In the last few months the movement for legalizing marijuana has been improving due to a change in some state and local laws throughout the country. Recent surveys have noted citizens in favor of legalization or at least decriminalizing certain amounts of marijuana. This is because many feel the cost of enforcing tough laws outweighs the cost of legal use.
Studies from Harvard and Northwestern did research about correlations of brains between the ages of 18-25 of recreational users, and those who didn’t smoke at all. The results were mind blowing!
Even those who only smoked a few times a week showed symptoms. They had changes in their brain in the areas that controls memory, decision making, and emotional reactions. Part of the experiment was to look at the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala. These are parts of the brain that researchers believe you do not want to mess with because they are fundamental to experiencing pleasure, finding the motivation to do things, and recognizing the good and bad. Even the participants that only smoked pot once a week showed noticeable abnormalities but compared to the regular users had less damage in their brain.
Smoking marijuana in my opinion is far less riskier than other substances legally available for public consumption such as synthetic marijuana; “K2”, over the counter drugs, and alcohol. These substances have caused more damage to citizens than marijuana ever will. With any decision you make to consume a drug, precautions should be taken. Doing a little research before you take any drug is a good idea.
I don’t recommend people with heart problems to consume marijuana since it raises your heart rate from 20%-100% after consumption and increases the chances of a heart attack by 4.8%. Marijuana could be a good thing for some people because they might need it for medical purposes. Mostly its use today leads to more harm because it leads to other addictions.
With any decision in life we have to think about the outcome. It all comes down to learning how to balance things out in life.
juknowit • Sep 5, 2014 at 2:41 pm
Well first off, marijuana is becoming legal, for medical and recreational use, which i personally think is a great idea. If they put a reasonable tax on it would actually help lower our national debt. You cant overdose from it, its nearly impossible. i believe you have to smoke a pound of marijuana in on hour to overdose, which is physically impossible. Marijuana is far less riskier than other drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, MDMA, and others. Other than the slight affects on the brain, you cannot base the the affects of marijuana on one person, to everyone else. Everyone will respond differently to it, and there are actually successful people who smoke and its completely fine, they have there $h!t together and they’re doing just fine. i agree that some people shouldnt smoke marijuana especially if you have lung or heart problems.
TheQueen54 • Sep 5, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Interesting exertion. I do agree that Marijuana has several downsides to health problems. However, all mind altering drugs do. It is a FACT that alcohol and tobacco products have killed more people than marijuana. And yet, they’re still legal. It is scientifically proven than you can not overdose from smoking marijuana. Unless you’re an idiot. legalization of marijuana in the United would actually lower crime rate and vastly improve tax revenue.
Myth: Marijuana is a gateway drug.
-This is false. In recent studies, alcohol was the real “gateway drug”.
Nick07 • Sep 5, 2014 at 2:07 pm
Marijuana does cause far less damages to your brain then k2 and alcohol. The controversy about legalizing marijuana is very valid and should be looked at. As you said it probably does change your brain in memory, attention span, and pleasure but everything has negative affects is used too much? Say you get drunk twice a week, that raises the chances for liver disease and it gives you brain problems. When you smoke marijuana that makes you relaxed which betters your well being, creates different thoughts you would not of thought about sober and it does not make you belligerent like alcohol. With moderation does not give you the same brain cell lose as alcohol. Do you support marijuana smoking? If you do, what are your beliefs about it?