Back in the
1970s I really believed that marijuana was
harmless. Even after I smoked my last joint (nearly 20
years later) I continued to believe it, and statistics appeared to
support my case. No deaths had ever been recorded from overdosing on
marijuana. In fact, one researcher estimated that it would take 800
joints to kill you, but your death would be a result of carbon
monoxide rather than cannabinoid poisoning. I also thought the
‘gateway drug’ theory, in which a soft drug like marijuana could
supposedly lead you to hard drug addiction, was propaganda based on
ignorance and intended to stop dope-smokers enjoying themselves. If
marijuana really could lead to hard drugs, as the theory proposed,
why had millions of marijuana users not all turned into heroin
addicts? It wasn’t until I studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
that I revised my opinions on marijuana being harmless. TCM employs
an entirely different approach to understanding the human body than
Western medicine. It makes no distinction between body, mind and
spirit so it has a vocabulary capable of explaining not only the
paradoxical aspects of marijuana, but also its potential as a
gateway drug to stimulants and heroin, and how it could have a
detrimental affect on ‘mental health’.
The perception
that marijuana is harmless probably arises because many people use
it regularly, experience no side effects, and don’t move on to
harder drugs. However, if you analyse its effects using TCM, even if
you perceive yourself as being unaffected, marijuana still disrupts
the delicate balance of the Human Energy Field and this is going to
have an effect on you one way or another, sooner or later. So, it is
not that marijuana has no side effects, but rather that the side effects are complex,
subtle and cumulative. They creep up on you over time. Depending on
what is termed your ‘constitution’, in Traditional Chinese medicine,
this process can be so slow that no cause and effect connection
between the drug and the symptoms is ever made.
My work is based
on a fusion of TCM and Energy medicine, and using this model I
believe that each drug has a different property and works via
particular organs. Marijuana has a magnifying property and it
operates primarily via the Liver. The Liver is responsible for a
smooth flow of Chi throughout the body (Maciocia 1989 p.227). So,
under the influence of marijuana,
you can get a heightened awareness of the Chi flowing. You may
experience this as a warm and pleasant sensation which spreads
throughout the body and can be particularly strong in the abdominal
area where the Liver is located. The feeling can sometimes be so
intense in this region that you burst into spontaneous laughter, as
you would if someone tickled you in that spot. Because the Chi is
flowing smoothly, you feel content, happy and relaxed.
As the Chi flows
throughout the body, it indirectly amplifies the function of the
other organs too. When Stomach and Spleen function is enhanced you
can get the munchies, or an insatiable urge to eat, particularly
sweet and creamy foods as they resonate with the Spleen. The
freeflowing Chi also amplifies the function of the Kidneys so sexual
activities and orgasms can seem much more intense too. The emergence
of what you think are brilliant ideas when you are stoned, or
feeling more creative, occurs because the magnifying property of
marijuana has also allowed an increased awareness of ‘birth, growth
and expansion’, which are considered in TCM to be qualities or
values associated with the Liver.
Of course not
everyone has these pleasant experiences from using marijuana and TCM
can explain this too. People who have feelings of paranoia,
paralysing self-consciousness or extreme timidity do so because they
have a different constitution. Traditional Chinese Medicine is based
on the concept of duality. The terms Yin and Yang describe this
duality and are applied to everything from the macroscopic to
microscopic. Marijuana is primarily a Yin drug so if you have a more
Yin or passive constitution, the magnifying property of the drug can
amplify these qualities and make you feel like you have come to a
halt both physically and psychologically. In this state, even the
smallest, simplest task seems impossibly huge and you are unable to
do anything but sit and stare blankly into space. This zombie-like
condition can be described as Liver Yin excess. It can be a
suffocating experience because in that state, due to Yin dominance,
you are unable to access the Liver Yang necessary for physical or
even psychological movement. This makes you feel helpless. Liver Yin
excess is like the feeling you get in those dreams where something
is chasing you but when you try to run you can’t. If marijuana has
this effect on you and you keep using it, it can lead to harder drug
use such as speed which instantly removes this passivity and
lethargy.
Regardless of
your constitution, because marijuana is primarily a Yin drug,
‘advance and act’ will eventually be replaced by ‘retreat and wait’
in both a short- and long-term context. In the short term, as the
marijuana begins to take effect, it can make the user feel
temporarily motivated and vigorous but after a period of time, even
Yang types end up sitting around doing nothing. They are not in a
Liver Yin excess state, as they are not experiencing emotional
torment, but it is no longer an exciting or active state either. It
is somewhere in between. It is waiting without anticipation. In the
long term, this lethargy and passivity previews the kind of state
that marijuana use can create on a more
permanent basis. Most people, for example, are familiar with the
stereotypical image of the ageing hippie or heavy dope smoker who can’t ever get their act
together and do anything. This is not a personality type as many
people think, it is often a behaviour arising from imbalances caused
by excessive marijuana use. Unfortunately, the majority of long-term marijuana users will eventually fall into this category. It is such a slow and
insidious process though, that they won’t see it happening. They
will just change slowly over time until they eventually forget how
active, engaging and energetic they once were.
People with a
predominantly Yang constitution and a disciplined and focused
lifestyle — which assists in the cultivation of Liver Yang — can
regularly use marijuana and remain active and creative for years, maybe even decades.
However, even for them, marijuana will slowly deplete Liver Yang and subsequently affect their ability
to act upon their ideas. Everyone has a mental picture of who they
are, of who they want to be and what they want to do in life. In TCM
this is directly connected with the Liver. If you repeatedly take a
substance that has a direct impact on the functioning of the Liver,
as marijuana does, it can create an imbalance between your visions
or ideas, and the impetus to act upon them. The idea becomes bigger
and the action becomes smaller so you become more occupied with
thinking and talking than doing. This is particularly frustrating
for creative or talented people as they still have their creativity
but have lost their ability to act. Once this happens, the
magnifying nature of the drug, rather than increasing awareness of
growth or expansion, increases awareness of being stagnant
physically and emotionally. In this state, evidence of achievement
in other people can make the drug-user acutely aware of their own
deficiencies and they can become emotionally reactive.
One of the
reasons smoking dope is so much fun is the joy, excitement and
laughter that it can generate. Constant use of marijuana, as well as
creating lethargy and frustration, will inevitably stress this
function. So a crucial thing to do when you stop using the drug is
to repair the mechanism. If you don’t find a way to get some joy and
excitement in your life it is easy to feel not as engaged with life
as other people, to feel ‘not right’ in yourself, or to have the
nagging sense of ‘missing something’. These feelings are the result
of all the imbalances that the marijuana has created in your organs
and Energy Field, but if you are not aware of this you will
instinctively seek to correct the situation through substances. We
all manage ourselves in this way: if we need perking up we might
have a coffee, to reduce stress we might have a few drinks, to
comfort ourselves we might eat something sweet. In the drug world
though, such solutions are often sought via other, more powerful
drugs.
