Advantages and Disadvantages of Marijuana Usage

Cannabis is cultivated commercially or grows wild in warm and tropical areas all over the world. This plant, the material to make marijuana, has appeared for a long time, the scientists have found that the Chinese used cannabis seed as one of their food sources. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (2017), a website of the USA’s government has defined that marijuana is the mixture of gray or green cannabis leaves, flowers, which has been dried. According to the book “Cannabis: A History” of Martin and Booth, it is said that the term “marijuana” has derived from the name “Mary” and “Jane”, which are two common names in Mexico. Marijuana is very popular in the US where the rate using this drug is three times higher than that global average, even two Presidents of this country, Thomas Jefferson and Geoge Washington, had hemp plantations (Pappas, 2014). Budney et al. showed information that if compared with cocaine and heroin, the chance of users be addicted marijuana is the lowest with only about 9% of whom become addicted to it, while with the percentage of people try cocaine and heroin is 15% and 24% respectively. In an article by Ferner and matt, the marijuana industry can become larger than organic food if the US Government allow this drug be traded legal.

Advantages of Marijuana

Almost people think that cancer, a condition of uncontrolled cell division, is the unsecured diseases. Normally, when cells are old, mutated or injured, the process of programmed cell death will set off to prevent these cells from dividing and growing. However, cancer stops this process. The cancer cells, which never die on their own even create a tumor that can influent on vital bodily functions.

This but many scientists now have found that marijuana can help cancer sufferers. There are about 113 kinds of cannabinoids that have been found in marijuana, they are the chemicals that make marijuana have both medical and recreational properties. Among these cannabinoids, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are the most well-known and well-understood. According to Anna Wilcox, the experiments in laboratories have shown that programmed cell death can be triggered by CBD and THC. In addition, Wilcox has shown more that both of two cannabinoids in marijuana have anti proliferative effects. It means that CBD and THC kill cancer cells by halting their growth. Not only halting the proliferation of cancer cells, cannabis compounds also have anti-metastatic properties. The tumor will go through the bloodstream and locate in any part of the body that make cancers be very difficult to cure. However, the spreading of tumor will be prevented by cannabinoids found in marijuana, THC and CBD. Anna Wilcox, in his article “Does cannabis cure cancer” (2017), has told how cannabis can treat the cancer. Nevertheless, he also claimed that this plant cannot cure cancer totally, these are just experiments in laboratories, but cancer patients should be more positive because of these quite satisfactory results.

Glaucoma is one kind of diseases about eyes which reduces people’s side vision, even leads to blindness. The reason of this disease is related to the changing of intraocular pressure (IOP), it means that the pressure within the eyes is higher than normal. Lower the IOP level is considered as the only way to control Glaucoma. If the condition worsens, the patient should have an operation to curtail the pressure inside the eyes. Fortunately, in an article written by David Turbert, these are some kind of drugs that can help treat this disease, one of which is marijuana.

According to the author, the ideal use marijuana to cure Glaucoma has appeared since 1970s. National Eyes Institute supported this research, and the result is this the cannabinoids in marijuana, THC, are able to keep the IOP lowered. However, Turbert said that the effects of marijuana are short-term, just lasts three or four hours. Therefore, patients have to use marijuana six to seven times a day. It is can deny that marijuana really help to treat Glaucoma, but if smoking it too regularly, it can lead to some bad effects for the health of the user.

Disadvantages of Marijuana

The Effects of Marijuana on the Brain

Marijuana which is one of the strongest addictive substances in the world can lead to many bad effects on the user’s health. One of the consequences of using marijuana is on brain. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) (2017), a website of the USA’s government, there are many experiments, research on both animal and human about bad effects of marijuana on brain. In an experiment on animal, mice exposed to marijuana in the early time of life, as soon as birth or during adolescence. The result showed that they are all change the function and structure in the hippocampus, a part of the brain. Another research shown by NIDA is about 4000 youngsters who have used marijuana regularly during twenty five years. When examined, they have had trouble with verbal memory tests. To support this result, the recent studies also show the relationship between using marijuana and losing IQ. Teenagers (9 to 12 years old) and early adulthood (17 to 20 years old) decreased significantly their verbal ability (about 4 IQ points), and when they stop using marijuana, they still cannot gain the points that they have lost.

All of the researches and experiments that NIDA has mentioned are the substantial evidence to demonstrate that marijuana is very harmful to the user’s health, especially to their brain. Both animal and human have troubles when they are exposed to marijuana in any age. With rats, they find it very difficult to learn skills to survive in the nature. With human, when the adults use marijuana, they will lose their neurons in the hippocampus that leads them to not learn new things as easy as before.

Works Cited

1. Budney, A. J., Roffman, R., Stephens, R. S., & Walker, D. (2007). Marijuana dependence and its treatment. Addiction science & clinical practice, 4(1), 4-16.
2. National Institute of Drug Abuse. (2017). Marijuana.
3. Pappas, S. (2014). Marijuana history: George Washington and the hemp industry. Live Science. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/48337-marijuana-history-how-cannabis-travelled-world.html
4. Martin, B., & Booth, M. (2003). Cannabis: A history. St. Martin's Press.
5. Ferner, M. & Matt, E. (2019). The marijuana industry could be worth $75 billion, but analysts say it's impossible to know for sure. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/the-marijuana-industry-could-be-worth-75-billion-but-analysts-say-its-impossible-to-know-for-sure.html
6. Wilcox, A. (2017). Does cannabis cure cancer? Leafly.
7. Turbert, D. (2018). Can marijuana help treat glaucoma? American Academy of Ophthalmology. Retrieved from https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/can-marijuana-help-treat-glaucoma
8. Volkow, N. D., Baler, R. D., Compton, W. M., & Weiss, S. R. (2014). Adverse health effects of marijuana use. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(23), 2219-2227.
9. Crean, R. D., Crane, N. A., & Mason, B. J. (2011). An evidence based review of acute and long-term effects of cannabis use on executive cognitive functions. Journal of addiction medicine, 5(1), 1-8.
10. Yanes-Lane, M., Winters, K. C., Moberg, D. P., & Reichert, J. (2020). Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study. Cancer Causes & Control, 31(1), 37-46.