In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom, Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common gateway for people is drug. Our American society is facing a tremendous drug problem. In order to eradicate the drug problem, a public debate is going on to find some solutions to this drug dilemma. It has been highly controversial issue whether drugs such as marijuana should be legalized or not. Some people advocate this issue and believe that legalization is the only solution left for the nation while other oppose because it will increase the numbers of drug users and drug related crimes.
Marijuana is a drug that is egal in the United States. This drug is bad and cause some side effect to your brain and body. Scientists have found smoking marijuana can cause you to loses your memory. Marijuana has many psychological and physical reaction. These reaction usually last for three to five hours after a person has smoked marijuana. The psychological reaction, known as a high consists of change in the users feeling and thoughts. Such change are cause mainly by THC.
The effects of a marijuana high vary from a person to person and from one time to another in the same individual. In most cases, the high consists of a dreamy, relaxed tate in which users seem more aware of their sense and feel that time is moving slowly. Sometimes, however, marijuana produces a feeling of panic and dread. The different reactions result partly from the concentration of THC in the marijuana. Another factors, such as the setting in which marijuana is used and the user expectations, personality, and mood , also affect a persons reaction to the drug.
Long-term effects of marijuana are not completely known, but studies have shown that some people have used marijuana regularly for several months or longer have developed serious long- term problems(Lorimer). Among males, marijuana use can reduce the production of sperm and of the male sex hormone testosterone. Among females, it can cause menstrual irregularity and reduced fertility. Extended use of marijuana turn to crime to pay for their habits because drugs stimulate them and therefore act violently. If drug is sold legally, it will because easy for users to buy it around the corner.
Thus, it will increase the already existing problem of crime. Mechoulam mentions that every year drug lords make over twenty billion dollars from cocaine and marijuana business, and legalizes believe that legalization will wipe out their major sources of funds. However, drug use is a matter of supply and demand. As Bakalar as demand exists, someone is going to supply it, either legally or illegally. Supporters of legalization believe that if government regulates drugs such as cocaine and marijuana by imposing taxes, then the black market will be eliminated (Bakalar).
However, the higher the tax rate, the higher the price of the drugs, and not many users gangs who sell marijuana and cocaine under the market price. In addiction, children and teenagers will be obviously banned from purchasing marijuana and cocaine. Hence, legalization will encourage a growing criminal black market. The main benefit of marijuana legalization can be in medicine and will give patients with severe and dangerous disease a new and effective medicine to help them, Yes, marijuana can help in medicine. ” Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known.
One of marijuana’s greatest advantages as a medicine is its remarkable safety. It has little effect on major physiological functions. Marijuana is also far less addictive and far less subject to abuse than many drugs”. Marijuana as medicine has been studied for many years. In some cultures, it is already used as medicine(Synder). There re many good uses for marijuana to be used as medicine, which will be discussed. The problem is that in order to be used in the United States as medicine, marijuana must be legalized. Many doctors already recommend that their patients break the medicine, marijuana must be legalized.
Many doctor already recommend that their patients break the law and get marijuana. That is because there is very strong evidence that marijuana works as a medicine. Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of the following disease: Cancer: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by the chemotherapy treatment. AIDS: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite caused by the disease itself. Glaucoma: Marijuana by reducing interlobular pressure alleviates the pain and slows the progress of the disease(Adams 347).
This disease damages vision by gradually increasing eye pressure. It is the leading cause of blindness in United States. Multiple Sclerosis: Marijuana reduces the chronic often debilitating pain caused by a variety of injuries and disorders. In order to be effective, marijuana must be taken daily. It seems to be the most effective three hours after dosage, and last for five hours. Some critics contend that after taken for a eriod of time, the person may become tolerant to the drug and reduce effectiveness.
This is true for a lot of pain relieving drugs. A person cannot rule out marijuana because it has not been proven that a person will develop tolerance. ” Marijuana could benefit as many as five million patients in the United States”. This situation to many people is intolerable(Lorimer). Those patients who choose to stay within the law suffer and die, both from disease and from many prescription drugs that cause side effects. ” Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects, but marijuana is not such a substance. “
Also,by lifting the ban on marijuana and treating it like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation would gain immediate and long- term benefits. In the book “Drug”, Vidal states, ” Nevertheless many drugs are bad for certain people to take and they should be told why in a sensible way” (Aikman). This change in the law would greatly improve the quality of life for many people. This successful use of marijuana has given many patients a much more positive outlook on their treatment. Many agencies which are anti marijuana such as Drug Enforcement Agency and police departments argue that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized(Mechoulam).
These agencies believe that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized because if marijuana is to become legal then thousands more patients using marijuana. Then people will raise the question why marijuana illegal at all if its a medicine. On the other hand, There is now an enormous amount of public support of medical marijuana. A scientific survey of oncologist found that 54% of those control medical marijuana availability and 44% have already broken the law by obtaining marijuana illegally. ” Thirty- four states letting patients with certain conditions smoke dope” (Adams 266).
States such as Texas, California, Massachusetts, have recognized arijuana’s therapeutic potential and have passed legislation supporting its value. These reforms could be passed throughout the nation with the help of people like you. Making drugs legal will reduce the great amount of money spent on enforcement every year. Drug dealers and users are one step ahead on the enforcement process. If one drug dealer lord is caught , another one will show up some where else. We cannot win. ” In 1987, 10 million dollars were spent alone just in enforcing drug laws.
Drugs accounted for about 40 percent of all felony inducements in the New York City courts in 1989. This figure in quadruple hat it was in 1985. Forty percent of the people on fedral prison are drug law violators”(Lorimer). One can only image what this figure would be like today. Too much money is wasted on a cause that seems to be no end to, ” In 1989 a Republican county executive if Mercer County N. J. estimated that it would cost him as much as 1 billion dollars to build the jail space needed to house all the hard-core drug users in Trenton alone” (Ailkman).
All Of this money could be used on better thinhs. Meanwhile, the only way for patients to gain legal access to marijuana as medicine is from the doctor. The patient must get a written note from the overnment and participate in a special program setup for them. We know that legalization is neither a reason nor rational policy for this country. One of the things that bother me most about legalization argument is the mixed message it sends to our young people(Bakalar 214). The legalization will advance a laissez- faire attitude about drugs.
By during research on legalization on marijuana I come to a conclusion that marijuana should be legalized in order to help people suffering from terminal diseases such as AIDS, Cancer and Glaucoma. Prohibition of marijuana over the past decades hasn’t deminshed the demand of the drug in the United States(Mecoulam). The use of marijuana has acutely went up due to the mass attention gain to marijuana by rappers such as Cypress Hill who promote the use of marijuana as a social drug.
Marijuana is here to stay in our society ands is only going through the stages that alcohol had during the prohibition era. Also, I believe that we must change public attitudes toward drugs and focus on prevention and treatment, but we must also maintain the laws that make drugs illegal(Snyder). Some of the drug such as marijuana and cocaine should be legalized for medical purpose. ” Polls and voter referenda have repeatedly indicated that the vast ajority of Americans think marijuana should be medically available.
A final important prevention strategy is to enforce the laws against illegal drugs in order to control their availability. There are many uses for marijuana, and many are unexplored. Actually some are explored in depth because of interest and other is left behind. There are problem many other uses that have not been found because of the lack of experimentation on the drug as a hole. If marijuana is legalized there will be much more research done on the drug, and hopefully the drug will begin to be approved for use.