Dear Congressman, I am honored to be writing to you on such a significant
topic of national concern. Average citizens are annoyed and just plain fatigued
with the drugs and crime problems in America. These upright citizens, that
contribute to the growth of American society, are being told that legalization
is a reasonable alternative to dealing with these problems in their communities.
Legalization of any drug is not a positive way to fight crime. In fact, there is
no legitimate reason to legalize drugs. The Legalization of marijuana is the
starting point of the pro-legalization of drugs movement.
The issue of legalizing marijuana is truly a controversial one, and certainly
one that requires a plethora of considerations at the top levels of the
legislative branch. When considering the possibility of legalizing marijuana as
a recreational drug, there are a number of concerns that come to mind. Is
marijuana physically harmful to the user? Is marijuana an addictive drug?
Does the use of marijuana lead to dependency situations? Does it act as
gateway to more hazardous drugs? Does the notion of legalizing marijuana send an
immoral, wrong message to the youth of America? Mr. Congressman, the answer to
all these questions is YES. According to the DEA (1998), the supreme ruler of
drug knowledge in America, there are over 10,000 scientific studies that prove
marijuana is a harmful and addictive drug. Yet there is no reliable study that
proves marijuana has any medical value.
Marijuana is an unstable mixture of over 425 chemicals, which when smoked are
converted to over thousands. Most of these are toxic, psychoactive chemicals
which are unstudied and appear in uncontrolled strengths. Marijuana leads to
many different consequences depending on the personality and general
characteristics of the individual using the drug.
These may include, but are not limited to: premature cancer, addiction,
coordination and perception impairment, mental disorders, hostility and
increased aggressiveness, general unconcern of life, memory loss, reproductive
disabilities, and impairment to the immune system. Marijuana is currently up to
25 times more potent than it was in the 1960's, which makes the drug even more
addictive. In 1994, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that marijuana should remain a
Schedule I drug: highly addictive with no medical usefulness.
Marijuana is a harmful substance. The use of marijuana for the purposes of
intoxication leads to a number of serious health risks. Research has proven that
marijuana damages short term memory, distorts perceptions, impairs complex motor
skills, alters the heart rate, can lead to severe anxiety, and can cause
paranoia and lethargy.
A condition called Amotivational syndrome take places after chronic use. It
is defined by Dr. Harry Avis (1996), professor of psychology as, a condition
characterized by a lack of ambition or desire to succeed, presumed to be the
result of smoking marijuana. As reported in The Medical Journal of Australia,
Marijuana causes birth defects, fetal damage, lung cancer, long-term impairment
of memory, schizophrenia, suppression of the immune system, and even leukemia in
the children of marijuana-smoking mothers (Nahas & Latour, 1992).
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (1996) reported that the chemicals found
in marijuana smoke suppresses the neurons in the information-processing system
of the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that is crucial for learning,
memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivation.
Marijuana, should it be legalized, would ruin many Americans' abilities to
learn, and would abruptly decay the development and progress of the American
Society.
