Reforming Marijuana: Marijuana Should Be Legalized

The most versatile plant in the world, with over 25,000 known uses, is currently illegal to grow and produce in the United States. These uses range from hemp paper to hemp biodiesel and even include food products. The raging problem of deforestation can ultimately be solved with the help of hemp industrialization in the United States. Hemp as a biodiesel could relieve our dependence of fossil fuels. Opening up hemp farms and factories to produce the product could create thousands of jobs and a new business for our country. The only thing holding back this wide market of positivity is hemp 's family member, cannabis marijuana. Hemp should be legalized in the United States of America as an industrial product. Its uses date back

First and foremost, majority of society is uneducated and unaware of the many benefits legal marijuana can bring about. These benefits are for us as individuals, for our economy, and for our government as a whole. You can have thoughts and opinions, criticize ones who use marijuana, say that they are a drug attics or bad people, but you would clearly be uneducated having said that. The plant, cannabis, “marijuana”, has a class of

One of the first things about marijuana history that the American public still doesn 't understand is that cannabis, was once very legal to grow in the United States. In fact, up until 1883 it was one of the largest agricultural crops in the world, including America.(The Union) But it wasn’t grown for the psychoactive plant cannabis sativa. Cannabis hemp, which carries a fraction of the amount of THC, (the compound in marijuana that attributes to the high feeling) was and is used all over the world, producing the overall majority of Earth’s fiber, fabric, paper, and medicines.(Herer,20) Hemp has a deep American History as well, from the gardens of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin to the 8,327 American hemp plantations counted in the 1850 census.(Herer,15) Yet the Federal government now recognizes cannabis as a Schedule I drug with no medical value, and 23 States have legalized cannabis for medicinal use. (The Union) Even though some western states such as Oregon and Colorado are making legal changes to marijuana policy at the state level, the most beneficial marijuana law we could pass is and always has been the Nationwide legalization of industrial Cannabis Hemp.

Marijuana is one of the most popular drugs in the world. Users most commonly use it by smoking its leaves, stems, buds, or flower to experience some sort of high. Scientists have discovered that not only does marijuana have an intoxication effect, but that it could be used for medical reasons as well. Marijuana has been tested by many scientists who would all agree that it should be legalized

The issue of legalizing marijuana, also known as Cannabis Sativa, has been controversial for a long time, and has become even more so in recent years. Cannabis Sativa is a plant that has been used for a variety of purposes by many cultures for thousands of years. Not only does the Cannabis Sativa plant produce Marijuana, it also produces Hemp. Hemp was used to make food, clothes, shoes, ropes and paper, making it a very useful cash crop. Legal up until 1937, Marijuana was used in America for recreational use, medicinal, and industrial products as well. In the 1960’s the government’s war on all drugs was created putting Marijuana in the same category as Cocaine, Heroin, and Morphine. Today Marijuana remains a

Smoking marijuana, in some ways, is like smoking cigarettes. Marijuana can produce airway injury, coughing and wheezing, some of the symptoms of cigarette smoking (Marijuana). But the downfall to smoking marijuana is it contains almost 50% more benzopyrene (the cancer-causing chemical in tobacco) than a cigarette (Fact Sheet). Marijuana contains cancer causing agents and toxic particles that can lead to bronchitis, emphysema, and lung cancer (What to Teach Kids 3). People do not realize how much more serious the risks of smoking one joint are compared to smoking one cigarette. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day (Marijuana). The affects of smoking marijuana are much severe than smoking cigarettes.

Researchers from Conference of Quebec University Health Centers state's, “marijuana can actually improve lungs, Smoking weed isn’t actually that bad for your lungs, and smokers actually have improved lung function when compared to both cigarette smokers – and people who have never smoked either.” Researchers from around the world are testing marijuana on lungs and results are coming back that marijuana is actually strengthening them. According to Rob Waugh, “In what could be a key moment for advocates of legal cannabis, the U.S. government has admitted that the drug can shrink cancer cells.” (use different examples) There are multiple health advantages when it comes to smoking marijuana but, most of the population that smoke marijuana just use it to get high.

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

Marijuana have been used for a long time as medical benefit way back in the 2737 BC. The plant has been use way back by ancient Chinese. Ancient Chinese used it to treat “constipation, gout, rheumatism, and absent-mindedness”. Not only Chinese but it’s also used

Studies have shown that marijuana produces as many, if not more carcinogens than cigarettes do and also deposits four times as much tar into the body. Marijuana smoke is full of toxic gases and particles which can irritate the bronchial passages and lungs causing damage to the respiratory system. Regular marijuana smokers are more likely

     Marijuana is one of the most controversial drugs today. Everyone is talking about it, and the question everyone is asking is why is it not legal? Many studies have been done on this drug for medical uses. Also to find what harm it can do mentally and physically. Marijuana has many different parts that can be used for everything from a medication to a bedsheet. Many countries use marijuana everyday, they use it for medicine, textiles, religious aid, and recreational use. Scientists are finding use of marijuana in our history. They found evidence that the founding fathers grew marijuana, mostly for hemp (the fiber from the cannabis plant used for textiles, which contains a very low

Way before marijuana was ever used as a popular recreational intoxicant, it was used as a widespread industrial product. Originally brought over to America by British settlers, marijuana hemp was prized for its versatility. It was also used to make a lot of things like, paper, rope, and cloth. In fact, it has been established that both George Washington was not only the father of the United States and a cannabis plantation owners, but also a user of the plant for relaxation and merriment (Schwartz, 2008). There are way more cons than pro’s.

Cannabis, formally known as marijuana is a drug obtained from the tops, stems and leaves of the hemp plant cannabis. The drug is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. Only substances like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are used more (“Marijuana” 1). In the U. S. where some use it to feel “high” or get an escape from reality. The drug is referred to in many ways; weed, grass, pot, and or reefer are some common names used to describe the drug (“Marijuana” 1). Like most drugs, marijuana has a very long history. People have been using the plant around the world for thousands of years. The oldest record of the marijuana plant dates back to 2727 B. C. in China where the plant was used as a medical herb for treating conditions like rheumatism, gout, malaria and even absent-mindedness (“Cannabis, Coca, & Poopy: Nature’s Addictive Plants” 1). Slowly, the plant started spreading around the world. By 1545, cannabis was starting to appear throughout the western worlds. Being introduced to South America by the Spanish to be used as fiber. The crop also had many other common uses around the world. In North America, cannabis was often used to make paper, ropes, clothing and other materials (“The Origins of Cannabis” 1).

Although free of nicotine, marijuana smoke certainly pollutes the lungs. And since tobacco smoking has been linked to respiratory injury, cancer, emphysema, heart disease, complications of pregnancy, low birth weight, and other ills, it makes sense to worry whether smoking marijuana might prove equally harmful (Mack and Joy). Marijuana joints have been shown to deliver at least four times as much tar to the lungs as tobacco cigarettes of equivalent weight. This difference is due to the lack of filters on joints and because marijuana smokers typically inhale a larger volume of smoke and take it more deeply into the lungs than tobacco smokers do. Marijuana smokers also tend to hold smoke in for a time before exhaling, exposing the lungs to even greater levels of cancer-causing agents. Clinical studies suggest that people who smoke marijuana are more likely to develop respiratory illnesses than are nonsmokers. A survey of outpatient medical visits at a large health maintenance organization (HMO) found that marijuana users were more likely to seek help for respiratory illnesses than people who smoked tobacco (Mack and Joy). While cannabis is harmful to the brain and lungs of the user, it is also harmful to the ones around the user. It has been shown that the effects of using cannabis are similar to those of alcohol and benzodiazepines and include slowing of reaction time, motor incoordination, specific defects in short-term memory, difficulty in concentration and particular

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%