Opinion Web Exclusive

Marijuana still blazing trails through American culture, courts

Callie Parrish//The Daily Cougar

Callie Parrish//The Daily Cougar

Dope. Hemp. Pot. Reefer. The fact that marijuana has so many slang terms shows how ingrained it is in our culture. So should it be legalized?

According to drugabuse.gov, “marijuana’s negative effects on attention, memory and learning can last for weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.” After you have come down from your high, the drug is still affecting you. “Compared with their nonsmoking peers, students who smoke marijuana tend to get lower grades.”

Marijuana has the misconception that is is harmless, but that is false. “Marijuana has long-lasting effects, especially in adolescents. It needs some sort of regulation,” said Kenneth S. Arfa, a psychiatrist at the University Health Center.

There are other issues that come with marijuana use. According to Arfa, “there may be a weakening of the body’s ability to fight infection. It’s risky for people with high blood pressure or heart disease, as it speeds heart rate by 20 or 30 beats per minute. Marijuana cuts airflow in chronic users and may cause cancer. It lowers sperm counts, and can cause erectile problems and gynecomastia.”

Now on to the “good” things about marijuana. An article in the Sacramento Bee said that “pot may offer broad benefits for pain from nerve damage from injuries, HIV, strokes and other conditions.” Randy Astaiza of The Business Insider said, “Marijuana use can be used to treat and prevent the eye disease glaucoma, which increases pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve and causing loss of vision.”

Should pot be legalized in the United States overall? Twenty states have legalized it so far.

On a side note, according to a Gallup poll, “In the U.S., 38% have tried marijuana. Fewer young adults have tried it today compared with in the 1970s and 1980s.” Why the hype about legalizing marijuana now? The American Prospect writes, “First, we’ve had a fairly active debate about medical use of marijuana for some time, and that debate has been soundly won by the pro-legalization side, with as much as three-quarters of the public favoring legalization for medical purposes. Second, the decline in crime rates may make cracking down on anybody who thinks about lighting up seem like a waste of time. But the most important factor, I’d be willing to bet, is the aging of the population.”

Young people are the ones who support it the most. Gallup shows support for legalization is at 62 percent among adults under 30, 56 percent among those aged 30 to 49, 49 percent among those aged 50 to 64, and 31 percent among those over 65.

There are many factors to be taken into account. Arfa said, “This is an emotional issue involving the safety, social and economic effects of the drug. Supporters of legalization ask: ‘Why should we continue to sell cigarettes and alcohol but not marijuana legally?’ They ask, ‘Why criminalize citizens who don’t believe it’s a dangerous drug and choose to use it?’”

Marijuana legalization, for the most part, seems to be a bad idea. At the same time, if marijuana use helps those that are ill, maybe it should be okay for them to use.

Opinion columnist Callie Parrish is a math and arts senior and may be reached at [email protected]

7 Comments

  • “”According to drugabuse.gov, “marijuana’s negative effects on attention, memory and learning can last for weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.” After you have come down from your high, the drug is still affecting you. “Compared with their nonsmoking peers, students who smoke marijuana tend to get lower grades.””

    Do you suppose that is why every legalization effort has had an age restriction of 21 in it?
    Prohibition has no age restrictions to reduce young peoples use.. When law enforcement is not chasing every puff of smoke they will have more time and resources to target people selling drugs to young people. Prohibition keeps them spread too thin and chasing too many criminals.

  • “Marijuana legalization, for the most part, seems to be a bad idea.”

    Gee, biased much?

    Despite all the Reefer Madness disinformation this article dutifully parrots, the fact is, and always has been, that the most harmful effects of cannabis use all stem from the prohibition against it.

    “Experts” like the good Dr. Arfa always *somehow* overlook the fact that in five thousand years of use by humanity there has never been a single fatality due to cannabis overdose; none of the big pharma snake oil remedies he pushes can make the same claim, and all have considerably more and worse side effects as well.

    Journalism: You’re Doing It Wrong.

  • “…“there may be a weakening of the body’s ability to fight infection. It’s risky for people with high blood pressure or heart disease, as it speeds heart rate by 20 or 30 beats per minute. Marijuana cuts airflow in chronic users and may cause cancer. It lowers sperm counts, and can cause erectile problems and gynecomastia…”

    If this were actually true I would have a respirator tube stuck in my throat, a severe form of cancer somewhere and a pair of double D breasts from all the pot I’ve smoked during my lifetime; and guess what…I don’t. There has NEVER been ONE recorded case of any type of cancer due to any use of marijuana and there are NO studies that concur that marijuana use lowers sperm count or causes gynecomastia. There is a risk in adolescent use but that’s more of a reason to legalize. We must have control over the industry in order to curve it’s use with out youth; how can you ever expect to control something you have no grasp on? Drug dealers don’t care what or who they sell their drugs to, why do we want to let them keep control over this industry? Wouldn’t we do a better job of regulating and controlling it’s use if we had our hands on it?? C’mon people use your heads, it’s not just for wearing hats.

  • The trouble Callie Parrish, is that the government has been caught flatfooted and lying about the dangers of marijuana, including its effects. Legalizing marijuana seems like a bad idea to you because that is what you have been told by a government that has neither been truthful nor honest in their assessment of the “dangers” of marijuana.

    We ask for ID if someone wants to buy alcohol, but dealers don’t ask or care about age. Kids can’t buy alcohol but pot is no problem. You live in the prison capital of the world due in no small part to the continuing war on drugs. Keeping marijuana illegal is not such a good idea.

    To quote: “… I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception
    available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are,
    through the defects of our society and our educational system,
    unavailable to us without such drugs…”.

    “… the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full
    utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight,
    sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly
    mad and dangerous world.”

    – Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996)

Leave a Comment