Marijuana is the most commonly used recreational drug in the United States. As of 2008, over 25 million Americans admit to regularly using marijuana. More than 94 million Americans age 14 and older have admitted to using marijuana at least once, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. 

The possession, use, or sale of marijuana became illegal in many countries in the early 20th century. At that time, many of them began to enact laws against the cultivation, possession, and sale of marijuana. Countries began to arrest and prosecute people for using marijuana while other countries have either reduced enforcement of marijuana laws or have legalized the use of marijuana completely. In the United States, there are at least thirteen states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use and have set-up regulatory systems to oversee its safe sale and access to medical marijuana patients. 

The degree to which marijuana is addictive continues to be the subject of great debate. Opponents to legalization of marijuana believe that marijuana is both psychologically and physically addictive. They argue that long-term use of marijuana and its immediate cessation can cause moderate to severe irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, and anxiety. Moreover, symptoms can begin within about a day following abstinence, and last for about a week to ten days.

Proponents of legalizing marijuana use claim that marijuana is no more addictive then a cup of coffee. Still other proponents believe that marijuana has little if any addictive properties even in cases involving long-term use of marijuana.

While critics of marijuana use claim that marijuana has been associated with health hazards like lung and throat cancer, proponents of marijuana use point to medical studies that show that medical marijuana has been successful in treating the symptoms of glaucoma, migraines, arthritis and HIV/AIDS.

Notwithstanding, both the critics and proponents of marijuana seem to agree that people with addictive personalities can develop an obsessive attraction to the drug, which is neither healthy nor desired. However, what must be considered is that addictive personalities can get addicted to almost anything they consume and enjoy. In this regard, we can say that obsessive and addictive personalities share a predisposition to marijuana addiction. However, this does not mean, that marijuana is addictive to the general population and the medical research seems to be bearing this out. 

So what does the medical community have to say about marijuana? You might be surprised to learn that most current medical research has been supportive of the use of marijuana in treating many types of terminal illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease. With respect addiction, medical studies have not substantiated any inherent addictive features attributable to the normal use of marijuana.

Marijuana use will continue to be a source of controversy in the years to come. What we do know today is that marijuana is neither toxic nor lethal, nor does it pose any greater risks then either tobacco, caffeine or alcohol.

Finally, many are asking whether the benefits of marijuana substantially outweigh it’s potential for addiction. More and more states are answering this question in the affirmative.

For more information on marijuana, medical marijuana, dispensaries and marijuana law, visit GotTrouble.com happen to be legal? It is well known that tobacco causes nearly a million deaths annually (in the US alone) from cancer, cardiovascular disease and emphysema; more than 350,000 die from alcohol-related cirrhosis and its complications and caffeine is the cause of cardiac and nervous system disturbances. These facts suggest that the public is being fraudulently misled into fearing the wrong substances and into complacency about hazardous substances by allowing their sale and even subsidization. 

Our environment contains a plethora of hazards, of which recreational substances are much less important than many others. Recognizing the reality of consumer demand and the perspective of relative harm should make a strong case for alternatives to prohibition. Should we not have teamed from the failure of the Volstead Act of the 1920s and the current ubiquitous availability of illegal drugs that prohibition is the height of futility? 

Is it not time to recognize that the " problem" is not the drugs but the enormous amounts of untaxed money diverted from the economy to criminals? The economic incentive for drug dealers to merchandise their product aggressively is a multi-billion dollar return which has a far more powerful effect to increase substance abuse than any enforcement program can possibly do to, constrain that usage. The hopeless challenge of drug crime is compounded by the parallel expansion of theft, crime, which is the principal economic resource to finance the drug industry. How can this be anything but a lose-lose situation for society? 

We should look at the fact that a relatively low budget public education campaign has resulted in a significant decline in US consumption of both alcohol and tobacco during a period when a costly and intensive campaign to curtail illegal drugs only resulted in their increased usage. Is there a lesson to be heeded? 

Of course there is. Scrap the nonsense of trying to obliterate drugs and acknowledge their presence in our society as we have with alcohol and tobacco. Legalization would result in: 

purity assurance under Food and Drug Administration regulation; 
labeled concentration of the product (to avoid overdose); 
obliteration of vigorous marketing ("pushers"); 
obliteration of drug crime and reduction of theft crime 
savings in expensive enforcement and 
significant tax revenues. 
Effort and funds can then be directed to educating the public about the hazards of all drugs. 

Can such a change of attitude happen? Probably not, because the huge illegal drug industry has mountains of money for a media blitz and for buying politicians to sing the songs of "evil" and "danger" which is certain to kill any legislative attempt at legalization. Perhaps it will take some time before reality can prevail, but meanwhile we should at least do more to expose deception and to disseminate the truth.