For prohibitionists, marijuana is bad, and that’s it. But based on what facts do they state this? The arguments do not convince; they are usually religious or conservative arguments. There are no proven cases of any marijuana-related illness in history. Not even the greatest odds that could be cancer of the mouth, throat, and lung due to inhalation of smoke. Let’s point out some of the key points that these guys miss out;

• One of the biggest myths around marijuana is to say that “marijuana is the gateway to other drugs.” Who says this, forget that before pulling a joint, most likely the person has smoked several cigarettes, consumed alcohol, is addicted to candy, coke.

• Marijuana should not be used by children and adolescents. Adolescence is a vulnerable period in brain development. Some studies say that young people who start smoking marijuana early can disrupt normal key processes in the brain.

• Marijuana consumption can produce symptoms similar to schizophreniform pictures in individuals who are predisposed to develop schizophrenia; this is because these users have previously had functional brain changes or genetic susceptibility.

• Marijuana legalization will help educate young people and reduce the number of users at this stage of life. In Colorado, for example, there was a decline in the number of users among adolescents after legalization.

• Moderate use is far from harmful, on the contrary, it helps in the treatment of several types of diseases, from anxiety, insomnia, to cancer and HIV.

• Coffee and sugar do infinitely more harm to health than marijuana, and we do not see any campaign warning this to the population, on the contrary, they encourage consumption on TV.

• There is a lot of research that shows that marijuana does well, and every day there is more news proving this, be it to treat diseases, to generate energy, to produce some product from hemp fiber, such as paper and tissue.

The Endocannabinoid System of Humans

We produce endocannabinoids within our body naturally, and this is not linked to the use of marijuana, even those who do not use cannabis produces endocannabinoids. There are also other plants that have cannabinoids, but none compares to cannabis in versatility. The endocannabinoid system is linked to our immune response, anxiety, sleep, emotion, pain, locomotion, cardiovascular and respiratory functions, intraocular pressure, inflammation, reproduction, sex, remodeling of neural circuits, formation of new memories, extinction of traumatic memories, neuroprotection, neurogenesis, motor perception and coordination, flow of thoughts, creativity and so on.

Every human has an endocannabinoid system in the brain. If you sleep, eat, forget things, relax, then you have used your endocannabinoid system.

The endocannabinoid system is composed of cannabinoid receptors, endogenous cannabinoids and molecules related to the inactivation of endogenous cannabinoids. This system regulates important functions in mammals.