Introduction:
Getting the audience’s attention- “Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit…. unnatural?” This is a quote from Bill Hicks.
Relevance- As high school students, marijuana is not unheard of. It is estimated that around 44% of teens have tried marijuana by the age of 16. (National Institute on Drug Abuse). I’m sure many of you in this classroom agree that marijuana should be legalized, as for those who don’t, I’m here to convince you otherwise.
Thesis- I believe marijuana should be legalized due to it’s medical, economical and recreational uses.
Body:
Medicinal uses- The benefits of marijuana are plentiful. Marijuana has been used
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Marijuana has a wide variety of medicinal uses. According to the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research marijuana is known to help treat and prevent diseases and mental health issues, such as alzheimer 's, glaucoma, depression, anxiety, hepatitis C, cancer, epilepsy, arthritis, aids and many other conditions. Marijuana can be used to increase appetite, calm muscles, relieve pain and sedate. Marijuana is actually safer than many prescription drugs.
Economical- If we bring marijuana under the legal justice system we would have control over one of the biggest cash crops in the world. It would create so many economic opportunities and save our government a lot of their time and money. If we bring marijuana under the law our police officers could focus on the real crimes. We wouldn’t waste so much money taking people to court for something as pointless as possession of marijuana and waste our jail space on people who don’t even belong in jail. Is smoking marijuana even comparable to murder? A crime implies a victim and a perpetrator. Could you imagine being jailed for robbing yourself? As crazy as it sounds this is equivalent to marijuana being illegal. According to the Drug Policy Alliance it is estimated that the government spends 7.7 billion dollars per year focusing on the prohibition of marijuana. If marijuana was legalized it could be taxed and create a huge revenue for our government. In Colorado they made over 40 million on marijuana taxes. They now have
b. Joe Messerli of Balancedpolitics.org, states, “There are a number of medical benefits of marijuana, most notably in the treatment of patients undergoing chemotherapy. Others believe it helps in the treatment of depression unlike alcohol.”
Legalizing marijuana is a concept that can potentially benefit the public as well as the local economies. There has been a nationwide debate on whether marijuana should be legalized or not. The major consensus is that marijuana is not only bad for one’s health, but it is also dangerous to the community. These allegations are not true. Marijuana actually has health benefits that most people overlook. The following essay will address these health benefits in an attempt to present this concept in a way that the audience can better understand how legalizing marijuana can beneficial to an individual health, how it can give an increase to the economy.
This paper will look at the benefits and drawbacks to legalizing marijuana by looking in at Colorado.The state made forty million dollars by taxed marijuana in 2014 alone, also Colorado saved countless millions because of the extremely lower amounts of marijuana arrest and court cases. It is not clear how having new recreational marijuana stores opening will affect the cannabis market, or businesses expanding around them. Gov. John Hickenlooper says that the economy is thriving with record setting numbers of tourists (73.1 million). 49 percent of those tourist said that legal marijuana influenced their decisions to vacation in Colorado. The ER’s in Colorado have also seen a rise in numbers of marijuana related cases and those cases in non-residents have almost doubled. An unexpected situation that arose from legal cannabis was the amount of electricity that is being use to grow the drug. Some cannabusinesses have to go green with solar or wind power. There are many varying views on the effects of legal marijuana have developed in Colorado since marijuana became legal in 2014.
Growing up, time and time again, we are urged not to do drugs and are told that “drugs are bad for you,” in schools, at home and by many other authority figures. A child typically does not fully understand the reasoning behind this, all they know is that everyone is telling them that drugs are either bad, unhealthy or unsafe without real reasoning. As a child matures, he or she observes people that use drugs even though it is illegal and they do not understand why someone would go against the law and even jeopardize their health to use such drugs. The drug most commonly seen in our culture is marijuana and it is all around everywhere. Marijuana is shown throughout today’s culture in the media that people enjoy such as: movies, music and TV shows, the people using it do not even attempt to hide the fact that they use this substance. Young adults who have personal experience with the drug know its effects on themselves, as well as others, and wonder why it is still illegal. Why is it that this drug has been illegalized across the globe? The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States of America, alone, has been fought over nonstop since the appearance of the drug in the late 30’s. Marijuana has been tested and proven to provide a very positive impact on the American society for several reasons, including economic, medical and crime factors: all of which could very well help America to thrive in the future.
With all of the complex issues facing the nation today, it seems as if the legalization of marijuana is being set on the back burner of legislation. There are so many opinions, sides, and overall arguments for and against it that many vote seeking politicians and policy makers have put up a strong resistance to this issue. In this paper I will illustrate the reasons why I think marijuana should indeed be legalized and also the arguments from people who disagree and feel that it should stay an illegal drug.
Government surveys indicate that senior high school students admit that getting marijuana is as easy as ordering burgers and fries at a local burger joint. This means that no matter what the law enforcement is doing, us teens are still going to get our hands on marijuana. From my experience with marijuana, it never harmed my body or made me get violent, nor did it cause me to have any "accidents"
Thesis statement: I encourage you to enter a marijuana dispensary and inform yourself of how marijuana can be a better choice for pain relief than
The possession of marijuana, or the usage of marijuana does not cause any harm to society; therefore, it should not be considered a crime. Legalizing it keeps the police force busy with real crimes that occur. With marijuana legal it will allow the law to spend more money on other issues such as; homicide, robbery and prostitution. Arresting and jailing people for marijuana is occupying space that could be used for the real
I think the pros strongly outweigh the cons in every argument. Marijuana has been used as a treatment for cancer showing in studies that it can inhibit tumor growth in leukemia and breast cancer. I’ve also never heard of a 10 car pileup on the freeway because a person was driving on the wrong side of the road due to being under the influence of marijuana. I’m not saying that is has never happened, but rather more times than not, most incidents of that nature stem from the use and abuse of alcohol. The estimated annual revenue that the state of California could raise is around 1.4 billion dollars if the state was to tax the sale of marijuana. I would think that number is mind boggling enough to want to implement some type of change. It would literally create an entirely new industry that would also create new jobs. With more jobs and people making more money, we could make some serious headway in the growth of today’s economy. Some federal agents have also gone on record to say that with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, the Sinaloa Cartel has already taken a hit in their pocket book. If we can minimize the profit of a powerful crime organization that has a major influence in our country just by discreminalizing a plant that is proven to help life in its self, why would we not want the change? We’ve spent over a trillion dollars since 1970 for the war on drugs. That is over 5% of our current national
Even though many hold to the idea that marijuana is ruining people, evidence shows its beneficial. The definition of marijuana (n.) - is cannabis, especially as smoked in cigarettes or the dried leaves and female flowers of the hemp plant, used in cigarette form as a narcotic or hallucinogen. Most of us, if not all of us will be in the same situation before a party or event. Your inside or outside, and you smell a strange herb. You see a group of kids talking and laughing as they take turns hitting and passing a joint. Then they soon see you and ask you that powerful pressuring question, “Do you want a hit?” Maybe you said yes, maybe you said no, maybe you smoke all the time, or maybe you never have and never will, but it was so peer pressuring when asked. The main purpose of this essay is not to convince you to smoke weed or take a hit when someone ask you, but more to educate you and let you understand and know about Marijuana. From it being everywhere even here in California, its time to know the truth about
Freeing the Green Michael Scott Godwin Heights High School Theo M. Your thesis statement says that “The government should legalize marijuana to help its own economy and therefore helping its people” My paraphrase is that marijuana have to be legalised Marijuana is illegal in all forms such as medicinal and recreational except for certain medical card holders and caregivers within certain states. In 2014, Colorado and Washington became the first states in the U.S to make the change to their law making marijuana legal. ( I Side With n.d). This law should be removed and marijuana should be legal because the revenue that would be generated would really help the economy and bring more money back.
Marijuana has a long standing history of being one of the most controversial substances in America. While the history or the Cannabis plant indicates not only acceptance as a useful plant, but even advocated as a source of revenue and medicinal usage, much of the United States government propaganda over the last 100+ years has led Americans to accept very slighted and often false information about the plant and its uses. Based on the origin of the illegalization of marijuana and the inconsistent findings of its effects in comparison to other substances, both legal and illegal, marijuana should be decriminalized and treated as a recreational substance just as alcohol and tobacco are.
If marijuana were legal, it would also bring a significant source of revenue to the United States. A lot of money currently is spent on drugs, and most of it goes to illegal operators outside of the country. If legalized, the pot revenue would go to Americans. In the current economic climate, this would definitely be welcome. A tax could also be put on the drug, and the companies that grew and possessed the plants would have to pay income taxes to the government. It is possible for marijuana to become one of the number one cash crops in though whole country. And with all the people who would smoke it, or use it in other ways, it could quickly become one of the main stimulators in our economy.
Marijuana has been used for treating people with nausea, nerve pain, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, traumatic stress, weight loss, and even glaucoma. Here I will give examples of how marijuana has helped with treating some of these symptoms. Glaucoma for example is an eye disease that increases the pressure in the eyes, and damages
Cannabis, formally known as marijuana is a drug obtained from the tops, stems and leaves of the hemp plant cannabis. The drug is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. Only substances like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are used more (“Marijuana” 1). In the U. S. where some use it to feel “high” or get an escape from reality. The drug is referred to in many ways; weed, grass, pot, and or reefer are some common names used to describe the drug (“Marijuana” 1). Like most drugs, marijuana has a very long history. People have been using the plant around the world for thousands of years. The oldest record of the marijuana plant dates back to 2727 B. C. in China where the plant was used as a medical herb for treating conditions like rheumatism, gout, malaria and even absent-mindedness (“Cannabis, Coca, & Poopy: Nature’s Addictive Plants” 1). Slowly, the plant started spreading around the world. By 1545, cannabis was starting to appear throughout the western worlds. Being introduced to South America by the Spanish to be used as fiber. The crop also had many other common uses around the world. In North America, cannabis was often used to make paper, ropes, clothing and other materials (“The Origins of Cannabis” 1).