Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

Marijuana is the most widely used drug in the world today. Is marijuana as dangerous as it is made out to be. A large variety of different people have many different opinions depending on their professions. Many doctors disagree with each other and the subject is one of their most controversial topics. Also marijuana as an illegal drug is more wide spread in the U.S. today than it ever has been before. Therefore it is becoming a large problem for law enforcement and many other governmental groups in the U.S. today.

Marijuana has been in our society for many years. It is not exactly known when the drug first came into perspective in this nation. During the 1960?s is when this drug became widely populated among the people in this country. ? If we assume conservatively that arrest figures represent ten percent of those who use the drugs, then the estimated number of California users in 1967 would be 320,000 persons ( The new social drug, p.93 )?. This trend has been on a roll ever since then. The type of people who use this drug is not among any certain group. Many different people experiment with this drug. Although young and middle aged adults are the ones primarily using the drug there are still some elderly people using Marijuana also, just not in as large numbers. These people range from college students to your average businessman or women. All of these people have different beliefs towards their drug us. Some only us marijuana at parties or on weekends, and others us it every day after work or before. The reason people use the drug is not wide spread. Some people use the drug to alter their state of mind and to change their form of thinking. Others use the drug to have a good time. The more negative reasons people us marijuana is so they can coupe with their problems in life, make their life easier. These reasons are closely related to the abuse of marijuana. A lot of the reasons are closely related, or are the same reasons people become alcoholics.

There are other reasons people use marijuana such a medicinal use. The drug can be used for many medical problems, some of which are very extravagant. Such as some people with cancer use marijuana to be able to tolerate their chemotherapy. ? Cancer patients on chemotherapy often suffer severe nausea. Marijuana can control it and make their therapy more tolerable ( www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1)?.

Marijuana is also used in AIDS patients. AIDS patients suffer from many things one of which is weight loss. ? Many people with HIV have massive weight loss or wasting that can be fatal. Marijuana can restore their ability to eat ( www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1 )?.

Another us of marijuana for medical purposes is for Multiple Sclerosis. Someone with Multiple Sclerosis is very incompetent and is in desperate need of anything that can help them in any way. ? Marijuana can improve muscle control for people with Multiple Sclerosis ( www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1 ) ?.

Marijuana is also used in the optical industry as well. The drug can be used to improve the eye site of a glaucoma patient. It is also used in this case to slow down the effect of the glaucoma disease. This medical use was the first one to be discovered.

The chemical in marijuana that is known to make the affect on these diseases and on the person using the drug is called THC. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana. This product has been in the market of medicine for more than a decade. It comes in the form of a capsule. But it is not as affective as the smoke form of the illegal drug marijuana.

Medical purposes for marijuana were not discovered until about fifteen years ago. Know many people are trying to get the government to legalize the drug for medical use for the past few years. Doctors have been testing marijuana and many of it?s chemicals for other ways of us but none have been found yet, but any doctors believe that there are many more ways marijuana can be used to help a person medically.

Marijuana is believed to effect the brain mentally. The drug depending on the dose and the person can effect the body mentally. It can impair your ability to drive or operate machinery. A person using the drug at a very high dose can find that they are having hallucinations or delusions and distortions of images. Marijuana can cause memory loss in repetitive use of the drug. Marijuana produces temporary changes in the brain functioning; for example it interferes with short-term memory ( Introduction to Psychology P.172 )

During the use of the drug people can under go many different types of changes in there body. People tend to think different ways when they are ?high?. This can be for better or worse depending on the person that is using the drug. The drug is also known to cause paranoia and the feeling of terror during the high. This can make or break someone, which will bring them to make the decision to use the drug again. Although there is no evidence that marijuana users cause them selves to suffer from psychosis or schizophrenia ( Introduction to Psychology P.172 ).

Among the many effects of marijuana a person?s personality can be altered or dramatically while the person is high. One can become a very easy person to get along with when before they were not or viseversa. There was also changes found in a person organization. ?Using the Rorschach Test, these researchers concluded during the actual use of the drug, that there was a slight decrease in the subject?s drive to organize and synthesize, that there was some falling off in meaningful constructive behavior and that there was a proneness to jump to erroneous conclusions ( Marijuana and personality change P.3 )

People have for many years believed marijuana to be the happy drug. Although sometimes there is someone in an experiment that has a rather bad experience these or not very at all. Usually these experiences are not discussed between people who use this drug because it is so uncommon with marijuana

Should marijuana be legalized for medicinal purposes? I believe that it should be but for that reason only it has a purpose and it helps people in desperate need of some form of help. Even though Marijuana is the most popular drug today I don?t believe it is a dangerous as it is said to be. I have never heard of and overdose death of marijuana. In the U.S. alone today there are an estimated twenty one millions users of this most popular illegal drug. But that still Doesn?t make it safe or good for anyone to use this drug.

Bibliography

1. http://www.aidsinfonyc.org/q-zone/maribill.html Q-zone: Medical uses of Marijuana, copyright1997 healing well. Last modified 4/2/97

2. The new social drug, edited by David E. Smith M.D. copyright 1970 by prentice-hall inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

3. Marijuana and personality change, Jess R. Lord, copyright 1971 by D.C. Health and Company

4. Introduction to Psychology. 4th edition, Rod Plotnik, copyright 1996 by Brooks/Cole publishing Co.