In today’s society marijuana is often seen as a harmless drug that holds medicinal properties and as an unutilized tax benefit. In this paper I will be presenting evidence that shows why we as a society should not legalize marijuana due to the effects that it will have on public health, marijuana view in the criminal justice system, effect on adolescents and public safety. It will challenge the lack of medical support that shows that legalizing marijuana will have a large benefit in the medical community and the overall benefits. “Marijuana has medicinal properties but we shouldn’t smoke the plant in order to derive those benefits, we don’t smoke Opium to get the benefits of Morphine” The first question that should be asked about the legalization …show more content…
Marijuana is being put into the same category with alcohol and tobacco. When compared to the two marijuana is found to have a higher risk for developing dependency than the risk with alcohol by 67%. Another risk that people fail to consider is the fact that marijuana smoke was found to have a similar toxicity level as tobacco smoke. It has been found that marijuana smoke is linked with cancer, increased risk for respiratory diseases, and heart disease (2). Marijuana has been found to have a more serious and long term effect on adolescents and as a result has a direct impact on society as a whole. Recent studies conducted between 2013 and 2014 have found that the youth and young adults are showing an increase in psychiatric diseases, 8-point decrease in IQ scores, heart disease, reduces gray matter that is associated with motivation, emotional and affective processing in those that use marijuana. These side effects do not go away when the marijuana use is stopped. Marijuana advocates state that legalizing marijuana would only be for adults but much like alcohol the availability will trickle down to the younger generations. For example, Colorado shows that in the past 5 years’ marijuana use among teens have increased and is currently among the national average by 50%. It has also been found that more high school students are testing positive for marijuana has increased. If for nothing else we need to continue the prohibition of marijuana in order to protect our future, the younger