Picture from the Daily Mail
Most of my friends probably watched this documentary getting high, excuse the irony. I, for one, felt left out, as I have never smoked anything, let alone cannabis, so seeing Jon Snow getting involved, made me feel a little excluded to say the least, from one of the biggest growing industries and cultural trends, worldwide.
Businessman Sir Richard Branson, who was part of the live audience, very interestingly, remarked early on in the programme, "Its clear that drugs should be treated as a health problem and not a criminal problem." I very much agree with Branson here, as I recognise that a lot of people who suffer from mental health illnesses, take Cannabis for medicinal and escapism purposes. In this way, it is clear how this can affect one's health overall, and that not everyone who takes this drug is a criminal or engaged in criminal activity.
Dr Christian (from Embarrassing Bodies) went on to ask Branson about how many of his musicians from his record label had their creativity influenced by the use of Cannabis. " I doubt there is any musician I know who hasn't smoked hash and smoked a lot of it. Some people .. it helps, and some people it could've been shorter," he said, which resulted with the audience and myself at home erupting into laughter.
Throughout my life, I have crossed paths with many artists, be it a musician or painter, and they have described to me how their creativity is at its maximum when they smoke cannabis. Personally, I find this hard to believe, although I would like to. This claim itself, is magical.
Channel 4 attempted to investigate the link between musical taste, ambition and talent and smoking Cannabis. Volunteers across a wide range of professions took place, whereby they were not told if what they were smoking was hash,skunk or a placebo. In relation to the findings of the experiment on how much those who smoked Cannabis desired to listen to music, Professor Val Curran recalled, "When you're stoned, you want to listen to music much more. Your brain is more stimulated to music you enjoy."
A further test was conducted on this live show, this one being about memory and how and if Cannabis effects what one can remember. Each volunteer was played a 30-second news story clip with 21 key facts and was given the task to write down as much information as they could remember, immediately after. Those who smoked hash or skunk, found it particularly hard to jog their memory and remember information, whilst those on placebo, proved a little bit better in comparison.
One of the other tests that was conducted, was the 'White Noise' test, which involved playing segments of sound clips, with occasional human speech incorporated in it, to understand paranoia as a symptom of smoking Cannabis. For this particular test, the audience watching from home were told they could get involved to. A series of 6 clips were played, in which we had to listen carefully as to if we could hear human voices and particularly voice the verdict for the final clip. I personally did not hear any human voices in the final clip and so anxiously awaited Curran's analysis. She announced that there was in fact no human voices in the final clip, and I breathed a sigh of relief. To be constantly called paranoid by my friends (sorry for trusting my human intuition and knowing when people are talking about me ), this provided solace. A particularly disturbing statistic was revealed that 94% of those who smoked Cannabis heard human voice/s in random noise. I'd be lying if that didn't bring up any memories of an ex-partner who not only heard human voices, but seemed to hallucinate a lot too. However, where am I to stand with this, when I don't even smoke Cannabis or anything at all, yet I hallucinate too?!
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic effort by Channel 4, to led such an insightful scientific inquiry and study into the effects of smoking Cannabis on the human brain. Though I do not smoke Cannabis myself, I became educated on the different forms of Cannabis - namely hash and skunk, the latter being the most harmful. Maybe I can share some thoughts with my friends who smoke Cannabis already and help them reduce their intake, as this live show has proved how it can effect the developing brain most, which is prominent in the teenage age range up to 20's.
Most of my friends probably watched this documentary getting high, excuse the irony. I, for one, felt left out, as I have never smoked anything, let alone cannabis, so seeing Jon Snow getting involved, made me feel a little excluded to say the least, from one of the biggest growing industries and cultural trends, worldwide.
Businessman Sir Richard Branson, who was part of the live audience, very interestingly, remarked early on in the programme, "Its clear that drugs should be treated as a health problem and not a criminal problem." I very much agree with Branson here, as I recognise that a lot of people who suffer from mental health illnesses, take Cannabis for medicinal and escapism purposes. In this way, it is clear how this can affect one's health overall, and that not everyone who takes this drug is a criminal or engaged in criminal activity.
Dr Christian (from Embarrassing Bodies) went on to ask Branson about how many of his musicians from his record label had their creativity influenced by the use of Cannabis. " I doubt there is any musician I know who hasn't smoked hash and smoked a lot of it. Some people .. it helps, and some people it could've been shorter," he said, which resulted with the audience and myself at home erupting into laughter.
Throughout my life, I have crossed paths with many artists, be it a musician or painter, and they have described to me how their creativity is at its maximum when they smoke cannabis. Personally, I find this hard to believe, although I would like to. This claim itself, is magical.
Channel 4 attempted to investigate the link between musical taste, ambition and talent and smoking Cannabis. Volunteers across a wide range of professions took place, whereby they were not told if what they were smoking was hash,skunk or a placebo. In relation to the findings of the experiment on how much those who smoked Cannabis desired to listen to music, Professor Val Curran recalled, "When you're stoned, you want to listen to music much more. Your brain is more stimulated to music you enjoy."
A further test was conducted on this live show, this one being about memory and how and if Cannabis effects what one can remember. Each volunteer was played a 30-second news story clip with 21 key facts and was given the task to write down as much information as they could remember, immediately after. Those who smoked hash or skunk, found it particularly hard to jog their memory and remember information, whilst those on placebo, proved a little bit better in comparison.
One of the other tests that was conducted, was the 'White Noise' test, which involved playing segments of sound clips, with occasional human speech incorporated in it, to understand paranoia as a symptom of smoking Cannabis. For this particular test, the audience watching from home were told they could get involved to. A series of 6 clips were played, in which we had to listen carefully as to if we could hear human voices and particularly voice the verdict for the final clip. I personally did not hear any human voices in the final clip and so anxiously awaited Curran's analysis. She announced that there was in fact no human voices in the final clip, and I breathed a sigh of relief. To be constantly called paranoid by my friends (sorry for trusting my human intuition and knowing when people are talking about me ), this provided solace. A particularly disturbing statistic was revealed that 94% of those who smoked Cannabis heard human voice/s in random noise. I'd be lying if that didn't bring up any memories of an ex-partner who not only heard human voices, but seemed to hallucinate a lot too. However, where am I to stand with this, when I don't even smoke Cannabis or anything at all, yet I hallucinate too?!
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic effort by Channel 4, to led such an insightful scientific inquiry and study into the effects of smoking Cannabis on the human brain. Though I do not smoke Cannabis myself, I became educated on the different forms of Cannabis - namely hash and skunk, the latter being the most harmful. Maybe I can share some thoughts with my friends who smoke Cannabis already and help them reduce their intake, as this live show has proved how it can effect the developing brain most, which is prominent in the teenage age range up to 20's.