Marijuana: Addiction and Marijuana Essay

Submitted By inyouri52
Words: 458
Pages: 2

In a political webpage called “The Political Balance,” Timothy Shepherd wrote an article entitled “Marijuana will destroy America (and help me out) – maybe I do support the legalization?” In this article Shepherd outlines a number of reasons that marijuana is bad for us. His main argument is that marijuana is very addictive and that one in six people who try it will become addicted to it. This claim really grabbed the writer’s attention because this claim that one in six people, or around 17 percent, who try marijuana will become addicts sounded a little high. According to Gumbiner, J. Ph.D. (2010) and drugabuse.gov (2014), the percentage to people who become seriously addicted to marijuana is 9 percent. Drugabuse.gov (2014) does go on to state that those users who start young the percentage of people that get addicted is higher, around one in six. Shepherd goes on in his article give a general outline that marijuana increases the risk of heart disease and lung problems like that of cigarettes, which there very well may be these risks involved with smoking marijuana. However, Shepherd’s article takes a one dimensional view on the ingestion of marijuana. Smoking is not the only way to consume marijuana; using cannabis oil it can be ingested using gel caps, baked into foods, and inhaled through vapors. It should also be noted that in comparison to the addictive qualities of other substances, marijuana is fairly low on the list of commonly used recreational drugs. According to Gumbiner, J. Ph.D. (2010) It is estimated that 32% of tobacco users will become addicted, 23% of heroin users, 17% of cocaine users, and 15% of alcohol users. Shepherd spends most of his article demonizing marijuana while two of the legal drugs listed above are more addictive. When writing any kind of article it is important to use facts that are listed by credible sources. While Shepherd might have had some good points