he scientists have compared grades of students who smoke marijuana to those who do not, as well as wages of marijuana users and nonusers. Researchers examined data on driving fatalities to determine relationships between marijuana use and highway accidents. Epidemiologists have looked for a link between marijuana use and hard-core, illegal drugs. In laboratory research, marijuana has been given to people to evaluate the drugs effect on memory, motivation, psychomotor skills, and social interaction. Other scientists have given large doses of THC to people and animals every day for months to discover any physical dependence. Researchers have exposed human cells to THC as well as marijuana smoke in the laboratory. Then, scientists searched for cellular abnormalities under a microscope. In 1982, committees on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the World Health Organization (WHO) reviewed the research on marijuana, including 10 years of investigation subsequent to the Shafer Commission’s review in 1972. Neither committee found any convincing evidence of biological harm, psychological impairment, or social dysfunction among marijuana users (Morgan and Zimmer 8, 11-12). The evidence does not suggest that marijuana is totally harmless or that the drug cannot be abused. All drugs, including legalized ones, may be abused and are dangerous. However, evidence does show moderate marijuana use to be relatively harmless. Marijuana is far less harmful to the user than either tobacco or alcohol. Any risk smoking marijuana that presents falls within the ambit of choice permitted to the individual in a free society. The only clear risk of marijuana use is respiratory damage caused by smoking. This risk is confined to long-term, heavy smokers. Claims of other biological harms, such as brain damage, infertility, and immune-system impairment are based on studies done on animals and cells, using doses of marijuana up to 1,000 times the ...
