Why Marijuana Should Stay Legal

Why does your teen smoke Marijuana? Is it because of a toxic Family, Divorce, mental disorder, or fitting in? With the majority of teens struggling from depression, anxiety, stress, Insomnia or other mental disorders, it can take a toll on an adolescent's psyche. With 95,000 adolescents ages 12-17 experiencing major depressive episodes, only 41.8 percent receive help. Most mental disorders and psychological issues among minors go undocumented so they turn to other methods. Most teens who use marijuana do so to help cope with things they don't know how to control. Marijuana can give teens that outlet they seek during things like a divorce, an uncomfortable social situation or a physiological.

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.

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.

According to a 2012 Monitoring the Future study, marijuana is the illicit drug most likely to be used by teens (Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey). Marijuana comes from the plant Cannabis Sativa and appears as a green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves (Teens Health 1). Marijuana is also known as pot, weed, MJ, Mary Jane, reefer, dope, ganja, herb, and grass. Marijuana is most often smoked in cigarettes, hollowed-out cigars, pipes, or water pipes, but is sometimes mixed into food or tea (1). Why are there concerns about teen use of marijuana? During adolescence, many developmental changes are occurring and poor choices could affect a teen’s future

Marijuana is a popular and universal drug. It is easily accessible to most people and is the number one illicit drug used in North America. Although the availability and knowledge of this drug is fairly equal for all people in North America, marijuana tends to be more prevalent in teenagers and young adults. Maisto, Galizio, and Conners (2004) reported that "use of marijuana [in young people] was 8.0% among those aged 12-17; 16% among those aged 18-25," as compared to "6.8% among those aged 26-34; and 2.4% among those 35 and older." People of all ages, races, and religions use marijuana and have their own reasons to use it. Young people first try marijuana because of some common reasons. Some teenagers feel pressured by their peers to

In addition to increase public health problems, legalizing marijuana will lead to increase use of the drug among youngsters. Despite the regulatory approaches, legalizing marijuana has the inevitable effect of increasing the availability and consumption of the drug. Under the current prohibitions, the rate of consumption of marijuana among teenagers is already high; however, the rate of use would greatly increase if the drug was legitimately available to the population. For instance, despite the prohibitions against distribution of alcohol to teenagers, many youngsters who are under the legal age drink alcohol today. Similarly, high percentages of the young population are currently smokers even though the law prohibit them from buying cigarettes. Therefore, it is expected that the usage of marijuana among teenagers would increase if marijuana was legalized. Notably, the marijuana use will impair the development process of teenagers, which will negatively affect their health in later life. Thus, the increased use of marijuana among teenagers is a great concern. It will contribute to great dangers on the health of the youths.

Marijuana is one of the most commonly used drugs in the Nation and the world. In an article by Gray (2007) he states that “42% of high school seniors have tried marijuana, 18% have used it in the past 30 days, and 5% use it daily. Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 3.6% met criteria for cannabis use disorder (abuse or dependence) and 2% met criteria for cannabis dependence”. Gray (2007) also explains how easily adolescents say it is to obtain marijuana these days. The article also states that there is evidence to prove that marijuana use may lead to “hard” drug use, academic failure, and more. With those who use marijuana chronically it may lead to impairing of the immune

The article I chose to read was Daily marijuana use among U.S college students highest since 1980. I chose this article because I felt a lot of young people are smoking on the daily bases and I wanted to know what others were saying about marijuana use. What I learned from the media is that the use of marijuana is not the only issues in college student drug taking. A lot of college students are also taking amphetamines. They are taking these drugs because they do not feel that they are not threating drugs as others are. With the rise of these substances there has been a decrease in drinking, synthetic drugs, and smoking cigarette. The decrease in cigarettes are being paired with an increase in e-cigarettes and hookahs. Knowing this information

A person who is obsessed with cannabis also begins to lose interest for friends or family and tends to push them away. Within "Marijuana Use Harms Health and Is Addictive." it expresses, “Contrary to common belief, marijuana is addictive. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent, or 1 in 6) and among people who use marijuana daily (to 25-50 percent)” (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Furthermore using marijuana can cause the brain permanent damages as well as damaging the human’s insides only to cause the person to have respiratory issues. It has a significant impact on the mental health and cardiopulmonary, meaning the heart and lungs. In katy Steinmetz's opinionated article, “What to Know About Marijuana Legalization in California,” there was a quote by Reiman in which he said, “We encourage people to think about cannabis in a new way as something that is perfectly acceptable for adults to do in a responsible way. That’s one of the messages that legalization sends”(Steinmetz). There is nothing responsible about consuming or smoking marijuana just for pleasure, also it is only bring harm to society. The quote stated “adults” however a large amount of the users are adolescents from the ages 16-21. Children who are around the ages of

The article Teen brains aren't adult brains claims that the use of marihuana for teens is unhealthy and can affect motor skills in teens in and out of school, and also can affect decision making. And some studies say that the use in younger people can cause long term damage , the brain is still developing till the age of 20. And the use of marijuana in medication is for those 21 and older with a prescription from doctors . The medicine is used for those who have pain or certain illnesses that the medicine can ease. The article states that 36% of high school students have at least tried marijuana once . And its popularity in students in schools have risen the number of student that do use marijuana . The article thinks that adults are not

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.

In the span of 2013-14 the reports of drugs in Australia increased. There were record high reporting’s of many types of illicit drugs at the border patrol. Furthermore, many other illicit drugs had their second highest reporting in history. Cannabis is the most common drug in Australia. The number of detections of cannabis in 2013-2014 decreased, but the total weight of detected cannabis at the border control increased dramatically and was the biggest cannabis find in the last decade (Australian Drug Commission 2014). In the draft for the National Drug Strategy 2016-2025 cannabis is mentioned as a priority drug as it is the most common used illegal drug (Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs 2015). As the recent news that the Australian government is planning to legalise growing of medical cannabis there a gap in the policy of how to regulate medical cannabis and cannabis used as an illicit drug (Yaxley 2015).

legal it would benefit both those who use and those who don’t use because of tax revenue.

Marijuana is supposed to be a helpful medicine? A drug that isn't as harmful as other drugs? A way for you to feel calm?

6.7% of 12-17 year olds have admitted to daily use (International 1). This is a scary fact because the teen brain is still maturing at those ages and can be a very delicate time in that persons life. Since smoking pot can effect the brains memory it can make the teen less intelligent. That can lead to a loss in production and motivation, making it harder to achieve success in life. 94 million people in the US have admitted to trying it once in their life and 62% of them went on to try other drugs (International 1). Pot is considered a “gateway drug” to other drugs. Drugs are bad and if Americas youth goes on to trying different drugs, that can lead to many bad outcomes.