Should the U.S. Legalize Marijuana?

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While clearly not as habit-forming as smoking crack-cocaine, for example, marijuana does appear to have the potential to addict its users by causing continuing, chronic use despite harm. In an article published in Nature in 2000, Tanda and colleagues demonstrated that squirrel monkeys will self-administer the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, in doses equivalent to those used by humans who smoke the drug (Tanda et al 2000). Additionally, other findings have showed that some heavy users of marijuana develop withdrawal symptoms -- restlessness, loss of appetite, trouble with sleeping, weight loss, etc. -- when they stop using the drug. (Budney et al 2001). Budney’s conclusions on withdrawal are established in the marijuana literature (Beardsley et al. 1986; Holson et al. 1989; Huestis et al. 2001; Jones, 1983; Kouri et al, 1999).

Research has well demonstrated that marijuana users can quickly slide into dependency. Data show that about half of those who use marijuana daily become dependent for some period of time (use of the drug daily could itself bring major health problems regardless of users being scientifically diagnosed as “dependent”). About one in ten people in the United States who have ever used marijuana become dependent at some time. In Britain, drug treatment centers have reported a rise in the number of marijuana cases they are dealing with (Jha 2004).

Crowley and colleagues report that marijuana use by teenagers with prior antisocial problems can help escalate use to dependence (Crowley et al 1998). The study found that, for these troubled teenagers using tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, progression from their first use of marijuana to regular use was about as rapid as their progression to regular tobacco use and more rapid than the progression to regular use of alcohol.

Even MacCoun and Reuter, two drug policy analysts who do not favor current marijuana policy, conclude that “… (marijuana) dependence occurs frequently, almost as frequently as for alcohol amongst those who start using the drug. However, dependence seems to have modest adverse consequences.” They base the latter notion on outdated research, much of it coming from the mid-late 1980’s and very early 1990’s when Jones showed that withdrawal symptoms were mild and generally passed in a few days (Jones 1987) and when Compton and colleagues reported that dependence was not a major issue with marijuana (Compton, Dewey and Martin 1990). It appears that the literature on withdrawal has shifted in the past few years -- it seems that withdrawal is not only becoming a common phenomenon but a serious one.

Additionally, using the drug frequently (even if one has not yet become dependent) may contribute to respiratory problems and lung changes consistent with precancerous states (Tashkin 1990). The British Lung Foundation, outraged at Britain’s casual attitude toward the drug, published a report entitled “A Smoking Gun” in 2002 showing that smoking three or four marijuana cigarettes affects your lungs negatively in a similar way as would twenty tobacco cigarettes (British Lung Foundation 2002). And although marijuana users probably smoke less marijuana in one sitting than habitual tobacco smokers, these studies are troubling. As expected, smoking tobacco and marijuana adds to the harm associated with lung damage (Taylor et al 2002).

Dr. Sarah Nuttall and colleagues at the University of Birmingham found that smoking marijuana for three or four times a week in each of six years caused a marked deterioration in lung function and robbed the body of antioxidants that can lead to heart disease and cancer (Nuttall et al 2003). “Smoking marijuana on a regular basis actually depletes your lung of protective antioxidant substances...and this may have chronic long-term implications for young individuals,” Dr. Nuttall told Reuters news agency.