Marijuana isn’t bad like people might think it is. The law and even families might reiterate the idea repeatedly, yet it simply isn’t true. So why do people see marijuana as the devil’s spawn?
A leading reason that people believe marijuana is bad is the many myths circulating around it. Marijuana (also known as cannabis or weed), according to the Oxford dictionary, is, “cannabis, especially as smoked or consumed as a psychoactive drug.” One myth is that weed kills. This is a wildly inaccurate myth. For example, based on the substances alone; tobacco kills an average of 480,000 people a year, alcohol kills an average of 88,000 people a year, and marijuana kills zero people per year. Another myth is that people believe that there is unsavory long-term side effects with weed. This, while true for most all other legal drugs, is only applicable to those with brains who have yet to finish developing. For those under 25, there is the possibility of memory problems or poor cognitive functioning. Another thing that people believe to be true is that Marijuana is a gateway drug. The truth is that most people who try marijuana do not keep using it. Marijuana also curbs cravings for other more dangerous drugs like cocaine or heroin, making it an anti-gateway drug. …show more content…
In 1975, President Nixon was advised by members of his cabinet to decriminalize weed. Nixon ended up ignoring their words of advice and proceeded to heavily criminalize drugs starting his “war on drugs.” In 1994, his aide, John Ehrlichman, came out in an interview and explained this. He said they couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war or black. Their solution was to make the general public associate drugs with these groups and then criminalize it. This allowed them to arrest these people, raid their homes, and vilify them on the news. To quote Ehrlichman, “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we
A leading reason that people believe marijuana is bad is the many myths circulating around it. Marijuana (also known as cannabis or weed), according to the Oxford dictionary, is, “cannabis, especially as smoked or consumed as a psychoactive drug.” One myth is that weed kills. This is a wildly inaccurate myth. For example, based on the substances alone; tobacco kills an average of 480,000 people a year, alcohol kills an average of 88,000 people a year, and marijuana kills zero people per year. Another myth is that people believe that there is unsavory long-term side effects with weed. This, while true for most all other legal drugs, is only applicable to those with brains who have yet to finish developing. For those under 25, there is the possibility of memory problems or poor cognitive functioning. Another thing that people believe to be true is that Marijuana is a gateway drug. The truth is that most people who try marijuana do not keep using it. Marijuana also curbs cravings for other more dangerous drugs like cocaine or heroin, making it an anti-gateway drug. …show more content…
In 1975, President Nixon was advised by members of his cabinet to decriminalize weed. Nixon ended up ignoring their words of advice and proceeded to heavily criminalize drugs starting his “war on drugs.” In 1994, his aide, John Ehrlichman, came out in an interview and explained this. He said they couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war or black. Their solution was to make the general public associate drugs with these groups and then criminalize it. This allowed them to arrest these people, raid their homes, and vilify them on the news. To quote Ehrlichman, “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we