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Marijuana should be legalized because it is no more toxic than tobacco or alcohol and it has medicinal applications. In fact, marijuana is safer than alcohol according to research summarized in the journal American Scientist in 2006.

The Potential Benefits

The active chemical in Marijuana is a cannabinoid called THC. The human body produces its own cannabinoids (called endocannibinoids) that act via cannabinoid receptors to influence pain, inflammation, and memory, among other functions.

As of now there are approximately 60 known cannabinoids that have potential medicinal applications. Currently, there is a synthetic version of THC used to relieve nausea and stimulate appetite, called Marinol, but its effects do not equal those of the herb, the whole being greater than any one of its parts. There are also potential benefits to smoking or ingesting marijuana that go beyond pain remedies: the alleviation of nausea in chemotherapy patients, treating nerve injury and multiple sclerosis, alleviating the wasting seen in AIDS patients, and slowing the progression of Alzheimer's.

The Real Danger

Much of the toxicity of tobacco cigarettes is due to the 599 additives on the list of ingredients released by the tobacco companies in 1994, which, when burned, create over 4000 compounds. Health agencies in the EU report that very few of these additives were used in their cigarettes prior to 1970. Tobacco cigarettes also contain the addictive compound nicotine, which is not present in marijuana. Despite the similarities and potentially relevant differences between tobacco and pure cannabis smoke, tobacco is legal and marijuana remains illegal.

Marijuana cigarettes are 100 times less toxic to the human body than alcohol. Yet, marijuana is illegal and alcohol is legal. Some of this discrepancy is due to bias and misinterpretation rather than facts. Canada's CBC News reported in January of 2008 that, between 1993 and 2003, 5% of U.S. drivers tested positive for cannabis, and that drivers who heavily smoke marijuana are at 29% higher risk of causing a fatal crash. In that same article, however, it was pointed out that this does not take into account intoxication, which is what matters when looking at impaired driving. A 1990 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore found that marijuana adversely affects complex human performance for less than 24 hours after smoking, similar to alcohol inebriation, though THC can be detected for up to 2 months, depending

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