Word: marijuana
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...begin with, marijuana has less potential for dependence and is less likely to induce withdrawal symptoms than alcohol, nicotine and even caffeine. It is considerably less harmful to the lungs than smoking cigarettes, not only because cigarette smokers tend to consume their product in much larger quantities, but also because cigarettes affect smaller airways in the lungs and thus do proportionately more damage. While there has not been a single death reported from cannabis, cigarettes kill 430,000 people annually...
With regard to its impact on the brain, the most pervasive myth about cannabis is that it permanently impairs memory and other cognitive functions. However, a 1999 study from Johns Hopkins University of 1,318 marijuana users over a 15-year period revealed no significant difference in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users and non-users. While marijuana users as a group scored more poorly than non-users on a battery of cognitive tests at the outset of another study, after 27 days of non-use the test scores of the two groups were indistinguishable. Granted, the ability...
...dangers of marijuana have been greatly exaggerated. These limited dangers must now be weighed against the social costs of its prohibition. The most damaging effect of marijuana prohibition is the denial of medicinal marijuana to those who need it. Marijuana dramatically reduces the severe nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy, relieves the unrelenting optic pressure that characterizes glaucoma and successfully induces appetite among AIDS patients who desperately need to eat. It has also proved effective in combating the symptoms of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and many other medical conditions. Unbelievably, the U.S. government has ignored these findings and classified marijuana...
...economic and social costs of prohibition are also staggering. The government spends over $30 billion battling cannabis each year, yet despite this tremendous expenditure marijuana is as available as ever, with 89 percent of high school seniors reporting last year that it was fairly easy or very easy to obtain. It is not surprising then that 734,000 people were arrested on marijuana-related charges in 2000, 88 percent for simple possession. Such enforcement produces more harm than it prevents. It criminalizes large numbers of otherwise law-abiding people who have in no way impinged upon the liberties of others...
...government should base its policy on science and common sense. Marijuana must be decriminalized and made readily available for medicinal purposes...