Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom,

Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common

gateway for people is drug.Our American society is facing a

tremendous drug problem. In order to eradicate the drug

problem, a public debate is going on to find some solutions

to this drug dilemma. It has been highly controversial issue

whether drugs such as marijuana should be legalized or not.

Some people advocate this issue and believe that

legalization is the only solution left for the nation while

other oppose because it will increase the numbers of drug

users and drug related crimes.Marijuana is a drug that is

legal in the United States.This drug is bad and cause some

side effect to your brain and body.Scientists have found

smoking marijuana can cause you to loses your memory.

Marijuana has many psychological and physical reaction.

These reaction usually last for three to five hours after a

person has smoked marijuana. The psychological reaction,

known as a high consists of change in the users feeling and

thoughts. Such change are cause mainly by THC. The effects

of a marijuana high vary from a person to person and from

one time to another in the same individual.

In most cases, the high consists of a dreamy, relaxed

state in which users seem more aware of their sense and feel

that time is moving slowly. Sometimes, however, marijuana

produces a feeling of panic and dread. The different

reactions result partly from the concentration of THC in the

marijuana.

Another factors, such as the setting in which marijuana

is used and the user expectations, personality, and mood ,

also affect a persons reaction to the drug. Long-term

effects of marijuana are not completely known, but studies

have shown that some people have used marijuana regularly

for several months or longer have developed serious long-

term problems(Lorimer).Among males, marijuana use can reduce

the production of sperm and of the male sex hormone

testosterone.Among females, it can cause menstrual

irregularity and reduced fertility. Extended use of

marijuana turn to crime to pay for their habits because

drugs stimulate them and therefore act violently. If drug is

sold legally, it will because easy for users to buy it

around the corner. Thus, it will increase the already

existing problem of crime. Mechoulam mentions that every

year drug lords make over twenty billion dollars from

cocaine and marijuana business, and legalizes believe that

legalization will wipe out their major sources of funds.

However, drug use is a matter of supply and demand. As

Bakalar as demand exists, someone is going to supply it,

either legally or illegally. Supporters of legalization

believe that if government regulates drugs such as cocaine

and marijuana by imposing taxes, then the black market will

be eliminated (Bakalar).

However, the higher the tax rate, the higher the price

of the drugs, and not many users gangs who sell marijuana

and cocaine under the market price. In addiction, children

and teenagers will be obviously banned from purchasing

marijuana and cocaine. Hence, legalization will encourage a

growing criminal black market. The main benefit of marijuana

legalization can be in medicine and will give patients with

severe and dangerous disease a new and effective medicine to

help them, Yes, marijuana can help in medicine. Marijuana

is one of the safest therapeutically active substances

known. One of marijuana s greatest advantages as a medicine

is its remarkable safety. It has little effect on major

physiological functions. Marijuana is also far less

addictive and far less subject to abuse than many drugs .

Marijuana as medicine has been studied for many years. In

some cultures, it is already used as medicine(Synder). There

are many good uses for marijuana to be used as medicine,

which will be discussed. The problem is that in order to be

used in the United States as medicine, marijuana must be

legalized.

Many doctors already recommend that their patients

break the medicine, marijuana must be legalized. Many doctor

already recommend that their patients break the law and get

marijuana. That is because there is very strong evidence

that marijuana works as a medicine. Marijuana is often

useful in the treatment of the following disease: Cancer:

Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of

appetite caused by the chemotherapy treatment. AIDS:

Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting and loss of

appetite caused by the disease itself. Glaucoma: Marijuana

by reducing interlobular pressure alleviates the pain and

slows the progress of the disease(Adams 347). This disease

damages vision by gradually increasing eye pressure. It is

the leading cause of blindness in United States. Multiple

Sclerosis: Marijuana reduces the chronic often debilitating

pain caused by a variety of injuries and disorders. In order

to be effective, marijuana must be taken daily. It seems to

be the most effective three hours after dosage, and last for

five hours. Some critics contend that after taken for a

period of time, the person may become tolerant to the drug

and reduce effectiveness. This is true for a lot of pain

relieving drugs. A person cannot rule out marijuana because

it has not been proven that a person will develop tolerance.

Marijuana could benefit as many as five million patients

in the United States . This situation to many people is

intolerable(Lorimer). Those patients who choose to stay

within the law suffer and die, both from disease and from

many prescription drugs that cause side effects. Nearly

all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects, but

marijuana is not such a substance.

Also,by lifting the ban on marijuana and treating it

like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation

would gain immediate and long- term benefits.In the book

Drug , Vidal states, Nevertheless many drugs are bad for

certain people to take and they should be told why in a

sensible way (Aikman).This change in the law would greatly

improve the quality of life for many people. This successful

use of marijuana has given many patients a much more

positive outlook on their treatment.

Many agencies which are anti marijuana such as Drug

Enforcement Agency and police departments argue that

marijuana shouldn t be legalized(Mechoulam). These agencies

believe that marijuana shouldn t be legalized because if

marijuana is to become legal then thousands more patients

using marijuana. Then people will raise the question why

marijuana illegal at all if its a medicine.On the other

hand, There is now an enormous amount of public support of

medical marijuana. A scientific survey of oncologist found

that 54% of those control medical marijuana availability and

44% have already broken the law by obtaining marijuana

illegally. Thirty- four states letting patients with

certain conditions smoke dope (Adams 266). States such as

Texas, California, Massachusetts, have recognized

marijuana s therapeutic potential and have passed

legislation supporting its value. These reforms could be

passed throughout the nation with the help of people like

you.

Making drugs legal will reduce the great amount of

money spent on enforcement every year. Drug dealers and

users are one step ahead on the enforcement process. If one

drug dealer lord is caught , another one will show up some

where else. We cannot win. In 1987, 10 million dollars

were spent alone just in enforcing drug laws. Drugs

accounted for about 40 percent of all felony inducements in

the New York City courts in 1989. This figure in quadruple

what it was in 1985. Forty percent of the people on fedral

prison are drug law violators (Lorimer). One can only image

what this figure would be like today. Too much money is

wasted on a cause that seems to be no end to, In 1989 a

Republican county executive if Mercer County N. J. estimated

that it would cost him as much as 1 billion dollars to build

the jail space needed to house all the hard-core drug users

in Trenton alone (Ailkman). All Of this money could be used

on better thinhs.Meanwhile, the only way for patients to

gain legal access to marijuana as medicine is from the

doctor. The patient must get a written note from the

government and participate in a special program setup for

them. We know that legalization is neither a reason nor

rational policy for this country. One of the things that

bother me most about legalization argument is the mixed

message it sends to our young people(Bakalar 214). The

legalization will advance a laissez- faire attitude about

drugs.

By during research on legalization on marijuana I come

to a conclusion that marijuana should be legalized in order

to help people suffering from terminal diseases such as

AIDS, Cancer and Glaucoma. Prohibition of marijuana over the

past decades hasn t deminshed the demand of the drug in the

United States(Mecoulam).The use of marijuana has acutely

went up due to the mass attention gain to marijuana by

rappers such as Cypress Hill who promote the use of

marijuana as a social drug. Marijuana is here to stay in our

society ands is only going through the stages that alcohol

had during the prohibition era. Also, I believe that we must

change public attitudes toward drugs and focus on prevention

and treatment, but we must also maintain the laws that make

drugs illegal(Snyder). Some of the drug such as marijuana

and cocaine should be legalized for medical purpose. Polls

and voter referenda have repeatedly indicated that the vast

majority of Americans think marijuana should be medically

available. A final important prevention strategy is to

enforce the laws against illegal drugs in order to control

their availability. There are many uses for marijuana, and

many are unexplored. Actually some are explored in depth

because of interest and other is left behind. There are

problem many other uses that have not been found because of

the lack of experimentation on the drug as a hole. If

marijuana is legalized there will be much more research done

on the drug, and hopefully the drug will begin to be

approved for use.

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