Decriminalization Of Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

Marijuana is a drug obtained from dried and crumpled parts of the cosmopolitan hemp works Cannabis sativa ( or Cannabis indicia ) . It is smoked by turn overing in baccy paper, or by puting it in a pipe. It is besides otherwise consumed worldwide by an estimated 200,000,000 individuals for pleasance, an flight from world, or relaxation. Marijuana is known by a assortment of names such as kif ( Morocco ) , Leonotis leonurus ( South Africa ) , and bhang ( India ) . Common in the United States, marihuana is called pot, grass, weed, Mary Jane, castanetss, etc. The chief active rule of hemp is tetrahydrocannabinol. The inquiry of marihuana being legalized has been a really controversial issue for a long clip. It? s been controversial because of the bad path record it has sustained over the old ages. Marijuana is considered to be a schedule one drug. That means that it has a high potency for maltreatment and lacks an credence for legal medical usage, as it is clearly stated under the controlled substance act. However at that place? re many pros and cons to whether it should be legalized or non.

One advantage of Marijuana is that it? can alleviate hurting where other drugs or techniques have failed, opening the door to all of the mending benefits and increased life options of hurting alleviation. Cannabis besides has direct good physiological impacts on certain diseases such as glaucoma, megrim, multiple induration, and epilepsy. ? ( Dr. Potter, Beverly ( 1998 ) The mending thaumaturgy of hemp. Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing INC. )

Marijuana is besides known to assist victims of assorted other diseases in assorted different ways. Pro marijuana legalisation groups such as the Physician? s Association for AIDS attention & A ; National Lymphoma Foundation believe that marihuana should be legalized in order to handle terminally sick patients. Among them are AIDS victims, who find that marihuana stimulates their appetencies so that they can contend off unsafe bonyness.

Marijuana has besides been proven to be less harmful than other legal drugs. Legalizing it might diminish force and offense, hike our economic system, and let its usage as an effectual signifier of medical specialty for the intervention of many fatal unwellnesss. ? Every twelvemonth, 400,000 Americans dice of complications caused by baccy products. ? ( S. Michels, missive, September 4th,1999 ) Smoking putting to deaths more Americans each twelvemonth than intoxicant, cleft, diacetylmorphine, slaying, suicide, auto accidents, fires, and AIDS all put together. Alcohol maltreatment contributes to about 50 % of all traffic accidents, self-destructions, and homicides. Drinking besides is known to do liver harm and liver malignant neoplastic disease, which is in many instances fatal. The bottom line is that baccy and intoxicant are really bad drugs, much higher than marihuana. However, despite the proved dangers of these? socially acceptable? drugs, they are still legal. Research has yet to trap any specific dangers to marijuana and it still remains illegal while the unsafe drugs with proved effects remain legal. Alcohol prohibition torus America apart one time and now it is the war O

n drugs, peculiarly marihuana. Harsh Torahs and the menace of drawn-out gaol sentences still do non halt the distribution and drug usage of marihuana. All they do is drive the monetary value of the merchandise up and give traders a ground to sell, doing it an impossible war to win.

However there are besides negative effects that the legalisation of marihuana might hold. ? Cipher disputes that marihuana is mind-altering. But is it a harmless herb or a measure down the slippery incline of drug dependence? Two studies, both published in Science in June, throw a sinister visible radiation on the amusing coffin nails. In the surveies of rats, research workers turned up grounds that marihuana produces the same biochemical alterations in the encephalon as diacetylmorphine, cocaine? ? ( Richardson, S. ( 1998 ) , Better non inhale. New York )

In add-on Dennis James, Clinical Director of Assessment and General Treatment at the CAMH, has besides observed? inauspicious effects of marihuana usage in some clients such as damage in memory, damage in problem-solving, motive and focal point, every bit good as moodiness? . All these factors might non sound really fatal, nevertheless they do interrupt one? s ability to map in entire control of head and organic structure.

Tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC ) is the active drug in marihuana used to assist alleviate sickness in malignant neoplastic disease patients. This THC has been proven to take down testosterone in the blood watercourse for work forces. ( Angier 15 ) This is non a major concern to adult work forces because the degree of testosterone rapidly rises back after the tobacco user is done smoke. However, it may be harmful to adolescent male childs. & # 8220 ; In adolescence, a male child & # 8217 ; s organic structure is traveling through many alterations & # 8211 ; it grows taller, it gets hairier, the voice deepens & # 8211 ; and these alterations are controlled by testosterone. Marijuana could really good barricade the normal growing process. & # 8221 ; says Carol Smith, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethsheda Maryland. Columbia University did a survey on 16 work forces who smoked five to fifteen articulations a twenty-four hours. After they finished smoking their sperm counts were counted. It was discovered that all of the work forces experienced a dip in sperm count for hebdomads after and had malformed sperm cells. This could do some serious deformities in conceived kids.

Surveies were done on female Macaca mulatta monkeys, which have really similar organic structure chemical science to human adult females. The monkeys were injected with doses of THC. The catamenial rhythms of the monkeys were greatly disrupted and some stopped ovulating wholly. Says Smith, & # 8220 ; Nothing we have of all time tested including unwritten preventives, has every bit extremist an consequence on the catamenial rhythm as marihuana does. & # 8221 ; The endocrines in work forces and adult females are decidedly thrown off by marihuana usage. ( Angier 15 ) .

All this makes one inquiry if the thought of legalising marihuana is that great. There are many positive and negative effects that these actions might hold, and it will likely take old ages until this argument will make its solution. There? s merely non adequate grounds to turn out whether marihuana can be used medically, or non at this point of clip.

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