First, consider why marijuana was initially banned. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when jobs were scarce, many white Americans wished to preclude immigration (since immigrants would work for lower wages) and demoralize ethnic minorities. They banned opium to discourage the Chinese, cocaine to discourage the African Americans, and marijuana to discourage Mexican migrant workers. Prohibition of alcohol, in fact, was a step to dishearten German and Irish immigrants. The latter, however, failed miserably and was later repealed leaving behind a large police force in need of employment and eager to control narcotics.
Hemp, which is another part of the cannabis plant, has many industrial uses. As food, it is an excellent source of protein. Cloth, paper, clean fuel, cardboard, and plastic can all be made from hemp. It has medical value and is quite cheap, making it a threat to industrial tycoons in the early part of this century who took advantage of blatant racism to outlaw it as well. Hemp is no longer illegal in the United States, but it is impossible to grow without the byproduct of marijuana, which means that we must import all industrial hemp.
Health implications of marijuana use seem to be the main concern of those who oppose legalization. Department of Public Safety Officer Sgt. Tim Knapp stressed that marijuana "is proven to kill brain cells that may never return." According to him, it also causes short and long term memory loss and results in physical and mental dependency. "Marijuana is at least as dangerous as alcohol and tobacco, perhaps more due to the unknown chemicals [it may be laced with]," he said.
Actually, many studies now show that marijuana does not kill brain cells and does not cause physical addiction. The research supporting the former was done by exposing rhesus monkeys to considerably more smoke at one time than a marijuana smoker would inhale during a lifetime. Alcohol, on the other hand, is proven to kill brain cells. Marijuana is habit-forming, or psychologically addictive, but does not cause tolerance and, therefore, is not physically addictive. Nobody has ever died as a direct result of marijuana use while alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and even caffeine cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. It is practically impossible to overdose on marijuana.
Does it cause cancer? It does have more tar than tobacco, but that doesn't necessarily mean greater chances of cancer. In fact, no case of lung cancer from marijuana use alone has ever been documented. Tobacco contains far more of the carcinogenic Lead 210. THC, the main chemical in marijuana, which is a bronchial dilator that opens up air passages as opposed to nicotine, which causes passages to constrict. This means that not as much smoke will remain trapped in a person's lungs after smoking marijuana.
Some people declare that pot is more potent now than it was in the 1960's.
If this were true, it would mean less smoking to get high and consequently less lung damage. Claims that marijuana makes boys feminine and girls masculine also prove to be unfounded scare tactics and the results of flawed and biased government commissioned research.But marijuana is a gateway drug, right? Sgt. Knapp has interviewed hundreds of drug addicts during his career, and all of them used marijuana early on. However, while all hard drug users may have used pot, that doesn't mean that all pot smokers go on to use harder drugs. Surveys show that a rather large percentage of Americans have tried marijuana while a relatively small percent have ever used cocaine or heroin. Marijuana can even be used to help heroin addicts overcome their addiction. After pot was legalized in Amsterdam, both its use and the use of heroin went down.
Sgt. Knapp does not believe that marijuana use would go down if the drugs were legalized in the United States: "It would get higher because people who are on the bubble would be more inclined to use it. Right now, there is a minimum amount of deterance, especially to adolescents, a number of whom don't [use marijuana] because of repercussions from the law and their parents."
He believes that there is not enough continued education about the harmful effects of drug abuse, particularly targeted at students between eighth and tenth grades. This is the vital age on which it is most essential to focus.
Although it is more benign than some legal drugs, marijuana does have its negative effects. Sgt. Knapp believes that a person can more easily recover from longtime alcohol abuse than longtime marijuana abuse. Memory loss from chronic smoking is permanent. He has known people who, after years of smoking pot, could not remember simple directions within a few minutes of having heard them, even if they weren't high at the time.
Sgt. Knapp also stressed that pot affects different people in different ways, which has an impact on the validity of any research done on the subject.
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