Marijuana Use Amongst Teens

Marijuana has been and still is a leading drug amongst teens in America. Its popularity has been growing rapidly since the hippie days of the late 70’s. People smoke or ingest marijuana for various reasons. Some of the reasons for the use of marijuana might be for religious purposes, medicinal purposes, or just plainly recreational purposes. Another reason for smoking marijuana might be because of all the troubling peer pressure amongst America’s youth these days. The effects of marijuana depend on how much THC (the main chemical in weed that gets you high) the plant has, the location of where you take it, the people you are with, how much you take of it, and the method of taking it. It is a plant that is grown, sold, and distributed illegally all over the US. Although marijuana might simply be looked upon as just a plant by the common teenager in America the problem is that the dangers in taking marijuana are detrimental towards your health and can lead to use of other highly addictive drugs. The frequent use of marijuana should be curbed and eventually stopped so that teens would see the downward trends that weed impacts towards your life and others around you as well. Marijuana is the most prominent drug in America with many teens having tried it and having easy access to it. Many teens in high schools and colleges around the country slang weed in order to make to make money and have a little something for themselves to smoke. Its availability is so common that you can probably find a connect or a hook within your school or city in a matter of minutes to an hour. Marijuana is the number one drug in amongst teens in America. The National Survey on Drug Use states that: “Whether or not teen marijuana use has declined and to what extent, the reality is that at least five million teens have tried marijuana, including almost half of high school seniors. Next to alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is the drug of choice for American teens. It is by far the most widely used illicit drug: about six times as many teens have tried marijuana as have tried Ecstasy or cocaine.” Marijuana remains the drug of choice of among teenagers because of its availability, accessibility, price, and uses. Teens would much rather try weed than any other drug because of its practical uses. The feeling of getting high can make one happy and enjoy a good time with their friends. Some might not even consider marijuana a drug because it is naturally grown from the earth and not man made like other drugs out there. However marijuana does alter your mind so that you act differently than you normally would. Not only does marijuana alter your mind but it also has harmful effects on health. The adverse effects of marijuana can cause serious problems towards ones brain and health. Because marijuana enhances certain things in your body such as more numbness to pain, and critical thinking processes there has to be some kind of side effects. There are two types of effects that weed smokers tend to get, short-term effects and long-term effects. The National Institute of Health state that: “The short-term effects of marijuana use include memory loss, anxiety, and a decrease in cognitive and motor skills; long-term consequences include a weakened immune system and an increased risk of cancer, respiratory diseases, and heart problems.” Side effects such as memory loss and the loss of cognitive skills are something that should not be tampered with. Marijuana is a drug that messes with your thinking processes so that you think in ways that have no reasoning behind it or purely for idiotic reasons. As for the long term effects health issues are more of the concern. Smoking weed weakens your immune system by lowering your white-blood cell count so that you are more susceptible to getting sicknesses and illnesses. Also if you are already sick and you smoke weed, it prolongs your sickness rather than treating it. Respiratory diseases and heart problems are not very pleasing to your health either. So why would you want to smoke something that worsens your body and mind? Marijuana is a very dangerous and potent drug that gets users addicted and wanting more. Not only is marijuana dangerous but it also leads one to try other drugs too. Marijuana is a gateway drug despite what common potheads and teenagers out there tell you. The main reason why marijuana is a gateway drug is because of connections tied with slangers and dealers. You have more chance of obtaining a different kind of drug than a normal person would if you smoked weed because of the person you get it from. Also another reason why marijuana is a gateway drug is because of dependency. When smoking marijuana one becomes dependent on that drug to fulfill their needs of getting high. That dependency can later turn into someone wanting a higher feeling or a better feeling than what weed can satisfy. Weed is like the baby steps before you take the big steps when dealing with drugs. However, there are many ways in which you can clean this marijuana problem up. One solution to curb the frequent weed smoking teenagers is to crack down on the law enforcement. Currently if you are guilty of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and are caught by the police you receive no more than a misdemeanor ticket. Even if you have more than an ounce it is still a misdemeanor with the exception of 6 months in jail. However, if you are found growing or selling marijuana it is a felony with the exception of being a minor. The most you jail time you can get 7 years for selling to a minor. I think that the law is not strict enough when it comes to marijuana. The law enforcement should consider putting people in jail for life or something like 20-30 years. That way a lot less teenagers would be smoking weed because they would all be too afraid to enough touch that kind of drug. A second solution, and the best solution, would be to stop the importing and exporting of marijuana and to catch and destroy all the private cultivation in the US. A simple way to stop the importing and exporting of marijuana would be to create some kind of place of enforcements to check all private owned jets and planes before they leave and right after they came back. The same idea would apply to private owned boats or any other means of transportation by the sea. This way everything would be checked and nothing would illegal would get passed security. As for the people growing and cultivating marijuana plants the government would have to create a law that inspects people with couple of plants to hundreds of plants. If that were to happen there wouldn’t be any big time growers that sell to the big dealers. This way we can eliminate all attempts to even bring about marijuana into our country and have a more stabilized economy without all the heavy drug dealers making millions of profit money from drugs. These solutions are to curb and stop the frequent consuming, distribution and selling of marijuana amongst teens. This is not to prohibit marijuana entirely it is only to try and manage something that is hard to control in our society. Marijuana is a lethal and harmful drug that alters your state of mind and has many negative side effects. Many teens these days do not know about the dangers of weed and smoke it on a regular basis. When smoking weed you are not only harming yourself but also your friends and family. My solutions would curb and diminish weed around our country for a safer and better environment for our next generation of teenagers.