MARIJUANA

The Most Commonly Used Illicit Drug.

What Is Marijuana?

Descriptions

The Drug Enforcement Administration defines marijuana as a mind-altering psychoactive drug and it is the most often used illegal drug in this country. Marijuana is a product of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana, also present in other forms of cannabis, is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), a psychoactive chemical. Of the roughly 400 chemicals found in the cannabis plant, THC affects the brain the most.

Analyte

THCA

Street Names / Slang Terms

Pot, Reefer, Weed, Bud, Grass, Dope, Mary Jane, Ganja, Hash, Blunts, Aunt Mary

How is it Used?

Increasingly, vaporizers are used to ingest cannabis oils and mask the odor.

Marijuana may be used to brew tea or include in edibles such as candies or brownies.

Hand-rolled cigarettes called joints or cigars (blunts) with marijuana rolled in are common.

Pipes, water pipes called bongs and --increasingly--vaping pens or devices are popular ingestion methods.

"Dabbing" is smoking resins extracted using butane from a marijuana plant and delivers extremely high amounts of THC to the user.

What Does It Look Like?

The marijuana plant Cannabis is an annual, flowering herb with palmated leaves that host serrated leaflets.

Dried. When harvested and prepared for sale, the product is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the plant.

Oils. In some cases, THC-rich “cannabis” oils are sold and may be ingested through various methods including vaping pens or devices.

Resins. Extracted from the plants, resins are gaining in popularity for their potency. They include:

Hash Oil or Honey Oil which is a gooey liquid
Wax or Budder which is a soft solid with texture like lip balm
Shatter which is a hard, amber colored solid

Why choose Psychemedics for Marijuana Testing?

Unrivaled Detection plus Unmatched Deterrence for starters.

A Psychemedics drug test using hair analysis is unsurpassed in the ability to detect drugs of abuse. In fact, our Unrivaled Detection rate is 2-3X that of other hair tests and 6-10X those of urine. And with a 90-day window of detection, the chances for a habitual user to evade a result are virtually eliminated. The most recognized brands on the Fortune 500 rely on our tests to build safer workplaces. Why?

Unrivaled Detection. Unmatched Deterrence. Unequaled Legal Record.

Our hair test is the foundation of drug testing programs for small-to-large businesses, elite private and faith-based schools and some of the largest police departments in the country. The Certainty of Detection we deliver brings them the Deterrence they need to minimize the risks and liabilities that come with drug use.

Our non-invasive testing procedure uses a sample of hair that is up to 60% less than that required by any hair testing lab which is easily collected and shipped to our College of American Pathologists (CAP) and ISO-IEC 17025:2005 certified laboratory. Turnaround on most results is the best in the industry.

Psychemedics has detected more drug users for more companies than any hair testing lab in the world and our results have been accepted by courts across the country. Contributing to our unmatched legal track record, it is the only hair test with safeguards validated by the FBI to protect those tested from false positive results by differentiating between ingestion versus external exposure to a drug. Our clients confidently make policy decisions knowing that we go the extra mile to ensure fairness to those tested.

Fast Facts About Marijuana

Potency On The Rise.

According to researchers today’s marijuana varieties are up to 5X more potent than those of the 1980’s, with higher concentrations of THC, the psychoactive chemical. The message to users is to be prepared for unexpected effects, with especially dangerous days ahead for those users who mix their pot with other drugs.

Still A Schedule I Drug

Despite moves in several states to legalize recreational use of marijuana, it is still a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs are substances or chemicals defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. These are forbidden in DOT-regulated positions and generally not acceptable in safety-sensitive roles.

A Cluttered Landscape.

According to various sources, today there are nearly 800 strains of cannabis named and recognized by the marijuana community. Hundreds more are expected over the next few years as professional growers hybridize varieties targeting specific “shapes” of the highs they offer to differentiate their offerings in an increasingly-crowded field.

More Information About Marijuana

Short Term Effects

When a person smokes marijuana, THC passes from the lungs into the bloodstream and is quickly routed to the brain and other organs. Effects are felt within minutes. The body absorbs THC more slowly when the person eats or drinks it with effects felt in thirty minutes to an hour.

Marijuana overactivates parts of the brain that contain the highest number of receptors specialized to interact with THC-like chemicals. This causes the “high” that people feel.

mood changes
altered sensory perception
increases in appetite or desire to food binge
altered sense of time
balance and body movement impairment
impaired memory
hallucinations or paranoia in some people at high doses
delusions in some people at high doses
psychosis in some people at high doses
dry mouth
dry membranes, especially the eyes

Long Term Effects

According to research cited by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Marijuana affects brain development. When usage begins with younger people, the drug may impair thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how the brain builds connections between the areas necessary for these functions. It may hamper brain development, or at the least hamper learning at certain stages of a maturing individual. Researchers are still studying how long marijuana’s effects last and whether some changes may be permanent.

Physiologically, there may be long term effects. Marijuana smoke contains some of the same cancer-causing compounds as tobacco, sometimes in higher concentrations. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day. High doses of marijuana can result in hallucinations. Marijuana smokers experience the same health problems as tobacco smokers such as bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma. Extended use is associated with anti-motivational syndrome, lung damage, and risk to reproductive systems.