Is Marijuana a Serious Health Issue

The legal use of marijuana has always been a major controversy among people. Should it remain illegal or should it be legalized? Marijuana is known by people as weed, pot, ganja, or grass. What most people don’t realize is that marijuana is also known to be used as a medicine. Many people just see marijuana as a harmful drug. Marijuana has been used to help those with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis patients and glaucoma which can lead to blindness.

Currently cigarettes and alcohol are legal and are used by millions of people in our country. If one were to compare marijuana with tobacco or alcohol one would soon realize that marijuana is the least harmful. Cigarettes can lead to strong addiction, cancer, heart problems, birth defects, emphysema, and liver damage. Marijuana can be used properly if one has the right equipment. Vaporizers can be used which eliminate harmful toxins from the smoke. Therefore the lungs are not exposed to as many harmful toxins.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 19, 2005, Vol. 293, No. 3, p. 298, during the year of 2000 there were a total of 435,000 deaths related to tobacco, and 85,000 deaths related to alcohol. In that same year the total deaths related to marijuana was 0. Cigarettes have more dangerous chemicals than marijuana. For starters cigarettes have nicotine, a chemical which causes people to become addicted and also known to cause heart disease. Tar, carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and DDT are just a few ingredients in cigarettes. Marijuana also contains many chemicals. Its main chemical is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Although it decreases attention span, desirable side effects are the alleviation of nausea and vomiting. If marijuana were legalized the same laws should apply to this drug as they apply to alcohol. No one should be behind a wheel while under the influence of any drug.

Literature is very controversial. If one did more research they would find two opposing sides. Ones side showing marijuana as a drug that should stay illegal. The other side however shows it as a drug that can be used as medicine, a drug that any US citizen should have the right to obtain. If US citizens have the right to smoke tobacco and drink alcohol shouldn’t they be allowed to smoke marijuana? Unlike tobacco marijuana has been proven to help certain people with medical conditions.














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