The government loves to ban any substance that gets you “high”, and if the substance also happens to be dangerous, there’s more fuel for their fire. What about Marijuana, which is proven to have no dangerous side effects? Why isn’t it legalized if it isn’t dangerous then? Let me tell you why it should be legal without using the same boring argument that has been used in the past.
The age old excuse the government uses against the legalization of Marijuana is that it damages your brain, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are professional studies that prove that it would take two-hundred times the normal amount of Marijuana to induce any sort of brain damage at all. So basically if it takes you one joint to get high, you’re gonna have to smoke two-hundred joints in a row to have any brain damage at all (that a lot of weed!). Another myth about Marijuana is that it makes you stupider. While subjects who used Marijuana heavily for many years did show signs of less math skill, reading comprehension seemed to be increased, so it may even make you smarter! The government used to say that one of the biggest dangers of Marijuana is that it causes lung cancer. On the other hand, clinical research shows that Marijuana in no way causes any head or throat cancer (mouth, lung, throat cancer, etc.). The government makes the argument that Marijuana is a gateway drug, but this is very far from the truth. Their claim is that the user will grow a tolerance and try a harder drug. Marijuana tolerance can go completely down after one week of not smoking, which gives users no incentive to try harder stuff. Also, if a user is smoking Marijuana while it’s legal, why would they commit a felony using cocaine, for example? If they are smoking it when it is illegal, the step to cocaine use is not that far, but to go from using something legal to using a hard drug seems like too big of a leap.
Another reason Marijuana should be legalized, is the fact that there are legal substances that are more damaging than Marijuana by far. One of those substances are cigarettes. Cigarettes are proven and well known to cause all sorts of cancer, heart disease, and many other serious conditions. As the years progress, tobacco companies add more and more addictive chemicals to these cigarettes to keep smokers hooked. This sounds awful right? So why is it then that the government doesn’t do anything about this? I can tell you why. The government taxes the HELL out of cigarettes to the point where they get tons of money from them, and if they banned them, a large sum of money would fall out of the government’s hands. How hypocritical of our government to ban weed for supposedly being “dangerous”, but allow cigarettes to be legal, which are well known and proven to be harmful.
Alcohol is another great example of a drug which the government allows that is no safer than Marijuana. Heavy drinking can cause heart problems and organ failure after a long period of time, which is not the case with Marijuana. Also, many people overdose and die while drinking alcohol. Alcohol is also very deadly if mixed with another depressant. Many fatal car crashes are a result of drinking as well. Weed on the other hand is impossible to overdose on, doesn’t harm the user when mixed with other drugs, and causes many less car accidents due to the fact that the user isn’t impaired as much with weed. Oh, and guess what, the government ALSO taxes alcohol and charges for licenses to sell alcohol (anyone see a theme here?). Marijuana is not physically addicting, which alcohol and cigarettes both are. Physical addiction is where your body cannot do without the substance which is a cause for alcoholism and cigarette addiction.
If the government legalized the use of Marijuana, there would be a lower amount of criminals filling our jails. America (the land of the free) has the most people jailed per-capita than any other country in the world. If we legalized Marijuana, there would be less drug users and dealers thrown in jail, making more much needed room for the killers, rapists, and burglars – people get thrown in jail with serial killers just for selling a plant. The lower amount of people being put in jails also saves the government money. It is incredibly expensive to keep someone in jail. You have to feed and clothe them, and pay all their medical expenses and more. The less criminals there are, the less money the government spends on trying and jailing criminals.
There are drug wars going on in other countries which can be stopped by legalization of weed. The cartels in Mexico and Columbia kill each other so they can become the top dog in the drug trafficking trade. If Marijuana was legalized, the cartels would have no power because Marijuana would all be grown locally. Places like Columbia and Mexico would become much safer, and there would be many less killings due to drug trade.
Lastly, there are medical benefits to using Marijuana as well. It is proven in studies that Marijuana helps treat people who have depression and anxiety problems. It also can be used as a pain reliever, for smoking Marijuana dulls the smoker’s pain due to injury, surgery, or a medical condition. Marijuana can positively treat patients who have glaucoma, Alzheimer’s , brain cancer, breast cancer, certain mental disorders, HIV/Aids, and even (ironically enough) lung cancer. Even though Marijuana seems to have potential as a new miracle drug, here where is excels over any other prescription drug: it is near impossible to die from smoking Marijuana. Most drugs that the FDA permits are potentially lethal, but Marijuana is not. There are no recorded deaths of someone dying from Marijuana use. With all these medical benefits, how could the government not legalize this stuff???
After writing all of this, I hope I have educated some people about Marijuana, and that this article can be a factor in it’s legalization. If you are against legalization, I hope I changed your mind, or at least helped give you another perspective to see from. There are so many benefits of Marijuana and little to no cons. It is a shame to see people getting tickets and going to jail for using such a harmless and beneficial drug. The government can’t stop its use as it is the largest cash-crop in America, so why try and keep it banned? Smokers will not stop fighting until Marijuana is legal, so why oppose it? Don’t oppose it, LEGALIZE IT!
