Marijuana and students - Research Paper Example

My comments are on the use of punctuation and absence of thesis of the paper. A thesis will provide the supporting claims for the paper. I also suggest creating better transition sentences, where it is clear what the claims are. Marijuana is the top illegal drug of choice for students in the United States and other nations, such as Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom (Duarte, Escario, and Molina 90). Johnston et al. (2005) discover in their 2005 survey that the average incidences of cannabis use in the U.S. “for eighth, tenth and twelfth graders [were] 16.4%, 34.1% and 44.

8%, respectively” (qtd. in Duarte, Escario, and Molina 90). At present, some people are lobbying to legalize marijuana beyond its medicinal uses. This paper believes that marijuana should not be legalized for all purposes, because of its diverse negative effects on students, especially on their health and academic success. Adolescents are particularly at risk, because cannabis use has been connected to the development of psychotic symptoms (Skinner, Conlon, Gibbons, and McDonald 1). Legalizing marijuana can encourage increased recreational use of marijuana among students, which can have negative effects on their health and academic status.

One of the effects of legalizing marijuana is that it can lead to its widespread recreational use, which can result to a greater prevalence of risky behaviors among students. In “Sending the Wrong Message: Did Medical Marijuana Legalization in California Change Attitudes about and Use of Marijuana?” Khatapoush and Hallfors studied the impact of the legalization of medical marijuana on drug-related attitudes and use among youth in several communities in California and other ten states. They used telephone survey data that included beliefs and experiences related to marijuana use.

Findings showed that legalizing marijuana did not encourage more drug use among