cannabis fun club

Dental student Nikolai smokes cannabis quite often – up to three times a week. When asked why he does this, he says that cannabis, like nothing else, relaxes him and brings him a slight euphoria. Does he know that it is harmful? He does.

 

"But people smoke cigarettes, even though they know it's harmful." How many people in Ukraine think the same way as Nikolai is unknown. No one has counted the number of cannabis lovers, and it's not that easy to do. It is only known that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a young person in Ukraine today who has never smoked cannabis at least once in his life. About as difficult as finding someone who has never smoked a regular cigarette. The smell of smoldering "grass" can be smelled in entryways, student dormitories, and simply on the street. Neither a successful career nor young age excludes involvement in "stone smokers."

Recently, some really alarming facts have started leaking into the media. For example, almost 2 kg of "weed" was recently confiscated from a 16-year-old schoolboy from the Vinnytsia region.

A WAY TO FALL ASLEEP

Addiction to cannabis (the biological name for "weed") begins in different ways - mostly "out of boredom". This is how economist and analyst Natalia started smoking: "It's all banal: I got involved with a not very good crowd, there's nothing to do in the evenings in our residential area, the only entertainment is to smoke and eat, and eventually - smoke and go to bed." She smokes almost every other day and assures that this is the only way for her to "relax her brain". "And it really helps her fall asleep," Natalia adds.

The main reason for the popularity of hemp is its comparative cheapness, which is associated with favorable growing conditions in Ukraine. This is what Oleg Chernolutsky, a narcologist and psychologist at the Kyiv branch of the International Charitable Organization “Rehabilitation Center “Steps””, thinks. In addition, the spread of “plan smoking,” the expert says, can be blamed on stress and parents who do not pay attention to their children. But they regularly give them pocket money...

Another factor is the lowering of the threshold for forbidden behavior, the weakening of social taboos. As the editor-in-chief of the journal "Practical Psychology and Social Work" Alexander Gubenko assures, society is simply getting used to the fact that cannabis is smoked. "It all started with the "golden youth" who tried "weed" about 15 years ago. And the rest began to focus on them," says Gubenko.

DEGRADATION OF SOCIETY

In society, cannabis is considered a soft drug that is not addictive and does not pose any serious consequences. However, narcologists assure the opposite. From a medical point of view, there are no “soft” drugs at all. “Smoking cannabis leads to extensive mental disorders, such as hallucinations,” says Chernolutsky. But still, the main danger of cannabis, according to him, is that with regular smoking, the desired effect quickly disappears. “This pushes a person to switch to harder drugs,” he explains. By the way, student Nikolai admits that 75% of his acquaintances “have tried something harder.”

"The result of using any drug is always the same - asocialization and degradation. It's just that in the case of cannabis it's much more drawn out over time," says Chernolutsky. "And society as a whole risks degrading."

The scientific director of the ATOS center, Doctor of Medical Sciences Yuri Pakin, fully agrees with his colleague. According to him, the consequences of "pot smoking" are already becoming apparent. "Soon, those people who started using cannabis will not be able to work," he assures. "This threatens to reduce the country's labor potential. After all, a drug addict, even with a higher education, is of little use to anyone at work."

Of course, some people managed to break the bad habit quite easily at one time – there is nothing supernatural about it. Everything depends on the amount of cannabis consumed and, of course, on the strength of character. But is it worth testing your character with such a situation?

Danil Bilyk, "24"