“The ability to draw definitive conclusions about marijuana’s long-term impact on

the human brain from past studies is often limited by the fact that study participants use

multiple substances, and there is often limited data about the participants’ health or

mental functioning prior to the study. “ As of now researchers know very little about all

the effects of using marijuana. People in the United States are for the most part taking

one of two sides on whether it’s okay to consume and/or sell recreational marijuana.

Recreational marijuana should not be legalized because keeping it illegal can prevent

people from being encouraged to do drugs and can also prevent a lot of accidents.

Legalizing marijuana will only allow people to now be able to encourage other

people to do it. Most people who felt pressured to do drugs in any incident often have

used the excuse that they don’t want to get in trouble or go to jail. Now that it’s actually

being considered, they soon will not be able to say this in order to keep themselves

from using marijuana, something they don’t want to get involved with. According to an

article on addiction.com, “When it comes to using marijuana, teens are very susceptible

to the influence of friends — they can make it easier to use or more likely they will stop

using.”

In the states that have legalized marijuana, the car accident rate increased by 3

percent, which is a significant amount with the average 1.5 million deaths from crashes.

This means there are an additional 90,000 accidents due to marijuana legalization.

Marijuana increases the risk of crashes even at small doses. It’s less impairing but

confuses the brain, keeping the driver from staying focused. 90,000 crashes can be

prevented just by not using marijuana, if the driver crashes into another car that not only
affects the driver using, but the other driver as well, and if passengers are also in either

car, it can be traumatic, possibly causing PTSD to all people involved.

Some say that marijuana helps focus the brain and has no effects to the way

they think at all. They strongly feel that it helps keep them active and does not lead to

addiction, however according to recent studies. Abusing marijuana leads to poor school

performance, addiction, daily use, increase in expenses, and a decline in IQ up to 8

points. These are long-term effects, which are close to impossible to improve and affect

employment. 14% of drivers under the influence of marijuana have a child in the car.

This can permanently affect the child, causing serious defects and damage to a

developing brain or can actually kill the baby in the case of an accident.

In conclusion, marijuana increases the percentage of crashes worldwide, and

affects not only the user, but the people around them. There are many long-term

defects and nearly impossible to fix issues. Factually, it does not help the user focus,

nor does it come with no cost. Because it’s addicting and no one is immune to that, it’s a

very expensive want to fulfil. That’s why it shouldn’t be legal, it does not positively assist

the human brain whatsoever.