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Summary: On The Legalization Of Marijuana

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On the Legalization of Marijuana The issue of legalizing marijuana is hotly debated. On the one hand, many say that legalizing marijuana in any form would be damaging to communities and should not be tolerated. On the other hand, some believe that the negative effects marijuana has on society currently would be improved if it was legalized and support the legalization of marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes. Still others support the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes but not for recreational use. Marijuana should be legalized for both recreational and medical use because it allows for regulations to be put in place, weakens drug rings, helps patients in pain, and makes fiscal sense. Despite the ongoing war on …show more content…

This is not a new concept but it has been fought hard by many who think it would have disastrous effects on the community. In the summer of 2013, Iowa senator Tom Courtney fought to get marijuana legalized in Iowa, but was ultimately defeated. What led to his strong support of legalizing the drug? The personal experience of having to witness his wife endure the pains of cancer without the pain easing effects of marijuana. “Doctor after doctor has told me that if they could have used marijuana, it could have reduced the pain. It doesn’t have any side effects to speak of,” said Courtney. There are other pain killers of course, such as Marinol pills but they don’t provide the same level of relief to the patients as marijuana does. So, here we have a drug that would be used in a controlled setting, administered by skilled professionals, has little to no side effects to speak of, and would greatly reduce the pain of already suffering patients. There is nothing here to be in opposition of. No one will be negatively affected, in fact, no one but the patient will be affected at all, and they will only be positively affected and only at their express consent. Given this there are literally no logical grounds for opposing use of marijuana for medical purposes (Smith). Continued opposition of the use of …show more content…

As has been demonstrated already many, many Americans currently use, or have used, marijuana for either medical or recreational purposes. This has resulted in billions of dollars every year being spent on the drug. Currently, that money lines the pockets of drug cartels and gangs, but it doesn’t have to. If we legalized marijuana we could tax it just like we do for other substances such as alcohol or tobacco products. This has already been done to great success in Colorado which allows for use of marijuana for both recreational and medical use. In 2015 alone Colorado brought in over 87 million dollars in revenue on taxing marijuana alone (Hernandez). This is not even including the revenue from taxes on property, income, and sales of accessories for marijuana that will inevitably arise as more and more places of businesses take advantage of the growing industry and open small businesses to sell the product. Furthermore, we would save billions of dollars that the United States government spends each and every year prosecuting the over 750,000 arrests that occur every year for possessing small amounts of marijuana (Why I Support). Legalizing marijuana would also open up jobs as more and more people join the marijuana industry, both in production of the drug as well as the distribution and sale of it. Additionally, without the need to enforce the ban on marijuana, which accounts for nearly 40% of all

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