“Marijuana kills your brain..."

“Marijuana is addictive...”

“Once you have tried weed you have passed the threshold to all other drugs and narcotics...”

These among others were some of the few facts that built my opinion on weed growing up. Growing older I faced many situations where I had to make a decision on whether I wanted to be associated with those who smoked. I wondered why someone would ever do that to their body and when I would ask they would tell me…

“It helps my anxiety...”

“You can’t die from smoking weed...”

“Weed can't kill you…”

I ignored these remarks and saw them as excuses for those who just wanted to feel better about their bad habit. Recently, Marijuana has been legalized in a few states and those around me have been altering their opinion on how truly bad marijuana really is.

This made my opinion much more difficult to argue and I soon realized it wasn’t actually my opinion. My stance on marijuana was shaped by the elders around me and a few small chapters in an ancient textbook in health class. I decided to inform myself about the drug and research the truth about it.

My biggest concern was the smoke. How could inhaling this smoke possibly be good for you? The answer: it’s not. However, there was a longitudinal study by The Journal Of The American Medical Association that followed more than 5,000 men and women for over 20 years to see the pulmonary effects of weed, cigarettes, and tobacco. The results found that marijuana use had no lung effects at all, not even with excess use.

Although this is a very significant study there are studies expressing that smoke from marijuana can be irritating to the lungs. The AMA’s study does give proof however that the effects are significantly less than tobacco and cigarettes that have shown to be extremely damaging to the lungs.

I was always told that weed was a gateway drug but I soon learned that the only reason marijuana use was showing a correlation between stronger drug use was because of the fact that it was illegal. Those who choose to smoke marijuana choose to illegally, therefore, must acquire it illegally.

This led people to have drug dealer with more than just marijuana in their supply, exposing these users to much stronger drugs. If the drug was legal this problem wouldn't be an issue as those choosing to smoke marijuana would be purchasing it legally at drug stores. This would make marijuana a legal and regulated drug much like alcohol and cigarettes that require people to be a certain age to purchase the drug.

This leads me to my other finding where I questioned why drugs like alcohol and tobacco were legalized and weed wasn’t when all my research has lead me to believe weed was much less harmful. I began to research the mortality rate of marijuana and other drugs to compare.

I didn’t understand how people could tell me that you couldn’t die from marijuana use. I found that they were right..technically. No, you can’t die from marijuana use, you die from what marijuana causes. Just like you can’t die from tobacco, you die from the lung cancer it gave you. About 480,000 people a year die from ‘tobacco-related deaths’. Cigarettes are responsible for 480,000 deaths a year also including 41,000 from second-hand smoking. 279 ‘marijuana related deaths’ have occurred from 1997-2005.

Saying marijuana can’t kill you is a lie however it does much less of a mortality rate than legalized drugs.

I began to search for more harmful; effects of and stumbled upon hundreds of stories on youtube about how those who have stopped smoking weed have changed their life for the better. Also, those who tried marijuana and had a life-threatening reaction to it. I concluded that marijuana becomes a big part of those who let the drug consume them and their hobbies.

People found themselves getting lazier, more aggressive, relying on the drug to maintain an appetite and suffering financially for their habits. I also concluded that although the mortality rate was low the severity of the drug shouldn’t be taken so lightly. The number does not say it all when I found these stories of accidents that caused people to do stupid dangerous things as well as many accidents due to hallucinations. The drug also seems to affect many people differently, some say it eases anxiety and others say it makes them anxious and paranoid.

My last conclusion was that the reason most people stay away from the drug was because of its reputation. To those who fear not only weed but being a “pothead” actually fear it because of the face marijuana.

Marijuana is associated with the hippies, the rebellious teens in the movie, and people like rappers. The average person does not take on the role of flaunting their substance use. People don’t want to be labeled as a lawbreaker, ignorant, or a stoner. The reality is that those who binge drink at a young age are not called alcoholics, those who smoke tobacco aren’t nearly judged as much as those who smoke weed.