Marijuana and alcohol are the most commonly used drugs by teenagers. Rather than arguing why there are both bad, I think it would be interesting to see which one is worse.
Alcohol kills millions of people each year, whether it be due to alcohol poisoning or alcohol-induced accidents. Marijuana, on the other hand, is effectively impossible to overdose on, meaning it leads to very few deaths.
Drinking alcohol as a teenager increases the likelihood of alcoholism as an adult. For marijuana, this is not the case. However, at that age, when the brain has not totally developed, marijuana can cause more permanent damage.
Driving high is generally considered better than driving drunk. This is because marijuana tends to allow for more focus, while alcohol makes people clumsy and hurts reaction times. That said, neither are safe for anyone on the road.
Acquiring alcohol is significantly easier than marijuana. Most families have alcohol at home, while teenagers have to approach drug dealers to get their hands on marijuana.
When interviewing a member of the LAHS faculty for our muckraking project, we snuck in a question about this. Their response was "I think they’re both pretty bad, but you’re probably safer with marijuana. So, I would put a vote for marijuana over alcohol. I think it should be harder to access alcohol. Alcohol strikes me as more dangerous for a lot of reasons. For example, I would be much more comfortable with teenagers driving around high rather than drunk. I think parents would feel the same."
So, with all this taken into account, it seems as though alcohol is worse of a drug than marijuana. This begs the question: why is alcohol legal and so easy to access, but marijuana isn't?
Alcohol kills millions of people each year, whether it be due to alcohol poisoning or alcohol-induced accidents. Marijuana, on the other hand, is effectively impossible to overdose on, meaning it leads to very few deaths.
Drinking alcohol as a teenager increases the likelihood of alcoholism as an adult. For marijuana, this is not the case. However, at that age, when the brain has not totally developed, marijuana can cause more permanent damage.
Driving high is generally considered better than driving drunk. This is because marijuana tends to allow for more focus, while alcohol makes people clumsy and hurts reaction times. That said, neither are safe for anyone on the road.
Acquiring alcohol is significantly easier than marijuana. Most families have alcohol at home, while teenagers have to approach drug dealers to get their hands on marijuana.
When interviewing a member of the LAHS faculty for our muckraking project, we snuck in a question about this. Their response was "I think they’re both pretty bad, but you’re probably safer with marijuana. So, I would put a vote for marijuana over alcohol. I think it should be harder to access alcohol. Alcohol strikes me as more dangerous for a lot of reasons. For example, I would be much more comfortable with teenagers driving around high rather than drunk. I think parents would feel the same."
So, with all this taken into account, it seems as though alcohol is worse of a drug than marijuana. This begs the question: why is alcohol legal and so easy to access, but marijuana isn't?
I agree with you that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. However, I disagree with some of your points. I have heard that when you drive while high, you tend to focus more on not crashing because you are paranoid, yet it is very easy to get distracted while high and you can stop paying attention to what you are doing. Alcohol is still worse on that point though because you feel confident but you swerve and don't have control of the car. You say that marijuana is not addictive, and I agree with you partially. It is not physically addictive, and you will not have cravings. On the other hand, it is mentally addictive. Marijuana also tends to make people lazy. But alcohol kills brain cells and people. Marijuana is also not that hard to get. There are lots of dealers around. Alcohol for any teen to get forces them steal from their parents, use a fake id, or even steal from a store. So you actually have to break a law to obtain alcohol. I agree with you that marijuana is not as bad as alcohol. I also think that marijuana has a few positive medical effects.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about marijuanna being safer than alchohol, but I disagree with the idea that you focus more while high and driving. Even if you have been high on marijuanna 575454 times, there is the posibility to have a bad reaction. If we go around saying that you focus more and see more while high, someone might have a bad reaction and cause a car crash. Everyone has a diferent reaction so you have to be careful with that. I do not think that you should be able to be high and drive at all. I know there is proof that you may focus more but there is always that chance that something goes wrong.
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