Legalizing marijuana

Individuals’ views on drug prohibition

Individuals’ views on drug prohibition are unaffected by whether or not they use marijuana. Most people have seen or smoked marijuana in a medicinal or recreational environment. The most famous characteristic of the drug, both domestically and globally, is its illegality. Despite the fact that it is illegal, people have tried to do it, and the effects of this legal disregard have had disastrous social and economic consequences. There is a significant divide between those who support and oppose drug prohibition, with some loudly supporting and calling for legalization, especially in superpower nations such as the United States. The debate on the legal status of marijuana is not a new issue it has been going on for several years with both the opponents and proponents basing their arguments on factual evidence to back up their claims. Marijuana has been labeled as the most abused drug in the world, for instance in the United States, about 6% of individuals aged 12 years and older used marijuana in 2008 (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, & Wagenaar, 2013). Therefore, its legalization would have a significant impact on both individuals and the government. Given the impacts of legalizing marijuana, the present paper argues that it should not be legalized since it would result in increased addiction, social evils, and drug induced accidents.

Legalization of marijuana and its impact on individuals

Legalization of marijuana would greatly affect every member of the society. For instance, a person driving a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana, their ability to drive safely is inhibited. According to Friese, & Grube, (2013), based on the vast medical marijuana experience in the state of California, the authors observed that it had had destructive impacts on lives and societies. The use of marijuana in a medical setting is classified as a bad policy and public safety problems (Friese, & Grube, 2013). There exists no compelling scientific and medical data that adequately supports the medicinal value of marijuana (Mitch, 2002). Adler, Barthwell, & Brown, (2003), documents that there exists no factual evidence or data on the beneficial aspects of marijuana and how people could evaluate its benefits to reducing pain in some ill people.

Impact on children and society

People would take a long time before coming to terms with the legalization of marijuana in the society and would not give up instead they would even push and fight further. With the legalization of marijuana, many people would smoke without the fear of getting caught and the majority of them being parents. Similar to how alcohol is accessible to children because parents often drink, it would be difficult to keep marijuana out of reach of children. It would be difficult to stop kids from consuming the toxic drugs. Many children look up to their parents as their role model, so if their parents smoke marijuana, they will end up smoking as well. Studies indicate that smoking marijuana in children has a serious adverse effect on brain development. Moreover, smoking marijuana affects the concentration ability and results in seduction in brain cell activity.

Risks and negative health effects

If marijuana is legal, the public would be exposed to multiple risks. Legalization would result in increased crime rates in the cities, and it would lead to the loss of more innocent lives as well as the peace of officers in the community. Due to amplified crime rates in the society, the police and other law enforcement agencies would incur costs in an attempt to curb the social crimes. Car accidents would be on the rise as well as property crimes. The increase in property crimes would be attributed to stealing by addicts who would be in need of money to buy drug, thereby stealing, and selling the property.

Long-term health effects and impact on the economy

Increased substance abuse has serious negative health effects. For instance, those individuals that use marijuana as a depressant because of the belief that it would help them calm down and feel better, it affects them by worsening their condition. Other negative health effects associated with the use of marijuana include lung infections, cancer of the lung, mouth, and throat. The risk of developing cancer is high for marijuana users as compared to cigarette smokers. One develops blood pressure complications since after smoking marijuana, individual experiences a faster heart beat and a drop in blood pressure. It is due to the increased heart rate and decreased blood pressure that marijuana users have a high prevalence rate of having a heart attack within the first hour. Smoking has been associated with importance in males, indicating those that smoke marijuana has very high chances of becoming impotent. Bad breath is also another side effect of smoking marijuana which will affect the sex life of the user. Some studies have linked the use marijuana with the development of testicular cancer in men.

Even though marijuana users use it for relaxation effects and relief them from their pain, it use has long-term effects as they would develop health complications such as brain damage. In research that was conducted on two college students on the effects of marijuana revealed after and long-term effects of using the substance. In research that was conducted on two college students on the effects of marijuana revealed after and long-term effects of using the substance. One of the students smoked a small portion of marijuana and was found to exhibit short-term memory complications afterwards. The other student smoked 15mg of marijuana and experienced some after effects that included changes in emotions reaching euphoria state. Marijuana affects the short-term memory of the user because THC alters how information is processed by the hippocampus, which is a significant process through which memory is formed. Hippocampus is a part of the brain that contains several THC receptors responsible for processing memory (Wright).

Those supporting the legalization of marijuana argue that it would improve the economy. However, by being legal, it would create more turmoil in the streets. Proponents supporting for legalization of marijuana argue that the economy would improve because of its taxation. However, it is not necessarily that through taxation it would improve the economy because it would be just the exchange of money. Those individuals buying marijuana will lose their money, and people in the government will get the money which will not be of any value to the economy because the exchange is a continuous process. Consequently, the government will eventually set up programs to help marijuana addicts. In the event that marijuana is legalized, more money will be needed to fund research and investigative works and health relative care. Therefore, instead of the taxes collected boosting the economy, marijuana legalization would result in more waste of the tax money.

References

Adler, M., Barthwell, A. G., & Brown, L. S. (2003). The treatment of drug addiction: a review. Principles of Addiction Medicine, Third Edition. Chevy Chase, Md: The American Society of Addiction Medicine, Inc, 419-428.

Friese, B., & Grube, J. W. (2013). Legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana use among youths. Drugs: education, prevention and policy, 20(1), 33-39.

Lynne-Landsman, S. D., Livingston, M. D., & Wagenaar, A. C. (2013). Effects of state medical marijuana laws on adolescent marijuana use. American journal of public health, 103(8), 1500-1506.

Mitch, E. (2002). Understanding marijuana: A new look at the scientific evidence.

Wright, C. Marijuana: Effects on the Brain.