Marijuana Use in the United States Debated

Marijuana has been a topic of great debate for the past several years. The federal government continues to list marijuana as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. This listing is meeting resistance from the growing medical marijuana movement, which is striving to legitimize marijuana as a treatment for various physical symptoms, usually those that accompany chronic disease.

The federal government continues to pursue marijuana growers, traffickers and users in the same manner as individuals involved with all other types of illicit substances. Proponents of marijuana legalization argue that this is a waste of the government’s resources because the individual and social effects of marijuana use are typically less severe than alcohol, which is a legal controlled substance.

In addition, recent studies have shown that both parents and youth are relaxing in their views about the dangers of marijuana use, while at the same time recent research has shown that marijuana has drastically increased in potency since its introduction to American mainstream culture in the 1960s.

What Is Marijuana?

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States. It consists of a dry, shredded green/brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds and leaves from the plant Cannabis sativa.

Marijuana is usually smoked in cigarette form (rolled in paper) or in a pipe, but it may also be smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana (often in combination with another drug). Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. Other forms of marijuana include hashish, which is a more concentrated, resinous substance, and hash oil, a sticky black liquid.

Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour, odor.

Effects of Marijuana

The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Certain nerve cells in the brain contain protein receptors that bind to THC, which kicks off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they ingest marijuana.

Short-term effects of marijuana are felt almost immediately when the drug is smoked, and within about half an hour when ingested. Effects can include rapid heartbeat, relaxed and enlarged bronchial passages, expanded blood vessels in the eyes (making the eyes look red), feelings of euphoria, intensified perception of colors and sounds, inability to correctly gauge the passage of time, dry mouth, sudden hunger or thirst, cold or trembling hands, and, as the high passes, sleepiness or depression. Occasionally, marijuana use can trigger feelings of paranoia, anxiety, fear or panic.

Chronic marijuana users may also experience the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as a persistent cough and increased phlegm production, and heightened vulnerability to acute chest illnesses and lung infections. According to the DEA, marijuana smoking may also increase the user’s risk of cancer in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke.

Chronic marijuana users may experience impaired short-term memory because THC affects the functioning of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation. One study of 129 college students, conducted in 2001 by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, found that (compared to non-users of marijuana) heavy users of marijuana showed significantly impaired attention, memory and learning capacities, even after they had abstained from marijuana use for 24 hours.

Medical Marijuana Movement

The medical marijuana movement appears to be gaining ground — or at least visibility — in American culture. Despite marijuana’s continued listing as a Schedule I substance, recent studies have shown that marijuana can be used safely and effectively to assuage certain physical symptoms of serious illness.

Even the federal government is involved (and has been since the 1970s) in conducting clinical research on marijuana through the University of Mississippi, and has sponsored the distribution of medical marijuana to a small group of patients through a program called IND (investigational new drug).

According to the American College of Physicians, a 124,000-member organization, reclassification of marijuana would produce positive benefits for society. “Given marijuana’s proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity, reclassification [out of Schedule I of the CSA] would reduce barriers to research and increase availability of cannabinoid drugs to patients who have failed to respond to other treatments,” representatives from the organization have said.

Increased Potency of Drug

One reason that experts worry about the legalization and growing social acceptance of marijuana is that marijuana itself has been evolving over the last several decades. Marijuana available now is much more potent than it was in previous years.

According to a 2008 report from the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Project, marijuana potency reached a 30-year high in 2008. The project’s analysis of marijuana samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007 found that the average amount of THC more than doubled since 1983, and increased from 8.75 percent in 2006 to 9.6 percent in 2007 alone.

“Today’s report makes it more important than ever that we get past outdated, anachronistic views of marijuana,” said John Walters, then-director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade, with serious implications in particular for young people.”

Some medical experts worry that the increasing potency will dangerously heighten the potential for negative psychological, cognitive, social and physical problems — including addiction — especially in youth.