In the streets of Barcelona it reeks of marijuana. As in New York or other cities in the United States, according to correspondent Francesc Peirón at the beginning of the month. We haven’t just given up tobacco – one in five Spaniards over the age of 15 still smoke daily – and we are getting hooked on the joint.
2.9% of the population aged 15 to 64 consumes cannabis (marijuana or hashish) every day (9% alcohol, for comparison), according to surveys by the Ministry of Health and the Observatory of Drugs and Addictions. And up to 15% of adolescents between 14 and 18 years old and the population between 15 and 35 years old have consumed it in the last month. Typically smoked and mixed with tobacco.
Among adolescents, the mistaken idea that it is healthier than tobacco is widespread. The Foundation against Drug Addiction (FAD Juventud) has launched a campaign this summer to dispel myths like this one about joints, which are a symbol of nothing more than getting hooked on an addictive substance. Those who have been treating addictions for years or studying the effects of cannabis on the body are categorical: it is addictive and harmful.
It causes cognitive alterations that affect reaction time and motor coordination; Like alcohol, it alters perception and has a disinhibiting effect, which can encourage risky sexual behavior. Cannabis is attributed to everything from emotional to cardiac disorders, it affects memory and promotes psychoses. The psychotropic it contains, THC, acts like brain neuromodulators and confuses brain maturation.
Peirón explained that the US Department of Health has asked to reduce federal restrictions on cannabis, that the anti-drug agency (DEA) lower its risk category. It could be the step towards federal legalization (it is already authorized to a greater or lesser extent in 40 states). It seems that the Biden Administration is throwing in the health towel, given the magnitude of drug trafficking. Perhaps you have calculated that it will cost you more to pay for addiction treatment or that the problem will not be more pressing than the almost 70,000 deaths in 2022 due to fentanyl overdose.
In Spain, illegal cannabis cultivation and trafficking have become industrialized, overwhelming police controls. Will we also end up throwing in the towel against addiction?
