Argumentative Essay On Marijuana

Marijuana is a mild hallucinogen that can act as a depressant or a stimulant. Marijuana, which comes from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, is the most frequently used illegal drug in the U.S. According to Compton (2004), about four percent of American adults smoke pot at least once a year. Roughly one percent of adults abuse pot, and one in 300 have a pot addiction. Most people smoke the plant 's dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds. But marijuana also can be mixed into food or brewed as a tea. Marijuana goes by many street names, including pot, weed, dope, joint, bud, Mary Jane, reefer, green, trees, chronic, and herb. Hash, a concentrated form of the drug, is short for hashish. The rates of marijuana smoking in adults have remained stable since the 1990s (Compton, 2004). However, the rates of addiction to pot have risen significantly over that same period. And, according to recent government studies, as many as thirty percent of today 's teenagers are smoking marijuana.

Occasional marijuana use is rarely seriously harmful, but smoking pot has important medical effects. The active ingredient

That is the question that voters in three states are considering this November. Colorado, Washington and Oregon all have ballot measures that, if passed, would end marijuana prohibition in their state. Colorado 's Amendment sixty-four which seeks the legalization of marijuana for adults age twenty-one and older appears to be popular among voters. A recent poll from Rasmussen showed that sixty-one percent of likely Colorado voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana if it is regulated the way that alcohol and cigarettes are currently regulated. According to Cooper (2007), a new report by the Colorado Center on Law & Policy, the passage of Amendment 64 could be a boon for the state economy. Marijuana legalization would produce hundreds of new jobs, and raise millions for the construction of Colorado public