10. අපිහිටීම, ඇති පරාණවේදන්ගේ ලැබේ?
Smokin'a jay
As Rory Smith walks down bustling Jayhawk Boulevard, he basks in the warm afternoon air. The slight breeze feels good against his skin. He is relaxed. Calm. Enjoying the beautiful day as he makes his way toward his next class. He is on cloud nine. His stomach grumbles quietly. The joint he just smoked did its job. He is high.
And he is not alone.
The same 20 percent of people in the surveyed Western Civilization class also claim to have been high on campus at least once.
Smith, Olathe junior, regularly gets high. He admits to smoking pot four or five days a week, sometimes on campus before class. Only 20 years old now, he's smoked weed for nearly six years. He only gets high during the daytime occasionally, preferring to save it until night, after he's ready to settle down.
Smith says getting weed is rarely a problem. "Everybody smokes," he says, and getting a bag of grass here is just as easy as any other place he's lived. If you know the right people, an hour or two is all it takes to put something together.
How often, and with how many people Smith smokes determines how often he buys. He prefers good KB over schwag. Schwag is less expensive than KB because it's easier to grow and not as potent. But veteran smokers like Smith want the good stuff. He says he hasn't bought a bag of schag since he was in high school.
Know the rules
Despite the relative ease of buying marijuana, it is still illegal to possess. Currently in Kansas a first time offense is classified as a misdemeanor and can earn you up to a $2,500 fine or a year in jail. A second possession offense is a low-level felony and can land you a pricier fine or almost two years in jail. Cultivating five or more plants will get you a full-fledged felony and up to 17 years in prison.
Often, people will get busted for a rmore serious crime, like a DUI, and then get nailed with a secondary marijuana offense, too. Sgt. Dan Ward, spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department, says in his experience, the majority of cases he sees are drug or alcohol related.
In 2004, there were 139 marijuana related cases in Douglas County. The harsh penalties are rarely fully enforced. The typical punishment in Douglas County for a single pot offense is a $117 docket fee and $100 diversion fee.
While officers are obligated to take action if they encounter even a small amount of marijuana while on the job, busting individual users for marijuana possession is not a primary goal of the LPD or the KBI. "The goal of the KBI is to limit growth and distribution," Deputy Smith says. It's not cost effective to
try and arrest individual users. The KBI also doesn't worry about small-level transactions and city-level distribution. That's left up to the city's law enforcement.
In Lawrence, lawmakers are debating the idea of making the possession of small amounts of marijuana a low priority for the LPD. Under the new proposal, getting busted for pot would be much like getting a speeding ticket. The offenders would be issued a citation, appear in municipal court (rather than district court) and perhaps fined, much like the streamlined process of receiving a traffic violation.
both tobacco and marijuana. Though scientific data is not available, a common estimate is that one joint poses the same health risks as four cigarettes.
James Grobe, assistant professor of psychology, teaches a class called Drugs and Behavior. He says there are unique risks associated with smoking marijuana. But he says there are also unique benefits, which make the little green plant quite the paradox. For instance, sufferers of bronchitis report that smoking pot loosens up their airways for a short while, allowing them to breathe easier. Ironically, the toxins released into the body from smoking the
curate. Some people show more signs of addiction to marijuana than others, Grobe says.
Smoking abroad
Other college towns across the country are adopting similar policies. Columbia, Mo., just enacted a law similar to the proposed Lawrence ordinance. The two largest pot-per-capita cities, Boulder, Colo., and Boston, also have liberal laws regarding possession of small quantities of grass.
While the laws regarding possession are slowly loosening, the world has a long way to go before pot can be officially legalized. Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is illegal in the Netherlands. They just happen to have a non-enforcement policy. De facto legalization, yes, but it's still technically against the law. If the Netherlands were to legalize, it would jeopardize international relations with countries that have a ban on marijuana, such as the United States.
Depending on where you stand on the issue, Lawrence may or may not have a marijuana "problem." But the health risks surrounding marijuana are a cause for concern. Any time you smoke a plant, you're going to inhale a certain amount of nasty carcinogens. Obviously, heavy smokers are at the greatest risk for developing health problems. Lung problems, pulmonary problems and bronchitis are just some of the hazards related to heavy smoking. These risks are prevalent in smoking
Dude, where's my lung?
plant are what cause bronchitis in the first place.
A study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation found that the THC in marijuana causes a moderate degree of driving impairment, but is far less of a danger than driving under the influence of many prescription medicines or alcohol. Drivers under the influence of marijuana retain insight of their driving performance, compared with drivers under the influence of alcohol, who do not. The study concluded that "THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small."
According to Grobe, some studies show that smoking marijuana actually increases productivity when performing monotonous tasks. This might explain why so many people who work at restaurants are stoned all the time.
Justin, a Lawrence resident, has smoked in the past, but generally avoids it now. He says getting high used to make him feel relaxed and a little goofy, but eventually he stopped having a good time when he smoked. The more he smoked, the less he liked the effects. It made him feel anxious, like he always needed to do something. It also caused the level of his conversations with people to decline. He says he would strike up interesting conversations that digressed into distracted rants and incomplete thoughts. "I got tired of acting stupid," he says.
Another bizarre property of marijuana is that in some cases, a person who is vulnerable to certain disorders may be pushed over the edge if they use marijuana. A person prone to anxiety may trigger an episode by smoking. Grobe says that people who are highly anxious about smoking weed probably shouldn't.
The effects of marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), are different for everybody. It chills some people out; energizes others; some report tension, paranoia or apathy. Grobe says because marijuana affects every person differently, overtly labeling it as addictive would not be ac-
Meanwhile, Bonacker says the first few times he smoked herb he also felt really anxious and panicky. Though now, he doesn't get those feelings.
Share the love
The social aspect surrounding marijuana use is perhaps one of its greatest benefits. Smith says he rarely smokes alone. He usually lights up with two to four people. The communal activity of sharing a pipe is very satisfying and it's a good way to chill out, he says. Bonnacker says he has a good mix of friends who do and don't smoke pot. He says whether or not he smokes depends on his mood. He says pot has a tendency to make him introspective and asocial.
People have been using psychoactive substances since the dawn of civilization. Grobe says problems from heavy drug use, whether it's binge drinking or marijuana use, are everywhere in the country. The real problem, he says, is not that people are doing it, but how to get help to people who need it. Heavy, prolonged marijuana use can cause cognitive impairment, but it's unclear whether it persists once someone quits. He says that punishing a person for using marijuana is not an effective behavioral control device. He says the best way to keep people from developing drug problems is a rich environment with lots of activities other than using drugs.
Bill, who spent almost a year in prison for growing marijuana, says herb has had a very positive effect on his life, despite his time in the pen.
Growing (up)
He says youth is a time to experiment and do drugs and go a little crazy, because when you're older you'll want to focus on other things.
"You get older. You have kids. You don't have time to be dicking around with it. You grow past the age where drug consumption makes any sense," he says.
Though he doesn't smoke anymore, Bill says he has no regrets about smoking pot.
Bill says Lawrence was a fantastic place to be in the early 70s; marijuana made his young life a lot more fun.
"This town rocked," he says, "and drugs were at the center of it."
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Jayplay 09.29.05