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Marijuana is legally a Schedule I Controlled Substance under a federal law that
evaluates the balance of risks and benef its of drugs, with input from the Food and Drug
Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The reason for legal restrictions on
controlled substances is to protect public health and public safety. Simply put, marijuana is a
substance that intoxicates those who use it, injuring their health and the well-being of those
around them.

Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade, with serious implications
in particular for young people, who are not only being placed at increased risk of schizophrenia,
depression, cognitive def icits and respiratory problems, but are also at signif icantly higher risk
of developing dependency on other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

While marijuana is the most prevalent controlled substance, with an estimated 15 mil-
lion users on a monthly basis, researchers agree that if legal disincentives were not in place, the
number of users would soar, leading to far greater negative social impacts on everything from
school performance to roadway and workplace accidents to the prevalence of serious mental
illness and rising numbers of emergency room visits.

Marijuana use is currently the leading cause of treatment need for those abusing
or dependent on illegal drugs, is the second leading reason for drug-induced emergency
room episodes, and has surpassed alcohol for young people in addictive risk and impact on
dependency requiring treatment.

Some have argued that keeping marijuana illegal does damage, since people run the
risk of arrest if they break the law. But this purported damage is much overstated. Though there
are many arrests for marijuana use, increasingly the legal system is referring such arrestees
to drug courts, where they receive supervised drug treatment at the discretion of the court.
A review of those actually convicted and sentenced for marijuana offenses shows that they are
overwhelmingly drug traff ickers or multiple, often violent, offenders, and not those arrested for
simple possession or use.

The reason that marijuana is, and should remain, illegal is that the drug itself is harmful to
the individual and to the community. This is the assessment of the medical and law enforcement
communities. Increasingly, this is the assessment of young people as well, since marijuana use
has plummeted by 25 percent over the past f ive years. Young people apparently agree with
Australian researchers, who recently characterized marijuana, based on their comparative
studies of youths who used versus those who did not, as “the drug for life’s losers.” Removing
legal penalties would only make this drug more accessible, its use more prevalent, and its damage
more widespread, and would swell the number of those at risk for becoming “life’s losers.”

Adapted from: Dubner, S. (1997). “On the Legalization-or Not-of Marijuana.” Retrieved on January 31, 2013 from http://
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/on-the-legalization-or-not-of-marijuana/.