pos;s health (Effects. . .). The drug's short-term effects, which include impairing coordination and judgment and potentially triggering temporary amnesia, give rise to equally dangerous implications. These short-term effects of alcohol consumption have been linked to the four leading causes of teenage deaths: drunken driving, homicides, suicides, and drowning (Effects. . .). Because the consumption of the drug has become so commonly accepted in American culture, these side effects and consequences are sometimes drastically undermined.
             Another dangerous substance that has grown increasingly popular in the United States is marijuana. Containing several of the same destructive qualities as alcohol, this substance is harder to detect than the former. The main ingredient in cannabis, THC, elicits many of the substance's harmful side effects. THC disrupts the chemistry of the immune system, limiting the body's abilities to ward-off viruses and bacteria (Effects of Smoking). It disrupts hormone production, interfering with women's menstruation cycles and lowering testosterone levels in males. Smoking marijuana, like consuming alcohol, can inhibit short-term memory and reduce coordination levels. The drug has become so strong and powerful that it may take up to twenty-four hours to completely be released from the body (Effects of Smoking). Although marijuana does not have as many health risks as alcohol, it has been proven that one marijuana cigarette has three times as much tar as one tobacco cigarette and almost five times as much carboxyhemoglobin, resulting in more carbon monoxid
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