Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized?

Why Marijuana should be Legalized

The prohibition against marijuana started about eighty years ago in the 1920's and 1930's. The reason why it is so controversial is because it was a way the government wants to control something they can't. After researching the history of this plant, the conclusion found is that the illegalization of marijuana was truly based with no medical support. When compared to the other types of stimulants, now about 28% of the U.S. is on board with marijuana on a medical level. We will compare two different types of stimulants now available; prescription drugs and alcohol/tobacco. Overall, now with the chance to change the prohibition against a plant in our lifetime is exciting. If the government can tax cigarettes and alcohol, this plant can in the end be a new cash crop for us as a country if taxed correctly.

Since the government wants to partially legalize marijuana now, they still want to be able to control who gets to use this plant. Even so, this is still progress that we are moving towards freedoms and changes. After research on this as a medical note, the conclusion found compared to prescription drug is widely incomparable. This leads us to believe that the only reason why this argument is still on debate is because the prescription drug companies don't want to lose their monopoly to a natural growing product that heals. Marijuana helps with many cases with patients that can range from Alzheimer's disease; HIV; muscle spasms; severe pain and even severe nausea. If a patient has more than one of these symptoms, then they have to overall take more than one type of prescription, which sometimes leads to other side effects which most prescription drugs have... Let's take pain as our symptom. The most commonly known painkiller chosen is vicodin which is a script drug that alleviates the same condition as marijuana. As written on (http://www.drugs.com), the short-term effects of marijuana use include problems with memory; distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch); loss of coordination; and increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks which are temporary, compared to vicodin having blurred vision; constipation; difficulty breathing; dizziness; drowsiness; flushing; lightheadedness; mental/mood changes; nausea; vomiting. Overall, the prescription drug side effects are more likely to cause more problems than they're helping. Statistics show that the prescription drugs and over the counter drugs still surpasses marijuana in the leading deaths tolls in the U.S. today at around 37,600 a year to marijuana's 0 death tolls. (http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/30)

Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. As said on NORML.com:

Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause