There are a wide variety of different user experiences with marijuana, depending upon the potency of the drug taken. In general, smoking marijuana relaxes the user and elevates her mood. Users can shift between contemplation and hilarity depending on their surroundings. Marijuana is the Indian hemp plant, Cannabis sativa, or the crude drug composed of its leaves and flowers.
Marijuana varies in potency, depending on where and how it is grown, prepared for use, or stored.
Marijuana acts on specific cannabinoid receptors in the brain. Alterations in vision and judgment result in distortions of time and space. Acute intoxication may occasionally induce visual hallucinations, anxiety, depression, extreme variability of mood, paranoid reactions, and psychoses lasting from four to six hours. In the late 1980s researchers discovered a receptor for THC and THC-related chemicals in the brains of certain mammals, including humans. This finding indicated that the brain naturally produces a THC-like substance that may perform some of the same functions that THC does.