Should recreational marijuana be legal?

The use of recreational marijuana has been up for debate for the last several years. There have even been rumors of former president Jimmy Carter using the long debated drug to cure his cancer case. According to Snopes fact check, that is nothing more than a false story. Snopes stated; “While Carter did announce in December 2015 that he was “cancer-free,” the former President did not credit medical marijuana”(Snopes).

Furthermore, there was even a claim that mentioned that the National Institutes of health quietly admitted that marijuana “kills cancer”. Yet again, Snopes comes to the rescue and proves that this claim is also a completely false claim. Snopes provides a surprisingly lengthily report of how this claim is wrong but to prevent this reports from becoming too lengthily Snopes summarized the start of the conclusion by stating:

[the piece of the evidence claiming this data from the NIH overview] “Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory (see question 6)”

[part of Snopes response] “The mysterious Question 6 (the other item cited by these viral studies as proof of some sort of admission by the government) provides information regarding a number of preclinical trials that have shown some promise at killing cancerous cells. That list includes studies on mice, rats, and cell lines suggesting that some cannabinoids (the group of medically relevant chemicals in cannabis) may be able to selectively kill cancerous cells — including those found in colon, liver, and breast cancers. That list was also not modified in any way between 2014 and mid-2018, save for the addition of one new clinical review added to the PDQ in 2017″(Snopes).

(See the links below for the full articles that were used to compile this data)

Now lets take a look at the negatives of marijuana usage. For this, I went no further than the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO; “Half of all drug related seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures. The geographical spread of those seizures is also global, covering every country in the world(WHO).” WHO later goes on to say some of the short term effects marijuana has on the human body such as:

• Cannabis impairs cognitive development (capabilities of learning), including associative processes; free recall of previously learned items is often impaired when cannabis is used both during learning and recall periods;
• Cannabis impairs psycho-motor performance in a wide variety of tasks, such as motor coordination, divided attention, and operative tasks of many types; human performance on complex machinery can be impaired for as long as 24 hours after smoking as little as 20 mg of THC in cannabis; there is an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents among persons who drive when intoxicated by cannabis (WHO).

WHO continues to say some of the long term side effects of the consumption including:

• selective impairment of cognitive functioning which include the organization and integration of complex information involving various mechanisms of attention and memory processes;
• prolonged use may lead to greater impairment, which may not recover with cessation of use, and which could affect daily life functions;
• development of a cannabis dependence syndrome characterized by a loss of control over cannabis use is likely in chronic users;
• cannabis use can exacerbate schizophrenia in affected individuals;
• epithelial injury of the trachea and major bronchi is caused by long-term cannabis smoking;
• airway injury, lung inflammation, and impaired pulmonary defense against infection from persistent cannabis consumption over prolonged periods;
• heavy cannabis consumption is associated with a higher prevalence of symptoms of chronic bronchitis and a higher incidence of acute bronchitis than in the non-smoking cohort;
• cannabis used during pregnancy is associated with impairment in fetal development leading to a reduction in birth weight;
• cannabis use during pregnancy may lead to postnatal risk of rare forms of cancer although more research is needed in this area.

WHO does admit however that; “Several studies have demonstrated the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS (WHO).”

In essence, all the sources above are far more trustworthy than what any college or university may tell you about a drug like marijuana. Some topics you may want to debate on about this article may be: Should marijuana be legal for recreational use? Why would the state governments be so adamant about legalizing it for everyone with the above data being stated? If recreational marijuana does become legalized in your state, what laws and regulations would you want to see take effect to ensure the safety of the public? (ie traffic laws, legal age, ect…). For the last question, I will obviously not require a source for your opinion. Please see below for links to all the articles I used will producing this report.

http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/cannabis/en/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-nci-admit-marijuana-kills-cancer/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jimmy-carters-cancer-cured-marijuana/