It is often disputed whether or not marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes. However, there is little reason to argue due to concrete, scientific evidence of marijuana’s negative side effects. The public is, unfortunately, widely unaware of these facts due to misconceptions about marijuana and its contents.

A common claim is that marijuana is less harmful than tobacco. On the contrary, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana contains 20 times more ammonia, a known carcinogen; five times more hydrogen cyanide, which has been attributed to causing heart disease; and produces four times more tar (when smoked) than cigarettes do. With the ingestion of all these chemicals in a single joint of marijuana, it is not surprising to find that a person who smokes marijuana is almost six times more likely to develop lung cancer than one who does not smoke at all (according to Medical Research Institute of New Zealand). A study by the British Lung Foundation found that smoking three marijuana joints a day damages the lungs as much as 20 cigarettes. The same study found that tar from marijuana has 50 percent more carcinogens than tar from cigarettes. A doctor cannot rest with a clear conscience knowing that he has prescribed to his patient a substance whose smoke contains more than 400 chemicals, most of which are also found in tobacco smoke. It would also be hypocritical of him to do so, since he campaigns against the use of cigarettes, but then prescribes a substance for a patient that has a worse impact.

Also, the problems caused by marijuana are often understated. Marijuana can cause distorted judgment and thinking, not dissimilar to alcohol. A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that even a moderate dosage of marijuana can impair driving abilities.

Many wink at the careless, relaxed attitude; altered mental perspective and mild euphoria that marijuana users experience. But perpetual engagement in the drug results in a 41 percent higher chance of developing psychosis, according to the British medical journal, The Lancet. With all the aforementioned side effects, it is conclusive that marijuana’s negative effects utterly outweigh any virtue it may contain as a drug.

Some who are not convinced by the evidence looming before them may argue that marijuana has been used as a drug for thousands of years, universally. Perhaps so. But it is also true that thousands of years ago, people did not possess scientific techniques and materials used to test the harmfulness of what is supposed to be a remedy. They simply worked by trial and error. While the death of a marijuana user may not be linked directly to the drug’s usage, marijuana can induce common illnesses, which are often the causes of death in its users. People centuries ago were unaware of the toxicities of the drug. They believed that if it did not make you sick within a short period of ingesting it, it was safe to take. So marijuana, used on a regular basis because of the conviction of its harmlessness, was not believed to be detrimental to one’s health. A marijuana user who died of heart disease never had a death certificate that read “death by habitual use of marijuana”—rather, it stated that he died of “weakness of the heart” or some other seemingly innocent cause of death.

Marijuana has been used medicinally for various ailments, mostly for pain relief. But now, more reliable and heavily researched medications to combat pain and illnesses have been developed. Where people used marijuana to rid themselves of pain, they can now use these medications to treat their maladies. But these medicines are superior in that ridding a person of pain does not inflict on him or her the bodily harm that marijuana would. Although proponents claim that marijuana has malady-combating properties, experimental evidence of any benefits has been indefinite. Regardless, the dangerous side effects outweigh any possible positive effects it might have.

Due to this lack of consistent, scientific evidence proving marijuana’s benefits, it is still widely debated as to whether or not marijuana is a medicine, not simply a superficial painkiller. A patient who is already suffering from a disease does not deserve to be subjected to doctors’ orders that he or she be treated with a substance that impairs judgment, memory, general thinking ability, muscle coordination and other short-term side effects. With continued use, the aforementioned temporary side effects can spiral into permanent problems. The chemicals in marijuana, over an extended period, can result in lung and cardiac problems, cancer, brain damage and a variety of other life-altering and even fatal ailments. Marijuana’s side effects, impurities and chemicals are dangerous to one’s health, so much so that they outweigh any potential health benefits for ill patients.