Persuasive Essay About Marijuana

Marijuana is a gateway drug that many people use today. Some people use it strictly for medicinal purposes, while others use it to obtain a “high.” Although 21 states have already enacted medical marijuana, smoking marijuana is a federal crime and should be kept illegal.

Marijuana, formally known as cannabis sativa, is a hemp plant. Cannabis is an annual plant with palmate leaves, which contain the resin used for a stronger form of marijuana, hashish. There are many slang names given to marijuana: Aunt Mary, boom, chronic, dope, gangster, ganja, grass, hash, herb, kif, Mary Jane, pot, reefer, sinsemilla, skunk, and weed. The variety of names shows how many different types of people smoke marijuana today. When ready to smoke, marijuana looks like crumbled leaves with green, brown, and/or gray coloring. There are three different ways to smoke this “grass”: rolling a joint, rolling a blunt, or smoking it out of a bong. A “joint” is marijuana rolled up to resemble a cigarette, while a “blunt” is a little larger, resembling a cigar. “Bongs” are large pipes filled with water, and the marijuana smoke is inhaled through the opening at the top. Some people even go as far as cooking marijuana into different foods. “Weed brownies” is a popular recipe among marijuana smokers. Sometimes, marijuana leaves are brewed into hot water, which is then consumed to fulfill the user’s desire.

Many weed smokers will argue that there are no harmful effects of smoking the plant, but research states otherwise. Although there are around four hundred chemicals found in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is the active ingredient. This chemical, more commonly known as THC, primarily affects the brain. A few effects of THC are appetite st...

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...ted many growers and distributors of marijuana. Punishments for these criminals can be very steep, for marijuana, whether it’s used for medicinal purposes or not, is an illegal drug.

Although marijuana can be used as a pain reliever, it may cause new pain, even while taking other pain away. The psychological effects of weed may not be realized by the smoker until it is too late. Much like a cigarette smoker needs nicotine, a high will be something a “hash” smoker will run to, and in the future, it may become addictive for the smoker. As more states move to legalizing medical marijuana, more people will have access to the drug. Although some effects of smoking marijuana may help people with sickness, the other effects are too harmful to accept smoking marijuana as a medical practice. Marijuana is addictive and harmful and shouldn’t be distributed to anyone.