Around 160 million Americans vote for legalization of marijuana. How much of those Americans are honestly aware of all the causes and effects of legalizing this drug. What divides those that vote? Race, nationality, religion, average income, there is plenty of possibilities to group these voters. Research shows that smoking can lead to “a smokers cough” can obstruct airways.
Marijuana is Safer Summary In the book “Marijuana is Safer” by authors Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert they tackle the issue of consuming alcohol versus cannabis. They back up their arguments for cannabis consumption with scientific studies from a range of sources ranging from government agencies to college campuses. The book is divided into three parts: the first is titled The Choice: Marijuana vs. Alcohol; the second is Choice, Interrupted; and the third being Freedom of Choice. In the first section of the book the authors first explain the acceptance of alcohol and marijuana in our society. They explain that America is completely nonchalant about its use of alcohol and how it’s completely normal at both informal and formal gatherings, but when a person decides to light a marijuana cigarette at a gathering of any sort, a red flag goes off in the heads of Americans signaling that it is incorrect behavior to smoke this particular substance.
(Clark, n.d.) In November 2012, voters in Washington and Colorado agreed to directly challenge the federal marijuana prohibition and legalize the growing, selling and consuming of marijuana for all people age 21 and older. State officials have spent the last few months working on regulatory schemes that would not run afoul of federal authorities, who have so far taken a hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement in both states. (Clark, n.d.) What message does this send to the users of marijauna and to those who continue to sell and distribute marijuana illegally? In part, that's because legalizing drugs takes away a significant deterrent against drug use. Moreover, for as long as we have monitored drug use, we have seen that whenever there is a decrease in the percentage of young people who perceive marijuana use as harmful, the percentage of users increases.
<BR>Why should marijuana be legalized? Many people, old and young, everywhere in the world, partake in the activity of smoking this plant and buying paraphernalia. There are many substantial reasons to use this plant, besides for extra-curricular purposes. Marijuana should be legalized because it’s the holder of many beneficial uses including suppressing pain, raising the United States out of debt, saving millions of acres of forests, and creating jobs for many people. <br>Through the legalization of marijuana, the U.S. could benefit immensely.
America should have learned this from the prohibition of alcohol. The government uses criminal penalties in an attempt to stop users, but over 25 million people use marijuana annually. Cannabis is the largest cash crop in the United States, currently. I believe prohibition could actually increase drug use for teenagers. Marijuana, now days, is extremely easy to get, and most drug dealers don’t have age restrictions.
After looking into all the issues of legalizing marijuana and looking at the pros and cons, the only conclusion we should come to is to legalize it. Aside from our feelings against it, it makes no sense not to legalize it. To make it legal, and stop all the hardcore drug enforcement would save the U.S at least a couple billion dollars. Legalizing it would also bring revenue of up to $6.2 billion annually by taxing the sales of it. Plain and simple, we need to legalize marijuana.
A study was done by the DEA in 2004 in which 19.1 million Americans aged 12 or older used illicit drugs in the 30 days prior to the study. A whopping 14.6 million of those people had used Marijuana, making it the most commonly used in
The reasoning behind writing the article “An End to the War on Weed” is to show how legalizing marijuana will solve many problems that have arisen simply because the government is trying to keep it illegal. The author, Nathan Comp, wants the readers to understand how it has been a common misconception that legalizing marijuana is a bad thing and that it will actually reap good benefits for all parties involved. Since the article talks about former and current US Presidents, as well as details border patrol surround the United States, the main intended audience for the article would be the inhabitants of America. More specifically, he
1.” In 1973 Nixon created and funded the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies. The War on Drugs is likened to the prohibition of alcohol, which is regarded as a failed social and political experiment. The “War on Drugs” is almost 40 years old and the United States has spent billions on The War on Drugs, Based upon state and federal data for fiscal year 2009, every second that the page is open the Drug War Cost Clock registers another $1,673.45 that is spent by our government each and every second of every day (Action America,
In fact fifty-six percent of Americans think marijuana should be legalized and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, according to a nationwide Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters. (www.huffingtonpost.com). As stated on mpp.org, “If marijuana were taxed like alcohol and tobacco, tax receipts would be about $6.2 billion, and conceivably more, depending on the tax rate.” It also says, “Using figures from a variety of federal and state government sources, Miron estimates that replacing prohibition with regulation would save $7.7 billion annually in government spending on enforcement.” All this wasted money is coming from the tax payers. The rest of the country waits in anticipation to see how much the states of Colorado and Washington will make with their newly passed bills, and to use them as an example for what they should do next. Besides money there are the medical uses of marijuana.