Marijuana Essays (6393 words) - Entheogens, Euphoriants, Cannabis

Marijuana Americans have been trying to legalize marijuana for years. It seems that all of their opinions divide into three basic groups. Many think that it is not worth legalizing marijuana, many seem to think it should be legalized, and a group of people say it should only be legalized for medicinal purposes. In the following paragraphs I will try to show you reason for all three opinions. My hopes of doing this research project were to specifically determine what effects marijuana in combination with different substances had on the body. I also decided to determine the differences between marijuana and tobacco, due to the high misconceptions about both of them in society today. First of all, I had begun to due research specifically on the subject Is marijuana more dangerous than tobacco, but due to the lack of information, I had to broaden my topic. I now understand which one is more dangerous and, for the most part, the long term affects. Through both animal and human testings, it has been proven that marijuana impairs lung functions to a greater extent than tobacco cigarettes do. But, this does not necessarily mean that marijuana users are putting themselves at more risk persay. Actually, a typical marijuana user will smoke maybe two cigarettes a day, whereas a typical tobacco-user will smoke between forty and sixty cigarettes in the same period. Now, the effects of the two have changed roles. Marijuana may have more tar in it, but at the usage rate in society today, tobacco-users put themselves at a much larger risks. Also, there is a chemical called benzopyrene that is 70% more abundant in marijuana than tobacco. This chemical is believed to cause and p roduce cancer. Tobacco has the same dangerous chemicals in it, yet the main one that it lacks that marijuana has is THC. THC, more specifically known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the drug that produces the high feeling that so many marijuana users become accustomed to. Marijuana usually does not contain more than 1 percent of THC. There are stronger drugs related to THC, such as hash oil, which can contain up to a 28 percent THC level. There have been some cases where street marijuana has been found to contain up to 5 percent THC content. That is very potent for normal marijuana, and is probably very hard to come by in the United States. Other countries seem to use different forms of THC related drugs such as hashish, and hemp. Both of these contain more THC than marijuana. As far as long term effects of tobacco and marijuana go, they are about the same. Cancer should appear in the lungs of a tobacco-user earlier due to the amount the tobacco-user smokes in relation to a norm al marijuana smoker. There have been many assumptions that marijuana will cause long term brain damage and so on, but, clinically, none of this has ever been proven. In fact, in a college survey, the students who use the drug regularly possessed a higher GPA than those who do not use. This is an entire different subject, but it was interesting to learn. Both tobacco and marijuana contain tar. Marijuana contains a little more and will actually feel heavier on the lungs after smoking. Tar has been found to produce tumors on the skin of animals that it is applied to. Cancer has definitely been related to smoking and is the largest killer in the United States today. Thus, marijuana contains more of the dangerous cancer causing chemicals than tobacco does. Although this would constitute marijuana as being more dangerous, in the society we live in today and the amount of tobacco that tobacco-users consume, this belief is on the contrary. Due to the smaller frequency use of product by marijuana-users, tobacco has definitely been proven the killer in today's society. Additionally, one of the predominant mixes of today is the use of both marijuana and alcohol in combination. Alcohol has already proven to be a lethal drug, especially when driving, but together with marijuana, the effects are much greater than either drug alone. As in a comparison between both of them, alcohol has many more damages to the human body and mental psyche than marijuana. Both