

Marijuana legalization is one of the most debated subjects in the United States of right now. Should it be legalized? On the federal level, marijuana is a schedule I drug, making it illegal for people to use. Even though it is considered a crime by the federal government, some states have voted to make marijuana legal, for recreational and medicinal use. The government cites lack of research as one of the many reasons that it has not changed the law regarding marijuana. Despite what the government says, many citizens have stated that marijuana is something that should be legalized. There are people who have stated that they have been healed, or at least relieved of some of their illness. Because there are so many strands and types of marijuana, the government has been limited on the research they do and how it is conducted.

The states of Colorado and Washington, which have voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, have been vocal about the positive effect marijuana has had on the economy. Marijuana distilleries are a common sight in those states. Even though marijuana is legal in some states, there is still a fear of black-market marijuana being sold. That is why these states have a very controlled, and state monitored way of growing and selling marijuana.

Effects that marijuana has on the health of normal healthy citizens is something that is rarely reported, news outlets seem to only care about medical marijuana. Many sources say that recreational marijuana is something that makes the people happy and high, but what is it doing to their bodies, more specifically their minds? There are stats that show that hospital visits from people ingesting too much marijuana have increased in the states that have voted to legalize recreational marijuana, and there have been more reported accidents of people driving while high.

The lack of research done on marijuana has made some people, including myself, reluctant and skeptical of marijuana legalization. I think the government needs to do a better job of allowing researches access to commercial marijuana to study. Once this research is thorough, the government, and the general public, will have a better idea of what they are voting on to legalize or not legalize. People will also be more mindful of what they are ingesting and what the long term effects will be.

Marijuana is one of the most used illegal drugs, especially in the United Sates. “Marijuana” is a common term used to describe the leaves and flowers of the plant Cannabis sativa. The flowers contain cannaboids, which are mind-altering chemicals, which is what makes people feel high (Caulkins et al. 4). There are many other ways to extract the cannaboids, but the most common way for people to ingest them is to dry the marijuana leaves off, and them roll them into joints and smoke them. Once the marijuana is in the brain, a large amount of dopamine is released, which is what makes the person using marijuana feel happy and relaxed, which is what some people call “getting high.” Most people feel relaxed and at ease when they are high, but there are people who experience paranoia and anxiety when they are high. Because everyone is not the same, there are endless ways of describing how being high affects a person.

The government has classified marijuana as a schedule I drug. This means that, in the government’s eyes, marijuana could easily be abused, has no medical benefits, and there is no safe way to use marijuana. Other drugs in this category include heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. The penalty for using and being caught with these drugs is usually jail time. Even for non-violent offenses, the jail sentences can really add up. Many states have minimum sentences of about a year for anyone who is in possession of marijuana. Most people would agree that marijuana should not be in the same category as the other drugs listed, but that could be contributed to a lack of research by the government.

The federal government is extremely restricting on the research of some drugs. This makes it hard to get the facts of what these drugs can do. Without adequate research, marijuana will always be a questionable substance, even if it does not need to be. The marijuana samples that the government provides for research is nothing like what commercial marijuana is like, and researchers are frustrated because “it's difficult to assess the real-world impact of high-end pot if you only have access to the low-quality” marijuana that the government provides (Ingraham and Chappell). All of the marijuana that the government grows and allows researchers to research is grown at Ole Miss and the marijuana samples provided to researchers are full of stems and leaves, which most people discard, and do not contain the same amount of THC that commercial marijuana contains. Not allowing people to research commercial marijuana, what people are actually consuming, is not helping anyone. Research can be done, but if it is not the same marijuana that everyday Americans are using, then the research is void.

In 2012, Colorado residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana had been legal there since 2001. Colorado residents 21 and over can buy up to an ounce of pot at a time. This law change has drastically effected Colorado’s economy. The 300-plus recreational dispensaries in Colorado had brought in about $288 million in sales, which is about $37 in tax revenue. The marijuana industry brought in $699 million in 2014, and then $996 in 2015, just one year’s difference. Governor John Hickenlooper has described this as “the most ambitious social experiment of the 21st century (Dunaev et al.).” Even with this growing economy, there is still a fear that marijuana will be grown in Colorado and put on to the black market and sold out of state. Nebraska and Oklahoma, neighboring states to Colorado, want the U.S. Supreme court to determine recreational marijuana to be unconstitutional. These states are arguing that marijuana is crossing into their states.

In Colorado, there has been an increase in marijuana related hospitalizations since 2014, when the law went into effect.

From 2001 to 2009, around 809 of each 100,000 hospitalizations recorded within Colorado involved patients who admitted to marijuana use, according to the report. For the period from 2014 to June 2015, the statistic surged to 2,413 hospitalizations per 100,000. (Blake)

Calls to poison control have also increased from 44 to 227. Many of these are due to people eating edibles without realizing how much marijuana they contain. People who are new to using marijuana are not sure how much marijuana is too much marijuana. If people weren’t concerned about what marijuana can to their bodies, then they wouldn’t be calling poison control after ingesting it. Again, a lack of research and awareness is effecting the citizens of Colorado.

Author Ruth Graham has argued that the decimalization of marijuana across the country will decrease the use of alcohol. Graham argues in a JSTOR article that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes for each other and that with the price drop that will inevitably happen if marijuana is legalized across the country, less people are likely to drink alcohol. Graham also states that college educated people make up about fifteen percent of marijuana users, and that the majority of marijuana users are in high school. This means that most of the people using marijuana in the United States are minors. Ruth Graham is arguing that high school kids should have easier access to marijuana so that they are less likely to drink alcohol. I argue that legally, high schoolers should not be doing either of these activities. Alcohol has proven effects on the human body, and marijuana still needs to be heavily researched, so these minors should not have access to either. Graham also argues that there will be less car accidents if people are using marijuana instead of alcohol. As a driver, I would not want anyone driving high or drunk. People need to be sober in order to safely operate a vehicle.

The marijuana that the government provides for research would be unrecognizable to people who use marijuana. Government marijuana is not in clusters, and it is full of stems and leaves, which many people know are unusable if you are trying to get high. The marijuana is only grown in one lab at The University of Mississippi and there are only a limited number of strands that are grown. If the government wants to accurately research the marijuana, they should go to the states that have voted to legalize recreational marijuana and use the marijuana that is sold in dispensaries to conduct their research.

When it comes to medical marijuana, I think it should be legal, but I think there should be higher standards of what qualifies someone for medical marijuana. I think it should be almost a last resort when other medications are not working. Many people claim that marijuana helps them with anxiety, and sometimes it really does, but there are so many ways to combat anxiety. There are anti-depressants that can be prescribed, and there are also ways to counter anxiety without using drugs. Meditation has been proven to help those suffering with anxiety. It seems to me that doctor’s in states with legal medical marijuana, doctors are quick to hand out marijuana cards without assessing the severity of their patient’s anxiety. For people with cancer who are going through chemo, I think they should be given marijuana cards. Chemo can be a very painful and taxing process, and a patient wants marijuana to deal with the chemo, then they should be allowed to have it. The system is easily abused when marijuana cards are just freely given out by doctors.

As a college student, I have many friends who openly admit to smoking marijuana and eating edibles. It is almost a weekly occurrence for my friends to get high. I refrain participating in getting high, because I don’t know what marijuana will do to me and what the long term affects will be. Also, not having total control of my body and brain is something that seems almost scary to me. For my friends that do use marijuana, they do not seem worried. They are not concerned about the lasting effects of marijuana, probably because they are you and know that the human body is resilient and able to bounce back.

A friend of mine, who wanted her name not to be shared, stated that before she came to college, “[she] smoked almost every day.” Because she is an athlete for the university, she randomly gets drug tested throughout the year, so she has stopped smoking weed. I decided to ask her if she would still continue to use marijuana even if she was an athlete and she said “most likely. Many of my friends back home do it, and I know that a lot the athletes here that smoke regularly. Since they are the people I hang out with the most, I’d probably smoke with them.”  I asked her if she preferred edibles or smoking she said, “I’d rather smoke because I know how much I’m smoking and I can control when I stop.” When I asked her if she had any bad experiences with marijuana she said that she ate a brownie with marijuana in it and that she “couldn’t move for three hours.” She states this as the reason that she only smokes now. My friend also said that she had not bothered looking at any research done on marijuana because it was something that she considered a cool activity to do with friends, and that it was not something that she was worried about getting addicted to, or even that people regularly say that marijuana kills brain cells. When I asked her what she thought some of the research I did, like the amount of calls to poison control increasing and the amount of hospital visits from marijuana increasing, she said, “marijuana is something new. For people who have not gotten high before they probably don’t know what they are doing and so they do too much.” This is a valid point. People are so eager to experiment with this drug that they are not carefully monitoring how much they consume.

Through the course of this project, I have learned that people are not really that divided on the issue of marijuana. Of course there are some people who disapprove, but most people are really just curious about marijuana and what it does. Being more transparent with people about what marijuana is and how it works and effects the brain is something that could really be beneficial to this country. If people were more educated on marijuana, this really would not be an issue. I personally am also curious as to exactly what marijuana does to people and how it will affect my brain. Once there are clear answers, and proper government research, I will definitely open my mind more to marijuana. When it comes to medical marijuana though, that is something that I think should be legal. For people with anxiety, it should be used as a very last resort, other methods of curing anxiety should be explored before marijuana is an option. In the case of people with aggressive forms of cancer who are taking chemo, I think that marijuana should be easily accessible to them. All in all, marijuana does not seem that bad, but we do not know how good it is.

Public opinion has seemed to be shifting on marijuana. In the 20th century, around the 70s, marijuana use was common among young people and hippies. It seemed as if everyone was smoking it. Even Barack Obama said he has smoke marijuana when he was younger. Then, the government started cracking down on people smoking and selling marijuana. So marijuana has been used more discretely, and people are growing it in their houses and it’s not widely available. Then when Barack Obama became president and openly stated that he thinks marijuana is not as dangerous as alcohol. Many people agreed, and it almost became acceptable to use marijuana again. Along with states legalizing it for recreational and medical use, people are willing to explore what marijuana can do. Even though our current president, Donald Trump, is kind of skeptical about marijuana and is not a user or supporter of recreational marijuana, he does think that marijuana use for medical reasons is okay. Overall, the negative stigma that was once associated with marijuana has disappeared and people are more accepting of the potential benefits that marijuana can have on the human body. I think people need to take the time and read the research that has been done, and maybe even ask their doctor if marijuana is something that would be safe to use. Either way, opening up and having a dialogue about marijuana is something that is important and needs to be done.