Marijuana issue produces controversy
(Photo courtesy of eyesonobama)
The legalization of marijuana, also known as cannabis, pot, tea, grass, hash, or weed, is the subject of debate throughout the country.
Marijuana is made from the leaves and flowers of the Indian hemp plant, cannabis sativa, and it is usually crushed and formed into cigarettes for smoking. It is an anesthetic, antibiotic, and antidepressant drug that causes euphoria, visual hallucinations, dizziness, and mood changes. Consumption can also lead to difficulty in thinking and problem solving, an increase in heart rate, and impaired coordination. Serious problems will arise when one abuses the drug and takes it in excessive amounts.
Nevertheless, marijuana is not an addictive drug. The word, addiction, is used to describe a chronic desire to engage in a specific activity despite detrimental consequences to health. Drug addiction involves physical dependence that consists of painful withdrawal symptoms such as shaking and shivering, vomiting, increases in blood pressure, temperature, and the rate of breaking, and even death. Physical dependence can occur from small amounts of narcotics.
Scientists have realized that the brain makes its own pleasure-producing chemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins that fit into the neurons of the brain. However, narcotics contain chemicals that fit these neurons and produce feelings of happiness, so the brain stops the production of its own endorphins and enkephalins due to increasing use of narcotics. As a result, these narcotics makes normal functioning of the body impossible unless the drug is present.
For marijuana, withdrawal symptoms are neither medically serious nor dangerous. Some symptoms include loss of appetite, anxiety, headache, nausea, inability to sleep, and increased aggression.
However, psychological dependence, does occur among certain types of users due to long-term use of marijuana. Although psychological dependence does not make one’s body physically dependent on a drug and is not life-threatening, it may cause people to have difficulties in limiting their use and alienate themselves from friends and families due to their focus on taking marijuana.
Cannabis psychosis, a mental illness that can cause serious damages in judgment and hallucinations, may occur, but this psychiatric reaction is caused by heavy, chronic use of marijuana.
The federal government and many state governments treats marijuana like other controlled substances, such as cocaine and heroin, by making the possession, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana, including medical marijuana, illegal.
“I find that if you classify marijuana as a drug, then cigarettes should also be [considered as a drug] because they are infinitely more harmful to people and addictive,” Nathan Fisher (’11) said.
In several federal cases, judges have ruled that medical marijuana cannot be used as a defense. Marijuana convictions are eligible for imprisonment and a sentence to jail depending on the amount of marijuana and past convictions. Low-level offenses may end up with probation and no jail time.
“A minor infraction from doing marijuana can follow you for the rest of your life and prevent you from obtaining jobs,” Jack Duchin (’12) said.
However Washington is one of the 13 states that has a medical marijuana law, which allows patients who have fatal or harmful diseases to have a 60-day supply of marijuana. Medical marijuana includes many medical benefits such as nausea reduction, increased appetite, and control of muscle spasms, seizures, and chronic pain.
However, problems have arisen in this law since it is illegal to purchase the cannabis plant or its seeds. Patients cannot obtain this drug through pharmacies; instead, they have to either grow this plant or obtain it from a designated care provider. A designated provider is a person who is at least 18 years old and has been designated to possess medical marijuana in writing by a qualified patient. Nonetheless, a designated care provider can only grow up to 15 plants.
Many people believe that marijuana should be legalized. In fact, in a Jan. poll of 500 adults in Washington by SurveyUSA, 56 percent of adults believed that legalizing marijuana is a good idea. The national movement for legalization states that medical marijuana can relieve nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapeutic drugs for cancer and AIDS and reduce muscle pain associated with multiple sclerosis, a disease that injures the nerve impulses, to prevent epileptic seizures.
These supporters also proclaim that this drug is a mild hallucinogen that is not similar to addictive narcotics and believe that it would reduce crimes because drug dealers and terrorists would lose most or all of their business.
“If marijuana is legalized, then it can cut down crimes related to marijuana. Also, it can take away the exciting aspect of marijuana because if marijuana is forbidden, then people want it more,” Ashley Williams (’10) said.
“Marijuana should be legal because most of the violence comes from it being illegal. If it was legalized, then police wouldn’t have to break drug cartels,” Max Faran (’13) said.
“Marijuana should be legal to consume and distribute because it is a harmless plant with numerous benefits that have been proven with scientific studies. [The legalization of marijuana will] cut out the shady people in between such as the people trying to make easy money by selling marijuana,” Mike Mayer (’10) said.
They also believe that the legalization of marijuana can provide economic support for the United States during the recession by taxing the sale of marijuana to solve budget deficits.
“The government can regulate and tax marijuana like tobacco. [We could use] the money from taxes [on marijuana] to help schools,” Ben Mishkin (’10) said.
“There was a study done in California where someone figured out that if they taxed marijuana at a certain amount, they could reduce, if not eliminate, California’s debt,” Fisher said. “Marijuana is actually not that bad for people and the government could probably make a lot of money off of taxing it.”
“I feel like a lot of people do [marijuana], so I don’t think [legalization] would be a big deal. [Usage of marijuana] is similar to drinking. So many kids drink alcohol because they want to be rebellious. However, in Europe, drinking is not a big deal,” Alex Bede (’10) said.
On the other hand, law enforcement groups and chemical dependency organizations believe that marijuana is morally wrong due to religious views, and legalization would make drugs more accessible to teenagers than it is currently.
“I think that the legalization of marijuana is going to corrupt everything,” Ivy Wakaba (’12) said.
They believe in the gateway theory, which states that marijuana will cause people to use more dangerous drugs such as heroin and cocaine because they will be interested in experimenting and finding a bigger excitement.
“[Despite its benefits], I don’t think marijuana should be legal because it a drug that is a step between a harder drug such as heroin or cocaine. Also, it increases chances of it falling into the hands of kids,” Devika Agrawal (’13) said.
“Marijuana is an illegal substance for a reason. It causes behaviors that aren’t healthy and shouldn’t be available to the masses in my opinion,” Julia Donner (’11) said.
One negative effect of legalizing marijuana might be driving under the influence under drugs, Unless a person has been smoking weed in the car, there will not be a distinctive smell as there is with alcohol. There is also widespread danger of secondhand smoke to bystanders since it increases the chances of people suffering the damage by inhaling the smoke. Some people believe that the legalization of marijuana would increase crime since people involved in illegal marijuana trade might turn to other crimes and prefer that marijuana offenders would go to jail to feel safe.
