Marijuana commonly “mellows out” its users where violent acts are not carried out; this would indicate the main source of crime is a direct result of drug trafficking, not consumption. However, the crimes come from acquiring the drug and its suppliers. A main source of marijuana comes from Mexico as a result of the plant’s ban and criminalization in the early 1900’s; the Mexican drug cartels used existing trade routes for cocaine and heroin throughout the United States to start smuggling marijuana . RAND, a nonprofit organization for research and analysis for US armed forces, calculated national estimates of illegal market sizes for four illicit drugs , methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin between 2000 and 2010. Of the $100 billion total drug estimate, $40.6 billion is from marijuana and those who consume it daily/near daily make up 80% of total expenditures This illegal market can be reduced by 41% due to marijuana legalization, and we can decrease the amount of nonviolent drug charges by 46% . With recreational marijuana legalized in just four states, evidence of this change is already appearing . The U.S. Border Patrol has been noticing a steady decline in marijuana seizures, from 2.5 million pounds in 2011 to 1.9 million pounds in 2014. Mexico’s army has seen a drastic decline in marijuana confiscation, vertical grow room dropping 34% compared to the previous year . Some may attribute to law enforcement, but evidence is showing it is due to the five U.S. states that legalized recreational marijuana.
The industry grew 74% in 2014 to $2.7 with projections of reaching $4 billion by 2016, which means less income for the Mexican cartel to acquire guns, assassins, and bribe the police. Along with legalization, Mexico is seeing a decrease in crime, specifically homicides; homicides were at a high in 2011 with 23,000 murders reported, last year, there were 15,649 reported murders . Even though this is the tip of the iceberg, marijuana reform is already affecting the black market and Mexico just after three years of recreational legalization. If marijuana is federally legalized, not only will crime rates decrease, but the amount of money spent and generated on its illegal demand with be reduced drastically. The last argument for keeping marijuana illegal is its health risks and concerns. Most of the experiments concern minors who will not be able to buy recreational marijuana until they are twenty-one. These findings are also inconsistent because of other third variables unaccounted for such as socioeconomic status, mental health, and parental relationships; but it should not be ignored that there is serious health effects for consumption in youth. When directed to individuals who are twenty-one and older, although limited, the findings point to possible benefits of marijuana consumption in some diseases. Haj-Dahmane and Shen of University of Buffalo found there may be actual medical marijuana use for treating depression. They explained chronic stress reduces the production of endocannabinoids in the brain which is not only a chemical produced by the brain naturally, but an active ingredient in marijuana .
However, the use was only studied in animal models and the next step is to see if it restores normal behaviors in animal models without leading to drug dependence. Another way to explore the treatment of depression and marijuana use is to conduct a longitudinal study focusing on age of use onset, consumption rates, duration of use, and level of depression. A longitudinal study could give a wider scope on long-term effects of marijuana and depression. Marijuana also shows potential in treating autoimmune diseases and anxiety reduction in several studies, however, a couple studies found that it may not be as effective in treating some neurological diseases . An interesting study conducted by Jouanjus, LapeyreMestre and Micallef identified 35 cases of vascular and cardiovascular conditions related to brain, heart, and limbs. They found marijuana use resulted in heart-related complications, and even death, where the sample was an average of 34.3 year old males and had marijuana-related cardiovascular complications . However, this study has some limitations to it; cannabis exposure ranged from actual , recent , and regular/daily use — a total of 30 cases— and the duration of use was only available in five cases that ranged from two to more than 25 years. Toxicology reports were conducted in thirteen cases with ten cases of THC positive; however, marijuana can stay in the system for up to two months, depending on duration of use, because THC is fatsoluble. As a result of the limited sample of cannabis use, it is proper to not correlate marijuana use as a direct cause of cardiovascular complications, and even death . However, current research that explores possible solutions in the treatment of neurological diseases and cardiovascular conditions in relation to marijuana use are non- existent.
The inconsistencies of these research findings makes it hard to ignore some of the possible risks in marijuana use, however, all of the studies are looking at the consumption of marijuana via smoking and a major active ingredient delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol . Little to no research has been done on other ways of consuming marijuana, such as ingestion or transdermal, and another active ingredients such as cannabidol , which makes up 40% of the plant’s extract . In order to fully understand the potential hazards of marijuana, research is needed exploring the different strains, active ingredients, and ways of administration because technology for marijuana growing methods and consumption are growing rapidly. Marijuana’s actual benefits and possible risks will come to light once more in-depth research about all active ingredients and administration methods are thoroughly conducted. There are anti-marijuana groups advocating for continued criminalization of marijuana, but an increasing amount of current research studies have findings that implicate otherwise. For instance, based on previous experiments, minor consumption has not significantly increased or differed from the consumption rates before the legalization of marijuana, but awareness should be brought to light about its health risks. Studies are showing minors are consuming marijuana because it is perceived as a safe drug, but research is pointing towards chronic adverse health effects. To deter underaged use, education about marijuana effects in the developing brain need to be utilized. Another concern was an increase in crime rates. Not only may crime rates decrease, the illegal drug market for marijuana will be reduced by 41% and nonviolent drug charges will be cut by 46% with changes already occurring with just . Lastly, there are numerous adverse health effects when consuming marijuana. While neurological diseases and heart complications seem to have no medicinal benefit to marijuana consumption, there are consistent findings in other studies such as depression and anxiety. In order to fully understand the limits of what marijuana can help treat and maintain, further research needs to be conducted exploring all administration methods and major active ingredients due to changing method technologies of marijuana growing and consumption. The consistent findings about the benefits of marijuana consumption is gaining popularity and public favors rapidly, and demands for marijuana legalization has been higher than before. This alone is proving the need to reevaluate marijuana prohibition laws and showing there are possible solutions to solve this complex issue of legalization.Religion and spirituality play complex roles in the health of sexual minorities. For example, they may support positive coping with challenging life circumstances. However, many major religious traditions are non-affirming of same sex attractions and behaviors , thereby contributing to stigma and oppression that undermine the potential health and psychological benefits often associated with religion and spirituality. For example, one U.S. study found that exposure to religious prejudice was associated with negative health outcomes among sexual minorities, including higher levels of stress, anxiety, shame, cannabis racks harmful alcohol use, and more instances of experiencing physical and verbal abuse . Similarly, findings from systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggest that while some sexual minorities find social support and refuge in religious traditions, others report religious affiliation and religion as a source of stigma and stress . Although religiosity has been found to be protective against hazardous alcohol and drug use in the general population , findings regarding this relationship are mixed in studies with sexual minorities . Understanding factors that may protect against hazardous alcohol and marijuana use is important in the context of persistent sexual identity-related disparities in substance use .
Examining factors that may affect alcohol and marijuana use among sexual minority women is particularly important given research documenting higher rates of hazardous drinking and marijuana use among SMW compared to heterosexual women, and disparities by sexual identity that are generally more pronounced among women than among men.Religiosity and spirituality constitute separate yet related phenomena. Religiosity represents involvement in the rituals, cultural traditions and practices of a particular religious institution or community . Spirituality represents an individual’s beliefs and practices related to a higher power, search for meaning, or sense of transcendence, which may be secular or linked with religion . Research suggests that sexual minorities generally consider spirituality as having greater importance in their life than religion . Relative to heterosexuals, sexual minorities are less likely to attend religious services or to consider religion as somewhat or very important in their lives , however these differences are smaller in relation to measures of spirituality . Although general population studies have found small to medium positive health effects for religion and spirituality, using meta-analysis, Lefevor and colleagues found much smaller positive relationships with health outcomes among sexual minorities. Findings were also inconsistent among sexual minorities and relationships varied depending on how religion and spirituality were measured. Measures of spirituality were positively associated with health, but measures of religious attendance were not . The absence of a positive relationship between religious attendance and health among sexual minorities may be partially explained by exposure to unique stigma related stressors in religious contexts . Research with general population samples has found strong associations between higher religiosity and negative attitudes toward sexual minorities . Furthermore, close to one-third of sexual minority adults in a U.S. survey reported feeling unwelcome in a place of worship . Exposure to religious heteros exist stigma is, in turn, associated with negative health, mental health, and substance use outcomes among sexual minorities . This complexity of relationships between religiosity and spirituality underscores the importance of multiple measures of religiosity and spirituality in research with sexual minority adults.Literature on the relationship between religion and/or spirituality and alcohol or marijuana use among SMW is limited and shows mixed results . One study with SMW found that neither religiosity nor spirituality predicted past-year substance use outcomes of hazardous drinking or drug use, including marijuana . Another study found that religiosity was protective against hazardous drinking and drug use among both SMW and heterosexual women . One study found that religiosity was protective against heavy episodic drinking among heterosexual women; however, it was not protective for lesbian women and it was associated with increased drinking among bisexual women . The authors hypothesize that relative to religious lesbian women, religious bisexual women may have less social support in lesbian and gay communities to counteract potential stigmatizing experiences. They may also have fewer role models for positive bisexual identity and experience greater pressure to adhere to heteros exist scripts. In the context of these mixed findings, research exploring the relationships between religion and spirituality and substance use outcomes, and in particular disaggregating findings for lesbian and bisexual women, is warranted.SMW participants were recruited from two national online panels: a general population panel and an LGBT-specific panel. Eligibility for participation in the panel samples was restricted to participants ages 18 or older and who identified as lesbian, bisexual, or other non-exclusively heterosexual identity; resided in the U.S.; and identified as women at the time of the screening. The LGBT-specific panel was drawn from a diverse panel of over 50,000 LGBT participants across all states in the U. S., including 20,000 SMW, who were originally recruited through partnerships with over 300 LGBT websites, publications, organizations, apps and social media. The general population panel included approximately 2.5 million active participants in the U.S, recruited using a wide range of methods to obtain a geographically and demographically diverse sample of participants over age 13, in all 50 states, who own a smartphone and are registered to receive and respond to survey opportunities through an app.