David Putnam

Why should we Legalize Marijuana?

When did we start ridiculing cigarette smokers for smoking tobacco,
then turn around and praise others for smoking Marijuana? We consider the
fact that pot simply is beneficial to our health despite the fact that smokers
of marijuana are recognized universally as unmotivated, low class
degenerates. Moreover, we
persuade the idea of
legalizing Marijuana, and the
use of it recreationally, and
choose to blindly understand
the negative effects that
follows with using or
overusing a drug such as
Marijuana. I understand the
research that suggest that
marijuana is medically
effective such as decreasing
pain, calming cerebral palsy effects, and helping with autistic episodes.
Medically legalizing Marijuana seems to have a valid argument, however,
does legalizing it for recreational use? Lets try to reconsider how Marijuana
has many addictive properties, is physically and mentally bad for your
health, and ultimately bad for our society.
Marijuana is extremely addictive for some people whether the use is
strictly medical or recreational. The difficult thing about pot addiction is
some people, even though theyre addicted, can do fine with it for many
years before they start to have difficulty. But, eventually the high starts
wearing off, people start smoking a lot more to try to get that high back,
and thats when they descend into difficulties. This is usually seen on
adolescents before the age of 18. According to Nora D. Volkrow, a MD who
recently wrote an article "Is Marijuana Addictive?" for the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Recent data suggests that 30 percent of Marijuana
users may have some degree of marijuana use disorder (which in many
cases turns into addiction). People who begin using marijuana before the age
of 18 are 4 to 7 times more likely to develop a marijuana use disorder than
adults. This would imply that addiction can start with the prescription of
medical marijuana, even though it is medically legal. If pot were to become
recreationally legal It would not take a genius to understand that addiction
can be bad for your health and would increase the number of users

developing a marijuana addiction. Therefore, this leads me to my next point,

marijuana is bad for your mental health.
Theres a profound reason that most users of marijuana come off as
slow or stupid. To put it differently, this substance is making them more
stupid, even when they are not using. The Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration states on their website about Marijuana is
that the short-term effects of marijuana include problems with memory and
learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem-solving, and
loss of coordination. Among youth, heavy cannabis use is associated with
cognitive problems and increased risk of mental illness. It is evident that
users have abnormal brain structure and poor memory and that chronic
marijuana abuse may lead to negative brain development. The younger the
person starts using marijuana, the worse the effects become. If we legalize
marijuana recreationally, the availability of this substance increases to
adolescence. Is this something you want your kids on? Medical legalization
would mean that we would be able to monitor the amount our kids receive
however, we still need to consider the negative outcomes we are exposing
them to.

Not only is marijuana shown to effect mental health, but another

argument suggests physical health effects as well. Although the indication
that marijuana affects youre cardiovascular and respiratory systems are yet
to be proven, it suggests that pot is more toxic than cigarette smoke. Regular
users are hit with lung problems as
much as 20 years earlier than smokers.
Even small amounts of marijuana
impact babies of women who smoke
while being pregnant, such as, birth
defects, mental abnormalities and
increase risk of leukemia. With all
these implications aside, there is
evident proof that more high school
seniors smoked marijuana than
cigarettes and we already covered how
mental health is associated with the
use of marijuana. In a 2010 study between 8th and 12th grade level students,
the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of Michigan states that
pot smoking has increased. Pot smoking went up for 2010 over the previous
year in all three grades surveyed: 8th, 10th, and 12th . And then theres this:
More high school seniors smoked marijuana (21.4 percent) during the last 30
days than smoke cigarettes (19.2 percent). Therefore, marijuana is shown to
increase across our younger generation, and may be argued that it is more
universally toxic than cigarettes. Even though physically marijuana may be
better than substances like meth or cocaine, youre deluding yourself if you
think pot is anything other than absolutely horrible for your health.
If you havent understood how I have stressed the importance of how
marijuana is considered worse for our younger generation, let me paint a
picture for this next point on how pot being legal is a horrible idea for our
society. Pot decimates many peoples lives. Entertainment such as movies
represents users of marijuana as harmless fun-loving people who spend most
their time laughing and having the munchies, but they dont show these
people when theyre flunking out of school, losing jobs, or upset because
they cant concentrate. Students who use marijuana show signs of lower
grades resulting in hard consideration for attending a higher education. An
article done the Foundation for a Drug-Free World's "Behind the Smoke
Screen states, A study of 129 college students found that, among those
who smoked the drug at least twenty-seven of the thirty days before being
surveyed, critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning were
seriously diminished. A study of postal workers found that employees who
tested positive for marijuana had 55% more accidents, 85% more injuries
and a 75% increase in being absent from work. In Australia, a study found

that cannabis intoxication was responsible for 4.3% of driver fatalities.

Students who use marijuana have lower grades and are less likely to get into
college than nonsmokers. They simply do not have the same abilities to
remember and organize information compared to those who do not use these
substances. Given this information, how can we consider legalization of the
recreation of marijuana use when the studies show such decline in
production through our younger generation? The generation that will
succeed after the previous one. There is certainly a financial and human cost
to keeping marijuana illegal and we can see it in our prisons. But, there
would be an even larger cost to making it legal.
To conclude, I find it sad that we lose so many Americans to cigarettes,
and alcohol, and we consider to endorse the potential fatalities of many more
by legalizing marijuana. Does this leave potential
consideration for harder substances such as cocaine,
Heroin, or Meth? Studies have proven that such substances
may have beneficial health improvements, but just like any
other drug, negative side effects occur when not properly
consumed or monitored. It is safe to say that marijuana can
be used as a gateway drug for other substances, but also
have negative health and social effects. Now is the time to thoroughly weigh
out all considerations of what legalizing marijuana means before it is
thoughtlessly legalized, because when things go predictably wrong, it will be
a lot harder to deal with the outcomes then it would be to prevent them.

References
Behind the Smoke Screen. n.d.
<http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/behind-the-smokescreen.html>.

Marijuana (Cannabis). 1 Septemember 2016. 21 October 2016.

<http://www.samhsa.gov/atod/marijuana>.
"Marijuana: Worse Than Tobacco." The Florida Times-Union (2010): 1.
Volkrow, Nora D. "Is Marijuana Addictive?" August 2016. National Institute on
Drug Abuse. 21 October 2016.
<https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/researchreports/marijuana/marijuana-addictive>.
Images
Gone to Pot. TheDaileyBeast.com. The Daily Beast Company LLC 2016.
November 1st, 2016.
Symbol of Forbidden Cannabis Leaf. Dreamstine.com. Dreamstine 20002016. November 1st, 2016.
Should Marijuana be legalized? Slideshare.net. LinkedIn Corporation 2016.
November 1st, 2016