Okay So I have taken the past two months to carefully research some of the concerns and issues that I brought up in my last blog post on the legalization of marijuana.
Short-Term Memory Loss
The first subject that I decided to look into was memory-loss. I’ve often heard that people who smoke weed are more likely to suffer from short-term memory loss. Short term memory refers to things that may have happened 20 – 30 minutes ago. An example would be forgetting where you put your watch or earrings. You probably wouldn’t forget where you put your phone because you can easily recall the last time you used it which would help you remember where you last placed it. Smokers in general are more likely to suffer from short term memory loss due to the loss of oxygen to the brain – experienced while smoking. This is not necessarily a huge deal because it usually only happens to smokers for 30 minutes to an hour after they have smoked. So when people smoke weed, they may experience short-term memory loss for the time that they are under the influence or “high” but this slight impairment is not very drastic and usually ceases after about 45 minutes. In this case, short term memory loss is not something that people continually suffer from, nor are they permanently damaged from it. (LiveScience 3-2)
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Political issues with legalizing marijuana
In addition to memory loss, I decided to research other issues that smoking marijuana has been linked with. As far as other brain functions, I was able to locate a few research papers that had been published on the short and long term effects of marijuana usage on the brain. There was an article that had been published about marijuana usage lowering IQ scores and killing brain cells. As I read the article and other counter articles I realized what the real problem was.
In the article about marijuana lowering IQ scores, the percentage of marijuana users that actually ended up with lower IQ scores was less than 5 percent (HealthPsychology10). Also the-less-than 5 percent that had lower IQ’s also had other issues that may have affected their IQ scores. Even though the results of the article was inconclusive, I still was able to deduct a common truth; smoking marijuana is not as harmful as it is usually portrayed by the media, but just like any other recreational habit it has the potential to become hazardous for one’s health if abused.
Business and Spiritual Aspect
Like I said in the last post, I think the marijuana industry has a strong market right now and it will be even stronger if it were to be legalized here in Florida. After doing some research I feel safer with the idea of the legalization of marijuana, but I still fear that it will be abused by adolescents who probably would have never tried it if it were illegal. One thing that I also refuse to ignore is the spiritual aspect of the legalization of marijuana. Many religions teach on the importance of sober mindedness, so I think it is very important to keep in mind that altering one’s state of mind does not heal one of any problems they had before altering that state of mind. I believe that if marijuana is legalized in Florida, we will probably experience some backlash at first due to all of the media propaganda and young people going overboard with recreational activities involving marijuana. After about two years most of the hype will probably blow over and things will go back to normal.
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Every vote counts
I respect and admire the teachings of Jesus so I thought it would be appropriate to mention that Jesus often taught that “it’s not what goes into the body that defiles a person but what comes out.” This statement says a mouthful. Many people believe that marijuana in and of itself is evil, and my purpose here is not to convince people that there is nothing wrong with it, but to bring understanding to human nature in general. Drugs cannot be blamed for the things that people do, so banning drugs will not ban bad behavior. We must learn to utilize medicine the correct way and learn to deal with our problems head on. For those who are afraid that the legalization of marijuana will cause disorder and confusion in the state of Florida – my response is that a plant cannot do anything, neither can a gun or a bottle of alcohol… banning physical objects never really solves moral issues.