Hurry Up Essay Research Paper Sean P

Hurry Up Essay, Research Paper

Sean P. Silverman

8 December 1999

Hurry Up

Long recognized as one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind, Ganja truly can heal the earth. Unknown to many today,

cannabis hemp was used worldwide in paper, fiber, lamp oil and nautical applications throughout the 19th century, constituting

“possibly the largest agricultural and industrial businesses in America” (Herer 83). In the early part of the 1800s cannabis was

the number one medicine in the US (83). It held that spot tightly, until it was nudged to second place by morphine in 1863,

unseated again in 1901 by aspirin (83).

Throughout its usage history, doctors did not consider the effects of cannabis to be habit forming, anti-social, or violent.

As Herer explains, “Mary Jane” contains sixty compounds that are currently known to have therapeutic value. Unlike tobacco

smoke, cannabis smoke does not alter the small airways in any way. Small airway damage is where cigarette smoking causes its

most long-term and permanent damage (110).

In total, cigarettes are responsible for the deaths of 430,000 Americans each year (110). Despite the fact that tens of

millions of Americans smoke pot regularly, there was still not one death attributed to the drug as of 1997 (110). A 1976 report

by Dr. Tashkin, M.D. of UCLA found that cannabis was more of an irritant than cigarette tobacco in just

one of the twenty-nine areas of the human lung under study (110). In the large air passageway marijuana smoke is fifteen times

more irritating than cigarette smoke. Often glossed over is the fact that tobacco causes only minimal disruption to this area;

hence the improper statistic that one joint causes lung damage equivalent to several cigarettes. On a hugely ironic note, the US

government followed up this finding by limiting cannabis pulmonary studies to only the large air passageway, the very next year

(111).

Another popular falsehood is that marijuana causes permanent brain damage. After multiple Freedom of Information Act

lawsuits, mainly by cutting edge periodicals, the government was forced to release the methods it used in its brain damage

studies. Herer’s book details how Dr. Heath of Tulane University forced a group of Rhesus monkeys to inhale the equivalent of

thirty joints per day.

He concluded that the monkeys began to atrophy and die after ninety days. Heath then killed off the dying monkeys, then

opened their brains counting the dead brain cells, to compare his findings with the control group (107). Even the heaviest pot

smoker on the planet doesn’t come close to smoking thirty joints in one day! It’s important to note Dr. Tashkin considers that

smoking sixteen or more “large” spliffs in a day could lead to hypoxia, or a condition where the lungs are over saturated with

smoke, and become deprived of the oxygen necessary to remain healthy (110). Meanwhile, a 1981 UCLA study of the Coptic

religion in Florida, whose worshipers are some of the heaviest pot smokers in the US, metered absolutely no brain differences

between smokers and non-smokers (112).

Water pipe technology, often referred to as “paraphernalia,” has been proven to remove many of the carcinogens that do

occur in marijuana smoke. Ingesting cannabis orally can wholly avert any possible lung damage. Marijuana can be enjoyed in

various eatable forms ranging from brownies and space cakes to the festive ganja goo-ball and refreshing hash orange juice.

Often, anti-drug groups tout that marijuana causes an increase in crime. Such claims are simply incorrect. In the most

complete study of “reefer” consumption in its natural setting, Vera Rubin and Lambros Comita confirmed that, aside from

marijuana busts, there is no real link between cannabis and crime. They also found that the heavy

use of ganja is unlikely to curtail one’s motivation to work (112).

Legalizing marijuana guarantees many positive effects. Currently, prohibition forces drug profits into the hands of crime.

Ideally a drug dealer is a local, selling a small amount of marijuana to turn a mild profit, either financially or in “bud.”

Unfortunately, many drugs are trafficked through criminal organizations. Without any oversight these organizations are free to

turn innocent cannabis profit into other, harmful ventures. On the other hand, “[s]ince adopting a policy of tolerance and

non-prosecution of cannabis/hashish smokers. Holland has seen a substantial reduction in cannabis consumption among

teenagers and a 33% drop in the number of heroin addicts” (113).

Anyone with firsthand experience using marijuana knows that it typically induces a mellowing effect. It does not produce

the type of roudy, aggressive behavior typically associated with alcohol abuse. During the late 1800s, cannabis was successfully

used in treating opiate, chloral hydrate, and alcohol addiction, with some patients recovering after only twelve doses of cannabis

extract. Marijuana continues to be an effective tool in the modern treatment of alcohol addiction (113).

Acc

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