The idea of legalizing or not legalizing marijuana has been much disputed within recent years. Some argue that marijuana is not harmful to human health as alcohol, cigarette, and tobacco is and therefore there is not much of a valid reason behind marijuana being kept criminalized. However, when hearing such arguments, it is quite obvious that the bigger picture is not being considered. Legalizing marijuana would be the cause of more negative impacts on the society and economy than positive. Legalizing marijuana will not necessarily reduce illegal activity, lessen health disorders, lower the rate of incidents such as committing acts under the influence of, or help the economy improve. The idea of legalizing marijuana is very controversial with many factors affecting the decision; according to facts and statistics available, legalizing marijuana would not be the prudent thing to do for various reasons.
Firstly, marijuana does have negative impacts on health since it is an addictive substance and most largely consumed substances do have risks associated with them. Marijuana consumption leads too many physical and mental problems such as disrupted learning and memory, impaired coordination, lose of brain cells, and so on. Statistics from National Institute of Drug Abuse shows that people who have started to consume marijuana in high amounts from a young age are known to have difficulty in school such as “less academic and career success compared to their peers who came from similar backgrounds­” (How Does Marijuana Affect Health?). Long term marijuana smokers are likely to experience the same effects- in slightly as smaller magnitude- as tobacco smokers such as daily coughing, frequent chest illness, and a higher risk of lung infections because the chemicals found in marijuana are irritant to the lungs.
When facts about alcohol consumption are compared with the recently discovered marijuana consumption, it can be noticed that marijuana consumption is far worse than alcohol. According to the facts accumulated by The Foundation of a Drug Free World, people who consume alcohol have the intake of substance called ethanol, whereas marijuana joints contain more than 400 chemicals, some which are unknown and some which are cancer causing substance such as those found in tobacco. This foundation also states- based on their research- that “Alcohol is eliminated from the body in a few hours, but THC stays in the body for weeks, possibly months, depending on the length and intensity of usage (Foundation for a Drug Free World). Many people would say that they have not experienced any harmful symptoms or effects after smoking marijuana, but studies show otherwise. According to CPHA (Canadian Public Health Association), people who have been consuming large amounts of marijuana for a long period of time can be prone to chronic coughing, lung infections, and in some cases, cancer­ (How Does Marijuana Affect Health). Smoking marijuana causes other side effects for the short term which are less severe; regardless they are definitely not beneficial in any way. Marijuana consumers may not go through any noticeable physical illness at the beginning, but a chemical in marijuana called THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), does disorient mental health.
Another reason for why marijuana should not be legalized is because it will encourage illegal activities. Contrary to the belief that legalizing a substance will reduce the illegal activities is very common, yet false. It is not necessary that legalizing marijuana will reduce illegal activities, and with precedents to support this hypothesis it can be made plausible. An example is the decriminalization of gambling. In the United States of America gambling was legalized on the basis of thought which suggested that decriminalizing gambling would reduce illegal gambling activity, ironically however, the rates of illegal gambling increased (Why We Should Not Legalize Marijuana). This happened due to the fact