The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse

Marihuana - A Signal of Misunderstanding.

Chapter II

marihuana use and its effects

Patterns of Use

The drug effect of marihuana can be realistically discussed only within the context of who the user is, how long he has used marihuana, how much and how frequently he uses it, and the, social setting of his use.

In general, for virtually any drug, the heavier the pattern of use, the greater the risk of either direct or indirect damage. For purposes of this discussion, the patterns of use developed in the first section of this chapter will be utilized. Because frequency of use is presently the, primary determinant of use patterns in this country, we employ similar designations:

(1) The experimenter who uses marihuana, at most a few times over a short term and then generally ceases to use it, or uses once a month or less;

(2) The intermittent user who uses marihuana, infrequently, that is more than once monthly but less than several times a week;

(3) The moderate user who uses it from several times a week to once daily, generally over a long term;

(4) The heavy user who uses it several times a day over a long term and;

(5) The very heavy user who is constantly intoxicated with high tetrahydrocannabinol content preparations, usually hashish, over a very long term.

Again, these classifications are not intended to be rigid but are designed to facilitate a discussion of the many usage patterns.