Marijuana: Harmless, or an Outrage?
In the documentary, The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, the argument being made is that there was no reason for the prohibition of marijuana. It starts off by explaining how hemp, the cannabis plant, was used as such a reliable resource before it was illegal. Parts of hemp were used for food, paper, fuels, and fabric. This was not only a resource that was able to be expanded easily, but it was an overall better quality, and lasted longer. Many people, however, did not want to believe this. For example, one of the logical fallacies presented is that smoking marijuana makes you lose brain cells. The people who were for prohibition did not know what the experiment done even was. Scientists tested this theory on monkeys, and while it was told that only thirty joints were administered per day for a year, they actually pumped sixty-three colombian strength joints, without additional oxygen, through a gas mask within 5 minutes over three months. If it was not obvious, the masks literally suffocated the monkeys and the only reason their brain cells died is because that is the first thing to go when you are short on breath. The studies about how marijuana actually stimulates brain cells did not go over well either, and many other studies that were carelessly conducted, such as saying it causes lung cancer, were never proven. My views prior to watching this documentary were indifferent. Personally, I do not see the point in smoking pot, but I also believe that people who do smoke it should have that right. People ranging from very young ages to old are getting arrested for many years over a practically harmless hallucinogen. It is their body, and they should be allowed to consume whatever they please. Also, the sole fact that marijuana alone has never killed anybody can be compared to the amount of deaths caused by tobacco, hard drugs, alcohol, or something seemingly harmless, food. It has been said that you would need to take about fifteen hundred joints in about