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Marihuana prensada ('pressed marijuana') is a cannabis-derived product widespread among the lower classes of South America, [189] especially from the 90s. Locally it is known as "paraguayo" or "paragua", since its main producer is Paraguay. [190] Marijuana is dried and mixed with binding agents that make it toxic and highly harmful to health. [191]
Psychoactive drugs operate by temporarily affecting a person's neurochemistry, which in turn causes changes in a person's mood, cognition, perception and behavior. There are many ways in which psychoactive drugs can affect the brain. Each drug has a specific action on one or more neurotransmitter or neuroreceptor in the brain.
Cannabis also has a long history of being used for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug known by several slang terms, such as marijuana, pot or weed. Various cannabis strains have been bred, often selectively to produce high or low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a cannabinoid and the plant's principal psychoactive constituent .
As a psychoactive drug, cannabis continues to find extensive favor among recreational and medical users in the U.S. [14] [15] As of 2023, twenty-four states, three U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of cannabis. Thirty-eight states, four U.S. territories, and D.C. have legalized medical use of the drug.
Many of these plants are used intentionally as psychoactive drugs, for medicinal, religious, and/or recreational purposes. Some have been used ritually as entheogens for millennia. [1] [2] The plants are listed according to the specific psychoactive chemical substances they contain; many contain multiple known psychoactive compounds.
While psychoactive drugs are typically categorized as stimulants, depressants, or hallucinogens, cannabis exhibits a mix of all of these effects. Scientific studies have suggested that other cannabinoids like CBD may also play a significant role in its psychoactive effects. [48] [49] [50]
It may be easy to assume that cannabis use causes psychosis. But evidence suggests there are several other plausible connections, write David Nathan and Peter Grinspoon
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a cannabinoid found in cannabis. [9] It is the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis and one of at least 113 total cannabinoids identified on the plant.