On the streets of America, I always smelled a strange odor, both like spirulina and fermented vegetables from the garbage can. It wasn’t until one day that a classmate made a point of pointing out to me that it was marijuana that I realized that this turned out to be the unique smell of marijuana.
Marijuana has long been commonplace in the United States, and the public perception of marijuana has changed dramatically over the decades. Many people studying in the United States often hear their American classmates discussing marijuana, and international students are prone to the misconception that marijuana is safe since it is legal.
According to a 2015 survey by the U.S. government’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, more than 20 million people have used marijuana in the past month [1]. Even 5.9% of 12th graders, 2.9% of 10th graders, and 0.8% of 8th graders use marijuana on a long-term basis [2].
Pew Research Center polls show that 61% of Americans support marijuana legalization, a percentage that has increased over the past decade, with millennials (post-80s, post-90s, and post-00s) at 70%, post-60s and post-70s at 66%, and other age groups at somewhat lower levels [3].
The issue of marijuana legalization is the least polarized of many political issues in the United States.Marijuana is not as strong as other drugs, such as heroin, and decriminalization of marijuana is underway in the United States. Still, the U.S. federal government currently defines marijuana as a Schedule I drug: a drug that is not currently accepted and has a high potential for abuse, including heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana, 3,4-methyldioxymethamphetamine (LSD), and others. There are also many people who disagree with this definition [4].
Currently, 29 states have legalized medical marijuana and 9 states have legalized recreational marijuana in the United States. Of these, Massachusetts, where I live, allows medical marijuana use and passed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana in late 2016. Recreational marijuana licenses are in the process of being approved, and legal recreational marijuana cafes are expected to be available this July [5]
Marijuana legalization map: dark green legal, middle two medical marijuana legal, gray prohibits any marijuana
Some of the young Americans around me have long been anxious to see the launch. At one meeting with campus reporters and editors, the American students offered to do a feature story asking student reporters to go to medical marijuana outlets to get the weed themselves, and if they could get it and do a marijuana flavor review, they were sure the news would be hot. One American girl said it was normal for them to smoke marijuana in high school, that it was easy to get it in her home state of California, and she spouted off about Massachusetts laws being too strict. I saw the old professor next to me exclaim “Oh my God” and laugh awkwardly without saying anything.
In the first half of the 20th century, marijuana was considered a horrible thing in the United States, and the 1936 religiously funded film “Reefer Madness” linked “marijuana rooted in hell” to rape, theft, and murder, and to “enslavement. The 1936 religiously funded film Reefer Madness linked “marijuana rooted in hell” to rape, theft, and murder, and to “enslavement.
The trailer for Reefer Madness, with the caption “He begins the first step towards slavery”
Some of my students were curious to try marijuana, some of them said they felt like their minds were blank and they were high, while others said they had bad memories that came back to them and were painful. I once had a Chinese student tell me that she read studies that marijuana does not cause physical addiction, that most addictions are only psychological, and that marijuana has a lower addiction rate than cigarettes and alcohol, so she felt safe with marijuana.
Last semester I visited a group of people in recovery for a news story on the drug problem. Every Sunday they gathered at a drug rehab center in downtown Boston to learn Buddhist meditation to get clean by restraining their cravings. Eleven people showed up that day, several of whom had been using drugs for more than a decade. They said they started out with marijuana, then decided it wasn’t fun, tried other stronger drugs, used all kinds of psychotropic painkillers, and were able to mix their own packages with the strongest mixes, but eventually it wasn’t exciting enough and they started using heroin.
So, thinking back to the young people around me saying that marijuana does not lead to addiction, I doubt it. So let’s talk about whether marijuana leads to addiction?
Dependence/addiction (Dependence) is currently medically defined as the desire to use more and more of a substance, and if you don’t do so, you will experience withdrawal symptoms.
In reality, precisely because marijuana was previously legalized, there is a distinct lack of data from studies, and the self-reported data from old marijuana smokers is not reliable enough. It is still unknown whether marijuana causes physical addiction or not, to be precise. Unlike drugs such as cocaine, which do not have explosive addictive symptoms after smoking marijuana (it is hard to feel good without it), cannabis is relatively less pronounced [6].
Data from the American Institute on Drug Abuse show that 9% of marijuana users experience addiction; for those who have used marijuana since adolescence, this figure reaches 17%. Regular cannabis users experience irritability, sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, restlessness, and various forms of physical discomfort, which peak in the first week after quitting and last for 2 weeks [7].
Cannabis dependence occurs when the brain adapts to large amounts of the drug by reducing cannabinoid-like neurotransmitter production and sensitivity. Moreover, with regular smoking, the human brain releases large amounts of dopamine, but the person does not feel pleasure and tolerance occurs [8].
The dopamine reward effect is an important factor in regulating human behavior. I have interviewed a neuroscientist at the University of Massachusetts who said that all kinds of addictions can be explained by this theory. For example, when you eat sugar, you are happy, the brain releases dopamine, which stimulates neurons, and the brain forms a pathway; repeatedly eating sugar, the brain forms a memory, and this pathway is constantly reinforced, so that whenever you are depressed, you miss the happy feeling when you eat sugar and can’t help but start eating sugar again; this eventually leads to a good habit or a bad habit becoming ingrained.
There has been controversy in the United States over whether marijuana is a “gateway” to other potent drugs. The American Institute on Drug Abuse cites a study in which adults who used marijuana were more likely to develop alcoholism than those who did not use marijuana within three years, and those who had used marijuana were at greater risk for alcohol abuse after smoking marijuana when they had an alcohol abuse disorder to begin with; in addition, marijuana use is also associated with other drug abuse. For people who used marijuana as adolescents, their brain dopamine reward mechanisms were disrupted and they were more likely to become addicted to other drugs. These findings are consistent with the idea that marijuana is a “knockout drug,” although most people who use marijuana do not use other, more potent drugs [9].
Part of the reason for the low rates of marijuana addiction shown in the current study is due to the fact that recreational marijuana was not legal in the past: people did not have the means to obtain marijuana immediately when they became addicted; once they got past the addiction, they were not as likely to become addicted. So there is a lot of concern among the public that legalizing marijuana means easier access and a higher chance of addiction.
Scientific American notes that while many doctors agree that medical marijuana is safe enough to temporarily relieve symptoms of some diseases (cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, etc.), little is known about the safety of recreational marijuana, and researchers fear that short- and long-term use of the drug could be physically and mentally damaging, especially for teenagers, for whom marijuana can impede brain maturation. New cultivation techniques are now dramatically increasing the potency of marijuana — with higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol. Experts believe that this can cause more addiction [10].
Cannabis reduces memory and attention span and is a major threat to road traffic. Unlike alcohol, where police can measure blood alcohol levels directly from a driver’s breath, it is more difficult to check blood levels of marijuana and to draw blood for authorization, making enforcement more difficult [10]. Massachusetts has mandated that you cannot drive on the road after smoking marijuana in order to reduce hidden risks.
In a recent study, Madeleine Meyer, a clinical psychologist at Duke University, and her colleagues studied 1037 New Zealanders. They found that those who started using marijuana early in life saw their IQs drop by an average of eight points by the time they were 38 years old. In contrast, those who had never smoked marijuana had an average IQ increase of 1 point at the same age. Some experts also say that this is not necessarily due to marijuana, but could also be because these people had a low IQ before they smoked marijuana [10].
There are some studies that suggest alleviating the crisis of reducing opioid abuse by legalizing marijuana. However, the American Journal of Medical Research on Addiction notes that these studies are weak and their results have not been confirmed by more rigorous methods. In fact, several recent studies have shown that chronic pain patients who use cannabis use no less opioids [11].
Whether for or against, the debate revolves around the following points.
1. economic benefits of the cannabis industry by increasing state tax revenues and reducing police expenditures vs. more medical costs to the state.
2. government regulation can make marijuana production more hygienic and safe vs. legalization may make more people addicted.
3. government regulation of marijuana could combat the black market vs. the black market will always exist due to price advantages
4. government regulation can prevent minors from accessing marijuana vs. minors in states where marijuana is currently legal have easier access to marijuana, etc.
The U.S. policy of progressive liberalization of marijuana is also based on local history and politics, where a supply and distribution community has long existed and where the elite has its share of “potheads”. It is because the U.S. government has not been able to regulate the legalization of marijuana. Even if it is not legal, marijuana has long permeated the lives of the people, and as long as there is demand, there is a constant supply.
Some countries want the same kind of government to support the legalization of marijuana
We have to understand that the United States is one of the most drug-infested countries in the world, and that the opioid crisis is now very serious (medical facilities over-prescribed painkillers to patients in the 90s, to the point of generating abuse). Look at it this way, marijuana is really nothing compared to these strong psychotropic drugs.
Marijuana is more than just a smoking problem. Without adequate legal support, once this channel is opened, a series of other drug-related interest chains and underground forces will emerge, and social security problems will follow.
All in all, perhaps the legalization of marijuana is a necessary path to social change in the United States. Especially nowadays, young people, while seeing the legalization of marijuana, it is easy to have an illusion of incomparable safety for marijuana. Let’s understand the social context of its legalization, but also not underestimate its potential risks.
Reference for this article:
2. https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/marijuana
3. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/05/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/
4.https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml
7. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-addictive
8. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/marijuana-addiction-rare-but-real-072014#10
