Marijuana Vs. Alcohol

From the eighteenth century onward in the United States, there has been a temperance movement. In other words, many people crusaded against what they saw to be the damaging effects of alcohol on health, personal and professional relationships, and society at large. The temperance movement gained so much gravity that the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol were actually prohibited from 1920 to 1933. As we all know, prohibition of alcohol was a dismal failure, as a thriving black market continued to produce what many citizens wanted. Marijuana prohibition on the other hand, was not a direct cause of public outcry. It was made illegal due to political maneuvering and an attempt to make amends for the fuck ups of prohibition of alcohol. Similarly, marijuana prohibition has been an utter failure. Despite a rise in arrests of marijuana users and producers, the United States continues to be a nation that likes to get high, and increasingly so. So, if alcohol prohibition lasted only thirteen years, why has marijuana been outlawed for nearly seventy?

Alcohol is a potentially dangerous substance. There is little getting around that if one looks at hard data supporting this allegation. Marijuana on the other hand has been MADE into a potentially dangerous substance by a government unwilling to admit that it was wrong about its effects. What exists now is a frantic battle on behalf of the DEA and pocketed medical science to pick and choose hazy and limited studies that support draconian views on marijuana. Instead of using the vast majority of medical studies that disprove conceptions about marijuana's damaging effects while supporting its benefits with hard data, the United States government has been ardent in its quest to provide misinformation. All the while, beer and hard liquor industries thrive. They are allowed air time during television programs and sponsorships with sports teams. Which is worse: Alcohol or marijuana?

Of course we all know the answer to this. The argument has been made countless times by countless authorities that alcohol is in fact more damaging to health, personal and professional relationships, and society at large-just as temperance movements had identified centuries ago. But as a United States citizen who likes to think of himself occasionally as an activist for select causes, I feel it is my duty to add one more article comparing the potential damaging effects of alcohol and marijuana.

In terms of deaths in which alcohol or marijuana was directly implicated, alcohol wins out by an overwhelming majority. According for the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 20,867 people died in the United States from alcohol use in 2003. This figure excludes accidents and homicides in which alcohol played a role. According to BBS News, there have been no reported cases of a death in which marijuana was directly implicated. If there had been one death from marijuana, then alcohol would be responsible in 2003 for 20,867 times that amount. But unfortunately that figure cannot even be arrived at because there has never been a death from marijuana. If the prohibition of marijuana is to protect public health at large, there is not just little grounding for that claim, but none at all. Zip.

Well, what about the long-term effects of alcohol and marijuana use? After all, U.S. citizens have been told for decades how marijuana can affect short-term memory and even kill brain cells. The DEA states on its homepage that "studies report that weekly marijuana use among teens doubles the risk of developing depression and triples the incidence of suicidal thoughts." This seems to run contrary to the idea that marijuana produces a "euphoric state." Harvard Medical School has indeed performed studies on marijuana concerning depression and schizophrenia, and has found that marijuana users admitted to more symptoms of depression or schizophrenia than those who did not. But even the creators of the study admitted that it is impossible to connect the dots. Just because there was a higher incidence of depression or schizophrenia in the marijuana-using population studied does not mean that marijuana was directly responsible for those maladies.

Marijuana does present some harmful side-effects when smoked. Studies have often used the figure that smoking three joints is equivalent to smoking twenty cigarettes in terms of the damaging effects that both present. However, why do research institutions always use a joint as a benchmark for comparison? Joints are hardly a standard that can be trusted, as a joint can range in size from a lightly filled zig-zag, to a six-inch long monstrosity. Furthermore, the section of the U.S. population that smokes three joints per day (as many people smoke a pack of cigarettes a day) is very small. Joints are generally a social form of smoking marijuana. Those three joints split between three to five users suddenly diminishes the original figure of "three for twenty." Furthermore, it should be common sense that marijuana poses health risks when abused at such high quantities. If someone were to smoke three joints a day, every day of the week, they would be consuming an average of about a quarter to three-eighths of an ounce of weed per week. That means they would be spending between eighty and 150 dollars on weed weekly. Not many people are willing to dish out that kind of money to sustain that kind of use, so much of the marijuana use in the United States is nominal by comparison. If someone smokes a legal substance such as cigarettes in moderation, say even one a day, then they are at much lower risk for developing health problems as someone who smokes forty a day. The same thing goes for people who smoke pot on weekends.

Let us switch gears to alcohol. And furthermore, let us focus on the effects of both substances on the brain. Alcohol has been known to influence the occurrence of blackouts and thiamine deficiency in the brain at high doses, according to the NIH. However, it should once again be made clear that these effects reflect either binge drinking or long-term chronic use. Recent studies have revealed that alcohol in moderation actually promotes certain aspects of health, and it is clear that red wine contains many beneficial substances such as antioxidants. In terms of marijuana's effects on the brain, scientific inquiry has been much less clear. For a long time, the anti-marijuana community's rallying banner has been marijuana's effect on short-term memory. However, hardly any of the factoids on anti-drug websites or pamphlets actually clarifies WHEN the short-term memory loss is occurring. For anyone who has smoked marijuana, they have felt the effects of not being able to remember a train of thought while under the influence of the substance. However, does marijuana have long-term effects on short-term memory? This is much less clear, and if it doesn't, then the DEA doesn't really have a rock to stand on. What difference does it make if someone has their short-term memory impaired WHILE smoking marijuana? If someone smokes up and forgets to attend a job interview, it is not the marijuana's problem, but the fact that the user made a poor judgment call.

So what is to be learned from all of this? Is it that since alcohol poses more health risks than marijuana, that it should once again be banned? Certainly not. I think the lesson to be learned is that prohibition of a substance that poses few health risks when used in MODERATION is not right for America. Sure, there are some people who develop alcohol and marijuana dependency. But is that an accurate snapshot of the population at large that enjoys a round of beers on bar night or smokes up with some friends on a Saturday? By making a substance illegal to possess and use, the United States government is essentially saying that the average American is too stupid or incompetent to make informed choices about their use of that particular substance. Marijuana prohibition costs the United States $7 billion annually. Can you imagine how many detox clinics, support groups, or education about moderation could be funded by that amount of money? Probably quite a bit.

Make your own decisions about controlled substances. Do the research. The information is out there.