Francisco Anaya
Janel Spencer
WRT 101S
10 December 2019
The Legalization Of Marijuana
The great debate of legalizing marijuana has been going on for a long time; the 1980’s was the time people started to want it legalized. But society can never seem to come to an agreement on it. People need to be informed of all the benefits that it has and how cruel society and the law treats people who use it. Legalizing marijuana could really change how full our prisons are and make it so they are full of actual bad people with violent crimes.
To begin, marijuana is one of the biggest reasons why our prisons are so filled. Our prisons, according to John A Boehner, are filled with people “there for possession of small amounts of cannabis …We have literally filled up our jails with people who are nonviolent and frankly do not belong there” (“We have literally”). Citizens of this nation are being stripped away from their lives! If the law was to actually go into affect the people that are in jail for possession of marijuana should be released and have their records expunged. These people have jobs and families and it’s being taken away from them for a marijuana charge and this is not right. With marijuana being legalized in a few states like Washington and Colorado, it’s crazy to think that if these people that are currently in jail for possession of marijuana charges would have been in Washington or Colorado, then nothing would have happened to them and they would have gone back to living their ordinary lives. Sure you might think to yourself that these people broke the law knowing it was illegal, but everybody makes mistakes and these people should not be punished for outdated laws that are not working anymore. The people being sent to jail for possession of marijuna are not the only ones suffering; the families are suffering because their loved ones are being striped of their freedom for something that should be legalized nationwide!
Next, marijuana brings medical benefits to people and according to researchers are finding more research on it. For example Grinspoon talks about something very interesting and something that can help people: “In particular, marijuana appears to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, and nerve pain in general” (Grinspoon). Millions of Americans deal with pain every day and legalizing marijuana would make it much easier to deal with this pain without having Americans getting addicted to opioids. Doctors need to do more research on marijuana before they start recommending it instead of opioids but first it has to be legalized so that they can find out more research on it before they make a decision on if it should be recommended instead of opioids. Harvard medical “Grinspoon” also found that marijuana helps lesson tremors in Parkinson’s Disease. If you have ever seen someone who has Parkinson’s Disease you will see that they suffer from uncontrollable tremors and they do not live a comfortable life, but with marijuana being legalized, they can have a better quality of life without really bad tremors. Retired NFL players say they smoked marijuana because it would help with the pain their bodies would go through everyday (Perez). They say they preferred marijuana over opioids because opioids are very addictive and people can go down a bad road with those.(Perez)
It is important to note, however, that, Samuel T. Wilkinson, MD says that 10 percent of people who use marijuana are addicted to it. There is a small percentage of people who do get addicted. But it is not a good argument against marijuana because as Dana tims says in this article “research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse showing that about 9 percent of those who use marijuana become addicted. (Estimates from research suggest that 32 percent of tobacco users and 15 percent of alcohol users become addicted, according to the NIDA)”(Tims). This shows that marijuana is actually less addictive than something that is legal and that is tobacco and alcohol. The argument that people will get addicted to marijuana if it is legalized is scaring people into not wanting to legalize marijuana and that is not fair to all the people that could benefit from it being legalized.
Next, Tom Head from thoughtco.com tells us that “in 2005, Milton Friedman and a group of over 500 other economists advocated for marijuana legalization on the basis that prohibition directly costs more than $7.7 billion per year.” (Head) Enforcing the prohibition of marijuana is very expensive and that money could be going somewhere else that is more of a priority for our society, like schools that are underpaid. The government could save those 7.7 billion dollars and if they legalize marijuana they can benefit from it by taxing it, like they tax alcohol and tobacco products. The government makes nearly 25 billion off of taxing alcohol and tobacco according to (“Major Federal Excise Taxes”) . With all of this money that the government would be saving and making they could really put it to good use. For all this to happen all we need to do is legalize marijuana nationwide and take part in the movement that other states are already doing.
Furthermore, one of the biggest arguments that people always bring up is that marijuana, in fact, is much safer and less addictive than tobacco and alcohol products. For example, it is actually proven that you can not overdose on marijuana: “It is impossible to overdose on marijuana since a pot smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a single joint to produce a lethal dose” (Head). The amount of THC that one singular person would have to intake is literally impossible to do. On the other hand, tobacco “kills more than 8 million people each year,” according to the World Health Organization (“Tobacco”); this clearly shows how harmful one product is that is currently legal for people 18 years and older to buy. But something that does not kill a single person a year from ingesting and it can also benefit people’s health is illegal; that just does not make sense to me. Alcohol is also very bad in terms of the amount of people it kills each year. According to the World Health Organization, “Alcohol consumption contributes to 3 million deaths each year globally” (“Alcohol”). Alcohol is advertised all over the internet and television and it leads to 3 million people dying every year. Alcohol is advertised as something fun and marijuana has a bad image around it and I have proven that it is beneficial for people and safe because you can not die from consuming it. I am not saying they should start to ban alcohol because it would just not work as they tried in the past. I am just suggesting they legalize a plant that could bring our nation great success.
To conclude, The harmless plant that many people think is very bad for you is not dangerous and can help with pain. People will realize that it is a good thing and not a bad thing because it will benefit the people that want it to be legalized and the government positively. Our nation needs to take the next step into the future and forget old standards that were imprinted into our brains that marijuana is bad for you. The day the nation takes that next step people will be very happy and our jails will not be filled up with people who are nonviolent and should not be there. It will be a day when people can stop being discriminated for doing something that is currently illegal. Every argument that people have brought up about this beneficial plant has been shot down by facts about the plant and the good that it actually causes people. Marijuana is such a good thing that could benefit us and could create a lot of jobs in this country and that could really help the people who can not find a job because there will be so many new jobs opening up. The benefits that I listed are just a few that this plant can create for us if we legalize it, who knows what other positive things this simple plant can bring us!
Works Cited
“Alcohol.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/health-topics/alcohol#tab=tab_1.
Grinspoon, Peter. “Medical Marijuana.” Harvard Health Blog, 25 June 2019, https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/medical-marijuana-2018011513085.
Hamblen, Katie. “Federal Laws for Marijuana Possession and Distribution.” LegalMatch Law Library, Katie Hamblen, 30 May 2019, https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/federal-marijuana-laws.html.
Head, Tom. “Compelling Reasons Why Weed Should Be Legalized.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 6 Oct. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/reasons-why-marijuana-should-be-legalized-721154.
Kessler, Glenn. “Analysis | John Boehner’s Claim That ‘We Have Literally Filled up Our Jails’ with People for Minor Marijuana Possession.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Aug. 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/04/16/john-boehners-claim-that-we-have-literally-filled-up-our-jails-with-people-for-minor-marijuana-possession/.
Perez, A.J. “Martellus Bennett: ‘About 89%’ of NFL Players Use Marijuana.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 11 Apr. 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/04/11/martellus-bennett-89-percent-nfl-players-smoke-pot/508746002/.
Tims, dana. “Is Marijuana Less Addictive than Both Alcohol and Tobacco?” @Politifact, https://www.politifact.com/oregon/statements/2014/jun/04/earl-blumenauer/marijuana-less-addictive-both-alcohol-and-tobacco/.
“Tobacco.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 26 July 2019, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco.
Wilkinson, Samuel T. “Medical and Recreational Marijuana: Commentary and Review of the Literature.” Missouri Medicine, Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, Dec. 2013, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179811/.“What Are the Major Federal Excise Taxes, and How Much Money Do They Raise?” Tax Policy Center, https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-major-federal-excise-taxes-and-how-much-money-do-they-raise.
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