Communications

Since the 1970’s, marijuana has been an extremely controversial drug. While some argue that it does not harm to your body, and can do good in the world, others classify it as a “gateway” drug. As the number states in the U.S. legalize the drug increases, 26 to be exact, the debate is only getting more heated. Also known as weed, cannabis, dope, etc., marijuana has been scientifically proven to do good in the medical world, be safer than alcohol and tobacco, and increase a growth in our economy.

     Marijuana has become one of the most controversial drugs used today and in the past. Many claim fame to the medicinal purposes of marijuana as to why the drug should be legalized. Today the effects of marijuana use are more known. According to Carroll (2000), marijuana contains 50 percent more cancer causing hydrocarbons than cigarettes. Blood pressure is affected by the use along with sexual function. The abuse of marijuana is one from the past and continues to be a trend in today’s time. An epidemic of marijuana smoking began by 1935, which caused laws to be enacted against the use of marijuana not for medical use.

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Marijuana is a drug that divides people. Some people claim it as the wonder drug of the '90s, capable of relieving the symptoms of many serious illnesses. Others curse the day the cannabis plant was ever discovered. From pain relief to stimulating the appetites of patients on chemotherapy, marijuana seems to have plenty going for it as a medicine. The legalization of marijuana is a large controversy in many parts of the world today, but the obvious negative effects that the drug induces has kept it from being legalized. Many researchers have a strong positive attitude towards marijuana. It has been said that the drug is “worth investigating and even providing as a medicine for pain relief, severe

Recently the drug policies and war on drugs has been increasingly seen in the headlines. Policies taken by the United States government against illegal drugs like marijuana are becoming apparent, and are coming into question. This has caused quite a controversy among supporters and opponents about legalization issues. Should marijuana be used as a medicine, as its advocates say? Or is it a dangerous drug of abuse that exposes users to brain damage and lung cancer? The debate over legalizing marijuana in all probability will continue for a long time, and it is a shame that this debate is so polarized. Marijuana produces long-term effects and damage on the brain. Although there have been reports of successful treatment in the use of marijuana as medicine, there appears to be more negative reasons why marijuana should not be used. Marijuana has been used for treatment of many diseases, some of which include cancer, post traumatic stress disorder, arthrosclerosis, digestive diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Despite the success for some medical issues, marijuana continues to be a “dangerous, addictive drug that poses significant health threats to users. Marijuana has no medical value that can't be met more effectively by legal drugs” ("U.S Drug Enforcement Administration"). The government and medical professionals should make it a point to emphasize the increasing problems of marijuana and its harmful effects on the body, as well as providing alternatives to

It seems every decade marijuana studies show that it has no side effects on users, in turn it become more available like when some states in America had legalized it. Dr Kevin M. Gray believes that the only side effect of smoking weed is the physical addictions it causes, he believes that over 51% of all teens have used weed at least once and the biggest problem we are facing with this rapidly growing drug use is only addiction. Dr Marshall M. Gay believes that the health effects of weed isn’t that much as smoking cigarettes and doesn’t see it a threat to people’s health. “More than half (51%) of adolescents reported that marijuana is fairly or very easy to obtain.2 this ease of availability may have contributed to a recently reported "reverse gateway" from cigarettes use to marijuana”. The more ignored belief is that marijuana can lead to a variety of developmental, mental and physical side effects. The effects of smoking weed can extend to those of smoking cigarettes “studies show regular marijuana use can lead to many of the same

In American Marijuana is becoming a popular drug with over 100 million people using it . Marijuana is known for being “safe” and “harmless” to a person's health. Upon looking closer at the fact you’ll find this is not true. In fact Marijuana has severe short term and long term effects. According to www.drugabuse.gov some of the short term affects are altered senses, mood changes, impaired movement, difficulty thinking, and impaired memory. In addition to this long term effects are Breathing problems, increased heart rate, and problems with child development during and after pregnancy. To go into more detail Marijuana can affect breathing because the smoke irritates the lung which causes coughing better known as a smokers

In the realm of personal safety, long-term alcohol abuse severely compromises major organs and bodily function, chiefly among them the lungs and fluid operability of the blood vessels. Thus, excessive alcoholic intake can lead to eventual chronic and debilitating health problems, such as liver cancer and diabetes. This is also a universally recognized and accepted reality. It is because of the widespread acceptance of these relative hazards that alcohol, although legal, has been seemingly sequestered by American society into a niche category of vices that are appropriate when consumed responsibly, but dangerous and overtly negative when consumed otherwise. Why then, has marijuana seemed to sidestep this particular form of judgment and swung itself onto the complete opposite end of the pendulum; the end that says it is completely harmless to consume?

Background and ThesisThere are 29 States in the United States of America that have legalized marijuana for medical use. Marijuana first became illegal in 1937 when the United stated introduced The Marijuana Act. This Act stated that anyone buying, selling, dealing or giving away marijuana must pay the Internal Revenue a special tax (Industry Updates) To eliminate trafficking of psychoactive drug, congress passed The Controlled Substance Act in 1970. The U.S Governmentfound the marijuana had a high potential for abuse. Because of that they classified it has a Schedule 1 controlled substance, the government did not believe that marijuana had any medicinal purposes. The law held a penalty of 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for even the smallest amount of marijuana.. The United States found that Marijuana effects the user’s mental health as well as their lungs. Smoking Marijuana places 30 times more carcinogens than cigarette smoke into your lungs (Bob Barr). Cannabinoid receptors in the brain are affected by the THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the main chemical in Marijuana. Smoking Marijuana only takes about 30 seconds to get in the blood stream and to your brain. Once THC reaches the brain it over activates the Cannabinoid receptors altering the persons mind and body (Kevin Bonsor and Nicholas Gerbis).The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) found cannabis to give relief to people with conditions like

government website devoted to facts about drugs we read that marijuana can alter the user’s sense and mood. It can impair body movement, alter memory, and decrease the ability to problem solve. It is known to affected brain development negatively. It can cause breathing problems, hallucinations, and paranoia. It can cause anxiety, depression, and has been shown to induce suicidal thoughts in teens. (1)

Armand, Wynne."Marijuana: Health effects of recreational and medical use". Harvard. Ed. Armand, Wynne. Article. 2016. Armand is providing research information in her post about what are the effects of marijuana on the one's health and how that among the youth, those ranging from teenagers to young adults, there is staggering number of them who are damaging their developing brains. The article gives the audience the effects of long-term and

Marijuana does have its unpleasant side of effects to the body. Weed has its physical, mental, short-term and long-term effects. First, the physical affects to the body that marijuana causes are breathing problems, increase of heart rate, and problems with children developing during or after pregnancy. Second, the mental affects are temporary hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized thinking. Finally, the short-term and long-term effects are on the brain developing, which really affects memory, impaired body movements, and having a difficulty with thinking or problem solving. For example “A study shows that people who started smoking marijuana heavily in their teens and had an ongoing cannabis use disorder lost an average of eight IQ points between age 13 and 38” (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Marijuana can leave its mark in the body with people not even knowing how disastrous it can be, some can’t even the difference when they start till they end. It can also be even worse if it becomes an addiction and thinking of quitting. When departing from smoking marijuana it can leave effects such as grouchiness, sleepiness, decrease of appetite, anxiety, and cravings. Not everyone knows or notice this because when becoming a quitter they seem to only focus on discontinuing, which makes them think there are no effects to stopping. In other cases, “long-term marijuana user trying to quit report

Have you ever heard people saying, smoking weed can kill your brain cells or smoking weed is a gate way drug? People also will say that “once you do Pot that you will need to move on to harder drugs like LSD, Heroine, and Cocaine to get the same "thrill". Sounds good, but it just isn't so” (Perkel). Over the years Marijuana (cannabis) used to be illegal and deemed as harmful to our system. In today’s society, marijuana is now legal and used for medical purposes in twenty –three states including DC. This kind of marijuana is called medical marijuana. “Medical marijuana is used as a form of herbal therapy which is recommended for chronic pain or nausea” (Online posting). This type of marijuana has advance tremendously in medicine because of its health benefits.

In the short-term, marijuana can cause sensory distortion, panic and anxiety, poor coordination, lowered reaction time, hallucinations, short-term memory loss, and an increase in pulse rate which also increases the risk of heart attack (Cox, 2014) (WebMD, 2014). Additionally, after the initial feeling of euphoria, the user will feel sleepy and depressed. Long-term use of marijuana can cause apathy, drowsiness, lack of motivation, personality and mood changes, as well as suppress the immune system and reduce resistance to common illnesses, and increase the number of abnormally structured cells in the body due to abnormal cell division (Foundation for a Drug-Free World, 2015). Studies have also shown that long-term marijuana use leads to structural changes in the brain (Harrah, 2014). One study showed the hippocampal volume in marijuana users was inversely correlated with cumulative exposure to the drug in the left, but not right, hemisphere. This finding suggests the left hippocampus may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of cannabis exposure and may be more closely related to the emergence of psychotic symptoms (Harrah, 2014). Careful scientific analyses have identified at least 6,000 of the same chemicals in marijuana smoke as are present in tobacco (Iversen, 2008). The main difference between the marijuana and tobacco is THC in marijuana and nicotine in tobacco (Gumbiner, 2011). Today, there are new medications and treatments that are more effective in treating diseases and illnesses than marijuana, (Bergeson,

Many people believe that marijuana is a sedative drug but marijuana has its own classification category (Wiersma, 2014). Marijuana has very many negative side effects to a person who abuses marijuana (NIDA, 2012). According to Charles Levinthal, immediate physiological effects after smoking marijuana are relatively minor (Levinthal, 2006). Someone smoking marijuana would have to smoke twenty to forty thousand times the effective dose before death would occur (Levinthal, 2006). No one has ever died due to a marijuana overdose (Wiersma, 2014). Short term effects of marijuana include increased heart rate, memory and learning problems, difficulty thinking and problem solving, loss of coordination, anxiety and panic attacks and increased risk of heart attack (Wiersma, 2014). There are also long term effects that take a toll on the body which include: loss of brain