Why Marijuanas Should Be Legal: Examination of Pros and Cons
The purpose of this essay is to examine the effects of marijuana and why marijuanas should be legal in the United States. This study seeks to find the answer to my research question, what are the positive and negative effects of marijuana and why it should be legal. My intention is to analyze data from social media, websites, and books as well as information gathered for studies to determine the effects of marijuana and why it should be legal.
First and Foremost: Positive and Negative Effects of Marijuana
According to an article written by 'Get Smart About Drugs' Marijuana is a mind altering psychoactive drug. A green/brown mix of flowers, stems and leaves. THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the main ingredient that produces the psychoactive effect. There are many ways marijuana can consume, smoked as a cigarette or in a pipe or bong, smoked in blunts, mixed with foods(edibles), and sometimes brewed as tea. There have been many studies done proving how marijuana can help cancer patients. According to an article written by (business insider) marijuana has many positive effects and uses that you may not even know about. A study performed by California Medical center found that cannabidiol stops cancer by turning off a gene called ID-1. The researchers found that after treatment the cancer cells have decreased ID-1 expression and where less aggressive. Medical marijuana has also been found to help Multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and disease, cancer, HIV/ Aids, arthritis, epilepsy, Inflammatory bowel disease, and insomnia. Cannabis based medicines and cbd dominant products have proven to be extremely effective in preventing seizures in patients with epilepsy. This article was published in 2017, although some laws pertaining to medical marijuana have changed this article is pretty relevant to today.
On the other hand, if to think about negative effects, it can affect the brain by causing feelings of pain and or fear, Hallucinations, trouble concentrating, decreased ability to do tasks, and decreased interest in completing tasks. Some physical effects of the drug can be an increase in respiratory problems, an increase in phlegm production. It has also been shown to raise your heart rate anywhere from 20-100% right after consuming. some cons of the drug may be a permissive message being sent to young people that drug use is acceptable, loss of control over medical marijuana by physicians. According 'Scientific American' many studies in adults have found that non users beat chronic weed smokers on tests of attention, memory, motor skills, and verbal abilities. Most of this evidence is coming from research in animals. Rats given THC, the chemical that puts the high in marijuana, show persistent cognitive difficulties if exposed around the time of puberty, but not if they were exposed as adults. The long term effects of marijuana have a much greater impact when used a young age when the brain is still developing, which is a negative effect, corresponding with my research question.
Why Marijuanas Should Be Legal?
Marijuana should be legal in all states but should have some laws regulating the people for the use of marijuana (like prescript cannabis). For many years, citizens have been protesting against/ for marijuana to be legal in their state. Cannabis has been a bit of a controversy when it comes to seeing marijuana as something that can magically treat some illnesses. But based on scientist's data for treating illnesses like cancer and epilepsy to have reduced their pain. Another reason for marijuana to be legal is to decrease the crimes from lower more poorer regions in the neighborhoods. Marijuana could also help patients with PTSD and people that have a really hard time speaking in front of large crowds of people. Marijuana has a small dose of THS, which is almost like a chemical that has people feeling calm and relaxed.
Although legalizing marijuana sounds like God’s plan for everyone, that’s not really the case for everyone that’s against legalizing marijuana. If used incorrectly and irresponsible, people can put really bad stuff in their cannabis, which can mess up a person's mental health and can even cause them to be mentally unstable for a few days, maybe even years. Marijuana is just as bad as smoking cigarettes every day because you're still filling up your lungs with smoke and damaging your brain. Although there’s been no records of someone overdosing on cannabis, if enough is smoked every day, you can overdose just as any drug can do. Most pot smokers in the 21st century a pre-teens/ teen for many reasons. Like peer-pressure or just because they think is so cool to try it. Studies show that the brain doesn’t stop developing until they’ve turn 21 years old. Which means if they start using marijuana at such a young age, they can damage their brains before its even done developing. People also claim that marijuana is just a harmless plant that God made for us humans to consume and not let it waste. Marijuana is still man-made for the people to feel the feeling of being high (which is the THC taking effect to your brain).
To conclude, although marijuana has some really good effects for pain relief and can help patients with very bad illnesses like cancer or even PTSD, it’s still shouldn’t be just be legal. They should make laws for marijuana to be harder for teens to get their hands on but for responsible licensed adults over the age of 21 to be careful and do their research on the types of cannabis is good for their in personal pleasures.
