People like doing drugs. Did you know that caffeine is a drug? So are alcohol and nicotine. Another drug people enjoy is cannabis, more commonly known as weed or marijuana. Drugs are defined as …., and they can affect your body in different ways. There are depressants, which slow down your body systems; stimulants, which make your body systems; and hallucinogens, which distort your perception of reality. There are more types of drugs, but for today, we'll be looking primarily at hallucinogens, under which weed falls.
As a hallucinogen, marijuana causes your senses to alter the world around you. So, for example, your sense of time won't work the same; colors might look brighter than usual; your memory might worsen, and you won't think very well. Recently, however, it's been allotted more potent amounts, so if someone were to take weed in heavy amounts, they might see hallucinations or have psychosis. Although medicinal marijuana is already used as pain control for chronic pain, many advocates are moving to legalize recreational marijuana.
Some arguments support legalizing marijuana fully, as it is illegal on a federal level. Others say to keep it that way. Let's look at the two sides and compare.
Cannabis Should Be Legal
Some people focus on the relative dangers of cannabis and the history of drugs and laws in the US. Other drugs, like alcohol, are regulated by the government, so it's safer for regular consumption. So why can't the same apply to weed? Weed is also generally healthier than drugs like alcohol and tobacco, and job opportunities would significantly increase if legalized.
Cannabis has health risks, as do many other drugs. Alcohol has negative effects on the human body. In the short run, alcohol can cause injuries like motor vehicle crashes or drowning. It can even cause you to go into fights or risky sexual behaviors. So if something like alcohol is legal, why isn't marijuana? During Prohibition, the country didn't have any reason to stop drinking hard liquor because the government couldn't regulate it. Now, the government regulates alcohol, making it easier to track what's being drunk and what's safe. Currently, on the federal level, this is the opposite of what's happening to marijuana. The government can regulate alcohol to make it safer for consumption, so why can't the government do the same with marijuana?
Marijuana is a safer drug than most other drugs. That is not to say that it is the safest, but its effects are significantly less potent than alcohol. Nevertheless, too much of any drug can cause serious problems. But if that were the case, why is alcohol legal and marijuana isn't? Alcohol is a substance that can directly heighten the chance of cancer, so why is it so readily available to the public? Would it not make sense to allow a safer drug with little history of causing fatal damage to the body directly from an overdose to be legal over a drug with countless reports of people dying due to overconsumption? Even though overdosing can still be dangerous, one would not die directly from the drug. Making it legal would only allow for better drug regulation and can make it even safer than now.
If marijuana were to be legalized, job opportunities would also increase. For example, in the United States, in states where weed is legal, there was a 33% job increase from the marijuana industry alone. In Colorado, unemployment was as low as 3.6 % in 2015 due to high employment rates in the marijuana industry. In California, it was estimated in 2016 that 20,000 more job opportunities in the weed industry would open, with $4.2 billion generated due to the business. Would it not be better to have more job opportunities and have people live legally than if it were all illegal?
Cannabis should stay illegal
Cannabis is still dangerous. It damages the body, and weed can lead people into fatal situations, specifically mentally unstable people. Marijuana also will be targeted toward teens, who will be much more likely to use weed. Lastly, legalized cannabis causes a whole load of problems too.
Cannabis harms the body. Anything that goes into your lungs that isn't air can harm them severely and cause severe problems depending on the substance. One of these dangerous substances happens to be weed. It puts people in harm's way as well. For example, when driving while high, people are twice as likely to be at risk of car crashes, and the driver isn't often aware of the danger and risk. It's worse if the person is already in poor mental condition. People with Schizophrenia are more likely to try weed but also show worse symptoms. If someone has been smoking weed since their teenage years, they are more likely to develop psychosis. They are also likely to develop psychosis if they contain a specific gene, so allowing the possibility of developing psychosis if you don't know if you have that gene is worse. Weed edibles, which are foods that contain weed, are also prone to cause more damage to your body.
Teen use of cannabis can significantly hinder their development. Their brains won't work correctly, and parts of the brain will not develop if heavy weed use is allowed. In addition, it'll make thinking harder, memory and attention shorter, and decrease coordination. If teenagers are allowed to obtain weed, these symptoms might increase in teenage populations. Just under 40% of teenagers have reported using weed in their lifetime. We should do our best to decrease that number. Allowing teenagers, the future of our nation, to destroy their lives with weed should never be allowed.
Cannabis use will increase if it is legalized. Because it is so much more readily available, using it also becomes more accessible. Teen use also increases, which is a problem in itself. In legal recreational weed states like Washington or Colorado, usage is higher than in states where it is banned. If cannabis is legalized, workers will work less optimally than expected. In more dangerous jobs, they are 55% more likely to be in accidents and 85% more likely to hurt themselves. Employers often worry about absenteeism that can occur with their weed users. Workers who use weed tend to be less motivated to work. We cannot allow our work force to be filled with unmotivated and potentially harmful workers.
How A Debate Might Go
A = Weed should be illegal
B = Weed should be legal
A: I don't understand why weed is still illegal. If the government is having trouble regulating it, shouldn't we make it legal so that we can like with alcohol?
B: Even if it were legalized, it doesn't make it any less dangerous. It can still harm people and their brains.
A: Even if that were the case, they won't die from it. With alcohol, they'll die from overdose but weed doesn't do that.
B: That may be true, that doesn't deny the fact that in states where it is legal, weed usage increases, making teenagers more likely to use weed themselves and interfering with their brain development.
A: Yeah, but in those states, job opportunities will open up, and give a lot of people good opportunities for a new life.
B: But people who use weed are more likely to be in work accidents and hurt themselves or others. They're not in control of what they're doing.
And then the debate does on. Remember that this is only one way that a debate on this topic might go. We encourage you to do as much research on the matter as much as possible.
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