A mood-altering drug is a drug that affects your mind and changes your mood. Some make you happier, while others make you sad. Some make you feel afraid, while others make you more daring. Some calm you; others make you excited. The same drug might make you feel different at different times.

Alcohol is a mood-altering drug, and so are tobacco and caffeine. Most of the drugs that people can become dependent on are mood-altering drugs.

Marijuana and hashish are usually smoked in cigarettes (called joints or reefers), in cigars ("blunts"), in pipes, or in water pipes ("bongs"). Hash oil is added to marijuana or tobacco cigarettes.  Cannabis can also be cooked in foods, for example brownies.

The cannabis "high" comes from the chemical THC (delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol). In recent years, new growing methods have produced stronger marijuana. Hashish usually is stronger than marijuana, and hash oil is even stronger.

Using cannabis will probably make you feel more relaxed, free and open. Colours will seem brighter, sounds and smells more distinct. Some users feel happy and start talking a lot; others get quiet and withdrawn. Minutes can seem like hours, and ordinary things seem to have special meaning.

You might see things more sharply or hear them better while you’re high on cannabis. This can make you decide that there is something very special about some ordinary object.

If you smoke cannabis, you will probably feel the "high" quickly, and it will last two to four hours. If you eat it, the high happens later, and you feel it for a longer time.

Cannabis makes you clumsier and slow to react. Driving and operating machinery while stoned is not safe, especially if you combine cannabis with other drugs, including alcohol.

While high on cannabis, you lose some of your ability to learn. You can forget things, and have trouble concentrating—a serious problem for students.

Some users feel severe anxiety and high doses can cause panic attacks, fearful suspicious feelings (paranoia) and temporary psychosis. These effects usually disappear within hours.

In a panic attack, a person suddenly feels very frightened for no reason. Their heart races, and they have trouble breathing. They feel like something terrible is going to happen any moment. Thoughts go racing through their mind. They feel like they cannot think straight.

Paranoia is believing that you are in danger when you are not. If you are feeling paranoid, you might hear two people talking and think that they are talking about you. Paranoid people may feel very scared and uncomfortable. They may hurt someone else, because they think that person is trying to hurt them. People who use cannabis usually only have a very mild form of paranoia, and they are not likely to hurt anyone.

Psychosis is a word used for some mental illnesses. A person who is psychotic has trouble telling what is real from what is just a thought that is in their own head. Psychotic people might hear voices in their heads, or think they see or hear things that aren’t really there. Some people are more likely to have a psychosis than others are. For these people, using cannabis can make the psychosis happen. If you don’t have a tendency towards this kind of mental illness, cannabis will not cause psychosis.

After very high doses, you might hallucinate (link to hallucination blurb), but this is unusual.

Marijuana can be taken to decrease nausea caused by anti-cancer drugs and increase appetite in people with AIDS. In Canada, it is illegal to use marijuana for medical treatment.

Using cannabis heavily for a long time can have serious side effects.

Cannabis smoke contains cancer-producing chemicals. Smoking cannabis damages the lungs and can lead to chronic coughing and lung infections. People who smoke both marijuana and tobacco may develop lung, neck and head cancers at a younger age than those who smoke only tobacco.

Many people who use cannabis heavily for a long time have problems with short-term memory, concentration and abstract thinking. Most of these problems disappear after a few weeks without drugs, but some last for years.

Having a problem with short-term memory means that people forget things that happened recently. Having problems with concentration means that they have trouble keeping their minds on one thing at a time.

Abstract thinking is the kind of thinking that goes beyond what is right in front of you. When you see a ball, and say "This is a ball," it is not as abstract as "This ball is the smallest ball," which is not as abstract as saying, "All of the red balls are smaller than all of the white balls." You could say that abstract thinking is "bigger" thinking. Washing the dishes does not require as much abstract thinking as doing your math homework.

Some heavy cannabis users appear less active and ambitious than other people. We cannot say that cannabis causes this. However, frequent use can make people even less ambitious.

Ambitious people are people who set goals and try hard to reach them. Sometimes these goals are about who they want to be ("I want to be a very loyal friend"), sometimes they are about what they want to accomplish ("I want to be the prime minister of Canada"), and sometimes about what they want to have ("I want to own a big house by the time I’m 25").

Women who use cannabis during pregnancy are more likely to have babies that are born too early (these are called premature babies), or are born too small. Babies who are too small or are premature are more likely to have problems with their health. As the children grow up, they may act out more than other kids, or have more trouble learning.

People who use cannabis often may find that they need more and more to get the same effect. Heavy users can become dependent (link to blurb on dependence), or addicted to how it makes them feel. They can’t stop using cannabis even when it causes serious problems.

Dependent users who quit may feel mild withdrawal (link to withdrawal blurb) symptoms. They may find it hard to sleep, and may not want to eat. They may sweat or feel sick to their stomachs, and feel anxious and irritable (grouchy). These symptoms usually last less than a week, but craving can last longer.

It is against the law to have, sell or buy cannabis. You could go to jail.

For more information about cannabis, contact your nearest AADAC office.

Here there would be a list of the towns we have area offices in and their phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses.