In November 2012, Washington and Colorado states passed laws legalizing marijuana use. This move makes the United States the first country worldwide to permit the manufacturing, sale, and even the use of marijuana. Since this passing, other states such as Oregon, Alaska, California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Maine have followed suit and legalized marijuana (Barry, 2018). This move makes it the third drug for adults to be authorized following tobacco and alcohol. As it is, alcohol and tobacco are the two leading drugs that result in preventable diseases and deaths in the United States. Yet, a third burden has been added to the already fragile state. This paper examines the health and economic impacts of marijuana on society as a justification for the legalization of marijuana in the United States.
When policymakers consider making decisions about substances like marijuana, it is of utter importance to think about how such decisions affect youths in the country. The debates regarding marijuana legalization has been increasing over the last forty years. Proponents of legalization argue that marijuana is a safe drug, and criminalizing it against personal possession and use is an excessively harsh and unnecessary penalty. Agreeing with such sentiments, the authors of the journal ‘ The Lancet ’ argue that the economic, mortality, and costs to the society related to tobacco and alcohol use in the US cannot be equated with those associated with the use of marijuana ( Caulkins, Kilmer, & Kleiman, 2016) . According to their study, a more significant percentage of Americans would prefer marijuana to be legalized as opposed to alcohol (See figure 1).
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However, comprehensive research shows that marijuana is far from being a drug, especially with new psychopharmacologic evidence showing that the drug has many similar features to other illicit drugs ( Barry, 2018; Kilmer et al., 2014) . Arguments against legalization assert that permitting personal use of cannabis is likely to catalyze substance abuse substance with predictable negative impacts on economic, social, and health costs. Studies show that there are numerous psychopharmacologic elements contained in marijuana that are adverse to an individual’s health. A survey by Kilmer et al. (2014) shows that youths who use marijuana during their adolescent years are two times more likely to develop severe mental illnesses compared to those that do not.
Other reports show that marijuana is highly addictive. The drug contains an active ingredient known as tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found to stimulate dopamine release in the brain ( Johnston et al., 2019) . Statistics show that about 1 in every five people who start using marijuana during adolescence become addicted. All these adverse effects of marijuana contribute to premature or unintentional injuries and even death among young people, especially those who get involved with heavy machinery and motor vehicles ( Johnston et al., 2019) . Prolonged marijuana use is also associated with the adverse health effects similar to those experienced with long term use of tobacco. Despite these adverse effects, reports show that more and more people continue to abuse the drug, and the trend increases with age (See figure 2).
In another study, Kilmer et al. (2014) found that the legalization of marijuana did not reduce the rate at which people used the drug. The results of the study showed that legalization results in an increase in the rate of use. The reason for this increase is because marijuana has become more accessible to youths and other people. As such, they do not have to wait for long hours or travel long distances to access illegal markets. As such, more and more people are abusing the drug (Kilmer et al., 2014). Similarly, the legalization of the drug has only created favorable competition in the market where it is sold. Currently, legal distributors are competing with illegal distributors for the market, and this means that the prices for marijuana have significantly reduced. A reduction in price is good news for consumers because they can access more massive amounts at lower costs. This market advantage has resulted in a more robust attraction to the drug (Kilmer et al., 2014). States that have legalized marijuana have been found to have higher rates of abuse than states that have not made the drug legal (See figure 3).
Several explanations are possible in understanding these contrasting findings. It is a possibility that the higher rates of baseline use in the states that had legalized the use of marijuana may have shown a more tolerant or lax approach to drug use even before it was legalized. This, therefore, would mean that decriminalization may not have led to any significant decrease of enforcement and that the observed rate of increase would be parallel but not gone above changes in the states that did not change their laws (Barry, 2018). Also, because most of the surveys are administered on students who are in school, the adverse effects of legalizing marijuana consumed by students who are out of school would not be reflected by the survey results.
Although proponents of legalizing marijuana focus solely on adults over the age of 21 (no proponents are advocating for anyone below the adulthood age to consume marijuana), any form of legalization could still affect adolescents. For instance, alcohol consumption is prohibited for any person below the age of 21 years, while tobacco use is not permitted to any persons below the age of 18 years. However, these psychoactive products are still widely being used by adolescents (Adrian, 2015). This goes the same for the legalization of marijuana. Decriminalizing marijuana would result in advertising promotion advocating for its use, some of which may directly be associated with adolescents. As recent experiences may show, it would be hard, if not impossible, to put measures against adverts that target the youth (Adrian, 2015). For example, as shown during the Comprehensive Tobacco Settlement negotiations, companies dealing with tobacco products have continued to promote their products to the youth even despite the regulations against the act.
In fact, according to a recent study, tobacco advertising, especially cigarette adverts to the youth-oriented journals, increased by 45% after that Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Another study similarly showed that promotion of youth cigarette brands for youths between the 8 th and 12 th grade in youth-oriented magazines increase from 2015 to 2018, and so did the expenditures for adult cigarette brands in other magazines (Adrian, 2015). Research has also found that both the federal and state governments show weak enforcement of the Synar Amendment. This amendment mandates that states should control the distribution of tobacco –related products to people younger than 18 years (Adrian, 2015). Decriminalization of marijuana to adults but not for younger people would require that the law enforces additional regulations and laws, thus burdening a system that is at present not able to meet all its regulatory obligations (Adrian, 2015).
Lastly, the discussion above shows that decriminalizing marijuana does not reduce the rate of consumption; instead, it increases it. A productive society is one whose youths are healthy and academically progressive. However, data from studies show that marijuana addiction results in negative perceptions about academics and pursuing higher education in general. A survey conducted by Kerr et al. (2017) showed that youth who used marijuana showed low interest in going to college than their counterparts who did not use marijuana (See figure 5). Adolescents who consumed marijuana also showed poor academic performance and higher school dropout rates than their peers who did not use the drug ( Kerr et al., 2017). These results indicate that marijuana is harmful to the productivity of a community and results in unmotivated youths who are become a liability to the system. The study shows that teenagers who used marijuana were at a higher risk of engaging in illegal activities, growing violent, and getting imprisoned ( Kerr et al., 2017). Such behavior places a considerable burden on parents, families, and society at large.
Many allude to the benefits of cannabis, such as the drug being a pain reliever. Others also posit that the legalization of marijuana is beneficial because it will reduce the rate of abuse and ensure safe use under specific legal prescriptions. However, the evidence presented herein shows that marijuana legalization is more harmful than beneficial in all aspects. First, the legalization of the drug has been found to increase the rate of use among the youth. With easy access to the drug, many youths will opt to use more of it and will, in turn, suffer negative consequences such as addiction. The adverse effects of marijuana are harmful to families, friends, users, and society at large. Evidence shows that the use of cannabis is associated with low academic motivation and performance. Legalizing the drug would mean that the nation does not care about the posterity and success of its next generation. It is, therefore, paramount for stakeholders and citizens to identify and shun these adverse effects that are associated with the drug. The United States can effectively deal with this problem by further placing stricter regulations and policies against the use of marijuana.
References
Adrian, M. (2015). What the History of Drugs can teach us about the Current Cannabis Legalization Process: Unfinished business. Substance use & misuse , 50 (8-9), 990-1004.
Barry, R. A., & Glantz, S. A. (2018). Marijuana Regulatory Frameworks in four US States: An analysis against a public health standard. American journal of public health , 108 (7), 914-923.
Kerr, D. C., Bae, H., Phibbs, S., & Kern, A. C. (2017). Changes in Undergraduates' Marijuana, Heavy Alcohol, and Cigarette use following Legalization of Recreational Marijuana use in Oregon. Addiction , 112 (11), 1992-2001.
Kilmer, B., Caulkins, J. P., Pacula, R. L., MacCoun, R. J., & Reuter, P. (2010). Altered state? Assessing how Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets . Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Johnston, L. D., Miech, R. A., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Schulenberg, J. E., & Patrick, M. E. (2019). Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2018: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use. Institute for Social Research .
Appendices
Appendix A
Figure 1 : Percentage of people for and against the legalization of marijuana in the US. From https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf
Appendix B
Figure 2: Rate of marijuana use with age.
From https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/150623/2018-19%20VOL%20II%20FINAL%202.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Appendix C
2014
2017
Figure 3: Rates of past marijuana use in states that legalized the drug.
From https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf
Appendix D
Figure 4: Differences in academic interests between students who use marijuana and those who do not . From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28613454
