Marijuana

To toke or not to toke that is the question.  Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings  and arrows of society or succumb to popular opinion and legalize Marijuana.   Marijuana is a cure for anorexia as well as glaucoma.  Marijuana is  even a helping factor for relieving some symptoms of A.I.D.S.  Still the government of our nation has Marijuana classified as a Division I drug.  Which means it serves no medical use and does in no way benefit society.   The studies outdated and scientifically proven to be incorrect still remain beliefs of our government.

Supporters of  the legalization of Marijuana have many scientifically proven facts that point to the fact Marijuana should be legalized.  Marijuana legalization would prove to be beneficial in a number of areas.  The first bonus to legalizing Marijuana  is its medical uses.  Marijuana stimulates  the immune system and serves as a cure for glaucoma. Marijuana helps people with AIDS  retain and eat food.

Marijuana use also has intellectual benefits.  Marijuana increases alpha wave activity in the brain.  The alpha waves are associated with creativity.    This creativity is potentially the foundation of  literary and musical revelation.  Bob Marley was one of the most influential musical composers of all times.  Marley's music has persevered throughout the years.  He openly admitted, on many occasions, to smoking marijuana before he wrote and composed songs.  Marley's influence is global.  His nickname of  "the Legend" has distinguished him from many other musicians.  His  global fame separates him from all other musicians.  Many people have attributed Marley's creative genius to his use of marijuana. 

 Socially, marijuana is better from the standpoint of  addiction.  Marijuana is less addictive than tobacco.  Essentially marijuana is neither as physically nor mentally addictive as Nicotine.  Another social  benefit of marijuana is its not cancer causing when compared to  legal drugs like caffeine or Cigarettes. These are only a few of the reasons that Marijuana legal.  

To really get into the legalization issue not only do you have to look into the facts of the case but also the employment effects it would have.  Granted there are no hard facts that say marijuana needs to be legal (or illegal).  If  a person tries pictures the number of  jobs a single American field of Marijuana would create, they find it's an innumerable number. The job's cigarettes create through different aspects of preparation such as growth, harvest, manufacturing, distributing and selling, makes it is easy to see the widespread opportunities legalizing  Marijuana  would create.  Marijuana if legalized would create an infinite number of jobs.  These jobs would drastically improve the unemployment rate that is rampaging America now.  

The economy will also benefit from the legalization of Marijuana.  If the government sets taxes high they can insure themselves a large profit from the sales of marijuana.  This would make marijuana a cash crop.  A cash crop used for exportation as well as internal use.  The prices could be as severe as the cigarettes' prices now are.  This would cause a great boost in the economy. 

The legalization of Marijuana would also help save the environment.  People could stop cutting down trees in search of paper and rope because hemp, the stem or  trunk of a marijuana plant is the best maker of paper in the world.  Not to mention the fact that Hemp rope is close to the strongest natural rope in the entire world.  This would enable paper and rope companies to invest money into the growth of marijuana for industrial use. 

The last facet of this debate on legalizing Marijuana comes when one looks at the widespread use of  Marijuana in our society.   Marijuana is one of the most widely used illegal substances in the world.  In a recent survey performed in a suburban high school over 80% of the graduating class admitted to smoking pot.  While over 80% may be a remarkable high statistic the survey also concluded that the under class students were also smoking their fair share of marijuana.  The survey showed an increasing percentage of pot smokers (tokers) as they advanced through school.

The facts about Marijuana are simple. If examined,  the facts about Marijuana's potential beneficial  possibilities to American society become apparent.   The social, intellectual, economical, commercial, medical, and environmental benefits it would create if legalized are enormous and potentially a great help to our country.      The supporters of the legalization of marijuana can not fathom how or why America as a country is denying our citizens the benefits of  this helpful drug..  Supporters believe that the government is giving a drug that has NEVER killed anyone a bad reputation.  The facts that the supporters of Marijuana use are indisputable and unmistakably correct.  These facts that they portray are driving America into legalizing Marijuana.  The  legalization of  marijuana in Arizona  for medical purposes was only a small step forward yet it pleased marijuana activists.  Marijuana activists feel it was the first step to total legalization of Marijuana.

Regardless of the marijuana activist's case, the American public has to realize that Marijuana is a drug.  Marijuana damages your body and your mind.  The laws in America are simple in accordance to marijuana.  Marijuana is an illegal substance that which you cannot have possession of  regardless of  age.  The scientists and politicians refer to many aspects of Marijuana in determining  their basis for it being illegal.  The scientists stand by six main points when referring to sustaining Marijuana as an illegal substance.

The first point is that Marijuana causes brain damage.  There have been many studies done on the cause of Marijuana on the brain.  The most prolific however was the experiment by Dr. Robert Heath, who in the 1970's  tested Marijuana on laboratory monkeys.  Dr. Heath concluded that  Marijuana caused brain damage to those who smoke pot.  This is a cherished  point by Marijuana protesters.  They cling to this point as scientific reason Marijuana should remain illegal.

   Another reason is that Marijuana has been proven by Dr. Gabriel Nahas to be detrimental to the reproductive system.  Dr. Nahas has isolated different tissues and cells of various animals in determining  marijuana's harm through laboratory testing.  Dr. Nahas injected these cells with near lethal amounts of cannabinoids.  The excess of cannabinoids reasoned to be the cause of  the study's being rejected by the scientific community but yet many people hold them to fact.

A major fight against Marijuana is that is a "gateway" drug.  This means that the scientists and the other head honcho's of our society believe legalizing  Marijuana would cause for more hard drug use.  This is a statistic that is unverifiable but yet still holds its claims.  By looking at the statistics you would see that many of the cocaine users as well as the crack users and heroin addicts started off by smoking marijuana.    This is a true and verifiably scary statistic.  This point is a major setback for the Marijuana activists.  The government spends millions of dollars on agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency to stop the hard and soft drug dealers.  The legalization of Marijuana would cause such a varied effect on  such agencies.    The legalization of  marijuana  would cause an instant stop to marijuana offenses, but yet potentially skyrocket the hard drug crimes.  This is a frightful thought for the government to comprehend.  The government believes that there is no reason to give hard drugs an opening through which they could  take over society. 

The government believes that the legalization of marijuana would cause even more death and destruction on the highways.   Alcohol is a major cause for accidents on the streets and if marijuana becomes legal it would just cause for an increase of destruction on roads.  Marijuana brings people into a hypnotic state where the reaction time slows and likelihood of falling asleep is raised.  The government links  marijuana to almost as many accidents as alcohol.  This again is a scary statistic in which so many human lives are potentially in danger by the legalization of Marijuana.   Those who are against the legalization of marijuana believe that there is no reason that they should allow more dangerous drivers on the road. 

The fifth point that antagonists of Marijuana bring on is that Marijuana impairs short term memory.  This impairment of memory is a sin in this time of  education and computers.  The government strives to educate its young citizens.  Why would the government listen to any reason to why it should make a law that could potentially make the American society forgetful?  The government supports education and will not hinder its success.  The forgetfulness that Marijuana would cause is potentially a social slam.  The tendency for a pot head to forget names, schedules, thoughts, ideas and  numbers are so high that many people believe it socially dangerous to legalize. 

Finally, when inhaled, marijuana  brings in thousands of chemicals that cause cancer and other disease's.    The thought of putting  over one thousand different potentially life threatening chemicals into you body is reason enough  to keep Marijuana illegal.  The American society is beginning to realize that there are more chemicals in marijuana than there are in coffee and cigarettes.  This  statistic regarding the number of  possibly harmful chemicals found in marijuana show with graphic nature the possible  effects that marijuana posse.

Through the previously stated  facts, statistics, and theories of marijuana's potential effects on society is what keep's marijuana illegal.   These worries about impairment of memory, thousands of different chemicals in marijuana, carnage on the highways, marijuana causing  brain damage, marijuana damages the reproductive system, and marijuana being a gateway drug, is the cornerstones for the argument against of the legalization of marijuana.  The government stands by these  points and does not see it fit to jeopardize the American society with the troubles that a drug  as marijuana potentially can cause.  The government is cracking down on cigarettes along with other drugs and is hardly in the frame of mind to let what they believe to be a potentially more harmful drug than cigarettes become legal.

Regarding the government's argument, it is still obvious that  the illegality of marijuana stems to old conservative morals and ideas long since proven to be wrong by scientific study.    The cornerstones in the anti-marijuana activist's argument against the legalization of marijuana are full of  loop holes and word tricks.  The activists manage to hide the truth by playing with words.  The truth is that marijuana is less harmless and causes fewer permanent dangers than cigarettes, alcohol and caffeine.  The activists have twisted the scientists words into a positive argument for their benefit.  The major argument's state,  Marijuana causes brain damage and Marijuana damages the reproductive system.  These arguments  are invalid.  When the individual doctors did the study, they did not do it on humans.  When the tests were done on humans, the tests  showed no signs of  brain damage or reproduction system damage.

The fear that Marijuana's potential  legalization would cause widespread  use of  hard drugs  is questionable as well.  A person can make a comparison between the Netherlands and  the United States although  the two countries  have an entirely different society.  When  the Netherlands passed the legalization of Marijuana act, the hard drug use as well as crimes related with hard drugs decreased.  

The anti-marijuana activists really twisted the statistics when they reported on the damage high drivers would have on the highway.  They failed to point out that eighty-five percent of the people in a marijuana related accidents were legally drunk.   The counter argument for the marijuana activists does not say that when you are high you are able to drive.  The argument simply states that you are eighty-five percent more likely to get in an accident when drunk and high  than when you are solely high.   Regardless of the percentages the Marijuana activists discourage driving high.  

The fifth argument portrayed by the government is that Marijuana impairs short term memory.  This is true but misleading.  When the certain individual who suffered the memory loss stops smoking marijuana the memory loss goes away.  The condition of short-term memory loss is not in any way permanent as the anti-marijuana activists want you to believe.  This means that smoking marijuana has no permanent side affects in terms of mind or bodily functions, but yet the government says that it still harms you when you smoke it.  The government refers to the thousands of chemicals in marijuana  you still do inhale when you smoke  it.  The government fails to mention that every cup of coffee has eight hundred  volatile chemicals.  After testing a mere twenty-one of the chemicals in coffee studies found that sixteen of them were cancerous.   However, coffee considered fairly safe is legal.

Investigating  each fact of the two cases dealing with marijuana it seems that marijuana should be legal  The legalization activists seem to have the answer to  almost every fact presented by the anti-marijuana activists.  The American public needs to look on these facts as they formulate their personal opinion.  This debate is too important to let uneducated people decide the fate of others.  America needs to get rid of the old stereotypes of marijuana and formulate their opinion on facts not fancy.  

                   Bibliography Page

Hager Paul.  Marajuana Myths. Not published, :ICLU Drug Task Force

Wallace J.M..  "Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subpopulations and Mitogen  Responsiveness in Tobacco and Marijuana Smokers" Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.:(1988)