I Search, Essay Example

Prior to researching the legalization of marijuana, I have assumed that there are benefits in which the public could be taking advantage of the drug.  Marijuana has a host of benefits, including physical and psychological ones that are not realized in society. Thus, measures should be taken to realize should benefits.

In my opinion, legalizing marijuana would allow citizens to make their own decisions about the drug.  While every drug has its dangers, I believe and assume that the benefits outweigh the dangers.  I also believe that dangers in other legalized drugs are more severe.

Research Process

The first step in this process was to define a particular research area.  For me, I wanted to look at scientific evidence on the long-term effects of marijuana.  I was especially interested in how marijuana can be taken in a safer manner, allowing citizens to use the drug in a safe manner, if it were to be legalized or allowed in some fashion.

I began with an Internet search on the topic.  However, at first I was not successful.  There were far too many ill-advised websites that were certainly not documented in their findings and views.  If anything, they subscribed to a particular view to the extreme, which was not beneficial for my research.

Instead I tried targeting academic sources.  I limited my search to educational websites, by restricting the domain names in the search.  Thus, I was not subject to the .com websites that could have been written by anyone.  This made quite a bit of difference in being able to target believable sources.

From a research-based website, I was able to locate a couple of sources within an article on the subject.  There I found the two sources that I have used in this brief introduction.  The article used the sources within the article that I read.

What I Learned

The two sources were very interesting to read.  Particularly, it was interesting to read of the disparity between how marijuana was taken.  The studies and research in the sources that I found cleared up some notions regarding what was safe and unsafe in taking marijuana.

The first source was research conducted by Grotenhermen (2001).  From the article I learned that smoking marijuana was the most harmful method to consume marijuana. Apparently inhaling smoke from organic materials, as stated by Grotenhermen (2001), accounted for a number of health problems.

The second source followed up to the original, and was conducted by Vizoso (2007).  It looked at how vaporizers compared to smoking marijuana as a means of consuming marijuana.  Vizoso found vaporizers to be “a safe and effective” system for consuming marijuana (2007).

These articles helped me take into account the long-term risks involved in marijuana.  Apparently alternative methods of consuming marijuana are necessary, due to health concerns.  If marijuana is to be legalized to realize such health and alternative benefits it brings, vaporizers or other methods must be considered.

References

Grotenhermen, Franzo. 2001. “Harm Reduction Associated with Inhalation and Oral Administration of Cannabis and THC.” Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 1 (3-4): 133-152.

Vizoso, Abrams. 2007. “Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System: A pilot study.” Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 82 (5): 572-578.