This debate is ridiculous to me. It was not until the 1900’s the United States decided to outlaw the drug. Marijuana has been used for thousands of years as a tool for medication, relaxation, and as a fabric. The only real reason one can find that it is outlawed now are as follows. There are billions apron billions possibly even trillions of dollars at stake in the legalization of Weed. If weed were federally legal, The economy would be turned upside down. Americans would start to see cannabis clothing, cannabis blankets, cannabis paper, cannabis drugs. Might I add that Marijuana as a medication will not always deliver the high that seems to haunt so many people who don’t use it. In marijuana there are 2 chemicals (there are also many more) THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD. THC which is relatively low in marijuana but is the chemical that gives the sensational high that some people adore and others deem demonic. CBD is much more prominent in marijuana and is not a source for the high. CBD can be used to help treat epilepsy,reduces anxiety, is an anti-inflammatory, reduces antipsychotic effects, reduces nausea and vomiting and potentially has the power to combat cancerous or tumorous cells. Now wouldn’t you say that there are plenty of major companies and doctors making billions off of the benefits derived from treating people with substances and practices that did not grow on its own? The government has implemented a negative social stigma behind the drug. which in return has produced ignorance on the use of the plant for decades now. Ignorance is something Americans especially love to cling to. The American people also love to cling to the idea that they have a perfect government, and can truly trust those that they give their lives and health to. Well how often has someone you loved lied to you? Then why would someone making enormous amounts of cash off of your blindness teach you how to see? Wakeup marijuana has pros and cons. But the great thing about it is you don’t have to partake it if you don’t want to. It is a somewhat free country isn’t it? Not only does the medical industry profit on the illegality of the plant that can literally grow in your closet. The privately owned major prison corporations and every business they are connected to whether it be food, clothing, toiletries, postage, are thriving off of the incrimination of plant burning. Drug offenses amount to about half of incarcerations and arrests in America, and marijuana amounts to about 30% of that 50. What I do not agree with is the idea Marijuana is perfectly okay to partake every day all day long with no negative effects to smoking\eating\drinking weed. That is the beauty about the substance it comes in every form imaginable. What I will say is like alcohol like these thousands of drugs we deem legal there are negatives. The negatives of weed though are nowhere near in comparison. Weed can be addictive. When you get addicted to weed, all it takes is a few days maybe a week or two and the addiction has become controlled. Weed withdrawal may give you a head ache and cause some restless nights, and at first will increase your anxiety levels. Like any other drug like any other pleasure stimuli there is a chance for addiction. That is a hard pill to swallow for the pharmacy bigots, and the alcoholics. Marijuana use is the individuals right and should be sanctioned as so and legal for recreational and medical use so that everyone may benefit from the wide array of applications the drug has to offer.

The debate on whether marijuana should be legalized for either medicinal or recreational purposes is and has been raging on within each and every state. In my opinion, I believe medicinal marijuana and only medicinal marijuana should be legalized. Even then, doctors should be strict and careful with whom they prescribe marijuana to. If the drug can be beneficial and help someone, then I’m all for it. But, the reason I say no to legalization of recreational use is because this act could eventually lead to the legalization of heroine, cocaine, etc. When arguing for recreational legalization, some make it a point this country is based on freedom and we as citizens of this country should have the freedom to choose what to put in our bodies. Wouldn’t that be the same argument for use of more hardcore drugs? Additionally, like alcohol, marijuana impairs judgement. Some people assume having a high is safer than being under the influence of alcohol, which is not necessarily true. A high from any drug can be dangerous to yourself and others around you.

John Hawkins, also against legalization of marijuana, gives five main reasons he believes the drug should be illegal. First, it can be extremely addictive to some people. Some people is the key word. Most people do not become dangerously addicted, but those who do become addicted struggle greatly. Hawkins refers to Amsterdam, a city who has legalized marijuana and is having second thoughts of their decision. Residents of Amsterdam are concerned with their children’s constant exposure to the smoke and smoking around schools and public places. Research has shown marijuana can have a negative effect on mental health and lower IQ. Along with mental health, physical health is greatly effected. Smoking any substance is bad for lungs and can cause serious problems in the future for smokers. And finally, marijuana can ruin someone’s life if dangerous use becomes regular. A study was conducted with college students, and the students who smoked at least 27 out of the 30 days before the survey showed their “critical skills related to attention, memory and learning were seriously diminished” (14). Another study of postal workers found that employees who tested positive for marijuana had “55% more accidents, 85% more injuries and a 75% increase in being absent from work” (14). These studies do not represent the general population, but are still significant because of the large percentages and findings resulting from the studies. Hawkins validated all five of his reasons with other sources including doctors and other research studies.

On the other hand, Renee Jacques is all for legalization. She points out marijuana has never killed anyone. Too much THC in a body system will not be harmful. Also, 40% of Americans have already used the drug and 58% of people agree to legalize it. Some people have trouble sleeping, need medicine daily, or have serious medical problems and marijuana can be an aid to each one of those issues. Currently, marijuana substances are already in some prescription drugs. Jacques goes on to list celebrities who smoke marijuana such as Martha Stewart and Morgan Freeman. The fact she used this as a way to prove her point, and there were various animations and humorous gifs caused me to not take what she was saying seriously or trustworthy. I found the two statistics she provided useful, but nothing else.

To compare both articles, Hawkins justified my original opinion and also added new insight to my thoughts. He had statistics, research, and other people to back up his information, while Jacques had animations. I know every article or post will have pros and cons, but my opinion still stands: marijuana should not be legal with the exception of strictly and cautiously prescribed medicinal marijuana.

Sources:

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/01/21/5-reasons-marijuana-should-remain-illegal-n1782086/page/full

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/marijuana-legalization_n_4151423.html

Harmless herb or harmful drug?

You hear the word “marijuana” and automatically think “drug” or “illegal” when in actuality those words are in fact 100% true (In most United States). Additionally, with both of those words come negative connotations. If alcohol and tobacco are legal why can’t marijuana be legalized as well? Cigarettes and alcohol both contribute to millions of deaths per year but are still made legal to people within certain age requirements. Now. Is it actually that unsafe to smoke a joint or two and then continue on to the rest of your night? No, not at all. Marijuana is harmless to the body, unless being inhaled by smoking because of course ingesting smoke into your body can obviously be harmful to a certain extent. In what cases do you actually hear of somebody having a pot overdose or a fatal accident from the primary cause of marijuana? Well I can vouch for that question, and say not many. The point is  Marijuana can be used for MANY different medicinal reasons, and can treat some diseases without medicating through hardcore prescription drugs. Marijuana in fact is an illegal drug in most states but in some states it has been legalized medicinally for the benefit of cancer patients to help diminish cancer cells from spreading. It’s promised to treat arthritis, people suffering from glaucoma, to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, help control epileptic seizures, ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, and many other things. Statistically marijuana is the safest of any drug used in America or around the world, and it also has zero reported deaths from use, but it’s not only used for medicinal purposes. Recreationally, It’s the best form of stress relief. In most cases people turn to tobacco products for stress relief. Tobacco is a highly addictive drug, users know it’s addicting and tell others not to do it, but continue to smoke the cancerous product. Marijuana is not at all an addictive drug. The false accusations about marijuana making the user addicted, lazy, and a gateway to other drugs is completely ludicrous.  The worst that can come of this drug is the misplacement of your phone, or the possibility that you might have too much fun. Crime rates would go down, the economy would go up, and cartels would lose about their largest amount of revenue. It creates jobs, the problem is the government needs to tax it and big pharmacies wanna get in on it but they can’t. Literally the tax revenue generated from the amount of sales made in Colorado last year made so much money that they had to return some to people. A lot of positive things can and will come out of the steps to making marijuana legal across the United States, recreationally, and medicinally.

On the other hand, the main reasons people argue for Marijuana to remain illegal is that they believe the drug to be highly addictive, terrible to your mental and physical health even by causing a higher chance of having schizophrenia later in life, and that it will destroy peoples’ lives and lead to more addicting drugs like heroin or cocaine.

Seriously though when have you ever heard of somebody smoking weed and all of a sudden being diagnosed with the psychological disease schizophrenia?

Not often, at all.

These sources are often used to write about different events, controversies, and discoveries. I am not sure if they are 100% reliable, but so far the facts make sense and supports the reasoning.

In retrospective it is clear that my position on if marijuana should be legalized is stated above by the facts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/why-marijuana-should-be-legalized_n_1833751.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2014/07/3-reasons-recreational-marijuana-should-be-legal.html?page=all

http://www.businessinsider.com/health-benefits-of-medical-marijuana-2014-4

Legalizing marijuana is a big controversial topic in the United States, whether it being for or against legalizing it.  What is Marijuana? Also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, and a vast number of other slang terms is a greenish-gray mixture of the dried, shredded leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa—the hemp plant. The main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, responsible for most of the intoxicating effects sought by recreational users, is delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC).

Why should it be legalized? Well for one thing for sure medical marijuana has been proven to help with cancer, aids, epilepsy and many more other diseases. Since we know that it helps why not legalize it? Well first of all congress would not know how to tax it and believe it would get out of hand. Now that 23 states allow medical marijuana it has proven that it really helps the patients out. As of recreational use there are some states that have legalized it. Many people use weed for their purposes and no matter what they still find a way of getting it. I believe that if it doesn’t cause harm for the users than why not? Why do we sell tobacco? Its an addictive substance, that actually causes cancer and destroys your body, and that is legal. If alcohol is legal and causes many outcomes of using it, i honestly believe that marijuana should be legalized.

Why it shouldn’t be legalized? Marijuana is the most commonly abused illegal drug in the U.S. and around the world. Those who support its legalization, for medical or for general use, fail to recognize that the greatest costs of marijuana are not related to its prohibition; they are the costs resulting from marijuana use itself. Today there are 15.2 million current marijuana users in comparison to 129 million alcohol users and 70.9 million tobacco users. Though the number of marijuana users might not quickly climb to the current numbers for alcohol and tobacco, if marijuana was legalized, the increase in users would be both large and rapid with subsequent increases in addiction.Since legalization of marijuana for medical or general use would increase marijuana use rather than reduce it and would lead to increased rates of addiction to marijuana among youth and adults.

I believe that the sources are trustworthy enough but actual research would help with arguing an opinion on the situation, this goes for both sources.

News, ABC. “Should Medical Marijuana Be Legal?” ABC News. ABC News Network, 11 June 2005. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

“Why We Should Not Legalize Marijuana.” CNBC. N.p., 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

For years now cannabis has been thought of as an extremely dangerous drug, often being roped in with crack, meth, and heroine. This is all the product of a long history of slander and lies and even racism. According to an article by Anna Wilcox in 2014, cannabis was demonized by white elites who used the foreign name “marijuana” and associated it with African Americans and Mexican Americans to impart blame for the great depression. Harry Anslinger was one of the primary individuals responsible for the negative view on cannabis, testifying to Congress saying, “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind… Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage”. As I’m sure we all know, this is racist and bigoted propaganda. The truth about cannabis, as discussed by former NFL player Jack Brewer, is that it has many benefits and is really no worse than already legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Brewer states in his article, “I can buy huge amounts of vodka or menthol cigarettes nearly anywhere in the U.S., and we can attribute thousands of lost lives to those products” which is painfully true. There is nothing to prevent a person from purchasing a gallon of Bacardi 151 (which for those of you who don’t know is 151 proof or 75.5% alcohol and will hurt you and likely kill a man in such quantities) or an entire carton of cigarettes, but any cop on the road will arrest you for buying just a few grams of cannabis. For cigarettes alone, Brewer reports “nearly 500,000 deaths in the United States per year with medical bills approaching $140 billion per year”, yet they are 100% legal. The medicinal benefits for cannabis are also duly noted by Brewer. He mentions that cannabis, “shows promise in treating arthritis and bears minimal chance of organ damage” and “stops pain, mitigates multiple sclerosis and Tourette Syndrome symptoms, and may reduce dystonia, among other beneficial effects”. Brewer also mentions the potential financial gains related to legalizing recreational cannabis use, referencing Colorado’s six million dollar tax revenue from the first two months after the decriminalization of recreational cannabis use. I like the way Brewer makes his points, his article argues the way I would argue, with facts tied in with good logic. That and Jack Brewer is an upstanding figure as an ex-NFL player and CEO of a diversified global advisory firm, and a well-educated man holding a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and having completed executive business programs at Harvard Business School and The Wharton School of Business.

The opposition has many claims of their own, however, many of them are fairly faulty. According to an article on drugrehab.us, cannabis addiction would be problematic as “stopping marijuana use leads to withdrawal symptoms that range from irritability to anxiety”. The problem with this is that stopping any habit would cause irritability and possibly anxiety, I  know that if I stopped drinking coffee suddenly I would become very irritable and fairly anxious, and you, as my fellow class mates can watch for this as I’m all out of coffee and won’t be able to get more for a while. They also say that because it alters the user’s perception it is too dangerous to legalize, but alcohol does the same thing and can even do so in greater and worse ways (getting blackout drunk). And the argument that cannabis is a gateway drug to the hard stuff like crack or heroine is valid, however would not be so if cannabis use was legal. Using cannabis doesn’t create some kind of desire for hard drugs, the only reason that people move to harder drugs is because of their company. People who use illegal drugs often hang out together a lot, this is where the introduction to hard drugs comes from, if cannabis were legal, there would be no need for users to hide out with other drug users and get this exposure to hard drugs, they would instead be able to stay at home and enjoy their cannabis in safety. While I understand some of the article’s claims opposing cannabis use, they still seam invalid to me. Besides, of course a rehab page would argue that cannabis is a dangerous drug, it’s in their best interests to keep it that way.

Brewer, Jack. “​3 Reasons Recreational Marijuana Should Be Legal in All 50 States.” The Business Journals. 10 July 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

“Legalizing Recreational Marijuana – Pros and Cons.” Drug Rehab. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Wilcox, Anna. “The Origin of the Word “Marijuana”” Leafly. 3 June 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Medical and recreational marijuana should be legal since everyone just does it anyways. That shouldn’t be the only reason but when people say that making marijuana legal would majorly affect anything, that really wouldn’t be true since just about every person out there has a least tried marijuana and many partake in it several times even though it is illegal. There are several medical uses for marijuana such as calming anxiety, nausea after chemotherapy, seizure disorder, etc, however, if medical marijuana would legal but recreational marijuana was not, there would be just as many people illegally using marijuana for recreation and it would be much harder to regulate it. According to studies performed in Colorado since they legalized marijuana has shown that there is not an increase in usage, crime, car accidents, or negative effects on education and health outcomes, this may be due to the fact that, as I stated above, everyone already uses marijuana (Miron). There are concerns that people have with legalizing marijuana because of addiction and the thought that usage would skyrocket. According to CNBC, marijuana is the leading cause of substance dependence other than alcohol, however, alcohol is legal so that argument dose not make complete sense. There are concerns with marijuana being available to youth and a disruption in health and education for people of all ages, there are also concerns that the overall usage would go way up but youth are already getting marijuana and making it illegal will not stop that. I also do not think health or education is in danger with the legalization or use in general of marijuana but I do not know if there are studies that show otherwise. Whatever people decide, marijuana use will still continue as it has, legal or not.

Both sources, while they are opinion pieces, come from news sources which we have to assume are semi-trustworthy. Both arguments make sense and are common among other Americans.

Miron, Jeffrey. “Why Congress Should Legalize Pot.” CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

“Why We Should Not Legalize Marijuana.” CNBC. N.p., 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.