Is weed really worth the price?

You've had a few puffs and it's starting to kick in. The objects around you become distorted and morph into each other like a kaleidoscope.

The colours are bright and vibrant, you feel on top of the world. Then you see a big spider.

It's coming towards you. You're trying to get it off but it won't move. Suddenly the spider becomes a person.

Hey, it's your friend Matty. What's he doing? "Bro, you were trippin' balls!"

You get angry. What's Ben doing next to your girlfriend? "I bet they're seeing each other behind my back," says a voice in your head. "Yeah, he's always looked at her weird, bastard!"

There goes another friend. I thought this stuff was meant to make you cool?

Whether you're "rolling a joint" or "on the bong", the effects are the same. Contrary to the wide belief that marijuana is "harmless", research suggests marijuana users have a nearly five-fold greater risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking the drug. This is related not only to the fact that marijuana increases the heart rate by up to 100 per cent, but also to the palpitations and arrhythmias it causes.

Many people don't realise how much impact "weed" can have on the body. Marijuana users often suffer from an altered sense of time, reduced short-term memory, concentration and co-ordination. It also affects hormone levels, which can lead to problems with reproduction, and is linked to testicular cancer.

Long-term marijuana use can lead to psychological addiction, which in turn can have a big impact on work, relationships and mental stability. Someone who smokes five "joints" a day may be taking in the same quantity of cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes a day, studies show.

Long-term marijuana use has also been shown to cause paranoia, memory loss, anxiety, slowed reaction time and a loss of interest in otherwise enjoyable activities.

Heavy users of the drug are more likely to report symptoms of depression than non-users. They also have an increased risk of schizophrenia - a severe mental illness.

With all this information readily available, it is difficult to understand why anyone would want to risk their lives for a quick buzz.

Yet millions of people around the world have an unnatural obsession with the drug and are preoccupied about where and when to get it, or if they can even afford it. If it has so many bad effects, why do millions use the drug every day? Perhaps it is the euphoric high that they supposedly experience.

With celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Charlize Theron and Bob Marley publicly smoking marijuana, it's no wonder the young resort to drug use in order to look "cool".

We copy our role models - how they talk and how they look - in the vain hope that one day we will be rich and famous too. So it is no surprise that when celebrities are seen smoking marijuana, teenagers all around the world will take up the drug, hoping to one day be just like their idiotic idols.

Fifty years later you're still "on the bong" regularly. Only now it costs more and you require five times as much to satisfy your "needs".

Through a croaky voice and dry, wrinkled lips, you tell your children not to be as stupid as you. But it's not your fault, you tell yourself. You can't help it, they made you do it. Nothing's your fault. Anyway, you can't exactly stop now ... not after all these years.

A wheezy cough breaks the silence. You're used to it now, but this time feels different. Your face burns up and your chest tightens. You can't breathe, your heart is racing.

"Dad, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Your lungs strain to save you, but it's too late, marijuana has won. As you take your final breath you ask yourself, "Was it really worth it?"

Karri Shaw, Year 12, New Plymouth Girls' High School