Essay about Marijuana: Addiction and Marijuana Policy

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Marijuana Can Be Additive or Not? There have been discussions about if marijuana is additive or not additive. First we should have an idea of what is a diagnosis of an addiction, mainly any drug that causes mood modifications it might be additive. In this process the individual becomes unwilling or incapable (and these two traits/concepts can never be separated) of tolerating the absence of the experience produced by the drug. (Peele) Usually the individual make the drug and its symptoms a way to cope with his/her life, and it become difficult for the individual to live the life without the effects of the drug. Nowadays, the controversy is more evident than ever, there are those who support the idea that the marijuana is an additive substance and it should be treated like it. But the addictiveness of caffeine, for example in this case, coffee, it comes from time to times to the top of the table of discussion simply because no body care about the popular and accepted coffee, unless you want to quit, then you will look for help. Another example of additives substances is cocaine. Cocaine was originally excluded from pharmacology's "addiction" or "physical dependence" category because it rarely produced standard withdrawal symptoms and because cocaine use tends to occur in explosive bursts, compared with the more steady consumption of heroin et al. (Peele) but because

of the large-scale recreational use of this substance, by the mid 80s had to be moved to the “additive” list, this happened because it was difficult for the consumer to stop the consumption. However, in the case of Marijuana something interesting is happening for the last years. That is, Marijuana was grouped with heroin and other powerful illicit drugs. Moreover, Marijuana became popular by 1970s, among youth generations, college students, and young professionals and more, they see the use of Marijuana as a “safe experience” compared to the use of heroin. So, whoever uses Marijuana is going to label in the same group of drugs such as cocaine and heroin among other substances. The problem is not only to be labeled as a drug addict, the thing is that this people who uses marijuana are creating that addiction on them believing that is a safe and just a recreational drug, but, probably they are creating and addition as well as the individual that uses heroin. According to Peele Stanton, in the present the percentage of consumers of Marijuana have been almost the same since 1999, and today’s Marijuana is considered five times more potent than the Marijuana of the 1970s, so it could be consider that the risk of being addicted to it, is higher these days. The problem with the use of Marijuana is not the physical dependency, but the psychological effects. In other words, an individual that uses Marijuana every day, a few time at day, (pothead), it may feel depressed or anxious if it stop smoking, then he/she will recur to smoke again in order to feel “ok”. They will find themselves in a circle that draws the same patters of addition.

Is evident that marijuana can be misused, and some individuals are more vulnerable because are likely to develop a negative dependency on drugs, they do so, maybe with the same frequency as they do with some other psychoactive substances, licit or illicit. So today’s Marijuana can be highly additive not only because of its potency but because the vulnerability of some individuals. The best way to prevent Marijuana addiction is a matter that involves social policies that improve condition to make people capable to live in this world. Another position is that marijuana is not addictive. There is a big group that support that Marijuana is not addictive, they even want to legalize it. They argue that Marijuana addiction is less severe than alcohol or nicotine. Withdrawal symptoms, when they occur, are mild and subtle compared to the severe effects of withdrawal from alcohol or tobacco. (Armentano) Although some individual may find
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