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.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/87743/harvard-scientists-studied-the-brains-of-pot-smokers-and-the-results-don-t-look-good
http://www.policymic.com/articles/83805/study-claims-to-have-found-first-ever-deaths-caused-by-marijuana
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.