Up in Smoke

Marijuana is a highly addictive drug; this, or some version of it, is what we are all told as we grow up. But for that matter is alcohol not a highly addictive drug. And what of cigarettes?

Webster’s dictionary defines the word “drug” as “something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness.” Except for “illegal” alcohol and cigarettes both fit this definition. So what is it that makes marijuana so different?

Many argue that marijuana is detrimental to a person’s health. However the fact is, according to many university studies including one at UCLA from which I get my information, smoking marijuana actually causes a lower risk of such things as lung cancer than regular smoking. This is due to the fact that most marijuana uses smoke at most 3-5 cigarettes (or joints) a day, where as a tobacco smoker may smoke as many as 16-40.

Of course the argument we all know against marijuana is that it causes brain damage to the user. However, at closer inspection on finds that in the experiments cited to prove this theory, the rodents that were used as test subjects were subjected to up to 200 times the psychoactive does in humans. A later test performed on rhesus monkeys showed no noticeable changed, when exposed to the smoke equivalent of four to five joints per day, after a year.

So if there is not a physical health reason against marijuana better than those standing against tobacco and alcohol, then what is left? There is the argument, of course, that marijuana impairs judgment. But, following that reasoning, alcohol should be illegal as well.

As far as I can tell, according to the studies I have seen, marijuana is no more dangerous then the package of tobacco cigarettes I can go to the nearest gas station and buy. While there should be laws limiting and controlling marijuana, just as there are laws limiting and controlling both tobacco and alcohol, there is not substantial reason why marijuana should be illegal.