Marijuana use unfairly, irrationally demonized

 

Illustration by Miles Huffman

To legalize or to not legalize? That is the question.
Unfortunately, this is a topic still under debate. But before anyone can undertake this issue, the hatred surrounding marijuana use in this country must first be addressed.
Marijuana use has practically become taboo, in that the majority of Americans still don’t support using marijuana.
According to the Pew Research Center, “63% of Americans would be bothered if people did their smoking in public.” As the chart below shows, the majority is against public use of marijuana.

What’s interesting is that the hate marijuana receives comes from people who don’t use it regularly.
I personally have never used marijuana. But I don’t hate it either. I’m indifferent.
This is mostly because it doesn’t affect me or my life in any way. Which is why the backlash marijuana receives confuses me.
How can anyone hate something they don’t do or use?
The main arguments against marijuana is that it:

1. is addictive
   
2. is a gateway drug
   
3. will affect one’s health, especially mental health
   
4. leads to criminal behavior/makes people act recklessly
   
5. makes people lazy
   

While these are all good arguments to make against marijuana use, they are not as sound as they might appear. The magazine The Bustle actually addresses all of these arguments:

1. Addictiveness: Compared to other substances like tobacco and alcohol, it’s actually not nearly as addictive. Only about 9 precent become seriously addicted, but the other “89 percent are just fine.” Besides, plenty of other things are addictive that are legal and don’t receive nearly the amount of backlash that marijuana does.
   
2. Gateway drug: Alcohol and tobacco are notably more of a gateway drug than marijuana.
   
3. Affect one’s health: so do donuts, burgers, and soda. Personal choice dictates what someone puts into their body.
   
4. Criminal and reckless behavior: Alcohol is actually much worse than marijuana in causing reckless behavior. According to The Bustle, “drunk driving alone kills around 10,000 people every year.” Compared to marijuana, which kills a grand total of zero, at least according to Get the Facts.
   
5. Makes people lazy: No two people react to any sort of substance the same way. And plenty of people are lazy without using drugs. And really, laziness has nothing to do with anyone else besides the person that is deemed “lazy.”
   

Also, the arguments made against marijuana can also easily be made against alcohol. And what’s ironic is that alcohol actually is notably worse. It’s more addictive, impairs judgment significantly and definitely can lead to people acting recklessly.
And still, marijuana receives the most hate. Which to me, is misplaced.
The next step in this discussion is legalization, which is a whole other beast to tackle.
For me, my opinion on marijuana use, hate and legalization is perfectly summed up by About News, which stated: “It makes some people happy, and it doesn’t seem to be any more dangerous than alcohol. Do we really want to go around putting people in prison and destroying their lives over this?”
Is this really what people want to be arguing about and focusing on when there are so many other issues? Is this the argument society should be having?
Those are questions everyone has to answer for themselves.