Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness

  • Submitted By: qballa
  • Date Submitted: 05/01/2014 11:38 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 2035
  • Page: 9
  • Views: 1

Quincy Conners
English 1
Richards
4/10/2014
Reefer Madness
Roughly 80 thousand deaths EVERY year in the United States are from alcohol alone whereas not a single death was reported in the history of the world from the use of marijuana (Wiley 1). The trend that I am analyzing is the rise of marijuana usage among teens in America and what is causing this rise. As more and more states implement laws legalizing medicinal marijuana and even recreational use, the perceived threat of this drug, if you will, is declining causing the usage of marijuana to increase because teens now-a-days believe it isn’t harmful or less harmful. Over the years and through different generations our understanding of marijuana’s key ingredient THC’s or (Tetrahydrocannabinol) medical benefactors have shed a new light on this once perceived harmful substance, and it is now seen as a treatment for various medical conditions.
This new found information has paved the way for marijuana use to increase dramatically amongst teens because not only is the threat involved with smoking nearly disproven but it now also has positive effects and medical purposes. In a 2012 annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders suggest that 6.5 percent of high school seniors smoke marijuana, up from 5.1 percent five years ago (Leger 2). There is obviously a steady increase of teens using marijuana more versus previous years and I identified this to be a trend because it is affecting a large group of people not just a few and the fact that marijuana use is on the rise. This is an important trend because of the cause of this trend, and the reasoning that the number of teens using marijuana will continually increase as the threat decreases and supply of marijuana being readily available to many. We should care about this trend because it is only going to become more prevalent in years to come and we will have to learn to adapt around it or change laws to accommodate it.
Marijuana has many names; it is also...

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