Reference no: EM13160669

Is marijuana a good choice for the future of America?

On September 11st, 2001, the most traumatic event in American history occurred. The twin towers collapsed as a result of terrorist attack which caused many innocent lives. This event not only made a big impact on American economy but its effects also spread out to the world. Numerous companies were enforced to be closed because they could no longer afford to run the business, while bigger companies transferred their investment and operation over to Asia where they could find cheaper labors that didn't need any benefits and insurance. As the result, many people from different levels of income, especially the middle class suffered a lot for job losses and tax increase. One income family could no longer provide enough financial for the whole family. Within a decade, Americans were confronted with many challenges and new changes. Some of them were good for us, while the others only brought destruction to our future. One of major change in medical field is the amendment 64 which legalized marijuana for any users who could prove that they were 21 years or older in Colorado. Marijuana is also legal in Washington and California. People from other states might wonder whether this revolution in drug law is good or bad for their society in general and for their family in individual. I find myself along with people who rise up many questions such as will this change solve the financial problem or will it cause more problems and if marijuana is good drug then why it is legalized now after hundred years it has been restricted for any users under any circumstances. As far as I can remember when we were little kids, we were educated that addictive drugs like marijuana and alcohol are not good for our health. None of us could really understand the reasons behind it. But when we reached to high school level, throughout drug education class we could clearly see more the negative side effects of addictive drug and alcohol. Scientists discovered that addictive drugs, tobacco and drinks were not only danger to human's innards such as lung and heart. They also destroyed our brain cells which lead to hallucination. They are the main cause for lung cancer and heart disease. Even big tobacco companies like Marlboro, and camel are forced to state surgeon general warning: quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health on the side of every single cigarette package as a warning sign of the production's side effect. The point here is that even though we know drugs, smoke and alcohol are bad we still want to use them. In this report, I want to emphasize on how marijuana is good and bad for us, and hopefully, after reviewing my points, the voters from other states might have a better idea why marijuana should be restricted to medical purposes only. It is not a rocket science but it is a common sense that people should know exactly what marijuana is before they vote to make it to be legalized in their state. So what is marijuana?

Even though marijuana is very popular in our society today, its origin still remains unknown. No one knows exactly where marijuana comes from and how long it has been existed before it is discovered, partly because the plans can grow pretty much anywhere on the planet. Other reason might be because marijuana is the one among addictive drugs which is highly restricted in most countries. Marijuana consists of the leaves and flowers of the hemp plants and sometimes, it is called by different name," Cannabis sativa". The original color of cannabis%u2019s leaves is green and it turns into brown when dried. Users usually apply a small amount of dried leaves on their pipe or wrap dried leaves in cigarette's paper and smoke it like they smoke cigarette, while others like to eat marijuana. According to William Goodwin, the author of the book Marijuana, %u201Cmarijuana is smoked for more often than it is eaten. However, the primary reason for this is that smoking produces the high almost immediately while eating it takes anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. Because of its immediately effect, smoking marijuana is safer than eating it. Users can tell right away if they have enough doses or not. With eating, it takes proximately and hour before users can tell if they are overdosed or not. Whether people eat or smoke marijuana, they all experience the same effect. Unlike morphine and pain killer which intend to paralyze parts of our body, marijuana%u2019s effect go directly to the brain system and create disorder in our brain%u2019s function. Marijuana also disrupts the short-term memory; create false imagination and feeling. Under the influence of marijuana, the human%u2019s personality change complete. People%u2019s perception of reality is distorted by hundred percent. They can%u2019t help but laugh at themselves or at any non-meaning objects and they are willing to open a conversation to any strangers. For beginners who don%u2019t have enough experience with using marijuana, it can cause panic, anxiety, delusions and hallucinogenic. Some new users even suffer from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and heavy headache. Different people experience different side effects, when they use marijuana, because the effect levels depend on what type of marijuana, how much it is used and whether or not users combine marijuana with other drugs or drinks such as alcohol or tobacco. Unlike alcohol, and tobacco, marijuana can instantly increase the heart rate by a tremendous amount. Liza Jane Maltin, the author of the book Marijuana Active Ingredient Targets Deadly Brain Center which published on February 28, 2000, has mentioned that one reason marijuana causes anxiety is that it can increase the user%u2019s heart rate by 20 to 50 percent within about ten minutes of smoking it and about half an hour of eating it. According to my Google research this creditable heart rate can last at least three hours regardless of whether users are in moving motion or just stand still. Now Liza Jane Maltin%u2019s fact is based on the record of people with normal health. Image what happen to a person, who is associated with heart disease history, when he or she experience 50 percent increases in the heart rate for ten minutes.

In the report of American Heart Association (AHA), 3,882 random patients who had heart attack were surveyed about whether or not they have been used marijuana in the past. As the result turned out, 124 patients confirmed of using marijuana, 37 others had used the drugs in the twenty-four hours preceding their heart attacks, and 9 had used it in the hour before. This experiment has severed as a practical evident which proved that marijuana is linked to heart attack. Marijuana is definitely not something for people with heart disease to try out, not even once. In other words, people who always concerns about their health, should stay away from the drugs.

Now people might wonder what make marijuana or Cannabis so dangerous. Well, marijuana smoke consists of bad chemicals which are identified as potential cancer-causing agents (which is the term used by Wayne Hall and Nadia Solowij, the author of the book with the title Adverse Effects of Cannabis). These chemicals are known as carbon monoxide, tar and THC which is short for tetrahydro-cannabinol. The IOM report indicated that each inhalation of marijuana smoke contains three to give times more tar and carbon monoxide than an equal amount of tobacco. On the good side, these chemicals are very powerful in making the users feel high. People feel happy and positive but what they see, hear or feel is not realistic. On the down side, people are coating their lungs with potential cancer-causing gunk when they are using marijuana. Above all of the worse, marijuana smokers like to optimize marijuana%u2019s effect by inhaling much more deeply than tobacco smokers do; in other words, they try to hold their breath (Which contains the smoke in their lung) as much as possible, so they can get high faster and longer. This is exactly the same act as you are suffocating yourself with the smoke. The difference in here is that marijuana smokes create more damages than the regular smoke does. Coughing more often, have more frequent chest pain and experiencing breathing difficult are the results which cause by smoking marijuana. What people don%u2019t realize when they smoke marijuana is that they are exposing their lungs to disease-causing chemicals while they are smoking. Once these chemicals get in the body through the mouth, they will immerse with the blood line and travel to every part of the body. They look for the weakest spots and attack them which cause cancer to grow. No scientists or doctors can a certain prediction where the cancer will likely to develop but sooner or later the cancer will appear somewhere. There are many more resources and scientists facts which prove that marijuana cause serious damage to our body and mind. But if the above facts are not strong enough to convince people stop smoking marijuana, then here are some other reasons why marijuana should be restricted.

Marijuana will raise car accidents and drivers who use marijuana are significantly increasing their chance of involving in car accidents than those who don%u2019t use marijuana. Since smoking marijuana makes people feel sleepy, makes people uncoordinated, slow down their reaction, the chances of getting crash behind the wheel go way up when they are high. To examine the link between marijuana use by drivers and risk of a car accident, researchers at Columbia University did a %u201Cmeta-analysis of nine epidemiologic studies%u201D and revealed that drivers who got positive for marijuana%u2019s test or who report using marijuana while operating vehicle are more than twice as likely as other drivers to be involved in motor vehicle crashes. The researchers also found evidence that crash risk increases with the concentration of marijuana-produced compounds in the urine and the frequency of self-reported marijuana use.

Although many scientists and studies confirm that people place their health and future at risk, when they use marijuana, the solution of these problems and how we eliminate the risk still remain mystery. The debate to illegalize marijuana is the debate without an end. It is understandable because addictive drugs usually have more supporters than protestors. For a practical instant, Colorado%u2019s marijuana was passed with 1,383,139 vote yes and only 1,116894 people who voted on no. According to 9news, the election was held on 6th, November, 2012. In term of percentage, there were 55.32 percent who voted on yes, while there were only 44.68 percent people who voted on no. The reason for legalizing marijuana is as varied as the people who support it. Some people insist that marijuana is legalized for the benefit of cancer patients. . Others support marijuana just simply because either they want to use it or they want to raise and sell it, while others want it to be legalized to create tax revenues for the state and federal governments. From their perspective, taxing marijuana might add more revenue for the state and create more jobs for the people. According to Rocky Mountain News February, 2009, the state will obtain 25 percent tax at wholesale and an addition 25 percent tax at retail. The state Office of Financial Management estimated possible marijuana-tax revenue %u201Cin the year ending June 30th, 2015, at 434 million dollars%u201D (Rocky Mountain News). That%u2019s comparable with the states take from the cigarette tax (425 million in fiscal 2012) and the state and local take from liquor (426 million dollars in 2011). These promising data make marijuana to be an ideal solution for our current economy%u2019s situation. However, Contrary to people%u2019s believe, marijuana is the reason why users have a hard time to find a job if they smoke pot. And it is not just the dream job, high-paying jobs that require drug test. Now, under the difficult time of our economy, even ordinary jobs such as fast-food, restaurant, and shopping mall center also require applicants to pass the drug test. Although job recruiters never admit that they don%u2019t want to hire people who use marijuana or illegal drug their drug test requirement reveals that drug users are restricted in their company. Partly because employers always to make their company as a free production environment not a free smoking pot area, the other reason is that in their mind, a normal person can product more effective than pot users. Therefore, passing the drug test is the most important thing in finding a future%u2019s job. Unfortunate, it is hard to get rid of drugs in system before taking the drug test. Unlike alcohol, which the body can eliminates within hours, THC can exists in the body for a month or more .According to Debbie Stanley, who wrote the book, Marijuana and your lungs the incredibly disgusting story. Drug testing is getting much more sophisticated and harder to beat. The THC in pot is absorbed mostly in fatty tissues and can be detected in urine tests a month or more after you use it. Since marijuana is every additive, a month of quitting smoke seems to be impossible for the users. As a matter of fact, many companies now are applying the most advantage drug test method which use hair sample. The reason behind this test is that drugs never come out of your hairs regardless how times you wash them, because drugs doesn%u2019t stay in your hair but it is actually in it.

Legalizing marijuana is also believed to rise up the crime rate in American%u2019s society. There are many drug dealers who are kept in the prison due to marijuana charges. If marijuana is no longer illegal in United States, then the government has no reason but has to release them. This will help the government to obtain more empty spaces in prisons, and police Officers won%u2019t have to deal with marijuana possession. But the question is that what is going to happen once the drug dealers are released to our society. Marijuana would create the unintended consequences that would be increasing the crimes because of money lacking and smuggling; it would also promote the demand for drug.%u201D The study has released by the RAND corporation claim that %u201Capproximately 60 percent of arrested test positive for marijuana use in the United States, England and Australia.%u201D (Charles). The prolonged use of pot can alter the behavior or nervous system that would urge the increase of violent. For instance, in Los Angeles, police reported that surrounding the cannabis clubs the rate of robberies increases 200 percent, 52.2 percent in burglaries, 57.1 percent in aggravated assault and a 130.8 percent in burglaries of automobiles. (Charles).

There is no way scientists can prove that people are smarter if they don%u2019t use marijuana. However, there are a lot of people who have abused marijuana all their live and have regretted that they could have obtained for a better education such as bachelor or master degree or had a better job or lived in a better environment with a happy family, but they have chosen drug and never got out of it. It is understandable that whatever people have done for a long time, it will eventually become a part of their live. The longer they use marijuana, the harder it makes for them to quit. Now we don%u2019t have to be a rocket science to figure out that if marijuana really decreases our strength, energy and flexible, then we won't use. We just have to utilize our common sense that is if the marijuana is addictive and bad, then we don't have to try it, not even once. And in order to teach our kids about how dangerous marijuana is, we have to lead for an example. Not only should we say no to the drugs. But we also have to encourage teenage and kids prevent the drugs spread. People need to think about marijuana%u2019s long term effects which are mentioned above before they vote yes on amendment 64 in their state. Our decision does not only impact the society and surrounding environment, but it also affects our children%u2019 future. The parents and the governments who always proclaim that safety is the first priority for their family in individual and for their country in general, must realize that marijuana can only bring destruction and it is must be terminated. Only that way we can show our true appreciation to the men and the women in uniform who put their live at risk to protect our safety at the border.

No matter whether marijuana should be legalized or should be terminated, we have to acknowledge the fact that marijuana is new issue in America in which it has been identified as illegal drugs for more than a decade and now it is legalized everywhere in Colorado, Washington DC and California. This sudden change might be a big fortune for our economy or it could be a disaster. The solution here is that people should never let their guard down, the government need to create more check point station along the boundaries between Colorado and other states. This act not only generate more jobs for men and women who desire to satisfy their live for our safety, but it also help to isolate Colorado, Washington, and California from the rest of America. In case, some unexpected issues occur such as government lose control over drug dealers or anything else, that state is well-isolate and the effect can%u2019t spread out to other states. And also,   education department need to add more drug education programs in the school. Every single kid who is waiting to turn to be 21 should have a good knowledge about what marijuana can do to their body. This idea not only prevents marijuana%u2019s venom spreading on their young and innocent victim, but it also reduces a big amount of people who happen to be marijuana abusers. The less people become marijuana abusers, the more money governments save from building counter-drug training center. Marijuana could be good or it could be bad. But our safety should always be the first priority in our mind.