Nico Cortes
Staff Writer
Many people perceive marijuana as an equally dangerous drug compared to other commonly abused drugs such as cocaine, heroin, ketamine, prescription opioids, and many others. And while marijuana is still illegal in 41/50 of the states here in the U.S, there are many other much more harmful things that are still legal compared to this drug. It seems very counterproductive to let things that are more dangerous to remain legal while maintaining strict laws over things that have a much less negative impact.
For example, alcohol is completely legal to consume, and more dangerous than marijuana is and is much more commonly abused. In fact every single year approximately 88,000 deaths are caused solely by alcohol abuse, 17.6 million suffer from alcohol dependence, and it is the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the entire nation. Deaths from marijuana are extremely remote, the deaths caused by it are because of the actions are done by those under the influence and do not have nearly as much impact or even close to the negative effects of alcohol. If you were to give these facts to someone without telling them what the drug is and ask which one they think should be illegal, they would be more likely to say the one with more deadly statistics would they not. Right off the bat, you can see that something that is perfectly legal to consume has had a much more deadly impact than something that is much less harmful.
And some studies, according to Martin R Tramèr, show that Cannabinoids, or medical marijuana, are shown to be very useful for treatment for control of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. As well as having a number of antiemetic properties that are helpful to those undergoing chemotherapy to help with the side effects which would normally be caused by other treatment. Other uses of medical marijuana include the treatment of chronic pain, sleep disturbances, muscle spasticity, and even anorexia. This is mostly because the drug contains THC which act on the cannabinoids, which are a specific set of brain cell receptors that have mild painkiller effects. The THC is known to change the neurotransmitter release that takes place in the spinal cord which results in the pain relief. It is much more than just the dangerous drug that many people make it out to be, and while there are some harmful effects when the drug is abused and used in excess it also has many properties that are positive when used in medicine. When you take a look at not just alcohol, but many other more harmful things that aren’t made illegal compared to a medicinal drug that is proven to have positive consequences when used, it makes you wonder why it was ever made illegal in the first place.