Marijuana, Cannabis, Weed, Grass, this drug that has many names that have existed since the time of ancient China as just as a plant until 1906, but the real question is should this drug be legalized for medical and recreational use? As stated by Carl Sagan, “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” Marijuana by some is seen as a way to relieve their pain from some sort of medical disease or just a way to relieve stress on a daily basis. But for others, this drug is seen as a menace to society that stops people from reaching their full potential and is addictive, harmful to your mental health and a gateway drug leading to drugs like cocaine and heroine. The main problems that must be solved with the this topic are marijuana smokers are usually imprisoned for a longer time than say a rapist, marijuana is so easily available but laws are so strict, and is marijuana a cheaper medication compared to other pharmaceutical drugs.
Firstly, according to (Source A ) on one side of this argument marijuana has a bed effect on your body in the short run these including, red eyes, dryness in the mouth, fatigue, psychosis, dizziness, slowed coordination and heightened heart rate after smoking the drug. Smoking weed has shown to affect the part of your brain that regulates fear it affects this part negatively and thus you may experience several panic attacks and may suffer from severe anxiety and fear after smoking marijuana. Marijuana can often cause depression and make you more low and sad about life causing you to want to get high, It’s not known yet whether people smoke because they are depressed or become sad after having marijuana. Although there are other ways of inhaling it, most people tend to smoke marijuana and this creates a lot of problems in your respiratory system, Cannabis in fact makes you cough more and increases the phlegm content in your respiratory system which is no good for your body. Lastly marijuana can also cause many more negative effects on your body like liver disease, diabetes, low blood pressure, believed to increase mental issues, short-term psychosis, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and suicidal thoughts.
More things marijuana does according to (Source B) on one side is Smoking cannabis is more harmful to your lungs than cigarettes, Just three cannabis ‘joints’ a day can cause the same amount of damage to lungs as an entire packet of 20 cigarettes, according to the British Lung Foundation. The foundation found that tar from cannabis joints contain 50 percent more cancer-causing toxins than cigarettes from tobacco alone. Marijuana affects users differently: Some smokers of marijuana find themselves unable to look for work due to lack of motivation; and some fail to carry out normal tasks, such as cleaning the house this means that they can’t support themselves or their families properly. Smoking can lead to impotence in males, which means those who smoke marijuana have an increased chance of becoming impotent and infertile. Smoking marijuana will also make your breath smell really bad, which will definitely affect your sex life. What’s more, there are even studies that link marijuana use with the occurrence of testicular cancer in young men.
This side has many things that are true, such as how marijuana does cause short term effects such as causing red eyes, dryness in the mouth, fatigue, psychosis, dizziness, and heightened heart rate. In some cases it is also lead to be the blame of getting addicted to more hardcore drugs like cocaine and being the “gateway drug” because of the fact that when marijuana smokers find new ways to find the illegal drug they meet people that do those type of drugs and get hooked on those. It also does impair your memory because when you’re high you’re brain is not the same as when it’s not , your body is relaxed and dopamine levels are being pleased. Also it may have a damaging effect to testosterone levels and male sperm quality because usually when any pregnant woman is smoking drugs while pregnant the aftermath is usually a child with some disability or something else tragic so that must affect male sperm as well. Lastly, some people do get addicted to this drug in some cases but not all because everyone else is built differently, like some may smoke marijuana just to feel better when they’re depressed and get hooked on it compared to someone just trying it for fun or to stop stress and never doing it again.
More things I understand are smoking marijuana does cause respiratory problems, from personally observing people that do smoke it, usually are slower and when they run it hurts their lungs when they start breathing more rapidly causing them to cough heavily. Under certain circumstances I might share these views with the other side if in fact one of my relatives did end up dying from the fact that they smoked this drug and there being medical evidence marijuana killed him or her and not some other cause of death. Also if scientists could find more heavy and proven evidence of certain things marijuana does to your body to harm you like causing diabetes, liver disease, and low blood pressure then I would consider it. If scientists also could prove how the drug makes you unmotivated and less likely to succeed compared to your non-marijuana smoking counterparts and makes you more depressed when you’re high then I would also consider or shares these views. A Lot of scientists say different things or bias information on both sides of this topic instead of accurate facts done with years of research, so it’s very hard to share these views or choose a side when most of them are bias and haven’t been proven just yet and are just a theory.
I believe Marijuana prohibition should be ended and it should be decriminalized, and legalized medically and recreationally in the United States. According to (Source D) a CNN report on 10 diseases where marijuana can help, In a human study of 10 HIV-positive marijuana smokers, scientists found people who smoked marijuana ate better, slept better and experienced a better mood. Another small study of 50 people found patients that smoked cannabis saw less neuropathic pain. Also according to the (source D) in a study of 58 patients using the derivatives of marijuana found they had less arthritis pain and slept better, another review of studies concluded marijuana may help fight pain-causing inflammation. Also animal studies have shown some marijuana extracts may kill certain cancer cells, Other cell studies show it may stop cancer growth, and with mice, THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, improved the impact of radiation on cancer cells. Marijuana can also prevent the nausea that often accompanies chemotherapy treatment used to treat cancer which is really bad because it affects your appetite.
According to (Source E) not one single account of death from overdose has been recorded, On the other hand, in 2010, 38,329 people died from drug overdoses, Sixty percent of those were related to prescription drugs. In that same year, 25,692 people died from alcohol-related causes. Marijuana already has been proven to be less toxic and harmful to your body than alcohol by far and less addictive but is already legal before this plant. The legalization of alcohol after the prohibition era killed off mainly all the illegal alcohol suppliers and black market spots that sold it, this most likely would happen if marijuana was made legal because people would see no reason to buy it from the black market anymore and commit the crime. Another thing (Source E) says is that legalizing marijuana would save the government about 13 billion dollars on enforcement and would severely reduce the prison population by not filling the jails with nonviolent drug offenders.
According to (Source F) Arrests for marijuana possession affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities, African-Americans are 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users. However, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests, Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City. (Source F) Legalized marijuana would also reduce the flow of money from the American economy to international criminal gangs, Marijuana’s illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development. According to another point Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs, law enforcement has more important responsibilities than arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.
According to (Source A) Keeps you in shape you might have noticed that many pot smokers are thinner than the average person and even have a higher metabolism, This is because pot reacts well to sugar and thus you don’t put on any weight when you smoke it. Also one point being restated by another (Source F) says Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol, It is scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco. Also a regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market. The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another.
I hope my views can somewhat change yours in a way or look at legal marijuana in a better light than right now because even if you personally don’t like the drug why should people have to serve 13 years for a small bag of weed they got caught with. Also that the medical studies and information on cancer prove to my audience that weed actually is a medicine for people with diseases as bad as glucose and helps them cope with the pain.
I want the reader to benefit from my position so that the reader will eventually realize marijuana is not as bad as society claims it to be and can be used for good like a pain medication for people with cancer. Also Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy(Source F). I want my reader to also go out and do their own research and find out the true facts that marijuana is in fact not as harmful as some people claim. Lastly I want the reader to at least consider some of the good possibilities that could happen with legal marijuana and seeing it in their own point of view not from others experiences, help them find what I believe is the truth.