Health Effects Of Marijuana Essay

The legalization of the drug marijuana is a hot topic nowadays. Many people want this substance to be legalized and regularly available like cigarettes. But what some people do not know are the serious health risks involved when using marijuana. There is a lot more to marijuana than just smoking it.

People might think smoking marijuana is cool. They might try it without knowing what it is or what affects is has on you. Once someone smokes it for the first time, they might keep doing it again and again and they could get hooked on it for life. People who use marijuana usually never use any other type of illegal drugs, but more than seven thousand five hundred people get arrested for using marijuana every year. There is a wide variety of marijuana, but they are all based off of two marijuana plants, Indica and Sativa. Marijuana is very popular in America, and all over the world. Marijuana affects the body, it can be used as medicine, and marijuana can be addictive.

In order to gain an understanding of marijuana's so called "harmful" negative effects; it should be compared to other drugs that are presently legalized in this country. In the pharmaceutical world, over-the-counter drugs are being prescribed for everything these days. Ritalin and Adderall are readily available for college students in the university health centers across the country. Kids are staying up all night studying, complaining that they can not pay attention, and are immediately referred to the prescription drugs which in many cases they do not even need. Along with the prescription drug problem in our nation, we have a serious issue concerning alcohol and tobacco. Alcoholism is killing people daily with liver malfunctions

Studies have proven that marijuana is no more harmful to a person’s health than alcohol or tobacco. Every year, tobacco kills roughly 390,000 people, alcohol contributes to 80,000 deaths in America and marijuana contributed to 0; no deaths from marijuana have ever been recorded in US history (Abovetheinfluence.org). When smoking tobacco, the user inhales tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and 200 other known poisons into the lungs (Abovetheinfluence.org). All forms of tobacco, including cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, and chewing tobacco, contain the addictive drug nicotine, and can also cause cancer. Alcohol alters a person's perceptions, emotions, movement, vision, and hearing. Alcohol plays a role in at least 50 percent of traffic deaths, about half of murders, and about 25 percent of suicides (Abovetheinfluence.org). Marijuana side effects include delusions, impaired memory, hallucinations and disorientation, which are no different from the side effects of alcohol alone.

Marijuana has been deeply studied in the past few decades and has shown scientist many things that weren’t evident before. Marijuana has been linked to many health issues good and bad. It has shown to reduce stress and anxiety, help with headaches, lower blood pressure and one of the most evident and positive health affects is that it has been shown in many studies to stop and even kill cancer cells in the body. There are however negative effects that have been looked into and studied by scientist. These include, blocking memory formation, psychosis, and an increased risk of depression while using marijuana regularly. Not everything revolving around marijuana is a “health issue” though, the biggest reason that people use marijuana today is because it simply makes people feel good. That is a positive effect.

It is accepted in medical circles today that marijuana use causes no evident long-term cardiovascular problems for normal persons. Marijuana smoking, however, does cause changes in the heart and body's circulation characteristic of stress, which

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

Marijuana smoke is a complex mixture that has many chemical components and biological effects similar to tobacco smoke. However, it also contains some different ingredients. This suggests the strong possibility that marijuana, like tobacco, could lead to lung cancer, or create respiratory distress. ?Smoking marijuana also causes changes in the heart and circulation that are characteristic of stress? states Morgan (5). Current evidence has shown marijuana also causes some chemical changes in the brain. After exposure to this drug, there have been reports of effects on brain electrical activity in human beings and in animals. Marijuana also has been found to produce an acute brain syndrome. ?This is a more severe mental problem consisting of confusion and loss of contact with reality? stated Berger (8). The main reason that the United States Drug Enforcement Agency doesn't want marijuana use to be legalized is because there is no evidence to date that proves that marijuana is an effective drug when used for medicinal purposes. Scientists have researched this drug for twenty years and have yet to produce reliable scientific proof that marijuana has medical value. New findings show that marijuana is acutely harmful to AIDS and cancer patients because the active ingredient in marijuana acutely reduces the white blood cells that fight off infection. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency agrees with police departments that if marijuana use is legalized, crime could

A great deal of people are involved with marijuana. Marijuana affects people differently. This drug can cause serious health issues and also other problems. “According to the Mayo Clinic, marijuana contains between fifty percent and seventy percent more carcinogens than tobacco smoke

On the other hand there are those who believe marijuana is detrimental to the health of those who use it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse for believes that marijuana use has many long- and short-term implications. These implications include increased heart rate during use, respiratory issues including a possibility heightened lung infections and frequent chest illness, and finally long time use can lead to mental illness.

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

On the patients for medical marijuana website I found the next article very interesting. It states that scientists have shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because it increases the number of lesions in your small airways. This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a chance it will lead to infections. Marijuana users who are worried about this can find less harmful ways of taking marijuana like eating or vaporizing. It is there opinion that marijuana smokers generally don’t chain smoke, and so they smoke less. They also believe that marijuana is not physically addictive like tobacco. The more potent marijuana is, the less a smoker will use at a time. While other articles state otherwise, this one says that tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn’t. Nicotine hardens the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart disease caused by tobacco. It also reminds us that research has found that tobacco use may also cause a lot of cancers. This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing chemical called `N Nitrosamine’ when it is burned (and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.) There are currently no cases of lung cancer resulting from marijuana use alone according to this article. They believe the more legal marijuana gets, the safer it is. This article added that researchers were

Directly compared to other legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco products, the health risk is minimal in the sense of death count to substance related deaths in the US. While Cannabis has never directly caused any deaths at any point, it does not mean it comes without health risks. A few health risks include damage to the lungs, stunting the growth of a developing teen’s brain, and some instances it could cause a lack of motivation in users. Daily and often consumption of inhaling smoke could cause damage to the lungs. Although marijuana smoke does not contain the chemicals often found in cigarettes such as nicotine, tar, and ammonia, which does not mean it is completely harmless. Inhaling smoke into one’s lungs is never healthy for them and marijuana is not excluded from this. The Effects of marijuana can also be dangerous in different scenarios. It is never safe nor smart to operate a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana as it hampers coordination and impedes the judgment of the brain. One should never smoke marijuana daily while their brains are still developing as it can lengthen and disrupt the growth of the developing brain and can also damage nerve cells. Studies show that frequent chronic marijuana users have a lower Intelligence Quotient compared to a nonsmoking population. Many argue that it is impossible to get addicted to marijuana which is not the case at all. Addiction isn’t always your body developing a dependency on a substance to function because addiction can be completely mental. Anybody in this world can get addicted to anything; it’s possible for people to get addicted to chocolate, coffee, soda, collecting something, sometimes an addiction can be helpful instead of harmful. Addiction is defined as “an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something.” Marijuana fits right into this

Interestingly enough, new research is introduced every year on the effects of marijuana. Most information already exists on alcohol because of it being popular and legal for a number of centuries. The similarities and differences of the drugs are quite astonishing after being analyzed closely. Although, their method of consumption, physiological effects, and related health risks need to be taken into account in order for people to live safely in a world where these drugs and harsher ones

Many studies have shown that the “more marijuana one uses, the more likely one has the risk of developing head and neck cancer” (Giannasio). This is why marijuana is as harmful as tobacco because the more one consumes it for medical uses or even just as an escape from reality then, the bigger the chance that person will develop head or neck cancer. In addition, “it has been proven that a smoke of marijuana “contains 50%