1. I was walking down the hall of Holmes Hall at 2 AM on a Sunday looking for activity. I heard distinct giggling coming from one of the dorms, so, knowing the kids in the room, I walked right in. Once I stepped in, I saw a group of people who got wide eyed. I noticed a discrete fog in the room. I knew what was going on immediately; they were smoking Marijuana. I quickly stepped in and shut the door behind me. All around the common room of the four-person suite were snacks, drinks, and lighters. The room smelled like Febreeze and chips. There were four faces of students I had already known, and another four who I had never seen before. They all seemed different from each other; two were wearing sports jerseys, one was wearing a Bob Marley shirt, and the rest were wearing casual clothes. One guy put his iPod in a small pair of speakers and put on some music. I immediately recognized the song: it was No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. Everyone in the room seemed to be in deep thought leaning against something since not a sound was made. I broke the silence. I just had to ask; “why does it not smell in here?” I thought the smell from Marijuana was poignant and distinguished. A few of them smiled at my naiveté. “We didn’t smoke in here: that’s retarded. We vaporized it,” said the unfamiliar face with a Bob Marley shirt on slowly with a grin on his face. He then explained that the smell is minimized when you vaporize it. It was then that it occurred to me that Marijuana could be smoked without leaving a smell. I left the room before the song was over: I loved No Quarter by Led Zeppelin, but I no longer wanted to be involved in unlawful activities, considering the risks. I went back to my dorm with a slightly new perspective on Marijuana smokers.
2. Craig Aman, an 18 year old freshman at Penn State, says on the subject of Marijuana, “It’s just bad for you. It kills brain cells and I don’t know why anybody would use it. You might as well just kill yourself now if you want to die so badly.” He also said in a later part of the interview, “I used to know a very smart guy who smoked Marijuana. Marijuana got him addicted on harder drugs and now he’s working at Shoprite and living with his parents just so he can feed his addiction.”
A 20 year old junior at Penn State who asked to remain anonymous said “It’s not bad for you. There are plenty of people who can function fine. Just look at Michael Phelps. It clearly wasn’t bad for him; it was the media that ruined him, not the drug.”
3. “THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the "high" that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentrating, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.”
“Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite the known harmful effects upon functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent) and among daily users (25-50 percent).”
“Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increase the lungs' exposure to carcinogenic smoke.”
http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html
“Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, ‘The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco.’”
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7305
4. My research had lead me to change my direction and focus a little bit. One thing I plan to do differently is to focus the paper on students, rather than the surrounding community. This will help improve my focus and allow me to elaborate on the issue a lot more. I could still get commentary from adults if I see it as necessary, but I will no longer focus it on that. Secondly, through my talking with people for and against Marijuana, I have decided that I may need a third perspective. I will try to get a balanced perspective. I have found several students who are apathetic towards Marijuana, but I have yet to find a student that is fully knowledgeable on the subject yet still neutral.
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