There are both ups and downs to marijuana, but should it really be considered as illegal? People also have different opinions and thoughts on it, but I for one do not think it is the biggest issue in America.
The pros to having marijuana legal is that there have been not reported deaths to using it and no mental illnesses have been caused by it, but then cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable deaths each year and those aren’t illegal? Also, it is known to be one of the best anti-depressants and number one pain reliever. It also is known to prevent cancer and or maybe stop it, also with glaucoma and AIDS. Lastly, cops could spend their time fighting real crime instead of trying to bust everyone for harmful drugs.
There are also a few cons. The first con would be short-term memory loss, and it’s known to slow down your motor skills. It could also affect your social life and not spending as much time with your family, school, work and other activities. It could also lead to lung cancer like any type of smoking would do. Lastly, it could lead to more hard-core drugs.
There are also a lot of facts and statistics about marijuana. There were more than 800,000 people arrested each year for simply just having it on them. Second, Colorado and Washington were the first states in the U.S to legalize it. The last fact is marijuana is the most popular drug being used worldwide behind alcohol.
All in all, there are many different opinions and thoughts on making marijuana legal and there are good points on each side.
Should it be legal in all 50 states?
Would there be more or less crime if it became legal?
Would people abuse it if it became legal?
I think that marijuana should be legalized. It would make a lot of money for drug stores and for medical purposes. President Obama said that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, and alcohol is still legal. Marijuana has not caused any deaths and many people use it as a stress reliever or painkiller. The only con I see of legalization is that it may lead people to trying more harmful drugs. If marijuana is illegal, then cigarettes and alcohol should be illegal as well, because they can cause people to lose their life and marijuana has not taken a single person life yet.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/10-facts-about-marijuana
I also agree 100% that it should be legalized. There are many people in Colorado and California ingesting marijuana for medical use and it is not doing any chemical harm to their body. Many protesters say that marijuana is dangerous and not safe to ingest into the body, but the only real study that scientists did was putting a gas mask on a monkey and the monkey tied several days later, with scientists believing it was caused due to the marijuana, it was actually cause by brain cells dying due to lack of oxygen. One thing that could be scary seeing is once it gets legalized throughout the states, is if people that lose the high of marijuana, what more harsh drugs will they move to?
http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/2/myths.html
After I read your article, I found myself agreeing with the majority of your points. In no way am I an advocate cannabis usage, however I feels that criminalizing the substance is a waste of time, taxpayer dollars, and resources. My main point is, if people want to put a harmful chemical substance into their bodies and risk getting a disease or a condition from it, I feel that it’s their own destiny to do make. But to answer your question about legalization of cannabis in all 50 states, I feel that it’s a states’ rights issue, and the federal government should stay out of it. Besides, I feel that it will already be decriminalized or even legalized in all 50 states eventually. I feel that it would lower crime rates, due to lowering the population of non-violent drug offenders in prisons across the nation. But I feel that people will abuse cannabis, like all drugs, whether they’re legal or not. Drugs are a lot like guns in the sense that, even if they are banned, there are people who will still abuse the law regardless. Here is a website that reports on the statistics of the War on Drugs. http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics
I think that even though marijuana has some bad benefits it does do some good. It can help cure or stop cancer and is(as your research says) one of the best anti-depressants you can use. This drug can be used for more purposes than smoking to get high. Hemp( another type of cannabis) can be used for more agricultural purposes. It can be used for paper and other materials. Cigarettes are the leading preventable death in the world right now and it makes me angry just to witness the government saying marijuana can’t be legal while cigarettes. This link shows it. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/01/11282/marijuana-shown-be-less-damaging-lungs-tobacco
After reading this it opened my eyes to a different perspective on marijuana. It doen’t make sense to me why marijuana is not already legal just becuase of the fact that some states it is and otheres it’s not. I mean ciggerettes is the leading perventable death in the world and there has been no record of marijuana ever killing somebody, so it’s really questionable to me. Furthermore, marijuana is legal in alot of other countries. Also, marijuana is also used as a medical treatment as well, and the leading anti-depressent.
Here is a website that you can find more information on marijuana.
http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SND0050H-0-8312&artno=0000346970&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Marijuana&title=As%20Pot%20Goes%20Proper%2C%20a%20History%20of%20Weed&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N