Is Marijuana Addictive or Physically Harmful?

 

                There have been many research studies done on the subject of marijuana addiction.  Have you ever seen the show on TLC called “My Strange Addiction”?  According to the people on the show, you can get addicted to anything.  People on that show are addicted to eating couches, eating toilet paper and wearing diapers as an adult.  The question becomes whether or not the addiction is physically harmful to the person.  There are many studies that support the fact that marijuana is less addictive than alcohol.

                According to Adi Jaffe, Ph.D (an addiction researcher at UCLA) “My point is that marijuana cannot be considered as having no potential for addiction.  As I’ve pointed out many times before, the proportion of drug users that become addicted is very small (10-15%).  This is true for almost all drugs.” (Jaffe, 5) This demonstrates that marijuana can become addictive in very few cases. It is much less addictive than alcohol.

                Alcohol is far more addictive and harmful to the body.  Alcohol abuse has such negative side effects as liver cirrhosis, pancreatitis and increased risk of breast cancer, not to mention the social effects it has.  It has been linked to increases in criminal offenses such as child abuse, domestic violence, rape and assault.  Marijuana use does not make an individual more violent and it does not have the adverse physical effects that alcohol has.  “Indeed, statistics bear out the claim that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. According to the Centers for Disease Control, thousands of people die each year in Oregon and Washington from alcohol-related diseases. It's hard to find any evidence of anyone ever dying from using too much marijuana.” (Lehman, 6).  This quote supports the argument that alcohol, which is a legal substance, is far more damaging than marijuana use.

                So, if alcohol is physically more harmful than marijuana, why is marijuana illegal and alcohol legal?  Why is a substance that can cause so much harm, both physically, emotionally and socially, legal?  This is a very interesting and intriguing question which needs to be answered in a truthful manner.