Реферат: Legalization Of Drugs Against Essay Research Paper

die from overdoses each year. Heroin users are also at great risk of getting

AIDS from the used of unclean needles. An estimated 60 percent of heroin addicts

in New York City carry the virus, and needle sharing among addicts represents a

major potential route for the spreading of the AIDS virus. According to a

National Research Council report in 1989, nearly 70 percent of the heterosexual

adults infected with the AIDS virus got the virus through an intravenous

connection. The U.S. Public Health service predicted about a threefold increase

in the cumulative total of reported cases of AIDS among addicts between 1989 and

1991. When marijuana is smoked, about two thousand separate chemicals are

produced, and many of the chemicals do not readily pass through the body. Some

are stored in fatty tissues of the brain, lungs, and reproductive organs, where

they remain for a long time. In a book titled, Drug Policy and Intellectuals,

Stephen Thomas points out that one of the areas of great concern about the

effect of smoking marijuana is the changes in the reproductive system (156).

Heavy marijuana smoking reduces the level of testosterone, the principal male

hormone. It may delay sexual maturation in teenage boys and may possible reduce

sperm counts. The use of marijuana also has negative effects on the menstrual

cycle of females. Marijuana use during pregnancy increases the risk of death of

the fetus and of abnormal offspring. Some other effects of marijuana are

sedation, depression, hormone changes and brain damage. It is certain that the

smoking of marijuana leads to as much as a 50 percent short-term increase in

heart rate and a possible decrease in blood supply to the heart. It is crystal

clear that the use of these illegal drugs causes permanent and serious damage to

the body, brain and to innocent babies. Sometimes this deadly “sickness” stops

at distorting bodies and brains, but often goes to snatch the lives of their

users (Thomas 189).

Richard Williams explains in his book, Illegalizing Drugs, that the use of

illicit drugs causes the user to engage in violent acts. The need and craving of

these drugs forces the user to commit crimes such as robbery or murder. They