A class I drug, Marijuana sees itself on top of the popularity chart as America’s most used illegal drug. The serve popularity of this drugs brings about the question of whether the United States should make it a legal drug. This question develops as states adopt laws which legalizes this drug. Currently eight states have or are currently in the process of completely legalizing marijuana for recreational use and an additional twenty-one states have legalized this drug for medical use. With Marijuana rising popularity, the federal government should legalize the drug for recreational use as it will help keep people out of the jail system and bring profit into the American economy. The most common crimes in the United States are drug crimes, with the illegal use of Marijuana being the number one drug crime. Police arrest millions of Americans every year on marijuana based charges in the processes, mixes these drug users with criminals who commit harasher crimes. By spending time in these prisons, drug users are surrounded by poor influences and often revert back to a life of drug or more ruthless crimes upon release from prison. In 2011, the United States saw “50.8 percent of [its] Federal inmates incarcerated for drug offenses…[and] since the mid-1990s violent crimes... have steadily declined. What has skyrocketed is arrests for drug offenses” (Why We Need To End "The War on Drugs 3). The legalization of marijuana will significantly reduce the amount of criminals within the
The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board’s Article Let the people decide about legalizing marijuana(2016) was an attempt to convince readers that Michigan Legislature is currently a “dysfunctional waste,” determined to keep Marijuana legalization off the ballots.The Press got their opinion across by using uncredited polls, tugging at the reader's emotions when describing both parties, and overall biased tone with underlying motives. The author uses pathos, ethos, and logos very effectively when trying to persuade the reader. Pathos is being used when the author attempts to appeal to our emotions while trying to pity MILegalize. Logos is being used when the authors tries to connect with our common sense in order to persuade by reason. Lastly ethos is being used when the author attempts to sway our opinion of michigan legislature, but altering our view of their character and morals.This article was written with intentions to get voters riled up, discredit the michigan legislature and provoke change within the court systems. The Editorial Board only presented their side of the argument, concluding they are targeting left-wing moderates that are for the legalization of marijuana.
In 2006, a young man in Colorado called Mason Tvert issued a challenge to the then-mayor of Denver and eventual governor, John Hickenlooper. You bring a crate of booze. I’ll bring a pack of joints. For every hit of booze you take, I’ll take a hit of cannabis. We’ll see who dies first. Mason went on to lead the campaign to legalize cannabis in his state. His fellow citizens voted to do it — by 55 percent. After a year and a half of seeing this system in practice, support for legalization has risen to 69 percent. (Hari, 2016)
The conflict between individual freedom and public safety seems to be a problem throughout society. However I agree with individual freedom. The choices that we will commit will be for our own benefit and for our own desire.
How do you measure happiness? Is your happiness totally dependent on the amount of freedom you have? By guaranteeing us the right to pursue happiness the government doesn’t promise to provide us with it. Government exists solely to grant and protect our freedoms, this includes protecting individuals from being harmed by others exercising their freedoms. The government should not legalize marijuana on the basis that every individual should be free to choose his or her own path to happiness. I am a firm believer in the individual's right to the pursuit of happiness under the constitution; however, I do not believe in the right of achieving immediate gratification at the expense of others.
The legalization of the marijuana is one of the hot topics these days. The states of Colorado and
Marijuana, since its discovery, has been used as a recreational drug by many individuals. Over the years marijuana has been seen as an inferior drug, so many never considered it to be beneficial in whichever way. However, in these recent years marijuana has grown an enormous popularity, the medicinal use of it has proven to work. Citizens of the United States have demonstrated to the government that marijuana isn't such a dangerous substance like it was portrayed to be back in the 1970’s. The legalization of marijuana nationwide would be very difficult since the federal government classified marijuana a schedule one drug back in the 1970’s. Marijuana was scheduled by the controlled substance act passed by the congress in 1970. President Nixon passed this act because of the war on drugs, he thought that classifying drugs in these five categories would put an end to drug abuse that was occurring the United States back then, but the world has changed since then. Marijuana is classified a schedule one drug accompanied by heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. Currently in the United States many
A drug. A drug can cause addiction. A drug can become a depression. A drug can be used as a medicine. We like to think drugs as something horrible for our bodies. Americans always infer that drugs are the number one ways that lead us to abuse and overdose. What if we legalize marijuana, will it make a big difference? We have legalized cigarette and alcohol use that has been proven to be unsafe, so what is the harm in legalizing marijuana? Marijuana can bring a new form of how we are as free people living in a free country. It will make us believe that in order to maintain this right we need to continue to push boundaries and involve a change into our future. We have pushed boundaries before whether it is with gay rights, wage gap, or even abortion. Now is the time we begin to think about what marijuana could bring to our world.
The United States is divided with the controversial topic of legalizing marijuana with opposes proclaiming it is a drug and has considerable side effects, and supporters saying it had been proven to be beneficial medically. More than twenty states have legalized medical marijuana, and seven have legalized recreational marijuana. In all, marijuana should be legalized for it has many medical benefits, and is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco.
The cannabis plant has been around for thousands of years since the 3rd millennium BCE in countries such as China and India. The plant grows in tropical and humid parts of the world and it was used as a medicine, and in some cases was turned into a holy oil. In the year 1545, the cannabis plant spread west and the Spaniards imported to Chile to use it as a fiber. In North America, cannabis was in the form of hemp and farmers grew it on plantations so that they could use it to make rope, clothing, paper, and it was also turned into oil to be used in paint. Just after the year 1900, cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, became illegal shortly after the Mexican Revolution. During the hearings, the claims stated that marijuana had the ability
According to a Harvard cited study, more the 50,000 young swedish soldiers who smoked marijuana at least once, were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia than those who did not. This is just one of many reasons why marijuana should not be legalized. Marijuana is dried leaves and buds from the cannabis plant that is most commonly smoked for the effects of THC, a chemical that is responsible for mind altering effects. America should not legalize marijuana because little research has been done improving medical conditions, marijuana can cause harmful effects, and marijuana commonly leads to harder drugs.
Carl Sagan once said in an anonymous essay, “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world” (Ingraham). For decades, the prohibition of marijuana has negatively affected residents in the United States, from long prison sentences to missed tax income opportunities. The legalization of recreational marijuana would benefit both users and non-users of the drug in the United States.
Marijuana substantially impacts many individuals each day of their lives. It influences individuals whether they are users themselves, street dealers, victims of drug-related crime or managing a relative's addiction. Drugs are horrible and hazardous; on the other hand, prohibition is also not a solution to the nation's medication issue. The government of the United States should consider the legalization of marijuana.
3.6 billion is how many tax payer dollars are spent each year enforcing marijuana prohibition laws in the United States, according to an article published by the Washington Post in 2016. This is a substantial amount of money being spent on a substance that has never killed anyone. Not only has no one ever fatally overdosed on marijuana but it also has many medicinal uses. In the past few years we have seen economies thrive in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, bringing in millions of dollars in tax revenue. But for the people who are not fortunate enough to live in a state that has legalized recreational marijuana, getting caught with the substance can potentially ruin your life and even put you in prison or jail. In the United States we allow easy access to a substance that can cause multiple types of cancer but make it difficult and illegal to obtain a substance that can fight and kill cancer cells, with that being said I believe the time has come to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
Legalizing the street drug marijuana is just one of those topics that most people have pitched into and has something to say about it. Marijuana refers to the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica plant. The plant contains the mind-altering chemical THC and other similar compounds. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Its use is widespread among young people; and in 2015, more than 11 million young adults ages 18 to 25 used marijuana in the past year. In the United States of America, twenty-nine states have marijuana legalized in some way or form. From those twenty-nine states, there are eight states that have it legalized for recreational usage, but out of those states all of them prohibit the usage of the drug on public properties. For any and every person in the United States to be able buy the cannabis plant out of a dispensary in one of the legal states, you have to be 21 years of age or older.
The legalization of marijuana is unquestionably one of the biggest controversies for the United States, in the past ten years. Thanks to persistent researchers and advances in technology, there is a growing list of benefits discovered in this plant. States have battled with legalizing it or not legalizing it, allowing it only for medical or also for recreational. Can it be sold? Can it be grown? If so, how much? These are all questions that need to be answered on a federal level to create consistency across the nation. It seems unfair that two people, who live in border states, with the same illness don't have access to the same medicinal treatments.