Destroying Lives One Joint at a Time

Some of your friends might say, “Marijuana isn’t so bad.” Others might say, “Just try it once.” I bet you’ve heard about kids in your school, the same age as you that are significantly affected because of marijuana use. Believe it or not, things like this happen every day. Marijuana interferes with the ability to think clearly, have a social life, and could lead to further drug use.

To begin with, marijuana has unnatural substances that trick your brain (Nagle, 35). When smoking pot, your brain believes it is getting normal amounts of natural chemicals. Instead, you are really adding extra chemicals to the ones your brain has already produced. This chemical imbalance gives users strange mood swings. One second you could be really happy and in another you could become depressed. Furthermore, marijuana acts on your central nervous system altering the way your brain functions by changing your perception, or your ability to become aware of and understand thoughts and actions (Nagle, 8). Your brain tries to adjust to these higher levels of chemicals by reducing the amount of chemicals it naturally produces (Nagle, 36). People with depression say that pot makes them happy. Yes that is one of the side effects but here’s the catch. Once the affect has worn off you have to take the drug again because the depression comes back worse than before. When high users might do things they wouldn’t do normally. For example, you might get behind the wheel of a car (Nagle, 31). This can be devastating because marijuana clouds your judgment. As a result fatal accidents and car crashes can take place. Why would you want to legalize a drug that disorientates, confuses you brain, and causes death?
Equally important, Marijuana has many social effects on its users. This can cause a myriad of problems in people’s lives. For example, a user could focus their whole day on just finding the drug and using it (Sanna, 11). Procuring the drug can be expensive and lead to job truancy causing personal economic decline. Furthermore, you can lose your friend’s and families’ trust. Legalizing Marijuana would send the message that it is okay to use even though it has both dangerous short term and long effects. Teens twelve through seventeen who use marijuana weekly are three times more likely to develop depression later in life (Sanna, 11). These teens also socially withdraw, pulling away from the people who care about them the most. This could lead to self-abuse and suicidal thoughts. Kids with these symptoms remove themselves from social environments. They become apathetic and lose their drive and motivation to do well in school or work. Some kids even drop out of school. Legalizing marijuana could lead to problems with education and give adolescents more opportunities to use the drug.
Unfortunately, because a tolerance builds up, users tend to use other drugs to achieve the same high (Drug Free World.org). After a while marijuana loses its “taste” or effects, and the user may turn to more potent drugs to get rid of the problems they previously used marijuana to get rid of (Drug Free World.org). When the “high” fades, the problem, unwanted condition or situation returns more intensely than before (Drug Free world.org). The user may then turn to stronger drugs since marijuana no longer “works.” This leads to drugs like heroin and cocaine, which are more potent than marijuana. Heroin is very addictive and if you’re buying it off the streets you never know what’s in it. Not everyone that uses marijuana moves onto other drugs. Some might just smoke marijuana. Others might just quit drugs all together, but a recent study shows 60% percent of twelve-seventeen year olds that smoke marijuana go on to use cocaine(ITKZ). Sometimes marijuana is laced with PCP, an extreme hallucinogen. PCP is a white powder, also available in liquid form, often used with cannabis. PCP is known for causing violent behavior and creating severe physical reactions including seizures, coma and even death.

Beyond a shadow of doubt, marijuana destroys lives and good people. Legalizing marijuana will cause numerous problems and likely increase existing ones. Overall, legalizing marijuana will create the illusion that marijuana use is socially acceptable.