By TYLER PATRICK
Sitting in the back seat of a van, several people crowd together to smoke marijuana. This was the ‘cool’ thing to do in the 1970’s and still is today; however, it was not legal to do then, and still is not today.
From a National Survey on the Drug Use and Health of America in 2007, 14.4 million Americans over the age of 12 smoke marijuana, sparking major controversy over the legalization of the substance because so many people use it. However, legalizing marijuana is an uneducated move.
Legalizing marijuana seems like the perfect solution to improve America’s society because it will improve crime rates and provide money for the government. However, legalizing marijuana won’t improve anything.
It is estimated that crime rates would remain the same because marijuana can cause illegal acts to occur; however, they are never violent and appear as subtler.
Marijuana’s legalization seems like an easy solution, but it causes more problems than solutions. Legalizing marijuana would only give people the idea that smoking is acceptable when in reality, it’s damaging, and it leads to harder and far more destructive drugs.
A study by the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that people who smoked marijuana by the age of 17 had much higher odds of trying cocaine and heroin than someone who had not smoked marijuana by age 17. Sixty-two percent of adults who used marijuana in the past later moved on to do cocaine.
Another damaging effect of marijuana is that it is just as addicting as cocaine and heroin. A study by The New York Times stated that marijuana as an addiction has grown significantly in the last 10 years, increasing from 12 percent of marijuana users needing treatment from marijuana in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007. This is compared to 13 percent needing treatment from cocaine in 2007.
Not only is marijuana a stepping-stone to other drugs, but it is also medically damaging to one’s body. A study by Harvard on the medical damages of marijuana use shows that smoking marijuana kills brain cells and impairs judgment, thinking, memory and learning abilities of an individual. Studies show that six weeks after the use of marijuana, memory defects may occur.
The use of marijuana may provide one with serious medical dilemmas such as panic attacks, depression, hallucinations and uncontrollable aggressiveness. Marijuana use may also cause mental illnesses such as the manic-depressive bipolar disorder and schizophrenia because its substances trigger parts of the brain not normally touched.
Marijuana also contains chemicals harmful to the body and, when inhaled for long periods of time, exposes the lungs to excessive amounts of tar like a cigarette does; however, smoking marijuana exposes the body to four times more tar than that of a cigarette. Marijuana users expose themselves to the same everyday risks as smokers, such as bronchitis, wheezing and the general difficulty of breathing.
A study by Donald Tashkin, M.D. on the effects of marijuana on the lungs and their immune defenses show the use of marijuana can cause negative effects for patients with AIDS or other immune deficiencies because the system is weaker and unable to fight the disease. Medical research from Tashkin shows the use of marijuana can accelerate the process of HIV turning into AIDS. Lawmakers should continue to deny marijuana so that they can keep people away from such a damaging product.
Marijuana is a more damaging drug than suggested or thought and its use across America has become a growing epidemic. The importance of having efforts be spent on elimination rather than legalization is high as America needs to start eradicating every drug, starting with marijuana.