Legalizing Marijuana Pamela Horton SOC 120 Introductions to Ethics & Social Responsibility George Greaves October 29, 2012 Some people believe that marijuana is not a drug it is a plant. Many my agree that it is a natural herb planted to help cope with stress of everyday hectic lives. Anything that alters your state of being, or have you doing things out of the norms is a drug. The pro-legalization argument was that if we legalize marijuana it could not be controlled and the efforts to try to control marijuana uses causes more problems than they solve. I feel that if we legalize marijuana we would have a bunch of fried brain lunatics running around committing all kinds of crimes.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug, it's not physically addicting, and it doesn't kill brain cells... The propaganda surrounding marijuana is deceitful. It's time to wake up and realize this natural, God-given plant will only benefit society instead of being detrimental as many may think. It would cut down on prison space by legalizing marijuana. If you look at alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, look how many less gangs and crime there was after alcohol was legalized again.
Mohamed Alamoudi Why We Should Legalize Marijuana Many people believe that legalizing marijuana is only an issue of importance to “stoners” and other stigmatized groups in society; they couldn’t be more wrong. Marijuana is much less unhealthy than prohibition propaganda would lead you to believe. Furthermore, the government wastes vast resources on prosecuting and incarcerating nonviolent marijuana users. For these reasons, the United States should legalize and tax marijuana. The examples of the Netherlands and Portugal show that decriminalizing marijuana does not lead to “pot epidemics”.
Marijuana legalization would have social benefits. The most obvious benefit is the reduction of alcohol and hard drugs abuse. If marijuana were more readily available, the abuse of more harmful drugs like cocaine, heroin, and PCP would decline rapidly. It would also lead to a decrease in black-market drug activity, which means less crime on the streets as a result of drug related standoffs and "turf
This claim is not sound because health considerations are a good reason to convince people not to smoke it, but there is not sufficient evidence to justify making it illegal. The only way that marijuana even poses a health threat is when it is smoked. Though with anything smoked it is a health hazard because of the carbon produced. Marijuana can be safely ingested or vaporized, eliminating all potential health risks. A study done at UCLA indicated that heavy marijuana smokers showed less lung injury than tobacco smokers.
The scientific evidence on the E-cigarette is not final; it doesn’t prove or show medical evidence on how they will affect a person’s health. They have surfaced at a prime time and hit the shelves when people are automatically viewing them as being much safer over a regular cigarette. The marketing
Whereas electronic cigarettes cannot be considered safe, as there is no threshold for carcinogenesis, they are undoubtedly safer than tobacco cigarettes. If this product does not exist, it would not affect me because from my point of view technology would never beat nature. Tobacco cigarettes are the leading cause of disease in the United States,which is why the ‘primary goal of tobacco control is to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with tobacco use. Electronic cigarettes are designed to mitigate tobacco-related disease by reducing cigarette consumption and smoking rates. The evidence reviewed inthis article suggests that electronic cigarettesare a much safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.
If marijuana was decriminalized users would get a fine if found guilty of possession. It would be seen as a civil matter instead of a criminal matter, therefore saving state revenues. Prison populations would decrease, housing cost for those inmates would not exist, and the state would receive the revenue created from the fine laws. Decriminalization does not include access to the plant. Users would still be forces to illegally purchase the product, unless they had a medical prescription, and live in a state where marijuana is legal for medical purposes.
Although alcohol is legal, it does not mean that it is better for you. There are arguments going both ways where people suggest that marijuana should be legal because alcohol is more deadly, while there are alcoholics that would say smoking weed is bad for you. Both substances are bad for your health and should not be used heavily by anyone. Marijuana has an immediate effect on the user, which last for about two hours after smoking. A person drinking alcohol may start to feel the effects after just one drink, and recover depending on how much the person drank, body weight, and how much they may have had to eat before drinking.
Gunsekera et al. (2005) found drug taking in films is shown in a positive fashion with little reference to possible negative consequences, suggesting that the media can influence dependency behaviour in a negative manner. However, Roberts (2002) found contradictory evidence, as drug taking in music videos was fairly uncommon, portraying the behaviour in a neutral manner, though this could actually increase drug usage by demonstrating it to be a normal behaviour. Although the media can help to inform about the risks of addiction, there is a danger that addicts will be demonized through media-created moral panics, seriously affecting the chances of addicts receiving enough social support to help them quit, or seeking treatment in the first place. Another danger is that of misinformation, with the National Pain Foundation (2008) finding that the media confuses issues surrounding the addictive properties of painkilling drugs, leading to chronic under-treatment of pain.