FREE ESSAY ON MARIJUANA

MARIJUANA

Marijuana is the most widely used drug in the world today. Is marijuana as dangerous as it
is made out to be. A large variety of different people have many different opinions
depending on their professions. Many doctors disagree with each other and the subject is
one of their most controversial topics. Also marijuana as an illegal drug is more wide
spread in the U.S. today than it ever has been before. Therefore it is becoming a large
problem for law enforcement and many other governmental groups in the U.S. today.
Marijuana has been in our society for many years. It is not exactly known when the drug
first came into perspective in this nation. During the 1960's is when this drug became
widely populated among the people in this country. " If we assume conservatively that
arrest figures represent ten percent of those who use the drugs, then the estimated
number of California users in 1967 would be 320,000 persons ( The new social drug, p.93
)". This trend has been on a roll ever since then. The type of people who use this drug
is not among any certain group. Many different people experiment with this drug. Although
young and middle aged adults are the ones primarily using the drug there are still some
elderly people using Marijuana also, just not in as large numbers. These people range
from college students to your average businessman or women. All of these people have
different beliefs towards their drug us. Some only us marijuana at parties or on
weekends, and others us it every day after work or before. The reason people use the drug
is not wide spread. Some people use the drug to alter their state of mind and to change
their form of thinking. Others use the drug to have a good time. The more negative
reasons people us marijuana is so they can coupe with their problems in life, make their
life easier. These reasons are closely related to the abuse of marijuana. A lot of the
reasons are closely related, or are the same reasons people become alcoholics.
There are other reasons people use marijuana such a medicinal use. The drug can be used
for many medical problems, some of which are very extravagant. Such as some people with
cancer use marijuana to be able to tolerate their chemotherapy. " Cancer patients on
chemotherapy often suffer severe nausea. Marijuana can control it and make their therapy
more tolerable ( www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1)".
Marijuana is also used in AIDS patients. AIDS patients suffer from many things one of
which is weight loss. " Many people with HIV have massive weight loss or wasting that can
be fatal. Marijuana can restore their ability to eat (
www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1 )".
Another us of marijuana for medical purposes is for Multiple Sclerosis. Someone with
Multiple Sclerosis is very incompetent and is in desperate need of anything that can help
them in any way. " Marijuana can improve muscle control for people with Multiple
Sclerosis ( www.aidsinfonyc.org/Q-zone/maribill.html P.1 ) ". 
Marijuana is also used in the optical industry as well. The drug can be used to improve
the eye site of a glaucoma patient. It is also used in this case to slow down the effect
of the glaucoma disease. This medical use was the first one to be discovered.
The chemical in marijuana that is known to make the affect on these diseases and on the
person using the drug is called THC. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana. This
product has been in the market of medicine for more than a decade. It comes in the form
of a capsule. But it is not as affective as the smoke form of the illegal drug
marijuana.
Medical purposes for marijuana were not discovered until about fifteen years ago. Know
many people are trying to get the government to legalize the drug for medical use for the
past few years. Doctors have been testing marijuana and many of it's chemicals for other
ways of us but none have been found yet, but any doctors believe that there are many more
ways marijuana can be used to help a person medically.
Marijuana is believed to effect the brain mentally. The drug depending on the dose and
the person can effect the body mentally. It can impair your ability to drive or operate
machinery. A person using the drug at a very high dose can find that they are having
hallucinations or delusions and distortions of images. Marijuana can cause memory loss in
repetitive use of the drug. Marijuana produces temporary changes in the brain
functioning; for example it interferes with short-term memory ( Introduction to
Psychology P.172 )
During the use of the drug people can under go many different types of changes in there
body. People tend to think different ways when they are "high". This can be for better or
worse depending on the person that is using the drug. The drug is also known to cause
paranoia and the feeling of terror during the high. This can make or break someone, which
will bring them to make the decision to use the drug again. Although there is no evidence
that marijuana users cause them selves to suffer from psychosis or schizophrenia (
Introduction to Psychology P.172 ).
Among the many effects of marijuana a person's personality can be altered or dramatically
while the person is high. One can become a very easy person to get along with when before
they were not or viseversa. There was also changes found in a person organization. "Using
the Rorschach Test, these researchers concluded during the actual use of the drug, that
there was a slight decrease in the subject's drive to organize and synthesize, that there
was some falling off in meaningful constructive behavior and that there was a proneness
to jump to erroneous conclusions ( Marijuana and personality change P.3 )
People have for many years believed marijuana to be the happy drug. Although sometimes
there is someone in an experiment that has a rather bad experience these or not very at
all. Usually these experiences are not discussed between people who use this drug because
it is so uncommon with marijuana
Should marijuana be legalized for medicinal purposes? I believe that it should be but for
that reason only it has a purpose and it helps people in desperate need of some form of
help. Even though Marijuana is the most popular drug today I don't believe it is a
dangerous as it is said to be. I have never heard of and overdose death of marijuana. In
the U.S. alone today there are an estimated twenty one millions users of this most
popular illegal drug. But that still Doesn't make it safe or good for anyone to use this
drug.
Bibliography
1. http://www.aidsinfonyc.org/q-zone/maribill.html Q-zone: Medical uses of Marijuana,
copyright1997 healing well. Last modified 4/2/97
2. The new social drug, edited by David E. Smith M.D. copyright 1970 by prentice-hall
inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
3. Marijuana and personality change, Jess R. Lord, copyright 1971 by D.C. Health and
Company
4. Introduction to Psychology. 4th edition, Rod Plotnik, copyright 1996 by Brooks/Cole
publishing Co.