Marijuana

Marijuana

Introduction

Many youths participate in risky health behaviors, such as consuming tobacco, consuming alcohol, unprotected sex, driving without their seatbelt, and/or using illegal narcotics. Due to these externalities public policies have been developed and implemented in an attempt to influence individual behavior and improve the overall well being of society. These policies range from trivial regulation to outright prohibition. By identifying which variables are key influences in health risk behavior, marijuana policy makers have the opportunity to borrow from the successful policies anti-tobacco and public health officials have developed previously. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast public policies concerning tobacco and marijuana use, particularly as they relate to youth access and consumption and how these policies aid in shaping public perception of harm in individual consumption behavior. Currently, marijuana prohibition policies rest mainly on the federal level while tobacco regulation rests on the state and local level. A thorough examination of the federal War on Drugs policies juxtaposed with the varying state and local level tobacco regulations will allow one to better evaluate why tobacco policies have been successful in reducing tobacco consumption while anti-marijuana policies have enjoyed little success in reducing the rate of marijuana consumption, especially among youths. Therefore, all the issues and aspects related to marijuana will be discussed in detail.

Current trends in usage of Marijuana

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the developed world. Onethird of the population in both Australia and the United States have reported consuming marijuana at some point in their lifetime. Marijuana had long been relegated to use in folk medicine, with little evidence pointing to recreational use prior to the beginning of the 20th century. Three varieties of cannabis contain delta- 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the high producing chemical in the plant; Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. THC is found in the sticky resin located in the flowering top and upper leaves in the female cannabis plant. The concentration of THC varies between three common forms: marijuana, hashish, and hash oil. Marijuana is the dried tops of the cannabis plant, where hashish consists of dried cannabis resin and compressed flowers, and hash oil isobtained by extracting the THC from hashish with an organic solution. In 2000 US residents spent approximately $10.5 billion on marijuana, most of which was Cannabis sativa and consumed in the form of marijuana via smoking (Alamar, 2006, 121).

Studies focusing on the long-term health effects and social costs of marijuana use and marijuana dependence fall short of the volumes of studies that demonstrate a relationship between tobacco use and negative health outcomes. Like other major social problems, drug use has costs that are difficult to quantify such as weakening of the traditional family structure and/or the undermining of a traditional work ethic. Marijuana intoxication has also been implicated as a risk factor for injuries. Chronic marijuana users have also shown to have impairments in attention, memory, and the ability to process complex information for months or even years after ...