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Marijuana has been a drug substance for thousands of years and has been known to alter the user’s mental ability, open doors to far more dangerous drugs and push people into a state of deep depression. “According to Harry J. Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics asserted that the use of this “evil weed” led to cold-blooded murders, sex crimes and insanity”(20), states Eric Schlosser, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and the author of Reefer Madness. Our society is already in a down-ward spiral of drug abuse and decriminalization would only make it worse. Legalizing marijuana would endorse the use of a dangerous substance, send the wrong message to our youth and further contribute to the Nations drug abuse problems.
The initial negative effect marijuana has is distortion of perceptions, thinking and reality. It’s that “high” that make the users come back for more. More important is the psychological dependence the users feel after smoking for a prolonged period of time. “Marijuana is an addictive drug” (np), according to the American Society of Addictive Medicine. In June of 1997, a team of laboratory researchers found that marijuana produced the same biochemical changes in the brains of rats as highly addictive drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol. Nicotine and alcohol are legal substances, but both are harmful to the user’s body. We don’t need legal marijuana to also contribute to addictions of far more illicit drugs. Marijuana becomes a part of the users’ life, in their daily routine so their life depends solely on the drug and the high. “After my first introduction to drugs, I spent the next seven years of my life in a drug-induced stupor. By the time I was 21, I had no interests except to find ways to get high. Drugs dominated my life and the decisions I made” (np), stated Barrett Duke, a member of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Drug abuse in adults is common and more likely than not stays...