Monday, January 10, 2011

Weed Is Not Dope

Weed/cannabis/marijuana effects your body with the chemical THC.  Harmless and fun.  But everywhere I go people always refer to it as 'Dope'.

"Let's go smoke some dope"
"Oh those damn college kids, all they do is smoke dope all day"
"Don't be a dope by smoking dope"
"Sick dope man"
etc.

This is inaccurate, misleading and potentially dangerous.

Inaccurate/misleading:
Dope is short for dopamine.  The chemical in the brain that makes you feel good.
It's also one of the main chemicals in meth, so whenever someone says 'dope' they should be referring to meth, not weed.

Edit:  It has been pointed out that weed DOES produce dopamine on the reward pathways.   Regardless it seems weird to refer to a drug as dope when that's not the main drug.  Besides that 'dope' just sounds dangerous.

Dangerous:
Say a high-school kid smokes weed with his friends (common) and everyone around him - his school, parents, friends, teachers - refer to weed as 'dope'.  Now pretend little Bobby gets offered to smoke some dope, but this time it's actually meth.  As far as Bobby is concerned it may just be weed processed different which is why it looks different.
Now Bobby develops a meth habit and dies.

Dope != Weed
Dope == Meth

Stop giving weed a bad name by giving it the same name as dangerous drugs.

Discuss and Follow.

13 comments:

  1. dont wanna put this post in check but THC blocks dopamine receptors in your brain which inturn releases dopamine through the reward pathway, this may be bro science but im pretty sure its right, dope is slang for drugs that cause the release of dopamine in your system just like speed = uppers

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  2. Just did some fact-checking and you're right. Going to need to edit the post slightly. Thanks :D

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  3. I smoke. I agree marijuana is not dangerous in itself and has many rewarding and positive uses. However the effects it has on the brain can prove detrimental damage to youths whose brains are still developing through habitual use. I think the general idea of its danger is that it can lead to other drugs while trying to acquire that same effect on the brain. In turn, a Gateway drug. Understanding this fact and avoiding habitual use will assist in maintaining responsible use of marijuana.

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  4. I agree, so long as you can easily control the amount of canabis you smoke and not let it dominate your life its a relatively safe thing to do

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  5. you made some pretty good points.

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  6. The reason why marijuana isn't legal in a lot of places is because the majority of the public is ignorant about the facts, and people in power want it to stay that way. They don't want marijuana legal, so the best way to keep it that way is too keep people controlled by keeping them misinformed. Check my article touching on this subject!

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  7. I am forced to agree with you.

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  8. Same with the misuse of 'Narcotic'. Everyone thinks it refers to all drugs when actual it refers to drugs used to induce sleep (think nacrolepsy). So the only drugs out there used recreationaly are GHB and Opiates.

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  9. "It's also one of the main chemicals in meth, so whenever someone says 'dope' they should be referring to meth, not weed."

    Well, uh... No. While methamphetamine causes the release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, it is not, "the main chemical in meth," or, "in meth," at all for that matter.

    It's unwise to say something is misleading and then mislead people further.

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