harmful legalization Essay -- essays research papers

Harmful Legalization The United States government has seen fit to pass laws prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and possession of dangerous and destructive substances such as marijuana. In opportunistic and negligent haste, fringe aspects of society are seeking to undo laws regarding the restriction of marijuana. These factions have ignored the risks associated with marijuana, falsified information regarding its medical use, and ignore the greater issue with regards to the legalization of harmful substances. LSD, angle dust, and cocaine have several things in common, not the least of which is like marijuana, they are each responsible for the deaths of countless individuals. While a subject will find it difficult to outright end his life with marijuana, it does cause harmful damage to both the user and those around him. Each marijuana cigarette is exponentially more damaging to the lungs of the smoker and those around him than a typical tobacco cigarette. Further, contrary to claims of the harmlessness of marijuana by some advocates, each time it is used, it obliterates a portion of brain cells that can never grow back. Also the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, has been linked to fetal damage, hormonal swings, a slight addiction rate, lower sperm counts and accelerated heart rates, none of which are anything approaching good health for a user. Other aspects besides a user’s physical body suffer when he or she decides to use marijuana. The emotional damage marijuana causes can be best summed up by a quote from researcher Damon Linker â€Å"†¦it (marijuana) does produce a pathology of the soul† (Linker). Everyone around the user suffers, because while he or she is in a drug-induced haze he or she neglects his or her friends, family and responsibilities. By escaping the subject simply dulls his or her pain from various troubles for a moment and does nothing to solve that which plagues him or her. Because of this, users will find themselves trapped within a vicious, unending cycle of getting high and forgetting, to coming down and needing the next fix, to getting high again. Upon realizing that the marijuana isn’t what is required to take away their pain, some will turn to other harder drugs such as cocaine. There may be other reasons for people to start using marijuana, but there is an unacceptable large risk that some of these new users w... ... For to claim the latter logically leads one to the bizarre judgment that Mother Teresa is no more and no less virtuous than Adolph Hitlerâ€Å"] (Beckwith). This way of thinking is detrimental to our society as a whole. When we refuse to take a stand against something that is morally wrong, we in fact, aid that cause. This allows the minority to dictate the terms to the majority. Look at Germany, 1932; Hitler was elected to power, because only fifteen percent of the country came out to vote. In our own country less than one-third of the people are in favor of marijuana legalization; of that number surely not all of them will ever use marijuana. We know that marijuana physically and emotionally harms people, has no medicinal value, and only a small minority of people of the country will use this drug, so why should it be legalized? The answer obviously is that it shouldn’t. Nor should we let the minority dictate terms to the rest of the country. This situation reminds me of a quote I heard from my grandpa: â€Å"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.†  The chart above shows the Ohio drug-violation arrests starting from 2000 to 2004.