Darren Hall recently treated a dear friend at his clinic and the central theme of the intake was the use of marijuana and its dangerous effects. After the visit Darren felt he needed to share his story and findings.
Darren Hall: Let me begin by stating that I am a reformed marijuana user. I started smoking ‘pot’ when I was around 16 years old and have been a light to heavy user until about a year ago when I began to gradually cut down and eventually stopped entirely. There were a few initial relapses but I haven’t so much as had a puff in the past eight months, aside from a recent medicinal application for pain relief because the oral medication was causing me great digestive discomfort. The reason I decided to stop is the belief that as a healthcare practitioner I should be free of all addictions and model the best of health and wellness that I can achieve. Ultimately, I believe the best medicine is the integrity of the practitioner itself, not the technique. Moreover, I began to study literature on the effect of marijuana as perceived by Chinese Medical theory, specifically an article by the esteemed Dr. Leon Hammer titled “The Liver in Chinese Medicine”. It is from Dr. Hammer’s piece that I shall draw much of my own medical evidence in my own article and I stand deeply grateful for his work and the many, many lives it has touched, both patients and practitioners.
What is dangerous about approaching the subject of marijuana from the outset is the casualness to which our culture treats the subject. Marijuana is one of the most predominant drugs used in our culture and, for the most part, is considered harmless and even beneficial as a stress reliever (as comforting escape), inspirer of creativity, and an amplifier of artistic pursuits. What makes this dangerous is that most are utterly ignorant about the detriments of marijuana use aside from the potential hazard for the lungs (one joint actually accounts for the same harm to the respiratory system as ten cigarettes, no meagre fact). Our culture actually embraces marijuana quite wholeheartedly and so it’s wise to open up discussions about marijuana’s harmfulness in a patient way, really taking the time to elaborate the facts as there’s the potential for quite intense defensiveness to arise in users and addicts of any substance for that matter. As Dr. Hammer states: “Engaging a patient in a caring, respectful and honest way is prerequisite to dealing with the awareness by the patient of the effect of the cold substance of choice as related to their problems [fatigue, lassitude, procrastination, inability to act]. This is a major challenge in a culture where marijuana use is considered the social norm.”
In terms of Chinese medical theory, marijuana is seen as a ‘cold substance’ along with other drugs such as LSD and heroin. Cold substances are unwholesome for the body because they cause contraction, paralyze functions and oppose the life-energy or ‘qi’ flowing through energetic pathways in the body known as ‘meridians’. This is because qi is warm in nature and needs to be constantly moving. The vital organ that marijuana does the greatest harm to is the Liver, known as the detoxifying organ and ruler of our evolutionary impulse or movement forward in life. Of the many functions of the Liver in Chinese Medicine, one of its primary ones is guiding the smooth flow of our life-energy or our life itself. Of the five elements in Chinese Medicine, the Liver correlates to Wood whose energy when healthy is to flexibly grow around or through any obstacle in our lives, much like branches grow around or slowly through any crack in a wall. Like qi, the internal organs and everything in the human body does best in a warm environment. Marijuana cools things down significantly and aggressively, causing many problems as we shall see.
When the Liver starts to dysfunction some of the symptoms that might arise are: easy fatigue, less stamina in performing daily tasks, lassitude, lethargy, procrastination with lesser ability to follow through and move forward on plans and decisions about which there is endless discussion and little or no action, irritability, frustration (symbolized by constant sighing ) and an inability to recover energy. As Dr. Hammer succinctly adds: “The consequence is ideas rarely become reality.” Now as a former stoner I can relate to this considerably. I was often appreciative of marijuana’s constant ability to spurn a mighty spectrum of colourful and fantastic ideas and would constantly find myself writing down an incessant and dazzling array of projects to fulfill in my life. Rarely did I accomplish even 5% of them and if I did, the direction would be aimless or wayward, and the project would be abandoned the moment I met the first hurdle, running back to sweet Mary Jane to comfort me and offer me the promise of several more visions to manifest to take my attention away from my failed former endeavours. This seemed to be a ceaseless cycle that deluded me from perhaps one of the hallmarks of developed adulthood: the ability to see things through despite the bumps along the way. Ultimately, I’ve learned that the better the idea, the more challenging is it to manifest and that’s actually something to delight in as adversity makes us stronger and the results all the more rewarding, something completely lost on me as I vanquished anxiety by perpetual stoned zone outs to trip hop tunes or epic fanoodlings on my guitar.
Another symptom that I noticed was a general anxiety in social situations and uncomfortability around people that manifested as endless mind chatter that often was quite paranoid (I literally had a hard time focusing on conversations because of this) and a general lack of ease of being. These were symptoms, I might add, that I felt when off of the drug and which I now attribute to marijuana’s depletion of my nervous system. This general state of nervousness was made more clear by the fact that when I cut back and eventually stopped using marijuana, most of these symptoms went away. I discovered an ease of being around others which has benefited my life enormously. It should be mentioned that I have spiritual practices such as daily meditation, a devotion to yoga and follow some quite lucid teachings that have also had their part in rectifying my nervous system to a place of alignment.
Another pathological symptom of the Liver which should be noted is irritability, irascibility and anger issues. If any of these moods are dominant in your life and you are a regular marijuana user you may want to consider things differently. Such mood issues can stagnate one’s ability to resolve conflicts effectively in their life, stagnating one’s ability to be a good networker, community builder or even employer, and partner and parent; all of vital importance. Ultimately, such moods can compromise our ability to be in harmonious relationship with others which can present a lot of adversity in our lives.
As I talked this subject over with my friend, they admitted that though they conceived themselves as a functional pothead they were much aware that there were more optimum levels of performance they could be functioning at in their lives. It was my counsel that if we’re aware of such levels we best be shooting for them for life is short and legion are the lives that in their twilight are drowning in regrets. Moreover, if one really thinks about how much more of a benefit they could be to those they’re serving in their vocation and simply as an influential being in other’s lives and in human culture, one should feel implicated to improve themselves. If we don’t, we run the risk of crashing into difficult crises in our lives later on.
“Even more important with regard to the Liver’s ability to contain and stagnate is the loss of the ability to tolerate the frustration that accompanies long term projects that do not seem to have a quick outcome. We are more and more a society that requires instant satisfaction rather than one based on distant satisfaction achieved through long-term effort. Witness the failure of up to seventy percent of children to graduate high school in many parts of this country. Their parents do not have the ability to tolerate frustration and cannot teach it to their children. In fact, today a large number of children are introduced to drugs by their parents. Again, I do not wish to minimize the other factors that contribute to this failure: poverty and discrimination, television and computer games for example as well as the consumer-credit card culture. However, the use of the cold substances has reached into every level of the educational system, into small towns as well as into the cities with children as young as nine years old smoking `pot’ as a daily habit.”
As Dr. Hammer outlines in his article, when he would get marijuana user patients to go off the drug even just temporarily to see what states of consciousness would unfold there was a frequent result of people immediately being able to accomplish many more projects in their lives and see them through to rewarding conclusions, throwing out the window the notion of some that it takes longer to kick the effects of the habit. I concur with my own experience: the moment I left pot by the wayside my projects begin to move forward from inspired potential to actualization. There was still the whole coming to grips with actualizing adversities but even in the face of blocks I found myself strongly latched to a deep driving force forward that would help me bear down and commit to completion. Now, with my inner-forces all but restored, I am amazed at what I can accomplish and at times look back on my stoner days with an anguish of regret, which I give not much credence to aside from amplifying my motivation to never go back. My mentor in Chinese Medicine, Lonny Jarrett, constantly warned us that marijuana promises creativity while it actually destroys it. I am none too aware of that now.
Coming face to face with a dependency on marijuana can be difficult, especially in a culture that doesn’t frown upon it. However, when we put our culture under the microscope, we quickly recognize it’s not very healthy in general. For the most part our culture leads people to lives of detrimental stress with its fixation on work, sensory overload, on questionable stimulants such as coffee and energy drinks, indulgence in poor food and excessive entertainment, materialism in general and profit etc. etc. When we really enlarge our perspective and take a look at culture in this light we realize we’re actually being conditioned to be stressed and in poor health. We need to live another way.
Marijuana, like many other substances treated lightly in our culture, offers a state of mind that seems somehow better than what we have naturally, opening us to dependency. The key question is: what’s wrong with our normal state? When we gravitate toward such substances daily, it reflects that we have a compulsive need to be somewhere other than our natural self, either to escape something or because we’re obsessed with pleasure. Either way, these are states that we can create naturally if we’d just apply ourselves so what’s the need? Why smoke a joint when a meditation practice can be even more stress relieving? Moreover, these substances harm the mind-body so why indulge? It’s really the hallmark of an evolved and developed human being to not have any addictions nor be dependent on something external from ourselves to function, aside from the necessities such as food, oxygen, love etc. Ultimately, it’s best to see for yourself. Take up the challenge to go without marijuana for a month and be attentive to what changes in your life. You’ll be amazed…
Check out Dr. Hammer’s original article “The Liver in Chinese Medicine”.
Darren Hall (D.Ac. BA Hons) is an Integrative Medicine Practitioner, primarily using Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Sound Therapy. He’s also an educator on topics of Health & Spirituality and conducts popular seminars and workshops. He is the creator of SHEN: Sound Healing Energy and performs events with Crystal Singing Bowls, Intuitive Singing & Mantra. He also plays in accompaniment with yoga classes at several studios. For more information about Darren and his services, go to his website at www.InnerTraditionsHealing.com.
Thanks Darren.
