The Psychological Impact Of Legalizing Marijuana - Research Paper Example

The Psychological Impact Of Legalizing Marijuana. Abstract The question if marijuana should be legal is very controversial. On the one hand, there are many arguments for its legality, on the other hand there are some arguments against it. The controversy persists and the both sides seem to make clear and convincing arguments. However, the decision still should be made and the right step should be taken. Further research is needed to be held in order to determine if marijuana should be legalized. All the arguments provided by the proponents and opponents should be analyzed. The issue is very relevant thus in the given paper we will examine the main points why marijuana should be legalized, consider the opinion of proponents and make a corresponding conclusion. Outline I. Introduction A. Should marijuana be legal? B. Marijuana should be legal. C. There are many arguments for legalization and against it. D. The convincingness of these arguments will be analyzed. II. Supporting arguments A. The absence of clear argument B. High cost of illegality III. Supporting arguments C. Legalizing marijuana is unethical D. Marijuana laws and discrimination IV. Supporting arguments E. Marijuana laws and cruelty F. Side effects of alcohol and tobacco are more serious J. The psychological effect of marijuana legalization V. Contra arguments A. Marijuana is harmful for people’s health B. Legalizing marijuana will increase the number of people who smoke it C. The uselessness of marijuana prohibition D. Human health should be the top priority E. Contra argument analysis VI. Conclusion A. Proved convincingness of supporting arguments B. Marijuana should be legal Introduction There is much controversy around the issue whether marijuana should be legalized or remain illegal. During the last 40-50 years, the official status of this drug has been actively disputed. There are a great number of different arguments and everybody has his / her own opinion. There are many arguments for the legalization as well as many arguments against it. Those people who want to see marijuana legalized and support the legislation that would allow to have small amount of the drug, are sure that marijuana is absolutely save and there is no need to impose severe restrictions. Moreover, it is proved that the negative effects from using alcohol and tobacco smoking are usually much more serious than those from using marijuana. The opponents on the contrary emphasize the side effects of marijuana and are sure that it is very harmful for our health. They also consider marijuana legalization to be unethical. The given paper will discuss the main points why marijuana should be legalized and prove that marijuana should be legal. The first reason for legalizing marijuana is the absence of clear argument why it should not be legalized. People should make their own choice if to use marijuana or not. The government should interfere only in case of danger, but marijuana is not related to such cases, as there are many drugs, which are much more dangerous. Thus, people should have a right to decide if to use marijuana or not. It should be as legal as alcohol. According to Tom Head, “while some advocates for the status quo claim that marijuana laws prevent people from harming themselves, the most common rationale is that they prevent people from harming themselves and from causing harm to the larger culture. But laws against self-harm always stand on shaky ground—predicated, as they are, on the idea that the government know what's good for you better than you do—and no good ever comes from making governments the guardians of culture” (Head). The second reason for making marijuana legal is the high cost of its illegality. People like marijuana so much that it costs the government much money to trace all the misdeeds connected with it. The primary needs of people who appear in prison because they were caught using marijuana are covered by taxpayers. Certainly, these costs are very high and much money could be saved if marijuana is legal. Nicole Flatow writes: “An overwhelming 72 percent now believe that government efforts to enforce marijuana laws have cost more than they’re worth, and some 60 percent say the federal government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in states where it is legal” (Flatow, 2013). This money should be rather spent for more important issues such as education or medicine. These areas need special attention as they usually suffer from the lack of money. Many people could receive a corresponding treatment on time for the facilities irrationally spent on marijuana laws (Kloer, 2006). The third and the most actual reason is the uselessness of marijuana prohibition. “Forbidden fruit” is tasty thus the prohibition not only cannot decrease the use of marijuana, but it on the contrary increases it. Moreover, legality of marijuana makes it less dangerous for children. The fact is that the dealers of illegal drugs do not pay attention to whom they sell it to, they care only about the money. If a little child has money, it can easily obtain marijuana from dealer, while, for example, alcohol, that is legal but deliberately kept away from little children, is never sold to kids. The efficient ways of fighting drugs consumption are education and appropriate treatment. Children should understand that using drugs is not right, but if we just impose restrictions, it will not help them understand this and make a right decision. On the contrary, restrictions contribute to the increase of illegal use of marijuana and there are many children among those who buy the drug illegally (Romano, 2007). The next reason why marijuana should be legal is discrimination. Even today discrimination appears to be a very serious problem and the struggle with it is very relevant. If marijuana laws were the same for all the people, it would be at least rational to issue them. Unfortunately, it is possible to state that the consequences of using marijuana are different for different individuals depending first of all on race (Mauer, 2009). It is proved that racial minorities suffer much more. Jill Greenfield in her article presents the speech of Congressman Barney Frank who states that marijuana laws we have now promote discrimination. They are first of all applied to young representatives of racial minorities. According to Frank, in New York it is allowed to possess some marijuana, but it is not allowed to demonstrate it in public. Thus, police stops people in the street and force them to show what they have in the pockets. If they see marijuana, they arrest them. It is no need to say that the most suspicious people, at least for police, are the representatives of racial minorities. According to Frank, “The argument that federal policy should not be changed because no one actually enforces marijuana laws usually comes from older white people. No one enforces it against them, but there were more than 50,000 marijuana possession arrests in New York City last year….Some say it’s a good way to go after potential criminals and cuts the murder rate. But the notion that you can justify arresting a whole lot of people for something not harmful just because a small number of them may have done something wrong is antithetical to the very notion of justice” (Cited in Greenfield, 2011, p.1). Marijuana prohibition policies ruined many lives. The number of people annually arrested by the United States’ police for using marijuana amounts to 700,000 that it more that the whole population of many countries in the world amounts to. It is no need to say that many of those who appeared in prison because they had some marijuana turned into real criminals (Reuter, 2009). Another problem, and it is even more serious, is access to marijuana in medical establishments. Notwithstanding that marijuana is allowed to be used in medicine, it is still considered to be a forbidden drug like heroin. Thus many people, who really need marijuana to be used in the treatment course, face many obstacles on the way to get the drug. Michael Hayne in his article provides readers with an example of cruel bureaucracy. He tells the story of a sick woman whose husband tried to get some marijuana in the hospital to relieve her suffering. What is the most horrifying is that after many attempts to get the drug legally, the family failed. The author provides the words of the man: “At this point, I’ve given up. I’ve given up any hope of getting help from the state through legal channels. I’ll just get what my wife needs illegally”. This testifies that illegality of marijuana is rather negative than positive as it causes many problems. Those who really need marijuana can’t get it, at the same time as those who want to use in to have some fun gets it easily. This situation is unacceptable and should be regulated. Some doctors use their position to get money from sick and suffering people just because they are the only people, who can get this drug for them because of marijuana laws. Many people suffer from terrible pain lacking the opportunity to relieve it. Fratelo states: “Patients and doctors who get involved with medical marijuana face potentially grave risks. And government seems committed to maximizing the fear and uncertainty faced by those who might benefit using it” (Fratello). In order to understand why we should or should not prohibit marijuana, it is essential to think about the possible and already attempted prohibition of tobacco and alcohol. As we have already proved, marijuana can be useful for people. But what is the usefulness of alcohol and tobacco? They are not useful, as they bring only harm. If marijuana is used in medicine and can help people and relieve terrible pain, what do alcohol and tobacco do? They can do nothing to help people and they are hardly used in medicine. Thus, it would be more rational to prohibit alcohol and tobacco than marijuana. Cigarettes and alcohol are bought by people for fun that easily spoils their health, but marijuana can be really helpful and if an appropriate education is provided, it will be used mainly for medical purposes. Moreover, we all know that the government already tried to prohibit alcohol, but the results were disappointing: people started using it even more. A very important reason to legalize marijuana is the psychological effect this legalization may have. Such legalization would not only decrease the use of marijuana, but will also reduce the consumption of alcohol. The negative effects from using alcohol are much more dangerous and they are proved, in contrast to negative effects of using marijuana. The inevitable psychological effect will make people think about their health and take care about it. They will make this choice on their own, without any instructions provided by the government. Many individuals will forget about their bad habits and will change them to more useful ones, for example, playing chess. Notwithstanding that there are many reasons for making marijuana legal, there are many people who still insist on keeping it illegal. These people support marijuana laws due to many reasons they consider to be too serious. The first and most convincing argument is that marijuana is harmful for our health. The opponents of marijuana legalization state that it can cause many diseases such as mental disorders, heart diseases, lungs diseases or even cancer. Though marijuana is considered to be a very light drug, it is not less harmful as any other drug and has corresponding effects. The opponents insist that it affects the brain that is very dangerous and can cause many troubles. People become less attentive, lose the ability to comprehend and learn the material. Those who smoke marijuana are more susceptible to bronchitis and cough. Unfortunately, many women prefer to smoke marijuana during pregnancy, which creates a serious danger for their health and the state of fetus. Moreover, marijuana increases the risk of heart attack. According to Keith Ablow, “judging from the frequent users of marijuana I have met with in my practice, this predicts a likely increase in the number of people suffering with depression, the number suffering with worsening symptoms of underlying psychotic illnesses, the number suffering with attention deficit and memory problems and the number who will be involved in accidents at work and on the roads” (Ablow, 2012, p.1). Legalizing marijuana will increase the number of people who smoke it. The second important argument of the opponents is the fact that legalizing marijuana will increase the number of people who smoke it. The controversy around its legalization has already proved that people are more inclined to have it legalized because they have a great desire to smoke it. If marijuana is legalized, people will start smoking it unrestrictedly, which will damage their heath dramatically. Many scholars still prefer to have marijuana legal. For example, Gucciardi in his article states, “Why is marijuana illegal when research has shown marijuana to be beneficial to health? The federal government even goes as far as to classify marijuana as dangerous – leading to the substance being outlawed” (Gucciardi, 2012, p. 2). However, the opponents state that if the usefulness of marijuana is proved, it should be allowed to be used only for medical purposes and its active smoking still can damage health. The third argument provided by the people who want marijuana to stay illegal is that marijuana is still a drug that is close to heroin and its legalizing can affect children negatively. It is a very bad example for them. Opponents are sure that children would think that smoking drugs is a good habit. This can lead to very bad consequences and spoil the next generations and their values. Thus, legalizing marijuana is at least unethical. According to Enyart, “regarding marijuana use or any moral question, arguing right and wrong in today’s society is especially difficult because a growing number of people reject absolute right and wrong” (Enyart, 2012, p. 2) The opponents are also frustrated by the statement that it is expensive for the government to keep marijuana illegal, therefore it should be made legal, Fang states: “Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana” (Fang, 2012, p. 1). However, this is not the reason to allow people to spoil their health. Opponents emphasize the necessity of re-considering arguments, especially if these arguments contradict moral principles. Human health should be the top priority. Analyzing the main arguments provided by the opponents, we can see that they are not fully convincing. The first argument is based on the wish to defend people’s health, but the harmfulness of marijuana is not fully proved and as we have already stated, it on the contrary can help many people who cannot get access to it due to marijuana laws. Secondly, we also cannot state that legalizing marijuana will make more people smoke it. It may appear that legalizing only reduce the number of smokers as there will be no attractive “forbidden fruit”, thus it is too early to make such an argument. Finally, people should decide themselves what to do with their health and it would be much more appropriate to spend money for good education than marijuana laws (Snyder & Duran, 2009). This also disproves the third argument of the opponents, as there is no need to forbid children to smoke drugs, there is a need to make them understand why they should not do that and what drugs are really used for. Conclusion Now many people think that marijuana should really be legal. In the past the number of these people was much lower: “the percentage of Americans who say that smoking marijuana is morally wrong also has declined dramatically since 2006. A survey earlier this year found that 32% of Americans say that smoking marijuana is morally wrong, down 18 points since 2006” (Majority Now Supports Legalizing Marijuana). This testifies that the arguments provided by proponents are very convincing. The proponents of marijuana legalization are sure that marijuana is a light drug that represents absolutely no danger for people’s health. Side effects of using alcohol and tobacco are no less dangerous than the side effects from smoking marijuana, but at the same time marijuana is used in medicine and can help many people. Marijuana laws do not allow people who really need marijuana to get it on time making them use illegal methods to get marijuana. Marijuana laws also do not help reduce the use of the drug, on the contrary it turned into a “forbidden fruit” that is usually very tasty. The government spends a lot of money to keep marijuana illegal, while it would be more rational to spend this money for more important issues in the areas of education and medicine. Should marijuana be legal? After analyzing the arguments of the both proponents and opponents, we can see that the arguments of proponents seem more convincing and the arguments made by the opponents can be easily disproved that was done earlier in this paper. Thus, taking into account all the points, which support legalizing of marijuana, the decision of its legalizing can be considered correct. Legalization of marijuana is really necessary and important measure. References Ablow, Keith. (2012).The psychological impact of legalizing marijuana. FoxNews.com. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/07/psychological-impact-legalizing-marijuana/ Enyart, B. (2012). Why marijuana should be illegal. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-enyart/why-marijuana-should-be i_b_1340311.html?. Fang, Lee. (2012). 5 special interest groups that help keep marijuana illegal. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.alternet.org/story/155269/5_special_interest_groups_that_help_keep_marijuana_illegal Flatow, Nicole.(2013). Majority Of All Americans Now Think Marijuana Should Be Legal. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/04/1825411/majority-of-all-americans-now-think-marijuana-should-be-legal/?mobile=nc Fratello, Dave. (n.d.). Should marijuana be legalized for medical purposes. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/viewpoints/html/marij.html Gucciardi, A. (2011). Why is Marijuana Illegal? Examining the health aspects of cannabis. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://naturalsociety.com/why-is-marijuana-illegal-examining-the-health-aspects-of-cannabis/. Greenfield, Jill. (2011).Current marijuana policy encourages discrimination, says Congressman Barney Frank at HLS (video) Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2011/10/21_barney-frank-at-hls-on-current-marijuana-policy.html; Hayne, Michael. (2013). Cruel Bureaucracy' of Medical Marijuana Law Forces Sick, Frustrated Patients to Find Another Way. NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/nj-medical-marijuana-cruel-bureaucracy Head, Tom. (n.d.). 8 Reasons Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized. Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/tp/Why-Marijuana-Should-Be-Legalized.htm Kloer, A.(2006). “U.S. Spends 0.1% of War on Drugs Budget Fighting Human Trafficking”. 34 (1), 117-125. Majority Now Supports Legalizing Marijuana.(2013). Retrieved June 6, 2013 from http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/ Mauer, M. (2009).The sentencing project, the changing racial dynamics of the war on drugs. Retrieved June 6, 2013. http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/dp_raceanddrugs.pdf. Reuter, P. (2009). Systemic violence in drug markets. Crime Law Soc Change, 52, 275-284. Romano, L. (2007). Effect of Obama’s Candor Remains to Be Seen: Senator Admitted Trying Cocaine in a Memoir Written 11 Years Ago. Washington Post. Retrieved June 6, 2013.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR200701020 1359.html Snyder, R. & Duran-Martinez, A. (2009). Does illegality breed violence? Drug trafficking and state-sponsored protection rackets. Crime Law Soc Change, 52, 253-273. Read More