Have you ever ridden a rollercoaster? A rollercoaster has highs and lows as the little train cars are tossed around as they follow the track. Most of the time, the train stays connected to the track. Other times, however, something goes wrong and passengers are injured as the cars derail and crash. Marijuana has the same kind of effects. Everything seems all fun and games until the train derails and ruins lives. Marijuana can induce physical and mental side effects that can be dangerous to a person's quality of life. To understand how marijuana causes the side affects, one needs to understand the chemical inside the plant and how the drugs get into the person ingesting it. Marijuana as a drug typically refers to the dried parts of a hemp plant …show more content…
Since most of the plant is usable, almost nothing is thrown away and can be sold for profit, so it is a very popular plant to grow as well as ingest. Also known as weed, pot, and grass, it is one of the most popular drugs among teens (Edelfield and Moosa 7), and currently the most used illegal substance in the United States according to the Center for Behavioral Heath Statistics and Quality ("DrugFacts: Marijuana"). All drugs are bad, but should popularity affect how legal or illegal a drug is? Marijuana contains more than four hundred chemicals, and sixty of those chemicals are known cannabinoids, chemicals naturally produced by the body and affect parts of daily life such as mood (Szumski 18). Among the slew of chemicals, scientists consider "delta-nine tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)" as possibly the most psychoactive, as it causes several of the noted effects from smoking marijuana (Cavalet 40). A second primary chemical ingredient is "cannabidiol (CBD)." Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive, though it does have anti-inflammatory properties. Some scientific research on CBD shows that it may contain anti-psychotic properties that counter the psychoactive properties of THC (Cavalet 40). These are only two of the …show more content…
The U.S. Government first tried to control cannabis in 1937 with the Marijuana Tax Act, which placed high taxes on cannabis, yet did not make it illegal. The passing of the act made the process of producing cannabis-infused drugs difficult because of the high taxes the maker was required to pay (Bearman 24). Even though marijuana wasn't illegal yet, the sharp tax would have caused a decrease in the amount of people using it because they could no longer afford to make or buy it. Later, in 1938, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act conceived the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine and regulate the safety and use of all drugs (Bearman 25). To this day, the FDA is still responsible for the safety of all food and drugs. Those who use marijuana do not listen to the FDA's warnings and continually use marijuana. They do not trust the same organization that makes sure their food is safe to eat, so they might as well be eating rotting meat. The law is the law, and one cannot pick and choose which laws they follow. Though marijuana became extensively popular in the 1970s, the drug was still heavily used enough for the United States government to try to regulate it in 1938 (US Drug Enforcement Administration 65). Marijuana was further regulated by the Controlled Substances ACT of 1970 when it classified marijuana as a "Schedule I drug," and it has remained