Use Of Marijuana example essay topic

Jim Stephan Definition Paper ICW #2 2/5/03 Marijuana What is Marijuana? Marijuana is a plant that originated in china over 5,000 years ago (Clark 1). In my attempt to define Marijuana I will discuss it in all aspects possible, including street / slang terms, how it is used, what it is used for, and how it affects the body. This plant made its way over to the United States by some early settlers and was traded to the Indians. The Indians began to smoke parts of this plant at many rituals and ceremonies that they held. The part of the plant that is used is the flower bud.

The buds contain a chemical called THC, when consumed it gives the subject a feeling of "high". Over the many years that marijuana has been in the United States it has been given a large number of street or slang terms. Some of these slang terms include: Pot, weed, trees, smoke, greens, grass, ganja, cannabis, and even some new aged terms such as trizzles. Many of these names started to be used very frequently when marijuana became illegal in the United States. Marijuana began to be banned in many states back in 1900 when 2.5% of Americans were supposedly addicted to the drug (miller 1). The finalization of making marijuana illegal was in 1937 when the Marijuana tax act was passed that prohibited the use of the plant in any way, shape, or form.

Before this act was passed, states had already passed state laws that prohibited the plant, but the tax act banned it in the entire nation and labeled it as a drug (2). THC, the chemical found in marijuana, is obtained in various different ways. This chemical is mainly found is large quantities in the flower bud of the plant. The most popular way of extracting the THC out of the plant is by smoking it, this also is one of the oldest forms as well as the most harmful.

As people started to get creative, many had begun to cook with the plant. A very popular food that is made with marijuana is brownies. The least harmful way of obtaining the desired THC is in the form of a pill, which was introduced in the late 80's when the medicinal uses of marijuana were studied in depth. Marijuana is proven to have some harmful affects on the body, but are they as harmful as the most used legal drug in the United States?

Alcohol kills over 5,000 people each year, but marijuana overdoses have yet to kill anyone (420 1). "Marijuana is psychoactive because it stimulates certain brain receptors, but it does not produce toxins that kill them (like alcohol), and it does not wear them out as other drugs may (1) ". Marijuana is proven to affect short term memory loss in many patients, but that is only while they are under the influence of the drug. As for affecting a human heart, it has been proven that the use of marijuana does not cause any long term cardiovascular problems in normal persons (2). Through recent studies, the use of marijuana in the prenatal stage causes no evident birth defects in humans (2). The long term usage of smoking marijuana may "cause bronchitis and cancer of the lungs, throat, and neck, but this is generally no different that inhaling an other burnt carbon-containing matter" (2).

In its entirety, marijuana is just a plant. A plant that was discovered over 5000 years ago, and ever since then there have been various tests and studies on its many uses. Marijuana is also the most used and abused drug in the united states today. There have been an enormous amount of scientific breakthroughs for the drug that are helping cancer patients across the globe.