The Legalization of Marijuana

Marijuana is one of the most discussed and controversial topics in the U.S today. Many say that it has medicinal benefits and should be made legal. While many say that it has a “high potential for abuse” (Medical) and should remain illegal. Among the arguments, proponents for medical marijuana have presented a stronger argument for legalization through their use of research and evidence.

Marijuana can be used by the public for many purposes. Medicine is an important part of our lives and marijuana has been tested to cure cancerous cells as well as help people with their epilepsy. Using marijuana for medical purposes is one major aspect that people should take into consideration for legalizing it. Marijuana’s market has also been brought to many people’s attention because it has been poised to grow faster than smart phones. Together, these reasons have been more than enough for people to consider legalizing marijuana.

In the United States, twenty-one states have no laws on legal marijuana use, even for medicinal marijuana. Another twenty-one have legalized marijuana for medical use only. As for the other eight, those states have legalized the use marijuana for medicinal and recreational. The states that have fully legalized marijuana have seen a boost in the economy due to taxes from marijuana sales. Along with helping the economy, marijuana is proven to provide medical aid for illnesses, such as cancer and Parkinson’s Disease. The legalization of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use will be a benefit to society.

The topic of marijuana has been a big topic for the past few years. The United States considers marijuana as a drug, in some other countries they say it is a natural herb that is grown from the ground. The issue at hand is “should marijuana be legalized?” the congress of the US stay in a constant debate on this subject. Why is the subject of marijuana such in high demand, if the US already considers it a drug? There are many facts that need to be looked at before a final decision can ever be made. In contrast since the past two weeks the state of Colorado became the second state in the US to legalize marijuana. Obviously it is possible for marijuana to be accepted into society, obviously there are as much pros as

On January 1st the states of Colorado and Washington officially began the regulation of legal marijuana sales. Thousands of people from all over the country including tourists from Wisconsin, Ohio, Chicago, and even Georgia lined up out front of dispensaries to make a purchase. Recreational marijuana is being regulated and monitored like alcohol; you must be at least 21 years old to make a purchase. The drug, which is controversial in many states’ legislations, is currently legal for medical use in 20 states, but Colorado and Washington were the first to approve of recreational use (Healy). The geographical concepts involved in the legalization of marijuana include migration, movement and flow, and private/public space.

Legalizing marijuana is crucial to the medical field because many patients cannot use this marvelous plant to relieve their pain. This plant can help patients with multiple sclerosis, nausea from cancer chemotherapy, HIV, nerve pain, and seizure disorders. Many patients must go behind the doctors back and consume cannabis or give it to a loved one to relieve their pain. Only twenty-nine states have allowed the use of medical marijuana. Furthermore, that means that twenty-two states do not allow the usage of any form of Cannabis. Marijuana should be an all-around legal

Marijuana is the most common drug in America and all over the world. It is legalized in some countries, but most countries prohibit its use. It has proven medical abilities and was used for this purpose for a while before being federally criminalized. The United States has been debating on the legalization of marijuana with some states supporting the move and others against it. ("10 Facts About Marijuana") Despite all these debates, the legalization of marijuana is the better option of the two. Legalizing marijuana will result in medical, economic and social benefits all over America.

Cannabis Sativa, more commonly known as Marijuana, is made up of dried parts of the Cannabis hemp plant and is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. For centuries, people all over the world have been using marijuana to achieve “euphoria”, but the drug has remained illegal in the United States despite countless efforts to reverse the law. In the last few years, the legalization of Marijuana became both a prominent and controversial issue in our country and remains an extremely touchy subject. Despite its short term effect of distorted perceptions and memory impairment, Marijuana has several pro’s that can not only help individuals but could benefit our country as a whole. These “pros” include medical use, a boost in our

Legalization of marijuana has been an extremely controversial topic in the united states, as well as many other countries, for years. There is evidence that marijuana has been consumed since around 2700 B.C. It often served as a substitute for alcohol in the middle east, as the Quran banned followers of Islam from drinking alcohol. Marijuana was first introduced to America in 1545 by the Spanish. The colony of Jamestown used hemp, a variety of marijuana, as a means of creating paper, clothes, and many fibrous materials, creating a fair amount of jobs and income. The production of cotton took over as a cheaper and faster means of making those goods, replacing marijuana. Marijuana was then mostly used for recreational use, sparking clubs called “tea pads” to pop up. The increase in popularity of reefer in the 1920s is often argued to be the spark that birthed jazz music. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) intended to give marijuana a bad reputation, stating that it is highly addictive, and would lead users into doing other narcotics. It was made illegal in the 1930s to give the alcohol market much more room to grow. Marijuana is now considered a schedule 1 substance, meaning it is very easy to abuse and has no medical value, despite the evidence that it has many potential uses in medicine. It is considered as dangerous as heroin, despite

Americans nationwide have been using marijuana for decades due to a variety of reasons. Talks of marijuana legalization and marijuana use across the country has rapidly grown and America is getting one step closer to becoming a “weed nation”. Many Americans disagree with the legalization of marijuana, but a majority of voters believe recreational marijuana should be legal nationwide. Last year alone, nearly twenty tons of marijuana was sold to recreational and medical users, which resulted in $63 million in tax revenue and an additional $13 million in licenses and fees. Legalizing and regulating marijuana will bring the nation's largest cash crop under the rule of law, creating jobs and economic opportunities in the formal

This discussion is not new. Cannabis. Pot. Grass. Mary Jane. 420. Ganga. Herb. Joint. Blunt. Skunk. Marijuana. Weed. With over two dozen different names, call it whatever you fancy. The battle for legalization throughout the United States continues to be a controversial topic. As more states choose to legalize weed, more medical research in the United States is beginning to unfold. Although the views of marijuana as a deviant drug are changings rapidly, our medical research on marijuana is still lagging due to the lasting legacies of anti-weed drug policies and misinformation about what Cannabis does to the body. In 2013, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, made a documentary entitled

Marijuana is illegal in 48 of the 50 states, but the drug will most likely be legal in the near future. The heated debate on whether the “illicit drug” should be legalized in all 50 states keeps resurfacing. The most popular recreational drug in the United States today is marijuana. The formal name for marijuana is Cannabis but it also goes by a number of other street names including bud, grass, weed, reefer, ganja, hemp, and herb. “In 2011, more than 18 million Americans aged 12 and older reported using the drug within the past month” That is a very large amount of people that have used the drug even before it was legalized in two states. The government has thrown unproven facts about the harmful effects of marijuana to the people to scare them. The United States government has stated that Cannabis does cause lung cancer and includes many carcinogens, chemicals that cause cancer. Scientists and researchers have proven the exact opposite considering the drug is now used in many cancer treatments. With this being said, marijuana is not a perfect medicine either. Some of the harmful effects include posing a major irritant to the lungs and increased chance of a heart attack. There are always alternatives to work around these harmful effects. For example, marijuana can be eaten which would cause no irritation to the lungs in any way. As far as the increase chance of heart attack goes, any exercise raises the heart rate just as marijuana does. This means that you

The 2016 elections and the subsequent legalization of recreational marijuana in California, Nevada, and Massachusetts show how constantly evolving attitudes regarding marijuana and regulations pertaining to marijuana practices are. Corresponding with constantly changing attitudes regarding marijuana, users are finding more novel ways to make the most of their plant products. Butane-extracts or butane hash-oil (BHO) products are potent marijuana concentrates (Bell, Slim, Flaten, Wiktor, & Monte, 2015) that require the liquid-gas butane as the catalyst in the process of extracting pure THC from marijuana plant product (Raber & Elzinga, 2015). At-home BHO labs are rising in their popularity (Rosenthal & Downs, 2014) due to the perceived ease

In recent years across the United States and in many other nations as well, drug policy and the rationale behind these policies have started to undergo a tremendous shift. This change in public policy is visible to most through the ongoing legislation across America regarding the legalization of medical marijuana in 23 states, and recreational cannabis use becoming legal in 4 states as well (Hanson, 2015). This shift in public policy marks a significant turning point in the view of drugs and drug culture in the United States and reflects increased public knowledge of the less than desirable affects of the “drug war” mentality.

Legalize, control, and discourage is a way to fix the problem. Evident by Colorado and Washington, “the legalization of marijuana can stop most of these possession arrests” (Levine). After the first opening of the first retail marijuana stores on January 1, 2014, Colorado had decreased crime rates, decreased traffic fatalities and increase in economic output (DPA). Since 2010, the marijuana possession arrest have went down 84% since its legalization. The tactic of legalizing, controlling, and discouraging has been proposed by the Economist, a weekly news magazine, in the late 80’s.