Something To Think About: Is Marijuana Healthy?

It’s highly addictive and puts you at high risk for lung cancer. Cigarettes. It impairs your judgment and is the main cause of highway accidents. Alcohol. It can be used as a medicine to help stimulate appetite and nausea in cancer and AIDS patients. Marijuana. The ironic fact about these three substances is that alcohol and cigarettes have no useful attribute and are legal but marijuana is the most beneficial and is illegal. It would seem logical to say that the beneficial substance, marijuana, should be legalized.

435,000 is the number of people in the United States that die every year due to cigarettes. They are also the number one cause of death in the US, killing more people than HIV, AIDS, alcohol use, suicides, car accidents, and murders combined. 85,000 is the number of people in the United States that die every year due to alcohol. Zero is the number of people in the United Sates that die every year due to the use of marijuana.

Marijuana causes none of the effects that cigarettes and alcohol do. There is no proven fact that it is harmful to a person’s health and the statement “marijuana kills brain cells” is in fact a myth. According to Biological Psychiatry, in a recent study researcher’s found no evidence of brain abnormality in monkeys that were forced to inhale the equivalent of four to five marijuana cigarettes everyday for a year. According to the United States Department of Health and Services in 2002, they stated, Marijuana does not cause physical dependence and according to the American Thoracic Society in 2006, even heavy users who smoke marijuana were not found to have any increased risk of lung cancer.

Pharmaceutical drugs that are chemically made to help people with either pain or anxiety such as; Vicodin, Xanex, and Tylenol are legal and helpful if taken correctly, yet are still highly addictive and many times results in death, hence the warning labels. For example: if a doctor prescribes a pain reliever such as a Vicodin, twice a day, everyday, for a month, it has been proved that the body will then become dependent of the it causing an addiction leading to death. So are they really that good for people?

However, no pain reliever or anti-anxiety medication can relieve the pain and side effects of cancer and AIDS patients. But there is an herb that can, marijuana, it’s natural and it comes from the ground. It is not man-made or chemically formed, which is what makes it healthy. Marijuana causes no physical dependence on the body, does not increase risk for lung cancer, it does not cause memory loss, liver damager, or brain damage, it does not impair your judgment, and its use does not result in death. It simply helps those in need in a natural way.

We can either live in a society where we legalize harmful substances or we can create a society where we legalize substances that can help others. For more information and a professional opinion on the legalization of marijuana check out this great video!