Preview

Cigarettes vs Marijuana

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
758 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cigarettes vs Marijuana
Legal Pain and Death V.S Illegal Happiness

The battle between cigarettes and marijuana

Cigarettes are a mixture of the most dangerous substances for humans to consume and yet they are legal and mass produced so that everyone can smoke them. Marijuana on the other hand is nowhere nearly as harmful as cigarettes but is illegal and looked at as if it were far worse than cigarettes. It is long overdue that society recognizes the fact that marijuana is better for people than cigarettes by a mile. Cigarettes are extremely more addictive than marijuana, the usage patterns for marijuana cannot compare to cigarettes, and dozens of lethal chemicals are put into cigarettes whereas marijuana is a natural plant and doesn’t contain nearly as many chemicals.

Nicotine so known as one of the most addictive substance on the planet to humans, and yet it is a major chemical in cigarettes but completely unpleasant in illegal marijuana. In fact, doctors and pharmacologists are not in consensus as to which is more addictive
-- Nicotine, or heroin. When someone smokes cigarettes they inhale nicotine and become physically addicted to cigarettes. When someone stops smoking cigarette they experience "withdrawal symptoms," these consequences can include anxiety, stress, trauma, depression and physical conditions such as shakes or nausea. It is to avoid these consequences that an addict will keep using cigarettes. Marijuana is addictive if used on a daily basis, but the difference is that you can only receive a mental addiction. When you are mentally addicted to a substance you feel you are incomplete without the substance. But when you get off the substance you feel much lighter side effects (than physical addiction) and they only last around a week. Only 10% of people who use marijuana get addicted, but if you use cigarettes, it’s almost certain you will become addicted.

Another important factor that contributes to the fact that cigarettes are worse than marijuana, is that the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Marijuana Controversy

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Marijuana is not being looked at as a harmful illegal drug, rather it is beginning to be looked at as helpful. Since the first state legalized cannabis, the rise in usage has gone up drastically. A major reason to this growth in usage…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The average number of deaths a year from cigarettes is 430,000, alcohol is 110,640, and pain relievers kill over 32,000 per year (Common Sense for Drug Policy, n.d). Now let’s talk about marijuana. How many deaths has marijuana ever caused? That number is zero. This is according to the Huffington Post. A lot of you believe marijuana’s uses can be beneficial. But some of you are completely against it. Marijuana has been tested and proven to provide a very positive impact on the American society for many reasons. Some of these reasons are for America’s economy, health and even crime. I believe marijuana should be legal in the United States because of these reasons…

    • 873 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marihuana

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Many people ask the question why tobacco and alcohol are legal and marijuana is not? People believe that smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol do not cause addiction and dependence instead of marijuana but this is a wrong thought. The fact that a person consumes 20 cigarettes a day makes them addicts because their bodies are so use to nicotine that is a pleasure and a necessity to smoke. It is clear that alcohol is bad for health when it is consumed in high quantities and it also cause addiction and dependence in the substance as well as any other drug. That is why in a certain point of view it is illogical that marijuana is not legal when the other killing products are in the market being sold daily. It is known that marijuana has secondary effects such as hallucinations, rapid heartbeat, death of brain neurons in a short-term period and that is why government believe that legalization would be a big step for the world to change in a bad way and have a high level of consumers addicted to drugs.…

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marijuana is the growing topic in Americans daily lives; shockingly people are blind to realize that this substance will probably be one of the deadliest drugs in the next decade. “History repeats itself” a wise man once said, and this isn’t the first time or the last time America will use the excuses to make illegal substances that kill. The generations of the 20th century where blind and medically illiterate to the dangers of cigarettes in fact they believed it was health approved. Only a few decades later people started to realize the demons of smoking and plagued America with 5 million deaths a year ever since.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marijuana is one of the most controversial topics in the U.S today. Many associate the substance with some of the most highly addictive and dangerous drugs used in our society. While others claim marijuana to be the safest substance to use to date. One of the biggest debatable topics amongst marijuana use is the legalization of the substance medically. Many people believe marijuana should be accessible to those with terminally ill diseases. While others believe the drug should be illegal at all cost. Medical marijuana presents many negative issues in our society emotionally, medically and socially. Due to the negative effects from the substance, the use of marijuana should remain illegal in the United States.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Legalization of Marijuana

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The topic of legalizing marijuana has been a topic of controversy for quite some time now not only throughout our local streets, but throughout the local and into the state government. The legalization of marijuana is such a controversial topic because some are for it and some are against it. People are for the legalization because of the great uses it has towards medicine, the money that could come from the taxation of legalized marijuana, and the emptying of prisons because of the releases of marijuana offenses. The list could go on and on. Other people are against the legalization because it is considered a “gateway drug”, or because the legalization of marijuana would eventually lead to the legalization of harder drugs such as heroine or cocaine. Despite the negative comments about the drug, marijuana should be legalized because it would give the U.S. a huge amount of money from the taxation and regulation of the drug, its uses would greatly impact our health throughout the medical field and throughout our own well being, and would help our fight with the war on drugs and our overcrowded prisons.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Legalization of Marijuana

    • 3597 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Proponents for the legalization of marijuana offer several valid reasons to support their positions. The most common reason is that marijuana is proven to be no more harmful to a person’s body then legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. They believe that the marijuana only affects the mind for a short term and the long-term effects are only minor. Lawyers Adam Ford and Andrew Walter concur, “ Arguments against legalizing marijuana can usually be applied with equal validity to legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco: alcohol and tobacco can be addictive, can lead to financial or social problems when used in excess, and can lead to serious health problems” (1). These two well recognized attorneys agree that marijuana should be treated the same as tobacco and alcohol because most of the reasons opponents give to not legalize marijuana all fall under bad aspects of those…

    • 3597 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Legalizing Marijuana

    • 2519 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The use of Marijuana over a long period can lead to years of addiction. Drug addiction affects the lives of many people in our society today. Drug addiction is a compulsive behavior that effects how people function in their daily lives. It can affect how you treat your family, school, work, and…

    • 2519 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Legalization of Marijuana

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Marijuana has a history dating back many years, and has been used in various cultures in different ways. In recent years, marijuana has become a forefront topic in the world of American politics whether or not it should be legalized. Marijuana has been adapted to fit our lifestyles and our social environment. A vast amount of the world’s population smoke marijuana for various purposes. Thus, the drug should be legalized because it has many medical beneficial uses, the ability to generate billions of dollars in tax revenue, and would lower the cost to imprison individuals arrested for crimes related to marijuana.…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marijuana and Alcohol

    • 3464 Words
    • 14 Pages

    To understand these drugs more effectively, it is important to give a brief history of each. Marijuana use has been documented as early as 2737 B.C. in ancient China. It spread through India, North Africa, and Europe as an “agent for achieving euphoria” and as a medicine for a variety of illnesses (“History of Marijuana”). It was first introduced in America in 1611 in Jamestown, Virginia. Up until the 20th century, it was never made illegal in the United States because the users didn’t seem to cause harm to themselves or others while on the drug. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that legislation was introduced to portray marijuana as a dangerous, addictive drug that would lead to narcotic addiction. 40 years later, in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana was legally classified as a Category 1 drug (the same category as LSD and heroin). During the Reagan administration, very strict marijuana laws were passed in attempt to further discourage teenagers from using the drug. The end result was a decrease in usage in the short term, but there has been a steady upward trend of usage since the early 1990’s (“History of Marijuana”).…

    • 3464 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Marijuana, also known as cannabis, is a plant that can be ingested or smoked. This plant, or rather botanical, is illegal in most of the country with the exception of some states giving physicians authority to recommend the use to their patients. The purpose of this essay is to examine both the benefits and the risks of legalizing marijuana. Marijuana has many medicinal properties that have been proven to be therapeutically effective for various conditions. However, this drug also has carcinogenic properties and dangerous short- and long-term effects on the body. Although advocates may argue that the legalization of marijuana has many potential benefits, such as it would lessen our national debt and benefit our overall economic system, opponents may beg to differ. In this essay, the debate over the legalization of marijuana continues, with arguments over the therapeutic benefits versus the dangerous adverse effects of marijuana, the influence marijuana has on individuals, and whether or not the legalization of this drug could benefit our economy.…

    • 5889 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What many people do not understand about marijuana is that it is a safe drug and not all drugs are bad drugs. “Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose.” (NORML, 2015). Marijuana comes in third behind alcohol and tobacco as the most popular recreational drugs. There has never been a death due to marijuana due to the fact that is is nearly impossible to overdose and it is “nontoxic”. It is very confusing to many people as to why this drug is illegal when looking at how safe it is compared to things like alcohol and tobacco…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conditions that marijuana is typically prescribed to treat are cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. Medical cannabis is a highly controversial subject because cannabis is still considered illegal under federal law. In fact, Federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which means that it has no safe medical use and a high potential for abuse. Both of these statements are completely false. Marijuana has been proven to be beneficial as a form of medical treatment. Also, marijuana is not physically addictive and therefore, has low potential for abuse. Some people can develop minor dependence issues from a psychological standpoint. When comparing marijuana's drug classification to the most popular drugs in the United States it is illogical. Alcohol and Tobacco are both far more addictive and harmful than cannabis is. Each year new research is released documenting the harmful effects that tobacco and alcohol have on the body. Including direct links to cancer and death. Unlike tobacco marijuana has never been linked to cancer. In addition, there has never been a single documented death from cannabis usage. Alcohol causes people to use poor decision making and it causes people to become violent and aggressive. When comparing marijuana to modern day pharmaceuticals one again is forced to conclude that marijuana's classification is unjustified.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First of all, many people argue that marijuana can be use as a type of medicine to treat cancer or AIDS. However, marijuana can be very addictive. When the users are addicted to marijuana, it is very hard to quit. It begins to control their lives. In order to overcome the addiction, they have to practice abstinence, which is extremely difficult because it causes sleeplessness, anxiety, or depression. Therefore, it’s better not to use marijuana than practicing abstinent. Also, it increases heart rate and bad for our lungs.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Statement 1: It is pretty obvious that smoking marijuana causes people to crave more potent drugs, such as cocaine or heroin. Statistics show that almost all people who become addicted to drugs smoked marijuana before they began using more potent drugs.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays