There have been many studies and real life events that point to many positive and negative side effects of the legalizing marijuana in the United States. And many political debates to the same issue. In many states, voters have voted in favor to the legalization of marijuana because of all the positive side effects this drug can bring and they see the negative effects it has brought up in the past. In many ways, marijuana can replace many very dangerous and addictive drugs that are on the market right now. At this point in time, there is a lot more benefits to the legalization of marijuana than there are draw backs. There are many real world examples of the benefits that marijuana has on communities. There recently have been many studies that …show more content…
And even if they are not convicted for multiple years, they still have the charges on their record, making it very hard to find jobs to turn their life around and support their families. In the documentary film Crips and Bloods: Made in America, there is a scene where members of different gangs talk about their experience growing up in a gang and their family life outside of the gang, if there was one. One thing that was very interesting was the perpetual cycle that these gang members are put into because of how the justice system is set up. For them the only thing they can really do to make money for their family is sell drugs, and most of the time they get caught for that and go to jail. When they get out of jail they have this drug arrest on their record and no one wants to hire them, and so the only thing they are able to do is sell drugs. Forever locking them into a cycle of oppression and poverty for themselves and their families. Making it so that individuals who go to jail for nonviolent crimes and then get out of jail make it impossible for those people to function well in society. This kind of policing is also costing the United States about $3.6 billion each year on possession related arrests as they go through processing, staying in local jails and various court appearances (Wegman). And none of these percussions, that have been around for 30 years, don’t seem to be bringing the number of marijuana users down. And it doesn’t help that the number of individuals being arrested for possession of marijuana is predominantly African Americans. More than three times more likely than white Americans, even though each demographic is reported to smoke the same amount. This severely affects the African American youth because it, further, disables them from achieving great thing while white teens are not looked in the same way by police
The question of whether or not marijuana should be legalized for recreational and medicinal use has been a three decade long conversation. There are many pros and cons to legalizing marijuana. There are many different ideas about the effects of marijuana, but as with any drug answers are going to vary depending on the person you survey. Age, health, and mental stability are all factors to consider how a drug can positively or negatively affect you, and marijuana is no different. To be legal or not to be legal is the million dollar question up for debate.
There have been some pretty apparent pros that have come with the legalization of marijuana. The state has put a hefty tax on the sale of marijuana, which has generated a lot of income. The state has used the profits for all sorts of things that will help to improve the lives of the people living there. “The first 40 million of this tax revenue is earmarked for public schools and infrastructure, as well as for youth educational campaigns about substance use.”(Roberts, Jeff). They have used these profits to improve education, infrastructure, and the local governments. So far it has generated hundreds of millions of dollars that have gone to the groups that were listed and many more. “It’s going so well in Colorado in 2015, that pot shops sold both medical and recreational weed for about $700-million with two months of sales
Marijuana legalization has been a topic of interest for many years in this country. How to regulate it? Tax it? Where it can be used? By whom? How old? Who can sell it? Federally legal or locally legal? The penalties involving it? All of those are questions that have been debated about and fought over in courts of law. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been jailed for minor crimes involving Marijuana. It has many proven benefits both economically and medically. The times are changing and prohibition against marijuana is starting to fade away. Although still illegal federally, it is now fully legal in eight different states, and medically legal in thirty! This is great progress, but still isn’t enough. Marijuana will soon be legalized. There is plenty of benefits and I am fully for the legalization of marijuana nationwide.
There will always be pros and cons in every situation, but marijuana actually has many pros. Marijuana may affect the development of the brain and behaviors if used at a young age, but it also helps with many disorders. “The panel said cannabinoids stimulate the appetite, combat nausea, and might also control pain. The drug also acts as a sedative and reduces anxiety, which may itself have a therapeutic effect, they added” (Ault, 1). Marijuana could be very helpful for those who are ill. It is a step at discovering new ways to cure diseases and help with the symptoms of different disorders. If we already know that marijuana could help with pain, sickness, and mental health, then why not legalize it? Many physicians have prescribed medical marijuana to those who are undergoing pain due to cancer. Most of the feedback the physicians get are
In a nutshell, legalizing recreational marijuana would be beneficial for the community as a whole for it can be easily utilized as medicine, it will generate immense amounts of revenue for the government, and it is simply the more intellectual route for the well being of the community. Over the past few years, weed has been more and
The dispute over the legalization of cannabis sativa, more commonly known as marijuana, is one of the most controversial issues ever to take place in the United States. Its use as a medicine has existed for thousands of years in many countries across the globe. Legalization should be considered despite efforts made by groups who say marijuana is a harmful drug that will increase crime rates and lead users to other more dangerous substances. The legalization of marijuana can improve our society by helping with our economy, freeing legal resources, and benefiting the overall health of the nation though medical uses.
This substance has become an obtrusive issue in today's society. The benefits of using cannabis outweigh the negativity people see in the plant. It can also help with our daily life along with benefiting the economic tremendously. The legalization of medical marijuana makes unnecessary the use of marijuana as a street drug. Medical Marijuana, a common topic in many debates, has positive benefits along with negative apprehensions cannabis, they don't see the benefits it can provide, along with the facts to prove it, and also how it affects society today.
The General perspective that society throws on marijuana is that equal to any drug; negative. However, many researchers have found that the effects of marijuana for medicinal purposes can be beneficial to the right patients, as well as the United States government. The negative effects from marijuana use in a medicinal environment are far less than that of most over the counter drugs, while the benefits remain the same. There are instances in which marijuana was legalized for people with prescriptions from licensed doctors; however, full legalization is leaps and bounds away from the current status. Another way full legalization could help is money the government uses to try and fight marijuana
The fact that marijuana has proven to be useful in the treatment of multiple diseases that hinder Americans today seems to have been overlooked by the legal system in the United States, until now. At this point it's now possible to acquire prescribed amounts of Medical Marijuana from KW Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, among other sources now provided in certain states here in the United States. Most of the Medical Marijuana Dispensaries require that you first get a recommendation from your primary physician before you can get a formal prescription for Medical Marijuana filled, but it has now been proven that Marijuana can be used to help patients that suffer with ailments such as glaucoma, hypoglycemia, cancer, nerve damage, severe back pain,
The cons and pros of the legalization is taken into consideration of this major decision. The major negative side effects is that people that use marijuana have lower IQs. The IQ drop is mainly found in developing brains of teenagers, so the next problem is the buying age and minor usage. Additionally studies show people that use marijuana are more likely to pick up a disorders and diseases if not otherwise (O'neil, 2016). The increase of people who are dependent of social security because of marijuana use can negatively affect the economy. One of the pros is that tax revenue will increase with marijuana huge popularity. Taxes of this huge demand can be placed on many groups such as farmers, distributors, and buyers. The taxes as stated can be placed on the federal, state, and county levels in which each can use the revenue in their own ways to further the communities projects. An example of a state's increase of power is our neighbor state of Colorado; with the sales of marijuana they were able to build, reconstruct, and create new schools across the state (O'conell, 2016.). This a huge benefits for our children, to get better education. Another advantage is cleaning the crime in the streets, and making this "drug dealer" get real jobs. A real world example is the Netherlands, in which the Dutch have coffee shops to sell the substance (Government of Netherlands, 2016). Our government can improve on that system, by selling certain amount of marijuana, during a given time. Another improvement is to create a certain database to control the amount sold. Another rule that the Dutch have implemented is the sale to residents of the country. The outcome of this happening has a lot of better outcomes for benefits, then failures, and that why it should be
No matter what you judge, there is always pros and cons. Some of the pros of legalizing marijuana is most health benefits. Medical use can treat things such a glaucoma, control epileptic seizures, decrease anxiety, relief of arthritis discomfort, helps suffering veterans from PTSD. On a non health matter marijuana can spur creativity in the brain. What if we could discover or make something no one else could ever think about without being high. On a personal view some people need it to calm down. People who think about twenty things at one time need medical distribution. People in school who can’t focus, marijuana could possibly improve our educational system. Instead of using all the pills. On another non medical matter, what about the taxes on marijuana? What if the simple legalization could get America out of debt. If not out of debt, help America on things we need to fix. Wouldn’t it be nice to save not only lives but to get America back on it’s feet like it used to be before everything and everyone went
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
Keeping a fit and healthy body is a concept that is very pertinent in life. In today’s fast paced world, people go to extremes in the name of health. Although Marijuana is only legal in twenty five states in America, cannabis users are fighting for a legal law to be passed rectifying the use of marijuana in America. In “The single most important pitfall to avoid with legalizing marijuana” discusses the pros of marijuana, how it can change the market, growing cannabis properly, create revenue and even aid a person’s life. For example, the article discusses how medicinal marijuana is a “considerable crossover between the two groups; the number of medical cards issued has dropped dramatically, he says, with patients and recreational customers
Legalizing marijuana will lead to many societal benefits that will reduce illegal activity while helping the government control the use of the substance and making a profit that can be used to help taxpayers. Marijuana is not a dangerous drug and should be legalized because it does not cause harm to anyone and by legalizing marijuana the government will take control of marijuana distribution and it can benefit a lot of people in many ways. If the government controls the market for marijuana people would no longer be in danger of trying to acquire it illegally and there would be tax for selling marijuana which will benefit both the government and society. By legalizing marijuana the government can make laws about its use.
States that have already legalized medical marijuana are proving to be successful. Laws in Arkansas have stated what medical marijuana can and cannot be used for. There is also a rule that patients must have an ID card and they must be registered as a medical marijuana patient. This proves that Arkansas has many laws and bills implemented to ensure people are using it safely and for the appropriate purposes. In Illinois there is a limit to the amount of medical marijuana you are allowed to have in a certain period of time. (2.5 ounces over 14 days). This limit ensures that patients are only using a safe amount and are only using it for their prescribed problems. The legalization of medical marijuana is also benefiting other unexpected events.