Marijuana has been slowly becoming one of the most well known drugs due to its recreational use and medicinal purposes. However, why is it called a drug when in its purest form, it is a plant? Why does the normal everyday citizen call it a drug while there are groups arguing that it should be called a plant. Each side has evidence to back their points.

People who claim  marijuana is  a plant base it on the fact that marijuana does not meet the requirements of being a controlled substance like heroin or “meth”. Kevin Armento from the Huffington Post stated, “The qualifications required for a drug to reach such an esteemed distinction are threefold: 1. high potential for abuse, 2. no currently accepted medical use, and 3. lack of accepted safety for use.”

What Armento is saying here is that for a substance  to reach controlled substance status it needs to have no medicinal purpose attached to it which in recent times studies have found that Cannabis does have medicinal value to it. In fact, that was one of the reasons marijuana was legalized in certain states.

Armento also said while upwards of 42% of American adults have smoked marijuana at least once in their life, less than 1% smoke it on a daily basis. And whereas alcohol is linked to over 75,000 deaths per year, and cigarettes roughly 400,000 per year, the world is still waiting for the first-ever instance of marijuana fatality. One final point of evidence that marijuana is a plant is the lack of addictive or destructive consequences compared to other drugs ,like alcohol as Cannabis itself has not killed anyone as of yet. Of all these facts, there still remains a side that say that marijuana is harmful enough to be considered a controlled substance.

On the other side, people consider marijuana hurtful enough that it should be compared to other drugs like heroine or “meth”. DrugFacts.com presents the long term effects of marijuana as, “Marijuana smoke irritates the lungs, and frequent marijuana smokers can have the same breathing problems that tobacco smokers have. These problems include daily cough and phlegm, more frequent lung illness and a higher risk of lung infections. This point of evidence brings a very clear comparison to tobacco, another addictive substance. Both marijuana and tobacco give similar effects on the lungs especially on young users, thus showing a more destructive nature to Cannabis. DrugFacts.com also brings up Cannabis status as a gateway drug as “marijuana can be addictive.”

This leads into research that  suggests that 30 percent of users may develop some degree of problem use, which can lead to dependence and in severe cases takes the form of addiction.  Cases have shown that people who begin using marijuana before age 18 are four to seven times more likely than adults to develop problem use. Even if marijuana is a plant in its base form, it does bring along side effects like other popular drugs.

The point is that marijuana is becoming more exposed to the public and is only getting bigger, so it is  better to just hear the facts. The public must decide for itself what marijuana is. A drug or a plant?