Will legalizing marijuana make the United States fall apart and become a troubled country? Fear of what could happen if marijuana is legalized has been instilled in individuals of all ages throughout this country for years. This fear that many turn to for their opinion on marijuana has not allowed individuals to fully see the benefits legalization could have.
Legalizing marijuana will help hundreds of individuals who are struggling with serious medical conditions and who are not able to obtain it due to the difficulty in finding a doctor who will prescribe it. The United States would also be gaining a surplus of money from the taxes that marijuana sales would produce. Arrests and crime rates would decrease and the money they would have been spending on those two alone would offer the government a financial boost that they did not previously have. Legalization would also allow for scientists to perform research on marijuana, figuring out the positive and negative effects as well as being able to quantify the drug like we are able to do with alcohol.
Medical marijuana is an endocannabinoid that may help with aging. As individuals age their endocannabinoid signaling significantly decreases and with marijuana being a canabinnoid the question arises, will smoking marijuana be a fountain of youth? Again there is very little research done on marijuana due to it being a schedule one drug and because it is illegal.
After reading the literature I became interested in the relationship between endocannabinoids and neuroinflammation. As the activation of endocannabinoid receptors increases microglia activity decreases and acts as an anti-inflammatory. Inflammation causes an individual to become much more susceptible to multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. If an individual smokes marijuana they are providing themselves with cannabis, which could therefore potentially prevent MS or other neurological diseases. Again these are possible outcomes based on the information and research we do have on endocannabinoids but much more is needed. This is just one of the many reasons why legalizing marijuana will help our society and future developments on our understanding of marijuana and the potential benefits it could offer.
Benefits to Legalizing Marijuana?
While it is next to impossible to OD on the smokeable form of THC, edibles pose an entirely new risk to consumers. Many overdoses within the past year have been documented in Colorado alone. With paranoia and delusional behavior being the norm in those cases. With the “dab” kits that are out there now too, the THC levels are reaching the 70-80% range so even vaping or smoking that high of concentration can lead to ODs.