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A Day at the Movies
2 Comments Hollywood is exciting, glamorous, dramatic, funny, and can make just about anything seem cool—including drug abuse, and especially the use of marijuana. But films don’t tell you the whole story. Did you know there are over 400 different chemicals in marijuana smoke? Did you know that marijuana smoke really does hurt your memory, judgment and perception? And yes—you can get addicted to marijuana!
In this video, NIDA scientist Dr. Joe Frascella explains why marijuana is not all its “glammed” up to be. Dr. Frascella runs the division of NIDA that deals with clinical neuroscience, human development, and behavioral treatment for drug abuse and addiction—so he knows a little more about the science of marijuana than your average film director. Watch the video and see how much of this you already know—and how good you think Hollywood is at telling the real story.
I’ve heard that marijuana can cause schizophrenia. Is this true?
Yes it can—IF you also have a specific vulnerability to the disease (like a genetic tendency). In that case, marijuana can increase the risk of schizophrenia, speed up its start, and make its symptoms worse. Also, high doses of marijuana can temporarily cause symptoms that look like schizophrenia (paranoia for example), but that usually fixes itself when the drug wears off.