...with all apologies to Zoey Sollisch's upcoming paper...
Here it is, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, and everyone else that may or may not have covered. Your absolute chance to weigh in on the "high"-ly charged topic of getting high...legally.
You will notice the graphic I've posted is neutral...not for or against, not funny or angry, or any other emotion. This is what we're talking about -- marijuana.
Four articles/videos for you to peruse.
From the pro-side: a look at anti-marijuana arrests, and who they think is behind it. Click the link HERE (there are multiple pages, so read everything)
From the con-side: a discussion of what is factual from that perspective. Click this link HERE for this story.
For a statement from allegedly a neutral source, try this article from The Economist regarding the economic benefits of marijuana legalization. The link is HERE.
And lastly, here's what the President of the United States, Barack Obama, had to say back in 2009 regarding the topic. The :50 video is HERE.
These are a sampling of what you can find. Note the differences in stated facts from both camps, and the types of arguments the sides attempt to employ. Weigh in on your ideas on this topic. However, I suggest you make it a little more in-depth than some of our previous discussions. Call it 500 words, and call it officially due in TWO WEEKS. Say, March 1st?
I'll probably post another blog up here that overlaps, but the idea, of course, is to contribute what you have to say. If you find other links to articles or sources that you feel are relevant to your position, then by all means, post those.
It's time to start driving the discussions yourselves on the blog, rather than just have me point you to something.
Enjoy!
-- MP
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ReplyDeleteI have never smoked weed before nor do I plan on it, so I really do not care at all about this topic. However, if I did have to choose whether weed should be legalized or not I would vote to legalize it. I think being legal or illegal, it has become such a huge thing in the United States that people are going to smoke weed regardless. My as well make it legal and save room in our jails and save our tax dollars for real criminals to but put away. I think it’s funny how the articles compare smoking weed to smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, when in all actuality they are all completely different things. Smoking cigarettes will eventually kill you, and alcohol is the reason for many deaths including liver surosis, drunk drivers and blacking out. However, you do not hear of any “death by smoking too much weed” cases. If people feel like this is the only way to stay stress free.. more power to you smoke away, at least it will not kill you. As for the argument that it should be legalized for medical purposes, I think that’s a croc. That would just make it more accessible to anyone who likes to smoke weed and it makes the United States look dumb. If you are going to legalize it part way, you may as well open it up to the general population. Although president Obama thinks that legalizing marijuana will not help our economy grow, I totally disagree. Look at how big the cigarette market is in the United States. If you think about how many avid weed smokers there are in the United States, there are more than enough that would be willing to spend a little bit more money to get their weed and not risk going to jail for it. All of this money collected would be able to re-jog our economy. However, it comes down to the debate of would you rather re-jog the economy or get the name for legalizing drugs from other countries? Our economy is in such bad shape, I feel that it would be best suited to just legalize it and the government tax it to make money. If weed is illegal in the United States, I don’t really understand why alcohol and cigarettes are legal. I feel like marijuana is the least dangerous of the three and that it will be bettering our country to just finally legalize it and end this debate that has been going on for such a long time.
ReplyDelete-Kaitlyn Huml
I agree completely with Kaitlyn. I am not an avid weed smoker but have tried it before so I honestly do not really care either way. Arguing for it would probably be where I would go. I have many friends who smoke and sometimes the best students and athletes I know smoke weed almost every weekend. This is how the topic could relate to me because I would not want to see my friends getting in trouble for smoking. I found it shocking that tax payers are spending over 10 million a year to lock up these marijuana smoking criminals. I feel like we should be spending our money on way more important aspects for our country. I also thought it was interesting that these pot laws have been going on for a very long time and have really always been a problem. If marijuana was legalized I honestly believe not much would change. If it was not people are still going to find ways to do it no matter what but we will just be paying for it. To compare marijuana with alcohol and drugs is different story. I think it is stupid to compare them in most senses. Don’t get me wrong, they do all affect your body and make you feel happier but they all have different effects. Marijuana has never killed anyone directly but cigarettes and alcohol are both deadly and dangerous. When I think about it, it really does seem odd that what can kill you is legal but what cannot is illegal. Maybe the marijuana policy should be similar to the alcohol policy by making it legal at 21 or even 18. This would keep the children off it (in most cases) and help bring down those costs of criminals. Also having a tax on marijuana and selling it through the government would be just like selling cigarettes. People spend crazy amounts of money on buying multiple packs of cigarettes a week. If there were a tax such as this then the government would be getting even more money essentially helping our economy. As far as Obama’s statement goes he believes marijuana would not be a successful way to stimulate our economy. Although he is obviously well-trained and extremely well-informed on the topic I believe he does not realize the benefits of legalization or tries to ignore them in fear of people strongly opposing this proposal. He has different views of our economic success but I think if he thought about it he would understand that maybe it is a good idea. As far as medical marijuana goes, I am not really for or against it. Yes, I do believe it helps the sick to heal and is a good cure for most illnesses but I feel if it is going to be part way legalized it should be fully way legalized just as Kaitlyn had said before. People who smoke weed but cannot get medical marijuana are just going to smoke anyways, continuing the problem of costs. Marijuana legalization is a long lived topic of discussion and I believe if it was legalized, America would have less of a worry on their hands.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs all of you probably know, I'm a big advocate for the legalization of marijuana not only because I occasionally smoke but because I've never really understood why it's not illegal. You don't here of people killing people because they're too "stoned" or of a husband beating his wife because he's "too hopped up on pot". Those aren't side effects. Weed doesn't make people angry, hyper, or out of control. It mostly tends to mellow people out which is probably the least threatening side effect of any drug. Besides the fact that the side effects are less destructive than alcohol, marijuana is natural and found in nature. I was surprised by the humor in Obama's tone when bringing up the issue of legalizing marijuana. Clearly American's are interested in the idea of it being legal and maybe helping out economy; he seemed as if he hadn't given much though to it. We're in such a deficit economy wise now that we should be trying anything that could possibly help. In regards to the article explaining how the legalization of marijuana would not boost the economy, it's rough to judge an idea with out actually seeing the results first hand. An article in "Time" actually states that since marijuana became legal in California, it's become the largest cash crop there is bringing in $14 billion dollars a year in sales. Not only is it boosting the economy with sales it's also providing a number of jobs needed in this awful economy. I think that it all boils down to the fact that pot has not been proven to be a harmful drug and if the only known side effects are that it causes laziness then the US needs to look deeper into the infinite harmful drugs legal for almost anyone to go out and purchase. Look at the fatalities for other drugs. In America in 2006, 22,073 people died due to alcohol abuse in some way. There has never been a recorded fatality from smoking marijuana. Besides that, jails spend about $40,000 tax payer dollars to keep one inmate in jail for a year. That's just one. Imagine how much money we are spending to keep nonviolent pot smokers in jail and how much money we'd save if pot were legalized. It just seems to make sense to me.
ReplyDeleteI am a supporter of the legalization of Marijuana, not because I think that everyone should be smoking or because I want to be able to smoke myself but because I feel that it could benefit society more then it could harm it. Also I feel the United States war on drugs has failed and is not something that can be won; it is a waste of money and resources. Legalization has its merits for health benefits and economic purposes. Marijuana has been proven to be safer then alcohol, yet alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. You can get alcohol poisoning and die from drinking too much alcohol but as stated by Francis Young the DEA's Administrative Law, “it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.”(://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Marijuana). I feel that like alcohol and cigarettes, marijuana should be taxed. The tax would benefit the economy and would lessen the burden prisons have on society, because nonviolent drug offenders would no longer be in there. It is also a socially unjust law, “Only 13% of illegal drug users are African American, yet they make up 67% of those sent to prison for drug offenses”( http://ssdp.org/resources/facts-stats).This means that the majority of those set to prison for drug offenses, including marijuana are African American, yet they are a low percentage of actual drug users. Even if the President or other members of the class don’t think that taxing marijuana will benefit the economy directly through sales, it would benefit the economy indirectly. By not spending the money on catching nonviolent criminals that money could be used in other areas, like education and harm reduction. Also, if marijuana was made legal, medical marijuana would also not be an issue. People living with cancer or chronic pain or example would be able to smoke legally and would be able manage their pain. The war on drugs here in the United States does not just affect us. Because of our laws we create a black market that causes violence here in the U.S. and in Mexico. There is a lot of violence going on at the border and much of that has to do with drug cartels who are able to be as powerful and as strong as they are because of the U.S. need for a black market. If we eliminated the black market it would eliminate some of the violence here and at the border, where we do send money to combat cartels. Prohibition does not work; people will always find a way to get around the laws and a way to do what they want to do. Just like when alcohol was banned in the U.S. people went around the laws and consumed alcohol and transported it regardless. And marijuana is no different.
ReplyDelete-Michelle Dawe
The issue of whether smoking pot should be legal always seems to just make me want to plug my ears. I come from a different perspective on plants, and as sometimes people forget, weed is a naturally growing herb. I am a strong believer in alternative medicines,because I believe the things that we find naturally are better to heal the body with in the long run. I make and use all kinds of medicines from a range of different herbs. Whether it be smoking them, or actually crafting them into medicine, this is not an uncommon thing. Using herbs as medicines has been around for thousands of years. As the one article showed it was even the foundation of our country. The fact that people use Marijuana as a "drug" , or use it as medicine seems to me to be a none issue. It's just something from our past that people have forgotten about.Now people fight over it just like they did in prohibition.
ReplyDeletePeople can go back and forth forever about it. Still, pot has so many arrests and incarcerates so many people, and debate it as much as you want, it has no real harmful effects. Most of its effects are actually helpful. It can help with anything from stress, menstrual cramps,to helping an aids patient be able to eat again. It seems to me that the real battle and the negative side comes from the companies that want to form a certain public opinion of pot, like it said in article one, and the people who believe it is a harmful drug, because they believe the propaganda. Based on the articles here, and what I've gathered from my own experiences, I would say pot should be decriminalized and put aside. There are other issues right now in the world that are a lot more vitally important.
In my opinion, the legalization of marijuana is taking far too long and it makes absolutely no sense to me why it is illegal. As several of my classmates have stated so far, its side effects are minimal other than a strong case of the munchies and sometimes uncontrollable laughter. I watched a video about this topic in a class I took last semester and learned about the history of marijuana as well as the history of other places around the world that have legalized it already. I believe that legalizing marijuana would have many benefits for our country. For instance, every country that has legalized it thus far has seen a steep drop in crime as well as obviously less jail cells full of first time offenders. Pot was actually completely legal in our country from its birth until about the 1970's. The only reason it is illegal in my opinion is so the government can make more money off of it, by jailing those in simple possession of the drug or paraphernalia. Marijuana can have many medical benefits thus why it is legal in some states for medicinal use. It is not a harmful drug, for the most part it is completely natural (unless it is laced with a stronger, synthetic drug ti heighten its effects) and can be used to make hemp products which are stronger than cotton. People can go back and forth all day about whether it is a good idea to legalize it or not but what it all comes down to is researching the countries which have legalized it and the effects that it has had on their economies. We will not know the outcome of legalization unless we try it, it can always be appealed and the decision can be reversed.
ReplyDelete-David Hacker
Unlike alcohol and tobacco, cannabis has a hallucinatory effect on the mind. This is inherently dangerous in itself. Furthermore, just like other drugs, there are many individuals addicted to cannabis who will resort to crime in order to fund their addiction. The legalization of cannabis will lead to the drug becoming more readily available, which in turn will mean that many more people will gain access to it. This will subsequently lead to an increase in the crime rate. Initial statistics from the Netherlands shows that the decriminalization and eventual legalization of cannabis did led to an increase in crime in Dutch society.The US and the UK governments have been at the forefront in supporting scientific researches into the utility of cannabis as a medical product. However, even though evidence may show that the legalization of cannabis will bring about relief for sufferers of, amongst others, MS, we should exercise caution against legalizing it because the use of cannabis itself also brings about harmful side-effects. More importantly, it is submitted that the legalization of cannabis will give rise to a host of social problems. The detriments of legalization far outweighs its benefits. We can thus safely say that the present approach represents the most proportionate response to the issue at hand.The State is justified in introducing legislation to prevent individuals from causing harm to themselves. For instance, in many countries, there are laws requiring the wearing of seat belts in cars. Moreover, as this has article has pointed out, the use of cannabis does lead to medically and socially harmful effects which affect the other members of society.The legalization of cannabis will lead to users moving on to using harder drugs like morphine and cocaine. This would ultimately lead to an increase in social ills in the community as well as the need to spend more State funds on rehabilitation programs.It is not inconceivable that the same criminal elements who now sell cannabis will, when the drug is legalized, diversify its business and set up "coffee houses" themselves. In effect this will do nothing to separate the sale of cannabis from the criminal underworld. Conversely, it will give them a legitimate base from which to operate their activities.
ReplyDeleteLegalize marijuana or not? I'm not really sure how to answer this. I have only tried it once in my life and I honestly couldn't say that it makes me want to legalize it. I'm not saying we shouldn't but I'm not an every day "pot smoker". I don't depend on it or crave it.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how we can legalize cigarettes and alcohol and not legalize marijuana. Liver and lung cancer kill so many people a year it's sad. But marijuana is said to be good, to be a cure for some illnesses. So why not legalize it?
That way we won't be spending over 10 billion dollars to enforce pot laws. Over half of the country has at least tried it and it's not like legalizing it is going to make a difference. So many people smoke weed and legalizing it would just say that "hey you're not a crimial anymore because it's legal".
Why are we fighting so hard to keep marijuana illegal when it makes more sense to legalize and get it over with? We just look stupid knowing that people do it but still hold strong to not legalizing it.
It would give us more money to spend on more important things and more jail space for the real criminals. Not the pot smokers.
Come on. I just don't see why we can't end this debate already.
When it comes to this topic I always have trouble deciding where I stand. I am not a smoker, but I really don't have a big problem with it. I would rather have people smoking then going around killing people. I think in general this topic is just not worth talking about because obviously they are not going to change the law so why argue over something that is pry never going to change? Now something that is a good topic that people can argue about is politics. No matter what the politics are always changing and something is always going on. I say if it's not effecting me then I am not going to worry about it. My friends smoke and I don't judge by any means. People are going to do what they want and some like me don't really care about it.
ReplyDeleteI feel very strongly that marijuana should be fully legalized to the point where we can grown it for our selves. I do however believe that you should be 21 before you are allowed to use or have it, It should also be regulated like alcohol as far as OVIs and underage possession are concerned. It is far less damaging for you than alcohol and cigarettes. All liquors over 80 proof should be fully outlawed and the tobacco companies should be forced to take all unnatural chemicals out of their product, Under threat of their companies being dismantled and all of their funds seized and distributed to cancer research and financial aid to those that can’t afford health insurance. Anyone that tells you that marijuana is not less harmful then alcohol is either woefully ignorant or is lying to you. I personally feel that Alcohol, cigarettes, and many medications are worse for you that marijuana and marijuana has less side effects and can’t cause you lasting problems like these things can. A majority of the people I know either don’t care about marijuana or they see almost nothing wrong with it. The people I do know that take issue with marijuana also take issue with alcohol, tobacco, and in some cases caffeine. I honestly think that the worst thing that can happen when someone partakes in marijuana is the lazier users will do less work or procrastinate a bit. I would also like to use the example of the college freshmen that drinks way too much Friday and you attend their funeral next Tuesday. While you are at the funeral the college freshmen that smoked way too much on Monday is just waking up on the couch to a movie that stopped playing hours ago. Legalization and taxation of marijuana may not be what our country needs to get out of our financial troubles but we relay could use that $10 Billion we are wasting on marijuana offenses every year for other things. We could use that $10 Billion to fight the war on drugs, help hard drug users get sober, or better yet we could reinvest it into helping our nation meet its fuel needs. We could even use that $10 Billion to help Rainbow Babies hospitals, Would you rather your tax dollars be used to prosecute and confine someone for smoking a joint or to help that little kid with leukemia. It is amazing that our government wastes money on marijuana and their are sick hungry children and people living below the poverty line in this country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aaron in some aspects, and I thought that he had several good points. I however do not think marijuana should be fully legalized. I do think however, that it should be decriminalized, to the point where it is almost like receiving a speeding ticket, with no criminal consequences. I do not think it should be legalized because this could make the drug more accessible to a younger group of people and a new target market of users. You could argue that if kids do want to smoke pot, they will find a way, and legalizing it will cause no difference, but the fact is some people do not smoke pot because they don't know where to find it. If it is legalized, kids, be they highschoolers or middle-schoolers, will have a higher chance of knowing an older person who can buy the legalized marijuana for them. I have been to several high school parties where a parent has bought the alcohol for underage people, and although at the time I thought it was "awesome", it really is not. If marijuana were legal, the same scenario could happen with marijuana being bought for underage kids instead of alcohol. I do agree that marijuana could be used for legitimate medicinal purposes, and I do partially agree that marijuana-use could be safer than taking some prescription drugs. In an idealistic world, we could live in a country where alcohol or drugs weren't used to excess, and there could be no age limit on alcohol consumption, or where marijuana could be legal, because of a high set of morals and values that influenced people to not do drugs or consume alcohol to excess. But we do not live in a Utopian society, so we have to impose a drinking age, penalties for being intoxicated in public, and laws against marijuana. I feel that marijuana should be decriminalized but not legalized, because it is just as big of a problem as alcohol consumption, and fully legalizing it could raise the levels of drug use in this country, and could possibly expose even more kids to marijuana earlier on.
ReplyDeleteSorry if my rambles got a little bit off track,
-Matt Labyk
I believe that marijuana should be legalized for plenty of reasons. I also agree with Kaitlyn when she said that legalizing it for medical purposes only would be a dumb idea. Take California for example, they can legally smoke weed if they have a medical card. I have had many friends visit California and tell me how easy it is to get a medical card and how simple it was just to buy marijuana. I do not think that legalizing it for medical purposes only would benefit our country in any way. Marijuana should be legalized indefinitely. I am friends with a ton of people that smoke weed and have never been harmed or died because of it. However, I have had a few friends get DUI's, break bones, become violent, wreck their cars, and just do the most ridiculous things you can think of while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Alcohol just seems to be a more powerful drug than marijuana. Everyone knows that alcohol causes severe damage to your body, especially your liver. The real question is why should alcohol, being as dangerous as it is, continue to be legal while weed remains illegal?
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy but I think the real reason weed has not been legalized yet is so obvious. Wake up people; it is because of the government. The government knows that by legalizing weed, they will take a significant financial loss compared to the money they make from it being illegal. The only thing that they care about is profit. Think about all of the people who are fined or jailed due to a marijuana charge. The TruTV article stated, “in 2009 more than 1.7 million people were brought in on marijuana-related charges—almost half of them (758,593 to be exact) for simply smoking pot (as opposed to growing or dealing it).” These fines add up to a decent amount of money. That is capital the government is not willing to lose, particularly while our economy is in such bad shape.
Another consideration is that the government would not be able to control marijuana’s profit even if they added a hefty tax. Many people in the United States already have relatively easy access to grow marijuana plants. I’m sure you can imagine how simple it would be to get the plants and grow them yourself if it was permissible.
People call medical marijuana a “miracle drug”. I would have to say another reason I would like to see it legalized is because of a very personal reason. The TruTV article pointed out that using weed for medical purposes could be beneficial in the treatment of Huntington’s disease, OCD, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a bountiful amount of other diseases and disorders. If I was to find out that I had a fatal disease or disorder of some type and marijuana could help treat me, I would have to say I would most definitely use it. Our lives are too precious to let them slip away just because “America” says we can’t use one drug.
I feel like marijuana should be legalized, at least medically. One of my best friends has breast cancer right now, and it actually spread to her bones. Obviously medical marijuana is not here in Ohio, so she cant get a prescription for it, so she finds other ways. She can honestly say that it was the only thing that helped her through chemotherapy, she was constantly sick from her medicines and wouldnt even want to take them because they just made her sick. Weed was the only thing that helped her, she would be in so much pain, but after a few hits of weed, she would feel like a completely different person. I have smoked it before, and I really do not see what the big deal is. I have plenty of friends that smoke everyday and they are not your typical "stoners". I do not think that weed makes you lazy or stupid, its just what you choose to be. In the hundreds of years that marijuana has been around, no one has ever died from just pure inhalation. Alcohol and tobacco should be banned because just from the death toll. The number one killer in America is tobacco, but yet you only have to be 18 to buy it, and its very easily accessible. I think there is more to the story of why its illegal in the first place, but I am sure the government is behind it and they just want more money.
ReplyDeleteThe legalization of marijuana is one of the most widely discussed topics among people these days. To me, marijuana is something that should be legal. People say that marijuana changes a person, but what does it really do, make a person laugh a little more or maybe crack a smile? It is just absurd to me that something that is as dangerous as alcohol or cigarettes is legal, but marijuana is not. The most worst thing that I want to do after smoking is order a nice greasy pizza to take away my munchies. I have never once became an angry person trying to fight or endanger other people. Personally I feel like marijuana should just be opened up to the 18 and older public. Another point that I would like to make has to do with prescription pain pills. Prescription pain pills have had a direct effect on my life through family members and friends. A doctor can prescribe someone to such an addictive drug that takes away pain, but they cannot prescribe marijuana to take the same pain away? Considering the fact that marijuana has a much lower addictive level than the other pain relievers that are out on the market now, why would it not be legal? It seems like our government is saying that it is okay to prescribe someone synthetic heroine to take away pain, but it is not okay to use something that grows naturally on the earth to take away pain. The final point that I am going to make about the legalization of marijuana is that it would enable our jails to start putting the dangerous criminals away instead of the "potheads" that are just so dangerous to society. There are way too many people that are sitting in jail just because they got caught with marijuana. What did those people really do to belong in jail? They had one too many laughs? We need to make room in the jails for the real criminals such as sexual predators, junkies, murders, etc. This is just the way that I feel about marijuana, and that does not mean that I am right but I will stand by my beliefs.
ReplyDeleteWeed is a huge issue and if you look back at our nations passed we used a lot of weed back in the sixties and seventies and I mean I know it was a different era but I believe that people today would be more laid back and there would be less violence if it was legal. Which leads to the subject of whether weed should be legal or not can be discussed for weeks and weeks at a time like any other issue it has it pros and cons. I personally have never smoked and don’t plan to; I know a lot of people that smoke weed and even a few that sell it. If legalizing weed was put on a ballot I would legalize it, I believe that they how our economy is at its current state the legalizing weed could only help it the government could tax it making more money for the government. But with legalizing I believe they would have to put laws in affect for it I believe that if they used the same age as alcohol that it would work out, but I believe you should be eighteen to smoke it, and you shouldn’t be high while driving or have a fire arm on you while high if you go against these rules the punishment should be the same as if you did these things while you were drunk. On the other side of the fence I believe for any job you go to you should have to pass a drug test, I know at my current job they gave a random drug test to everyone and me and one other guys the only ones that passed at my job we use fork lift and if your high on the job working with heavy equipment you could really hurt someone having them pass drug test maybe every two weeks would be good because if the person did smoke they wouldn’t have time to flush there systems. But if it came down to it I believe that certain people do deserve to have it like people that a has recurring pain problems or people with death threating diseases. Also I think if weed was legal it would help peoples health a lot more because maybe people wouldn’t smoke cigarettes as much because there always smoking weed, you never hear anyone ever getting cancer from weed or over dosing on weed. I can see why people want it illegal because currently a lot of people still smoke weed with it being illegal but if it was made legal everybody probably would double what they smoke and along with that it’s going to take more weed to get them high if they smoke more which could lead them to try other drugs because they can’t get that same high they got of smoking weed. But my final opinion is as long as you can be responsible and know you can act straight smoking weed I think if you want to smoke it smoke it.
ReplyDelete-Stephen Streets
I agree with the opinions that marijuana should be legalized. I wrote an essay last semester on the economic benefits and social benefits of the decriminalization and legalization of medical marijuana. If they could place a tax on the legal sale of marijuana, which I admit would be very difficult, millions could be brought in from tax revenue. The main economic and social benefit I see with the decriminalization of marijuana (making having under a specific quantity of marijuana simply a fine and confiscation, rather than a criminal offense that goes through the courts) would be the money saved fighting the war on drugs, as well as the time. Law enforcement could spend more time focusing on crimes with more tolls on society. We could stop filling the overcrowded jails, which our taxes pay for, with marijuana related ‘criminals’. The legal sale would definitely cut down on the illicit weed market. Although one would still exist, I feel the presence of the violent drug cartels around our southern border would decrease. The argument that legalizing marijuana will cause an increase of usage and sale of harder drugs is invalid, and can be seen in statistics from states with marijuana legalized. Like the article states marijuana does not have the health risks the government led us to believe. Taken orally, and on occasion, marijuana has no proven physical health risks. Occasional use can be an effective way to reduce stress for those who don’t turn to much more dangerous substances like tobacco and alcohol. I’m not arguing alcohol is worse than marijuana, because the two I feel aren’t even related. Marijuana also has several medically prescribed uses such as treating depression, eating disorders, headaches, and other pain, when taken orally there are no physical side effects that smoking it presents. It is recognized by several healthcare professionals as having medical value whether our government recognizes this or not. So why do we continue to ban a naturally occurring substance that can replace the use some synthetic pharmaceuticals?
ReplyDelete-DylanPalchesko
In addition to the required readings above, I have done extensive research on legalizing marijuana as well as decriminalizing the plant. In my opinion, the biggest issue at hand is the current federal status of the drug currently listed as a schedule I which apparently contains no medical properties and is considered more dangerous than cocaine. I feel that this is the first issue with marijuana which allows the "dangerous drug" stamp to be easily placed on weed. As for medical use, marijuana could replace pharmaceuticals that aid in anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, and the list goes on and on. I feel that the economic revenue that could be gained from marijuana is only an added plus to the many medical benefits that it currently provides. As well as an instant $10.7 billion that comes as a cost to our taxpayers annually for the enforcement of anti-marijuana laws. For a plant that has never been known for promoting violence and crime, other than the fact that with todays law you become a criminal just by possessing the plant, it seems unjust how alcohol holds its place in society while marijuana, as popular as it is today, is illegal. With proper education and moderation, marijuana could have its own place in society all the while providing medical benefits as well as economic benefits that could only help others. In conclusion, I believe the benefits heavily outweigh any possible concerns that may arise for a "drug" that has never been attributed to deaths or disease and could provide help for others
ReplyDelete-Aaron Sukay