“Is marijuana addictive? Yes, in the sense that most of the really pleasant things in life are worth endlessly repeating” (“Quotes About Marijuana”). This quote, said by Richard Neville, quite accurately describes how marijuana users, though they frequently smoke, are not physically addicted to the substance. It is a common misconception that marijuana is addictive, but science has proved that “The vast majority of those who use marijuana do so occasionally and exhibit no addictive symptoms — no increased tolerance, no cravings and no withdrawal” (Archer). Of course, anything can be addictive if abused; skipping a meal, eating too much, or even drinking too much water. It is all dependant on the responsibility of the user, not the substance itself. In fact, there is a multitude of other substances …show more content…
These products, these life-ruining drugs, are brought into millions of people’s lives and simultaneously damage them. These are the drugs that we see every day and think nothing of, which is why they are so harmful. Alcohol, cigarettes, prescription opiates and more, are such things. Although many people like to compare marijuana to cigarettes, their only real affinity is that they are both, of course, smoked. Smoking certainly does damage your lungs, but a large-scale national study in January of 2012 suggested that “low to moderate use of marijuana is less harmful to users’ lungs than exposure to tobacco, even though the two substances contain many of the same components” (Kim). Since cigarettes contain nicotine, which “may harden the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart disease caused by tobacco,” when you expose your lungs to harmful chemicals like nicotine, you expose yourself to cancer (“Marijuana vs