Legalizing Marijuana Research Paper

The legalization of the drug marijuana is a hot topic nowadays. Many people want this substance to be legalized and regularly available like cigarettes. But what some people do not know are the serious health risks involved when using marijuana. There is a lot more to marijuana than just smoking it.

The legalization of recreational marijuana is an important debate, one that could really cause drastic changes in societies. Marijuana has entered a dark stage in the pathway of legalization, and it is correlating with the prohibition stage that alcohol rested in. The debate can often reach a nasty level between individuals taking sides with the topic. Legalization of marijuana can be very beneficial under regulated circumstances, therefore making all of the negative views less important.

Every 19 minutes someone dies from a prescription overdose, and Marijuana has never caused a single death from overdose. States with Medical programs show a drop in painkiller deaths by 25%. The legalization of Medical Marijuana can save many lives, as the evidence has shown. Prescription drugs help many people, but Medical Marijuana can be a better overall option for some, or help combat negative effects of prescription

If the United States were to legalize marijuana, then our country would reap the benefits. “A mature marijuana industry could generate up to $28 billion in tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments, including $7 billion in federal revenue: $5.5 billion from business taxes and $1.5 billion from income and payroll taxes(Marijuana Tax Legalization).” This fact given from TaxFoundation.org shows how if the marijuana industry could help reduce the Tax debt within our country. Many other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol are permitted to be used within our country but do not give us the same opportunity as legalizing marijuana does. “A federal tax of $23 per pound of product, similar to the federal tax on tobacco, could generate $500 million per year. Alternatively, a 10 percent sales surtax could generate $5.3 billion per year, with higher tax rates collecting proportionately more(Marijuana Tax Legalization).” Marijuana can and should be used to this country full potential in eliminating tax

The legalization of marijuana will cause many problems. The drug is not only harmful to the body, but leads to the use of other narcotics. According to a recent study at Yale University “showed that alcohol … and marijuana were associated with an

Nowadays marijuana is not only sweeping the nation; it has become a worldwide sensation, and it is making appearances everywhere on the globe. Marijuana is the most commonly abused illegal in the US and around the world. No matter how one looks at the combination of words marijuana, depressant or hallucinogen, there is no positive projected outcome or connotation. If it is true that a depressant reduces functional and nervous activity and a hallucinogen causes perception-altering hallucinations, then Marijuana is a drug that causes hallucinations, while reducing motor and sensory activity, essentially leaving the user a dysfunctional, temporary victim of Panic and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The most prominent effects of legalizing Marijuana

Since 2009 the government of the state California and Colorado, considered the idea of legalization of the marijuana. A high percentage of People of the United States doesn’t consider marijuana as a drug because is not strongly addictive. There’s also proves that marijuana never kill anyone and that is not so dangerous as alcohol and Tabaco. Marijuana should still remind illegal for his dangerousness. Marijuana is a magnificent pain reliever for people who suffer from anxiety, cancer, or glaucoma. Marijuana has good benefits, but honestly if the government legalize this drug, youngest people are going to be affected because they would have easy to accessibility. Cannabis (marijuana) also have side effects. Nervous system disorders, increase heart rate, causes bipolarity, and a long term effect can be lung cancer are some harms that marijuana users can get. Furthermore, marijuana is consider impair with alcohol that means that a driver under the influence of pot can be as dangerous as a drunk driver. The violence is also a consequence of the use of marijuana. Studies shows that marijuana affect the human mind that can cause aggressive and violent behavior.

Marijuana costs the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money every year. The government is spending this money to help enforce and regulate marijuana laws in states that have legalized the drug for both medical and recreational use. This drug should only be restricted to those who need it for medical purposes. Recreational use of marijuana has become a big drain of tax dollars, to fix this problem marijuana should be only used for medical purposes, and there should be a limit on how much you can have in your possession at one time.

Marijuana is mostly seen as a scary drug, but people don’t realize it’s not as dangerous as it seems. Alcohol and tobacco use is considerably worse for the body compared to marijuana use; it’s scientifically proven. Alcohol is a ‘low’ sedative it’ll make your reaction time slower and it is terrible for your liver. Marijuana is only dangerous when smoking it with tobacco products because tobacco products are filled with chemicals while marijuana is all natural known as an herb. The government is the reason why marijuana is illegal but what the officials don’t realize the taxes coming from the selling would be tremendous. The drug is legal in Washington and Colorado and the government has made so much money in the taxes. Also, if marijuana was legal drug dealers would decrease because it would be available in store.

First, marijuana is less dangerous than alcoholic beverages. Each year 2.5 million people worldwide die from alcohol related injuries and illnesses. The number of reported deaths from overdose on marijuana is 0. Which is really strange because alcohol

Today, almost sixty thousand people are incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses at a time. The combined number of arrests for the most violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery) still does not exceed the number of people incarcerated for disobeying marijuana laws. At an expense of over twenty thousand dollars each per year, the yearly cost

Since the drug war began, over one trillion dollars in public money has been spent, and it now costs $78.95 per day just to keep one prisoner behind bars (Drug War Today). If drugs such as marijuana were legalized, on the other hand, taxes on the drugs could actually bring a tremendous amount of money into the government instead of out of it. Colorado, which recently legalized marijuana for personal use, brought in $40.9 million from marijuana taxes in just the first ten months of 2014 (Marijuana Legalization in Colorado). According to a study by the Yale Economic Review, legalization of marijuana across the country would result in the government acquisition of as much as $8.9 billion; this is a significant amount of money in a nation with seemingly bottomless economic deficits. Again this is another prime example of why you don’t have to be a user to support this, you just have to be someone who is fiscally smart and doesn’t like to see the government waste

In fact, if we were to legalize marijuana, we could start to see very high levels of dangerous or life threatening activity emerge. If this drug is legalized, it can cause crime bosses or drug lords to ship it more frequently because of its availability (“Should Marijuana Be a Medical Option?”). You may also find some of these characters living near you or the ones you love. Also it can cause a grown human to be dependent on it if used at an early age, causing them to do illegal activities like smuggling, buying, or even growing it themselves. In fact, statistics show that in Sacremento, California 84% of arrested men all tested positive for marijuana use. That percentage will probably increase if legalized, causing more arrests if people want more marijuana than their prescription(, “Marijuana, America’s most dangerous illegal drug”, James C. Backstrom, “Marijuana is drug most often linked to crime, study finds”, Rob Hotakainen). Finally, marijuana is a strong and very addictive gateway drug causing others to start abusing drugs more lethal than marijuana. Marijuana has been suggested and mostly proven to start addictions with licit and illicit drugs or substances. Often people who use marijuana are a lot more likely to start a dangerous alcohol disorder compared to people who have never used marijuana. It has been proven to be 3X more likely for marijuana users to get addicted to heroin, a drug that has killed thousands through overuse. Furthermore,vulnerable marijuana users will be more open to dangerous drugs and having them more readily available to them like cocaine, heroin, and more marijuana (“Is Marijuana a Gateway Drug”, NIDA, “Today's Heroin Epidemic Graph”, CDC).

Legalizing marijuana wouldn’t only make money it would also save money. If legalized, the government would be able to cut federal programs that try to stop the use and sale of marijuana. The federal government alone spends fourteen billion dollars a year in efforts to stop drug trafficking (Barbour 34). This is a ridiculous amount of money to spend during a time when thousands are out of work and struggling to make ends meet. Federal and local governments spend an additional forty-four billion dollars a year fighting the war on drugs (Barbour 55). All this money could be going to better programs such as our failing school systems or the creation of jobs. If we legalized marijuana we could potentially save about 40 billion dollars. The federal government isn’t the only one spending ridiculous amounts of money; organizations like the ONDCP spend billions of dollars discouraging the use of pot (Mikos N.P). It also costs ten to fifteen billion dollars to enforce marijuana laws (Nadelmann N.P). Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least 7.5 billion dollars annually (Gieringer N.P). Taxpayer’s money should be going to better causes such as social security instead of going to arresting marijuana users.

The legalization of marijuana is a controversial subject; however, there are many positive arguments to support the idea. It has been scientifically proven that marijuana is not a health risk and that it is less toxic than alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, and aspirin. It has helped many people with health problems, such as, Aids, Cancer, Epilepsy, and many more. It would also bring in a large amount of tax revenue; further proving that marijuana should be legalized throughout the United States.