Do You Agree Or Disagree With Legalization Of Marijuana? (Research Paper Sample)

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Do you agree or disagree with the legalization of marijuana, including usage for medical reasons?
There are many held views about the origin of marijuana thus it is obscure to establish its actual origin. Some believe that marijuana has its origin in Central Asia while others believe it has roots in China because of its wide medical uses and the agricultural records in the literature of the ancient China. The legalization of Marijuana remains contentious up to date with majority of countries legalizing its use, possession and farming on the basis of medicinal use. However, a lot of countries also hold a different view and are thus vehemently opposed to legalization of marijuana. Some of the states where the marijuana medial use have been legalized are such as; New Mexico, Oregon, China, Hawaii, Nevada, Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, Alaska and Colorado (Kandel, Denise, et al). The primary purpose of this paper, therefore, is to disagree about the legalization of Marijuana including its usage for medicinal purposes.
Fundamentally marijuana is understood to refer to the seeds, stems, flowers and dried leaves from the cannabis sativa. The plant is known to contain delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemical compounds that cause mind altering. THC and the other chemical compounds found in the marijuana have short and long term effects in the brain. Human body absorbs THC more easily in the blood stream when it is smoked than when is taken orally, that is, when one drink or eat it. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and the other compounds contained in the cannabis sativa affect the brain receptors hence causing short term effects such as; damaged memory, difficult in accurate thinking and problem-solving, altered mood, slow body movement and changed sense of sight. Similarly the long effects of the marijuana include; improper development of the brain, inability to think and remember (LaFave, Wayne R).
According to the World Health Organization cannabis sativa is the majorly illegally cultivated, abused as well as trafficked drug. In their 2015 drug trafficking report, WHO affirm that more than a half of all the seized drugs globally are cannabis sativa and the seizures is distributed worldwide. Further the report affirms that about 2.5% which is equal to 147 million people of the world population abuses cannabis sativa. In comparison to other hard substances marijuana has large prevalence. Of the world population only 0.2% consumes cocaine and equally only 0.2 abuses opiates. Since 1960 to the present the rapid consumption of cannabis sativa has continuously increased in; Australia, Western Europe and North America. The continuous increase of the consumption of the cannabis sativa worldwide has been attributed to it low prices in the market compared other drugs such as opiates and cocaine (World Health Organization).
In the United States the use of marijuana is rampant among youths. According to the National survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) cannabis sativa is the mostly consumed illegal drug having 22.2 million consumers in the past one month. In addition, NSHDUH 2015 report indicated that about 34.9% of the pupils in the 12th grade had used marijuana for the past two years, further 21.3% were still using marijuana while 6.0% reported to be using marijuana on daily basis. Close to 11.8% of those pupils in the 8th grade reported to have used marijuana for the past one year and 6.5% were daily consumers. For the pupils in the 10th grade 25% had used marijuana for the past one year and 14.8% of the pupils were daily users of cannabis sativa. The report further informs that the rapid increase of the use of marijuana can be attributed to the ongoing public debate about legalizing or relaxing the restrictions on consumption of marijuana. Hence legalizing marijuana will put the lives of many kids at risk.
The benefits of using marijuana for both medicinal use and casual use have always been over-exaggerated. Some scholars have documented that the medicinal cannabis is not different from the standard marijuana. In fact, the documentation of the Federal control of substances Act, marijuana has been categorized as “Schedule 1 drug”. It means that a marijuana drug can easily be abused by its users, the medicine has no safety usage without medical supervision and has no currently accepted medical use in U.S. Based on these three factors, a new debate on whether to legalize the use of marijuana for personal medical purpose. As a result, there are contradicting views where law enforcers and politicians are opposed to legality of the medical marijuana under the guise of its medical uses while on the other hand, medical practitioners and other bodies that legalize the usage of drugs hold that marijuana medical use should be legalized as the drug is important in treatment of a wide range of diseases (Hoffmann, Diane E., and Ellen Weber).
The use of marijuana as crude and as a medical drug has not been approved by Food and Drug Administration. Food and Drug Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and National Institute on Drug Abuse have not established any scientific evidence supporting the use of unprocessed marijuana. According to Food and Drug Administration guidelines, in order to approve usage of marijuana for medical purposes, a drug must be established on the basis of factors such as; the frequency of administration, quantity of dosage, duration for administration, contraindications and interactions with other drugs. The FDA therefore argue that none of these standards have been met thus it is baseless to legalize the medical use of marijuana (Kilmer, Beau, et al).
It is certain that if medical marijuana is legalized, there will be widespread of overuse of the drug across the world. The view if evident from the countries that have already legalized its usage. According to Kandel, Denise, et al study of comparing data on Drug Use and Health from the National Survey, it was found out that states that have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana have registered very high numbers of marijuana use especially by youth aged 12-17. In majority of these states, marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among the adult and youth in schools. Prorogued use of marijuana can have detrimental effects on one health and behavior as it is highly addictive. According to 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, marijuana was rated as the highest used illicit drug among others. Among the 6.5 million persons found t under the influence of illicit drugs, 4.2 million (63.8%) were under the influence of marijuana (Kandel, Denise, et al).
In addition, marijuana addiction can cause hallucinations thereby impairing a person’s cognition. For the school going children and youth, the use f marijuana has been found to adversely affect their learning process. The effects of marijuana are such as; causing impaired vision, lack of concentration, inability to easily recall information, divided attention and reduced ability to understand complex concepts and information. According to a the report by the British Journal of medicine, individuals who begun using marijuana before the age of eighteen, a period of brain development, and still continued to use it in adulthood, such persons registered an average of 8 point IQ decline (Heishman, Stephen J., Maxine L. Stitzer, and John E. Yingling).
Another factor that shows negative effects of marijuana usage is constraints in securing a job. Usually, marijuana affects coordination, perception and decision making. Consequently, individuals under its influence cannot be trusted in jobs such as driving or operation of heavy machineries. These persons are more likely to cause fatal accidents. NSHDUH recent study has indicated that among the drivers who cause accidents, more than a half of them are usually under the influence of marijuana. In California for instance, five years later after the institutionalization of the Medical marijuana program, the country registered nearly 100 percent accidents increment where the victim drivers tested positive for marijuana. Similarly, the Colorado Department of Transportation documented a double increase in drivers with positive test for marijuana between 2006 and 2010. The increase in the number of people who use marijuana is attributed to the legalizing of medical marijuana use.
Additionally, marijuana has been found to impact negatively on an employee’s performance and safety. The users are reportedly to register job absenteeism, low work quality, turnover rates, less productivity and law suits liability. Employees who are under the influence of marijuana and other illicit drugs are more likely to injure themselves or cause accidents than drugs non-users. Another study indicated that the employees who tested positive for marijuana registered 75 percent absenteeism in workplace (Kilmer, Beau, et al). Also, businesses where majority of workers are at risk of drug influence are likely to fail.
It is clear that if the use, growth and possession of marijuana are legalized, the entire world will be at risk of environmental damage. It has been found out that the outdoor growth of marijuana poses great threat to the environment and its species. In U.S for instance, the growth of marijuana in public lands has been associat...