5 Tips For Reducing The Negative Effects Of Marijuana
With legal penalties for recreational use on the retreat in many areas, Marijuana is increasingly seen as a relatively harmless drug. It is all too easy to underestimate the significant negative impact that this drug can have. Marijuana use can lead to legal problems, dangerous accidents, and mental and physical health issues. If you use marijuana, you can do a great deal to minimize the amount of risk usage presents. The tips provided here for harm reduction can increase your safety, but bear in mind that they cannot eliminate the risk of using drugs like Marijuana.
Avoiding Legal Trouble
Depending on your location and circumstances, using marijuana can expose you to significant legal consequences that far outweigh the recreational benefits of the drug. If you are using marijuana to treat a health problem, make sure you take the proper steps to secure your marijuana through a legal source. Click here to read more about keeping your marijuana use fun.
If your interest in marijuana is purely recreational, you can limit your legal risk by buying it only in small quantities for personal use. Purchasing in bulk and sharing your marijuana with others are risky behaviors because you could be exposing yourself to prosecution under the laws applying to drug trafficking rather than the more lenient ones applying to personal use. Use marijuana with discretion, regardless of the social situation around you. Using marijuana in public is an easily-avoidable risk that could get you into serious trouble with the law.
Never Drive High
While most DUI laws concentrate primarily on alcohol, bear in mind that marijuana is just as capable of impairing your judgment and ability to drive safely. You will be in just as much trouble if you are caught driving stoned as you would be driving drunk. Police officers are well-trained and fully capable of detecting marijuana impairment. Even setting aside the legal risks you run if you drive high, you should bear in mind that driving in an impaired state increases the likelihood of an accident and tends to make any accident you get into more serious. Driving while stoned could have fatal consequences for you or for someone else on the road — a steep cost to pay for a minor convenience.
Safeguard Your Mental Function
Heavy and persistent marijuana use can have adverse effects on the way your brain works. It can slow your thoughts, impair your memory, and make it more difficult to acquire new knowledge and skills. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re immune to these effects! The best way to test your mental faculties is to commit to a period of abstention. You may be surprised or even shocked by how much more alert you feel if you stop smoking for a few weeks.
Don’t Lose Your Motivation
Long-term marijuana use can lead to an insidious lack of motivation. Habitual marijuana users tend to deny that they are addicted to the drug or that it is having any negative effect — and then in the longer term, they complain of achieving nothing after many years. Set significant goals for yourself in terms of education, career, or anything else you feel is significant. Review your progress toward these goals on an annual basis. If you look back over a year and can’t see any substantive progress toward your goal, try taking marijuana out of the equation next year.
Improve Your Lung Health
Tobacco products are the leading cause of lung cancer, but smoking marijuana increases your risk for this lethal disease, too. Consider shifting your marijuana intake toward edibles, as these do less damage to your lungs. Understand the differences that such a shift can bring; marijuana’s effects tend to be more potent and longer-lasting when you eat it. Additionally, make sure you keep marijuana edibles secure and out of the reach of children or others who might eat them accidentally.
