Right: One of the arguments put forward by opponents of cannabis legalisation is that it could lead to a rise in road accidents. The driver of this car may not have been actually smoking as he drove, but his illicit cargo - packets of processed cannabis - fatally injured him when his vehicle collided with a tree
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Arguments against legalising marijuana in Australia
1. Marijuana use can have adverse physical and psychological effects
It has been claimed that marijuana smoking has the potential to cause cancer. Research has yet to prove conclusively that marijuana smoking causes cancer; however, critics of the drug argue that the circumstantial case is strong enough to rule out legalisation. Lung, head and neck cancers have been associated with marijuana use.
One of the potentially cancer-causing agents in marijuana is benzyprene. Benzyprene is in the tar of both tobacco and cannabis cigarettes. It alters a gene called p53, which is a tumour suppressor gene. Seventy-five percent of lung cancers occur in people who have faulty p53 genes. The p53 gene is also linked to many other cancers.
Cannabis smoke contains 50% more of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke. It has also been noted that marijuana smokers tend to inhale smoke for longer than cigarette smokers do. This is to get the full effect of the cannabis. However this smoking practice means that the smoke is in contact with the lungs for longer, increasing its capacity to cause harm.
In early 2006 doctors reported on a possible link between cannabis and bladder cancer. This study looked at men with bladder cancer under the age of 60, who had smoked marijuana, and compared them to men who hadn’t smoked it. The rate of cancer was higher among the marijuana smokers. A 2009 study showed an increase in risk of testicular cancers in cannabis smokers compared to non cannabis smokers.
Marijuana use increases blood pressure and pulse rate. In the hour following the smoking of a joint, middle-aged people are five times more likely to suffer a heart attack.
Many studies have reported clear links between cannabis use and anxiety or panic attacks in the short term, and have observed problems with short-term memory, cognition and motivation in the long term. Concentration, learning and memory are all severely affected by regular cannabis use.
The Australian National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre has noted ‘Evidence suggests that using cannabis may trigger schizophrenia in those who are already at risk of developing the disorder, and they may experience psychosis earlier. Any use of cannabis can double the risk of schizophrenia in those who are vulnerable, and bring on a first episode up to two and a half years earlier. Use of cannabis at a young age and heavy use of cannabis are associated with up to six times the risk for schizophrenia; especially smoking three or more times per week before the age of fifteen.’
2. Marijuana use can lead to the use of other drugs
It has been claimed that marijuana use can act as a precursor to experimenting with and becoming a regular user of harder drugs.
A recent United States federal report concluded that the younger children are when they first use marijuana, the more likely they are to use cocaine and heroin and become dependent on drugs as adults. The report, ‘Initiation of Marijuana Use: Trends, Patterns and Implications,’ found that 62% of adults aged 26 or older who initiated marijuana before they were 15 years old reported that they had used cocaine in their lifetime. It further stated that long-term studies of high school students and their patterns of drug use show that very few young people use other drugs without first trying marijuana.
The FAS Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin of June, 1999, included the statement, ‘Marijuana users are sixty-six times more likely to use cocaine subsequently than subjects who have never consumed marijuana.’
Dr Denise Kandel, in an opinion piece published in 2003 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has stated, ‘A developmental sequence of involvement in drugs is one of the best replicated findings in the epidemiology of drug use. Regular sequences and stages of progression in which the use of alcohol and cigarettes precedes the use of marijuana, and, in turn, the use of marijuana precedes the use of other illicit drugs, has been observed in the United States as well as in other Western societies.’
Critics of legalising marihuana claim that the drug develops a mindset among users and, perhaps, even a physiological predisposition which encourages them toward substance abuse for recreation and as a means of dealing with personal issues.
The same FAS Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin stated, ‘It appears that the biochemical changes induced by marijuana in the brain results in a drug-seeking, drug taking behaviour, which in many instances will lead the user to experiment with other pleasurable substances. The risk of progressing from marijuana to cocaine or heroin is now well documented.’
Moreover, a study of over 300 fraternal and identical twin pairs found that the twin who had used marijuana before the age of 17 had elevated rates of other drug use and drug problems later on, compared with their twin who did not use before age 17.
3. Marijuana use increases the likelihood of accidents on the road and elsewhere
It has been claimed that cannabis use impairs concentration and co-ordination, thus making the user more prone to physical accidents of all kinds, but especially to road accidents.
According to a review conducted in 2004, 17 laboratory studies examining the effects of cannabis on skills utilised while driving detected impairments in tracking, attention, reaction time, short-term memory, hand-eye coordination, vigilance, time and distance perception, decision making, and concentration.
More recent controlled laboratory research has suggested similarly that cannabis impairs tasks of selective and divided attention, time estimation, and executive function.
Canadian surveys suggest that drivers who use cannabis are at increased risk of crashing. Asbridge and colleagues surveyed Canadian students and found that those who drove after using cannabis were almost twice as likely to have crashed their car. Mann and colleagues analysed surveys of Ontario adults and also found that cannabis-using drivers were more likely to crash.
Results from the 2010 Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey indicate that 2.2% of Australians aged at least 14 years have driven a motor vehicle while under the influence of illicit drugs in the last 12 months; while a recent review of drug use, impaired driving and traffic crashes by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction revealed that between 0.3% and 7.4% of drivers tested positive for cannabis across seven roadside surveys conducted between 1997 and 2007 in Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, using blood, urine or saliva tests (3.9% on average; Australia had the lowest rate among these studies).
Opponents of legalising marijuana use argue that such a measure can only increase the number of marijuana users driving vehicles on Australian roads and so increase the number of accidents they cause.
4. Marijuana use can become addictive
Studies have indicated that long-term use, especially by those who start at a young age, can lead to addiction, with an estimated one out of 11 people who use it becoming dependent on it. Withdrawal symptoms are similar to those of withdrawal from smoking and include irritability, sleep difficulties and anxiety.
The United States National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has claimed, ‘The number goes up to about 1 in 6 in those who start using young (in their teens) and to 25-50 percent among daily users.’
United States data indicates that in 2009, approximately 18 percent of people aged 12 and older entering drug abuse treatment programs reported marijuana as their primary drug of abuse; 61 percent of persons under 15 reported marijuana as their primary drug of abuse.
An Australian study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, surveyed nearly 50 marijuana users on their withdrawal symptoms before, during and after a two-week abstinence period. The authors showed that marijuana withdrawal symptoms can interfere with the lives of regular users who are trying to quit.
Study co-author Alan J. Budney, a professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Lebanon, New Hampshire, has stated, ‘It is very similar to what people experience with tobacco. It makes you irritable. It makes you restless. It makes it hard to sleep.’
The researchers also found that heavy users were more likely to have worse withdrawal symptoms and were more likely to relapse during the abstinence period if their withdrawal symptoms were worse. Subjects would also use much more marijuana in the following month if they had worse withdrawal symptoms.
5. Legalising marijuana will increase its use
It has been claimed that legalising marijuana is likely to increase its use and thus increase the various negative consequences that come from marijuana use.
Tricia Lucas, writing for the Concord Monitor, on November 19m 2013, stated, ‘Legalization would likely give rise to an active commercial network of growers, manufacturers, distributors and retail establishments, all operating with a profit motive and the incentive to increase consumption by advertising to create new users and maintain heavy users.’
Lucas also notes, ‘Altria, the new name of tobacco giant Philip Morris, recently purchased the domain names of AltriaCannabis.com and AltriaMarijuana.com…[and] investment firms are actively exploring marijuana business opportunities.’
Lucas concluded, ‘Price goes down, use goes up: Legalization will result in lower prices and increased use by both recreational and heavy users. When a product is legal more people will use it – think tobacco and alcohol.’
The number of Washingtonians who tested positive for cannabis use while driving has grown since the marijuana’s legalisation in January authorities have stated.
Washington State Patrol says it has found THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, in the bloodstream of 745 drivers pulled over in January 2014. This represents a nine percent increase from the same period the year before.