Marisa Calistro

Legalization of Marijuana in the U.S.

Twenty three out of fifty states have legalized marijuana under the law; four for
recreational use and nineteen for medical use. But what about the other thirty seven
states? Every state, and every person in that state, has a different perspective and
opinion about the weed whether it is a beneficial medicinal herb or a high inducing
drug that is often abused. Which raises the question: What is marijuana and how
should it be seen in society? Well be looking into not only what the actual plant is, but
both the beneficial and non-beneficial qualities of marijuana when it is legalized or not.
This includes the point of views for medical usage, crime and law enforcement, and
economic views that the drug provides for both sides of the statement.
Marijuana is a cannabis, a plant used for psychotropic drug or medicine that
could be chewed or used in a drink. One of the oldest records of the usage of
marijuana dates back to 2737 B.C. in China for medical use. It was noted for its
benefits for helping cure rheumatism, gout, and malaria. In the record, it was also
mentioned that the plant had intoxicating side-effects, but the medical value of the plant
proved to be well-worth the use of it and ignored the minimal side-effect. Since then,
marijuana had been mentioned in history for its beneficial use in medicine, ranging from
easing light pain to curing severe symptoms or diseases. Not only until the 1920s did
marijuana became more widely known in the U.S., but during that time period,
marijuana wasnt widely used and remained more for medical use that a drug abuse.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, marijuana became more largely used and, even more
so, largely seen as an addictive narcotic to the authorities. As time rolled along and we
reached the 1990s, marijuana became more readily available to the young crowd in

Marisa Calistro

society and was considered a gateway drug, leaving a very negative image on
authorities and communities.
Marijuana has been studied for decades, but has been further looked into iin the
medical field. Marijuana has proven to treat and even cure illnesses and diseases, but
like many other medications, they come with possible side effects that can prove to be
harmful. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not approved marijuana to be a
safe drug for medical purposes. According to the FDA, approving marijuana is difficult
because it needs to go through and pass safely through clinical trials. Marijuana has so
many uses in the medical field that testing the cannabis for positive effects through in
different situations as well as in different treatments comes out to be a bit too large
scale to approve safely. Plus, it is true that marijuana does leave side-effects and its
hard to determine if the usage of marijuana for positive medical treatment outweighs the
negative impacts of the drug. The usage of marijuana leads to negative physical
symptoms such as breathing problems, increased heart rate, and complications with
child development during and after birth. The possible mental problems marijuana can
initiate are depression, anxiety, paranoia, and schizophrenia.
Yet flip the coin and marijuana has proved to provide many solutions for the
healthcare field. In 1985, the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or
CARDIA study for short, was conducted on 5115 test subjects who were between the
ages 18 to 30. These test subjects were smokers who were freely allowed to choose
their drug of choice to smoke. At the time, smoking marijuana was nearly as common
as smoking cigarettes. Although, those who smoked cigarettes showed signs of a
decrease in lung efficiency. What proved to be astonishing was that not only did

Marisa Calistro

marijuana not damage lung efficiency, but showed an increase in lung capacity. Dr.
Mark Pletcher was the lead author of the research, as well as an associate professor of
epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, even
commented that he was surprised. There are clearly adverse effects from tobacco use
and marijuana smoke has a lot of the same constituents as tobacco smoke does so we
thought it might have some of the same harmful effects. Its a weird effect to see and we
couldnt make it go away..., he quoted. According to Dr. Pletcher, they had studied
models before conducting the study on people and found little difference in the effects
between the harmful fumes of cigarettes and marijuana. The researchers believe this is
caused not by the smoke of the cannabis, but in how the cannabis is smoked. While
cigarette smokers draw in a breath and let out the smoke quickly, marijuana is smoked
through a joint or pipe where they draw in a long and deep breath, holding in the smoke
for as long as physically possible before releasing the fumes.
Even more beneficial was a study reported by California Pacific Medical Center
in San Francisco where they used a part of marijuana called cannabidiol, or CBD to
stop the spread of cancer cells. CBD is a special compound that has the ability to stop
a gene called Id-1, which the cancer cells create to make more cancerous cells to grow
larger. The study used CBD as a treatment on breast cancer cells, to which the cells
decreased in their growth and aggressive spreading. Other researches done in the U.S.
as well as other countries suggest that the cannabis has killed cancer, but that is
uncertain still. The marijuana plant has proven to help prevent seizures, slows down
the rate of alzheimer's disease, prevent muscle spasms, ease different degrees of pain,

Marisa Calistro

and various other uses. What is holding us back from using this extremely beneficial
drug?
The image of marijuana is not one of the prettiest, and its not how the plant
looks, but of the image of the people who have been under the influence of marijuana.
About the mid-1960s is about the time a youth movement came to surface to support
various passions such as music, fun, nature, and love. These people were called
Hippies. No qualms about what they were passionate about, except one; drugs.
Drugs were utilized to achieve a state of consciousness that was out of this world, as
to pull themselves away from reality and to relax. One of the more commonly used drug
amongst the crowd was marijuana. This is where marijuana got its name large and
where it grew with a negative connotation in society. During the sexual revolution,
where they believed that outside of marriage, women should experiment with sex as
much as they could, they created a dislike of their idea and what they believed in.
Included with it was drugs, specifically marijuana. Not only were they having
intercourse at a youthful age, but out of social tradition within the drug abuse
community, but many were more than likely under the influence of other drugs. This is
not accepted today at all.
Marijuana can improve Americas economy to the billions. A lot of money is
spent in the prohibition and monitoring of marijuana, as well as multiple drugs. Yet, if
marijuana is legalized, like in the few states that have done so, it can improve the
economy of not only that state, but the U.S. economy as a whole. Not only would
medical and recreational marijuana sales increase a money flow through the states
economy, but there would be a large reduction in spending money to prohibit the

Marisa Calistro

cannabis. Law enforcement would also decrease and would be able to cut back on
spending over budgets in enforcing the law against illegal marijuana.
Marijuana is a highly controversial drug in whether it should be made legal or not
for both medical and recreational use with both positive and negative effects. The
medical uses of marijuana has proven to help many medical cases and situations with
very minimal effects. However, the drug is commonly abused to maintain and relaxed
high with possible dangerous side effects if a constant abuse of the drug occurs. In a
personal opinion, marijuana should be legalized for medical use and some recreational
use as long as there are restrictions and a careful monitoring of where and how the drug
is used. It is up to the government and their agencies, as well as the people, to
determine if marijuana should be made legal or kept illegal in all 50 states. We looked
at what the plant was, the long term and short term side effects, the medical benefits
and the image marijuana carried through history till today. Tomorrow, marijuana could
be legalized in another state, but only through positive statistics and proven medical and
economic help in the U.S.