Claudia Vargas

Prof. Steven A. Wilson

Hudson County Community College
PHL 218-01: Contemporary Moral Problems
November 24th, 2010

Should Recreational Marijuana Be Legalized?

Should recreational marijuana be legalized? If we are to analyze the opinion of a

regular fun thirsty teenager of today: Yes it should! If we are to analyze the opinion and

perspective of protective parents: No it should not! Now what do morals have to say? To

reach a lucid conclusion we will be taking not only in consideration the perspective of

necessity and hype but also of sales, health issues, health benefits, chemical

compositions, opinions and even of statistics. Being really easy to sway towards the most

easily argumented side lets take all side's pros and cons one by one.

Marijuana also known and reffered as "Cannabis" and in the streets called "pot",

"hemp" or "bud" is probably one of the most popular and easily accessible drugs. Street

knowledge bets that Marijuana is completely non-damaging because it is simple a weed

or a herb therefore completely natural. However "Marijuana comes from the Cannabis

sativa plant. It contains over 400 different chemicals from which over 60 are identified as

cannabinoids, chemicals specific to the cannabis plant. One of the cannabinoids, delta9-

tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is considered the major psychoactive ingredient.

(www.educatingvoices.com)" Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, Also reffered to as THC

is a highly toxic substance that is found abundantly and is the main psychoactive

ingredient in the Cannabis plant. The therapeutic ratio which is a comparisson between

the agent's therapeutic effect, and the agent's toxicity, for Cannabis is 1000:1 meaning its

a lot less likely from you to die from smoking marijuana, than drinking "alcohol (which

its ratios are 10:1) or cocaine (15:1) or heroin (6:1) (Gable , R.S. 2004)" But also cause

short term memory loss, adverse effects on motor skills, reflexes and attention. Marijuana

also has a lot of effect in relaxing its users because it decreases neurological activity in

the hippocampus. Some people are prescribed marijuana as medicine, and given a dose

for the medicinal use in some states. However the issue here is not about medicinal

marijuana, but it is about recreational marijuana.

Is there such a thing as " recreational tylenol?" Or maybe even "recreational

tranquilizers?" maybe there are " recreational prescription narcotics?" No? I wonder

why... if a product or drug is used usually for medicinal purposes it is almost in no way

related to recreational or fun activities whatsoever. "...most parents are amazed at the

extent of marijuana use by their son or daughter. In almost every case, parents thought

that their student only used occasionally. Almost always, student use of marijuana was

much greater than parents thought or were willing to admit." (Marijuana - An Educator's

Perspective) now knowing that the toxic substance THC is the main psychoactive

ingredient in marijuana which could be present to up to even 30% of the drug itself, i

could never picture a parent saying goodbye to their kids who are about to have an

enjoyable time, with saying " Goodbye son! Have fun smoking weed! They grow up so

fast..." no person in their right mind would give to their teenagers any other harmful
substance for them to simply have a good time and enjoy themselves, no parent would

give legal prescription drugs to their children just because they wanted to have some fun.

its almost unthinkable (real... but morally, unthinkable). Sending out kids and adolescents

to watch a movie, or go bowling or play videogames would be something more in the

area of enjoyable and fun in the mind of a parent. Most however when defending the

subject do not take that into consideration, only think about the self or if that is enjoyable

to their own person, but do not stop to think about the: " What if it was my son/daughter"

perspective. Analogically knives can be used for both, useful, and harmful purposes. You

can use a knife to cut some steak and make dinner but you can also use a knife to kill.

There will always be a good and a bad side to everything. Using marijuana as a medicine

because you do have a condition that requires it to be used, absolutely no problem. Using

marijuana simply because you are about to have a good time? most of the time abusing

the drug? Probably not the most approachable way to the patch of morals.

Abuse is also very present with dealing with any drug, even licit drugs such as

Alcohol and Tobacco. Making it legal to use something that impairs judgement for

recreational purpouses would definitely be immoral. Begin extremely drunk is considered

immoral, someone sober is considered to be acting with the moral code, now most

certainly all cultures do drink alcohol, and most likely do smoke marijuana just like they

do here, however in most cultures they both are shunned upon as being immoral

behavior. Even if marijuana was to be considered legal for recreational purposes... what

would stop the abuse? Alcohol abuse is still eminent, even with an age restriction, it is

still an abuse and is still considered immoral. How would it be different with marijuana?
Although society in itself might want to legalize the use of recreational marijuana it ends

up being that the issue is really hypocrisy: When public figures on the media or

celebrities use marijuana recreationally most of the time they arent shunned by society,

however close to 95% of the families in any given town or city in the united states shun

the use of recreational marijuana by their family members or children. So the use is moral

enough for celebrities but immoral when it comes inside their own homes its very

hypocritical. It is like saying: "Yes young girls should be allowed to date at age 14." And

someone asking: " Okay then! Can i go out with your daughter?" And the response would

be " No! Not my daughter!" When the issue is at other persons hands maybe it seems

easy to allow but when the issue becomes societies its a whole different story, any person

arguing for recreational marijuana use might say there is nothing wrong with it, but only

by analyzing their own life and not the life of others nearby. In the same stage that

society approves the use, it still rejects it, because when it became a problem not of the

country, not of the state, but of your own family, then only it becomes a "real" issue.

" Chronic marijuana use, especially in a very young person, may also be a marker

of risk for mental illnesses - including addiction - stemming from genetic or

environmental vulnerabilities, such as early exposure to stress or violence. Currently, the

strongest evidence links marijuana use and schizophrenia and/or related disorders.4 High

doses of marijuana can produce an acute psychotic reaction; in addition, use of the drug

may trigger the onset or relapse of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.(Moore TH)"

So we're dealing with mental illnesses, addiction, schizophrenia... abuse unnfortunately is

eminent, every other drugs that have become licit (alcohol, tobacco etc...) have been and
are being abused even right now, to legalize it would be the same as giving permission

for others to abuse it. Using it, would probably not be a moral issue, but allowing the

eminent abuse would definitely be a moral issue.

Dealing with any drug, we cannot only take into account what happens here in our

own family or city or state, it is an international issue that called drug trafficking. The

majority of all drugs used are not from our country, but usually smuggled in from other

countries with higher growth rates and allowance towards the use. Drug trafficking is

most of the time extremely violent, supervised with civilians heavily armed and also is a

high cause of homicide in most countries. If recreational marijuana was to be legalized, it

would create extreme havoc in other countries, mainly due to the rule of supply and

demand, even with marijuana illegal our country does not produce enough quantities of it

to supply the candid use of the drug. If it were to be legalized, one of two things (maybe

even both), would happen: 1) Drug dealers would fight to try to control the market of

marijuana sales. Even with the drug illegal, the corners where they sell drugs are already

fought over, and drug selling spots is already one of the main reasons for gang violence.

Making marijuana legal would definitely increase violence and attempt to control the

marijuana market. 2) Drugs would still be smuggled from other countries considering

there are several different species of Cannabis in the world and are mostly all different

there would be a competition not only in this country but with other countries as well. On

other countries where people are still being murdered because of drugs (in the attempt to

over there control the drug market) legalizing drugs here would only increase production

and attempt to control in other countries as well, thus resulting in even more violence.
 Now we know its not exactly beneficial for human health when abused, its not

accepted morally by society, and it also stirs up drug trafficking which is extremely

violent not only here but in most countries of the world. Does it seem like a good idea?

Definitely not. According to societies moral codes, most families reject the use of

recreational marijuana, so it would be considered immoral. According to most religious

and psychological moral codes, purpousedly impairing your own judgement is considered

immoral. By that we can conclude that if not completely immoral, it is both immoral, and

ammoral, either against morality, or negligent to it. Recreational marijuana use should

not be legalized, for the sake of society's, religion's and psychology's moral standards.