Legalization of Marijuana Essay

Legalization of Marijuana One of the largest and most controversial topics of debate today is the topic of legalizing marijuana. Marijuana, rather known as pot, weed, or ganja, is a naturally grown plant, that when smoked causes feelings of happiness and pleasure. Rather than only smoking it, when it is eaten it may also get a person “high”. THC is the main active ingredient in marijuana which causes a person to get high, and the more taken in, the more the drug effects the person. Marijuana has both negative and positive effects on the body which is why it is such a huge topic of debate. One of the top reasons that marijuana is considered wrong, is that it is a gateway drug, meaning it leads to more powerful drugs such as cocaine or even heroin. When people begin to use marijuana on a regular basis for a long period of time, their bodies can become almost immune to its affects. They then search for a different drug to cause them to get that high feeling again which leads to more dangerous and deadly drugs. It is far more deadly and much more dangerous to abuse crack/cocaine rather than pot. Marijuana has many short and long term effects on the body. When under the influence of the drug there is a loss of coordination and balance, due to the THC reaching the brain, swollen eyes, blood shot eyes, dry mouth, and slight soreness to the throat. Too much use of marijuana can cause hallucinations and sick feelings. It also causes trouble thinking, impaired memory, lack of attention, and poor driving skills. Some long term affects due to smoking weed are respiratory problems, poor short term memory, a lower sperm count in men, and a lack of motivation. Likewise to the negative effects, there are many positive effects also. The number one reason people smoke weed is because it puts people into a sort of care free happy mood, which is healthy. Marijuana can help stimulate appetites, relieve nausea, relieve muscle spasms, and relieves pressure on eyes from people with glaucoma. It can help prevent Alzheimer’s, alcohol abuse, and also anxiety and panic attacks. It relieves arthritis, helps with multiple sclerosis, migraines, sleep apnea, sickle cell disease and even Parkinson’s disease. Marijuana is not a lethal drug, and there are no recorded deaths due to the smoking of weed. There are 85,000 deaths due to alcohol yearly in the United States, 435,000 deaths due to tobacco, 32,000 deaths due to prescription drugs, and zero due to smoking marijuana. Even though a person loses coordination and such while high, they still have more control over their actions than while they are overly intoxicated from alcohol. While pot is addictive, it is far less addicting than tobacco, full of nicotine, and alcohol. There is no true proof that smoking pot causes cancer like most people think, and it does not kill brain cells the way everybody thinks. The cells killed from smoking marijuana are actually old cells that the body has not killed off yet already. Most of the

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