Biological Psychology Activity #1 Biological Essay

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An early report that was conducted by British physicians claimed that they had found irreversible brain damage in ten male marijuana users -- all of whom had been referred to them for medical treatment because of psychiatric illness, neurological symptoms, or drug abuse problems (Zimmer & Morgan 1997). These researchers used a brain imaging technology and forced air into the patients' brains through the spinal column, then reporting that they saw "abnormalities consistent with cerebral atrophy -- actual brain tissue shrinkage" (1997). The researchers methods were criticized and it was concluded within just a few short years that the brain imaging technique that they use was medically "risky and unreliable" (1997). Using more modern brain imaging technologies today, researchers have not found any evidence of brain damage in human marijuana users, even in those humans who smoke an average of nine marijuana cigarettes a day (1997).

Today there is the notion that alcohol is safer for human consumption than marijuana (Fox & Armentano 2009). Most adults have experienced what it is like to get high either through marijuana or through alcohol consumption. It is a biological desire "on par with such survival instincts as thirst and hunger," states UCLA professor Ronald Siegel (2009). So why has marijuana become evil while alcohol has been lauded throughout our culture? Despite all the cases of drunk-driving crashes and people who are killed in alcohol-related accidents whether in the car or violence at home, in the bar, etc., people still extol the virtues of alcohol while adamantly believing that marijuana is criminal.

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The statistics are hard to deny: Tobacoo kills 430,700 people each year; alcohol and alcohol-related diseases kills approximately 110,000; secondhand tobacco smoke kills about 50,000; cocaine kills about 500 alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug; heroin kills 400 alone approximately and about 2,500 in combination with another drug; adverse reactions to prescription drugs kills about 32,000; and marijuana kills 0 (Rosenthal & Kubby 2003). Marijuana, as one can clearly see is not physically dangerous to people. On another note, although there has been zero proof to claim that marijuana leads to 'amotivational' syndrome (Earleywine 2005), even if it did, isn't being unmotivated to get off the couch better than getting drunk and deciding to get into one's car?

The dangers associated with marijuana use are not anything but propaganda. Alcohol is more harmful than marijuana could ever be and even prescription drugs, given to us by our doctors, kills more people each year -- marijuana kills none. The only way that marijuana is dangerous is in its controversy and the people who are willing to believe or create lies about a drug that can actually do more good than harm.

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