Cannabis also known as marijuana or weed has been a contentious topic since the late 70’s in the US. In this article I will be outlining the pros and cons of cannabis in our food products. This article does not include the harmful/good effect of ingesting cannabis in other ways such as smoking or infused oils.
One of the pros of cannabis is that it is a relatively harmless drug. When compared to other substances, it ranked 8th on the list of drugs with harmful effects out of 20 drugs (legal and illegal). The number 1 drug on the list was alcohol which is readily available everywhere followed by heroin and crack cocaine (Nutt et al., 2010). From this we can conclude that cannabis is one of the safer drugs to ingest compared to other drugs that we already take. Another pro is that only 9% of users of cannabis develop long term dependency on it compared to 32% of tobacco users (Lopez, 2017). This shows that cannabis does not have long term effects on its users and is relatively safe added to food in small, controlled amounts.
There are also some cons to be aware of. The biggest con of adding cannabis in food products is that teenagers may be more inclined to try it. Cannabis in people under 21 years old is linked to a higher rate of addiction. As compared with persons who begin to use marijuana in adulthood, those who begin in adolescence are approximately 2 to 4 times as likely to have symptoms of cannabis dependence within 2 years after first use (Volkow et al., 2014). There is also evidence that shows that cannabis use can impair driving. According to a meta-analysis, the overall risk of involvement in an accident increases by a factor of about 2 when a person drives soon after using marijuana (Volkow et al., 2014)
In a nutshell, cannabis use has pros and cons. In my personal opinion, I believe the pros outweigh the cons. I am in favor of legalization because it allows cannabis to be regulated more effectively. If it is legalized there should be ID checks similar to alcohol to prevent people under 21 from accessing it.
References
Lopez, G. (2017, January 14). The benefits and harms of marijuana, explained by the most thorough research review yet. Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/14/14263058/marijuana-benefits-harms-medical
Meeprom, S., Sathatip, P., Leruksa, C., Manosuthi, N., & Fakfare, P. (2023). Cannabis-infused food: Uncovering effective conditions for achieving well-being perception and choice behavior among young adult consumers. Food Quality and Preference, 109, 104915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.104915
Nutt, D., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1565. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61462-6
Volkow, N. D., Baler, R., Compton, W. M., & Weiss, S. R. (2014). Adverse health effects of marijuana use. The New England Journal of Medicine, 370(23), 2219–2227. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmra1402309