Professor debates positive, negative effects of marijuana use

Loud music and extreme body heat fills the small apartment as one young woman attempts to climb the crowded stairs. Trying to get away from the masses of sweaty, drunk peers, she finds quiet in a smoky bedroom. \nWhen the smoke parts, a guy looks at her and asks if she wants a hit. The shots of alcohol her friends are taking downstairs look tempting, but she wants the hit of weed instead.\nMany students are making the same decision as "Amy", a student who wished to remain anonymous. Across campus, students are choosing marijuana over alcohol, but how safe is it really? Professor Bruce Martin spends time pondering the same question.\n"The tar that accompanies smoking marijuana is probably one of the worst side effects," he said. \nMartin, who teaches M216: The Medical Science of Psychoactive Drugs, explained that besides a moderate risk of dependency, long-term effects of marijuana include problems with learning, clarity of thought and memory. He also said students might find it difficult to study. However, there is also a positive side to smoking marijuana.\nMartin clarified there is no solid evidence that marijuana is the gateway to other drug use. As far as substance abuse goes, he places blame on another major consumer good. \n"Overall, alcohol causes more problems than marijuana," he said.\nMartin said drinking alcohol sometimes leads to smoking cigarettes and believes nicotine is the worst drug plaguing the country today. Alcohol, drug and even cigarette use are topics he has discussed with his students and his own children, he said.\nWhen asked if he preferred his own children "drink to get drunk" or "smoke to get stoned," he decided that smoking weed would be the safer choice. Joe Near, the co-instructor of M216, agreed.\n"As parents, we don't want our kids to participate in either, but if I had to choose one, it would be smoking," he said. \nThe issue that concerned these professors included driving under the influence of alcohol or marijuana. They both concluded it is safer to drive when stoned, rather than drunk, which is supported by U.S. Department of Transportation statistics. \nThe department published a report that describes marijuana as producing little degree of impairment. A 1993 report stated, "(Marijuana's) magnitude is not exceptional in comparison with changes produced by many medicinal drugs and alcohol."\nThe document reported drivers who use marijuana rarely recklessly endanger themselves or others. This report could calm the nerves of regular smokers like Amy who fear that myths of marijuana might be true.\nAmy is a regular weed smoker that might smoke with less guilt because of the facts issued in the Transportation Department's notes. Amy, a sophomore, has been frequently smoking for the past two years, and she describes driving after smoking marijuana as an easily performed task. \n"I have more control when I smoke than when I drink," Amy said. \nAcademic tasks do not seem to be a problem for her either. Amy currently holds a 3.4 grade point average, and said smoking is not an obstacle. \n"Whenever I smoke, I just lose motivation ... I don't get stupid," she said. \nAmy said this purely recreational activity takes the place of watching TV or reading, and it doesn't seem to be affecting her memory that much. \n"I think that maybe I have better memory than some non-smokers," she said.\nThe long-term effects that Martin described haven't hit Amy just yet. A short-term effect, like the odor, is a bigger risk she said.\n"You can't always tell when someone has been smoking by looking at them but you can tell by the smell." \nFreshman Natalie Weyer feels differently about marijuana use. Not the usual case of being turned off to smoking because her parents were chain smokers, Weyer said she had no real smokers of anything in her immediate family. She said that maybe if she had been exposed to smoking, or even if she had smoked cigarettes, she would probably be more open to smoking marijuana. Her friends do not smoke either.\n"None of my friends do it ... so I have no urge to either," Weyer said.\nDrinking is more of the party scene that Weyer said she enjoyed. \n"I come from a German-based town, so drinking is in my blood," Weyer said.\nEven though she's aware of Martin's views, she said she would still prefer drinking over smoking. She said she was raised in an environment where smoking marijuana was not that important, and she never really pursued drug use. Although it seems like they are two completely different people, Weyer and Amy see eye-to-eye when it comes to drinkers looking down on "potheads."\n"In general, people who drink look down on smokers," Weyer said.\nAmy said some people look down on smokers because they believe the legality issues outweigh those of underage drinking. The punishment socially and legally is something that she and Martin agree on.\n"In the name of science, I believe that sentences should be reduced because marijuana use is ridiculously over-criminalized," Martin said. \nAmy said her peers do not understand marijuana might be a safer choice than alcohol, and she described an annoying feeling of having to keep her marijuana use "under wraps."\n"Marijuana is illegal but so is underage drinking ... what's the difference?" \nMartin had an opinion.\n"Drinking to get drunk is worse." \n-- Contact staff writer Mitchell \nWilliams at mitwilli@indiana.edu.