compounds, with some of his compounds containing ten to one-hundred times the potency of THC, combined with the stringent laws on marijuana, led Huffman to compare smoking synthetic marijuana to playing a game of “Russian roulette” (Garber-Paul, 2006). His poignancy particularly interested me, and led me to the conclusion that synthetic marijuana was never meant to be used in the same space as