Should Marijuana Be Legal?

To Legalize or To Stay Illegal

Should Marijuana be Legal?

Christie Coleman

SOC 120

Jenna Soard

January 16, 2012

To Legalize or To Stay Illegal

Should Marijuana be Legal?

In the United States, there are many issues concerning the drug epidemic that individuals participate in. The use of marijuana, synthetic drugs, and other hard drugs is at an all-time high. There is no good reason why marijuana should not be legal. Marijuana is less dangerous than other drugs that are legal, like tobacco and alcohol. An individual has the right to decide if he or she wants to use marijuana. As long as a person does not harm another individual the government should not tell people what they cannot do. "According to a Rasmussen International Poll, about forty percent of America's public thinks that marijuana should be legalized" (Messerli, 2011). There are others that are still concerned about the health issues, damages, and challenging effects it can cause. Trying to legalize marijuana was designed to help and express opinions and ideas with which one agrees on, but also the ideas and opinions with which one disagrees on. Our Federal Government along with other lawmakers should allow other individuals to express their thoughts about legalizing the drug. There are a great number of cancer patients that can benefit from the drug, however the drug can do harm to other people that come in contact with it.

The first reason why marijuana should not be legalized is that, the chances of the drug getting into the hands of children would increase. There are unhealthy items that are legal, like cigarettes and alcohol that is prohibited from being sold to children. Children do not show the same reasoning, judgment, and responsibility like an adult would. Marijuana use can cause serious damage to developing brains and bodies this is why it is important to keep marijuana and other drugs from getting into the hands of children. Another reason why legalizing marijuana should not be allowed is that the counter argument that legalizing marijuana somehow, would cause small supplemental changes to our society. Legalizing marijuana would cause a shift in one's culture to more of an "anything goes" mentality. More drugs would gain acceptance, with encouragement of legalizing harder drugs. Heroin, crystal meth, and cocaine that we see now as objectionable for legalization could be sold over the counter at our local drug stores.

Legalizing marijuana could have some good advantages for our society. Marijuana can become a source for additional tax revenue. With the large amount of money that is raised by government taxation of cigarettes and alcohol, marijuana can become another item that could be taxed. The war on drugs is known to be an expensive failure to our society (Messerli, 2011). If our government would legalize marijuana this would free up the police officers, judges, public defenders, prosecutors, juries, court reporters, prison guards, and so forth, this way they could focus on more important things such as terrorism, harder drugs, rape, murder, and so on. Legalizing marijuana would save the government a lot of money. A civil court docket that is already overloaded could improve and the wait time that reflects other legitimate court cases could be reduced in some ways.

Our government already spends billions of dollars trying to catch diplomatic people who love to get high. They lock these people in prison and the bill is there for the taxpayers to pay. The things that taxpayers have to pay for are food, attorney fees, housing, court costs, and healthcare, which is exceedingly expensive. The United States could save a ton of money each year if they would stop wasting it locking up those who have marijuana. If the government legalized marijuana the money that they collect from the taxes could pay for educational drug programs and other important causes.

Legalizing marijuana would help cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. Marijuana also is believed to help in the treatment of depression. Although marijuana can help depression it can also make it worse, depending on how much is consumed. There are pharmaceutical products that contain the marijuana ingredient THC, which is sold legally in the United States (Nadelmann, 2004). Studies found that THC if given in moderate doses had an antidepressant effect (Earleywine, 2002). If person use marijuana heavily, the THC could make the patient's depression worse than what it is (2002). The effectiveness of medical marijuana is no longer a serious dispute. Using marijuana as a medicine dates back all the way back thousands of years.

Marijuana that is smoked could help some problems and it may be less expensive than other medications. Plenty of people would say that the pill form is good; however there are others that drink it in teas or eat it in baked goods. Synthetic cannabinoids can improve the symptoms of a lot of disorders that affect most people (Nadelmann, 2004). Cannabinoids is known to work well by itself and it can function effectively with therapies (2004). Most people react differently to medication, therefore some people may not show improvement with traditional treatments and react better to medical marijuana.

The reason marijuana could be used as a medicine, is because it can stimulate a person's appetite and relieve nausea in cancer and AIDS patients. Within recent years laws have been passed in many states in the United States and Canada, to allow sick people to use marijuana for medical purposes. There is evidence that marijuana could be useful for relieving pain, controlling nausea and vomiting, and stimulating one's appetite.

The state of California has brought its advantages to legalize marijuana, at least for medical purposes. Our state and local governments are getting more and more involved in trying to regulate the use of medical marijuana, nevertheless the federal prohibition (2004). States such as, Oregon, Hawaii, Colorado, California, Nevada, and Alaska created patient registries, that are confidential for the use of medical marijuana, which protects patients and caregivers from being arrested and prosecuted (2004). There are municipal governments that are trying to figure out a way to regulate the production and distribution of medical marijuana (2004).

In the state of California, there are a lot of medical marijuana programs that operate openly, with the approval from the local authorities. There are some of the program directors