Argument 1: Marijuana is Way More Potent Now, Which Can Lead to Psychosis#

One big worry is how much stronger marijuana has gotten. Over the last few decades, it’s been messed with to be much, much more powerful. Today, it’s so strong it acts like a heavy-duty drug that could potentially bring on psychosis.

Here’s the deal with that:

• The main active thing in marijuana is THC.
• There’s strong proof that THC is connected to psychosis, even if you don’t have other reasons to be at risk.
• Marijuana also has something called CBD, which seems to work against the effects of THC. People are even testing CBD as a treatment for psychosis and anxiety.
• But since CBD doesn’t get you high, growers have been slowly cutting back on it in marijuana plants over the years while pumping up the THC levels.

Look at these numbers from sample tests:

• THC levels: Rose from around 4% in the 1990s to nearly 12% in 2014.
• THC to CBD ratio: Shifted from 1:14 in 1995 to about 1:80 in 2014.

Now, they’re not totally sure exactly how spot-on those tests were. But generally, newer findings point to this: the more marijuana you use, and the stronger it is, the higher your chances of developing psychosis.

But how big is this risk for everyone?

• A study in Britain found that even though marijuana use went up a lot between 1996 and 2005, the number of cases of schizophrenia (a type of psychosis) stayed pretty steady.
• The chance of marijuana-caused psychosis seems highest for folks who already have a high risk for psychosis anyway. For these people, it looks more like marijuana speeds up their condition showing up, rather than actually causing it from scratch, based on what we know right now.

So, the thinking goes: If fewer people can get marijuana, the risk of marijuana-induced psychosis goes down.

But hang on, you could flip that around. Maybe because marijuana is illegal, more people end up with problems like psychosis.

• When a drug is illegal, prohibition often pushes it to become stronger and more potent. Why? Because you can sneak more powerful stuff in a smaller space, and sell it for a bigger profit.
• This is what happened with alcohol back when it was illegal in the US – strong liquor became the standard drink.
• The same seems to be happening with marijuana now.

Think about it like this: Imagine if the only alcohol you could get was straight liquor. You’d have to choose between not drinking at all, or getting much, much drunker than you planned. That’s the spot a lot of marijuana users are in today.

People didn’t stop drinking during alcohol prohibition. And the numbers show that laws don’t actually stop people from using marijuana. We can’t make marijuana disappear, but maybe we can make it safer. If marijuana were legal, people would have more choices, and the rules could, say, make sure it has a good amount of CBD. Just like most folks don’t drink a bottle of vodka after work, many would probably prefer the “after-work beer” version of marijuana, if it was available.

Argument 2: Marijuana is a Gateway Drug#

Another argument is that marijuana is a gateway drug. The idea is, if you make it legal, more people will start using it, and that will cause a big jump in people trying much more dangerous drugs.

• A study from 2015 found that about 45% of people who used marijuana their whole lives had tried some other illegal drug at some point.
• Legalizing marijuana could make this trend stronger. If more young people try marijuana because it’s legal, they might be more likely to check out harder drugs too.

But hold on, it turns out the real “gateway” to using drugs might show up much earlier: Cigarettes.

• One study showed that teenagers who started smoking cigarettes before age 15 were 80% more likely to use illegal drugs than teens who didn’t smoke early on.
• And a 2007 study found that teenagers between 12 and 17 who smoked cigarettes were:
  • Three times more likely to binge drink.
  • Seven times more likely to have used drugs like heroin or cocaine.
  • Also seven times more likely to turn to marijuana (which seems backwards for the usual gateway theory!).

So if cigarettes are a bigger factor, how could making more drugs legal actually help stop hard drug use?

First off, it’s key to understand that people don’t use drugs just because they’re legal or not. If you want to buy pretty much any drug, you’ll probably find someone willing to sell it.

The real question is: Why do people get into an unhealthy relationship with drugs in the first place?

• Studies show that certain situations make people much more likely to become vulnerable to drugs and addiction. Things like:
  • A tough childhood.
  • Early trauma.
  • Low social status.
  • Depression.
  • Even your genes can play a part.
• Which specific drug they get hooked on is often just down to chance.
• Addicts often use drugs to try and escape their problems. But drugs don’t fix those problems; instead, they become a new, big problem.
• But punishing people for dealing with their problems in an unhealthy way doesn’t change the root causes either.

This is why some people argue we need a completely different approach.

Look at Portugal in 2001. They had one of the worst drug problems in Europe. They were so desperate they tried something really radical:

• They decriminalized owning and using all illegal drugs, not just marijuana.
• You wouldn’t get arrested anymore for small amounts.
• Instead, the authorities started a huge health campaign.
• People caught with a little bit of a drug were sent to support services and got help with things like treatment and harm reduction (making drug use less risky).
• Drug use was treated like a chronic disease, not a crime.

The results were pretty amazing by 2012:

• The number of people who tried drugs and kept using them fell from 44% to 28%.
• The use of hard drugs went down.
• HIV and hepatitis infections dropped.
• Overdoses decreased.

So, it seems that making drugs legal could actually help society more than it harms it in the long run.

Argument 3: Marijuana is Addictive and Unhealthy#

The third argument is that marijuana is addictive and bad for your health, so it needs to stay illegal to keep the damage as low as possible.

While getting hooked on marijuana is more about your mind than your body (psychological vs. physical), it’s definitely a real issue.

• The need for treatment for marijuana addiction has more than doubled just in the last ten years.
• Overall, about 10% of people who try marijuana will become addicted.
• This addiction issue also seems tied to those higher THC levels we talked about earlier.
• A study released in 2017 tracked how strong marijuana was in Dutch coffee shops over 16 years. It found that for every 1% jump in THC strength, 60 more people across the country entered treatment.

When it comes to being unhealthy:

• Some studies have linked marijuana use to higher blood pressure and lung problems.
• However, a 2016 study found that marijuana use wasn’t connected to physical health issues, except for a higher chance of gum disease.
• Some studies suggested marijuana use changes the brains of teenagers and makes them less intelligent. But when newer studies looked closer and also considered if the teens drank alcohol or smoked cigarettes, the results weren’t clear anymore (inconclusive).
• In general, research shows that using any drugs while your brain is still growing and developing is bad for you.

Honestly, the truth is, we don’t know exactly how unhealthy marijuana is yet. We need more money and support for research, which is hard to get when marijuana is still illegal.

But we can look at what we do know and put it next to legal drugs:

• Alcohol: 16% of people who drink become alcoholics. We know for sure alcohol messes with your brain, ruins your liver, and causes cancer. About 3.3 million people die from alcohol abuse each year worldwide.
• Cigarettes/Tobacco: 32% of people who try smoking become regular smokers. Tobacco clogs your arteries, destroys your lungs, and also causes cancer. Smoking kills more than 6 million people every year worldwide.

Nobody is saying alcohol or tobacco are harmless just because they’re legal. And nobody is seriously suggesting we should ban them, even though they are incredibly dangerous and cause way more harm and death than marijuana.

Legality actually gives us a way to have some control over these substances, especially when it comes to protecting young people.

• It’s often much harder for teenagers to buy legal drugs than to buy illegal ones.
• Official places that sell legal stuff can get massive fines and lose their business license if they sell to kids who aren’t old enough.
• Being legal creates reasons and rules that drug dealers just don’t have to follow or can’t use.

So, making marijuana legal doesn’t mean everyone thinks it’s great or harmless. It means taking responsibility for the risks it definitely poses. And it could also open the door wide for tons of new research that could finally show us exactly how harmful it really is, and who is most at risk.