Cannabis or Can’tabis
At one point in America’s history you would find people smoking at the airport, in offices, and on trains. Since then tobacco smoking rates have dropped considerably in the past decades. We can attribute this to legislation and shifting public sentiment (Gitlow). Many individuals know someone who was put to an early grave because smoking. It’s a disaster that could have been prevented. And yet, our nation is prepared to once again head down the course of accepting another addictive drug, marijuana, as legal. It is as if we have to burn out fingers again to be convinced the stove is still hot (Gitlow). Tobacco and Marijuana are very similar in structure, effect, and cause bodily harm. Because of this, marijuana should not be legalized.
The two drugs both look and are used in similar ways. Tobacco is a green, leafy plant that is grown in warm climates. After it is hand-picked, it is dehydrated, ground up, and used in different ways. It can be smoked in a cigarette, pipe, or cigar. It can be chewed (called smokeless tobacco or chewing tobacco) or sniffed through the nose (Mass. Department). Similarly, Marijuana is a combination of dried-out leaves, stems, flowers and seeds of the hemp plant. It is usually green, brown or gray in color (What is Marijuana). Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint), but may also be smoked in a pipe. Less often, it is mixed with food and eaten or brewed as tea. Sometimes users open up cigars and remove the tobacco, replacing it with pot—making it a “blunt” (Marijuana). Joints and blunts are sometimes laced with other, more powerful drugs, such as crack cocaine or PCP or phencyclidine, a powerful hallucinogen (What is Marijuana).
Nicotine is one of the more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco cigarettes and its smoke. It is the chemical that makes tobacco addictive or habit forming. Once we smoke, chew, or