J Santhosh By

The return of the drug culture to college campuses is partly attributed to Internet search engine Google by psychiatric experts who specialise in addiction concerns.

One of the reasons why cannabis or ganja has already became a pervasive drug among the modern-day youth, especially college students, is that many websites convey wrong ideas about the drug. Most of these are US-based and often brand their flawed inferences as “scientific facts”.

“About a decade ago, people knew cannabis would lead to mental health problems. With the youth now using the power of the Internet to Google and figure things out for themselves, they are acquiring wrong information. A simple search on Google will lead you to a lot of sites with information about cannabis, which are not necessarily backed up scientifically. They claim cannabis is an innocuous drug, a herbal drug used by saints, sadhus, intelligent and creative people. These sites glorify cannabis use,” says Dr M Suresh Kumar, director of Psymed Hospital, who has specialised in de-addiction for nearly three decades.

Most of these sites are run by cannabis-dependent people, while others are promoted by lobby groups fighting for legalisation of cannabis use in the US. For example, a website called Chicago Medical Marijuana, ofers a link to medical research, which says a component in marijuana is an anti-cancer agent. The site goes on to suggest that consuming cannabis would lead to a cancer-free world.

Experts agree on one crucial difference between cannabis and other addictive substances like alcohol — cannabis does not lead to chemical dependence like most other addictive drugs. This means the body won’t crave for the drug on a regular basis, unlike alcohol, and it does not degrade the health of vital organs of the body.

But cannabis is a definitely a psych0-altering substance, which means it directly affects the functioning of the brain and makes a person psychologically dependent on the drug.

“It means that the body won’t ask for the substance despite a person becoming a regular user. But the psycho-obsession for cannabis is much higher as compared to other drugs. It directly affects the brain,” says Dr S Arivudainambi, executive trustee of Wisdom Hospital. Cannabis affects the mind to the extent that that in some cases, it could trigger hallucination leading to extreme consequences.

There are high chances of it leading to neurological disorder and in extreme cases to impotency. But several websites glorify it. They merely harp on ganja being non-injurious to the lungs, in order to promote the drug. Besides, there are several Facebook groups that have photos of young women smoking ganja to promote them. For example, a group has a photo of a young woman holding a placard reading, “I smoke weed and I am a good person.”

The way forward is to change peer norms among youth by presenting scientific facts in schools and colleges and building resilence, says Dr Suresh Kumar.