Biological Psychology Activity #1 Biological

Biological Psychology Activity #1 Biological psychology: Is marijuana a dangerous drug? In the year 1970, there was a huge problem for the U.S. government -- marijuana use was on the rise. In response to the increased popularity, Congress authorized $1 million for a national commission to study marijuana (Zimmer & Morgan 1997). The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, often simply called the Shafer Commission, was led by the former Governor of Pennsylvania -- Raymond Shafer (1997). There were 12 other members that consisted of four doctors, two lawyers, and four members of Congress (1997).

The Shafer Commission looked at the claims about marijuana's dangers dating all the way back to the 1920s, many of these same claims from the 1920s were believed in the 1970s (Zimmer & Morgan 1997). The commission, which had hired outside consultants to come in and review all the evidence, found some gaps in evidence and so Congress provided money so that new studies could be performed (1997). The commission held hearings all around the U.S.

where lawyers, doctors, researchers, teachers, students, and law enforcement authorities could go and offer their own insights and opinions about marijuana -- including its effects and the laws that were against it (1997). The Shafer Commission found no convincing evidence whatsoever that marijuana led to "crime, insanity, sexual promiscuity, an 'amotivationl' syndrome, or that marijuana was a stepping stone to other drugs" (Zimmer & Morgan 1997). There were animal studies that showed that there was no amount of marijuana that could be taken that would ever be fatal to humans (1997).

It was also found that even the largest dosage of marijuana did not damage any of the body's tissues or organs (1997). There was also the evidence from one study, one of the commission's own, that showed that even after men in a lab who had unlimited access to marijuana for 21 days showed absolutely no sings of psychological or intellectual impairment after a high-dosage (1997). There were also studies funded by the U.S.

government and carried out in Jamaica and Greece that found that no physical or mental problems occurred in men who had used marijuana heavily for several years (1997). While there is the general consensus that drug use, overall, of any substance, is not good for humans, there was also the notion that smoking marijuana was akin to the harmful effects of tobacco. There was also the notion that driving after using marijuana was akin to driving drunk and that it could cause car accidents.

There was also the idea that people who smoked marijuana heavily for years would become maladjusted in society (Zimmer & Morgan 1997). Yet, they reported after the studies that "marijuana related problems, which occur only in heavy, long-term users," had "been over-generalized and over-dramatized" (1997). The Shafer Commission concluded that "from what it now known about the effects of marijuana, its use…does not constitute a major threat to public health" (1997).

In the 1970s there was a race to find out whether or not marijuana created lazy and unproductive people as many so believed. An early report that was conducted by British physicians claimed that they had found irreversible brain damage in ten male marijuana users -- all of whom had been referred to them for medical treatment because of psychiatric illness, neurological symptoms, or drug abuse problems (Zimmer & Morgan 1997).

These researchers used a brain imaging technology and forced air into the patients' brains through the spinal column, then reporting that they saw "abnormalities consistent with cerebral atrophy -- actual brain tissue shrinkage" (1997). The researchers methods were criticized and it was concluded within just a few short years that the brain imaging technique that they use was medically "risky and unreliable" (1997).

Using more modern brain imaging technologies today, researchers have not found any evidence of brain damage in human marijuana users, even in those humans who smoke an average of nine marijuana cigarettes a day (1997). Today there is the notion that alcohol is safer for human consumption than marijuana (Fox & Armentano 2009). Most adults have experienced what it is like to get high either through marijuana or through alcohol consumption. It is a biological desire "on par with such survival instincts as thirst and hunger," states UCLA professor Ronald Siegel (2009).

So why has marijuana become evil while alcohol has been lauded throughout our culture? Despite all the cases of drunk-driving crashes and people who are killed in alcohol-related accidents whether in the car or violence at home, in the bar, etc., people still extol the virtues of alcohol while adamantly believing that marijuana is criminal. The statistics are hard to deny: Tobacoo kills 430,700 people each year; alcohol and alcohol-related diseases kills approximately 110,000; secondhand tobacco smoke kills about 50,000; cocaine kills about 500 alone, and.