Legalizing Marijuana Essay

Marijuana or Cannabis is a hallucinogenic drug that contains a very high amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It can be used for both medical and recreational reasons, but it is currently illegal in most states in this country. This drug has been illegal for the majority of this country's history, and just recently several states like Washington, California, and New York have passed laws so that people with medical issues are able to consume this drug for their own medical needs

Marijuana during the 70’s was viewed much differently then it is today. Twenty-Seven states approve for new medical studies, and consequential turn out of those convicted of using the most commonly used drug in the world, is making the United States change their opinion on the subject. The most debatable question going on right now in this question about Marijuana is: Whether or Marijuana should be legalized based on how it effects people’s health, its resourcefulness to medicine, and the contribution to the country?

In recent years legalization of marijuana has been a controversial issue. With states like California and Colorado establishing recreational systems other states have yet to even allow medicinal usage. This much heated debate has raised cause for concern everywhere and is a relevant topic. The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 was first installed in California and now 20 years later it is being passed in the state of New York. Two decades of experiments, studies, and policies have still left many open questions. The legalization of marijuana is not fully recognized by our country but studies have shown that further knowledge is needed to make better reform on the matter which is why I believe that marijuana should be legalized and regulated.

Symbolic Interactionism Theory “sees interactions and meanings as central to society, and assumes that meanings are not inherent, but are created through interactions” (Chp. 1 Theory). An example of Symbolic Interactionism Theory is smoking (informal). Smoking is harmful to your health. A person may associate a meaning for smoking. They might use smoking for means as a way to meet a new friend. When two smokers meet, and one offers the other a cigarette, that is a way to become acquainted with someone. The gesture here is the offer of a cigarette from one person to another. This gesture is positively sanctioned because the person makes a new friend. The negative sanction is the harmful effects that a cigarette has on a person’s

     One such argument, and the major point of view for most anti-drug supporters, is that marijuana is a gateway drug. This means that marijuana leads to other more harmful narcotics. Although this is the case in some situations, there are many people in the world that view all other drugs as

5. Do you think the U.S. government should relax current regulations on the growth of the marijuana plant? Why or why

Many people think that if marijuana is legalized, there will be an “onslaught of crime.” (Delmore) Studies have shown that the legalization of marijuana has truly reduced the crime rate. Robert Morris, an associate professor of criminology at UT Dallas, said, “After controlling for a host of known factors related to changes in crime rates — we accounted for factors such as poverty, employment, education, even per capita beer sales, among other things — we found no evidence of increases in any of these crimes for states after legalizing marijuana for medical use” (Ferner). He goes on to say that the studies show that homicides and assaults have decreased because of the legalization. “The National Academy of Sciences found that THC, the active ingredient in

Former U.S senator Bill First claimed that even though many people believe in marijuana’s effectiveness, he would caution against this assumption due to the lack of repeatable scientific data available. Other members of the opposition would also have you believe that marijuana is more toxic than prescribed drugs, that smoking it is likely to weaken the immune system, and it is addictive. Sadly, those statements are simply untrue. In fact, there are no known deaths from an overdose of marijuana whereas, one hundred deaths occur each day from an overdose of prescription medications. Other claims made by the opposition have no data to support the claims made. Most statements made by those against the legalization of marijuana include the phrase “it is likely”.

Criminal gangs are there to rule, they have been there in every community for a long time. Gang's intentions are to commit crimes. Gang leaders oversee extortion, order killings or smuggle drugs. This paper studies gang formation, why individuals join gangs and the negative influence gangs have to the society and the economy. The study focuses on some of the prominent gangs in the world today; it explains the activities of the Russian mafia and other gangs. This paper explains power struggles within gangs and gives out recommendations to solve problems associated with gang operations. This paper puts into perspective a study on factors influencing gang membership; the study employs personal interviews as a method, causal research design and ordinal scale of measurement. Prisoners in California state prison are the sample population. Structured proxy question are used, and observation to study an individual's race. The study focuses male prison gang members. Findings from the study indicate that the less educated an individual is the likely for one join a gang, from the study it is evident that gang members feel disregarded when formulating policies, it is clear that race is not a factor to gang membership and that most of the gang members come from dysfunctional families.

The next thing a person can say to oppose the use of Marijuana would be the medical issues of it. For example, they can say it creates lung damage to the smoker and secondhand smoker, mental effects on the brain/IQ, and a gateway drug. With the state regulating the amount of marijuana a person can buy will help with the concern of lung damage for the people. Over the years of use and studies of medical marijuana people have managed to find out that that use of marijuana has medical benefits. The use of marijuana can also help out with many medical issues such as pain relief for chronic health, increase appetite for eating disorders, decreasing of nausea, and a muscle relaxant. Also study from the University of Missouri states that, “use of marijuana is simply not a physical addiction; it’s just a mental addiction like craving a potato chip or chocolate”.

Cannabis is twenty times safer than tobacco and alcohol, those products kill people every day and have such bad side effects and they are legal, no one has ever overdosed on cannabis, and nobody ever died because of smoking too much cannabis.

The issue should marijuana be legalized has been going around for a long time. Some of the reasons why people want to make marijuana legalized is it can help people that have disorders or other sickness. This argument will include three reasons why marijuana shouldn't be legalized and never should be. The first reason is it's extremely addictive, the second reason is marijuana is very dreadful for your health, and the final reason why marijuana is a horrendous idea is that you can go to jail for it and get possession for it.

A common argument today is why marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes. Although some will claim marijuana should not be legalized for medicinal purposes because it has harmful effects and is a gateway drug, I feel that it should be legalized. Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes because it has many positive effects on diseases and health conditions. Marijuana should also be legalized for

One factor that makes the question of whether or not marijuana should be legalized even more interesting is recent events. These recent events include the fact that marijuana has not only been medically legalized, but now it has begun to be recreationally legalized. California is front and center in development by allowing anyone twenty-one and above to purchase marijuana, but they are not the only ones who will be legalizing it soon according to the news. According to Newsweek, up to twelve states are considering legalizing marijuana for recreational use starting this year. This new development promises to bring an interesting twist to the already heated debate, which is why it is important to move on to discussing the advantages and disadvantages to legalizing marijuana.

gang violence and youth “do not originate with cannabis “inebriation” but with the legal prohibitions on