Tar WarsMarijuana Edition

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What is Tar Wars?• A tobacco-free education

program for 4th- and 5th-grade students

• A way to learn interesting facts on staying healthy

• An interactive and fun curriculum

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Abby—Tennessee2014 Poster

What do you know about marijuana?• What parts of the body does

marijuana affect?– Marijuana affects your lungs AND

your brain

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How does marijuana affect your lungs?

• Marijuana smokers inhale both carbon monoxide and tar into their lungs just like cigarette smokers do

• What is carbon monoxide?– Carbon monoxide is a gas produced

by fires and found in car exhaust– Carbon monoxide detectors are the

alarms put around your homes to detect CO because it is so poisonous

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How does marijuana affect your lungs?

• Marijuana smokers inhale both carbon monoxide and tar into their lungs just like cigarette smokers do

• What is tar used for– Roads!

• How does it feel to breathe if you smoke?

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How does marijuana affect your brain?• After using marijuana:

– People may act differently than they normally do– People may have a harder time paying attention and remembering

things– People may feel nervous or anxious– It is like their brains are working in slow motion

• This makes it hard or even dangerous to do things you like to do• Some people become addicted to using marijuana

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How does marijuana affect your brain?• Marijuana affects your brain

– Some of these things go away after a while but others will not go away entirely in people that smoke marijuana regularly

– Marijuana is more likely to cause permanent damage to kids’ and teens’ brains because they are still growing

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How old will you be when your brain is finished growing?

• 22!• Who do you know that is 22?• How many more years until you

are 22?

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What makes you nervous?• Do you like the way that feels?• One of the most immediate

effects of marijuana on some people is to make them feel nervous or anxious

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

• Could you still do those things if your ability to think or move the way you’re used to was affected?

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Edible Marijuana• These look like candies, cookies, and brownies but they have marijuana

in them

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Edible Marijuana• They still have all of the bad effects on your brain • These can be dangerous

• Because marijuana is still illegal at a federal level no one is checking what is in them

• Multiple deaths in Colorado have been linked to edible marijuana products

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Edible Marijuana• If you want a treat have a regular one - without marijuana!

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Advertising for Marijuana

• What do you think of this?• Do you think it’s true?

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Other Names for Marijuana• Weed• Pot• Roach• Skunk• Ashes• How appetizing does that

sound?

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Advertising for Marijuana• What do you think of this?• Some of these names don’t

sound good

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Advertising for Marijuana• What do you think of this?• Is it better for you because it’s

natural?

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Should we put things in our bodies because they are “natural” or

“organic”?• What can you think of that is

natural but still bad for you?– Poisonous mushrooms, tobacco

• Think about what you see when you go for a walk or a hike – Would you eat those things?

• Do you think it’s true that marijuana is better for you because it is natural?

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Advertising for Marijuana• What do you think of this?• Does being organic make it

better for you?• What about the coupon?

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Is Marijuana Medicine?• Marijuana is used as medicine for patients that are very sick and in many

cases will die from their illness.• Like most medications, what is good for one person can be very

dangerous for someone else.• You should only take medicines that are prescribed for you by your

doctor.

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Is Marijuana Medicine?• Did you know that for many years we used alcohol as medication?

– We don’t do that anymore because we learned that alcohol has a lot of bad effects on your health.

• Many of the diseases that marijuana is advertised to help have not been proven to have a benefit from marijuana.

• Even today, people are trying to invent forms of marijuana that have less of the bad health effects and more of the helpful health effects

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