to all these questions is YES. According to the DEA (1998), the supreme ruler of drug knowledge in America, there are over 10,000 scientific studies that prove marijuana is a harmful and addictive drug. Yet there is no reliable study that proves marijuana has any medical value. Marijuana is an unstable mixture of over 425 chemicals, which when smoked are converted to over thousands. Most of these are toxic, psychoactive chemicals which are unstudied and appear in uncontrolled strengths. Marijuana leads to many different consequences depending on the personality and general characteristics of the individual using the drug. These may include, but are not limited to: premature cancer, addiction, coordination and perception impairment, mental disorders, hostility and increased aggressiveness, general unconcern of life, memory loss, reproductive disabilities, and impairment to the immune system. Marijuana is currently up to 25 times more potent than it was in the 1960's, which makes the drug even more addictive. In 1994, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that marijuana should remain a Schedule I drug: highly addictive with no medical usefulness. Marijuana is a harmful substance. The use of marijuana for the purposes of intoxication leads to a number of serious health risks. Research has proven that marijuana damages short term memory, distorts perceptions, impairs complex motor skills, alters the heart rate, can lead to severe anxiety, and can cause paranoia and lethargy. A condition called Amotivational syndrome take places after chronic use. It is defined by Dr. Harry Avis (1996), professor of psychology as, "a condition characterized by a lack of ambition or desire to succeed, presumed to be the result of smoking marijuana." As reported in The Medical Journal of Australia, "Marijuana causes birth defects, fetal damage, lung cancer, long-term impairment of memory, schizophrenia, suppression of the immune system, and even leukemia in the children of marijuana-smoking mothers" (Nahas & Latour, 1992). The National Institute on Drug Abuse (1996) reported that the chemicals found in marijuana smoke suppresses the neurons in the information-processing system of the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that is crucial for learning, memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivation. Marijuana, should it be legalized, would ruin many Americans' abilities to learn, and would abruptly decay the development and progress of the American Society. Marijuana is dangerous, and it is more dangerous than it ever has been. The federal Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN, claims that recent statistics show increases in the number of patients mentioning marijuana in hospital emergency rooms ("The Marijuana Debate Goes On", 1998). Inexperienced users may suffer acute anxiety the first time they use it. This could be a direct result of the increase in potency of marijuana. Growers have access to the latest agricultural technologies and scientific methods which enable them to grow more powerful marijuana. "Growers have become extremely sophisticated about developing varieties of marijuana with high concentrations of THC" ("Is Marijuana Dangerous? Is It Addictive?", 1995). THC, or Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is one of the 400 chemicals in marijuana. It accounts for most of marijuana's psychoactive, or mind-altering, effects ("Facts About Marijuana and Marijuana Abuse", 1996). The levels of THC found in the modern drug markets' marijuana are much higher than they have ever been.

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Approximate Word count = 2365
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)