By Chisom Ukoha
Staff Writer
@UChisom3
When you listen to medicine commercials, the list of side effects are so lengthy that we question why we would even put those drugs into our bodies.
In the same way, it makes no sense that certain drugs are illegal, but it makes even less sense that drugs with same effect as ecstasy or other highly toxic drugs are legal.
For example, marijuana, cannabis or whatever you call it, is a plant which is commonly used to make the user “chill or mellow”. But it has a multitude of less common uses.
Of course, marijuana can have side effects but the same can be said for legal substances like alcohol, tobacco, nicotine and caffeine. Marijuana should be included in this legal category, not with dangerous drugs like cocaine and heroin.
Marijuana has gone through tests and it has proven that over a long period of time, it only decrease IQ scores by about one to two points and it would take copious amounts of it to overdose.
To further understand why marijuana should be legal, we need to understand why it was banned. In the past, it has been used to make ropes, clothes, paper, animal food, fuel and medicine. It was first given a bad reputation by William Randolph Hearst, because it had threatened the success of his paper company, due to the fact that hemp is easier to grow than trees. Marijuana takes less water and fertilizers to grow than trees do and can grow in harsher climates and takes less time to grow.
Legalizing marijuana would create an abundance of jobs. In Colorado alone it has created over 10,000 jobs, and more counting according to the Marijuana Industry Group. It would make the atmosphere healthier, because less trees would be cut down. Marijuana could be used to make paper and oil. Not only would the atmosphere be healthier, but America could use it as a chance to become less reliant on oil from other countries because less fossil fuels would be used.
The legalization of marijuana would create a humongous chain reaction. Think of all the medicinal uses it could serve and the pain it could alleviate. It has already been proven that marijuana can help stop seizures and help with pain such as fibromyalgia and stunts the growth of cancer cells. Not only that, but America would be able to tax it. Colorado made over $18 million from marijuana and marijuana related souvenirs in four months. America could be making well over $120 million a year over marijuana taxes, according to the news mic.
On the other hand, there are legal drugs that have way worse side effects such as Advair, which is used to treat asthma and can cause an asthma related death.
Ortho-novum, a birth control pill, can cause liver tumors, liver cancer and fatal internal bleeding. Abilify, which is used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, has a side effect of coma or death.
Benzo Fury is a “research drug” which can be bought at music festivals, clubs, and the Internet. It is an amphetamine which gives a sense of euphoria and causes hallucinations. It is mostly compared to ecstasy, but is more dangerous, and when testing this drug on rats, it had affected the brain in similar ways that cocaine did. It is also highly addictive. Even though it is legal, it is more dangerous than some illegal drugs.
But more importantly, drugs like adderall, ritalin hydrocodone are frequently abused by high schoolers, including Coppell students. Most of the people that abuse adderall or ritalin use it to focus more and improve their ability to study, and the people who abuse hydrocodone use it for the high. But side effects of these two drugs include drowsiness, depression, and bad breath.
The more I think about some of these drugs and the whole legal system, I become more flabbergasted. It makes no sense that marijuana is illegal, when it could serve for a multitude of medicinal and economical uses. No, it should not be used for recreational smoking, but it would be foolish to pass up legalizing it for the abundant business opportunities.
