Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

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.

The legalization of marijuana is, and has been a heavily disputed issue for decades. On one hand, marijuana could lead to a medical breakthrough, or at least provide relief to cancer and AIDS patients. On the other hand, legalizing a drug could expose it to too broad an audience. As a drug, marijuana has never proven to be anywhere near as harmful as cigarettes or alcohol. Each year in the United States, 400,000 people die from tobacco, 50,000 from alcohol, and from marijuana, zero. Regardless of what side one may take to this argument, there are some causes to this marijuana debate that everyone should know. Marijuana was not always illegal, and the reasons behind the history of narcotic regulation are interesting when viewed from

According to Mike Moffat, the legislature has attempted to use criminal punishments to avert the use of marijuana for more than seventy-five years : but then marijuana is presently used by more than 25 million individuals every year, cannabis is now the biggest trade crop in the United State's, and marijuana is developed everywhere throughout the planet. If marijuana legitimized, it would decrease the stream of money from the American economy to global criminal groups. Marijuana’s immortality makes outside development and pirating to the United States greatly beneficial, sending billions of dollars abroad in a private economy while redirecting capital from gainful monetary improvement. Not only will legalizing marijuana help the economy, but it will also help the justice system save money. According to the article, “The Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal”, Marijuana is excessively costly for our justice system and should rather be assessed to bolster helpful government programs. Law enforcement incarcerates 750,000 people a year for marijuana ownership. The justice has to pay for discarding the various cases. According to the article, “Why Marijuana Should Be Legal. Logical Arguments for Students Writing Essays.”, The nation could spare billions of dollars consistently if they quit misusing money

Ferrets are a part of the weasel family. They are closely related to animals like otters, minks, wolverines, and badgers.

Marijuana can be widely found and be easily grown in the United States. The easy accessibility of drugs poses a serious threat to law enforcement around the country that have and has tried to enforce the law to eradicate the use of drugs according to laws put into place by the legislature and supposedly most of the people in that state. Marijuana is still illegal in some states and as time progresses the number of states which can still uphold that marijuana is illegal has changed. Today, Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form or way out of the fifty two states of the Union. The increase in marijuana and other drugs being used in that state has its ties to narcotic crime which could be linked to the cartel for other drugs that are out there. Thus, it increases narcotic crime in those states that choose to legalize it. Another con of marijuana and of other dangerous drug use is the most obvious. It’s the health of the individual who consumes it by smoking it. Your lungs are inhaling substances such as tar and it is among other things that can affect your breathing. According to the American Lung Association, “Smoking marijuana clearly damages the human lung, and regular use leads to chronic bronchitis and can cause an immune-compromised person to be more susceptible to lung infections. No one should be exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke.” It can affect not only the

Some may argue that marijuana can alter one’s perception and changes the way the human body works. Another argument is that smoking marijuana is a gateway drug to other drugs. If marijuana is legalized it increases the chances of the drug falling into the hands of children. Marijuana causes damage to the brain, poor lung health, and increases the risk of getting heart disease (19 Primary Pros and Cons of Legalizing Weed, 2015). Marijuana is not necessary for one’s health and there are safer, alternative methods of relaxing that yields the same effects as marijuana without the negative consequences. Marijuana legalization is immoral and shows that making money off the legalization of marijuana shows that profit is more important than

Support for marijuana legalization is rapidly increasing throughout the United States. “A slim majority, 53% of Americans, say the drug should be made legal, compared with 44% who want it to be illegal” (Motel). What would change if marijuana was legalized federally in the United States? Would everyone be sane? A lot of things in the United States could happen by legalizing marijuana. There would be less marijuana related crimes. With all the laws that are being passed, would it be harder to tax? Would it benefit the economy? marijuana should be legalized, federally.

The American coalition- an anti-immigrant group in 1980 had this to say about the drug, “Marihuana, perhaps now the most insidious of narcotics, is a direct byproduct of unrestricted Mexican immigration.” It is through seclusion, Nixon’s outright war on drugs, and society’s fervent dislike for marijuana user that the subculture grew. It came to a point where one could not discern fact from myth about marijuana in the 60s/70s war on drugs, mainly because no research was allowed.

Cannabis has many slang terms such as weed, pot, dope, Mary Jane, reefer, however it is most commonly referred to as marijuana. Marijuana and its many forms can be taken in multiple fashions. The most common of them is smoking them as a joint or a blunt, but it can also be vaporized, eaten, applied as a cream, and even consumed as a tea. With elections coming up, marijuana use has recently been making headlines for its popularity in propositions and proposed bills, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana in many states if passed. These bills however, do not take into consideration the many negative effects of marijuana use on the body, the wide availability to underage children, and potential harm to others. All of these

Despite what people believe about marijuana, it hasn’t once proved to be the cause of any real issue. It makes you wonder what the reason as to why there is a war on drugs. Why is marijuana the main concern? Since the time that alcohol and tobacco became legal, people wonder why marijuana isn’t legal yet. The fact that marijuana is illegal is mainly caused by the amount of money, jobs, and pride invested in the drug war. Once the government starts anything, they stick to it.

Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in society today. Although many slanderous claims have been made about cannabis in recent history, the truths are slowly starting to resurface. Unfortunately, these truths are under heavy criticism due to the stereotypical view of what people view as the typical “pot smoker.” This skewed perception of a lazy and unmotivated America is the result of over seventy years of propaganda and misinformation spread by private interests who needed cannabis illegal for their own personal gains. As a former marijuana consumer and current administrator for a marijuana activism website, I strongly believe that marijuana should be legalized for all uses.

Marijuana should not be legalized at all because it will have a very negative effect on most people and the society overall in the U.S. Marijuana has a huge negative impact on the youth of America. The adverse effects of marijuana have been well documented, and research has demonstrated the negative effects of short and long term use of marijuana. These consequences include impaired short-term memory and decreased concentration, attention span, and problem solving ; which all interfere with learning. Coordination, judgement, and reaction time has also been documented as negative effects. Research has also shown that the adolescent brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s. The younger an adolescent begins using marijuana; the more likely

“Someday pray that he will grow a farm barn full, recent research shows it’s not so darn harmful.” (Madvillain, “America’s Most Blunted”) Despite the wide amount of research that shows the positive benefits of marijuana, it remains illegal under federal law. In recent years, numerous states have defied federal law and legalized marijuana for both recreational and medicinal use. Arizona has legalized marijuana for medical use, but it still remains illegal to use recreationally. This is absurd, as the evidence gathered over the last few decades strongly supports the notion that it is safer than alcohol, a widely available substance. Marijuana being listed as a Schedule I drug has ruined thousands of lives. Not to mention, an anti-marijuana agenda being broadcasted on behalf of multiple organizations combined with an uninformed population are a portion of the reasons why it remains illegal under federal law. Although federal legalization may be well out of the picture, Arizona should demonstrate progressiveness and legalize marijuana for recreational use. Legalizing marijuana would be beneficial as the local economy would experience an increase in revenue similar to other states that have legalized the substance, and citizens who partake in using a minimally harmful substance would not have to worry about local law enforcement ruining their lives.

The first point that will be discussed is the disadvantages the legalization of marijuana has on a society. Many people view marijuana as a gateway drug to other more dangerous drugs or will cause them to abuse alcohol more. In a survey “using longitudinal data from the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Use and Related Disorders found that adults who reported marijuana use during the first wave of the survey were more likely than non-users to develop an alcohol use disorder within 3 years” (drugabuse.gov). This supports evidence supports the fact that the people who start smoking marijuana will develop a substance abuse problem later on in life. This is something that can ruins people’s lives if it goes too far. Marijuana also

In many places marijuana has been through the process of being decriminalized, but hasn't fully been legalized. Even with marijuana being decriminalized it can seem like it has benefits, but it still follows the lines of the prohibition meaning. Decriminalization just does not seem to be doing the trick mainly because “under [the rule of] decriminalization, marijuana possession arrests may continue, or even increase, because police may be more inclined to make arrests if they present less administrative burdens as infractions, civil offenses, or even misdemeanors, as opposed to felonies”(Drug Policy Alliance). People may not being going to jail as regularly for marijuana possession, but people are still getting citations for having it on them. In another aspect it has been known that people have felt more safe in other states and countries where marijuana is legal whereas they felt danger when in places where it's illegal. Jeffrey A. Miron and his family went on a trip to the Netherlands and he said “I have felt less safe in many American and European cities. The area is full of young people, including many tourist, having fun or in search of it” (Marijuana Policy Project). People like knowing that what they are