How To Legalize Recreational Drugs

Most college students cease to believe that smoking marijuana is just as harmful as tobacco or other illicit drugs. In actuality, marijuana has a high level of carcinogens, as well as carbon monoxide, which makes the heart work harder to deliver oxygen to deprived tissues. The same health issues that arise from smoking tobacco such as, emphysema, bronchitis, and other respiratory problems can also be brought on by smoking marijuana.

Smoking tobacco is more harmful to your lungs than smoking marijuana. It only takes a couple inhalations of marijuana smoke to become high. Let’s say you’re addicted to cigarettes and smoke a pack a day, keeping in mind that cigarettes are legal. To get high off of marijuana it would only take about a fourth of the tobacco you inhale in just one cigarette, just to become high. When you smoke cigarettes you are continuously inhaling tar, nicotine, and many other chemicals that harm your lungs and may result in lung cancer.

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.

This effect can last up to several hours after the drug has been smoked (National Institute on Drug Abuse ). The brain is another thing affected by smoking marijuana, leading to loss of memory in the brain. The nervous system also is affected when using this drug (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Loss of memory and the effects it has on the nervous system alone should raise concern for the American people. Continuing on with heath issues associated with the use of marijuana, it is proven to impair the immune system and can also promote tumor growth (Taylor). The immune system is essential to keep healthy because this is what fights off other illnesses within the body. Increased risk of lung cancer, and cognitive difficulties all can be associated with the use of marijuana (Wilbur). Research has proven smoking marijuana affects health several ways; even though most have been discussed take a look at the following chart, it will help visualize some health issues that are associated with smoking marijuana.

Smoking marijuana is best described as a one-way ticket to negative side-affects. Based on Lifetime Health by Friedman, D. P., Stine, C. C., and Whaten S. “smoked marijuana are felt within minutes and may last for 2 or 3 hours”(2009). Short term effects consist of slowed thinking ability, difficulty paying attention, distorted sense of time, and many more. (Friedman, D. P., Stine, C. C., and Whaten S. (2009). Long term effects include frequent respiratory infection, impaired learning and memory, and even panic attacks (Friedman, D. P., Stine, C. C., and Whaten S. (2009). Thus, the ingestion in smoking marijuana can cause harmful outcomes, which are

Many could argue that marijuana is destructive physically as well as mentally. “The National Institute on Drug Abuse says marijuana can cause heart irregularities, lung problems, and addiction” (Welch). “One joint can be just as damaging to [the lungs] as smoking at least

A person who inhale marijuana on frequent basis suffer from many diseases related to heart, lungs and brain. It disturbs the normal functioning of brain, interfering with a person’s ability to think, feel and act (Sane Australia 2014).

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

What makes marijuana such a sought after drug is the chemical it posses, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. When marijuana is smoked the chemical is absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries it to the brain. The chemical acts on certain brain receptors. These receptors usually react to a natural THC-like chemical in the brain, which are important for normal brain development. Marijuana overactiviates the parts of the brain that contain these said receptors, and that

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

I constantly hear that weed does not harm you, this is false. “Marijuana contains more than four hundred known chemicals, including the same cancer-causing substances found in tobacco smoke”. (Alcohol vs. Marijuana, 2013). Let that sink in for a second, it has four hundred known chemicals in it that does not sound healthy for you. I also found out that “ It has been found that consuming one joint gives as much exposure to cancer-producing chemicals as smoking five cigarettes”. (What is Marijuana, 2013). One joint is the equivalent as smoking five cigarettes, but weed is harmless, I think not. Marijuana also affects your mind to where you cannot remember things. Marijuana smokers do not have the same ability to remember and organize information compared to people who do not smoke.

Both tobacco and marijuana contain tar. Marijuana contains a little more and will actually "feel" heavier on the lungs after smoking. Tar has been found to produce tumors on the skin of animals that it is applied to. Cancer has definitely been related to

Drug legalization is an enduring question that presently faces our scholars. This issue embraces two positions: drugs should not be legalized and drugs should be legalized. These two positions contain an array of angles that supports each issue. This brief of the issues enables one to consider the strengths and weakness of each argument, become aware of the grounds of disagreement and agreement and ultimately form an opinion based upon the positions stated within the articles. In the article “Against the Legalization of Drugs”, by James Q. Wilson, the current status of drugs is supported. Wilson believes if a drug such as heroin were legalized there would be no financial or medical reason to avoid heroin usage;

Both smoking marijuana and tobacco have the same correlation of inhaling gas into your lungs thinking that it would damage lung tissue. According to author Patricia Weiss in her article, "Does Smoking Marijuana Contribute To The Risk Of Developing Lung Cancer?.", she concludes that smoking marijuana has no effect on the lungs. Both marijuana and cigarette smoke contains nitrosamines, phenols, aldehydes, polyvinyl chlorides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and tar. Although many chemicals are inhaled when smoking marijuana, there is no yet proof that marijuana directly correlates with lung cancer. In her article Weiss does mention that the intake of marijuana affects the immune tissue that works as a system in the lungs to keep them safe. A study

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%