The NIDA published many claims concerning marijuana use, but they did not have evidence to support their claims (Weir 26). This misinformation and the government’s campaign against marijuana made the legalization of marijuana impossible. Marijuana is a harmless drug, but it has not been legalized because people believe most of the anti-marijuana claims. Research studies have proven that marijuana helps the individual experience a sense of well being, relieves fatigue, stimulates the appetite, and induces a feeling of mild stimulation (McDonough 50). Another advantage of marijuana is that experienced users can control the degree and quality of the intoxication by “coming down” when it is necessary to perform (McDonough 50).
Lester Grinspoon, a professor at Harvard University, states, “Few drugs in the United States have produced as much affective heat as marijuana, particularly during the last decade. The controversy essentially revolves around the question of how dangerous or safe the drug is." However, many people are persistent users and believe that this drug is no more harmful than smoking cigarettes. Despite its useful medical effects for relieving pain and nausea, marijuana is a psychedelic drug that will be looked down upon because of false claims about it. Because people tend to overlook the positive facts, cannabis has become illegal for all the wrong reasons.
Although marijuana has negative impact in the medical field, tobacco causes many diseases such as lung cancer. With attention to, many American adults prefer marijuana than tobacco and alcohol to relax. Marijuana is not as addictive as alcohol and tobacco. Hence it is unfair to treat marijuana users more harshly than tobacco and alcohol users (2014). While federal government continues declare marijuana, an individual states decide to make it legal and it is impossible to federal government deny marijuana benefits (Wells, 2014,p82)
Marijuana is claimed to be just a harmless plant but do you really know what people are inhaling into their body? Marijuana, also known as weed or pot, has over 350 different chemicals some of which are carcinogens (cancer-causing agents). Marijuana legalization is starting to become a real controversy in the United States. Twenty years ago no one in their right mind would think that drugs would become legal for private use. That’s we need to move forth in our society not back, we needs to leave drugs behind and start to focus on more important things.
Over seventy-five percent of the population agrees that this plant should be legal. But cannabis sativa, more commonly known as marijuana, is still illegal on a federal level in the United States. While states like Colorado and Washington start the public experimentation of legal recreational marijuana, other states clamp down on marijuana laws, hoping that the prohibition of this drug isn’t nearing it’s end like many people are predicting. This essay is going to focus on three main questions. Question one: Why are we continuing marijuana’s current prohibition based off of a one-hundred year old stigma, founded off of racist beliefs and false evidence?
Nothing has been this heated since the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. Why should people have the right to use something that is as bad to your health as marijuana? Well if you look at it millions of people smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol and that is legal, so why not marijuana too? Those opposed to the legalization of marijuana do have valid reasons. The harmful consequences of marijuana use include addiction, coordination and perception impairment, and a number of mental disorders including depression, hostility and increased aggressiveness(Say it Straight).
The plants help benefit by supplying us as a natural ingredient for medicine; however, nowadays, some people have been using it wrongly. Should marijuana be legalized? Many Americans have this question roaming through their heads. Marijuana is an illegal drug in the U.S. and many other countries; it comes from dried flowers and leaves of the hemp plant. It has been available since the 1960s, but is 20 times more potent than before.
Is there a justifiable reason to the original criminalization and continuation of that law to present day? So, again I ask; Why? Yet, besides the reason why marijuana is illegal many are against the prohibition laws. However, possibly just as many are for keeping marijuana in the same position it has stood for 68 years. Prohibitionists’ only non defensive argument is that marijuana is a gateway drug.
For over a century, marijuana has been illegal in the United States and in a lot of cases it remains prohibited because it has been prohibited for so long. Laws in California and Colorado are currently popular in the media because they are legalizing and taxing marijuana production and distribution. After adding sales and excise taxes to the sales price in these states, consumers are purchasing marijuana legally for a lower price than its black market price. Revenue gained from taxes in these states is being put towards such things as education and regulation of the substance. The responsible disbursing of marijuana tax is being exemplified in California and Colorado.