Legalization Of Marijuana

Legalization Of Marijuana

Policymakers in the United States claim that marijuana use is hazardous, often leading to the use of more potent drugs, matching as cocaine and heroin. As of 2000, eight states had passed laws allowing seriously ill patients to take marijuana as a prescription pain - control substance. However, people who shoot, buy, or use the drug for uniform purposes can be arrested and prosecuted below federal law.
Marijuana is the product of Cannabis sativa, a hemp plant, and it refers specifically to the plant ' s leaves and flowers. Used for centuries as a painkiller, it has become popular as a recreational drug that produces a general sense of well - being. Marijuana is known by a variety of alternative names - - - including marihuana, pot, weed, and grass. It is illegal in most countries, although some nations have lowered the penalties for owning or using small amounts of the drug. Movements have formed to establish marijuana, at pioneer for medical purposes, but critics of parallel efforts consider that the drug does more harm than good.
Usually dried, bleedin', and smoked in pipes or hand - rolled cigarettes, marijuana can also be asleep in food or drink. Users may experience both incarnate and psychological effects. Legitimate effects radius from wine eyes and dry mouth to an in addition heart scale and loss of forming. Some effects - - - including relief from pain and nausea, also appetite, and reduced muscle spasms - - - are considered beneficial for medical conditions alike as cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis.
Psychological effects may involve hallucinations, impaired sanity, and temper swings. Some studies have linked marijuana use to short - term retrospection problems. Although marijuana does not originate honest addiction, users can develop a psychological dependence on the drug.
A deal called the International Opium Convocation of 1925 was the first header to control the international trade in marijuana. In the years that followed, many countries passed laws against growing, selling, possessing, or using marijuana. In the United States, the possession and use of marijuana was admitted illegal in 1937. Marijuana is currently regulated subservient the Controlled Substances Act, part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970. This federal law classifies marijuana as a Timetable I drug, which means that it has no safe medical use and a high lurking for abuse. Despite these regulations, marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the country. In 2000, about 14 million Americans were current users of criminal, or illegal drugs, and 76 percent of them reported using marijuana, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
Some European countries have decriminalized the use of marijuana, regarding the drug as no more harmful than cigarettes and alcohol. Policymakers in the United States, by differentiation, claim that marijuana is hazardous, often leading to the use of more potent drugs allied as cocaine and heroin. As of 2000, eight states had passed laws allowing seriously ill patients to take marijuana as a prescription pain - control substance. However, people who develop, buy, or use the drug for undifferentiated purposes can be arrested and prosecuted subservient federal law. Some knock around that permitting marijuana to be used for medical purposes would lead to an increase in recreational use and pressure to validate the drug.
In some parts of the United States, farmers have lobbied to plead the growing of hemp, a plant related to marijuana that has industrial uses as a fiber. However, their efforts have been deplorable due to the association of hemp with marijuana.
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Point of View 1: Marijuana Should Be Legalized Because Its Prohibition Unnecessarily Taxes Law Enforcement
The executive use of marijuana should be legalized since it is sequentially no more dangerous than the use of legal drugs undifferentiated as tobacco and alcohol. Evidence is unredeemed in regard to both marijuana ' s addictive quality and its undeveloped as a gateway drug. Now of investigations, arrests, calamity, and incarcerations involving marijuana, law violence and judicial resources are unnecessarily damaging. Millions of Americans who smoke marijuana with little negative impact on society at sizeable are threatened by a climate where the penalties for engaging in marijuana use are too severe. The currently illegal marijuana trade promotes crime by contributing to a dangerous black market for unregulated marijuana. A policy that allows for the decriminalization, legalization, and regulation of marijuana use for contracted adults is needed to give Americans freedom of choice in deciding whether to smoke marijuana.
Marijuana use among adults should be allowed in the spirit of the legalization of consistent drugs as tobacco and alcohol. Friar to the " Marihuana Tax Act " of 1937, people used marijuana without restriction. R. Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, argues that the 1937 law was passed in a climate where marijuana was demonized by media and political interests.
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics published that a marijuana user " becomes a fiend with vicious or `cave man ' tendencies. His sex desires are aroused and some of the most detestable crimes eventuality. He hears light and sees sound. To get away from it, he suddenly becomes hysterical and may kill. " Newspapers also made hyperbolic claims; among them the Daybook of Law and Criminology reported on the habit of marijuana use, alleging that " [i]f spread out, the ultimate eventuality is insanity, which those close with it make vivid as positively incurable, and, without exception ending in death. " Throughout the remainder of the century, further legislation resulted in sharp penalties for people possessing, growing, using, or selling marijuana. This legal climate has decision-making investigations into the possible benefits of using marijuana to allay nausea and suffering caused by certain medical conditions. Although some states have put measures in accommodation that protect humanity from severe consequences for marijuana possession and use, the vast majority recommend jail time or impose stiff fines for convictions.
Law duress and judicial resources are disproportionately wasted on crimes involving marijuana. While few debate against arresting mindless users of marijuana, many trust that the general job to restrict its use keeps people from focusing on more severe and furious crimes.
Criminalizing marijuana creates the false impression that it is as dangerous as more addictive drugs of identical heroin and cocaine. Making marijuana legal and regulating it would take the criminal element out of its trafficking. Stroup, in testimony before Congress, criticized the disproportionate attention that marijuana offenses receive, stating: " By stubbornly defining all marijuana smoking as criminal, including that which involves adults smoking in the privacy of their home, government is wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging courts, cushioning invaluable and esteemed jail and prison space, and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of genuinely good general public. "
Earleywine, Mitch. " Marijuana Is Not a Gateway to Other Addictive Drugs. " Addiction. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
Males, Mike. " The Scrape of Youth Substance Abuse Is Cutting. " America ' s Youth. Ed. Roman Espejo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.
Page, Clarence. " The Harmful Effects of Marijuana Use Are Consuming. " Drug Abuse. Ed. Tamara L. Roleff. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005.
Stroup, R. Keith. " Marijuana Use Should Be Decriminalized. " Marijuana. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.
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Point of View 2: Marijuana Is a Harmful Drug that Should Not Be Legalized
Marijuana is a harmful drug that should not be legalized. Its use is associated with various health risks, impairs apprehension, and might serve as a " gateway drug, " leading to the eventual use of more destructive and addictive drugs corresponding as heroin and cocaine. Further, research indicates that marijuana users experience a higher likelihood of problems at work, home, and school than nonusers. Attempts to promote the use of marijuana to allay the nausea and suffering of people with certain medical conditions are considered by the opposition to legalization efforts to be politically motivated efforts to undercut the perception of marijuana as harmful. Unlike legal drugs approximative tobacco and alcohol, marijuana contains an ingredient that produces a euphoria that warrants its protracted distinction as an illegal substance. Legalizing marijuana would send a mixed message to teenagers whose parents are able to use the authority of law to support their own opposition to its use.
Studies have shown a number of health risks for marijuana users. As with tobacco, marijuana contains a number of carcinogens ( cancer - causing agents ), and the act of smoking itself is linked to other non - cancerous respiratory illnesses. Research in dog and human populations also indicates that marijuana use negatively impacts according to analytical functions as concentration, learning, and flashback. Rats exposed to delta - 9 - tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC ), the active ingredient in marijuana, have shown nerve cell and forcible mindfulness loss in experiments. Further research on humans shows an impact on learning that might last up to four weeks. Marijuana use impairs perspicacity in the short - term as evidenced by findings of the Department of Health and Human Services. Their studies try that Washington, D. C., emergency rooms deal with more than 2, 500 cases a year in which marijuana smoking plays a part, with more than 10 percent of those patients under 18 years of age. Driving unbefitting the influence of marijuana also contributes to traffic accidents which often creature in injuries and death.
THC, the occupied agent in marijuana, has a biological impact that distinguishes it from legal drugs alike as tobacco and alcohol. THC releases dopamine, a naturally produced chemical that stimulates a feeling of optimism; as dopamine supplies are cool, people using marijuana show slump symptoms. In 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse categorized more than two million people as dependent on marijuana based on equaling criteria. Relating findings refute those who discept that marijuana is not addictive. Fresh, its reputed banality as a " gateway drug, " is especially dangerous, as more addictive drugs related cocaine or heroin are unmistakable abyssal more dangerous than marijuana.
Commenting on the high produced by marijuana use, Damon Linker, classmate editor of First Things, a publication of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, regards the behavior as contributing to " a pathology of the soul. " He states, " [I]nhaling marijuana smoke, however arresting, can only lead to an ersatz satisfaction—because it involves void upright. Then it is that, after its effects have weary off, marijuana leaves its users with little more than a perception of emptiness and a frenzy for aggrandized high. "
Gfroerer, Joseph C., Li - Tzy Wu, and Michael A. Penne. " Marijuana Is a Gateway Drug. " Drug Legalization. Karen F. Balkin. Informal Controversies Procedure. San Diego: Greenhaven Punctuate, 2005.
Linker, Damon. " Marijuana Use Should Not Be Decriminalized. " Marijuana. Ed. Mary E. Williams. At Issue Layout. San Diego: Greenhaven Point out, 2003.
Margolis, Robert. " Legalizing Marijuana Would Abuse Girlhood. " Legalizing Drugs. Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. At Issues Pattern. San Diego: Greenhaven Repeat, 2006.
Walters, John P. " Marijuana Is Harmful. " Drug Abuse. Ed. Tamara L. Roleff. San Diego: Greenhaven Bear down, 2005.
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Point of View 3: Marijuana Use Should Be Allowed to Appease the Nausea and Mutilated of People with Certain Medical Conditions
Although marijuana use is regarded as illegal by the federal government, an exception should be made for people whose suffering and nausea can be thankful by its use. Legal alternatives to marijuana with the same active ingredient do not work with all patients. Regardless of the negative impact that marijuana can have on a person ' s health, benefits lock up the hazards for some patients. Further research into the positive effects of medicinal marijuana use has been answerable by the drug ' s composition as an illegal substance. Allowing further scientific investigation into the use of medicinal marijuana would help clarify when its use might be most rightful.
Studies have shown marijuana can benefit people with certain medical conditions and symptoms. Monastic to its prohibition in 1937 with the passing of the " Marihuana Tax Act, " some members of the medical community touted marijuana as a drug with the inherent to assuage various adverse health conditions. Regardless of its rank as an illegal drug, marijuana has been promoted as a possible treatment when purposive subservient ethical supervision; it has been shown to be an effective means of reducing nausea and vomiting experienced by chemotherapy patients. While alternatives jibing as Marinol, a legal cut of the active ingredient in marijuana, take place, some patients do not respond as successfully to its administration. Marijuana has also shown some promise in relieving the pain felt by people who suffer from glaucoma, a debilitating eye attribute that can lead to blindness, as well as in suppressing appetite gain and scrutiny muscle relaxation, conditions associated with a number of illnesses.
Even though marijuana use has some irrefutable negative effects on health, for some people its benefits outweigh its drawbacks. Smoking marijuana has been demonstrated to have a negative impact on the lungs over time, while studies also show a link between marijuana and impaired learning and remembrance functions. But for some patients—especially those with terminal conditions—the alleviation of suffering in the short - term trumps concerns about marijuana ' s long - term effects on health.
Since marijuana can lighten the pain and suffering of people with certain medical conditions, further research needs to happen. Unfortunately, judge supporters of research, in a climate where marijuana is regarded as illegitimate by the federal government, researchers might not feel the freedom to needle its use. In 1997, the Neutral Mansion Office of National Drug Control Policy requested that the Institute of Medicine ( IOM ), a division of the National Academy of Scientists, maintain a report on the benefits and drawbacks of marijuana use. All of the recommendations presented by the IOM called for further research of medicinal marijuana through strictly controlled studies and clinical mishap. Gary Newkirk, a clinical professor and medical editor in Seattle, offered a direct challenged to the government: " Marijuana is currently a Plan 1 drug, considered to be potentially addictive and with no current medical use. Marijuana needs to be reclassified as a Schedule 2 drug, `potentially addictive but with some accepted medical use, ' and studied to the hilt by the alike impartial science that has brought this country to the forefront in medicine. "
Colb, Sherry F. " The Federal Government Should Not Override State Medical Marijuana Laws. " Marijuana. Ed. Jamuna Carroll. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006.
The Institute of Medicine. " Examining the Scientific Research on Medical Marijuana. " Marijuana. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Contemporary Issues Companion Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002.
Newkirk, Gary. " The Federal Government Should Not Interfere with State Medical Marijuana Laws. " Marijuana. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Contemporary Issues Companion Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002.
Schuckit, Marc A. " Fresh Research on Medical Marijuana Is Warranted. " Marijuana. Ed. William Dudley. At Issues Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999.
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