Drug Abuse

Question by Coltin: How serious is a juvenile drug paraphernalia charge?
Last night me and a friend were by some baseball fields getting ready to smoke pot. My friend started packing a bowl and hit it and handed it to me but a car started coming towards us and it turned out being the popo, so he came up and smelled the car and searched it and my friend handed the officer his two bowls and his 0.2 grams left that he had and I had a bowl with resign only inside so the cop arrested us both on drug paraphernalia charges and I was wondering what all my consequences could be since ill have to go to court soon and were both 16 and live in Illinois.

Best answer:

Answer by Brittany M
If its your first offense you might get a bargain, community service or probation

Answer by Lil Miss Sunshine
You’ve been doing pot and you worried about the serious charges? Yes, the charges are very serious, marijuana is illegal, but you should be more worried about your health! Marijuana contains even more of the same cancer causing carcinogens found in cigarette smoke.

Honestly, it’s probably worse than you think. Sure, you’ve heard that getting high can increase your appetite (and who needs more help polishing off a bag of chips?), but it can also have seriously scary effects on young brains. THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, may interfere with a process called pruning that happens in your teens and early twenties—a crucial time of development when experts say the brain is most vulnerable. If you’re smoking pot, the process can be disrupted, and your brain may not form in the optimal way, meaning you’re setting yourself up for decreased cognitive function and impaired memory.

Although you probably weren’t able to comprehend any if that, seeing as you’ve killed off all your brain cells.

Aside from possibly disrupting brain development, there’s a chance of bringing on mental illness, too. “People who have blood relatives that are prone to psychosis can have a more extreme reaction to cannabis than other people,” warns Dr. Holland. “It’s rare, but you don’t always know if you’re one of those at risk.” Even scarier? There’s also a possible link between teens who smoke pot and an increased likelihood of developing schizophrenia, says David Sack, M.D., CEO of Promises Treatment Centers, where Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have reportedly gone to rehab.

Pot overdoses may be essentially unheard of, but getting high does send people to the emergency room. “Marijuana can cause panic attacks and a racing heartbeat—sometimes people are afraid they’re having a heart attack,” explains Dr. Sack. One study from the University of Southern California found that 30 percent of sexual assault victims at rape treatment centers had marijuana in their systems.

But at least pot’s not addictive, right? Unfortunately, the age-old argument is totally untrue. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that about 9 percent of those who use marijuana get hooked, and the number shoots up to almost 17 percent if you start in your teens. “When I can’t find any weed, I get pretty anxious,” admits Beth. “I think I am addicted. Even though it’s led me down some destructive paths, I feel so attached to marijuana that I can’t see myself without it.”

Megan, a nineteen-year-old college student in California, discovered that she wasn’t immune, either. “I believe 100 percent that pot is mentally addictive,” she says. Megan got hooked after her mom passed away— but with the help of a friend hasn’t smoked in more than a year. “I finally realized that I wasn’t really living my life; all I was doing was finding an escape. I saw the emotional changes my friend suffered with pot—huge mood swings, and she was always angry when she wasn’t high—so we helped each other stop. We left the parties and other bad influences behind. I’m happy to say we’re still friends to this day, and we’re enjoying life more now than we did before.”

Although none if this s gonna matter to you, is it? You probably can’t even understand anything I’ve written. I actually feel kind if sad for you, you’ve screwed up your entire life! Whelp, I hope I helped! I really do, I can’t stand to see people willingly hurt themselves like this.

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