Your Brain on Marijuana
 |  |  |  |  |
What Happens to Your Brain on Marijuana?
You may have heard it called pot, weed, grass, ganja or skunk, but
marijuana by any other name is still a drug that affects the brain. There are
more than 400 chemicals in the average marijuana plant. When smoked
heat produces more of them.
Where does marijuana come from?
Marijuana is the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant (Cannabis
sativa). Like all plants, it’s sensitive to the environment where it grows.
Different weather and soil conditions can change the amounts of the
chemicals inside the plant. That means marijuana grown in a place like
Hawaii might be chemically stronger than the marijuana in Mexico or vice
versa.
Marijuana Invades the Brain
How do the chemicals in marijuana change the way a person sees, hears,
smells, tastes and feels things?
When someone uses marijuana, these chemicals travel through the
bloodstream and quickly attach to special places on the brain’s nerve
cells. These places are called receptors, because they receive
information from the other nerve cells and from chemicals. When a
receptor receives information, it causes changes in the nerve cell.
The chemical in marijuana that has a big impact on the brain is called
THC---tetrahydrocannabinol.
One region of the brain that contains a lot of THC receptors is the
hippocampus, which processes memory. When THC attaches to
receptors in the hippocampus, it weakens short-term memory.
The hippocampus also communicates with other brain regions that
process new information into long-term memory. (That’s how you
remember a new phone number or what you had for lunch.) In the brain,
under the influence of marijuana, new information may never register—
and be lost from memory.
Maybe you’ve heard that in some people, marijuana can cause
uncontrollable laughter one minute and paranoia the next. That’s because
THC also influences emotions, probably by acting on a region of the brain
called the limbic system.
marijuana by any other name is still a drug that affects the brain. There are
more than 400 chemicals in the average marijuana plant. When smoked
heat produces more of them.
Where does marijuana come from?
Marijuana is the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant (Cannabis
sativa). Like all plants, it’s sensitive to the environment where it grows.
Different weather and soil conditions can change the amounts of the
chemicals inside the plant. That means marijuana grown in a place like
Hawaii might be chemically stronger than the marijuana in Mexico or vice
versa.
Marijuana Invades the Brain
How do the chemicals in marijuana change the way a person sees, hears,
smells, tastes and feels things?
When someone uses marijuana, these chemicals travel through the
bloodstream and quickly attach to special places on the brain’s nerve
cells. These places are called receptors, because they receive
information from the other nerve cells and from chemicals. When a
receptor receives information, it causes changes in the nerve cell.
The chemical in marijuana that has a big impact on the brain is called
THC---tetrahydrocannabinol.
One region of the brain that contains a lot of THC receptors is the
hippocampus, which processes memory. When THC attaches to
receptors in the hippocampus, it weakens short-term memory.
The hippocampus also communicates with other brain regions that
process new information into long-term memory. (That’s how you
remember a new phone number or what you had for lunch.) In the brain,
under the influence of marijuana, new information may never register—
and be lost from memory.
Maybe you’ve heard that in some people, marijuana can cause
uncontrollable laughter one minute and paranoia the next. That’s because
THC also influences emotions, probably by acting on a region of the brain
called the limbic system.
