Not only do the patients themselves have a positive effect from the treatment, but the community sees results as well. "Numerous large-scale cost-benefit analyses reveal that every dollar spent on drug treatment saves between $2 and $7 on law enforcement, corrections, health care, lost productivity, and welfare" (103). With this in mind, it is far more conceivable to force treatment on drug abusers, rather than consenting to their demands by legalizing marijuana, or any other drug. Many have argued about the physical dependence marijuana may cause to those who use the drug. Advocates of legalized marijuana claim that the drug is not addictive, despite much opposition. According to Ron Kadden, "A lot of people think it's not addictive. [Users] have been told by treatment professionals and friends that they couldn't really be addicted to marijuana" (Boyce). Evidence shows otherwise, however, and several studies have been conducted to prove that marijuana is, in fact, an addictive drug. Steven Goldberg of the National Institute on Drug Abuse conducted one of these studies, in which he found that even lab monkeys would seek out marijuana's active chemical, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which causes addiction, and the monkeys learned to give themselves as many as thirty injections within an hour session; however, many remain unconvinced by scientific data (Boyce). If this is so, can personal experience with the addictiveness of the drug change the mind of those who stand firm in the idea that marijuana has no physical dependence? The Director at Haight-Ashbury Detox Center, Darry Inaba, asserts: The main problem we"re dealing with today is that today's potent form of marijuana is causing a lot more problems than we saw in the 1960s.by the late "80s, we started seeing people coming in, everyone of them on their own volition saying, "Help me, I want to stop smoking pot. It is causing me these problems I want to stop and I can't stop.
