The Negative Effects Of Legalizing Marijuana

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Although some argue that legalizing marijuana could be beneficial in the United States, there are still many factors that would make doing so dangerous and detrimental to our society.
Over years and years there has been great debate about whether marijuana should actually be legalized and available for the public to use at any time. Many people believe that marijuana is far less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol, but there is no doubt that marijuana is not completely safe, and has many negative side effects. If we were to legalize marijuana, we would find that there are various positive and negative effects to making this drug legal for anyone over the age of twenty­one to use. After researching this topic, I have found that legalizing marijuana would cause a lot more harm than it would do good. Due to the negative effects marijuana has on the body, and the mind, and because there are no real benefits to making marijuana more available, I decided that it would be best if marijuana stayed illegal. Although people may say that marijuana is better for you than any of the other most commonly abused drugs, it is still very harmful to your body in many ways. One of the most heavily affected areas when smoking marijuana is your lungs. Many studies have found that smoking marijuana has a harmful effects on the person’s lungs who is smoking it because of the carcinogens that irritate the lungs. It is even proven that marijuana smoke contains 50­70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. (http://www.drugabuse.gov) Tobacco smoke is also extremely bad for you, but don’t think that just because cannabis is natural doesn’t mean it isn’t bad for your body. When ingested, marijuana also raises heart rate 20 to 100 percent which is very dangerous for a person. Why would we make a drug legal that is clearly damaging to someone’s heart and lungs? Like I said earlier, cannabis shouldn’t be considered harmless because it is a natural drug and stimulant.
Not only does marijuana negatively affect certain areas of your body like your heart and lungs, but it also affects the most important part of everyone’s body, the brain. It has been proven that marijuana reduces learning ability, reduces the amount of information the brain can

remember, and it makes the brain operate slower and makes reaction time of the user significantly slower. Marijuana also takes away the user’s motivation to accomplish tasks, and to make good judgments. Without those two things, people would do things that they wouldn’t normally do, and smoking weed is going to hurt them, more than help them. (www.acde.org)
After brain cells are lost it is very hard or almost impossible to ever get them back. Why would the government make something legal that is permanently harmful to the person that is taking it?
There are so many things on the Earth that we as humans will use or consume that are not going to be good for us no matter how much we try to convince ourselves. Whether it is cigarettes, alcohol, junk food, energy drinks, soda pop, or whatever, we have plenty of things in the world that are no good for us and serve no purpose but to make us temporarily happy.
Believe it or not, legalizing marijuana will make it so more people will try it, and spend money on something that is not good for them. Some might make the claim that people only smoke marijuana because it is illegal and they feel like being “rebellious” or “out of control,” and legalizing marijuana will only make the use of marijuana decrease. This is simply not true. You will find that people are smoking marijuana not to be “rebellious,” but because they are pressured by their friends or family, or because they are trying to relieve themselves from stresses in everyday life. But smoking weed will not make a person’s problems disappear. Once a person gets off of that high they experienced they will be just as miserable as they were before.
Besides
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