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.